"Feed My Sheep" the Master said, as I remember...
Dear Daddy:
We just got word that there may be large cutbacks in our local school
lunch program. Not just the "free lunches" for the disadvantaged kids, but
the program as a whole! We are very concerned as we have always felt that
having a nice hot lunch available is very important to children if they are
to learn. What do you suggest?
Feeling Upset
Dear Feeling:
I suggest rejoicing! You and your community may have just been unwittingly given a great gift!
Like many other ideas that seem fine but have hidden negative consequences, the "school lunch program" whether at local government or private schools, always helps accomplish something besides delivering calories and vitamins: it steadily adds to the breakdown of families in the country.
I was hit between the eyes with this realization a number of years ago, when working with a part time preacher who was a former truck driver and was father to six children. An "uneducated" black man who often showed incredible insight, "Rev. Bobby" told me simply one day that one of the main problems with America was that people just rarely fed their children anymore.
Waiting for my reaction, which he got, he then went on to explain his position. I couldn't wait to share my new understanding with a good friend of mine. He saw the wisdom, added a few observations of his own, and joined me in being 'anti-school lunch." Just like that, the new movement grew by 100 percent. I think it leveled off then. I have never heard a public word against this hallowed institution. You probably haven't either, till this one.
Basically it works out this way. Children need to be fed. Not just for the nutrients. They need their parents to feed them. Not just buy them food that others prepared.
Even if it is "just" warming up left overs, or heating frozen food. The effect is tremendously positive, over time, if a kid has a parent or parents who will take the time and do the whole meal thing.
The small child sees the feeder as, well, about the most important person in his life. As he grows up, this changes--but only by degree. The opportunities for "socialization" are fantastic, and realized, when a time is set for meals, God is recognized as being involved, through asking "Grace" and discipline is practiced all around. Look at the demonstration of caring, scheduling lives around something other than one's pleasures or whims. Look at Mom doing all that for others. There is some real "love" in action. The participation of the children as they grow. Ever notice how many meals home schoolers have together -- breakfast, lunch and dinner, compared to the population as a whole? You don't think that has a fantastic impact on their success as students and human beings?
Yeah, the school lunch, and the church "fellowship supper" all supply "socialization" too -- that is basically modeled after a prison or concentration camp. Nothing like an assembly line of paid or volunteer workers scooping slop on plates, that sit on trays. "Move along quickly now," "Be sure to put your dirty plates and trash over there on your way out."
How warm and nurturing.
Before you take off to Calcutta to feed those in the streets, why not try a little experiment in your own family. Feed the kids, feed the husband -- feed each other. See if it doesn't change the world. For the better.
Daddy
Past Issues of 'Dear Daddy'
What is Gunophobia?
Reclaiming Freedom
Loving Correction
Throw Off the Shackles
Death Penalty 'Balance'
Keep Christ in Christmas
Ten Commandment in Schools
The Never-Born and Heaven
Who Do You Serve?
Separation of Church and State
Flag Football
A Letter to Major League Baseball
Diversity of Guilt
Anti-Gun or Anti-Sanity?
Real Creationists
What an Example!
A Jealous Nanny-State
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