What you feed grows, what you starve dies

By Daniel Francis

This is the time when we prepare for Christmas. New curtains are bought and hung. The house is cleaned from top to bottom. In my household, I became a painter and fastidiously take on the task of painting walls and cupboards, though admittedly, I miss a few spots. We ensure our spaces are tidy and properly put together. It’s just traditionally what is done.

We prepare to welcome friends and family into our homes. We are preparing to welcome baby Jesus as well.

I did some reading on Advent and paid extra attention to the homilies leading up to Christmas, and this preparation should be extended not only to the external but especially to the internal.

A phrase rings loudly in my head as I write this: “What you feed grows, what you starve dies.” In a recent article, I spoke about setting and executing your goals starting in December instead of January. The premise was to give yourself somewhat of a head start to the new year.

Unknowingly, it goes hand in hand with this preparation we are doing now for Advent. Thinking about goals, it really does come down to what you feed. Goals help us concretise the targets of our preparations in the different areas of our lives, but it’s all for naught if you are starving the efforts towards your goals.

I have a friend who started a goal to lose 20 pounds in three months. He feeds his efforts by going to the gym and being more active by going on walks every other day.

I commend him for this, but he starts sabotaging his efforts when he walks through the aisles of the grocery store and buys all the snacks he loves. He creates an environment of temptation at home because all the sugary snacks are easily at hand, and he has little self-control.

Imagine that you want to learn more about God and feed that spark of curiosity. Yet you starve it because you get lost scrolling on social media during the time you said you would read your Bible. Imagine you want to stop feeding your lust, but when temptation rears its ugly head, you feed into it instead of changing your focus away from it.

What you feed grows, what you starve dies. It sometimes feels like we have little control over what we do, but the opposite is true. For you, me, all of us, it’s a choice.

In this season of preparation, we must choose. Examine what we are feeding and what we are starving. Ask ourselves whether our actions are in line with the preparations we want to make. If no, what changes do we need to institute now, not later? It takes more than simply cleaning our homes; we must clean our inner selves. We must prepare socially, financially, spiritually, physically, and mentally. All these different areas create the total.

So, I ask again, what are you feeding and what are you starving? Let’s properly prepare during this season, not only in the ways we are accustomed to, but also in ways that affect us internally as well.