Hunger

There's nothing more frustrating than being constantly hungry while trying to shed a few pounds. I cannot seem to satsify my hunger today.  Could it be the 5 miles I ran yesterday kicking my metabolism into high gear?  I really do hope so.  But, the fact remains that in order to shed weight, I have to ouput more calories than I input. And, today all I want to do is input.  I know enough about nutrition to know not to eat chocolate incessantly on days like today. Not only will that NOT satisfy my hunger; it is a calorie dense/nutritionally sparse food. I need to eat calorie sparse, nutritionally dense foods on days like today.

So it is with my spiritual life. There are seasons where the output kicks up a notch or two, and I can find myself starving.  Ministry to my family or friends may increase for one reason or another. Maybe a friend's family has been sick for a prolonged period of time, and she needs encouragement and meals! Maybe one of my children is having a pronounced struggle with grumbling and needs constant encouragement and discipline to kick what may be becoming a habit. Maybe my husband is under pressure at work and needs to put in extra hours requiring me to take up the slack at home with physical chores, and tending to the emotional and the spiritual needs of my children.  And, maybe all of this converges all at the same time.  Can I get a witness?

In these times, I need to remember I cannot skip out on my time with God in prayer and bible reading.  I am in great need all the time, but especially during seasons where more is being asked of me.  In these times, I need God's Word in concentrated form.  I need to eat and eat and eat. I need to open up the Psalms and read one in the morning, listen to worship music while preparing breakfast, read scripture to the kids while eating breakfast. I need to pause in the middle of my school morning for a "snack" from a Spurgeon devotional and then pull out the worship music and/or youversion bible to listen to at lunch again. I need to play a sermon while I prepare for dinner and swallow up "gulps" of biblically rich blogs any time I can sneak away to the bathroom.  (Any momma reading this knows exactly what I'm talking about when I write "sneak" to the bathroom.)

And, even then I may feel empty. But, without the constant feeding on the richness of God's Word, I will most definitely starve.