The Battle

I heard this passage twice this morning.  Once in the car and another in an online devotional:

http://odb.org/2010/12/15/a-submission-problem/

I have said MANY times that I do not believe in coincidence.  There's more to this morning's 

conviction,  but I know that this passage from James is DEFINITELY describing my battle 

with food.  It's time to put it down and turn to the only ONE who truly satisfies my needs.

I begun reading a book, Made To Crave, Satisfying Your Deepest Desire With God, Not 

Food.  It's written by Lysa Terkeurst.  I am not sure why I decided to read it, but I am 

SO glad that I did.  This book is convicting!  For the first time in a LONG time, I am 

stopping a praying for strength instead of gobbling up the chocolate chip cookie (or five) 

that is sitting on the kitchen counter.

Oh, I wanted it so bad this morning when I walked in.  My head told me that the kids were

gone and Mike is asleep.  No one would see me, right?  I could be real quick and no one 

would know.  Besides, they would be SO good with my coffee!

I immediately stopped, gripped the counter, and prayed for strength.  As I was praying 

a thought popped into my head.  "There's oatmeal in the pantry."  So guess what I had 

for breakfast... oatmeal!  

Instead of stuffing myself with cookies and still being hungry, I sat and ate my oatmeal 

(which was actually really good!) and studied this passage in James.  

The Bible I studied from this morning is an ESV, but I'm posting from the Amplified because I 

like the way it's worded for my situation.  I've highlighted the parts that stood out the most to me.

Today is a new day and God WILL win this battle!!!!!!

James 4:1-10 (Amplified Bible)

 ¹WHAT LEADS to strife (discord and feuds) and how do conflicts (quarrels and fightings) originate among you? Do they not arise from your sensual desires that are ever warring in your bodily members?

    ²You are jealous and covet [what others have] and your desires go unfulfilled; [so] you become murderers. [To hate is to murder as far as your hearts are concerned.] You burn with envy and anger and are not able to obtain [the gratification, the contentment, and the happiness that you seek], so you fight and war. You do not have, because you do not ask. [I John 3:15.]

    ³[Or] you do ask [God for them] and yet fail to receive, because you ask with wrong purpose and evil, selfish motives. Your intention is [when you get what you desire] to spend it in sensual pleasures.

    ⁴You [are like] unfaithful wives [having illicit love affairs with the world and breaking your marriage vow to God]! Do you not know that being the world's friend is being God's enemy? So whoever chooses to be a friend of the world takes his stand as an enemy of God.

    ⁵Or do you suppose that the Scripture is speaking to no purpose that says, The Spirit Whom He has caused to dwell in us yearns over us and He yearns for the Spirit [to be welcome] with a jealous love?^(A)

    ⁶But He gives us more and more grace (^[a]power of the Holy Spirit, to meet this evil tendency and all others fully). That is why He says, God sets Himself against the proud and haughty, but gives grace [continually] to the lowly (those who are humble enough to receive it).^(B)

    ⁷So be subject to God. Resist the devil [stand firm against him], and he will flee from you.

    ⁸Come close to God and He will come close to you. [Recognize that you are] sinners, get your soiled hands clean; [realize that you have been disloyal] wavering individuals with divided interests, and purify your hearts [of your spiritual adultery].

    ⁹[As you draw near to God] be deeply penitent and grieve, even weep [over your disloyalty]. Let your laughter be turned to grief and your mirth to dejection and heartfelt shame [for your sins].

    ¹⁰Humble yourselves [feeling very insignificant] in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you [He will lift you up and make your lives significant].

   

Progress...

Simplifying...

I've gotten rid of LOTS of STUFF.  It's just stuff!  That's my motto.  I even went through my Christmas decorations, and filled up two bags of STUFF to get rid of.  GO ME!!!!!!  This is huge, can you tell?

Thirst...

I'm in the Word more now than I have been, but still not quite as much as I would like to be.  HAVE to work on this and make it a PRIORITY!

I've also pretty much given up every beverage except coffee and water.  I've had a few drinks from Starbucks, but always get "skinny with soy".  I think I have had three sodas since the first of the year and one glass of tea.  The little packets that I am able to add to my bottled water make it not quite so hard.  There are those times though (like the other day between classes), when I just REALLY want a real coke to keep me going.  I'm limiting myself though.  I've never in my life done this well!

That little black dress...

According to the Wii, I am officially down 3 pounds from the 18th of January!  That's both exciting and inspiring for me!  I haven't done anything crazy, and I don't feel like I'm depriving myself of anything.  I'm just slowing down and backing away from the food, cokes, etc.

One HUGE change I've made is with chocolate.  I have only had chocolate ONE TIME!  Chocolate was like it's own food group for me.  The funny thing is that I haven't missed it that much.

More later!

Starting today...

"Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is."  -Ephesians 5:15-17

I'm going to try and track what I do throughout the day.  I would like to do this for 5 days.  Goal # 3 is to simplify.  This may make things a little more complicated at first, but in the long run, I believe it will help me reach all 3 of my goals.
Doing this will enable me to see exactly how much time I spend doing certain thing, eliminate the unnecessary, and SIMPLIFY!  I need to SEE what I eat and SEE how much time I spend doing meaningless activities, and also what I eat and DRINK.  I need to make better use of my time!
My day's activity most likely won't be posted on here.  I'm just thinking that would be a little weird.  If I wanted everyone to know exactly what I do every minute of the day, I would re-open my twitter account (I had one at one time, but closed it after deciding it was a HUGE waste of my time!!!).

