Wisdom's Corner
Properly Chew Your Food

I can remember being a little boy and having my mother tell me to chew my food. Sometimes I would be in a hurry to get back outside to play. I would take big bites of food and just swallow them down without chewing. My mother would tell me to slow down and properly chew. She said this was important because my stomach needed help in digesting my food.

That sounded funny to me. My stomach needed help! But my mother was right. Chewing the food breaks the food down into smaller pieces. This makes it easier for the stomach. As someone chews food, their saliva mixes with the food. The saliva has substances (we will call them "juices") in it that break the food down so that the stomach can digest it better. Then the stomach has substances that it adds to break the food down even more. All of this gets the food ready for the body to use it. If you just ate food and swallowed it without chewing, your body could not digest the food right and use it.

God's word is like this is some ways. If you just read the Bible but never really think about it, your spiritual body cannot use the Bible. You must study it, think about it, and practice what it says for your spiritual body to grow. You must have faith in God in order for your spiritual body to use the Bible right.

This is stated in Hebrews 4:2, "For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it." The words "being mixed" come from the Greek words for food being mixed with digestive juices.

You must mix the Bible with faith for you to grow in God's wisdom. Until next time, keep studying your Bible. And if any of this is hard to understand, ask an adult to help you.

Mark McWhorter

Copyright 1999

Published by The Old Paths Bible School
(http://www.oldpaths.org)