Food for Thought

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With the cost of food increasing at an overwhelming pace and our budget not being able to accommodate it without major changes, disasters happening to food suppliers and distributors, inflation eating up the value of the dollars we do have and the talk of food shortages even in the mainstream media at this point, my thoughts have constantly been thinking about how to prepare our family for a very unsettling future.  

The Lord provides for His people.  

I have been contemplating the marriage of His words to us in Matthew 6  “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?" and the fact that, in the Lord's mercy, He gave to Pharaoh dreams and a man who could interpret them and act upon them for the preservation of His people.  The Lord wanted the storehouses filled and told Joseph to do it.  

As much as we are able, I am trying to be like Joseph- filling the proverbial barns and storehouses in times of plenty, for the times of want.  The Lord has given us information to act upon.  And yet, I do so knowing that at any moment, my vain attempts to produce protections against the future are still entirely dependent upon the Lord's mercies.  Barns burn down.  Moth destroys.  People steal.  

But the Lord provides for His people.

 The garden season is a hard and busy one for me with the gardens that I have- and I do not grow/preserve NEARLY as much as we need throughout the year.  It is laughable.  I just admitted a few days ago that I planted enough onions to last maybe a week.   I would have to add so much more growing space to accommodate our family's needs more realistically and I can tell you, I do not feel equal to that task.

But the Lord provides for His people.

As Americans, even "homesteady" types like myself, it is laughable to think that you can provide and preserve for all the lavishness that we have had up until now.   I look down the table at our meals and am astounded to see all the food groups at once- in one place.  Luxuries that people never had throughout history, at our fingertips.  It is absolutely remarkable if you really consider it.  And I have been considering it a lot.  

I am sure it doesn't help that my reading so far this year has been mainly about the travesties of Stalin and Hitler, the Red Famine and Holodomor.  The crises of food and famine, the devastation of political ideologies, the upheaval and mistreatment of humanity.  How innately we feel the need to survive and how little we truly need to keep surviving.

And yet, on a daily basis we get...

Eggs AND sugar.  Milk AND cheese.  Bread AND vegetables.  Rice AND stir fry to put on top.  Bread AND the awesome toppings that transform it to pizza.  Herbs and spices. Vegetables and fruit, even in the dead of winter, whenever you are able or inclined to plunk down some money at a grocery store.  We are so RICH.  We live in such luxury.  

It may be that we do not have such luxury in the future.

We have not been adequately grateful for this. 

These are not promises to us forever, nor do we "deserve" them.  

The Lord provides for His people.  

He provides the opportunities to fill barns; He provides the barns and the things that will fill it.  He provides the wisdom to see and act upon the information that He also provides.  He provides the strength to harvest and He provides the protection of the harvest.   He provides the example to us of who we should emulate, even in the tiniest of ants.  He provides for us even when our attempts fail or fall very short. 

But likewise, we should remember that sometimes providing means singular but abundant (and even  miraculous) Manna from heaven.  

And when that happens, we shouldn't complain about the lack of leeks.  

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* The grown-up chicken alfredo over zucchini vs. the kid-chicken alfredo over delicious pasta.  How we roll around here.

** That amazing looking salad with cashews and avocado is the result of my sister-in-law treating us all (!!!) to a lunch at Cheesecake Factory so we could experience the place and her ordering the Sheila's salad.  And then me tasting a bite.  And then me immediately deciding I NEEDS MUST create that very salad at home.  Cashews, avocado and cilantro salad in a nutty honey citrusy dressing topped with tortilla crisps.  It was sublime. Here is the recipe I used if you want to try it too.  Even better, I easily converted it to a THM S (if you know, you know) with just a few tiny changes by using low carb "honey" sweetener and low carb tortillas to fry up for the tortilla crisps).  It was a major win for all the ladies in the house- all the boys were not nearly as impressed.  (Weirdos.)

*** I find it amusing that on the post in which I lament food prices and the necessity for gratitude even in the simplest of meals (rice, beans, bread, that which we can survive on) I post pictures of the Super Fancy, Super Extravagant foods we recently have eaten and rarely ever have.  (Except pizza, of course.)  

The irony is not lost on me.