If you live in my area the answer to those questions is probably "no" since it's been more like March around here than January. :) But, if the answer is yes, then have I got news for you!
"If you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday." (Isaiah 58:10, ESV)
I realize that I need to change my attitude about life and quit focusing on what I think I am missing out on. Good grief! Gloom, despair and agony on me. ;)
This life is NOT it, I have a hope and a future that makes anything I might have here pale in comparison. I am supposed to be living my life in service to others as if they were Christ. The way I treat others should be a reflection of my love for Him.
My life is also not supposed to be one giant feast of the flesh. Pleasing my flesh is what I really like to do, but it is pure sin when I actually do it. I'm not saying it's a sin to eat when I'm hungry, or rest when I'm tired. What I'm saying is, if I choose to please my flesh instead of being obedient to what I know I'm SUPPOSED to be doing, I am sinning.
I am getting married again one day, and I need to rejoice because my Groom loves me and gave Himself for me. As I'm waiting for Him to come and get me I could "eat, drink and be merry" as one who has no hope, OR I can live like a loving and benevolent queen-to-be. You might think that sounds arrogant, I do, too. I know I'm not cut out to be a queen, but as a part of the bride of the King that's what I am. I should walk in dignity and grace, loving those who need love, serving those who need help, and caring for those who need care. I think as part of His bride we should all be concerned about one thing, and that is bringing Him glory and honor.
So, instead of bemoaning all the things that I have to give up, things that are dumb and useless anyway, I need to be looking around for something better to do. I have a wedding to prepare for after all and there are things that need to be done. :)
Monday, January 30, 2012
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Please pardon my language...I'm on a (shhh) DIET...again
Update:
So far I've lost about eleven pounds. My scale isn't the most reliable so that's why I say about eleven pounds. :) For the last three weeks I've maintained my weight and wondered why since I have been being a pretty good girl post-fudge.
Sunday I was noticing my sister playing with her new phone a lot so, being the nosey person that I am, I looked to see what she was playing. Lo and behold, it was Myfitnesspal! This is an app that will allow you to put in your food and water intake, exercize regimen, and your goals and calculate how many calories you need in a day and how many you eat, etc.! I LOVE it. It was eye-opening to see just how many calories I do consume. !!
I make every (well, almost) effort to consume nutritious calories. I don't eat the processed food or the white stuff (flour, sugar, rice) and since I've been on my diet I have cut out all dairy except yogurt with active cultures and eggs. I have been eating fruit, vegetables, and whole grains.
All this dieting (again) got me to thinking about the reason I have to diet so often. Our pastor said something the other night that really stuck in my head. He said that as a Christian, we are not called to an easy walk with Christ. It is more like we are a fish swimming against the current, or a football player facing a defensive line and that D-line's goal is to make us lose so much yardage that we end up in their endzone.
If I may now take all my lose ends and wind them together for you, my problem is this: I can lose weight (but only if the Lord is giving me strength because I AM addicted to food), but I don't keep working on good habits: eating nutritious foods, shunning empty foods and exercize. Once I have reached the goal I am happy with, I quit working. I go back to swimming with the crowd--or maybe I should say, floating with the current.
ANYTHING worth having or doing in life takes hard work. It takes work to lose weight, but it doesn't take work for ME to gain weight. It takes work to raise children to fear the Lord, it doesn't take much work to just let a child grow up. It takes WORK to stand on scriptural principles and walk with Christ. It doesn't take much work to go with the flow and float down the "Mainstream" Christian River...but just stop and stand on a principle and see what happens. Before you know it, all the other floaters are trying to knock you off your Rock and back into the water because you're in the way of progress. After all, we can't get people to heaven if we are constantly standing of principles...we have to DO something...some kind of WORK.
Wow! How'd I get from white flour to the "Mainstream" Christian River? Oh, I know, they're both empty--not empty in that there IS something there, it's just void of any nutrition.
Staying on a diet that adds to my health means that I must choose healthy foods to put into my mouth, use my body for something besides a pillow for my couch, sleep at night and drink water. If I want to (and I do) add to my spiritual health then I have to drink in the Living Water of truth and walk in righteousness, pleasing to Christ. And I must, when I've done all else, STAND and keep standing. (All in Christ, for without Him we can do nothing worthwhile.)
