This is just brief, and it will probably sound shallow because of the abundance I enjoy based on the previous sacrifices of others. Sorry. I know I have a long way to go.
Fasting. We generally have the opportunity and blessing to be able to fast one time a month, and then to offer to the bishop the equivalent of what we would have spent on meals, for him to distribute to those in his stewardship who may not have enough.
In my life I've been really blessed to have never gone hungry, except, at times, by choice. I know this is not the case for many, many people, including those of my forebears whose lives involved privation as they left homes and families and the safety of productive land to go settle the West and take their chances on farming in a desert.
This morning we're fasting, along with the other members of our congregation. What's different is it just happens that this week I've been cutting my calories--and making myself hungry by choice. (I'm sure that many people in the history of the world would beg to trade me places. Too much food? Yes, please. Right?)
Anyway, today as I fast, I realize:it means a lot more to purposely go without when you've already been going without. My hunger pangs have been much more pronounced than when I usually fast. I've felt more like I need the Lord's help to get me through. It's only two meals, twenty-four hours. It's nothing compared to what others face and have faced. I know that. Which is what makes it all the more poignant.
Most of all, I'm looking back at my ancestors, who when asked to live the law of the fast, were already often not getting enough to eat. How much it must have been a real sacrifice to them to give up food, especially when they lived much more physically labor-intensive lives than I do. Wow, I appreciate them more today, even in this small thing.
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