Better a Small Meal With Love

Tucked into the middle of Proverbs 15 are a few sayings that belong together. A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit. The discerning heart seeks knowledge, but the mouth of a fool feeds on folly. All the days of the oppressed are wretched, but the cheerful heart has a continual feast. Then two comparisons: better a little with the fear of the LORD than great wealth with turmoil, and better a small serving of vegetables with love than a fattened calf with hatred.

The word better is doing a lot of work. Proverbs is not saying that poverty is good, or that a plate of greens is superior to a good roast. It is saying that if you must choose, and life often makes you choose, then the fear of the LORD outweighs wealth and love outweighs the menu.

Anyone who has sat through a lavish meal in a house full of tension knows this is true. The food does not help. And anyone who has eaten something simple with people who love each other knows the other side. The feast is not on the table. It is in the room.

There is a line about a continual feast in verse 15. The cheerful heart has one, the proverb says, and it is the same idea from the inside. A person whose heart is at rest with God carries the feast with them. They can eat vegetables and be glad.

This is a hard word for a culture that measures its meals, its houses, and its vacations against what everyone else is posting. Proverbs was written for a culture that measured wealth in cattle and calves, and it said the same thing then. The comparison game always loses to the fear of the LORD and to love.

So a question for a Tuesday in August. Where are you chasing the fattened calf while the love in the room drains out? Where might a little, held with reverence and with affection, actually be better? The proverb does not scold. It simply reports what everyone eventually learns, and offers you the chance to learn it early.