Soul Food

I met with discouraged mama today. We talked about the value of soul food. I asked her “what fills your soul?” She mentioned that sometimes to just “check out” of motherhood she will go shopping or she will run errands. I am not minimizing the value of getting away just to have some alone time. But, while that may be a good mental break, I don’t know that it fills the soul. So, what fills the soul? Soul connections fill the soul. Deep connections with your spouse fill your soul; deep connections with friends fills your soul; deep connection with God fills your soul. We do feel fulfilled when experiences give us soul connection with others. Soul connection is not surface conversation and it is not shallow conversation. It is where is one soul connects with another soul. It is why we can feel so much better after we speak our concerns out loud. Even though one person may do all the talking and one person may do all the listening, there is still a connection from one soul to another that says “I am here for you.” Our most favorite question to ask people is “how’s your heart?” This has proven to be a means in which to fast track deep conversations. What we are telling people is “let’s have a soul connection that will fill both our buckets.” I liken it to an appetite that must be satisfied or it goes on needing to be satisfied. It’s why, even if a couple comes over to our house with a marital concern, they often leaving feeling so much better. Our souls have connected in the time they have sat in our home and we have conversed. Irregardless if the issue remains, their hearts have felt cared for and our souls connected by being honest and open about the state of our hearts. Likewise, I can honestly say there have been instances when we have met with a couple and it was hard to go deep. After they have left, it’s like the appetite I had for going deep was not satisfied. In those particular situations, my husband gets an ear full of me pouring out my heart. Unknowingly I tried to fulfill that appetite and desire to go deep with another couple by going deep with my husband. Likewise, when we have this need to go deep with our creator and we don’t, we oftentimes will go to a best friend and divulge everything. We need soul connection more than we realize. It needs to come in this order 

  1. Connection with God 

2. Connection with spouse 
3. Connection with others

I will often hear people say things like “I don’t know what I’m doing in life.” Or “I am so depressed.” My very first question is not “when was the last time you read your Bible?” Instead, my first question is “when was the last time you communicated with God?” 

Our Bibles tell us the story, the most important story of all time, a love letter, in fact. Our bibles tell us who God is and what he cares about. But reading a bible must not come in place of communicating with God. Our souls must be fed by His Spirit and that can only come by conversing with Him.

 Make time and space in your life to have soul connections with your creator, your spouse and others in your life. This is counter-cultural. People don’t normally take the time for this, thus why so many feel lack of fulfillment in their lives.