Duds

Now my intent is to bring some relief, with this post, from the craziness going on right now, and not cause a panic where everyone is running to the store to buy Milk Duds. So please read on with a smile on your face, okay?

My go to candy has always been Milk Duds. I got hooked at the movie theater as a child, chewing their chocolately goodness while watching the movie on the big screen.

A previous post of mine, “What’s in a Name?” made me ponder how this delightful candy came about its name. As I like to make my posts fun, this verse popped out at me the other day while working on this post.

“Discover creative ways to encourage others and motivate them toward acts of compassion, doing beautiful works as expressions of love.” (Heb. 10:21 [TPT]) I hope to keep doing that!

In 1926, the Hoffman & Company of Chicago, IL. tried to manufacture a perfectly round, chocolate-covered caramel candy. But when its machines produced confections that were less than round, an employee called them “duds.” (Dud defined means failure. MW)

In 1996 Hershey Foods Corp. acquired the rights to make the candy. I recently purchased a box of Milk Duds for less than $1. According to a study done in August 2019, 1.94 million Americans consumed five or more servings of Milk Duds a month! Let’s do some math. $1 x 5 servings x 1.94 million Americans x 12 months in a year = $116.4 million dollars! Sure doesn’t seem like a dud to me!

Speaking of a name that kind of makes you think dud, this is the story of blibbler-blubber. It was a bubble gum developed in 1906 by Frank Fleer. But it didn’t make it to market because its texture was more like Silly Putty. It was brittle and so sticky, that when the wet bubbles burst, it actually stuck to your face to where you had to scrub vigorously with solvent to get it off. Then in 1928, the accountant for Mr. Fleer, improved blibber-blubber by adding latex and pink food coloring, because that was the only color he had at the time. And the rest is history for Dubble Bubble, which has annual sales of $26 billion.

Good thing the name changed. Can you imagine a kid telling his Mom, “Hey Mom, watch me blow a blibber.” Or even worse, “Hey Mom can I have a piece of blubber to chew?”

We may think we are odd, failures, or duds. We may feel we’ve messed up too badly for it to ever change, but God knows better. Come to Him just as you are. Jesus hung out with “duds” in the Gospels. Prostitutes, tax collectors, and sinners. We have these truths in the Word of God to show us how much He loves us and can help us, if we ask Him.

“The Lord works everything together to accomplish his purpose.” (Prov. 16:4 [TPT]

“So we are convinced that every detail of our lives is continually woven together to fit into God’s perfect plan of bringing good into our lives, for we are his lovers who have been called to fulfill his designed purpose.” (Rom. 8:28 [TPT])

So be assured that you can trust God to make whatever dud thing you are going through better. Because 1.94 million Americans can’t be wrong! Nor can God! You’ve got this, you caramel, gooey, chocolate-covered treasure of God!