Did you get the lecture about the starving children in Africa when you were a child and didn’t want to eat the meal that was prepared for you? Perhaps you might have found yourself using the line when trying to get your own children to eat. Were you forced to sit and eat every last bite on your plate that your mother laboriously and lovingly slaved over?
To this day I have the hardest time leaving a little something left on my plate. When eating out I feel I need to get my money’s worth out of the meal. I do this even if though it might mean having a belly ache all night; after all, I wouldn’t want any food to be wasted (I’m being a bit facetious of course).
I remember one evening while dining out with my parents at a sit-down restaurant my dad purchased my first experience of indulging in chocolate mousse. It was a huge portion for me just around ten years old at the time. It was so rich and yummy but I was full and feeling guilty I’d accepted the offer. He read the look on my face that told my story and said to me, “Either it’s going to go to waste in the garbage or it’s going to go to waste in you. Why would you want to make yourself feel sick if you’re full? Don’t worry about leaving it.” It was a good lesson for me to learn.
I am now trying to remind myself consistently, I’m not a human garbage disposal; I’m not a snob if I leave a bit of food on my plate because I had too large of a portion served. The starving children in Africa are not going to go hungrier because I didn’t pack that extra bite into my mouth. The garbage disposal under our sink was designed to accept over portioned food, I however was not.
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Melissa is a Families.com Christian Blogger. Read her blogs at: http://members.families.com/mj7/blog