Since I travel frequently because of my lecture schedule, I eat in many restaurants, and if you haven’t noticed, restaurants often serve large helpings of food! At least this is the case in the United States.
I’m not sure what the commercial thinking is behind such huge quantities of lasagna, spaghetti, and various mega-salads that get served as single entrees, but nonetheless, each time they come, I have to remind myself that just because it’s served up, doesn’t mean I have to eat it!
When at home, we serve modest helpings of food, and no thought is required about eating too much. The temptation is typically not there: start out right and you end right. But when it’s put down in front of you by someone else, and you really like what is offered, it can be awfully tempting to keep on eating beyond what you would normally consume.
“Just one more bite,” the little voice within urges, and into the mouth another mindless forkful goes, if one is not alert to the mesmerism at work.
As we need to demonstrate dominion over what we put in our mouth, we also need to demonstrate dominion over what we accept into our thinking.
Just as some restaurants practice serving oversized helpings of food, many media outlets practice spreading oversized helpings of fear—in particular on the topic of disease.
Health reports are common fare on newscasts. Reports on disease, threats of contagion, and graphic descriptions of symptoms do little to alleviate fear, and often do much to increase it. They are served up regularly to a public that seems to have an insatiable hunger for news that casts a future of doubt and uncertainty.
And so the same rule that applies to demonstrating dominion over appetite applies for those who want to maintain their health: “Just because it’s served, doesn’t mean you have to consume it!”
Worry about the economy is another place that over-sized fears are served up regularly for the public to consume.
We need to remember that we live in a divine economy where opportunity and possibility for productive and progressive activity abound. To see our way clearly out of a dark place, we must not let mortal mind keep us in that dark place by enticing and succeeding in getting us to consume false beliefs that overload us with a feeling of burden.
Just because someone serves it, doesn’t mean you have to consume it!
Sounds like spiritual consumer rights to me… LOL
It’s unfortunate that in this country, there is the notion that ” bigger is better” (bigger portions, and everything else whether it be houses or diamonds)
It’s all about better or more matter.
Some countries, less is better, and quality is more meaningful than quantity.
If our thought was becoming more spiritualized, it would seem easy to separate from this thought. As religious as our country is, I notice how gluttony ails Americans.It’s a subtle error that needs to be handled for sure.
And just as we don’t have to consume it, it doesn’t have to consume us, that is we don’t have to have an obsession with food or anything else material in our life, as Moses saw “the bush was not consumed.” As spiritual ideas, pure and perfect, we are forever free from materiality.
Thanks for this wonderful reminder. My husband and I often split an entree because the portions or so large. We DO have consumer RIGHTS> Just like we have the right to know the truth about ourselves that we have learned from Mary Baker Eddy.
Another very insightful posting, Evan! Yesterday as I was doing some study from the Bible and Science and Health on ‘life’, I found this verse: Luke 21:34 and take heed to yourselves lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkeness, and cares of this life……… I have read this before but didn’t really know what ‘surfeiting’ was, but Jesus was warning against over-indulgence! Happily, I am learning to not over-indulge as I used to do, and feel the better for it. Moderation in all things!
Yes, we all need to be watchful of the aggressive mental suggestions that abound–the medical claims are promoted unmercifully on an unsuspecting public as well as economic fears. So grateful for Christian Science which teaches us such a better way, the way Christ Jesus and the Bible point out.
The picture of the huge hamburger made me chuckle a bit and I couldn’t help thinking of the cable show on the Travel Channel called “Man vs. Food”! They CELEBRATE gluttony, making it a game/contest of being able to consume huge amounts of food in one sitting. The show makes me cringe! I’ve visited local all-you-can-eat buffets and have seen very over-weight patrons. Food consumption can seem like a real problem when it gets out of hand. Thank you, Evan, for reminding us not to get trapped in that lie.