Friday, July 26, 2013
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Growing Beyond~~~~95 Days till Easter Days 85-87
Growing Beyond Day 87 Jan 3, 2013 Man-Made Rules
On this day I need to concentrate on getting rid of all the man-made
rules that hinder my success. Rules such as: 1) I need to eat when everyone
else eats, 2) I need to clean my plate even though I’m already satisfied, 3) the
clock tells me when to eat, and 4) food gives me comfort when I need it.
Truly when spiritual issues and sensual indulgence are not
tackled or addressed and redirected using the good news of Jesus Christ, then
all we have are man-made rules. It’s hard to understand how we will follow a
man made rule in a heartbeat but ignore the rules set out by God.
Why is it we are so willing to self-destruct using man-made
rules and ignore the things designed to give us life not take it away which are
the rules of God. Too often people think the Bible is outdated that the rules
shouldn’t apply to the current century. Well let me ask you, “How long ago did
man make up the rule that if you murder someone you will be convicted and stand
the possibility of being put to death yourself?” That is an old rule made in an
earlier century therefore it should be considered to be outdated. Right? Wrong!
As much as we would like to believe that rules were meant to
be broken they aren’t. They are there for a reason but we need to make sure we
are following all the right rules when it comes to our eating habits or our
spiritual lives. God’s way is better than any man-made rule that ever could
have been designed. Therefore its up to us to stay away from the man-made rules
that have only lead to our self-destruction and follow God’s design of eating
right. Rules such as: 5) eating when you are hungry not when the clock says to;
4) eating till you are satisfied not until the plate is empty; 3) getting my
comfort from God instead of chocolate covered donut I thought was my friend;
and 2) Eating when its right for me not when its right for everyone who happens
to be eating at the time.
The number one rule: 1) Allow God to rule in my life, to
have control over me instead of food and my desire to eat it whenever I want.
Growing Beyond Day 86 Jan 4, 2013 Desire for Extra Food
Whether I want to admit it or not I need to get rid of my evil
desire for extra food. No, evil is not too harsh of a word as it really does
describe it well. Just because I love something I’m eating doesn’t mean I need
to eat more of it than I should. When I allow food to call my name and eat
beyond what my body needs that is, evil. It goes against God’s plan for me to
wait for my body to call for food and tell me when it’s time to stop.
I won’t die if I pass the opportunity for a maple bar donut.
The extra helping of scalloped potatoes I think I need really doesn’t do a
thing for me except round my hips out a little more.
I need to live my life taking in the food my body needs, not
the extra my mind wants.
Growing Beyond Day 85 Jan 5, 2013 Self-Control and Self-Discipline
Ten days into my 95 days till Easter journey and I am now
thinking of self-control. Duh! The whole journey is about self-control and
self-discipline. It’s almost a test to see if the spirit of God is alive and
strong in me. Or maybe what I should say is it’s a test to see if I am going to
listen to the spirit of God in me to use His eating system designed in me from
the moment of conception.
The extra rolls of fat on my belly, the added weight showing
up on the scales shows just out of control I am when it comes to eating. My
eating habits are at their worse and my body advertises that as I jiggle when I
walk. I have no one else to blame but myself. McDonald’s is not to blame; it
wasn’t Burger Kings fault I got fat. Dunkin Donuts had no clue of my intensions
to over eat and carry with me on my hips the extra calories I consumed.
As much as we would like to blame everyone else, we are to
blame. We are the ones who need to learn the dying art of self-control and
self-discipline. This doesn’t apply to food only. It is something that needs to
be practiced in everything we do. In our handling of money, the desire to do
drugs, the way we treat others, studying for a school exam, coming to work
daily on time, and the list goes on and on.
Now is the time for us to start controlling our own lives
and stop allowing food or our emotions and desires to control us.
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
95 day journey till Easter ~~~~~ Days 90 to 88
Day 88
Jan 2, 2013 It’s me not the food that needs to
behave
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
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Day 91 until Easter~~~~~~Death to Self
Dec 12-30-12
By nature we are selfish people and we need to learn the
lesson of dying to ourselves. Learning quickly how to say “No” and to think of
someone more than ourselves. Once again just because we “can” do something
doesn’t make it right. We need to be living our lives in a manner that
glorifies God and benefits us and those around us. Dying to one’s self doesn’t
kill us, it causes us to grow in the right way and mature more and more into
the person we need to be.
