Have you ever been awestruck by someone or something? Something that someone did or said or in awe of something that you saw or experiences? Have you ever heard the phrase, "If its to good to be true then it probably is." Ever thought those two things at the same time? Its like magic; magic is great but its certainly not real or true and most certainly I am in awe of the magician, someone that can fool me into believing that something or someone has disappeared but maybe magic is a bad example, let me see if I can explain...
We are often struck by people in our lives, whether for good or for bad, people make impressions in our lives. People can certainly be too good to be true, the question is when do we stop worrying about when we might find out about that less then stellar attribute? Granted all people have both good and not so good qualities. We try to focus on the positive and look past the negative but when you've been hurt time and time again it starts getting harder to not be looking out for the negative.
Going on vacation means a lot of planning, if your like me I tend to pack several days ahead because I know that I will forget something important. I know that there are stores where I am going but I really don't want two of something so I fret and plan and make lists of what I need to bring when I go somewhere. The problem with packing simply everything you might need is that your luggage get very heavy and burdensome.
I used to be a light packer, I went to Pakistan with one backpack and a normal size carry one. You can't just go out to a store in Pakistan and purchase something like you can in the States, but I trusted in my instincts as to what I needed to bring and what I could leave behind.
Luggage restrictions on flights have gotten pretty tough, and unless you want to pay to fly those other bags you better try to figure out how to only bring a carry one. Its the same with your relationship baggage, you have to figure out what is necessary and unnecessary to bring with you from place to place. We all think all of our hurts and broken pieces of our hearts are important enough to carry with us, but just like that extra bag they can really cost you when you travel.
So what to do with relationship baggage? Any baggage, relational or not, is expensive. You've put your sweat and tears into your relationship and its difficult to just walk away from it, so what are you willing to bring with you?
As a really bad example, let's think about when it might be appropriate to bring a hair dryer with you on vacation. Yes, we all must have great hair each day, everyday but don't most hotels have hair dryers in their rooms? Yes, there are things that we have learned from each and every relationship but don't we owe it to the next person to give them a chance to prove that we might actually need that hair dryer. However there are somethings, like my flat iron that I just can't do without. Things like my autonomy, my self-worth and my self-awareness. I've been known to loose my luggage from time to time, so I always carry those things in my carry-on.
Not that I am an expert on anything and especially relationships but here is what I know...your baggage is important to you, its who you are and what you are. But sometimes you might need to just let our hair dry naturally. Your baggage just might be holding you back from something really great. Sometimes the best times are when your hair is messy and frizzy.
So the next time you are tempted to drag that heavy suitcase through the airport, make a list of things that you just might be able to turn over to Him. Its amazing how much of your burden He can bear. When you turn things over to Him, He shoulders the burden and you don't have to lug it around anymore. Its really great when you can skip and run instead of dragging your troubles around behind you.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Sunday, May 22, 2011
His lessons
I've been on a quest for the past several years to lose quite a bit of weight, like more then 100 lbs, and just the other day I realized that I weighed less them my goal weight and had dropped another dress size, so to celebrate my achievement I thought I would share the journey with you.
I really don't know when it was exactly, but I remember the day I decided to do something about my weight issue. Really if you ask people around me, they would have never considered me overweight but I simply didn't feel good about myself and as I sat at the table eating my second large helping I decided that it was time to "Stop the madness!"
Losing a small child is a pretty big undertaking. Breaking an addiction to food is like overcoming any addiction but maybe even harder because you have to eat to survive and food is everywhere. When I think of breaking an addiction to drugs or alcohol, it would seem the first step is to simply not buy it or go places that you might be exposed to it, you can't do that with food. Well I guess you can in a sense, you can choose what you buy but you can't just not buy it or avoid places that it might be served. Temptation is everywhere, food is on every corner. The urge to eat is primal, its not something you can just ignore. So at least in my opinion changing your eating habits is much harder then breaking other habits. And yes, there are withdrawal symptoms and again because of the availability of food in the world they are much harder to overcome.
