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Hope

    Fueling the body = Fueling the spirit

    Posted in Home, Hope, Self care by
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    I made theeee most delish soup today, and it had zero sugar, sugar subs and zero dairy. It was amazing and had only FOOD in it. REAL FOOD. 

    As I continue to make changes in what I physically eat, I am seeing so many parallels to my spiritual diet. 

    I thought that I could take the easy way out of losing weight and getting control over my relationship with food, but it turns out it didn’t solve the heart issues that were at the root. I still lacked discipline, self control, and ability to hold MYSELF accountable for how I was treating my body. Because I wasn’t taking ownership of what my diet consisted of, I continued to falter. Additionally, what I sought after proved to be a manufactured substitute of the REAL FOOD that my body really needed. 

    Isn’t that the way it is with our spiritual walk though? We want the easy drive-through Christianity. The kind that doesn’t hold us accountable for our actions and choices, and just gives us the step-by-step way to go through the motions and not require any work on our part. 

    I have continued to cut out processed sugar and most sugar substitutes. What I have found is that the more subs I eat, the more I want sugar. The more I remove it altogether, the less I want it. Did I eat cake when I made it for my husband’s birthday? Yes. And I found that I still have a long way to go when it comes to self control. Because ya’ll, that stuff was LEGIT. I’m not saying I’ll never have sweets again. What I do need is to be able to not eat the sweets because I had a hard day, week or year. This is quite a process.

    The same can be said for an empty walk with God. Learning to depend on cheap substitutes to fill the voids that only He can will leave you empty and never satisfied. (HELLO SOCIAL MEDIA)

    If you’re rolling your eyes at this, go ahead, but please read it. Yes, this is something I’m talking about more now. Not sorry. I am not some self righteous organic hippie guru. I really love food so much. Pizza, wings, bread, cake, cheese danish, Chick-Fil-A fries (lawd Jesus). But I am literally telling you the honest truth, that my taste buds have changed DRASTICALLY in the past month. I found myself craving fresh vegetables today, after having grown up on canned veggies and feeding my family canned veggies. That feels like a big victory for me. Maybe it’s not for you, but I’ll celebrate yours if you’ll celebrate mine. 😉 

    I have found that removing the dependency on food has left an interesting gap in my life and heart. It has brought a lot of things I’ve been choosing not to face to the surface. I find that it takes a considerable amount of energy right now just to plan, prepare and schedule when it comes to food. When you’ve done things a certain way for almost 40 years, well change is hard. Maybe you can identify with that.

    As expected, fueling myself properly is a lot of work. As expected, fueling my Spirit properly is a lot of work. I can’t run away from either, because I need both to survive. I need both to be healthy. Our bodies are created to function best when they are given real fuel as God intended. He created foods for us to consume, and we shouldn’t be scared of them! If we are using them properly, and not as a crutch or a coping mechanism (ahem, Crystal) We should give as much care in fueling our physical bodies well as we do with fueling our spiritual lives. 

    If you’ve made it this far, I want to say thank you for listening and letting me pour out my heart. 

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    February 3, 2019

    The God of Hope

    Posted in Hope, Self care by
    Our Christmas Day Amaryllis

    Last year (2017), as part of our advent study, (Slow and Sacred Advent, I highly recommend it!) we planted a single bulb. The week’s theme was “Jesus the Seed Brings Hope” and we were supposed to plant a seed/s at the beginning of Advent and see it bloom at the end. The bulb we planted never bloomed and it was sort of disappointing for us. It grew leaves which stayed green through about half of the year. I had never planted an Amaryllis before so I didn’t know what to expect. I finally cut the leaves back, and then it seemed to just go dormant. Several months went by. I planted a couple of small things in the pot with it (because plant lady) and started watering them sporadically. Nothing happened. I thought it had died, and almost pulled it up several times to throw it away. Then, all of the sudden, one day I see leaves starting to come out of the top! Within a couple weeks The leaves were shooting up and a bud had begin to grow. I have never enjoyed watching something grow in my kitchen window so much! As Christmas approached I realized that the bloom was about to open, and sure enough it did, on Christmas Day! The thing we had planted and eagerly anticipated 13 months prior finally bloomed!!! This was so precious and meaningful to me, and I felt a depth to this that I wasn’t able to quite unpack at the time.

    This morning I heard so clearly, “The God of Hope” and I just kept repeating that and letting the truth of those words wash over me. This verse came to mind, May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing [through the experience of your faith] that by the power of the Holy Spirit you will abound in hope and overflow with confidence in His promises. (ROMANS15:13 AMP) and although I usually like another version, I really loved this particular verse in the Amplified. 

    Hope. It’s something that deep down some might feel like they don’t really deserve. Or some may have had such a lack of it in their lives, they don’t dare even try. Maybe you’re just too tired to hope for change. The thing that has lay dormant in your life, the thing that you thought had died…. Could it be that it’s just not the season for it to bloom? Could it be that you threw it away, thinking it was dead? 

    When you don’t FEEL hopeful about your situation. When it seems like there is no way things will get better. Remember, He is the God of all HOPE not the God of all feelings. Whether you feel hopeful about your situation or not, stand firm on the truth of the great HOPE we have in Jesus. I love the amplified version of this verse, because we really CAN walk in confidence in His promises. He doesn’t change. His promises are sure. His principles are eternal, and you can rely on them working every. single. time. Planting seeds = a harvest. It’s not always the harvest we expect, and doesn’t always come in our time frame, but it comes, because God doesn’t make mistakes. 

    Just like we can confident that a seed will sprout when we plant it, we can be confident in His promises. Feelings aside, what He plants, He causes to grow. He’s the God of all hope. 

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    December 31, 2018