O how I love Your law!
It is my meditation all the day.

Psalm 119:97

I planned what I thought would be a wonderful summer project for the kids I work with – composting with worms.  My great idea was that they could recycle leftovers from their lunches by feeding it to the worms and by summer’s end they would see the beautiful compost the worms made of it.

I made two assumptions that proved to be wrong.

1.     Not all kids like to handle worms.  In fact, out of 25 kids, I could only get two or three to even touch them.  I thought they’d love them.

2.     Kids would have worm-worthy leftovers from their lunches.

I was totally shocked to watch day after day as kids finished their lunches how little of what they brought was healthy enough for the worms.  I wouldn’t feed them meat or processed foods or sugary foods or baked goods which left very little food to sustain the worms.  Kids just simply didn’t bring fruits (without added sugar) and vegetables.  After a couple of weeks, I took the worms home.

A diet that wasn’t healthy enough to sustain a bin of worms couldn’t be found.  No wonder kids clamor after sweets and make demands for junk food and turn up their nose at a vegetable.  They simply aren’t feeding on them.  Kids and adults tend to develop a hunger for what they  feed on.   Healthy or not.

The same principle applies in our spiritual life.  What we feed on is what we will develop a hunger for.  Ever pick up the Bible only to put it down in a few minutes and decide “I just can’t get into that right now?”  I certainly have.

Then I remembered the worms and the children.  If I feed on the Word of God, I will develop a hunger for it.  I will actually begin to crave it the way some crave carbohydrates because it’s what they feed on.  Developing taste buds for unfamiliar foods doesn’t happen overnight, nor does it happen with the first introduction to the new food.  Sometimes, I will admit, trying to read the Bible is more of a discipline than a joy for me.  But I have learned that if I feed on it daily, somehow, I will find that the day comes when I go hungry for it when I don’t take the time to read it.  And I find a satisfaction in reading it much like the satisfaction that comes from feeding other cravings.

Why read the Bible anyway?  The answers to that are numerous but one big reason is that when my spirit is fed words of life, the issues of life are not so overwhelming; it is easier to put things in perspective.  Without my spirit being fed daily, I get blown away by things of this world.  And I simply like the peace I find in me when I feed on God’s Word.

What about you?  What have you been feeding on lately?  Is it bringing you peace?

Heavenly Father, it wasn’t for no reason that You left us with Your word, Your love letters.   I know is Your word has changed me, has change my life and I am so grateful.  I know what’s it’s like to live without You and Your word and I never want to go back to that.  Thank You for Your word and Your faithfulness to it.  Open my heart, I pray, to respond to the Words of Life that have truly given me life and help me come to know the Bible as my daily bread.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

I would love to hear from you. Please let me know if I can be praying for you as well.