Losing large amounts of weight is a lot like having faith in Him. I wasn't keen to my theme song when all this began but the theme of Trust and Obey would ring true even while changing your eating habits. You really have to do a lot of soul searching when trying to discover what your triggers are and you really have to have faith that even though you are not seeing the results you were looking for, you are still doing what it right.
Believe me I could have given up long ago, especially when it took almost a year to loose 40 lbs. In fact the results were so slow coming I stopped weighing myself and just had faith that I was loosing the weight. I mean 40lbs in a year is less then 1lb a week, most "diets" say you can loose 3lbs a week easily. In fact I looked at one "diet" that promised 15lbs in a week. Just as an aside, loosing that much weight that fast is dangerous and probably a lot of hype, the slower you loose the weight, the more likely you will be to keep it off, but less then 1lb a week was really painful, but just like when you are believing in Him for something you just have to keep on keeping on, so that's what I did.
The weight took so long to come off because it really took me that long to really get my eating under control. Instead of "going on a diet", I was changing my eating habits and habits that had been developed over 30+ years take a while to change. I knew that this would have to be a lifestyle change not just something to do to drop a few pounds and really because I was still eating and not starving myself it wasn't as painful as you would think.
When you go on a "diet" the change is so severe that your body goes into shock. You feel deprived all the time and all you want to do is eat what you can't have. When you change your eating habits you learn that you still get to eat the stuff that you love and you never feel deprived. When you grown in Him, you learn that just because you've given up something you find that there are better things in store.
As I shrunk I learned a lot about myself, I learned that when faced with adversity I was able to overcome. There is no magic secret to loosing weight, it is a long hard road. If I only needed to loose a few pounds it would have been different, but I literally lost a small middle schooler, you don't do that over night. Adversity did come, when faced with the choice to feed my feelings or exercise, the chocolate ice cream in the freezer was really hard to ignore. And although I didn't always ignore it, I was able to find other ways to nurse my sadness and with my love affair of anything chocolate that was a major accomplishment.
There's no magic secret to living either. Sure there are times that you cave to the chocolate ice cream and there are other times when you walk to the freezer, open the door and before you reach in you say to yourself, "not today". We all have moments in our lives that need to be fed, but always turning to food is a recipe for disaster. At the time, the support I needed wasn't available but I did try to look to the heavens for the support I needed. Setting out on this road I knew I would need lots of help and I found that praying, when faced with a decision between that scrumptious chocolate ice cream or a walk around the block, really seemed to help. Probably because for one short moment I took my mind of the ice cream's deliciousness, but whatever the reason changing my thinking seemed to be easier when I looked heavenward.
As my attitude and eating habits started to become permanent the weight finally started falling off faster. After the initial 40 lbs in the first year the next 60 lbs came off within a few short months. I had lost 5 pants sizes and 100 lbs and I was so busy feeling better about myself that I didn't even really know that those last 60 lbs were gone. Like I said I stopped weighing myself so it wasn't until I made a trip to the doctor that I really knew what I had done.
The day that I walked into the "skinny girl's store" and put on a pair of pants in a size I had never been was quite a memorable day. I took those pants home and sized them up to some pants that I was wearing just a year and a half earlier, and I almost cried. I remember letting out a little victory squeal in the dressing room when those pants zipped up without any problem. I had dreamed of shopping in that store for a long time and it was finally a reality,
I think with most things motivation is key. You have to have a goal in mind or a purpose to really encourage you as you push forward. My goal was to feel better about myself and to not be so concerned when I had my picture taken. For many months I looked at the last picture I allowed to be taken of me. I remember it well and I remember how terrible it made me feel when I looked at it. But like I said, I was pretty happy when the first 40 lbs came off, I was impressed with myself and my accomplishment.
