Provision

Provision

Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.

Psalm 37:3 (KJV)

I have a plaque in my breakfast nook that says, “Full Bellies + Full Hearts = Full Life.” Isn’t that the truth? My husband’s face beams when he watches our little ones eat. And even during our lean years when John was in college, God always provided enough food—not necessarily extravagant food, but enough.

Have you ever wondered about the food on an Amish table? It might be a bit different from what you imagine:

You would think, upon visiting Lancaster County, that the Plain folk top off each and every meal with a slice of their illustrious [shoofly] pie, so named because cooks would traditionally cool it on a windowsill, where its super sweet aroma would attract flies. But it’s actually a once-in-a-while dessert for the People, who, with gardens and orchards and fresh milk and eggs in abundance, have a wide repertoire of desserts under their bonnets.

Following are three actual meals from an Amish family. Each meal includes homemade bread, farm-churned butter, and home-canned jelly:

-Breakfast: Eggs, cornmeal mush with ketchup, oatmeal with raisin, applesauce. “There’s nothing cheaper for breakfast than cornmeal mush and eggs,” Ella Yoder said.

-Dinner (lunch): Beef and carrots, scalloped potatoes, gravy, baked corn, carrot salad, graham cracker pudding, cookies, peaches.

-Supper: Vegetable soup, bologna, tomatoes and Chinese cabbage, apple sauce, chowchow, apple dumplings with milk and sugar.

Ezekiel 34:14 says, “I will give them good pastureland on the high hills of Israel. There they will lie down in pleasant places and feed in the lush pastures of the hills.”

How has God been feeding you? Are you spiritually hungry? Are you hungry emotionally or physically? Ask God to feed that hunger. Imagine yourself at an Amish dinner table laden with His goodness, and see what real nourishment comes.

Dear heavenly Father, I thank You for all the ways You provide for me. Let my prayers over my meals be ones of true thanksgiving, not just rote words.