Bread and milk. It is snowing and I don’t have bread and milk!!! Don’t panic…or should we?
Ok. We have all heard of someone making a mad rush to the store to buy “bread and milk” as soon as they hear the word “snow” on the news. Perhaps we have done the same thing. But have you ever stopped to wonder why “bread and milk” specifically? Psychologists give two interesting reasons for the “psychology of panic stockpiling.”
#1 “Stockpiling makes us feel in control.”
Lisa Brateman, a New York City-based psychotherapist says that running out and buying perishables gives the buyer a sense of control. Even if it all spoils because the power goes out we feel ready for whatever the storm throws at us.
#2 “It makes the storm feel temporary.”
Interestingly, panic stockpilers generally don’t grab cans of Vienna sausages and spam! Although purchasing non-perishables is probably more practical, psychologist Judy Rosenberg, Ph.D., believes that it would be a “psychological admission that you’ve surrendered to waiting out the storm.” Buying perishables is about optimism – a belief that the storm isn’t going to last long.
The truth is that we aren’t in control when the storms of life come, and we don’t know how long they will last. But the Bible tells us how to be ready: get some BREAD and MILK!
In the bible, bread and milk aren’t bought at stores in a frenzy, but rather, they are necessary for every day life. In John 6:48-51 Jesus explains that He is the “bread of life” that must be eaten in order to go to heaven. In 1 Peter 2:2, Peter reminds us that we must “long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation.”
There is nothing better for daily growth, or to have stockpiled in a crisis, than the bread of life and the milk of the word. And you don’t have to worry about them being out of stock! So if it does snow…curl up with your Bible and enjoy some real bread and milk.
