to eat or not to eat??

for those who don't know, i don't eat pork.

it's not really a religious thing; scripture says "no food . . . is wrong to eat." it's mainly a health choice. a few months ago deb and i were given a book by my mother-in-law called The Maker's Diet. i didn't read it all the way through, but mostly it talked about eating healthy and the foods mentioned in the Bible that the Israelites were told to eat. deb did read it all the way through and we ate some pretty weird stuff. but over the past few months there have been some general principles that we've tried to maintain. click to read more [+/-]

• no white flour (or at least limit as much as possible)


• organic milk


• limit white surgar


• no pork or shell fish - this is the biggest one for deb (she loved shrimp)


• more fresh vegetables and fruits


• etc.
  

and for the most part we've done well with these. in fact in the 8 months or so since we read the book i've only eaten pork once. (we were traveling and i ordered a sausage buscuit at Burger King before realizing that it probably was a pork sausage. i felt sick afterwards)

i won't go into the details why we don't eat pork or shell fish except to say it likened shrimp & lobster to "the cockroaches of the sea." you can read the book for yourself to learn more.

but last night i was reading in Rom. 14; specifically the passage about eating food or not eating and not condeming others for doing what you do. and it got me to thinking if i had been inwardly condeming or looking down on others who did eat pork. but on the flip side; as a youth pastor, if i order pizza for the group should i buy only pizza without pork toppings since that's what i believe is healthiest and best for my students? when when they're with me on a trip i encourage them to have a daily devotional time with God whether or not that's there normal practice, because i believe that's best for them spiritually. or would that be infringing on their right to 'eat freely' and be unhealthy if they want to? or perhaps they are simply ignorant and would choose right if they knew what i know?

so anyways i was sharing all this with deborah last night in bed and she told me a funny story. earlier that day she found our kids playing picnic.

they looked up at her and said, "we're pretending we can eat pork."

"i'm eating a ham sandwich," anna said.

to which danielle replied, "and i'm having pork brownies!"
(recipie - scroll down to comments section)