Marshmallow Prize - WoF

Got this email from Women of Faith yesterday and thought it was interesting...so of course, I thought I would share!

Marshmallow Prize

We all have that friend who was intelligent and showed all the makings of being successful in school and career, but then somehow just didn’t make the mark. But we also have the friend who struggled through school, just doing average on assignments and assessments, but ended up graduating anyway and later being very successful in life. So it often leaves us wondering, what is that key ingredient for success?
There is a famous marshmallow study done with children that were followed into adulthood that addresses this question of success. Children were given a marshmallow and told that if they could wait to eat the marshmallow, then they would be given another marshmallow. When the children were studied later in life, it was discovered that the ones who waited the longest for the second marshmallow fared better in life. These children who could show perseverance and delayed gratification were more successful adults. It is one of the most effective behavioral studies on delayed gratification.
Education takes perseverance, endurance, and delayed gratification. It’s no wonder that many of the highest GPAs of high school and college athlete’s come from our distance runners. Distance runners know not to come out of the starting line of a race too strong and being too worn out to finish the race. These runners know how to pace themselves while reserving just enough for the final sprint. In our backpacks of intangible educational supplies, we must have delayed gratification, perseverance and endurance for success and completion of our educational goal in growing in the wisdom, knowledge and understanding of Christ.
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. — I Corinthians 9:24

Here's a link to their site.