If I didn't lose any more weight I would have been fine, but the next 60 lbs just kind of fell off because my eating habits had permanently changed. I had set a goal for my weight loss and I was so close after that year and a half, but again I was feeling so good about myself, I really didn't care if those last few pounds ever came off. I was in a size I had never been, my BMI was in normal range, I felt better physically, and emotionally and most of all I wasn't as worried about having my picture taken.
Just as a disclaimer, I am not suggesting that people can't be happy when their BMI is high, but I wasn't so I choose to do something about it, and it is something you have to choose to do for yourself, for whatever reason it is, you have to do it for yourself, Don't do it for your husband or wife or significant other, do it because you want to. It's always easier to do something you want to do because your success in solely in your hands.
One thing I learned was never allow yourself to feel deprived. There is nothing wrong with a scoop of ice cream or whipped cream in your latte, the key is moderation. Oh and my favorite tidbit of knowledge, dark chocolate is actually pretty good for you and if I'm not mistaken there are less calories in dark chocolate then milk chocolate, just don't forget that a serving size is two squares and not the entire bar.
Well now its been another year and finally those last few pounds have come off and another dress size is gone. I have literally lost the equivalent of another person. I actually enjoy shopping for clothes and I love looking at my profile in the mirror but the lessons I have learned over the past few years will be a permanent reminder of how far I have come. Yes there are still more lessons to be learned but because I know that I can be successful in what I put my mind to, hopefully the lessons won't be so hard fought.
I really don't know when it was exactly, but I remember the day I decided to do something about my weight issue. Really if you ask people around me, they would have never considered me overweight but I simply didn't feel good about myself and as I sat at the table eating my second large helping I decided that it was time to "Stop the madness!"
Losing a small child is a pretty big undertaking. Breaking an addiction to food is like overcoming any addiction but maybe even harder because you have to eat to survive and food is everywhere. When I think of breaking an addiction to drugs or alcohol, it would seem the first step is to simply not buy it or go places that you might be exposed to it, you can't do that with food. Well I guess you can in a sense, you can choose what you buy but you can't just not buy it or avoid places that it might be served. Temptation is everywhere, food is on every corner. The urge to eat is primal, its not something you can just ignore. So at least in my opinion changing your eating habits is much harder then breaking other habits. And yes, there are withdrawal symptoms and again because of the availability of food in the world they are much harder to overcome.
Losing large amounts of weight is a lot like having faith in Him. I wasn't keen to my theme song when all this began but the theme of Trust and Obey would ring true even while changing your eating habits. You really have to do a lot of soul searching when trying to discover what your triggers are and you really have to have faith that even though you are not seeing the results you were looking for, you are still doing what it right.
Believe me I could have given up long ago, especially when it took almost a year to loose 40 lbs. In fact the results were so slow coming I stopped weighing myself and just had faith that I was loosing the weight. I mean 40lbs in a year is less then 1lb a week, most "diets" say you can loose 3lbs a week easily. In fact I looked at one "diet" that promised 15lbs in a week. Just as an aside, loosing that much weight that fast is dangerous and probably a lot of hype, the slower you loose the weight, the more likely you will be to keep it off, but less then 1lb a week was really painful, but just like when you are believing in Him for something you just have to keep on keeping on, so that's what I did.
The weight took so long to come off because it really took me that long to really get my eating under control. Instead of "going on a diet", I was changing my eating habits and habits that had been developed over 30+ years take a while to change. I knew that this would have to be a lifestyle change not just something to do to drop a few pounds and really because I was still eating and not starving myself it wasn't as painful as you would think.
When you go on a "diet" the change is so severe that your body goes into shock. You feel deprived all the time and all you want to do is eat what you can't have. When you change your eating habits you learn that you still get to eat the stuff that you love and you never feel deprived. When you grown in Him, you learn that just because you've given up something you find that there are better things in store.
