A Lesson On Food From the Israelites

The whole company of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron there in the wilderness. the Israelites said, "Why didn't God let us die in comfort in Egypt where we had lamb stew and all the bread we could eat? You've brought us out into this wilderness to starve us to death, the whole company of Israel!" 
Exodus 16:2-4

My husband loves tater tots. And when I say love, I mean that he really LOVES them. He would eat them every night with dinner if he could and I've even caught him sneaking them into the cart at the grocery store. Because we try to eat really clean and healthy, we have brown rice or quinoa with most of our dinners instead of tater tots.

The other day I opened the freezer and I noticed a half eaten bag of tater tots that my husband had seemingly forgotten about. When he got home I asked him about it and to my shock, he said that he actually preferred brown rice or quinoa over tater tots now. Folks, this is truly a miracle, and I was skeptical.

But here is the thing that Greg is slowly learning, tater tots taste great, but taste is so temporary. It lasts only a few seconds. But the way that food makes you FEEL, that lasts a couple of hours, or even days, and always has long term effects (think diabetes and heart disease), that can last forever. See, our priorities have gotten mixed up. We put WAY TOO MUCH emphasis on the taste of food, when really we should focus on how food affects our health and how it makes us feel. These are the two things that matter.

The problem is, we get caught up in the moment. That chocolate cake is staring you in the face and all of a sudden you couldn't care less about your high cholesterol or your fibromyalgia pain. In fact, you aren't even sure that having high cholesterol is such a bad thing anyway, and that fibromyalgia pain, well that's all in your head. Right? Wrong!

And this is exactly where we find the Israelites in Exodus 16. They're stranded in the desert with no food. They are starving to death, and so they start wishing for Egypt. For the lamb stew and all the bread they could ever want. They're forgetting about the bondage and slavery. The oppression and cruelty. They're forgetting that they begged God for mercy, for freedom for 400 years! They're sucked in to the here and now, the immediate issue.

Don't get sucked in to the here and now with your food. Don't let the taste of food rule over you and cause you to make choices that you will later regret. The Israelites got so caught up in the here and now that they were forced to wander in the desert for 40 years. Don't get so caught up with the taste of your food that you get stuck with a life altering disease for the last 40 years of your life.

Choose the health benefits.

Choose the way food makes you feel.

Choose foods that give you LIFE, not convenience or satisfaction.

Choose foods that heal. 

And if you don't know where to start, think veggies, always choose veggies :)

Wishing you all Health, Hope, & Happiness
Abby