I praise you because you made me in such a wonderful way. I know how amazing that was! Psalm 139:14 ERV

"Working on your body image is a long-term job. Many of us have spent years comparing ourselves to models and Hollywood stars and we're so used to putting ourselves down that it's a difficult habit to break." ~ Paige Waehner

I was reading this article and I thought about how the enemy wants us to feel bad about the way we look. The more he gets us discouraged and depressed about our appearance, the more we take our eyes off the Lord and become frantic to try to look better. Think about this for a minute…would God ever ever look at us in disgust and say "you are so unattractive!" 

Next time you are tempted to compare yourself to someone else, stop right there and retrain your thoughts. Start praising God about the way we are fearfully and wonderfully made. I start thanking the Lord for the way he made my legs really thick:):):). The world will not ever complement me on my legs. But God made me exactly this way and he loves my legs...and I sure can walk around good with these legs!

What Do you Fear About Being More Healthy?

How many people want to lose weight and just cannot begin and take the first step? I am a former couch potato, at one time weighing over 80 pounds my present weight. Actually this is not at all the significant part of this blog. Let me assure you that the significant part is that I am actually keeping it off. That is another story.

But let's assume that the losing part is what you need to do right now. Perhaps you have health problems that are motivating you to lose pounds. Maybe you want to improve your marriage(and it WILL improve your marriage!). Maybe you just want to run around with your kids or grandkids and you are not able to do this with your present weight and fitness. I have been in your shoes!  What I am going to write is not a quick, easy fix to losing weight. But I am going to be tell you some secrets that you need to understand deep in your heart for  you to do this and maintain this weight loss.

Yoda is 100% correct…you must "train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose." What I had to do and still have to continue to do is to not have a fear that I will starve or ever feel a hunger pain. Many of us a real fear of getting hungry. The thought of getting a little hungry scares us and we want to eat to get rid of that feeling. People in third world countries deal with a more than a little hunger every day of their short lives. We will not starve! I think that if I had visited India when I was 80 pounds overweight, I would have had such a feeling of remorse over my fixation with food when I saw how little the kids had to eat.

We have way too much food to eat in America. We have a fast food restaurant on every corner. We have grocery  stores full of every known food. But I think that is exactly our problem. We fear that a healthy eating plan will starve us and make us do without the stuffed feeling of overeating. We fear that we may have to do without our favorite food and feel cheated. We fear that we will not have enough variety in our food; that our diet may be plain from now on.

Try this experiment for one week. Write down every single food that you eat or would like to eat if it was available. Now at the end of this week, take every single item that you wrote down and ask yourself,"Is this item of food more important to me than my health, my marriage, my children?" Be honest with yourself. Which food item is worth more than these things? If the answer to every single item on your list is "no, they are not more important than these things," then it is time to face your fears.

Are you afraid to face the idea that you may not need to eat a bag of chips or the amount of cookies that you must have to feel full?  I made a box and put inside this box the food items that I felt like would be good for me to eat. I put things like vegetables, fruit, lean meats, healthy protein shake, yogurt, etc. I left off things like cookies, chips, french fries and even my favorite thing in the world…cheesecake! I had to grieve over the loss of each one but I decided that there were things in life more important than these items of food.

I think someday I will write a blog about naming your "why" that you want to commit to something. But for now, write down your "why" for wanting to lose weight and beginning to exercise. If your "why" is powerful enough, you will get over your fear of becoming more healthy.

Do You Want to Be Strong Without Depending on Chocolate?

Isaiah 30:15-16 (ERV)

15 The Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, says, “If you come back to me you will be saved. Only by remaining calm and trusting in me can you be strong.”

But you don’t want to do that. 16 You say, “No, we need fast horses for battle.” 

On any given day, okay most days, I need to find the strength to get through the day. I feel like there are way too many items to check off my to do list! I feel defeated before I even start the day and want to give up because I feel so discouraged…like the battle is too overwhelming for me. So at that point, I have two choices. 

