Soul Food

Apparently, the former non-church going, against organized religion girl is now being inspired to blog about sermons from church. I guess I need to give some credit to Pastor Jeff. A couple Sundays ago his sermon mentioned that ministering happened in more places than just church, and the importance of fellowship in the days of Jesus. He talked about some of the church activities such as the Thursday night dinners, created to provide food for those that needed it, but that fellowship was perhaps the more important thing these individuals received. He mentioned the fellowship time after the service and that it was a time to gather and connect with one another. What got me thinking was the mention of food and its importance in not just nourishing the body, but feeding the soul when shared together. I am a food girl. Five or six years ago I went to a board lunch with my dad, as his date. Afterward, he told my mom I had “quite an appetite.” My friends at work jokingly laugh with me that I am motivated by food. I admit that I am a three meals a day and snacks girl. Before I had kids (back when I actually had time) I used to love finding recipes to try. Anyone that read my blog last summer knows that I embarked on a project to research my family’s food choices and made some changes based on what I discovered. I pride myself on feeding my kids well. I have made conscience decisions to not make a big deal out of food, because research shows that creates issues later in life. I provide my kids with plenty of healthy food, only require a “no-thank-you” bite of anything at dinner, and don’t force anything, or at least not much. I realized as I listened to the sermon a couple weeks ago, that despite my front of food not being a big deal, food is a big deal to me. Food is more than just nourishment to me. I always look at how the food is presented on the plate, and try to make sure I have a variety of colors and textures. But more than the appearance is the event of eating. I try to make dinner a family time, although with a one and a four year old, this often means a constant getting this and that and cleaning up messes. But I try to ask everyone at the table how their day was. Dinner is a time to reconnect with my family after being away from them all day. Food is both how I celebrate and how I mourn. When something good happens, I tend to want to go out to eat to celebrate, or at least go out for dessert. When life hands me more than I can handle, I seek comfort in a meal with the ones I love. When I want to show appreciation, I tend to think of hosting a meal or taking someone out for one. Food is definitely tied to emotion for me. All the research and articles that say this emotional attachment to food is unhealthy, well, they just might be wrong. Maybe they don’t take emotional health into consideration. My emotional attachment to food has not led to obesity, or high cholesterol, or high blood pressure for me. Granted, some of this is the luck of genetics, but some of it is not. Maybe the nourishment of my soul, through the fellowship of a shared meal, has unmeasurable and un-researchable benefits. So long live the food girls…