What satisfies more: another piece of cake, or feeling the deep peace of God that makes one feel whole and content from within?
I vote for the latter!
Excess food or desserts may spark a moment of sensual elation, but the effect is temporal and leaves one wanting more—or feeling weak and guilty.
Finding and feeling the deep peace of God within settles thought into a profoundly serene spiritual place that truly satisfies and enables one to say “No” to excess consumption of food.
It’s Soul that satisfies, not mindless indulgence of extra food.
Mary Baker Eddy wrote, “Soul has infinite resources with which to bless mankind, and happiness would be more readily attained and would be more secure in our keeping, if sought in Soul. Higher enjoyments alone can satisfy the cravings of immortal man” Science and Health, p. 60.
In Truth, you are an immortal being desiring the goodness of God. What comes from God in the form of love, spiritual understanding and truth is what truly satisfies and makes life a joy to live. No amount of excess food is going to substitute for what only Soul can provide.
If you feel a craving, it’s not for more food. It’s for spiritual enlightenment.
Satisfy those cravings through prayer. Seek truth rather than chips. Turn thought away from the refrigerator to Soul and let God fill you up with truth and love.
The higher enjoyments of Soul are the spiritual inspirations of divine Mind. You can consume this food from God without limit and experience only an increasingly good effect. They will leave you feeling better than ever, and healthy and fit.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled” Matthew 5:6, NKJV.
“You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. He’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat” Matthew 5:6, The Message.
Dear Evan – how timely! I love the idea of seeking ‘the deep peace of God within’ .. and add my vote to yours…. thank you so much.
Thank you, this is lovely. I’m also trying to see that certain foods really cannot harm us, because we are spiritual.
Actually, when considering food a question comes to me.. how do you know whether you are eating the right amount, if you are not vastly overweight? Surely weight is only a material measurement, and it’s not good to get caught up in the dieting / exercise fashion which concentrates the mind on matter instead of spirit. I’d be interested to hear others thoughts. 🙂
Hi MB,
One simple thing that I have learned and has helped me, is to recognize when I am satisfied versus when I am full. I recognized that many times I was satisfied but continued eating for taste. So I just ask myself if I am eating for my stomach or for my mouth. I know that if I have not had enough and am still truly hungry later I can have a little more. I find I eat far less than I use to but I never struggle or feel deprived.
I also wanted to mention to Spiritview followers that on JSH there is an excellent article by Channing Walker called The Youth-and-Morality Article. It isn’t what it sounds like and is an excellent discussion about the “immortal cravings” that Evan noted in Science and Health. I’m sorry I don’t know how to supply a link to it but would highly recommend it for this blog today and its followers.
Thanks…sounds like a good article…will go look it up now!
Excellent blog, Evan. I love to cook and love clean food. A good reminder to keep this in perspective. Food is necessary in the now, but not to be used as a means to find satisfaction. Feeling fulfilled and satisfied comes from our friendship with God.:-)
“Seek truth not chips! Soul instead of the frig!”
I love humor for keeping perspective, and this SV sure does make our
choices obvious.
Thanks, Evan!
;-))
To MB: Like you, I think we can think too much about something Jesus told us to “Take no thought for”! Social conversations and (especially) health-related advertising encourage us to focus on it almost to the point of obsession. As with all forms of “suffer it to be so now” human activity, I think it comes down to BALANCE and MOTIVE. If one eats to the point of stuffing oneself and grabs a bite to satisfy a craving every time one passes through the kitchen…that’s not expressing balance and control. If one eats to “cheer oneself up,” that’s not the right motive. Rather it’s a good sign that one needs to cheer oneself up and satisfy ones longings with tidbits of truth rather than tidbits of snack food!
Another thing to be aware of is that mortal mind (if it were real) would love to keep us on a roller coaster of confusion. Some years ago eggs and fats in any form were demonized to the point where people were actually literally afraid of them…a headline I saw recently said people weren’t getting enough fats in their diets (I didn’t pay attention to what the “risk” was in not having enough so I can’t supply you with the “why”) and that dietary cholesterol was not shown to increase cholesterol in the body so that let those poor eggs off the hook! There are a myriad of food “protocols” and diets out there…organic, clean, paleo, mediterranean, etc….most of which have limited accessibility and usually a significantly higher price. If we give too much power to foods of any kind to help or hurt, aren’t we in a way malpracticing those who, for whatever reason, don’t have access to these “designer diets”?