First choice, eat!!!  Eat something that will make me feel better, give me energy, give me strength. I can't tell you how many times I take the first choice. It may be evening time and I have too much schoolwork to get done and I will spend my evenings working on that, as well as laundry and dinner and a host of other things. Eating something unhealthy seems to be a great solution to give me the energy I need. I can sit down and get busy and have a "snack" right beside me and I tell myself this will be perfect.  Only problem is when I finish that snack and I have to stop and get another snack and then another and suddenly I realize that the thing that was supposed to make me strong made me feel weak. Has that ever happen to you?

Read what it says in Isaiah, “Only by remaining calm and trusting in me can you be strong”But you don’t want to do that. 16 You say, “No, we need fast horses for battle.” .

I took that right out of the Bible!  I thought,"God, you read my mind."  You told me that if I wanted to be strong, the way to accomplish this is to remain calm and trust in you.  But instead, I say "I don't want to do that. You were not enough for the kind of strength I needed." God's ways are always going to seem contrary to the world's logic. When the world says to go shopping and buy something you don't need then you will feel better, God says remain calm and trust in me. When the world says to yell at your kids or your spouse and you will feel better, God says just trust me. When the world says to go through the closest drive-in and order something very unhealthy because you had a bad day, God says "Can you trust me, instead of food?' 

The second choice is always the choice that works every single time! There is not enough energy in a candy bar or bag of chips to help you through your day. The enemy will lie to you every time and a lot of time you will listen to him. And then you know what he has the nerve to do…condemn you for eating the whole thing. You just cannot win if you choose that way. Next time you get to this point where you are desperate for some strength, remember this promise:

Isaiah 40:29 

He helps tired people be strong. He gives power to those without it.

If God asks me to give up cheesecake…is that too much to ask?

And so, dear brothers, I plead with you to give your bodies to God. Let them be a living sacrifice, holy—the kind he can accept. When you think of what he has done for you, is this too much to ask?  (Romans 12:1)

I have noticed that over the past two years, as I have denied myself the junk foods I used to enjoy, the Lord has increased my focus on him. So many Christians do not realize the power of a "denial list." Daniel created a denial list when he was forced to leave his beloved homeland and was taken to Babylon. The richness and temptations of the kingdom of Babylon(like America) could have sent him spiraling down a dangerous road. Instead he decided that he needed to protect his body, his mind, his walk with God by taking certain things out of his life. 

If you recall, Daniel was the guy who got thrown into the lion's den because he bowed down to God and not King Nebuchadnezzar. The background to the story involved Daniel giving up some sleep, maybe lunch or perhaps popularity in order to continue to pray many times a day. I am sure it was not the popular thing for the chosen group from Israel to be against the traditions of Babylon.    

Also, in the beginning verses, Daniel made a denial list about food. Read what happened:

"But Daniel made up his mind not to eat the food and wine given to them by the king. He asked the superintendent for permission to eat other things instead." 

Interesting. He made up his mind that he would not eaten certain foods.  Have you ever done that? Have you decided that once and for all you will stop eating things that have no nutritional value and add way too many calories that you simply do not need? Have you considered allowing "your body to glorify Christ" and not detract from your testimony? There is a clear decision to be made. Is there a single item of food that you could look at and say,"you are not worth more to me than what I will gain if I deny myself a bite"? Cheesecake is a precious food item to me.  I love Cheesecake Factory!  However, a couple of years ago I looked at cheesecake right in the eye and said,"you are no longer worth it to me."

Look at the next part of the story:

"Well, at the end of the ten days, Daniel and his three friends looked healthier and better nourished than the youths who had been eating the food supplied by the king!"

I have been rewarded by denying myself certain foods.  I look healthier than I used to two years ago.  A lot of people have commented on this. Not only do I look healthier, I feel more confident and more focused in other areas. God did something similar to Daniel.

"God gave these four youths great ability to learn." 

God is patiently waiting for us to do things his way, instead of our way. His ways are always going to help us and not harm us. Truthfully, it seems like he is trying to harm us and make us give up wonderful things. But the reality is he is all about us doing things that will bring glorify to his name. Being healthy brings glory to his name. Back to the beginning verse:

"When you think of what he has done for you, is this too much to ask?"