Continually Dusting Me Off

Hi,

I feel the need to dust me off again. I just keep falling in the dirt, but I will not let that hinder me as I once would have. I have not been open in stating that I have not exercised since the day my computer went kaput. I focused so much on that that I let everything else go by the wayside. I have gotten the eating back on track but not the exercise. So. Tomorrow is the day. I will begin again. Thank you, Lord. Confession truly is good for the soul.

You know, I was hoping that the blogging would help to keep me on track but what it does is help me get up and go again. That is a big improvement for me. I struggle with making the changes every day. I have given up on the calorie counting but I need to at least continue to keep track of what I am eating. If I simply write it down, it keeps me on track because it forces me to be truthful and aware about what I am eating. It gives me a picture that I don't see in any other way. So I will begin again to journal what I eat, tomorrow morning. I have quit calorie counting but not the journey. Mostly because calorie counting makes me crazy and I'm also taking Dr Ripich's promise to heart -- that I don't have to do that to reverse my pre-diabetes and ultimately to reduce my weight. If I am truly eating the right things, I well get to the destination that right eating produces.

Odd how I still think of them as "changes." The Lord has been showing me something about my mind also. He's been showing me the pathway that I use to make wrong decisions and also showing me that I don't have to follow that way anymore. There is a better way. A better thought pathway -- one that promotes healing.

I think the best way to describe me is as a "sprinter." I can sprint and go hard for good short bursts and then I trip over myself and fall in the dirt. If I want to be a long distance runner I will have to change which thought paths I choose to follow. The rules for the long haul of good health are different than for the short haul of self indulgence. You have to plan better, you have to think more appropriately about consequences. You have to decide again what you really want and focus on what you believe in. You have to live up to the light you have. You have to consciously choose the better path. I am trusting the Lord to show me the better path -- the way of escape that He declares in His word:

1Co 10:13  There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

I am focusing on "but will with the temptation also make a way to escape" -- I have asked Him to show me the way of escaping obesity and He is little bit by little bit making things more clear to me. I am not sure I can even put it into words yet, but will try to. I see that there is a certain way of thinking that kind of leads me to making wrong choices. It is almost a kind of "atmosphere of the brain" which He pointed out to me one day as I was driving down the road thinking about going to the grocery store and buying something out of bounds. But I do not have to nurture that atmosphere. I can choose to recognize it for what it is and ask the Lord to show me the better way and help me to take it -- which He has been doing.

I must remember that babies learn to walk by taking a few steps and falling down, over and over again -- perhaps hundreds of times if you count them. But one day they walk and no longer fall down because they have learned how to balance themselves naturally. They don't beat themselves up for falling down. They just get up and go again. Thank you very much! I am really experiencing that falling down part. I take a few steps and then fall down -- over and over again. Part of me is embarrassed and wants to think "why can't I just do what others do" -- "why must I continually repeat my mistakes" but that kind of thinking will not get me where I want to go. If I start to "dwell" there -- I might get stuck there sitting in the dirt, as in the past. But I now know I don't have to be stuck there!! Just get up, brush off the dirt and go again. Praise the Lord. I am grateful for forgiveness and the seventy times seven.

Matthew 18:21-22  Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.

I am grateful the Lord has given me the courage to keep getting up and brushing myself off and going again. With His kindness He has taken the burden out of the falling down. I don't blame myself anymore, I just get up and go again, knowing that one of these days I will be balanced and able to go on without so much falling. I will have learned the new path and be walking it. That, alone, is such a blessing. I was a sprinter because I kept quitting before. If I stop quitting when I fall, then I'll become a long distance runner. It is as simple as that. Don't quit when you fall. Just get up and go again and soon you will have covered a lot of ground and be in a different and new place. Praise the Lord!

God bless your efforts. Be encouraged to get up and go again.  You can take advantage of the seventy times seven, too -- just go at it again.

Be back soon,

--Marcia