Thursday, February 23, 2012

Comfort or Cover Up?

As our family is eating dinner recently, the kids began to talk about comfort foods. One daughter likes warm rice with a little butter and sugar; one child LOVES chicken and dumplings and another suggested macaroni and cheese. Meanwhile, the youngest kiddos just sat and listened…most likely because they just like food in general…any food…seriously.

And so I began to ponder comfort food and what is it for me. According to Webster’s Dictionary, it is food that is enjoyable to eat and makes the eater feel better emotionally. Ah-ha! For me comfort foods are rice (precisely warm rice with some butter and a little sugar – this is eaten for breakfast and not as a traditional side dish), bread pudding, chocolate anything (seriously, you could dunk an elephant’s ear in there and I would enjoy it), homemade bread and ice cream. I guess I have more than one comfort food.

But, does it comfort? Does it honestly soothe me or console me or reassure me? Does it make me FEEL better? When I look to God’s Word, I find comfort used in 2 specific ways. One is to refer to people who are mourning and are comforted by others. Specifically, look to the story of Job (not that the friends were very comforting) as well as Jeremiah who is mourning over Israel. However, the primary way “comfort” is used is refer to God’s comfort of His children. God is our Comforter (see Genesis 5:29, Psalm 71:21, Psalm 119:50, Isaiah 49:13, Zechariah 1:17, 1 Corinithians 14:3, 2 Corinthians 1:5). HE ALONE is the one who comforts us!

What am I doing when I eat the comfort food? Am I relying on the food to make me FEEL better? Yes and NO! I am also relying on the food to COVER over my feelings…to avoid them..to hide them…so I won’t have to deal with them.

Today I choose to stand in truth and realize that I will not cover my feelings with food. I will stand firm in God’s Word and rely on Him to comfort me. He is THE COMFORTER and has not made His creation to comfort me in ways He is to comfort. I will choose Him over the food. What are you choosing today?

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