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Let All Who Are Hungry Come and Eat

Here is a normal interaction between a parent and most kids under the age of 18 that happens quite often: "When is dinner ready?" "Just as soon as I cook it, would you like to help?" "No thanks, but I am starving!" "Really, starving?" "Yes, starving! It is like I haven't eaten in days." "Well, you just ate an hour ago, so that is probably a bit of an exaggeration." "Whatever, I am starving--so tell me when dinner is ready." My kids are still pretty young so they snack a great deal and need a lot of food to keep their growing bodies healthy. However, I have been teaching them for some time that in our house, we don't say, "I'm starving." That phrase is something that I have outlawed from our vocabulary because, first, it simply isn't true, and second, it completely degrades the billion or so people in our world who actually are starving, facing the deplorable reality of living with chronic hunger. Language is important and phrases are important; how we speak affects how we live and act. So, in my house, you can say, "I am really hungry!" but we don't say, "I'm starving." And while this might seem like a trivial way of acknowledging the problem, I actually think it is quite valuable. When we articulate truths through words, we can be moved to see the world in a richer and clearer way. When we don't just throw words around, even if we don't actually mean them, we become more sensitized to the realities facing us. Not saying, "I'm starving," can be a small way to recognize the fact that so many in our world are.

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