Getting It
On Sunday and Monday of this week, I was blessed to spend a
bit of time with my eldest grandson, who attends Grand Canyon University in
Phoenix, AZ. He lives off campus in a
house he shares with two other male students.
As we prepared a meal together, I happened to ask him, “So
do you and your housemates prepare meals together and eat together?”
“No, we all eat at different times.” Then he added, “We eat when we’re hungry.”
‘Wow,’ I thought, ‘They get it.’
Toddlers and pre-school children also “get it.”
You might ask, “Get what?”
They get that our bodies know when they need to be fueled. I remember several years ago, and our first
grandchild was staying with us. She was
four. We were eating supper, when she announced, “I’m done.”
“But we have dessert,” I said, “Don’t you want dessert?”
“No, I’m full.”
And I thought, ‘What’s full got to do with it?’ I ate dessert.
Young children get it, but we adults carefully teach our
children to override their bodies’ fuel gauges. When they’re three, and we go
shopping with them, what do we tell them?
“If you’re good in the store, we’ll go for ice cream afterward.”
Or “You were such a good boy during church, I think you
deserve a cookie.”
Of course, by the time we are adults, we have totally
learned how to override our bodies’ messages to us when they are full. We eat because the cookies, ice cream, pie,
cake, fried chicken, potato chips, etc., call our name from the cupboard or
refrigerator.
My heart offers thanks that my grandson and his housemates
listen to their bodies. What do we who are having a difficult time listening to
and hearing our bodies speak to us do?
How can we relearn that gift with which we were born?
A first thought that comes to mind
is Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the LORD with
all thine heart, and lean not upon thine own understanding: In all thy ways
acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”
And then I think, ‘This is what Life is, isn’t it--a
constant seeking of God’s guidance of us?’
We seek, and
we may falter, but we catch ourselves and continue to seek, knowing our
Companion always walks with us, waiting for us to be open to guidance.
Let’s listen
to that inner, quiet Voice and follow its leading as to when we are to eat,
what we are to eat and how much we are to eat.
Sharon Witty
