As a Chaplain, I spend a lot of time praying with people about prosperity.  People are seeking prosperity of all kinds.  People want more money, more love, more peace, more health, the list goes on and on.  Occasionally I pray with people because they are grateful for the prosperity they already have but mostly people want to end lack.  Over the lat 12 weeks I have taken a close look at what the urge to have more really means.  Does having more really always mean being more prosperous or is it just quantity over quality?

Is it better to have more friends who are really just acquaintances because you have so many you can’t develop a deep and personal relationship with any one?  Is it more prosperous to have a job where you make a lot of money but have no life outside of work?  Do you really need a bigger house than you actually use?  Is that prosperous? 

As I was considering the issue of quantity versus quality I happened to see an interview by Mirelle Guillian who wrote French Women Don’t Get Fat.: The Secrets of Eating for Pleasure.  I started to flip the channel when I heard her say something very interesting.  It seems the French eat high calorie, high fat food and do everything wrong according to all of the diet gurus who make so much money trying to teach us to eat better and be healthier.  Yet according to Guillian  only 11% of French population is over weight while more than 30% of Americans tip the scale on the heavy side. 

As I listened to her talk I thought well, the French must have better genes.  I guess that is a possibility, but what she said was that women in Europe eat 30% less than women in the US.  I have to say that caught me by surprise.  It certainly caught my attention. 

Could it be that we, that I, have chosen quantity over quality even in the way I eat, I wondered?  What is it about European women that is different than American?  I remember ten or fifteen years ago when a few restaurants began serving large meals and we flocked to them because, well more had to be a better value right?  We paid the same amount and got more food than we actually needed at one meal.  Soon larger portions on larger plates became the rule and not the exception. 

When I sat down to eat dinner I considered how I normally eat.  I noticed I was eating and chatting, hardly paying any attention to my food.  I slowed down.  I chewed slower.  I paid attention to each bite.  I talked about how good the food was and took time to truly appreciate each bite.  I was surprised to discover that there were flavors I hadn’t really experienced before even in my favorite dishes... 

I sat down to eat a meal my fiancée cooked. I became determined to stop at one plate with no seconds.  When I finished I wondered if I was done.  I didn’t feel full.  There was still a lot of food on the table.  My first inclination was to keep eating to show my appreciation for David’s hard work.  A tape played in my head about wasting food.  My second inclination was to keep eating because there are starving people in the world.

I had to laugh at myself then.  The very best thing I could do for starving people and myself would be to eat 30% less, save the money, and donate it to programs that provide training so they can get jobs and buy their own food.  Eating food I didn’t need or want wasn’t going to help anyone else’s stomach get food.

I forced myself to stop feeling just a little deprived.  However, before long I felt full but not miserable.  I had energy when I would have normally been tired.  Still, it took several days to get over that feeling of being deprived at the end of a meal.

It occurred to me that I had a trust issue.  I needed to trust that enough was plenty.  I needed to remind myself that I could stop eating because there would be more later.  I needed to believe that all that I needed would be available when I needed it.  Now I have never gone hungry so that should have been easy and I was surprised that it wasn’t. 

I had to teach myself to trust that there was plenty even though I have never gone without food before.  Somewhere along the way I was seduced by the lie that more is better even when more isn’t good for you.  I bought that I had to eat because of the starting children elsewhere in the world when the best think I can do for them is eat less and send them the money I save to buy there own food. 

 It took me a while to understand that leaving food behind wasn’t behaving with less gratitude but with more.  By eating consciously and noticing the quality of my food I am actually living more prosperously.  I am eating from a place of prosperity and not from a get all you can while you can place of lack.

 The result of eating prosperously is that there are always leftovers for my lunch, which saves me money.  I cook more and eat food that is healthier than I did before.  I feel better.  I don’t get tired in the afternoon so I can focus better on my work.  I don’t fret over what I eat and I have lost six pounds.