fasting is good
Not good as in yummy. But good as in for you. Like cod liver oil. And exercise. Except it is actually better for you than those things. Yes!
Fasting benefits the soul. What I would like to address today is fasting for people who are pregnant, who are nursing babies, have low blood sugar, low iron and/or who have several small children to feed and meals to make.
The practice of mini fasting can prepare us spiritually not only for our challenges, but for more challenging fasting at times in our life when we are more able to fast. The primary mode of fasting is of denying oneself food. We also benefit from the practicing of waiting for food. We live in a culture of constant and instant gratification. When we feel like having that cup of coffee, those couple of cookies, even that apple, we can say to ourselves, I'll just wait. I'll sit down a read some stories to the kids, then I'll have the thing.
We can set small goals for ourselves that require putting off what we want right now and get used to waiting patiently for something we want. I'll just get the dishes done up, and wipe the counters down, then I can sit down with a cup of tea and a muffin.
We can practice only taking what we need - and not more. Or practice allowing ourselves to feel a real hunger before we eat. We can practice not cleaning off our children's plates. It needn't be wasteful. put leftovers in the fridge, or into little reheatable containers right away, remove the temptation to eat it because it's there.
We actually don't need to eat every half a cookie lying around the house. It’s true.
It seems like the more we handle food (which happens about every hour on the hour with small ones) the more unlikely it is that we can avoid actually eating it. Some would put a no snacking rule into play, the option of no preparation of snacks is also effective. It might require some planning, like having healthy snacks made weekly, or better still a full fruit bowl so mom doesn't need to be handling food all the time.
What about mamas who are nursing, pregnant, or for whatever other reason need to be eating every twenty minutes? Forgo something that we want for something that will suffice. A small mortification, but still~valuable. A few almonds instead of a fig newton works. A few crackers instead of carrot cake.
Small practices yield big results. The result of a mastery of our wills.
And, small perk. As far as we are able to fast, the feasting is so much better. As in yummy.
