The Morning Altar

Clean the slate, God, so I can start the day fresh.  Keep me from stupid sins, from thinking I can take over your work...Accept these words when I place them on the morning altar.  from Psalm 19, The Message

I put something on the morning altar every day.  A thanksgiving.  A plea on behalf of another.  A confession.  I need that sense of starting clean, refreshed, accepted, empowered, and full of grace and gratitude, because it doesn't take long before I'm feeling a little  

                                                dirty...guilty...defeated...negative...angry. 

Usually by noon. 

It's not like I'm completely grimy, but I feel the pureness of the morning slip away as I face life in a fallen state. 

Today I place food on the morning altar: not a spotless lamb on a stone altar, but my hour by hour choices of what goes in my mouth on the altar of prayer.  You see, this is a constant battle for me.  I am a well-informed eater and pretty much know the Weight Watchers point value of any food; I can give you a list of filling foods full of fiber and good nutrition, and I can cook up a beautiful, colorful, well-balanced, Michelle O'Bama kind of meal. 

But since I was a little girl, junk food has called to me like a harlot in the street.  It tempts me with promises like, "Just one little bite.  It won't make a difference."  But of course, one turns into many and the whole episode turns into a spiritual battle, where I say to myself, "Are you trying to feed your stomach when it's your spirit that needs a boost?"  The simple act of eating becomes a willful sin of self-indulgence. 

Forgive my hidden faults.  Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me.  Psalm 119: 12-13 NIV

I need boundary lines in pleasant places, where I co-exist in a world of tempatations, but don't over-indulge, where I find more pleasure in eating wisely than impulsively.

Everyone has private battles, but when we believe in a Mighty God who invites us to lay whatever haunts and stalks us on the morning altar, we have hope and power and victory to claim.  Oh, that I could claim it today.  And tomorrow.  And the days to come.