Articles
By Lynette Samuel | Co-founder of LifeSkills for Women
WHAT'S IN YOUR LUNCH BOX?
The crowd was enormous. Thousands had gathered to hear the great Teacher. It was now late and time for everyone to return to their towns and retire for the evening. Knowing that the people had been with Him all day, the Teacher instructed 12 men to feed the multitude before they began their journey home.
"We do not have enough money to purchase food for all these people. We would have to work an entire month to buy enough bread to feed them," the men replied.
"How much do we have?" asked the Teacher.
Taking inventory, they found a young boy with five small loaves of bread and two little fish. (Do you think he was the only one who brought lunch that day?)
The crowd was instructed to sit in groups on the lush, grassy areas around the lake. The Teacher gave thanks for the small lunch the young boy had given, and the bread and fish were distributed among the thousands of men, women and children. Everyone ate until they were full. The 12 men picked up the bread and fish that had not been eaten. Twelve baskets were filled with leftovers.
What a miracle! So many people fed -- people who had obviously brought food with them, knowing they would be gone for most of the day, people who could have bought something on the way home from the farms and villages along the way. But the day wore on and lunch was long gone, except for that of a young boy who might have been playing, or sleeping or just not hungry enough to eat the meal his mom had prepared for him.
They were working families, communities of people who had come to hear a great man speak. No one in this crowd was going to starve, whether this miracle was performed or not. They might have gotten a little weak, a little weary on the journey home, but the Teacher was concerned enough to provide for them before they got too hungry.
What is in your lunch box?
It may be very little, but if we express gratefulness and appreciate what we have, it can be used to meet a need, providing for us and someone else; the little can multiply to the point of leftovers! You do have something.
Will your "little" help you obtain a new job, a promotion and pay increase? Will it create a healthier environment in your home, inspire you to go back to school, mend a relationship, place you on the right track to physical, mental, and emotional wholeness? You might have a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Put it all together and you can be powerful! Look in your lunch box -- your treasure chest. In it you will find something that moves you toward more than enough.