{Occasionally I like to take a break from the homeschooling updates and share the things a mother ponders… Enjoy.}
I’m amazed over and over again how much the Bible references food. It seems that God didn’t just create food to nourish our bodies, but to be enjoyed. Almost every time Jesus sat down to teach his disciples, they were passing around freshly cooked fish, breaking warm bread, and drinking good wine. It seems he knew a thing or two about the significance of food when training and nurturing young minds. Studies have actually been conducted to show that regular communal eating leads to a higher satisfaction of life.
Sally Clarkson once asked her four adult children (separately) what it was that led them to love the God of the Bible they taught in their home growing up. Their response wasn’t what she expected… “It was the french toast on Saturday mornings.” “It was the homemade cinnamon rolls you made every Christmas.” “It was the deep conversations over a delicious dinner almost every night.” They each answered with a particular meal in mind! I think there is something to this.
The world-wide lockdown has required me to work 10x harder at cultivating a warm, lovely, generous atmosphere in our home. This was “work” before the lock-down even began, but now I feel my heart wandering so quickly to complaint, boredom, and self-pity. My three little “mirrors” were a a wake-up call to my own heart. I believe that the mother holds most of the weight in setting the temperature of the home (“be the thermostat, not the temperature”). Around week three of sequestering I realized I need to stop murmuring, wash my face, and CHOOSE to create the beauty in our home that I craved.
I started with food.
I tend to rotate the same 5-8 meals but when I decided to just mix it all up one night with breakfast for dinner, I saw a major change in moods and hearts, including mine! From breakfast for dinner, to homemade ice-cream, to a Thanksgiving supper, my little starlings lit up with delight. The snacks upscaled to berries and whipped cream, little surprise chocolate treats, and fresh-squeezed lemonade. Nothing was too expensive or fancy. It was simple. Like fish and bread …but seasoned with love.
The point actually isn’t the food, even though it stimulates our senses in powerful ways. The point is how a delicious, nourishing meal can instantly turn your once complaining heart into a grateful one… if you’re looking for it. It still takes choosing beauty. Choosing gratitude. Choosing love. Proverbs 17:1 says, “Better is a dry morsel, and quietness therewith, than a house full of feasting with strife.”
Maybe it seems like a silly remedy. Like you’re only hitting the tip of the iceberg on that bad attitude (and maybe that’s true – our hearts are deceptively wicked at the core). But I like to think about how Jesus used this silly method… and it worked. Every time he broke bread, they tasted of love. If God-incarnate can use his creation to share his goodness, I can too. If my toddler can take his first bite of a savory, homemade cheeseburger and see the smile of his mother and father as they do the same – communal feasting at it’s best – and sense the goodness of a God he doesn’t quite know yet… the extra effort in the kitchen was worth it.
O taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. -Psalm 34:8
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