I love to watch the birds.

Our God was so creative in his creating process!  Like every aspect of God’s animal kingdom, birds come in multiple sizes and shapes – most with distinctive features and coloration. 

Some diehard bird watchers chase after the birds, going wherever they need to go to hopefully see different species.  I prefer to bring the birds to me.  Of course, the best way to do that is to hang a bird feeder or feeders in a conveniently observed place.

I have two feeders in easy view from our front windows.  One is an oriole feeder with a very specific food unique to drawing in the black and orange birds.  (Grape jelly!) 

The other is a traditional platform feeder with cages on each end for seed blocks, which the woodpeckers like to peck at.  (I thoroughly enjoy watching them!)  In the main part of the feeder, I pour the seed in from the top, and it spills out on both sides of the platform.

The frustration I ran into with the main feeder was that the birds I really don’t care to feed or watch, (especially grackles and red-wing blackbirds), would bully the rest of the birds away while they gorged themselves.  I’d fill the feeder with common birdseed one day and gangs of those piggy black birds would have it completely cleaned out by the next!

One Sunday afternoon my brother-in-law and my nephew stopped over to fish off our dock.  Not only did we catch a few fish and have a great conversation, but my brother-in-law (an avid bird feeder himself) clued me in to safflower seeds.

I had seen bags of safflower seeds for sale in the birding sections of local stores, but I didn’t really know much about it.  After our talk on the dock, I did some quick research on it.  Turns out that grackles and blackbirds don’t like safflower seed!  Squirrels either!

However, cardinals, bluejays, finches, grossbeaks, and chickadees – some of my favorite birds – love them! 

How did I never hear about this before?

So I purchased my first bag of safflower seed and began to mix it in with the regular seed.  Sure enough, the black birds still came, but they pushed the safflower seeds out of the feeder.  After the typical seed was gone, so largely were the bullies.  But the cardinals and finches still came to eat the leftover safflower seeds!

It didn’t take long until I transitioned completely to the new seed. Now I don’t get nearly the quantity of birds at my feeder, but the visual quality of the those who come, and the frequency of their visits, has improved significantly.

It occurred to me that there is a spiritual application to this.  Simply stated, the things that we choose to “feed” our hearts and minds will correlate with what we see in our spiritual lives.

If we are primarily feeding on the usual “seed” that the world ingests, our hearts, minds and lives will probably be rather common – looking much like the rest of the world.  By the same token, if our spiritual diet is elevated to a higher level, so also will our spiritual well-being.

Stated differently, the more we focus on worldly things (wealth, possessions, position, power, success, and etc.), the more worldly we will be tempted to become.  The more we focus on spiritual things (God’s Word, God’s love, God’s forgiveness and salvation, God’s promises, God’s blessings – both now and forever, and etc.), the more Godly we will become, and the more spiritually stunning we will appear.

Being selective in what we feed the birds can provide great dividends.  Being selective in what we feed ourselves can provide even greater ones!  And much more important ones!