Month: January 2022

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.

Homecoming Week was filled with spirit days and lip sync battles and a parade. The kids all participated in the lip sync battle and it was quite hilarious! Molly’s Junior class won. Mack’s freshmen class got second. Ruby’s Senior class came in third. Sophomores were fourth. Ruby walked with the Homecoming Court and Molly rode on the Junior’s float. What a fun week!

Then…Friday night was the presentation of Homecoming Court and crowning of the queen. We were so surprised and honored to hear Ruby’s name announced as the winner. So happy for her!

Saturday night was the dance.

Fun times🥳

Most years begin, for me, with a plan for eating less or eating differently. If I could just not get hungry or crave junk food with empty calories then life would be better. I know I’m not alone!

But this year that is not my focus at all. I plan to continue working out three times a week. I plan to continue making food choices and acknowledge that the results of what I choose will be what I have to live with. I’m not looking to change my shape.

Gain strength? Yes. Move well as I age? Yes. Feel good? Yes. Consume myself with myself? No thanks.

So imagine my intrigue when the word for my year that I asked the Lord for was “Hungry.”

Josh and I watched The Chosen where Mary was reciting her Magnificat. Luke 1:53 says, “He has filled the hungry with good things and sent away the rich empty handed.”

These words rolled around in my head the following week. I think maybe because during Christmas there is a lot of consumption. A lot of filling our shopping carts. Filling our bellies. Filling our eyes. Filling our homes. And at the end we oftentimes still feel empty. Maybe even more empty than before all the filling.

I want the good things God fills His people with. I wonder what it means to hunger more for Him than for anything else. I know what it is like to crave more clothes, more shoes, more of the right gifts for the people I love. I know what it is to crave friendship, to crave acceptance. I know what it is like to want to be filled with security or health or happiness and ease. I crave answers to questions about the future.

I had to ask myself—what is it that I am most hungry for? And why? What do I truly crave? Am I willing to acknowledge that most of the things I’ve craved and gotten my fill of have not brought deep satisfaction to my soul?

What would it look like if this was the year of being hungry for God and His Word and His presence? Hungry for His righteousness? Hungry to see His kingdom come? For craving more of Him and anticipating true satisfaction in the process?

Wouldn’t that be something worth focusing on this year? I do think so!

I actually KNOW so! Here are some verses I found at first search:

God fills those who seek Him with good things. Psalm 107:9 says it’s best—“For He has satisfied the thirsty soul, and the hungry soul He has filled with what is good.”

Satisfaction and goodness are offered to me. Will I sit at His table and eat and drink freely? Or will I choose to be distracted with what the world offers and end up with a parched soul and an empty heart?

Here’s to a year of hungering for God and delighting in His abundance!

You’ll see the blue sticky notes in the Word for the Year section. Mine is “hunger.” Ruby’s word is “eager.” Josh chose “diligence.” And because Josh told Mack this should be his word also (and may or may not have given a mini lecture on why this needs to be his word), so that’s why Mack’s sticky note says, “what he said” with an arrow pointing to Josh’s note. We are still waiting to find out what word Molly lands on. I don’t think she likes being confined by one word, which is totally understandable. She may come with a list of words and that’s totally fine too.

Happy New Year!