Crave: to have an intense desire; to need urgently; to require; to beg earnestly for.
It’s easy for me to think of sugar when I think of the word crave. I’m such a sweet person (ha), so naturally my mind flashes to chocolate bars and ice cream. My husband craves salty, so his mind flashes to hot wings and nacho’s.
On Tuesday morning I asked God what it means to crave him. Bam. I instantly thought of a massive bowl of moose tracks ice cream and coffee crisp chocolate bars. I must admit, I immediately sat up straight wondering if there were any chocolate bars in the pantry or ice cream in the freezer, but then instantly felt foolish for weakening such a spiritual moment with my silly chocolate cravings. Hello – get some control woman!
That’s when I heard God say: “I used that craving to give you an example of the kind of spiritual craving I long for you to have for me.”
I then started to think about the other kinds of cravings I have in my life, like, quality conversation with my husband, quality time with my boys, physical exercise to vent out life chaos, time to myself, a tidy and orderly home, goals for my life, quality conversation with my best friend. And as I started to mentally apply these aspects to my relationship with God, I started to understand how, if I give God control of my cravings, he will use them FOR me, not against me.
If I crave God, he will strengthen Chris and I’s conversation, he will strengthen my relationship with my boys, he will strengthen all the roles in my life so I can be better at everything. Note: I did not say perfect.
So the question is: how do we do this exactly?
Feed the areas you want to grow. Starve the areas you want to go.
It got me thinking about clean eating.
Let’s be honest, who craves broccoli? I believe in order to kill off bad habits and insert new ones, we need to see clean eating (or insert whatever other example) as not about the broccoli, but about the after effect. Training our minds to see how positive broccoli can effect our lives teaches our lives to crave the lifestyle embodied with clean eating rather than the food itself.
Same with our relationships with God, our husbands, our kids, our friends, our – insert whomever/whatever. Seeing the positive affect from choosing positive habits, teaches our minds, our souls, our hearts, our bodies to develop new cravings. Eventually the old cravings will die off, and the new cravings will start to take shape.
But I truly believe that the only way to accomplish a life of healthy cravings, is to focus the first craving on God, then allow Him to determine the rest.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst (CRAVE) for righteousness, for they will be filled.
~Matthew 5:6
