Feeding…

I love walking into my home at night.  With 5 girls in a house, there is always a couch with a few roomies comfortable propped up on oversized pillows, munching homemade popcorn and sipping hot chocolate, sharing the details of their day.  Sometimes there are a few tears. But always, there is laughter….

And food.

And we LOVE it.  Problem is, all that popcorn has started to go to our hips.  And with the holiday edition of candy corn, well, we’re downright rotound at our casa.  We’ve been feeding our flesh, quite literally in these parts.  So, all 5 of us have joined forces to declare war on those tires that have mysteriously blown up on our middle sections overnight.  A few of us are going old-fashioned and counting calories.  A few of us are just slimming it down to “eating in moderation”.  And one of us has gone all out RAW, eating only raw fruits and vegetables, seeds and nuts.  Desserts have been flung off the counter into the trash; sodas and hot chocolate have been replaced with unsweetened ice tea and that oh-so-flavorful water.  

At first, all we could think about and talk about was the delicious popcorn we were missing out on…and the chocolate and sugar we desperately wanted (couldn’t live without in our minds!).  Then, slowly but surely, our taste buds have all started to shift.  We come home craving water and conversations with each other…and a salad.  Weird.  The more I have fed my healthy taste buds, the more my body has desired healthy food.

I was thinking about this appetite shift with the spiritual realm this weekend.  I had watched an intense tv show before bed.  It was pretty clean, but not particularly godly.  I had awoken the next morning, having had nightmares and feeling like I was more worn out than before I went to bed!  It seems that the more I feed my flesh, the more my flesh grows, with it’s anxiety, lusts and appetites for sin expanding with it.  

Because of that I decided to do a little test.  Just like my “diet” where I negated sugar and oils and all sorts of unhealthy stuff, I decided to eliminate things in my life that just weren’t very healthy…I’ve a “tire” around my spiritual middle and desperately need to whittle it back.  So, out goes the excess tv shows that are simply fluff in the background while we are all hanging out.  Out go relationships that make me want to test unholy waters.  And I’ve even taken this to my thought life, taking every thought captive with the question:  does this glorify God?  Paul speaks about this in Galatians 5, 

“Now the works of the flesh are evident:  sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies and things like these.  I warn you, as I warned you before , that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulnesss, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.  And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  If we live by the Spirit we keep in step with the Spirit.”

More than “cutting out” the bad stuff, I’ve got to practice the good stuff.  I’ve got to practice keeping in step with His Holy Spirit, listening to Him, to what He likes.  I’ve got to make it a habit and help my spiritual taste buds to crave the fruit of the Holy Spirit.  

So…what are your thoughts?  Do you have a particular craving that is unhealthy?  Or what do you do to enhance the “good” spiritual cravings?

Hope this finds you well…you are loved today my friend…fiercely!!

annetta