As I have told you all in the past, my family takes their pie very seriously. Just this Thanksgiving we made over 30 pies! After a day or so of blissful indulgence, my seventeen-year-old math whiz announced that he thought he was now 1% pumpkin pie. He had weighed himself prior to all the pie consumption and I guess he figured out how much pumpkin pie weighs and voila, 1% pumpkin pie!!!
As his mother, I thought this was incredibly adorable of course. However, it got me to thinking about what I am made up of. (Although, I did try to avoid doing my own pie+turkey+mashed potatoes math!) Besides the extra “fluff” that the holidays can add physically, what are my insides made up of, my spirit and soul?
I think we have all heard that what we take in can become part of who we are, our personality and character. Who we choose to be around matters as well. As cliché as it is, what we watch and consume on social media also forms our thoughts and informs our emotions. When we are stressed or under pressure it is unfortunately our worst selves that manifest, bringing with them all of the negative we have allowed to become part of us. But what if we were made from something else, something good?
This all came together in my thoughts when I was listening to a sermon about slowing down. This topic is always a good reminder for me. I have come a long way in this area and I am now able to rest more, sit more and think more deeply, but the pastor had some really good insights. One of those was about choosing what I am ingesting and allowing to become a part of me. If I am regularly reading God’s word, the Bible, it will become a part of myself. When I am in a tight place a lot more of Jesus would come out rather than me. Another idea was to listen. It is not enough to just read through the Bible each day just because that is what we are supposed to do. I need to listen as I read and even ask questions of God. I can ask Him to show me His word in a new way, I can ask Him about things I don’t understand in the Scriptures. It becomes much more interactive and relational.
As we enter into another new year, I am going to continue to pursue this kind of consuming (while hopefully working off some of my physical consuming from the holidays!) and make it a point to not just read the Bible each day, but to really ingest and chew on it until it becomes a part of me. I pray that this year will be a year of deepening relationship with Jesus for all of us and that unlike my son who was only 1% pie, we could be 100% Him!
“And to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:19
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