Confession time again. After raising children for almost twenty years now, I am tired!
When my first son was born, I tried hard to make sure he had nutritious, healthy food. I very rarely gave him any sugar and tried to stay away from processed junk food. I kept this healthy eating pattern for my children for a very long time. However, in the last few years, I have slowly given up.
It is difficult to stay positive when the dinners I spend so much time on are constantly met with disapproval and outright disgust by my youngest three. Also, as my older children have become busier and more independent, they have tended toward making their own meals more often. So healthy breakfasts have become cereal more frequently, homemade bread for sandwiches has become store-bought and dinners have become simpler and quicker.
I have often wished that there was simply dogfood for kids. An all-in-one bag of something they could and would eat three times a day! We come close with breakfast cereal, although I still consider it junk food and I would definitely not feed it to them three times a day. (But I could see there being seasons in life that that could become necessary!) My youngest son has also stumbled across something that he seems to believe he could live on and we jokingly call it his “dogfood.” (The huge bags of tortilla chips from Costco.) However, we all know neither of these would be great for kids to live on long term.
It is always comforting to me as a parent when I realize that God as a Father, has had similar experiences with His own children. When He brought the Israelites out of Egypt into the wilderness, they too complained about food. They sounded just like my kids whining! I am slightly jealous of God though, because He did get to take the “dogfood” solution. He decided that they would live on manna for the entire time they were in the wilderness, with some quail sprinkled in.
I am of course being rather facetious about all of this. The bottom line is that my children need to mature and learn to be grateful for the food they are given and I need to not throw in the towel because I still have many years of parenting left! God in His miraculous mercy, provided food in the wilderness and He has faithfully provided “manna” for my family all this time. In the same way, He will provide the strength I need to patiently teach my younger children healthy eating habits even when I wish I could just pour them a bowl of kidfood!
“I have heard the grumbling of the people of Israel. Say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.’” Exodus 16:12
“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” John 6:51
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