When you just meet someone you spend time finding out about that person a little at a time. I think of the beginning of this blog like that…letting you in on parts of my life a little at time. When I first began this blog…or when I first began to think about writing there were four areas that people wanted to hear from me on: faith, food, fitness and family.
I could write about so much.
But I think God wants me to share about food. Not recipes yet…that will come. Not about meal planning or grocery shopping or the art of creating a meal…that will come.
One of my favorite things to do is to cook. When my son was small we discovered that he has a anaphylactic allergy to all nuts and his body has an intolerance to soy. There is soy in a lot of things. So I learned to cook from scratch. Cooking from scratch takes time. But for me it has become a way to decompress…to stand at the counter and chop vegetables, to stir and mix and create. I love looking for recipes and planning meals and grocery shopping and the whole process of cooking a meal. It brings me joy.
But for me food has been a battle for most of my life. I had an eating disorder for more than 20 years. I avoided food…ate too much food…emptied my body of food…I exercised when I hadn’t eaten for days and exercised fiercely when I thought I ate too much. The eating disorder didn’t begin because I wanted to look a certain way…it began because I needed control when my life felt out of control. And then it became a way to punish myself for the times when I just really could barely look in the mirror without cursing who I saw myself as. And that is the raw truth. I still have days when I struggle with food—more than I would want to admit. I was very blessed to have met a wonderful counselor who walked me through much healing. It has been a long and hard road. But God has used it so that I have a window in to other people’s struggles and have been able to understand where someone else may not have been able to. God is so sweet that way. He really does redeem.
Food is fuel. In fact in the dictionary in the back of my bible food is described as “something nourishing, sustains or supplies energy and vitality”. I love to nourish other people…and I have had to learn to nourish myself. The online dictionary defines nourish as “supply what is necessary for life, health and growth, to cherish, foster, to keep alive” (dictionary.com). Food is necessary. It gives live. It is meant to be cherished and foster us in to the things God has for us. God gave manna to the Israelites so that they would have the strength and energy they needed for each day. Jesus supplied food to the 5,000 so they could be nourished. Food is important.
God created us with taste buds and a need for food and water as a way to sustain us–to give us energy. The enemy has used food against us since the beginning. But God made us need food to give us life.
God himself is our bread of life–He sustains us. Matthew 6:11 says “Give us today the food we need.” We can trust God in all things even with food.
So sometimes when I cook and create and make meals and serve my family…I know God is giving me a gift. A gift to learn to love food not just for others but for myself.
I look forward to sharing recipes and meal planning tips in the coming months.
Meals don’t have to be complicated…sometimes simplicity is the best. But it is oh so fun to create a meal, sit down at the table as a family and share that time together.
And God is our redeemer. He takes everything and uses it for His good if we seek hard after him.
We need to remember who God is and as we do we will see who we are in Him.
(An update on my daughter Madie for those of you who read my first post…she made a decision to go to the University of Colorado!)
A Daily Surrender 