I am thankful that
God is never tired of listening to me. I
have seen His faithfulness in my life over and over and know that He is always
with me. This healthy-eating journey is
no different once I invited Him into this area of my life, that is. We tend to think that eating is just a part
of our lives because we need to do it to survive and it's up to us how we do
it! Well, the truth is, on my own, I
"do it" way too much! Knowing
that God designed this amazing body that I am blessed to live in, brings God
into the keeping of this body. I have
learned that it's not about how I look in the mirror or how fast I can run a
marathon or having every picture of me air-brushed to perfection. It's more about what I am doing to this
temple that He gave me through His grace and mercy at the cross! I have learned that I need to care for His
temple in order to continue to serve Him in the many ways He has given me. I am not able to do these things when I am
not feeling good, unable to walk due to hip and knee issues or allergies that
keep me captive in my home. So, I am on
this healthy-eating journey for a lifetime!
The Faithful Weigh is a grace place where I am learning about those
areas of my life and my character, that needs to be changed in order to be the
best I can be for the glory of God. One
of the exercises we are working on this week in our book study is what drives
us to unconscious eating. Those time
when we just aimlessly go to the kitchen and put food in our mouths. Those emotions that we experience that have
FOOD written all over them! This
exercise brings them to the surface as we desire to eat and live a healthier lifestyle.
My journey began this week by asking God to show me the emotions on our
chart that He wanted me to deal with. I
knew that I needed to silence my voice of justification as I read down this
list. I knew that God would not speak to
me when my words were already there. So,
in prayerful consideration, I started reading down through these emotions. The first one that I came to that made me
stop and ponder was
"bored". My words that
immediately came to my mind were,
"Ha, I am never bored! I am
a very busy woman with more to do than the time of day!" Oops!
Forgive me, Lord, for
not waiting for YOUR words. Then
I thought….there are times, many times really, that I will just wander to the
kitchen for something sweet or salty when I don't want to do the many things on
my "to do" list, so I am feeling a little bored because there isn't
anything that I immediately feel like doing.
Aha! Have I ever thought of
being bored in this way before? I don't
think so. The next emotion on the list
was "overwhelmed". Yes, I
have been in this place many times.
Mostly because I have taken on too many things to do, either at home our
outside the home. All good things but
perhaps too many? Then the situations
and issues in our lives, my kid's lives
and others around me that I tend to take on as my own? Yes, I have been overwhelmed, a lot! What do I usually do? As I thought about my reactions during this
emotion, I can clearly see myself wandering to the kitchen and nibbling on
anything that is in sight. I confess
that it is probably not something healthy like broccoli or carrots! The third emotion that God stopped me on was
"reward". Now, is this really
an emotion or is it more a reaction to an achievement? It's both to me! As I thought about this one, I learned that I reward myself over every
little thing I may have accomplished! I
get home from work and feel I deserve a treat because of all that I got done at
the office that day. I get home from an
exhausting day of shopping, doctor
appointments, playing with grandkids, or whatever fun things I may have done
and I think I deserve a treat because it was a tiring day! So, after I take off my shoes and put my coat
in the closet, I head for the cupboard or the snack basket in the corner of my
counter! Hmmm….it seems that I am not
putting into my temple things that are truly needed but more importantly, I am
replacing my true need for God's presence in these times of boredom, feeling overwhelmed and thinking I need to reward myself, with food! Wow!
Talk about feeling overwhelmed!
Be ready when you ask God to show you the errors of your ways. He is faithful and just to do so! The next thing I knew I needed to ask God for
was the actions I needed to take to fill those moments with Him instead of
food. Earlier that morning, I was reading in Psalms
32. It is filled with so many verses
that encourages and lifts one up. Verses
10 & 11 say, "Many are the woes of the wicked, but the Lord's
unfailing love surrounds the man who trust in him. Rejoice in the Lord and be glad, you
righteous, sing, all you who are upright in heart!" These words came quickly back to me. This is what I can do when I aimlessly wander
to the kitchen. I can rejoice and sing
His praises! I love to sing and I know
that you cannot sing with your mouth full of
food! The next thing that came to
me, I am still in awe of because I knew it was straight from the Lord. The first two verses in that next chapter,
Psalms 33 say, "Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous; it is fitting for the upright to praise
him. Praise the Lord with the harp; make
music to him on the ten-stringed lyre."
Remember that I read these
verses before I even started looking at
this emotion chart. When I read the
verse about praising the Lord with the harp, I looked across my living room to
my beautiful little Pakistanian Celtic harp and said, "Oh, I so want to get playing that
again." Immediately after I had
thought about praising God with singing, I said out loud "I can play my harp instead of
eating!" God had given me two
answer through His Word even before I asked the question, "What can I
do?" Isn't that just like God?
Meeting our needs so perfectly designed for us when we stop our
destructive ways and seek His way? I am
still in awe of His love and care for me in this area of my life. When I truly think about it, it is a rather
big area of my life, as I need to feed my body to sustain it. Even more, I need to seek and listen to God
to sustain me for eternity! What a
journey I am on with Him! I thank Him everyday for the joy, love and grace He
so freely gives to me.
No comments:
Post a Comment