Whatever material thing we give too much thought to becomes an obsession. We should acknowledge God’s complete control (in reality, He has it already, anyway) and let food be just an incidental in our lives. Then amounts and types will just naturally regulate themselves without our giving it so much thought.
For MB and others, here is the “share” link to the article you referenced, Youth – and -Morality.
The youth-and-morality article
https://journal.christianscience.com/shared/view/qo9f99rmm2?s=e
It’s easy to share an article if you subscribe to JSH-Online. Just click the little envelope icon that is above the article. A new page will open in your email account with a link to the article. Copy and paste the link wherever you would like to share it — into an email to a friend or, as in this case, into a comment box.
Thanks for posting the link Kathleen.
So sad that “take no mind for what you eat” has been so misinterpreted by members.
Good luck with the good ole typical american fast food, chemically laden processed food, pesticide covered produce food you put into the wondrous spiritual idea your body represents.
I know exactly what you mean Maximo as I am very concerned about the quality of our food and the poisons used in their production. I didn’t want to be obsessive though I usually buy mostly organic food as “clean” food isn’t hard to find where I live.
I spoke to a practitioner about this and he suggested that just as we wouldn’t purposely drink a “known” poison (see S & H p. 177: 25 – 7 on the next page) and as when Jesus said “get thee behind me Satan” when that tempting thought was trying to “test God’s power and Jesus’ strength. We should not choose do things that aren’t wise or obviously could cause a problem ON PURPOSE. So there is nothing wrong with being careful to eat healthy good quality food and making an effort to do this. HOWEVER WISDOM not FEAR should be the motivating factor in our choices. Do you think this is correct Evan?
What a great discussion! I find that the higher my thought the better my choices in everything, food, music, movies, books, etc. I eat mostly a vegetarian diet out of compassion, but if someone goes to the trouble of fixing a meal that includes meat, I’ll eat it. Also, my choice is organic, but I don’t worry if that’s not available. Diane stated it perfectly to choose wisdom and not fear.
Yes, I believe some prayer, wisdom and discretion are needed when making food consumption choices. Jesus’ comment, “Take no thought…” did not mean put anything into your mouth that is handy. The spirit of his instruction was to not let fear of food govern your life and take over your thinking and monopolize your attention.
Context is critical to understanding this rule. People didn’t have 40,000 choices in the grocery store back then to select from. Obviously, a HUGE amount of thought is being given to producing and creating all the food you find in the store today, and much of it not in the best interest of the consumer. To naively choose anything to eat just because it’s called food may not be so intelligent. One must be “wiser than serpents.”
Thank you Evan. And thank you Robyn and Kathleen and other commenters.
In keeping with the Bible teachings, Mrs. Eddy reassures us that food has no power over us because God has all power. Fast, chemical laden, processed, or pesticide covered food included! And as Robyn mentioned, even if we choose to stay clear of these, we surely don’t want to malpractice others who do not.
Robyn’s last paragraph sums it up nicely. (=
Thanks so much, Kathleen, for giving us the link to Channing Walker’s article. One statement he made stood out in particular, “Higher enjoyments alone can satisfy the cravings of immortal man.” (Science and Health pp. 60-61.) And isn’t it breaking the First Commandment to crave anything other than God and His beautiful provisions for us?
Thank you Kathleen for the link to that wonderful Journal article from Channing Walker. It gave me much spiritual food, and it matches exactly with today`s theme here and of the Daily Lift from The Motherchurch, where Chat Manchester talked about more deeper prayer, and he states the words from S&H in part here: “desire is prayer…” It all matches so exactly together that it is so obvious for me, that the one Mind, our Father-Mother-God is working alltogether for good and right understanding of the matter uttered today.
Am awfully grateful for your always loving SpiritView, dear Evan – thank you very muich.
Thank you all.
Thank you Evan and thank you Karen and Kathleen for the excellent article by Channing Walker!!
Thanks for this helpful thought for today, and Kathleen, thank you for the link to the excellent article.
Thank you all, and for the excellent article.
Well, reading all of this is surely a feast for my soul/Soul!! Thank you everyone for giving me permission enjoy the beauty and bounty of God’s ‘table’ of gladness!!