However, I can add to my emotional health by floating idly down Mainstream Christian River because I can be in the most abominable sin mentioned in the bible, but as long as "I just LOVE Jesus" I'm at peace and all is good in the world.
I don't want to just be emotionally and physically healthy, and I don't want JUST that for my loved ones or even my enemies. I desire spiritual health for these and myself.
Take up your cross daily, He said. What else can we do? It takes work.
NOT SO I CAN BE SAVED, BUT BECAUSE I AM SAVED.
So far I've lost about eleven pounds. My scale isn't the most reliable so that's why I say about eleven pounds. :) For the last three weeks I've maintained my weight and wondered why since I have been being a pretty good girl post-fudge.
Sunday I was noticing my sister playing with her new phone a lot so, being the nosey person that I am, I looked to see what she was playing. Lo and behold, it was Myfitnesspal! This is an app that will allow you to put in your food and water intake, exercize regimen, and your goals and calculate how many calories you need in a day and how many you eat, etc.! I LOVE it. It was eye-opening to see just how many calories I do consume. !!
I make every (well, almost) effort to consume nutritious calories. I don't eat the processed food or the white stuff (flour, sugar, rice) and since I've been on my diet I have cut out all dairy except yogurt with active cultures and eggs. I have been eating fruit, vegetables, and whole grains.
All this dieting (again) got me to thinking about the reason I have to diet so often. Our pastor said something the other night that really stuck in my head. He said that as a Christian, we are not called to an easy walk with Christ. It is more like we are a fish swimming against the current, or a football player facing a defensive line and that D-line's goal is to make us lose so much yardage that we end up in their endzone.
If I may now take all my lose ends and wind them together for you, my problem is this: I can lose weight (but only if the Lord is giving me strength because I AM addicted to food), but I don't keep working on good habits: eating nutritious foods, shunning empty foods and exercize. Once I have reached the goal I am happy with, I quit working. I go back to swimming with the crowd--or maybe I should say, floating with the current.
ANYTHING worth having or doing in life takes hard work. It takes work to lose weight, but it doesn't take work for ME to gain weight. It takes work to raise children to fear the Lord, it doesn't take much work to just let a child grow up. It takes WORK to stand on scriptural principles and walk with Christ. It doesn't take much work to go with the flow and float down the "Mainstream" Christian River...but just stop and stand on a principle and see what happens. Before you know it, all the other floaters are trying to knock you off your Rock and back into the water because you're in the way of progress. After all, we can't get people to heaven if we are constantly standing of principles...we have to DO something...some kind of WORK.
Wow! How'd I get from white flour to the "Mainstream" Christian River? Oh, I know, they're both empty--not empty in that there IS something there, it's just void of any nutrition.
Staying on a diet that adds to my health means that I must choose healthy foods to put into my mouth, use my body for something besides a pillow for my couch, sleep at night and drink water. If I want to (and I do) add to my spiritual health then I have to drink in the Living Water of truth and walk in righteousness, pleasing to Christ. And I must, when I've done all else, STAND and keep standing. (All in Christ, for without Him we can do nothing worthwhile.)
However, I can add to my emotional health by floating idly down Mainstream Christian River because I can be in the most abominable sin mentioned in the bible, but as long as "I just LOVE Jesus" I'm at peace and all is good in the world.
I don't want to just be emotionally and physically healthy, and I don't want JUST that for my loved ones or even my enemies. I desire spiritual health for these and myself.
Take up your cross daily, He said. What else can we do? It takes work.
NOT SO I CAN BE SAVED, BUT BECAUSE I AM SAVED.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
An Orphaned Kid
Considering what we do everyday around here, you might think I'm talking about an actual child. I'm not.
Week before last we had 3 does kid and one of them rejected one of her kids, a little doe. This is a first for us in three years. We've never had a doe reject a baby. All our does have been good moms.
We weren't out there when she kidded, in fact, we weren't even home. My hubby thinks she had problems with the birth of number two and therefore "forgot" number one.
Well, we had to adopt her or she would die. My sweet daughter adopted her and named her Mrs. Darcy after Elizabeth Darcy of Pride and Prejudice. Now, every time we walk outside she comes RUNNING to us and bleating; she ignores all the other goats and runs along with us.
