What’s your favorite food?
Raised in the South, there’s plenty to choose from!
When I was little, I remember loving fried chicken legs! Add to that red Jello. For some reason, I also really liked the Captain’s Crackers dipped in Thousand Island dressing. My other food group was french fries.
I remember Mama telling me once that when she and Daddy and I were going out for dinner to celebrate their anniversary, I got a little loud.
The waitress led us to our table set away from most of the other busy areas saying, “I thought you would like a little privacy.”
I cried out, “I don’t want privacy! I want chicken and Jello!” So there you go.
Jonathan, when he was little, looked at me with his big blue eyes and declared, “Mama, I like “chickum” and “chockum.” Well, fried chicken and chocolate are pretty much family food groups!
Daniel, as a baby, loved sweet potatoes. He ate so many and would refuse other vegetables that he started to have an orange cast to his skin! The doctor assured me he was OK, he just needed to cut back on his favorite veggie.
Andrew liked spaghetti and wore it well. Often, after he ate sitting like a little king in his high chair, I would have to wipe down the wall and all around him because some of the pasta escaped and wound up everywhere. His tomato sauce smile was charming tho!
Favorite foods can vary and change over time. Picky eaters can become enthusiastic consumers of almost anything. Overeaters can gain control of sweets and fried foods to choose more healthy cuisine.
In school, we learned about balanced diets. In home economics, we learned how to cook healthy dishes. In health class, we learned about the importance of fruits and vegetables with protein. We learned about french fries, cookies and candy on our own. Many days my lunch was a pack of Nabs (crackers with peanut butter in between them) and a Coke.
When you travel, or move to other places, or live in different countries, you are introduced to new ways to cook and to new things to eat. Often, you are expected to eat what the hostess offers no matter what, or you insult and offend those providing you with the meal.
I got in some tight spots in Japan. I can eat most anything — sea cucumbers, OK; raw fish, OK; seaweed, OK; dried fish for breakfast with pickles made from turnips, OK; rice with a raw egg stirred in it, OK — but eel gave me a gag reflex! I was anxious when visiting a home hoping there was no eel on the menu.
What are you feeding your spirit? Do you dabble in occult and magical appetizers? Do you exist on the candy of television? Do you fill up on the greasy, deep-fried movies offered today? Or do you choose God’s word, prayer, and spirit-building activities in ministry?
Check your diet. Remember, garbage in, garbage out.
