Cultivating an Appetite for Christ

A Selection of Poems From Ruth Bell Graham’s Writing

October 1, 2011

by Ruth Bell Graham

I recall a night many years ago when I got up with one or another of the children about five times before morning. Bill wasn’t home. When it came time to waken the household, we were all sleepy. I picked the baby out of bed and didn’t bother to change him, just dumped him in his high chair. I grabbed the first bathrobe I could find; my hair was a mess, my face was a mess.

At the breakfast table, every time Gigi, our eldest, would start to say something, Bunny, our youngest daughter, would interrupt her. Finally Gigi banged down her fork, pushed back her chair and said, “Mother, between looking at you and listening to Bunny and smelling the baby, I’m just not hungry!”

Are you taking away someone’s appetite for Christ? The best definition of a saint that I ever heard is, “A saint is one who makes it easy to believe in Jesus.” Are you making it easy for those about you to believe in Him?

Taken by permission from “Husbands, Children and God” by Ruth Bell Graham, originally published in Decision magazine, June 1967 ©1967 The Ruth Graham Literary Trust.