Food for Thought

Faith is like a vegetable - very, very good for you but just plain unpalatable for some. In an increasingly secular society, bringing your Christian faith into a conversation can produce a reaction akin to telling someone you're an axe-wielding member of a cult sect, even among friends who should, hopefully, know better!

So what to do? The incredibly simple answer, I’ve just realised, harks back to the aforesaid troublesome vegetable issue, and was inspired during mass-preparation of home-made soup last week ready for half-term lunches.

I wasn't being a yummy mummy making my own soups and sauces - honestly. It was a cunning ruse to hide various veggie goodies at which I know one or other of my children will turn their noses up in horror, such as courgettes, onions and sweet potato.

They don't like lentils either (if asked), but when disguised in an innocent spaghetti tomato sauce, or as carrot and coriander soup, it goes down a treat. I work on the principle that what they don't know won't hurt them. In fact it will be a positive boost to their wellbeing.

It's the same with faith. Some people back away instinctively when God enters the conversation, even innocuously, wrapped in their pre-conceptions and suspicious of your intentions. I almost feel like apologising for mentioning it. But if they don't know he's there…

I'm not planning to send subliminal messages via their CD players and mobile phones, or anything suspicious. But if I live out the promises I make in Church each Sunday and in prayer, my everyday actions and words should be enough to show that God, like onion, is good for us. And, surrounded by the Love of God and its blessings, they're bound to feel the benefit, even if they can't quite put their finger on why at first.

Sally Jarman is Editor of The DOOR