The problem I have is this: how can that Moma forget her baby? How can she reject her own "flesh and blood"? Everytime I see that little goat, I think of all the little ones in this world that mothers and fathers have rejected. Their parents are not dead, they've just rejected their children in favor of other things. :(
One thing is for certain, our Father in heaven never rejects us. He always loves us instead. He has our best interest in mind, even when it doesn't feel that way to us.
I believe it's made very clear in scripture that He wants to love the rejected through us. It might be little children, it might be the handicapped or elderly, or it might just be a little goat. Just think about all that little goat taught me in one trip to the mailbox--and I'm not even her "moma".
Week before last we had 3 does kid and one of them rejected one of her kids, a little doe. This is a first for us in three years. We've never had a doe reject a baby. All our does have been good moms.
We weren't out there when she kidded, in fact, we weren't even home. My hubby thinks she had problems with the birth of number two and therefore "forgot" number one.
Well, we had to adopt her or she would die. My sweet daughter adopted her and named her Mrs. Darcy after Elizabeth Darcy of Pride and Prejudice. Now, every time we walk outside she comes RUNNING to us and bleating; she ignores all the other goats and runs along with us.
The problem I have is this: how can that Moma forget her baby? How can she reject her own "flesh and blood"? Everytime I see that little goat, I think of all the little ones in this world that mothers and fathers have rejected. Their parents are not dead, they've just rejected their children in favor of other things. :(
One thing is for certain, our Father in heaven never rejects us. He always loves us instead. He has our best interest in mind, even when it doesn't feel that way to us.
I believe it's made very clear in scripture that He wants to love the rejected through us. It might be little children, it might be the handicapped or elderly, or it might just be a little goat. Just think about all that little goat taught me in one trip to the mailbox--and I'm not even her "moma".
Friday, January 6, 2012
I'm on a Diet, sort of...
Well, in the past year and a half I've gained TWENTY pounds. I have also discovered in that time that I am definitely an emotional eater--if I'm not emotional before I eat, I am afterward!
Anyway, I prayed and prayed about it, because I don't know about all of you but I can't do anything with my addictions in my own strength, and food is an addiction for me. I am not a person who just eats because they're hungry. I eat when I'm bored, when something looks or smells like I might wanna eat it or when I am stressed or sad, or happy or mad, lazy...sheesh.
The Lord has given me an answer to prayer by allowing me to be freer from the draw of food.
(Just a little aside, has anyone seen Over the Hedge and really listened to Bruce Willis sing his little song about food? What a SMART racoon!)
I have lost 10 pounds since November 13, completely by the grace of God. :) I need to lose twenty more to be at an optimum size for health. (Did you know that just TEN pounds overweight is enough to cause diabetes?)
I have cut back on my meat, dairy and grains all but eliminating them. I still have dark chocolate treats pretty much everyday, but they are low calorie and expensive. (The cost alone helps me to limit dramatically!) I am eating mostly vegetables, beans and fruits now and I love it. Everything is very flavorful and satisfying. Seriously.
As I read for encouragement and motivation, I find that I am eating a pretty healthy diet. The more vegetables you eat the better off you are physically--as long as they are not saturated in dressings and sauces.
I would encourage you to read a book about regaining health this year. You might be surprised by what you find. I would recommend anything by Joel Fuhrman or Jordan Rubin for sure, and if you are sick already, George Malkmus at Hallelujah Acres. Although nobody agrees on everything by any means, the keys to good health seem to be eating, breathing and sleeping well and exercizing your body.
The exercize program I am using is "Fifteen Minutes a Day" with Teresa Tapp. Check her out at t-tapp.com. I LOVE the program! It makes me feel better, works, and it's fast. It is actually less than 15 minutes.
Well, I hope to encourage by this post as always! Go out there and change your life for the better through prayer, moderation and diligence....we all need to I imagine.
Anyway, I prayed and prayed about it, because I don't know about all of you but I can't do anything with my addictions in my own strength, and food is an addiction for me. I am not a person who just eats because they're hungry. I eat when I'm bored, when something looks or smells like I might wanna eat it or when I am stressed or sad, or happy or mad, lazy...sheesh.
The Lord has given me an answer to prayer by allowing me to be freer from the draw of food.