As I shrunk I learned a lot about myself, I learned that when faced with adversity I was able to overcome. There is no magic secret to loosing weight, it is a long hard road. If I only needed to loose a few pounds it would have been different, but I literally lost a small middle schooler, you don't do that over night. Adversity did come, when faced with the choice to feed my feelings or exercise, the chocolate ice cream in the freezer was really hard to ignore. And although I didn't always ignore it, I was able to find other ways to nurse my sadness and with my love affair of anything chocolate that was a major accomplishment.
There's no magic secret to living either. Sure there are times that you cave to the chocolate ice cream and there are other times when you walk to the freezer, open the door and before you reach in you say to yourself, "not today". We all have moments in our lives that need to be fed, but always turning to food is a recipe for disaster. At the time, the support I needed wasn't available but I did try to look to the heavens for the support I needed. Setting out on this road I knew I would need lots of help and I found that praying, when faced with a decision between that scrumptious chocolate ice cream or a walk around the block, really seemed to help. Probably because for one short moment I took my mind of the ice cream's deliciousness, but whatever the reason changing my thinking seemed to be easier when I looked heavenward.
As my attitude and eating habits started to become permanent the weight finally started falling off faster. After the initial 40 lbs in the first year the next 60 lbs came off within a few short months. I had lost 5 pants sizes and 100 lbs and I was so busy feeling better about myself that I didn't even really know that those last 60 lbs were gone. Like I said I stopped weighing myself so it wasn't until I made a trip to the doctor that I really knew what I had done.
The day that I walked into the "skinny girl's store" and put on a pair of pants in a size I had never been was quite a memorable day. I took those pants home and sized them up to some pants that I was wearing just a year and a half earlier, and I almost cried. I remember letting out a little victory squeal in the dressing room when those pants zipped up without any problem. I had dreamed of shopping in that store for a long time and it was finally a reality,
I think with most things motivation is key. You have to have a goal in mind or a purpose to really encourage you as you push forward. My goal was to feel better about myself and to not be so concerned when I had my picture taken. For many months I looked at the last picture I allowed to be taken of me. I remember it well and I remember how terrible it made me feel when I looked at it. But like I said, I was pretty happy when the first 40 lbs came off, I was impressed with myself and my accomplishment.
If I didn't lose any more weight I would have been fine, but the next 60 lbs just kind of fell off because my eating habits had permanently changed. I had set a goal for my weight loss and I was so close after that year and a half, but again I was feeling so good about myself, I really didn't care if those last few pounds ever came off. I was in a size I had never been, my BMI was in normal range, I felt better physically, and emotionally and most of all I wasn't as worried about having my picture taken.
Just as a disclaimer, I am not suggesting that people can't be happy when their BMI is high, but I wasn't so I choose to do something about it, and it is something you have to choose to do for yourself, for whatever reason it is, you have to do it for yourself, Don't do it for your husband or wife or significant other, do it because you want to. It's always easier to do something you want to do because your success in solely in your hands.
One thing I learned was never allow yourself to feel deprived. There is nothing wrong with a scoop of ice cream or whipped cream in your latte, the key is moderation. Oh and my favorite tidbit of knowledge, dark chocolate is actually pretty good for you and if I'm not mistaken there are less calories in dark chocolate then milk chocolate, just don't forget that a serving size is two squares and not the entire bar.
Well now its been another year and finally those last few pounds have come off and another dress size is gone. I have literally lost the equivalent of another person. I actually enjoy shopping for clothes and I love looking at my profile in the mirror but the lessons I have learned over the past few years will be a permanent reminder of how far I have come. Yes there are still more lessons to be learned but because I know that I can be successful in what I put my mind to, hopefully the lessons won't be so hard fought.
Monday, May 9, 2011
His race
When your traveling down life's path there are some people that are always looking out for you. The Bible calls them "Your great cloud of witnesses." Some maybe older but most will be wiser because they have already run the race or at least are further ahead then you are.
