Monday, February 15, 2010

6:8 Love Mercy Action

The new message series at Church is "The Micah Project".
Based on Micah 6:8
O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right to love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.

To kick off this series, our church challenged us to a 5 day meal challenge to eat the way half of our worlds population eats. ON LESS THEN $2 A DAY.

We were given a "Menu"
Oatmeal
Rice
Cornmeal
Beans/lentils
bits of fish or chicken
and TAP water.
These were what we would be getting for meals.
One of my biggest peeves is my kids coming to the table and scuffing at what has been prepared. I pride myself on trying to make each meal different and wholesome and likable to all. This rarely happens. So I was intrigued about this challenge. How would my kids do if they were ONLY given______.
How would I make it through the day without my afternoon snack?
I was not even thinking about attempting it.
But then at breakfast, I had a thought.
Butter asked for eggs and hash browns, Roo asked for PB toast.
What if they weren't given a choice. What if I just called them to the table and gave them rice crispies.
Now we have Rice crispies for one reason and one reason only: Rice Crispie Treats!
This morning I put down a bowl of rice crispies, intending to give them rice crispies for lunch too, thinking Okay so maybe we don't do the "menu" but we could at least sacrifice variety for the day right?
I challenged myself with making beans and rice for lunch, thinking, Okay one meal will NOT be that bad. After their lunch the kids were still "hungry", I offered them some of my beans and rice. They scarfed it down like I gave them skittles.
*DING*
I decided I would make beans and rice for dinner. One cup of food and one piece of bread. (okay, I cheated a little with the bread, but considering we can go through half a loaf at each meal, one piece each WAS a sacrifice.) Hubby was pleaded for Tabasco sauce.
I have to admit, it wasn't as bad as I thought. We talked about why we were eating this and prayed for those that have nothing. It was sweet to hear the kids add their prayers and thoughts. Roo was moved that children don't get to have strawberries or oranges. Butter was most concerned about drinking water. I had given them an example of the water in the vase my flowers are in. It was still clear, but we could see bits of plants in it, I pointed out that the water that 1.1 billion people drink from is not as clear as the water in the vase, and yet they still drink it because it is ALL that they have.
Butter decide she would sleep on her floor tonight because "they don't have beds either."
I am touched at how much this ONE day of sacrifice has moved my family.
Do you think they'll still have these smiles when I serve beans and rice again tomorrow for dinner?
Actually, Roo made me promise to cook something else. I guess I could try the lentil's recipe.



4 comments:

  1. Lol!! Our church did that, too. My husband was THRILLED. He's been trying to save money, so he was like, "Can we do this FOREVER?!!"

    I said no. ;)

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  2. So cool!

    I forgot to mention curtains in my email to you, I think that is going to be my first project, just because someone told me you can make them out of discount sheets!! I am sooo excited LOL

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  3. to hear your daughter's response was priceless. you are a GREAT mom sara!!

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