Changing Your Diet

My daughter turned a year old last week, and it was a week of milestones. Aside from celebrating her first birthday, she took her first steps and cut two teeth, bringing her tooth total to three. Her diet also changed: she made the crossover from formula to whole milk, and the switch from the bottle to the sippy cup. 

Because of her small size at birth and the time she spent in intensive care, she has constantly been graduating to bigger things. At first there was the feeding tube, then the bottle that only held half an ounce and looked like an eye dropper, then the two ounce bottle, then the four ounce bottle. She also graduated with her food, going from fruit and vegetables, to meat and pasta, then to food from the table.

These changes are the natural result of growth; today the half ounce bottle would leave her malnourished, and at birth she couldn’t handle the little pieces of chicken.

The Christian life is the same way. As we continue to grow in the Lord there should be some changes. When a person first decides to give his life to Christ the only thing he might know is “God is good and I am not.” At that moment he doesn’t need to be able to define words like atonement or sanctification, nor does he need to have a guess as to when the rapture might be. He is like a baby drinking milk.

But a year later he should have graduated to some deeper understanding of God. By now he should be recognizing sin and compromise and forsaking it; he should see ways to show love to his neighbor and do it.

No matter where you are in your spiritual life one thing is very important, and that is your diet. Keep eating the appropriate amount of food for your age. Are you growing in the Lord?

"As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby, if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious."

I Peter 2:2-3