Over the previous few posts, we’ve looked at the Beverage Guidelines for Children and addressed some questions about milk. You may have noticed that I have intentionally not been explicit or dogmatic about my opinions. This might disappoint some, but with controversial issues, I think it is wise to hold back judgment until more is understood.

Originally, I thought I’d share about how we do milk in our house, but I think it would be more helpful to share our “food philosophy,” that is, our general approach and attitude toward food…

or, perhaps, our food-itude.

;-P sorry.

Ok, here we go…

#1. Approach ALL food with gratitude.

Remember when Jesus prayed, “Give us today our daily low-carb, gluten free, organic, ancient-grain, non-GMO, sustainably-farmed, preservative-free bread”… ?

Oh, yeah. He didn’t. 🙂

He said, “Give us today our daily bread.” period.

Simple.

And Paul said, “And if you give thanks, you may eat anything.” 1 Timothy 4:4

I believe that if you’re going to have a healthy relationship with food, you have to start from a position of gratitude.

Gratitude and thankfulness protect us from a lot of food-related issues such as

• being overly picky
• viewing food as purely for pleasure and over-indulging
• being wasteful
• and maybe some other eating disorders

I sincerely believe that if we approach whatever food we have with thankfulness toward God, He can deal with all the issues of nutrition, calories, toxins, and the like. After all, He turned water to wine, fed the 5000 and 4000, and made the widow’s oil not run dry. Food and nutrition are not difficult issues for God.

Admittedly, many of our food issues in the US are “1st-world” problems. We simply have too much to choose from.

I honestly suspect that many of them would miraculously disappear if we were dropped into a country or culture where our only food options were rice, beans, and water.

Suddenly we wouldn’t be wasting so much brain power and emotion on deciding what to eat!

We sometimes tell our kids “you know there are starving children in … who would love to have your dinner. NOW EAT!”

And although they usually don’t quite get it, I think that we adults should actually take that conviction pretty seriously.

We are blessed almost beyond belief in this country when it comes to the abundance of food options.

So, it is extremely important to start here – with a deep, sincere, reverent attitude of thankfulness – for all of our food.

Because it’s only those who have the extreme luxury of choosing between 12 different types of milk who can even begin to question which is the best.

Ok, I had to get that out there first, tomorrow I’ll move on to the next tenet of our philosophy of food.