When I think of the subject of “death-to-self” the hair on
the back of my neck stands up and I get offensive. After all, I’m an adult and
have been for several years I should not have to deny myself anything. I have a
job I can pay for whatever it is I want. If I want a banana split I can get it,
I don’t need mommy around anymore telling me what I can or cannot do.
Wrong!
The job of mom if you think about it is to do their job so
well that they work their way out of a job. As the child grows up they are to
take over where mom or dad left off and are able to care for themselves. One of
the lessons to be learnt is the lesson of dying to one’s self. To be able to
say “No” once in a while in order to maintain proper discipline and good
choices.
Just because I can say “Yes” doesn’t make that the right
answer. If I’m eating too much and I’m gaining weight I need to die to myself
and the desires I have to eat in a greedy, glutton, selfish kind of way.
After doing this for a while I have found that I still
manage to live, duh! It doesn’t kill me totally to say “no” to a cookie today
because tomorrow I may be able to have one if I’m truly hungry and one cookie
doesn’t turn into a jar full of cookies.
Growing beyond the size I am today into the size of clothes
I should be requires death to self and the bad choices I’ve been making that
got me to where I am today weight wise. It’s a choice, a discipline worth
taking. In the long run it causes me to gain something much more than extra
pounds. I gain maturity and satisfaction in Christ.
© 2013 Karen J. Gillett at Pencil Marks and Recipes
Publishing for Growing Beyond
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
92 Days Till Easter~~~~~~~Falling Links
December 29, 2012
Well its 92 days till Easter and already I have noticed some
links falling off the chain that had me bound. As nice as it would have been to
have the whole thing drop off instantly it just doesn’t work that way.
That’s one of our biggest problems is patience and waiting
for the results to happen. We live in a society that expects everything instantly.
We don’t have time to wait. We expect the traffic lights to turn green the
minute we get to them. We expect the bank teller at the drive thru banking to
be helping no one but us, after all isn’t that why they are there waiting in
that booth just for us!
Whether we noticed it at the time or not the chain we find
ourselves attached to, went on one link at a time and that is exactly how it’s
going to come off. For me I find the link of making bad food choices is starting
to fall off. Also the link of not being able to say no to the temptation of
food is beginning to lose its grip.
Thank you Lord for
giving us the ability to remove the chains we ourselves installed. Forgive us
for our laziness and unwillingness to do our part. Having the right attitude
going forward is one of the biggest pliers that will help remove unwanted links
to a chain that doesn’t have to be there as long as we stick with You Father
God. Praise you for this journey and may I learn what I need to learn and share
with others what needs to be shared in order to help them remove the links and
uninstall the chain.
Friday, February 1, 2013
93 days till Easter~~~~~~~~Enslavemenrt
December 28, 2012 Enslavement
Too often we are enslaved by something and don’t even know
it. Even when we know it we don’t want to do anything about it. We accept it as
our new norm instead of putting out the effort to free ourselves from what it
is that has a hold on us.
The other day as I looked through old pictures of myself, I
noticed I have been overweight my entire adult life. Thirty years or more I’ve
been enslaved by something I just would not take the time to free myself from.
Once again isn’t that what Easter represents is the freedom
that Christ has set us free for. Not the freedom to do what we want but the
freedom from the enslavement of sin. God put the key in the door of that
entrapment to sin and unlocked it with the blood of Jesus Christ. However, for
some odd reason we remain standing in the jail cell that once held us. Indeed the
jail cell of sin wallpapered with our acts of doing whatever we wanted,
whenever we wanted and ignoring the commandments of God.
How foolish is that? Pretty foolish I must say. Every time I
eat what I shouldn’t be eating the clicking sound of the key to my cell needs
to go off in my heart. A sound to remind me whether I’m going to accept my
enslavement to food and bad eating habits or walk free out of my cell that God
already released me from.
We don’t need to be afraid, we need to be determined to take
action and truly find the opened door to our freedom in Christ. Daily by our
choices we need to accept our new norm of not allowing things like food, drugs,
alcohol, money, sex, attitudes, and more to control us.
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Free from
sin, not freedom to sin.
Friday, January 4, 2013
Growing Beyond~~~~~~Hunting bad eating habits
Bad Eating Habits … Just to name a few :(
*eating by the clock
*because its there
*seconds just to eat more
*while cooking
*Socially
*eating after certain things, after walking, during a movie,
etc
*have to finish what I started eating
*emotional eating
*overeating after 5pm
*inability to say NO cuz I might hurt someone’s feelings
*out of control eating on weekends
*acting as if I have to eat it because this will be my only
chance to eat a sundae, pie, cake, cookie
*mindless eating, eating without even thinking about it
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