Ramadan

 Today I had a 5th Grade Muslim student I was helping give a test to.  As we walked down the hall her stomach was grumbling and she held her belly in embarrassment and then explained.

"It's the first day of Ramadan.  So I had to get up at 4:00 this morning to eat before morning prayer and while it was still dark. It's hard to feel hungry and my mouth is dry.  But then I think of the needy and I am grateful that I don't feel like this all the time.  Some of them do.  That's important to remember, don't you think?"

She asked if I have ever fasted.  I said yes, and in fact would be fasting for an acquaintance's baby this week and that in my faith we also fast monthly to consider the needs of the poor and donate for them. 

"We donate to the needy too." She smiled and said, "I feel inside it's a good thing to understand each other."

Isaiah 58 teaches powerfully of fasting.

"Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?"

Fasting can help us gain control over our temporal habits and addictions.  We can learn to tell our bodies yes and no.  It can help us establish habits that make us strong and capable.

"Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?"

Fasting can teach us compassion by considering the needs and suffering of others and sharing our own resources, which were actually given of God anyway.

This passage also includes beautiful blessings of fasting: health, righteousness, we will get answers from God and our burdens will be lighter.

11And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.

12And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.

The Lord will guide us continually.  Our souls will be satisfied. And lives will be mended.

When we fast correctly and with full purpose of heart.  

Thank you my young friend for reminding me to reflect on this important and holy principle and Ramadan Mubarak to you!