Proverbs 25:16

If you have found honey, eat only enough for you,
lest you have your fill of it and vomit it.  ESV

When you're given a box of candy, don't gulp it all down;
eat too much chocolate and you'll make yourself sick.  The Message

I remember at age 12 proving this verse right. There are natural consequences to over-indulgence. Here, the focus is the excessive nature of gluttony. If we consume too much, our bodies will revolt. That is why establishing safe limits is important. This is true for eating, and for other areas in our lives. A safe limit is a boundary line which tells us that we must stop.

Children don’t come equipped with safe limits. According to a song from the musical South Pacific, "You’ve got to be carefully taught." The Apostle Paul tells us to, "put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life…and put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness" (Ephesians 4:22-24). "And, when I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways" (1 Corinthians 13:11). As we mature in Christ, we are more careful to bear proper fruit.