One of the house rules I grew up with was not to waste food. This means having a “clean plate” every meal, not getting more than what you can eat, not leaving food to expire, go stale, or rot, and of course, eating left-overs.
When I became a mom, I also strictly enforced the same rules in my household. And so my children know that they cannot waste food, and that there is a day when we would need to eat left-overs so that no food will go bad in the ref.
And so imagine my excitement when I read the disciple John’s version of the feeding of the 5,000 where Jesus Himself asked everyone to gather the leftovers.
“And when they had eaten their fill, He told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.” So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten.” John 6:13-14
As moms, we can refer to this story whenever we sense that our children do not want to eat left-overs. When we tell them that consuming left-over food is a way of honoring God’s provision, they will not just learn about good stewardship of God’s blessings, they will also be more thankful to the Lord for providing.
“The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.” Psalm 34:10
Thank you for reading through our devotional today. I invite you to ponder on John 6:1-15 to dig deeper on today’s topic.
Reflection Question: How do you ensure that you do not waste God’s provision in your household?
Conversation with the Lord: Heavenly Father, thank you very much for providing for us. Please give us the grace to be good stewards of your blessings, and forgive us when we become wasteful. Amen.
Sharing with you some more tips on how to encourage children to eat left-over food. (1) Serve safely stored left-overs two days after it was first served so that there is a break between dishes; (2) If the left-overs will be good for more than two meals, then just freeze the other batch so that you can serve that again after two weeks. Just make sure to label its ziploc container. (3) Designate a left-over meals day when you will be serving left-over meals from the past two days or with those that you have previously frozen. (4) Of course praise your children each time they cooperate in eating left-overs.