So, here goes.  I'm going to have to do a daily self-inventory for 5 days.  This will probably make me rethink LOTS of what I do, but hopefully it will help me to reach my 3 goals a little more easily!

Goal #3

I have decided what Goal #3 needs to be.  I will not elaborate because I think that it speaks for itself...

KEEP IT SIMPLE

My Three Goals #2

Well, for the first time in my life, I have a kidney stone... OUCH!  I will have to agree with those who say that having a kidney stone feels worse than childbirth.  I've honestly never felt anything like this.
Something I've considered for a while is that I need to have more WATER.  I have never been one to drink much water.  I HATE water.
My two drinks of choice are coffee and tea.  Both are water based, but neither are just plain old water.
There are SO many reasons I need to drink more water.


I've decided that GOAL #2 will be to ELEMINATE THIRST.

"for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry 
with good things."  --Psalm 107:9

When it comes to beverages, I want to drink water more than anything else.  In the past week and a half, I've gotten into this habit out of necessity.  I have to drink water to try and pass this stinkin' kidney stone.  I have had water more than anything else.  I have not completely eliminated caffeine, but I have SIGNIFICANTLY reduced the amount of non-water beverages I drink.
For example, yesterday I had one cup of coffee, one Diet Coke, and one glass of cranberry juice.  The rest of the day's hydration consisted of...WATER!
I would like to get to the point that I am drinking so much water that it is a treat to have anything else.  I want drinking water to become as much a habit as drinking tea has been for me in the past few years.

There are also other (more important) ways I would like to no longer thirst....
While I try my best to set aside time for the Word, I've never been one to consistently have a specific time that I study.  I allow busyness to change my plans and "do it later".  Now don't get me wrong, I usually do actually "do it later".  I just know that God deserves more than that!
I have never been a morning person.  Getting up early in the morning is something I despise.  In my opinion, nothing should open before at least 10am and we should never, EVER have to get up before the sun has risen.
This part of reaching the goal is going to be the toughest thing for me to do in all THREE GOALS combined.  I am going to make it a habit of getting up early and studying the Word.  I KNOW that this is going to be tough, but I also know that it is something I NEED to do.

"You have breakfast every morning because you know your body needs nourishment to sustain you through the day.  Apply the same idea to your Christian walk.  Get your spiritual nourishment when your day is fresh."         http://www.gbcmpk.org/QuietTime.htm

I also need to be MEMORIZING more scripture.  John Piper explains this really well...

Now I have GOAL #2, ELIMINATE THIRST.  I know that I can never completely eliminate my thirst for the Lord, and I wouldn't WANT to do that!  I can do my part and try to come closer to him and give him the time and efforts that he deserves.

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, 
for they will be filled."  --Matthew 5:6

"Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.The woman said to him, 'Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.'"

 --John 4:13-15

"Then Jesus declared, 'I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me 

will never be thirsty.'"  --John 6:35

"He said to me: 'It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life.'"  --Revelation 21:6

"The Spirit and the bride say, 'Come!' And let the one who hears say, 'Come!' Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life."  --Revelation 22:17

found this article...

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/health/no-sweat-swaps-to-save-you-700-calories-2428974/

this is really worth reading!

My THREE GOALS: #1

The year I turned 29, I bought myself a gift.  It was something I had wanted to do for a long time.  I had lost almost 40 pounds, so it was a reward to myself.  This is the 2nd letter of the Hebrew alphabet.  It is the symbol for Beth or "Bet".  It is on the top of my right foot.  Pardon the cruddy, blury photo.  I took it with my phone.

Okay, so I bought a little black dress this past spring.  It was a 30th birthday gift/reward.  My plan was to put it on lay-a-way and set a goal for myself.  The dress fit, but if I lost five pounds before I got it out of lay-a-way, it would fit PERFECTLY.  I was going to wear it for myself for my 30th.
Here's a picture of the dress.  Like I said, the one I bought is black.  I tried to take a picture of the actual dress, but my photography skills (or lack of!) just do not do it justice.  Isn't it cute?!?

Well, guess what?  Life happened.  Unfortunately, I didn't reach my goal.  I actually gained the five pounds... plus several more.  Happy birthday, me, here's a few extra pounds.  :(

After MUCH consideration, I've decided that my first goal is to WEAR THAT DRESS.  I would like to say I want to wear that dress by my 31st birthday, but I don't want to stress myself out with a definite date.  I'll just say that BEFORE 2011 I WILL WEAR THAT LITTLE BLACK DRESS and I WILL FEEL GOOD IN IT!!!

Getting to the point that I can wear this little black dress really shouldn't be that difficult.  Getting to the point that I can comfortably wear this little black dress and feel GOOD in it will be.  I know that I can accomplish this goal I have set for myself if I can remained focused on the end result.  

I need to remained focused on what I know my AWESOME God wants for me, and that is for me to lead a healthy, happy life so that I may better serve him!

"I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has 

called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."

                                                   -Philippians 3:14

So, here's GOAL #1.  I'm still unsure of what my other two goals will be, but will let you know

 just as soon as I decide!