Written By: Amy Hayes
“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things and the God of peace will be with you” – Philippians 4:8
Hmmm. I have, on occasion, consumed some lovely and excellent eclairs.
If you caught my first two blogs (“Humble Pie” and “Grace Cake”), it might have become apparent that I am a fan of dessert. I’m just going to say it. I struggle with gluttony.
I struggle with most of those other cardinal vices, too. Don’t ask my kids about my wrath, or my husband about my pride…and don’t get me started on sloth and envy. It is clear, however, that gluttony is by far my favorite sin. I know that’s a weird thing to say, but it doesn’t usually come with the guilt and shame that always accompanies those other ones. It’s such a feel-good sin (soul food, am I right!?). I wonder why this is? Food is a blessing, right? Definitely. But, so is a paycheck, which can easily incite greed in humans.
There are thousands of other things that are presented to us as gifts that have the potential to turn into idols and cause us to forget how to be good stewards. My family puts a lot of effort into being good stewards of our financial blessings. Yet, I have never translated that into being a good steward of our grocery budget and our always full refrigerator and pantry. I just express my thanks for the fact that my family is always fed, and then carry on stuffing myself with all the amazing junk food Japanese 7-11s have to offer (believe me, the temptation is higher inside a Japanese 7-11 than in any other convenience store the U.S. has to offer).
It recently occurred to me that I pray prayers of thankfulness for food more often than I pray prayers of thankfulness for any other one thing (like, even for my husband and kids). Yikes! Praying before meals is habitual for many of us, but I am weird because I actually pray sincere prayers about specific food.
“Thank you, God, for blessing me with cheese. I love cheese! What a gift you have given me through the joy cheese brings to my life!”
Does giving Him thanks for it, and giving the glory to him, mean that I actually idolize food less? I think probably, uhhhh…no. It definitely does not decrease the power I often allow food to have over me.
Your thing might not be food. This blog isn’t a sneaky way to use the Christian faith to hold people accountable for what they are putting in their bodies (though if it speaks to you in that way, run with it, girl! Check out The Daniel Plan!) This is about idolatry and how our prayer lives are affected by the things we love. Notice, I didn’t say the people we love. I said, “the THINGS we love.”
I taught Deuteronomy 6:5 to a class of 6 and 7 year old children this past weekend.
“You shall love the Lord with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength.” – Deuteronomy 6:5
The curriculum was supplemented with a video in which the crew took a tour of a chocolate factory.
*drool*
“Who loves chocolate?” (Me!)
“Who loves waffles?” (Me!)
“Who loves parks? Water slides? Their favorite stuffed animal?” (Me!)
“Who should we love the most?” (Oooh…uh, God.)
The video, that was produced for first graders, totally gut-checked me! The lesson I was teaching these kids was that you basically can’t love God with all your heart and soul and strength if you are devoting pieces of your heart and soul and strength to other things. The take-away was that we can really, really, really, really like things (Carly Rae Jepsen, anyone?), but love is reserved for God and the people He instructs us to love (i.e. everyone). I realized that I am not doing a great job of modeling this for my kids, as I clearly idolize food in front of them, constantly.
I am going to keep this short and sweet, unlike an éclair (which is long and sweet). I’ll leave you with a reminder that we don’t want our treasure to be in cupcakes, manicures, lifted trucks, home décor, stuffed Care Bears, or even the bank. We desire our treasure to be in Christ, so that’s where our hearts need to be, even when we can’t get doughnuts off our minds! Please feel free to return this reminder to me, regularly!
“For where your treasure is, there will your heart also be.” – Matthew 6:21
What things do you want to start praying about more? Where is your treasure? What things do you want to start praying about less? I would never discourage anyone from praying about EVERYTHING, from traffic to middle school musical auditions, from cheese to bowel movements (yes, I have prayed for my kids to poop when I could have probably adjusted their diets in a way that made that issue less severe). But, if you have caught yourself praying about things that are on the slippery slope to idolization, and you want to make a conscious change in your conversations with God, what are you going to focus on to achieve that?
I am going to challenge myself to stop and pray for my children’s school relationships and interactions every time I think about baked goods. And, let’s be honest, that’s going to be quite often.
Written By: Amy Hayes
