It’s a common question for dieters to ask when praying for a spiritual solution to losing weight, “How do I know what to eat?”
The sound waves of mortal mind are filled with suggestions and decrees about what food is proper and what is dangerous. “Cut the fat, decrease the sugar, increase the protein…” and countless other verdicts are rendered on our behalf everyday. Many opinions contradict each other. Even scientific studies tout opposite conclusions.
How does one know what food to consume?
There’s a better way than trying to figure it all out humanly.
Jesus Christ, a spiritual thinker who exercised masterful control over the human body, instructed, “Take no thought for what you eat.” Sounds blasphemous, even heretical, doesn’t it?
How could it be? We wonder. “Take no thought for what we eat!” Isn’t that pure foolishness?
It’s not foolish when understood properly.
Jesus was not advocating naiveté or an ignorant approach to eating. He was showing us a better way to make wise choices, a spiritual way.
Jesus always turned to God first for instruction and guidance. He listened to his Father first and then acted.
“Take no thought for what you eat,” is not an advocacy for neglect and bodily abuse, but for getting thought headed in the right direction, in a spiritual direction, before acting. We need to listen to God first, not human theory, when deciding what to eat.
God is an all-knowing, all-wise Mind that makes the best possible choices. When we listen to Mind for direction, we reflect Mind’s wisdom which always has a good outcome.
When walking down the grocery store aisles, we often make choices based upon personal feelings and unstable emotions. We make poor choices when our desires are guided by selfish want rather than divine wisdom.
Practice something.
Next time you go shopping, start your decision-making by asking God for guidance. Listen for divine direction before grabbing an item off the shelf. See what happens. Chances are you’ll make choices you feel better about.
God knows what’s best for us and He leads us to the best possible scenario when we let Him. It takes humility to walk the divine path for we have to put material reasoning, medical theory, and personal guessing aside. But the divine Mind never fails to lead aright.
Listen to the divine voice within, and see what it puts into your mouth.
The qualities of honesty, obedience, balance, temperance and moderation and God at work within, and they translate into wiser human actions.
Within the last year and a half, several members of my family, myself included, have become vegetarians and my daughter is a vegan. Along with this choice, we also made a decision to consciously pray about what we eat, to acknowledge God as causing and caring for our substance and to try to do as you suggest “put material reasoning…aside” and let “Mind…lead aright.” It has been really fun. Since meat sandwiches aren’t an option, the thought came to buy some cottage cheese for lunch. Several cartons later, I glanced at the side and discovered it was loaded with protein. This has happened with square bagels first enjoyed at camp(also later discovered to be an excellent source protein), my daughter’s new love of spinach, and many other unsought tasty things now regularly enjoyed by my family. It has been a fun adventure.