The First Seven

Since I already wrote a lengthy introduction to this series, I'm going to, without further ado, dive into the first of the seven areas highlighted in Jen Hatmaker's book.

Food

Let me briefly say that, to get a sense of how much excess there was in the area of food in her life, Jen decided to only eat seven foods for a month.  And I don't mean foods like lasagna, tacos, and yellow curry over rice.  I mean seven single-ingredient foods.  Eggs, for example.  Sweet potatoes.  Spinach.  Things like that.  Wow.

Pause for a confession: it wasn't rare for me, as I was reading probably all of the seven areas Jen writes about, to have the thought flutter through my mind, "Well, at least I'm not THAT bad.  At least my family doesn't do THAT."  For example, in the chapter on food, Jen describes a time when her children threw away the fish she had prepared for them (her kids were not eating only 7 foods that month)--because they didn't have ketchup.  It tore Jen up that, while millions of people around the world are literally starving (a word my own kids, by the way, toss around when they're hungry, but have ZERO comprehension of what it really would be like to starve), her kids threw away food, simply because they didn't have their favorite condiment to put on it.

I can see why she was upset.

As I read the chapter, I automatically asked myself two questions, "Is this something I should do--to experience a month of only eating 7 foods?" and "If not, what COULD and SHOULD I do to honor God more in this area, shed excess, and free myself up to be a light for Him?"

This is what I concluded.

I don't feel the need to limit myself to 7 foods; as a matter of fact, we ourselves grow many more than just 7 foods, so it would be silly not to eat them!  But my decision to not follow Jen's example of only eating 7 doesn't mean we don't have pretty strong convictions about food.  We do.

For example...
~ We don't waste food.  At home or in a restaurant, we don't take a bite of something, then throw the rest away.
~ We teach our kids to eat what is set before them and eat everything on their plates.  (LONG-time readers of my blog(s) might remember this post about The Clean Plate Club.)
~ We enjoy leftovers and don't throw them away simply because we're tired of them.
~ Jeff and I are not picky and are training our children to not be picky.
~ We really are trying to grow as much of our food as we can; and I am CERTAIN that if not for our (read: Jeff's) efforts in this area, our grocery bill would have doubled or tripled, based on how much more food our kids consume now than they did four or five years ago.  Folks weren't kidding when they said a tribe of growing boys would make food disappear quicker than you could blink!  :)  It used to be, for example, that one pint-sized box of peas from the freezer would be sufficient for our family, if I wanted to serve peas as a side dish.  Nowadays, I always grab two pints; and recently when we've had peas, some of the boys have been "fighting" over the last peas in the bowl.  I suppose it's time to start preparing three pints at a time--which sure empties the freezer of our garden produce faster than it used to!  :)

But even with those good habits (many of which were instilled in both Jeff and I by our parents long ago), still I ask myself, "Is there more we could/should be doing in this area?"

I answered myself with these 7 ideas.

1. Eat the same breakfast every day for 7 days; then do the same for lunch for a different 7 days.
2. Choose 7 meals for supper that we will eat for a month (and really, that only means eating each food about four times during a month, which doesn't even sound that difficult).
3. Maybe once in a while, have a meal like the poor in another country would be doing--just rice, for example--to raise awareness for ourselves and for our kids about the reality of life for many people in the world.
4. Be even more vigilant about using up food and not letting anything spoil (the last little bit of lettuce in the bottom of the frig, for example--but many times, even if it goes bad for us, we feed it to the chickens so it's not entirely worthless).
5. Make a chart for grocery shopping so I can do a better job of comparing prices at various stores; plus, I'd like to keep track of how much we spend on food each month, then work to reduce that.  Maybe the amount that I spend less in a certain month than I did the month before, we could donate to a relief organization.
6. Look for more recipes for cheaper meals--cheaper either because they use things we already have or because the ingredients are just cheaper (dry beans, for example, rather than chicken breasts).
7. Volunteer (with Josiah and David) at a local food pantry, so that we can put a face on the problem of hunger and stop relegating it to some far-off tribes in Africa.  Hunger exists here, in our own community; let's do something about that.

Let me repeat that these are ideas.  I'm not really sure how they'll translate into practical action.  One thing that I didn't want to do was simply push myself to sacrifice for a short time (like eating the same thing for lunch for a week), but not do anything that actually helps someone else.  I realize that sometimes making those sacrifices to become more aware is what it takes to start the engine to make changes, so I'm not denying the value of that.  But if it simply becomes an exercise in "can Davene eat granola and milk for breakfast for 7 days in a row without going crazy?", I'm missing the point entirely.  But speaking of granola...  :)

This past week, I had decided that I would indeed begin to focus on over-consumption of food by eating granola every morning for breakfast.  Granola isn't my favorite thing in the whole wide world to eat for breakfast, but I don't mind it; and it didn't seem like the challenge would really be that big of a deal.  Until...

The second day.

Jeff decided, spur of the moment, to go to work later that day so he could spend some extra time here at home with the family.  He fried bacon and made some delicious BLT wraps for our breakfast.  How do I know they were delicious?  Because I ate one.  Ate it without a single thought that I was already "breaking the rule" for my emphasis on food.

It literally wasn't until I had started eating the second one Jeff made for me that I realized what I was doing.  But did I immediately stop eating it?

Nope.

"I've already blown it since I ate that first one; why not be grateful for the yummy result of Jeff's labor of love [I was grateful, let me tell you!] and just finish this one, too?  Then tomorrow I'll get back on track with my granola plan!"

So I did.

Do I feel bad about it?  Well, yes and no.  Could I have stopped eating that second one?  Sure.  But is the goal of this whole exercise to see how much self-restraint I have when faced with temptation?  Is it really to guard my mouth with Pharisaical legalism so that nothing unauthorized passes my lips?  Does legalism help me in this area at all?

Honestly, no.

I want my heart to change.  I want my eyes to be opened anew to the bountiful blessings God has given us in the area of food.  I want my mind to consider new ways that I can share that abundance with others.

Can those goals be accomplished even though I ate that second BLT wrap?

I certainly hope so!  :)

As I look back over my own list of 7 for the topic of food, I cannot help but think that out of all of those, the last one is the most important by far.  Volunteering in a food pantry is something that I have wanted to do for a very long time; but like with most grand intentions, that desire got buried under an avalanche of "real life" mixed with procrastination--a deadly combination, if I ever saw one!  But like I mentioned in the introductory post, this is the perfect window of time for me to make some changes; and serving in a food pantry is the first major change I'm making.  Or trying to.

As a matter of fact, on May 16 I made the first phone call to inquire about helping in a local food pantry--a big first step for me.  Right now it's a matter of working the scheduling out, and that reminds me: I need to call Tom back to see if he can use Josiah, David, and I on the days we have available.  Mental note: do that bright and early Monday morning.

To conclude, when I think about the area of food, it's easy to think about all the things we're already doing right.  But it's transformative to think about what we're not.

I'm pretty sure that's a theme that will repeat itself in each of the other 6 areas.

I've got some changing to do!

(This series of posts continues here and concludes here.)