What's to eat...
A little while ago, I found myself in a place I've been in a number of times before, staring at my blank weekly menu plan wondering what it is we usually eat. You know how it goes with the daily liturgy of laundry, dishes, home school, meals, more dishes, church, piano lessons, did I mention laundry? Somewhere in there I had forgotten some important basics. My 5 year old came to me hungry and didn't want to eat a piece of fruit. "What else is there?" I asked myself. I couldn't remember. I stared at the blank menu plan. I looked in the mostly empty fridge. I was dry. I had nothing. I wondered how it is that a grown woman with four children, a husband, a home, who has worked in the food business for crying out loud, forgets what to cook?!?!
Well, I had to remind myself. I dug out the cookbooks and the recipe box. I looked in the freezer. I don't remember what I cooked that night but I began compiling a binder of tried and true recipes (as opposed to the gazillions I printed off the internet but never used and were a huge mixed up disaster...ahem). I need this tool for THOSE days. For days I have unexpected company. For days when I can't remember. There is just so much yummy food out there to be cooked and eaten. It would be a shame to forget about Beef Stew and hot, flaky Biscuits. Or Aunty Joyce's Lasagna with a side ofCrouton Caesar Salad. Or BBQ Steak with a salad of fresh garden greens out on the balcony on a summer evening. Or a Roast Chicken with lemon and rosemary and a side of roasted veg.
But you know this whole thing got me thinking. I couldn't help but see the spiritual parallel. How often do I feel spiritual hunger but forget what to eat to fill it? I don't want to eat a guilt sandwich and I'm sure you don't either. I just want to think for a minute. I love this verse:
"Thy words were found and I ate them,
And Thy words became for me a joy
and the delight of my heart;
For I have been called my Thy name,
O Lord God of hosts." Jer 15:16
God is so good and He offers us so many good gifts. I need my hunger for Him to increase. I need to remember to feed on His Word, not cheap replacement junk food. He alone nourishes my soul.
"Lord of all power and might, the author and giver of all good things: graft in my heart the love of your Name; increase in me true religion; nourish me with all goodness; and bring forth in me the fruit of good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen. - The Divine Hours
I will leave you with a quote from The Weight of Glory by C. S. Lewis. I haven't actually read the book so I must have got this out of another that quotes him. (Just keepin' it real. Only so much time to drink coffee and read before youstart forgetting there is cooking for your family to be done have to do other things)
"The books or music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing. These things - the beauty, the memory of our own past - are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the heart of their worshipers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited."
Well, I had to remind myself. I dug out the cookbooks and the recipe box. I looked in the freezer. I don't remember what I cooked that night but I began compiling a binder of tried and true recipes (as opposed to the gazillions I printed off the internet but never used and were a huge mixed up disaster...ahem). I need this tool for THOSE days. For days I have unexpected company. For days when I can't remember. There is just so much yummy food out there to be cooked and eaten. It would be a shame to forget about Beef Stew and hot, flaky Biscuits. Or Aunty Joyce's Lasagna with a side of
But you know this whole thing got me thinking. I couldn't help but see the spiritual parallel. How often do I feel spiritual hunger but forget what to eat to fill it? I don't want to eat a guilt sandwich and I'm sure you don't either. I just want to think for a minute. I love this verse:
"Thy words were found and I ate them,
And Thy words became for me a joy
and the delight of my heart;
For I have been called my Thy name,
O Lord God of hosts." Jer 15:16
God is so good and He offers us so many good gifts. I need my hunger for Him to increase. I need to remember to feed on His Word, not cheap replacement junk food. He alone nourishes my soul.
"Lord of all power and might, the author and giver of all good things: graft in my heart the love of your Name; increase in me true religion; nourish me with all goodness; and bring forth in me the fruit of good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen. - The Divine Hours
I will leave you with a quote from The Weight of Glory by C. S. Lewis. I haven't actually read the book so I must have got this out of another that quotes him. (Just keepin' it real. Only so much time to drink coffee and read before you
"The books or music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing. These things - the beauty, the memory of our own past - are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the heart of their worshipers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited."
Comments
Post a Comment