Aspen does not like to try new foods.  If I don’t consistantly feed her a food I know she likes, after a couple of weeks of not eating it she will insist she doesn’t like it and won’t eat it.  Peer pressure is working fairly well now that her older brother is home from college.  Left entirely up to her though, I think her diet would consist of chips, candy, pop, and eggs.

Today I took Aspen to an “Edible Wild Plants” class for kids.  After meeting inside the teacher led everyone to the great outdoors to introduce about 10 wild edible plants to the kids.  The teacher excitedly pointed out white clover flowers and leaves.  Aspen hesitantly took a bite of the white clover flower, but didn’t appear impressed with the taste.  The teacher moved on to dandelions, and plantain.  Aspen appeared only slightly interested and picked up a nut she tried to crack on a big rock.  But, the next plant caught Aspens attention, a plant with heart shaped leaves.  Aspen is a true girl and heart shaped leaves that she could eat piqued her interest.  The teacher picked the leaves and passed them out to the parents and kids.  Aspen nibbled away and wanted more, she enjoyed the tart lemony taste.  I’ll have to admit I wasn’t nearly as impressed as she was and after a small nibble discretely dropped mine to the ground.

After her taste of the tart, lemon flavored, heart shaped leaves, Aspen paid close attention to everything the teacher said, and eagerly ate every leaf he shared, even asking for more.  When we returned to the classroom, the teacher poured the sassafrass tea he had prepared before class, and set out some fried wild day lily bulbs that tasted like french fries.  Aspen drank several small dixie cups of tea and loved the day lily french fries.  When we got home she rode her bike up and down the drive way stopping to pick plantain from the grass next to the driveway.   Not only that, but when Brett arrived home from work she insisted he sample the delictable goodies she had discovered, confident he would find them as yummy as she did.  In fact, when Brett failed to taste test the day lily fries, she stubbornly took them back to him and stood before him until he did try them!  Now that’s evangelism.

My desire to spend time with God can be as capricious as Aspens eating whims.  I know that I like Him, but I want my own way and might rather do my own thing rather than spend time with Him doing what He wants me to do, even though what He wants me to do will grow my spiritual heart far healthier than the spiritually equivelant diet of potato chips, candy, and pop that I stubbornly say I want.  The more time I spend doing what I want to do the less I am interested in doing what God wants me to do.  But, when I actually taste and see that the Lord is good, WOW!  what a difference it makes in my attitude.  Suddenly He becomes everything I want!  The effect of that daily experience can fire my motivation to be as much of an evangelist about my Jesus as Aspen is over her heart shaped, lemon flavored leaves.