Happy Friday,
Faithful Weigher's. It seems like it's
usually on a Friday that I feel that I need to reach out to you all! I really missed being at our meetings the
past week. As the saying goes, "You
never know what the day brings".
This seems especially true in my world!
Thank you for your understanding and prayers for my daughter. She is not doing what she "thinks"
she should be doing but I think that she is improving a little each day. The 6 to 7 weeks of healing seems like
forever in her thinking, as a working mom with many responsibilities. It certainly would for most of us, too.
So, what a handout,
huh? I especially liked how Dr. Rita
explained what God says in His Word first, in our last week's handout, and then
gives us her thoughts on the lies of dieting that the world has led us to believe. I have to say that I have read the verses
she gave to us last week many times over
many years. I thought that I
understood them enough but in the light of these points that she made this
week, perhaps I didn't understand how they pertain to God's plan for me, my own
body and way of thinking! They were
"good for Bible day people", I must have reasoned. Until I read these things about what diets really are and what
they do to our bodies and our minds, it made those verses and the very creation
of our bodies even more clear. God said
that "It was good". The world
has told us that "It is not good, you need to do this and that to make it
good"...and I am one that bought into many of these, too. You would have thought that with all of the
wonderful book studies and insight that God has given to us in the past 2 years
of TFW, that those things which I held onto that hindered me would be
discovered and done with. Well, think
again, my sweet friends. There are more
layers to peel of this onion! I was
reading in another book, unrelated to this topic, that we so easily get wound
up in the world's idea of "life" with all of its needs and must
haves, that we smother the amazingly simple truth that God has for us. That we can have freedom in Christ, peace
that passeth all understanding which He promises us when we live our lives in
His presence and for His glory. The
stuff of the world is so much harder to follow than seeking God in the moments
of our day. Dr. Rita talks about the
bondage we are in and how food becomes our "boss" and so many other
areas of our lives that are affected by the lies of dieting. I have been there and I have coached many
clients through a rigid dieting process.
I know now why God allowed me to do those things. For such a time as this, He allowed me to do
all of that to bring me to a point of seeing much more clearly how my thinking
and desires bought into these false hopes.
Yes, with willpower and money, they worked ...for a while. Then the process got "old" and the
money was gone and life returned to the way it was before I was enticed to
"the last diet I would have to ever be on". I know this now...if I hadn't been there and
done that, I wouldn't understand where I have been as clearly as I do
today. As I counted grams of protein,
carbs, fats, calories and adhered to a restricted list of allowed foods, I
admit I had to seek God's help because on my own, I would have quit the hour
after I started. I admit that I was at a
point with physical pain that I knew I needed to do something drastic to change
where I was and to improve my health without medications. I can now understand why God allowed that
particular program to come before me and allowed me to be successful on it ,
changing the way I eat and ending a
progressive health issue. I
didn’t' do it without His help. I thank
Him for that and for improving my overall health through it. But I thank Him even more, looking back, for
the experience I had and the opportunity I had to help others, to enter into
their worlds and see their hearts, the desires, their hopes that they thought
this program would bring to them. For
some, it didn't last even a month. For
others, they were successful in their goals but when they stopped, they have
gained it all back and some even more.
The reason I feel God allowed me to go through that experience? So I could more clearly see the truth that
God had given us at creation and that He is faithful in His promises. So that I could more clearly see that when we
put our hopes and dreams into things of this world, we will be let down. So why do we go on this path of the world? Why do we allow our minds to be so strongly
influenced by the world's lie of what is good for us? I think we need to be active in learning
what is healthy for our bodies and to eat good, wholesome foods and exercise as
we can. This world has "fed" us many food items that are filled with
things that are not good for us and have created a lifestyle that is much more
sedentary than what we were created for.
Please don't think that I am saying that we can sit in our recliners
while we nibble on an apple and call it good!
But what I have come to understand and can see more clearly is
this. Why do we go to such great lengths
to follow the rules of a man-made plan when God's plan is so simple. He created man in His own image and said that
it was all good. (Genesis 1:27,31) It's really simple. In simple, child-like faith, just say
"Jesus". When you don't fully
understand what is before you, whether you are truly hungry, or if you are
attempting to fill a void inside your heart, just say "Jesus". God is faithful and He will draw you closer
to Him in your moments of your day.
There, you will unsmother the peace and freedom in Christ that we read
so many times in scriptures. He's right
there, just say "Jesus".
Blessings, my sweet Faithful Weigh Friends.
