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What You Eat Matters

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Why What You Eat Matters

What do you eat daily? We are trying to eat healthier, to be better stewards of our bodies.

Out has gone a lot of junk and in it’s place you will now find healthier options.

If it is not in the house, it is less likely to be eaten. Eating healthier nourishes your body. Helps it to function as it should.

The typical American diet is chock full of processed junk with additives that hardly resembles real food anymore. Do not get me started on the pesticide residue on non organic food.

Getting back to a healthier idea of food is not easy. That junk tastes good and it is easy.

It takes making up your mind to do what is right instead of what feels good.

Recently, a local church’s sign board had a great quote on it.

“You cultivate your appetite by what you eat”

I do not know where it came from other than that, I have search, but cannot find where it came from (if you know, please let me know!).

That is so true though.

When hubby and I first got married, we ate white bread. Butter bread, soft and fluffy.

Neither of us had ever cared for wheat or whole grain breads, but when I became pregnant for the first time, we made the switch to whole grain. Now, we do not eat a lot of bread at all since it is essentially a filler, but it is strange to eat white bread. We miss the lack of texture, substance.

Some additives actually block nutrients from being properly used by your body.

Pesticides and genetically modified foods have been linked to a multitude of health issues, hindering our bodies from working the way that God made them to.

While we are still working on it, our diets are around 90% real food and do what organics we can.

I have a few posts on some specific why and how we are changing what we eat, but I was thinking about how all of this can be applied to our spiritual lives.

When I was in high school, a popular phrase was “Garbage in, garbage out.” What we fill our bodies, hearts and minds with has a massive impact on our health, physically, spiritually and mentally.

If you put blueberries into your tea bag, you will get blueberry tea.
In her book, No Other Gods, Kelly Minter says:

“To think that we are unaffected by what we watch, read or listen to is deceptive thinking.”

I could not agree more.

Media is not lacking in the US. We have access to just about anything on our phones. There are hundreds of tv and radio stations. Too many books to count. We are bombarded with messages that are contrary to the Word all of the time.

Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

Proverbs 4:23

When we hear things, over and over, we become desensitized to it. It becomes no big deal. When we are constantly faced with the world’s view of things instead of God’s, sin becomes no big deal. We get used to it.

When we do not guard, actively watch over what is put into, our hearts and minds against these messages, they become no big deal, normal.

We must actively guard our hearts and minds.

God’s Word clearly lays out how Christ followers should conduct themselves, not as citizens of this world, but as a people set apart.

(Ephesians 4:17-5:21, Colossians 3:1-4:6, 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12, 1 Peter 1:13-2:12, to name a few references)

Is there a song that you have not heard in years, but you still remember the lyrics to? I know there are a few for me. Music is a powerful media. Set something to a tune and we are more likely to remember it.

What about Scripture? Can you pull the truths of the Word from your mind as easily as those lyrics? How you considered a Christian media fast? Listening only to Christian music for 40 days? TV? Books?

When we take time to nourish our souls, to cut out those additives and junk, they begin to grow and function the way they were meant to.

The junk of this world tastes good for a time and is easier to access, but what spiritual impact or consequences does it have?

They may not even be inherently bad, but if they are replacing God, if we make time for them, but not for Him in our lives, we must reexamine our hearts.

I have found that, like with the bread, when I am cultivating the appetite for the things of God, when I get a taste of worldly things, they lack substance and texture.

Philippians 4 gives us a good spring board for what we allow our hearts and minds to consume:

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Philippians 4:8

Are you working on cultivating an appetite for the Word of God? For His ways?

What additives are blocking us from absorbing and using the Word? From functioning properly?

Are you nourishing your soul?

Do you measure the media you consume by the Word of God-regularly?

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