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The Candy Dish

A while back, I was driving into work with the radio off in an attempt to meditate on my God. I have two of the most precious grandbabies anyone could ever have.  These precious little souls came to my mind along with their eating habits. My grandson is a busy little fellow.  He's so busy that when we feed him, my wife has to follow him around with a spoon and push it into his mouth when he pauses for a nanosecond.  My granddaughter on the other hand is different.  If she hears some paper rattling, she comes running crying out "bite bite Poppy" as she don't want to miss a chance at eating. I was meditating on the difference in their appetites and eating habits when God begin to open up my understanding.

Though my granddaughter has a healthy appetite, at a year and a half, she has very little knowledge, in fact none, of what is good for her to eat and what is harmful.  That's the job that falls to her Mom and Dad to make sure she eats things that are good for her. From here, I remember being more like my grandson than my granddaughter when I was younger.  Mom always made me sit at the table while we ate what is called supper down here in the south.  I would rather have sit in front of the TV and watched Popeye the Sailor while I minced at my food but Mom and Dad felt it important that we sat at the table and talked while we ate together. I, like most children, had rather eat candy, ice cream, pudding or something of the like than my meat, bread and vegetables.  Mom however, insisted that I eat what she had prepared and Dad insisted on the quantity.  They had nothing against me having a snack of candy or ice cream or eating dessert after the meal but they never wanted me to eat to close to a meal and spoil my appetite.  Mom was also concerned that eating too much candy would result in tooth decay or back then it was said to "rot your teeth out". Obesity among children was not as prevalent back then as now so there was not a whole lot of concern of the impact that candy and sweets would have on a child's weight and certainly no thought was given to the child's self-esteem if excessive weight was realized from excess of candy and sweets.

After pondering all of the above thoughts, my mind went back to shortly after my baptizing.  God placed such a desire in my heart that I would crave His word, His presence and just a burning desire to draw up as close to Him as possible.  I remember my cousin and her husband who had been in the Church much longer than my wife and I paying us a visit one Saturday afternoon.  When they pulled up, they heard the Inspirations playing on the record player and saw me sitting on the porch reading the scriptures.  I don't remember what the Inspirations where singing but it was probably something like "Jesus Savior Pilot Me" as that was and still is a favorite of mine.  My cousin's husband later stated that the scene he walked into at my house that afternoon had a profound impact on him as they had been in the Church longer and didn't have that desire that I had.  You can see how God can use such little things to help others.  For the record, my cousin's husband has been a Pastor for many years now so let's not pretend that this event was happenstance.

During this time in my life, I sincerely desired nothing above knowing more about my Lord and fellowship with Him and His children. I still remember going into our back bathroom one afternoon and shutting the door to pray.  I began to try and pray as I had in the past but something happened that differed from other attempts.  I began to realize that I was no longer in control of the petition and my voice and rhythm had changed. I'm not sure how long I was in there but when I came to myself, I was no longer on my knees but sitting upright with my back against the wall.  I didn't need to ask my wife or call Dad and Mom to understand what I happened.  I knew that the Holy Spirit had came on the scene and had took notice of my efforts and, carried my petition to the Son.  I later learned of Paul's beautiful picture of this found in Romans 8:26 "Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered."

Also during this time, I fasted.  Now naturally speaking, I was very thin in body so I'm not referring to fasting as many do today in the natural sense.  I was fasting from the things of this world.  I was not engrossed in current events found in newspapers, on TV or on the radio. I was not caught up in situation comedies, soap operas or movies.  I had little desire to go to amusement parks, to the beach or other areas of recreation.  My meat was to study His Word, communicate with Him in prayer and to assemble with my brothers and sisters.  While all of the above was my main course or if you will, my meat, I grew in strength, grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Chirst.

In the coming years, I was criticized for my zeal and was told that I didn't have to be such a stick in the mud.  I saw other Christians whom I had confidence in as well as some powerful Preachers who were not as strict and I begin to loosen up just a little.  In all those years, I never departed from the faith, never walked out of the way such as one would think me a backslider and never stopped attending Church.  I also continued to pray and to read His Word. I later became a member of a very spiritual Gospel Quartet that God blessed mightily and was called to Preach His Gospel. In all of these endeavors, His hand was upon me and His Spirit bore witness in a mighty way. During this span of time however, I did watch more TV, keep up with current events, would go with my family to a movie and join them in recreation activities such as going to an amusement park, to the beach, etc. Please do not get offended and click off of this page because you think that I'm about to start railing on the dangers of TV, movies, recreation, etc. 

While I had loosened from the staunch convictions that I had in the beginning, again I would remind you that I continued on in the requirements that God had revealed to me in the beginning of my walk with Him.  Also remember that His Holy Spirit continued to bless our singing and my attempts at preaching.  On the morning that I was meditating upon these things, there was one thing that I could say was not like it was in the beginning of my walk.  In the early days, when I would pray to Him, He would answer and I would hear and understand the answer.  I had long since felt as though that was not as strong as it once was.  I longed for it but was unsure how to get it back. 

The Lord caused me to see a table that He sets for His children.  On this table is all manner of good things He's prepared for His own.  I remembered my Mom and Dad doing the same thing in a natural sense.  On this table was His Word, prayer and meditation.  I like to think of it as education, conversation and meditation as that rhymes.  Now I had maintained conversation, in other words praying and expressing my desires and wants but if I spend adequate time at his table, conversation becomes communication where both parties talk, listen and understand. If Mom had allowed me to watch Popeye while I was at the table, my focus would not have been on their communication, I would have either half heard or not heard at all what they were talking about and I would have just picked at my food. The Lord caused me to see that although I sat at His table, ate His Word and prayed to Him, my focus was more on the world or Popeye if you will and my prayers were just going up. I wasn't focused enough for the needed communication.

The candy dish that I became aware of is not filled with tootsie rolls, baby ruths, jolly ranchers or the like but rather with worldly things that draw us away from God's table by spoiling our appetite.  The candy in a dish that entices me, may have very little effect on you but believe me, the one that stocks the candy dish knows what you like.  Not only will this candy spoil your appetite but it will add unneeded weight gain.  While this weight gain may not be visible to the world or even to God's children, it will slow you down and just as sudden and excessive weight gain has a negative effect on us naturally, it will spiritually. Now that our appetites are spoiled, when we sit down at God's table, we can't consume the same quantities of the food that is good for us like we once did. We have picked up unwanted weight that slows us down from performing God's will and has made us spiritually weak and has negatively impacted our endurance.  There is a third problem with the candy, the tooth decay that I mentioned earlier.  If our teeth grow week, we cannot eat as we once did when we sit down to God's table.  Paul admonishes that strong meat belong to them that are of full age.  It's awful difficult to gum country ham or steak if we have no teeth or our teeth is sore from decay!

I could go on and on with this but my desire is that God uses a little of this thought as a help to you.

Please pray for me and my family that we may always be found doing just what God would have us to do.