Breakfast

When I was young I had breakfast every morning before I went to school. I would take out the Lucky Charms and fill the bowl and pour on milk ‘til my cereal started to rise. Then I would eat all the oat bits first and save all the marshmallows ‘til the last. And to finish my breakfast meal, I would drink all the pink milk at the end.

When I started college, breakfast changed so much. It became leftover pizza or Top Ramen. I remember when my grandmother gave me some extra dishes and pots/pans for my college apartment. She told me, “You can use this pan to make yourself eggs in the morning.” I do not remember if I ever did. Hot Pockets and frozen burritos were my staples. That’s when I started skipping breakfast. Breakfast time was replaced with sleeping in until the very last moment and rushing to get ready and running out the door.

I continued not having breakfast for a long time. It wasn’t until I had my kid, did I start a breakfast routine. When my son started eating real food (not smashed up mush called baby food) he needed to have breakfast. So on the weekends, when I wasn’t rushing off to work, I volunteered to make breakfast in the mornings. That’s when I realized some thing great about breakfast: out of the three meals we eat each day, breakfast is the best!

Dinner is the most formal of the meals we eat in our house. When we go out to eat dinner we usually dress nice. Dinner usually consists of a main course and some sort of vegetable. When we have dinner at the house we always remember to give thanks and say some sort of prayer for our meal. It’s the most planned out meal. In our house we have a list of all the dinners we will eat during the week on our fridge. Dinner is well planned.

Lunch is super causal. For me, lunch is random. When I eat lunch it is usually with friends or co-workers. I have had more lunches with people outside my family then people inside. Lunch is mostly decided like 15 minutes before lunch actually starts (unless I bring left over dinner to work).

Breakfast is intimate. Breakfast is real. It is always with the people you care the most about. It’s the meal where you don’t have to get dressed up. You don’t have to think up random conversation. It’s the meal where you can sit in your place and not talk ‘til the coffee is ready. Your hair can be messed up. And yesterday doesn’t matter because you have a whole day ahead of you.

I guess the whole reason I’m talking about breakfast is because I see something pure. I see something that doesn’t have to put on a show, that doesn’t have to put up a front. As Christians, we should strive to be more like breakfast. There doesn’t need to be a formality about us. There doesn’t need to be a surface level casualness. There does need to be realness. A “let your hair down” attitude and honesty. Why front? Just wait to talk ‘til the coffee is ready.

Austin Mcleod