The first time I tried to eat cheese, it tasted bland and weird. I spat it out of my mouth immediately, and wondered why anyone would ever eat such a thing.

Today, I relish the taste of cheese, I crave it, and eat lots of it. I eat bars of cheese, I have it in most of my meals.

So, what happened? How did I go from spiting it out of my mouth, to craving more and more of it? How did I go from a cheese hater to a cheese lover?

The answer is this:

Constant exposure to cheese in the company of cheese lovers.

You see, I spend a lot of my time in the company of Blissfuls at our US Mission Center. From the Missions Director herself, Pastor Sommer, to practically every member of our home church here, and even the people at the Wildfire Amen Retreat, it’s a world of cheese lovers.

In every meal, at home and outside the home, it’s always cheese, then cheese; and more cheese.

And, one day, I realized I’ve now become an avid cheese eater.

The lesson is simple: If you hang out with something long enough —anything, no matter what, and no matter how much you hate it initially—you’ll eventually start enjoying that thing. It’s called acquired taste.

Thank God in my case it’s something good and beneficial.

But it could as well have been sinful and harmful stuff: weed, alcohol, immorality, cursing, anger, carnality and so on.

1 Corinthians 15:33 NIV
Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.”

It could also be righteous things that please and glorify God, such as: love for the Holy Spirit, submission to God, spirituality, love for the scriptures, and so on.

Proverbs 13:20 NIV
Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm.