Energy Bites
Oh, I am very weary, Though tears no longer flow; My eyes are tired of weeping, My heart is sick of woe.
– Anne Bronte
We’re all tired, aren’t we? Tired can have many faces – bags under the eyes of your coworkers, gaping yawns way too early during Friday night date night, slumped shoulders and dull eyes looking back at you from a sea of students slouched in their desks. In our house, tired can be identified by quick tempers and easy meltdowns over small things. It can also look like reaching for the “bad snacks” cupboard more frequently, searching for a sugar-hit to snap us out of it.
Sometimes we are tired in a deeper sense, though. Tired of the onslaught of news stories that fill us with helpless horror at the unbelievable evil happenings around the globe. Tired of the broken record of the broken relationships we find ourselves in. Tired of being sick. Or, as we often hear, “sick and tired of being sick and tired.”
Small samplings
When my kids are displaying worn-out emotions, one of the first things I turn to, after the elusive “more sleep,” is their nutrition. It’s usually a signal for me to make some healthy muffins or consider cutting back on the junk food consumption. If we’re in a hurry, I’ll often whip up a batch of these protein-rich, nutrient-dense Energy Bites. Opposite of a sugar high that ends in a crash, these offer lasting nourishment (and it doesn’t hurt that they taste like chocolate chip cookie dough!). And isn’t that exactly what we need to combat the exhausting toll that the rest of life can sometimes take on us? When God calls us – the weary and heavy laden – to come to him, he is inviting us to consume his life-giving and sustaining, healing power, that lasts forever.
Like these Energy Bites, there are some scripture verses that I have highlighted in my Bible that I need to turn to when I’m feeling weary. They don’t replace the regular, three-square-meals type of Bible reading and study, but God’s word can nourish us in small samplings too.
Energy Bites
Ingredients
- 1 cup peanut butter
- ⅓ cup honey
- 1 tbsp coconut oil, softened
- 1 cup quick oats
- ¼ cup ground flax
- ¼ cup flavoured protein smoothie powder
- ½ cup shredded coconut
- 1 tsp cinnamon (optional)
- ½ cup miniature chocolate chips
Directions:
Mix all ingredients together in a medium-sized bowl. Add in more oats to achieve a firm enough consistency for rolling into small balls. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to set. Roll into 1-inch balls. Place on parchment covered baking tray and place in the freezer until frozen solid. Then transfer to a freezer-tight storage container. Optional add-ins: cocoa powder, cranberries, hemp seeds, raisins, chopped nuts.