I don't know many people who run marathons but the faces on those runners when they finish tell me that the last few miles were the hardest. Yes, they are happy they finished but they've had to endure a lot of pain to make it to mile 26. I've watched races where the runners have passed out as soon as they cross the finish line because they simply don't have anything left to give. I've seen runners fall and get back up with blood running down their legs, because it's so important that they finish and finish well.
I've never run a marathon or a 5k but I have been part of the spectators and I've seen men and women who were about to give up run a little harder when they hear the cheers of those that are watching. Something about having people cheer you on really motivates you to do better. Our "great cloud of witnesses" do that for us. They are the ones that bring us water, while we are running our race. They cheer for us when we are doing well and they encourage us when we are struggling. They are the ones that come a long side of us and help to carry us through to the finish line.
In this marathon, we call life, we need our cloud of witnesses to cheer us on because just like an actual marathon you start to wear out as you get closer to the finish. You start off well, keeping pace with the other runners but as you continue to run your legs start to give out on you, your body starts to turn on you and your mind starts reminding you of your weaknesses. You start to doubt your ability to finish, your legs start to tremble underneath you and your body starts to scream. That's when those people along the sidelines become so important. They remind you that they have run before you and they know what is going on inside of you, but they finished, you can too.
No doubt I have had my cloud of witnesses cheering me on over the last several months. They have brought me water, figuratively and metaphorically. They've helped to carry me when I had no more strength and they have reminded me that finishing and finishing well is important. I'm far from the finish line but I will finish and I will finish well because of the encouragement from my cloud of witnesses.
I've come a long way in a short time, but sometimes you just have to decide that enough is enough and step into the light. Sure there will be more battles to be fought, but with your "great cloud of witnesses" at the ready, the battles seem to be fewer and farther between.
I'd love to be able to run, but a bad knee keeps me from attempting it. If I could run I don't think I would be considered a real runner because I would really only run for the fun of it and to enjoy the beautiful mornings or evenings, but in a way we are running a race in life. No I'm not talking about the rat race, I'm talking about the marathon that we call life.Hebrews 1:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us...
I don't know many people who run marathons but the faces on those runners when they finish tell me that the last few miles were the hardest. Yes, they are happy they finished but they've had to endure a lot of pain to make it to mile 26. I've watched races where the runners have passed out as soon as they cross the finish line because they simply don't have anything left to give. I've seen runners fall and get back up with blood running down their legs, because it's so important that they finish and finish well.
I've never run a marathon or a 5k but I have been part of the spectators and I've seen men and women who were about to give up run a little harder when they hear the cheers of those that are watching. Something about having people cheer you on really motivates you to do better. Our "great cloud of witnesses" do that for us. They are the ones that bring us water, while we are running our race. They cheer for us when we are doing well and they encourage us when we are struggling. They are the ones that come a long side of us and help to carry us through to the finish line.
In this marathon, we call life, we need our cloud of witnesses to cheer us on because just like an actual marathon you start to wear out as you get closer to the finish. You start off well, keeping pace with the other runners but as you continue to run your legs start to give out on you, your body starts to turn on you and your mind starts reminding you of your weaknesses. You start to doubt your ability to finish, your legs start to tremble underneath you and your body starts to scream. That's when those people along the sidelines become so important. They remind you that they have run before you and they know what is going on inside of you, but they finished, you can too.
No doubt I have had my cloud of witnesses cheering me on over the last several months. They have brought me water, figuratively and metaphorically. They've helped to carry me when I had no more strength and they have reminded me that finishing and finishing well is important. I'm far from the finish line but I will finish and I will finish well because of the encouragement from my cloud of witnesses.
I've come a long way in a short time, but sometimes you just have to decide that enough is enough and step into the light. Sure there will be more battles to be fought, but with your "great cloud of witnesses" at the ready, the battles seem to be fewer and farther between.
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