One thing I’ve learned over the years is the fact that it’s
not the food that needs to be obedient. Too often we try to give the task of
being obedient to the kind of food we eat. After all it should be the one who
behaves as we do our part and eat all the “right” things, whole wheat, all natural,
diet drinks, fat free, or whatever else. Needless to say if we eat more of
those “right” foods than our body can burn up we are going to gain weight
anyway. Once when I was on a fat free diet I figured I could eat whatever I
wanted and as much as I wanted as long as it was “fat free.” Guess what? Yes
you guessed it, I gained weight.
The food was being obedient but I wasn’t. On diets we’ve had
success with often once we lose our weight and stop dieting we gain our weight
back. Why is this? It’s frequently because we haven’t taught ourselves to be
the one who obeys God’s rules for healthy eating by eating when we are hungry
and stopping when we are satisfied.
It doesn’t matter what food we eat. We can eat a candy bar
if our stomach is truly hungry and we stop when satisfied. However, it’s always
smart to eat the food that is best for us nutrition wise such as vegetables and
fresh food but don’t think it’s the one that needs to be obedient. Obedience to
proper eating habits is our job. We are the ones who need to behave not the food.
Day
89 Jan 1, 2013
God’s Word In Action
A good task for anything we do is to keep God’s word in our
heart. This is how I conquered my stress seizures over 20 years ago and this is
how I can defeat my weight problem. Scriptures such as “I can do all things
(lose weight included) thru Christ who gives me strength (Phil 4:13). God’s
grace is sufficient (2 Cor 12:9) I don’t need food to complete me or my life. My
body is a temple of God (1 Cor 6:19,20) I need to take care of it and use it to
glorify God not disgrace Him by my choice of eating habits. Earlier in that
same chapter in Corinthians it talks about how we may think all things are
lawful for us but all things are not helpful and we shouldn’t allow ourselves
to be under the power of any of it. It goes on to say food is for the stomach
and the stomach for food but eventually God will destroy both.
The ice cream I
thought I needed, the fulfillment lasted about as long as the ice cream bar did.
Once it was gone it all was gone including the satisfaction. What I need to do
is concentrate on the fact that what remains is my spiritual temple I’ve been
assigned caretaker to. It is the thing that will last forever and it’s up to me
to see to it that it is cared for properly. It doesn’t require ice cream, pie,
cookies, or extra food servings. It requires care, nurturing, attention, and
the proper feeding of spiritual food instead. It entails me to allow God’s word
to be in action in all that I say, do, and eat.
Day 90 12-31-12 The Fight Against Frustration
In attempt to do anything in life whether it’s dieting,
going to college, working, training horses, riding cows, building bridges, etc
we will always run into some kind of frustration. Recently as I weighed myself
to see if I had lost any weight the scale went up instead of down.
Instant frustration could be felt over the fact that all my
hard work wasn’t paying off. At the rate I was going I might as well quit now
instead of trying to go on. The same old tape recordings in my mind began to
play once more, “this is the way it always is, and no matter how hard I try I
just can’t seem to lose weight so why bother!”
At the risk of trying to lie to myself along with everyone
else I truly wasn’t trying. My ratio of efforts was reflecting on the very
scale I stood upon as I pointed my finger at it yelling “liar, liar!”
When we lie to ourselves we are only adding to our
frustration instead of taking away from it. Frustration is grown on the root of
stress and it needs dealt with properly like everything else. Yes, life has its
frustrations but that is no excuse to yell and scream and point our fingers at
everyone else without looking at what the true problem is.
Frustration has a way of setting us back but we don’t have
to give ourselves permission to stay there and make matters worse. Its better
we stand upright once again and keep moving forward stronger and better as we
overcome each of life’s frustrations and setbacks one day at a time.
© 2013 Karen J. Gillett at Pencil Marks and Recipes
Publishing for Growing Beyond
