Nutritious

Fresh orange, lemon and good Scottish honey. I’ve been told that honey is often adulterated with other products of dubious quality, so it’s worth the extra £s for the good stuff.

There have been some nasty bugs around this winter, tenacious little guys who don’t want to let go and who, just when you think you have them licked, keep staging a comeback. Don continues to cough and I am determined not to give those bugs in me a foothold.

So I’m working with my body. Feeding it plenty of good nutritious produce and encouraging it to fight back.

Good nourishment is important for health. Spiritual as well as physical.

Fast Food or Feast?

Snacking or grazing? 

Snatched morsels of nourishment don’t always contain much nourishment. Fast food can be nothing more than chemicals and calories. Wholesome food is that which is grown well and prepared with care. It takes time to make and time to consume.

Taste and see that the Lord is good. Feed on me in your heart, Jesus says. The richness of God’s word is released in our lives as we ruminate on it. Snacking on the odd verse of scripture may hush our consciences but doesn’t always do much to feed our souls. 

We are challenged to train our spirits, to train ourselves like athletes train themselves. It can’t be done in minutes. We can’t really be all that God has designed us to be unless we linger in his presence, suck on his words, savour the taste and allow him time to speak, to heal, to console, to guide, to love us.

Today I arose early to spend some time grazing. I hope that during the day, I might ruminate on what I have read this morning.

There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Hallelujah!

Empty Udder

OK, so I really am living in the heart of the countryside, and every morning I walk past fields which sometimes are full of cows.

A new herd grazed in one of the fields this morning. Some looked at me curiously as they chewed their cud. Others charged at Dusty, who charged back at them from the safety of our side of the fence. 

One cow stared at me  ‘glakitly’ (Scottish for vacantly) as her calf pushed and prodded in vain on an empty udder. Or at least it looked pretty shrunken to me. 

His mother didn’t seem to notice, nor even care. 

It made me think of the way we all – metaphorically speaking – feed on one another. Someone I know refuses to spend time with people who have what she calls ‘negative energy’ because she feels it sucks life out of her. Bad vibes, we might have called it in the ‘60s. 

We all need to feed our souls, so that we have something positive for others to glean from us. For me as a Christian, that means spending time in God’s presence and being filled with his Holy Spirit so that I can overflow with his goodness when I’m out and about, naturally and without effort or contrivance. For others it may mean reading poetry or verse, or spending time in nature or in music. 

None of us wants to be caught staring glakitly as others try in vain to gain some nourishment from us. I want to be a source of refreshment, not a black hole of discouragement. Don’t you?