If you remember, and you probably don’t—my word for the year is HUNGRY. I wrote about it at the New Year.
We are now in February, and I’m still noticing ways I try to fill my hunger with shopping or health supplements or a perfectly orderly home or even complaining! I have not mastered noticing the hunger, noticing what I’m trying to fill it with and then turning around to face Jesus instead BUT I’m working on it.
The whole month has brought to mind a funny story I refer to often. Josh and I were helping in the 4 year old preschool class one Sunday. A little girl told me she was hungry. I assured her we would have our little snack after big group time next door. We walked down the hall and entered the room for our lesson and game time. The teacher began teaching. The little girl began scowling. She huffed and crossed her arms and said, “I am sooo hungry.” I sat down next to her and told her we would have snack soon. “Just be patient.” She scowled even harder and crossed her arms tighter and said a little louder, “I am SOOOO hungry!”
At this point I knew there was no changing her narrative. The child was hungry. I understood completely. So I returned to my seat in the back of the room next to Josh. More time passes and the little girl was getting angry. She turned around so she could make eye contact with me and with her scowl on her face and her arms tightly crossed, she said with much volume, “I AM SOOOOO HUNGRY!!!!!” She did this several times until the main teacher asked her to stop. Snack would be soon the teacher said.
The little girl was tiring of this response.
The big group time was over. We walked back next door and before I could turn around, the hungry little girl was sitting at a table all alone with a lunch box unzipped and a sandwich in her hands being stuffed into her mouth.
I laughed so hard because I could so relate to her!!! There’s nothing quite like hungry around 11:00 on Sunday morning. And this little girl knew how to take care of her need!
So when I’m feeling physically hungry I will hear myself say, in my best four year old voice, “I AM SOOOOOOO HUNGRY!!!!” If Josh is around I’ll scowl and cross my arms, and he will know exactly who I’m talking about.
We laugh, but the reality is we are all hungry a lot of the time. Sometimes it’s just a hunger for —friends or family or clothes or control or accolades or whatever else. And the world we live in provides many temporary and quick fixes for the plethora of ways we hunger. Are you paying attention to your hungers and how you act to satisfy them?
So I am writing to just check in on you and your New Year. How’s it going? You are not alone if you struggled through the 753 days of January. But I am again hopeful here at the beginning of February to continue walking with the Lord day by day and step by step….and through all the hunger pangs.