Junk Food Junkie

Ned and I love junk food--really love it. If you looked in our cabinets right this moment, you would find several kinds of chips, Dr Pepper and Coke and moon pies (I am after all married to a Southern boy). You would also find three gallons of Blue Bell Ice Cream in our freezer. You will not find snickers bars, or pistachios, or nacho cheese dip or candy corn, because we already ate them! Our friend once told us that we should keep a food diary, writing down everything we ate, good food or junk food. I did it for a couple of days but it hurt my feelings and so I stopped. :) We are junk food junkies!
Funny thing about eating junkfood. It causes weight gain. Our clothes no longer fit us well. We have less stamina and energy than we should. There are so many things we should be doing, but we are just plain too tired, so they go undone, at least by us. The junk food also causes an increase in our appetites. And with junk food, the more you eat---the more you want. The small amount of junk food that used to satisfy us, no longer does. We eat more and more all the time.
It also decreases our desire for good foods. Our stomachs are so full of junk that we have no room for veggies and proteins. We have also found ourselves becoming masters at justifying our consumption. We convince ourselves we are being sociable. We don't want to offend the lovely Christian sisters at potluck so we must eat some of every dessert offered. We convince ourselves we need to eat it so we can start our diets without the temptation of junk food in the house. Like I said, masters of justification. We get sick more frequently, we don't sleep as well, we don't think as well, and we don't handle stress as well. Junk food is destroying our lives.
I think it is the same with psychological and spiritual junkfood. We know that we are to fill our hearts and minds with the Word, the Living Water, the Bread of Life, and with "whatsoever things are good, whatsoever things are pure. . ." We know this, and yet we read People magazine, we watch gossip television and violent movies and we listen to music that is less than good and pure and wholesome. I wonder what a Psychological Food Diary would look like? How many lines would we fill up with mental junk food? Would the good food lines pale in comparison? Do you wonder what would happen if we fed our minds and our souls better? Would we have more energy? Would we be able to do more things for God that we leave up to others now? Would our Christian Armor fit us better--would it be able to cover and protect all the vulnerable spots? Would it still be an ordeal to put it on? Would a decrease in junk food cause an increase in appetite for the Word? Would we recover more easily from injury and hurt? Would we be more resistant to spiritual illness? Would we be more able to handle and manage stress? Perhaps we all need to break our addiction to junk food. Perhaps we need to guard our heart, knowing it is the wellspring of life. (Proverbs 4:23) Perhaps the Lord's church would thrive if its members were all healthy and well---or at least doing their part to become healthy and well. I know we cannot attain perfection but we can attempt spiritual healthiness. Perhaps we truly are what we eat, read, see, hear, listen to, watch, do . . .

Neva