It’s Not Our Rice, Even If We Paid For It

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6 responses to “It’s Not Our Rice, Even If We Paid For It”

1. 

   Lorraine

   May 23, 2008

   Lol Ruth — yes, that was me. I love watching the kids at the children’s time. As long as I’m not the one doing the children’s time! heehee….. But, the middle and high school kids are great. I don’t mind them at all. I’m sure it’s because the little ones are so unpredictable — you just never know what they might say up there in front of the whole church. =)

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2. 

   ruth everhart

   May 23, 2008

   Lorraine, weren’t you the one who once said you weren’t so nuts about Children’s Time at church? Well, here’s a topic that is SO hands-on: sharing stuff. And you seem to have a passion for it.

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3. 

   Lorraine

   May 23, 2008

   Thanks for that book title — the Pema Chodron one. I’ll have to look into it. This whole topic has come up a lot lately in my house — it’s coming from the middle school (that’s my daughter). The social studies teacher has been leading a lot of challenging discussions with the kids. This school has something like 35 nationalities there, and any discussion of international issues becomes more real when there are people in the class who have relatives actually living in other countries. Actually living under political oppression, or in poverty. — The important thing is just to keep talking about it, and making sure our kids are aware and open. And that they hear us pray for these things in church (at home too, obviously — but I think the corporate church praying for the world sends a powerful message to the children.) — anyway… I love our middle school. Excellent life lessons, even if we do have to suffer through the darn SOLs. (not a fan of standardized testing here..) =)

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4. 

   pinkhammer

   May 23, 2008

   Sounds like a little preacher girl to me. : )

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5. 

   ruth everhart

   May 23, 2008

   Entitlement, yes, because the underlying heart-attitude really does matter. Do I deserve my food and other people deserve their hunger? Of courset not. And the truth is, there’s a connection between my food and their hunger. Farmers growing corn because of ethanol (not to mention our over-reliance on corn syrup) and so there’s an oversupply of corn and undersupply of rice and wheat. Our gas tanks and fructose-in-everything directly contributes to the lack of rice. The least we can do is have a sense of reverence for food, and pray a blessing on the hungry every time we eat.

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6. 

   Lorraine

   May 23, 2008

   Good for you for raising your daughter so that she “gets it”. I’ve had this same conversation with my own kids and I hope they get it also. One response is, of course, to say “well, it doesn’t matter if we eat this rice or throw it away, it’s still not getting to the mouths of people who could use it.” — and of course that’s true. This rice that I’ve bought, that’s sitting in my cupboard, can never go to someone who needs it. — However — if we waste less I’ll have to buy less. So I could buy an extra bag and donate it to the food bank. And, as I’ve tried to tell my kids, we can become more aware of the issues. Of what the global food market is, how it works, etc. — the problem is the huge sense of entitlement that so many people have. — well, sorry, didn’t mean to hijack your blog. =)

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