We All Start With Vegetables

There's something about when we all start eating food for the first time: we get started with vegetables.

Modern, average men might not be privy to this common knowledge unless they are the exception - but when it's time, at around the six month mark, we moms know. We begin to feed our kids 'real' food. This means, the baby is at an age where they need more than formula, more than milk, and more than creamed cereal. They are ready for, well, FOOD and nourishment to help them grow and develop more. It's a milestone that every mom marks in her book of memories, and tells all the relatives in her holiday letters and at the mommy and me groups. It's a big deal.

And the reason we begin with vegetables, or at least the way it was explained to me, is that we want our kids to get a taste for veggies before they taste the sweet of fruits and therefore - never want vegetables. So we moms earnestly begin our babies with pureed carrots, spinach, broccoli, or green beans; right? I did it. All the moms I know started with vegetables first. It's something that has been done through the ages by all cultures as far as I know.

Now, think about the way we - the human race - begin to feed our kids....about the way we ourselves began our life of eating, and consider this comment by Paul. Especially consider it if you call yourself a Christian...and even more especially consider it if you actually ARE a follower of Christ:

"Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgement on disputable matters. One man's faith allows him to eat everything, but another man whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him."

Isn't it true that when we turn certain corners of our growth in faith that some of the stuff we learn is hard to swallow? Some of the stuff Jesus teaches - it's hard to accept, isn't it...Just like vegetables. But it's a big deal. We 'religious' people may be down here judging what's lacking in someone's faith (according to our snooty standards), but you know what? I bet Jesus is up there celebrating the milestone.