Food is love

One of the ways that I show love to others is through food. I have always loved to make a tasty, nutritious meal for my family. I get immense pleasure out of sitting at the table looking around knowing that, because of my efforts, my family is getting the nourishment that they need, and they are enjoying it. :-)

I love to read about nutrition, watch DVDs about nutrition, talk about nutrition. I'll share my resources or buy people their own. I believe what our government tells us is nutritious is a lie and is making us all sicker and sicker. I try to combat that where I can. I've encouraged others to find a source for and drink only raw milk. I believe it's more important to consume grass-fed beef than organic vegetables. I fret over the kinds (and amounts - it should be more than you've been led to believe) of fats that we are told to eat. I will buy loved ones (and beg them to eat) jars of coconut oil, bottles of essential fatty acids, good butter, nuts.

There is a children's book called Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendack. It is brilliant. The little boy in the story, Max, says he will eat his mom up. She sends him to bed without his dinner. Max, in his room, begins to imagine himself as King of the Wild Things. The Wild Things say they love him so much that they will eat him up. Max says NO! to them. He goes back to his mother, his room, and a hot plate of food. :-) (There's more to the book. Go to the library right now and read it. Right now. :-) You'll be glad you did.)

Food is love. The modern notion that people shouldn't eat for "emotional" needs is false. Food heals, body and soul. Jesus said, "Take, eat."

The disciples loved him so much that they wanted to eat him up. Don't we say about babies that we love them so much that we could just eat them up? "Taste and see that the Lord is good." Psalm 34:8.

But some people don't accept food as gifts of love.

There are some aspects in which food is not love. If I feed my child fast food all the time, I do not love them. (Go watch Super-size Me). If I feed my child white, bleached, processed white sugar all the time, or worse, corn syrup, I do not love them. But then these examples aren't real food anyway. Feeding them stuff that isn't really food is really despising my child.

"Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead?" Luke 11:11

"Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?" Matt. 7:9

If someone were to bring me food, say a sandwich, and it had been made with, oh, say, moldy cheese, that would not say "love" to me either. Would it to you? It would hurt me deeply and I would not trust that person toward me anymore.

So feed your child, your loved ones, real, nutritious food and love them.