No, Thank You.

I recently heard this statement:  the struggle for humanity used to be scarcity, now the struggle for humanity is abundance.

This may show my age, but I have actually lived through a time of scarcity - the recession of the 1980s.  My father worked construction and was laid off for a short time.  I remember getting the big white box of powdered milk from the government, along with a block of cheese and some generic peanut butter.  I would trade my mother's home baked cookies for a packaged Little Debbie cake at school lunchtime. My household was one of usefulness and good stewardship; the opposite of waste.  We had “boiled greens” from the garden which I swore were weeds.  We walked through the corn fields after harvest and gathered the lost pieces of corn to feed our animals.  On our cross country vacation we packed the cooler - before ziplock was invented - yes, I ate soggy peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and warm yogurt while looking at a spectacular view of Yellowstone.  

Hopefully this gives you a chuckle and a memory for yourself.

However, we have to now wake up and realize that abundance is our struggle.  Everywhere you look, you are surrounded by cheap and fast “food”.  Is this really food?  

Ponder on your struggle with abundance.  Don’t be a prisoner of consumerism.  Don’t be a victim of mindless habits.

Find the freedom that comes when you drive by a fast food restaurant, or a bakery, or a wawa and are able to say with a confident smile “no, thank you.”  

Release that mindless habit of buying cookies, cakes or chips because they are “on sale”. 

And take a big bite of that beautiful apple - you will be saying “no, thank you” to factory foods. Your body will be saying to you - YES, THANK YOU FOR THIS NOURISHMENT!