(Just a little aside, has anyone seen Over the Hedge and really listened to Bruce Willis sing his little song about food? What a SMART racoon!)
I have lost 10 pounds since November 13, completely by the grace of God. :) I need to lose twenty more to be at an optimum size for health. (Did you know that just TEN pounds overweight is enough to cause diabetes?)
I have cut back on my meat, dairy and grains all but eliminating them. I still have dark chocolate treats pretty much everyday, but they are low calorie and expensive. (The cost alone helps me to limit dramatically!) I am eating mostly vegetables, beans and fruits now and I love it. Everything is very flavorful and satisfying. Seriously.
As I read for encouragement and motivation, I find that I am eating a pretty healthy diet. The more vegetables you eat the better off you are physically--as long as they are not saturated in dressings and sauces.
I would encourage you to read a book about regaining health this year. You might be surprised by what you find. I would recommend anything by Joel Fuhrman or Jordan Rubin for sure, and if you are sick already, George Malkmus at Hallelujah Acres. Although nobody agrees on everything by any means, the keys to good health seem to be eating, breathing and sleeping well and exercizing your body.
The exercize program I am using is "Fifteen Minutes a Day" with Teresa Tapp. Check her out at t-tapp.com. I LOVE the program! It makes me feel better, works, and it's fast. It is actually less than 15 minutes.
Well, I hope to encourage by this post as always! Go out there and change your life for the better through prayer, moderation and diligence....we all need to I imagine.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
All of Me
As my friend Darlene was working on the decor for the little girls' room I realized that I had not done it yet because it symbolized some level of permanence in my mind. I have been scared of them leaving and scared of them staying. I realized, too, that it was time for me to make up my mind about what we would do if their mom doesn't get them back.
It was past time for me to give them all my heart no matter what it might cost me in the future. You see, although I love them, I had not allowed myself to love them with a reckless love. The fact remains that they are not ours. The other fact is that as their fostering parents they NEED for us to love them that way no matter how much it costs us...ME. After all, if we don't give them what they need, who will? Who will?
Today I was listening to "All of Me" by Matt Hammitt and I realized that he was speaking my fears and the change of heart I've had since Christmas. I'd like to share those lyrics with you here:
Afraid to love
Something that could break
Could I move on
If you were torn away?
And I'm so close to what I can't control
I can't give you half my heart
And pray He makes you whole
You're gonna have all of me
You're gonna have all of me
'Cause you're worth every falling tear
You're worth facing any fear
You're gonna know all my love
Even if it's not enough
Enough to mend our broken hearts
But giving you all of me is where I'll start
I won't let sadness steal you from my arms
I won't let pain keep you from my heart
I'll trade the fear of all that I could lose
For every moment I share with you
Heaven brought you to this moment, it's too wonderful to speak
You're worth all of me, you're worth all of me
So let me recklessly love you, even if I bleed
You're worth all of me, you're worth all of me
So, "it's where I'll start". Please pray for me/us, but especially THEM.
It was past time for me to give them all my heart no matter what it might cost me in the future. You see, although I love them, I had not allowed myself to love them with a reckless love. The fact remains that they are not ours. The other fact is that as their fostering parents they NEED for us to love them that way no matter how much it costs us...ME. After all, if we don't give them what they need, who will? Who will?
Today I was listening to "All of Me" by Matt Hammitt and I realized that he was speaking my fears and the change of heart I've had since Christmas. I'd like to share those lyrics with you here:
Afraid to love
Something that could break
Could I move on
If you were torn away?
And I'm so close to what I can't control
I can't give you half my heart
And pray He makes you whole
You're gonna have all of me
You're gonna have all of me
'Cause you're worth every falling tear
You're worth facing any fear
You're gonna know all my love
Even if it's not enough
Enough to mend our broken hearts
But giving you all of me is where I'll start
I won't let sadness steal you from my arms
I won't let pain keep you from my heart
I'll trade the fear of all that I could lose
For every moment I share with you
Heaven brought you to this moment, it's too wonderful to speak
You're worth all of me, you're worth all of me
So let me recklessly love you, even if I bleed
You're worth all of me, you're worth all of me
So, "it's where I'll start". Please pray for me/us, but especially THEM.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)