My little Peanut is having surgery. After many minor issues over the last year, she’s getting her tonsils and adenoids removed. While she is fairly oblivious to the impending situation, the other girls have had friends go through the same thing and are both stressed about her going through surgery and also excited to take part of the special foods that are encouraged during recovery.

Last weekend, I added these special soft foods to my grocery list at Aldi. I stood in the snack aisle thinking about what fun it would be to buy these things for my girls. Jello cups, pudding cups, fruit cups, flavored oatmeal packets – never on my normal list, so I excitedly grabbed multiples of things, glad that there was something for the girls to look forward to. 

As I was shoveling pudding cups in my cart, the lady next to me loudly declared to her husband, “I’m so glad we don’t buy sugary food for our kids any more.”

Ouch.

I’ll give her a momentary benefit of the doubt. Maybe she wasn’t talking about me. Maybe she hadn’t even noticed me and my cart full of pudding. But it sure seemed like weird timing to make a random declaration of personal buying habits.

I was immediately defensive. Food is important to me, and the way I feed my family is very important to me. I spend a lot of time and effort making meal plans and encouraging healthy eating habits. I want to look right.

Then felt convicted. While I definitely wouldn’t have said it out loud, if I had been in that woman’s shoes observing my sugar-filled, pre-packaged snack binge, I would have thought the same thing.

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged.

For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?”

Matthew 7:1-3

Food is important to me, but it shouldn’t be a source of self-righteous pride. I wanted to launch in and set her straight – provide an extensive explanation of what was happening in our family and justification about why those particular items were on my shopping list this week only.

Her speck of a rude comment certainly illuminated the plank of food pride in my own eye.

Instead of looking at other’s carts, I’m going to practice Ecclesiastes 9:7. “Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for God has already approved what you do.” Because I really wanted wine after that.

Just kidding. More like “Whatever you eat or drink, whatever you do, do it for the glory of God.” 1 Corintihians 10:31

I shouldn’t feed my kids a certain way for my own glory. So I can post a nice pic on Instagram.

It’s for the glory of God, fueling their bodies to grow and serve Him.

It also showed me the lesson that a snapshot of a person’s life does not necessarily represent the whole. Yes, maybe a mom shoveling jello cups in her cart feeds her kids junk food every day.

Or maybe she’s trying to entice her already-underweight kid to eat after surgery.

So I finished shopping. Yogurt squeezers, popsicles, apple sauce, ice cream, avocados, and dino chicken nuggets filled the checkout belt. All Cora’s favorites and soft things.

I’m going to get the plank out of my eye and go back to focusing on helping my kid heal. And I’m going to try not to care what the lady next to me at Aldi thinks about what’s in my cart.