Food Prep

Food prep is the concept of making as much of your food in advance as possible.  The idea is that when you plan your meals you decrease the likelihood of making unhealthy 'quick' choices because healthy, better choices are ready to go.   For example, you can make spaghetti squash and chicken breast on Saturday, divide it into tupperware, and you have lunch ready in the fridge for 5 days. The same idea works for snacks.  Chop up your veggies one day, put them in snack bags, and you are good for the week.  It's quite genius and makes things just a little bit easier.

I can't help but wonder what would happen if we applied this same concept to our time spent with God.  Not doing it all in one day to be ready for the week, but preparing our hearts and minds with His truth regularly before the storm hits, the bottom falls out, or the rug is pulled from under us.

I know from my own personal experience I have gone through cycles.  There have been seasons where I wasn't reading my Bible, praying, or studying and it was pretty obvious to those around me. And there have been seasons where I have binged so heavily that it's truly a wonder I didn't explode in the process.  The happy medium seems to be when I am consistent.  It's the consistency that keeps me from freaking out when something unexpected comes and praising when some outlandish grace covers me.  It's this type of food prep that brings to my mind the exact verse I need when something threatens my joy or could easily give way to boasting.   It sustains and maintains my sanity. Truthfully, it's what makes me capable of handling being an adult.

I don't know how much time you need for your food prep, I just know that what I do seems to keep me in my happy place.  And when something hard happens, yes, I do need extra time. And if God is really pressing a concept or thought on me, I'm willing to put in the additional effort to get what He's trying to help me understand.  And with the promise that His word never returns void, even if I don't immediately need what He showed me today, I know I will need it in the future.  And frankly, I'd rather have it ready to go than take what's easiest to grab in the moment.

Father, the greatest miracles I have experienced are the ones You have done in my heart through Your word.  You've transformed thoughts, beliefs, and actions because what You planted, You grew, and what You grew, produced fruit.  Help us to consistently spend time with You, learning who You are, who we are in Your eyes, and about the love you so desperately want to give us.  We ask this in Jesus name, amen.