So, I was in Hallmark with my 13-year-old son, JT, picking out cards for my husband/his dad. JT hates picking out cards. He was full on with the dramatic sighing of despair, sprawled on the floor, trying to decide between Snoopy and Terminator.
"Come on," I said. "Pick a card and we'll go get a sandwich before the movie."
"I'm not hungry," he grouched.
"JT, I have taken on a sacred trust to teach you when you are hungry so that some day your wife will thank me. You are hungry."
He finally picked out a card. We went to a sandwich shop where he reluctantly ordered and then enthusiastically inhaled what was declared to be "the best grilled-cheese sandwich ever." The rest of the afternoon progressed pleasantly.
Why do I push him to eat? Because I've been married to my husband for going on 19 years and I still have to remind him to eat when he's grouchy.
Why do I recognize the correlation between low blood sugar and mood?
Because in high school and college I was 5'7", 110 lbs, and grouchy.
I mean, I got irritated with everyone. People were just annoying. Always in my way, always in my face. And when I wasn't annoyed, I had this vague fuzzy feeling in my head that made physics hard to follow.
It took me a really long time, not until I'd been married a few years, to see the relationship between what (and how much) I ate and how I felt. I began to realize that I felt better when I stayed away from sweets and white carbs (like white bread), and ate things with more staying-power like nuts, meat and cheese.
I also began to realize that the whole not-eating-crabby cycle was a spiritual issue. God tells us to be kind to each other—to love each other sacrificially. If loving others becomes difficult when I don't eat right, then eating right becomes an obedience issue. Like JT—he can obey God's commandment to honor his parents better after he's had a sandwich.
You know, like those Snickers commercials.
Isn't that crazy? Such a simple thing that we do anyway but don't always do well or intentionally, but it can make a difference between being kind or being a jerk, between obeying God or disobeying Him.
So the next time your friends are annoying or your parents are driving you nuts or you are ready to string your little brother by his feet and play piñata with his head, stop and consider whether you're really having a horrible day (which totally happens) or if you're just hungry.
It may not be that the whole world is conspiring to ruin your life. It may just be you need some pizza.
—Kersley
Kersley is a writer, drafter, former Air Force officer, wife, mother, horrible surfer, and lover of corn candy. She is the editor of Blogos.org and has a column called The Take Away.
