I am not a vegetarian. I like meat. I like lots of kinds of meats and I like to eat a lot of meat. I like shrimp, steak, fish, pork, chicken, turkey, rabbit, deer, squirrel, and others. I've eaten a coon before. It was not my favorite; a bit greasy. In Ecuador, I ate guinea pig. It was pretty good. Guinea pig is considered a delicacy in Ecuador. They taste kind of like squirrel. I even like hot dogs to my wife's dismay. Doing the vegetarian thing is not something I would normally do, but it is a year of "firsts" so I went for it.
I don't think I do the vegetarian thing like most people do. For lunch, I ate cheese and crackers and then had some boiled peanuts. That's not a vegetable intense meal, but there was no meat. I had Junior Mints for dessert. They were very refreshing.
At supper I branched out a bit. Laura had called from Wal-Mart earlier in the day and offered some vegetarian type dishes she found there. I chose the vegetarian corn dogs. I know, that sounds disgusting. Why not make it kind of fun if you are going to do this. They were not very good. I love a good corn dog with mustard. This tasted more like corn meal and mustard. I also had some noodles that sort of helped the day along plus I see cookies in the kitchen. I think the vegetarian thing has not caught on with me. The interesting thing is that as I thought back over the day I hardly ate any vegetables. I just skipped the meat.
Here's what I thought about as I did the vegetarian thing today. If it was very important to my health to be a vegetarian, I would be one. I like vegetables, peanuts, fruits, noodles, and cookies. I could live without meat though I'm glad I don't have to. I met a nurse one time while visiting in a hospital that was from England. He said that we Americans think we have to have meat at every meal. I said we didn't think we had to but it helped. I asked him about how often he ate meat. He said about 2-3 times a week. When I questioned as to why, he said it was because of how unhealthy eating too much meat was on the heart. He said it was much healthier on the heart to eat more fruits and vegetables than so much meat. Did I mention he worked on the cardiac ward?
As I thought about that today, I wondered what I might be doing that was bad on my spiritual heart. There are things that probably clog it up and slow it down. I know sin does, but there are things that are not necessarily sin but too much would be harmful on my heart. I'm thinking about things like entertainment, electronic gadgets, social media, secular books and secular music. If I put those things into my heart in heavy doses and God's word and worship just a time or two a week, I've got to know that my spiritual heart is going to be sluggish. That would be like eating fatty meats all week and then a fruit and a vegetable on Sunday. It occurred to me that I need to be diligent about what I expose my heart to on a daily basis. I want my heart to be a heart that is full of God's Spirit. I know there are a lot of things that are not necessarily sinful, but just are not good for me in heavy doses.
If you are a follower of Jesus, think about your healthy heart diet. Make sure you are not loading up on spiritual junk foods. Now, where were those cookies I saw??
Looking for the right fuel for the abundant life
Barry
3 things I thank God for today
1. Chris Tomlin's music
2. Charles Stanley's books
3. Blue jeans
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