Food Blessings

Last night I was reading an article in the Experience Life magazine.  Towards the end of the issue, I stumbled upon a small article about the importance of blessing the food we eat.  I had a "light bulb" moment.

I am a Christian, and as a Seventh-day Adventist growing up, I was conditioned to be the good little Christian girl.  I went to church every week, read the Bible, didn't curse, and prayed every time I ate.  It was more of a ritual than anything else.  But a few years ago, I realized how empty my mealtime prayers seemed to be.  I'd throw up a "Thank you for the food, please let it nourish our bodies. Amen!" and begin gorging on fried chicken, fries, and soda.  I remember sitting around our church gym after a long day running VBS at our church.  The group of us decided we were hungry and deserved a treat.  Our dinner consisted of 200 McDonald's chicken nuggets, 10 McChicken sandwiches, and 10 large fries each piled up in the middle of the table.  Of course, we all bowed our heads to pray for food blessings, and then we started diving into the pile of food.  It was more of a competition to see how fast we can eat since the guys were eating twice as fast as us girls.  

I stopped praying during meals a few years back.  Well, I didn't rebel, but I stopped going out of my way to pray my ritual of prayers for all the junk food I was consuming.  I knew prayer was precious, and I really didn't know how to connect the spiritual act of prayer with all of the mindless gorging I was doing.

But as I am going through a change on how I view my food, the article's suggestion on blessing the food I am about to eat became more relevant than ever before.  As I am learning about all the nutrition I am consuming from the fresh carrots and spinach, I am more and more inspired to thank the Lord for all the blessings He has provided.  Knowing that a few juicy kiwis awaits me for my afternoon snack is a blessing.  Knowing that the more I eat well and exercise that I am detoxifying my body is a blessing.  Knowing that I've made all these horrible mistakes in the past to torture my body and mind, yet I am still able to make choices to bring it back to health is a blessing.

So I have decided that I am going to start praying again for my food.  I am grateful and so I pray.