Happy National Peanut Butter Day!

In case you didn’t know, today is National Peanut Butter Day in the U.S., and to celebrate I ate peanut butter sandwich.  Why should anyone care about this obscure holiday, you ask…  Well for me it is significant because it is a reminder to pray to know that the world’s children have all they need at every moment. To know that divine Love is meeting their every need, and caring for them.  That as the reflection and image and likeness of their divine Parent, they come with infinite supply of good.

Each year on this day I pause to remember this and to pray in this way specifically for the children in Zambia, Malawi and elsewhere, struggling with malnutrition and a seeming lack of supply, and for the organizations such as Every Child Fed (ECF), whereI worked as the Country Director for Zambia, and their partner organization Project Peanut Butter (PPB).  These organizations help supply an enriched peanut butter paste to children who are suffering from severe malnutrition.

When I was embarking on this journey to work to support children in this way, it was not helpful to see the children as lacking anything – food, health, care – but instead to know that each idea of Life, Love, God is whole and complete, coming with its own supply – like an acorn that already includes the leaves, bark, branches and roots of a tree all within itself.   I find it helpful to know that Love is our true source of supply, and that it is constant, consistent, limitless, infinite and eternal…  this is true for everyone… the children in Zambia, as well as US government workers during the shutdown, and anyone else feeling a sense of lack or insecurity.  As Mary Baker Eddy states in her inspired text

Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need.

She goes on to say, “It is not well to imagine that Jesus demonstrated the divine power to heal only for a select number or for a limited period of time, since to all mankind and in every hour, divine Love supplies all good.”[1]Jesus demonstrated the ever-presence of supply by multiplying the loaves and fishes to feed the multitudes… and there were baskets left over!  (see Matthew 14:13-21)

But how do we feel and know that our supply will be there when everything points to the contrary… I have found in my experience, that a change in thought can help.  Rather than seeing lack everywhere, we can shift our perspective with gratitude for what we DO have…  Just as in the example of the loaves and fishes, Jesus gave gratitude first… “Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people.  They all ate and were satisfied…”[2]

How can we feel that sense of being satisfied with what we already have and grateful for it?   Mrs. Eddy puts it this way,

“Are we really grateful for the good already received? Then we shall avail ourselves of the blessings we have, and thus be fitted to receive more.”[3]

I have found that supply for the next thing doesn’t seem to show up until I get grateful for what I already have.  When I pause and assess what I do have, and give gratitude for all the good that is present in my life, it has a magnifier and multiplier effect… and more good comes in.. like attracts like… so seeing the good already present, attracts more good to come in.  (You can check out a previous blog I wrote on supply and the power of gratitude for more on this idea… )

So today, let’s celebrate all the good… and understand our true source of supply, for ourselves and everyone, especially children… and to that, I will raise a jar of peanut butter!

*Note: all of the photos I took while working in Malawi and Zambia with ECF and PPB

[1]Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures p. 494

[2]Matthew 14:18

Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures p. 3