“Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6)
The other day I overheard a friend mention that it is so much easier to simply pick something up at a drive thru or supermarket, than to prepare an entire meal from scratch. How true. Although I preach that anything is fine in moderation, (1 Corinthians 10:23) consuming primarily convenience food will ultimately result in an inconvenient, unhealthy lifestyle.
At one time, in a previous church, our assignment was to read through the Bible in a year. Being competitive by nature, I zipped through it (just like a drive-thru) within 9 months. I hardly digested a thing. During the past several months however, during our Wednesday night Bible Study, we have traversed through the smaller books of the Word; Philemon and Jude, verse by verse. Those books finally came alive to me! I savored them!
Savoring our food, similar to enjoying the Bible . . . restores our heart! Who doesn’t remember the comfort of kitchen memories as our Mom prepared dinner each evening? I realize in this day and age, everyone’s extremely busy. Who has time to cook from scratch anymore? For the sake of our families however, we must overcome the convenience of picking something up as we race home from work!
Choosing convenience food provides far less healthy nutrients for your family. Fast food is loaded with fat and fillers and grocery store packaged meals are abundant in chemicals, dyes and preservatives. Nor does it exhibit any discipline either. And temptations abound in the grocery store! It’s so easy to purchase additional items as we select an entrée on our way home from work. “Oh look, apple pies are on sale too!” Bad choices are made when we’re tempted.
Grabbing something from the store demonstrates an apathetic attitude for our children to emulate as they grow. It also instills a reliance on others, which unfortunately demonstrates laziness as well. If our children fail to learn how to cook, they will eventually initiate the same habits we’ve taught them: Why cook when we have drive-thru’s?
If you absolutely hate to cook, start out by instilling the same habits you do to reach any goal: visualize, strategize and ultimately initiate a goal plan.
Begin with small goals: teach your children how to create a nutritious salad, scramble some eggs, bake a sweet potato, pound a chicken into schnitzels or make a healthy pizza. Give them a sense of pride in what they create.
Some dieters even incorporate convenience foods into a dieting strategy. They rely on a packaged food program to lose weight, that’s all well and good until they reach their goal and go off the diet. Then what have they learned and what do they do? We certainly wouldn’t want to consume only those selected meals for a lifetime, would we? The only good thing about a packaged meal plan is that we learn to visualize portion control. But we certainly don’t learn how to cook healthy meals. Even prepackaged meals in the grocery store include an enormous amount of sodium and preservatives for shelf life and eating the same meals over and over again makes us stale. That’s not enjoyable.
How similar to savoring and enjoying the Word of God. The Bible is the Sustenance we build on for an Abundant Life. If we only read the same passages over and over again, we’d grow stale and stagnant. By breaking the Word down into smaller chunks we savor it. Savor both your Bible and your life.
Good post today. I keep telling my grandkids that they need to cook for their children, but . . . .
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It’s tough to sit back and observe a bad habit, especially when you have the answer but no one believes you. I feel our pain. Keep smiling and being positive! Blessings,
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As usual your analogy was the perfect example.
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Thank you tigress, so good to hear from you. (Been an incredibly busy month with appointments, yardwork and such-like, now that we aren’t housebound in Ohio, due to snow) Long to savor my friend’s blogs again too! blessings,
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Excellent analogy!
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Thank you Christa for that.( It’s easy to see everyday correlations between godly principles and nutrition in our everyday lives. Initiating habits into our life is the hard part, isn’t it?) Blessings,
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Thank you, I needed to read this this morning! Blessings.
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Hi Cara, thanks for taking the time to comment. Yes, next to our morning coffee we need a good dose of the Word each day, don’t we? 🙂 I do hope you will stop by again! Blessings,
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Thank you for the reminder to slow down our eating and feeding on God’s Word. I’ve got to slow down on both accounts. I had a friend who used to say, “Chew on it awhile” when she was referring to a wonderful morsel of God’s Word. She’s in heaven down feasting in His Presence.
http://www.talkingtomyweightlosscounselor.wordpress.com
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It sure is easy to return to former habits isn’t it? We all seem to be in a rush today to reach a destination with no goal in mind. You however, managed to conquer your impatience and reach a long term goal. You look fabulous! Blessings back,
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Thank you so much!
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Great advice, Ellie. 🙂
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Thanks Friend! I’m always happy to hear from you and hope you are continuing to write. Blessings back,
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