We consume all day long - and not all of it is food.
What’s consuming you?
We usually hear the word consumption and think about what we buy, eat or drink. But we take things in all day long: words, ideas, entertainment, relationships, habits, worries, anger, beauty, faith and noise.
Some of it nourishes us. Some of it simply takes up space.
Consuming Goodness is about becoming intentional about the difference.
Good In. Good Out.
Galatians 6:7 gives us the familiar principle of sowing and reaping. Jesus uses fruit repeatedly as a picture of what a life produces.
What we cultivate matters.
If we continually feed resentment, comparison, dishonesty and outrage, those things become easier to carry into our words and behavior. If we practice gratitude, truth, generosity, forgiveness and faith, those have somewhere to grow too.
Luke 6:45 says that the mouth speaks from the abundance of the heart.
Eventually, what fills us tends to come out.
Who's in Your Orchard?
The people around us matter, too.
When a behavior is everywhere around us, it can begin to feel normal simply because it is familiar. That is one reason it is worth asking whether our relationships encourage the person we want to become.
This does not mean surrounding yourself only with people who agree with you or abandoning anyone who struggles. It means having enough clarity to recognize influence - and enough boundaries to choose your own actions.
Bitterness Is Heavy
After one of the hardest periods of my life, I replayed what had happened to me over and over, asking "why?" or "what if?" - the mind spiral.
I had reasons to be angry. But eventually I realized that rehearsing the hurt was allowing people and events from my past to keep consuming part of my present.
Forgiveness did not mean deciding that what happened was acceptable. It meant I did not want bitterness to become the organizing principle of my life.
I wanted to give that weight to God and make room for something better.
Look for Goodness
You do not have to overhaul your entire life today.
Find one thing to be grateful for.
Find one verse in Scripture and carry it with you.
Turn off one source of unnecessary noise. Say one good thing. Make one good choice. Forgive a little more. Pray. Grow something. Feed somebody. Rest.
Then do another good thing tomorrow.
Consuming Goodness is not perfection.
It is a direction.
Look for goodness. If you look for it, you will find it.
Good in. Good out.
Love yourself, as yourself. Gal. 5:14®
