Thursday, March 28 2024 - 9:13 AM
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Drink More Water

“You have to drink more water!”

I can still hear my mother’s voice as she admonished me for going back to the refrigerator for more grape juice. When I was a child, there were two things that I knew for sure: I loved the taste of grape juice and I hated the taste of water. What taste? Exactly. I just didn’t see the point of drinking something that’s literally drinking nothing. But my mother would insist and make me sit at the table until I finished a cup of water. I would begrudgingly take huge mouthfuls of water and hold it in my cheeks until I worked up the nerve to swallow. Ugh! I hated the taste of it. I still get horrible memories about being forced to sit at the kitchen table until I drank a cup of it.

Now I drink loads of water. It took a lot of work to get to where I am from where I used to be. Sometime in high school, I discovered that water wasn’t so bad. I even discovered that H2O is good for me (I guess mom was right!). So, I’ve made it a point to drink the recommended eight glasses of water a day. When I do, I notice that it makes a difference in my ability to concentrate, my mood, and my energy level. But there are certain days that I forget.

Spiritual Dehydration

For example, this weekend I was too busy having fun with my friends to remember to carry around my water bottle. Interestingly, what I craved the most when I got home was not a glass of water, but a big heaping spoonful of Nutella. Yet even after I had it, I wasn’t satisfied. But after my second spoonful of Nutella something interesting hit me: I never crave sweets when I drink enough water! What I thought was my relentless sweet tooth is nothing more that mild dehydration!

We live in an age of excess and we have access to a million things that will fill whatever need we think we have. And yet, we’ve never been unhappier. But maybe we’re not just a generation of grouches. Maybe the emptiness we feel is nothing more than dehydration.

But this time I’m not talking about H2O:

“Jesus answered, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life'” (John 4:13-14, NIV).

Jael Amador writes from New York.

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About Jael Amador

Jael Amador

writes from New York, New York.

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