Food, food, glorious food......

[nebula]

Everything has the potential of being an idol in a person's life. The difficulty with food is that you cannot just "quit"

Very true.

This is the struggle I had as I was overweight and growing. By the end of my junior year in college, I was wearing a size 14, and those clothes were starting to feel tight. Of course, I was a non-stop eater. I had become a food addict by my pre-teen years. I never let myself feel hungry. I would eat food when present, even if I'd just finished a meal. Meals, of course, were 2 full plate-fulls.

What changed was being put into a situation that forced me to eat less - starting with a cross-cultural trip and continuing with a night time custodial job at college. That kick-started me to begin having the strength to discipline myself to control my eating urges. As my dress sizes decreased, the incentive to maintain this discipline was strengthened. Now, I hate feeling stuffed, I can say no to food being passed around when I'm not hungry (no saying you can't take and tuck away until you are!), and I am spending less money on food.

I share this to encourage you. Ask the Lord to bring discipline into your life. If food is an idol in your life, repent, of course, and ask Him for His help and strength to put food in into proper place in your life and psyche and emotions.

Prayers and blessings to you all who struggle with this.

[DarkNebulaWelder]

You hit it on the head Afal..There truely is enough food to feed the underfed, whether in your country and mine..it must make hungry people sick to the stomache when they see Hollywood "starving" themselves to look a certain way. And like you said about the food that goes to waste..it IS criminal.

You know, that is an excellent point.

I've gone through periods where I had to forego food for 3 or 4 days...even up to a week....because I simply could not afford it. This lasted for months.

I lost a ton of weight, although I wasn't too happy about it.

Everytime I watch TV, and see somebody talking about the latest diet trend, or the latest Hollywood starlet to falling victim to anorexia, I think about how futile it all is. Starving oneself for vanity is the product of a vain and selfish society. Granted few of them will EVER realize just what it is to be hungry...to the point where you have absolutely no energy, and feel physically ill.

The vapidity of it all makes Solomon's words ring true..."Everything under the sun is vanity."

[DarkNebulaWelder]

Food is an idol in the Western world. It is in abundance and the majority of Westerners consume food (especially fast food) for the sake of eating and not hunger.

I compltely agree (*bites into double bacon cheeseburger*)

It disturbs me no end when I go to shopping centres and see masses of humanity sitting at tables eating..usually unhealthy food and loads of it.

I'm with you sister!! (*chews on fist full of greasy curly fries*)

Certainly attracted by the pleasing look of it and smell but not altogether for satisfying hunger BUT the satisfaction of consuming this never ending temptations that we are bombarded with everyday on tv and magazines. We even make snack food a high priority.

Amen!! (*slurps on extra-large strawberry shake*)

LOLOLOL..... ....TOO FUNNY!!!!

Save some for me

One of my Pastors who had come back from Africa felt like he was on another planet when he returned to Australia and saw exactly the ABUNDANCE of everthing and the overabundance of what we as individuals think we REALLY NEED to live a life worth living. Comfort yes, but comfort to the extreme, no.

On a serious note, we have more than any one people has a right to. We (at least in the US) are a nation of gluttons while so many go hungry (ironically, many go hungry in the US while other US citizens waste precious food).

We are not just food gluttons, but gluttons in just about every area of life.

I absolutely agree....and I find it ironic that the sin of gluttony is never mentioned in Christian circles, Bible study, or the pulpit.

Obviously, God thought that it was serious enough to address!!!

The gluttony of Western Society reminds me some of the gluttony of ancient Rome....although we don't have vomit troffs (or whatever their name....wherein people would overeat and throw up into afterwards), we do have an epidemic of bulemia, and claorie-free junk food.

Gluttony is a serious sin which many Christians just don't think is that bad, I guess.

[KeilanS]

The part about wasting really hit home to me. I work in the bakery of a grocery store and every night I work I have to throw out a grocery cart full of wasted food. And this is just the bakery, a tiny fraction of the whole store. It is ridiculous how much food we have available to us and how much we waste.