I am so happy it's Saturday. I work two part time bookkeeping jobs. In my world Dec and early January are beyond hectic with much to do to get ready for the end of the year close. Last night I finally finished everything I know of that I needed to get done to get ready for the Accountant to come in and do her end of the year magic at my M,W,F job. I feel like I can breath today. But here's the really good part, even though it's been a highly stressful time for me the last 2 weeks, and I'm a major stress eater, when I got on the scales this morning it showed I'd lost 3.5 lbs in the last 9 days. WhaHoo, Yay Me and more importantly YAY God cause there is no way it would of happened without His help and guidance on the journey.
Interestingly it was right as I was celebrating the loss of these lbs that I read Day 11 of Made to Crave: 21 Day Challenge. It starts with Lysa talking about passing on the complimentary Chocolate Cake that was brought to their table when she and her husband went out to dinner to celebrate their Anniversary. She talks about how important it was for her to be able to do this and lists all the reasons why they were so important. In the past this would of been extremely discouraging to me because that's just not the way I'm made. I have just as many reasons why having some cake would of been the right choice for me. Here's where it's easy to get bogged down, what are reasons to me may sound like excuses to other people and maybe for them they would just be excuses, but for me they are solid reasons. Each of us is different. In 1 Corinthians 12:27 it says: Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. It doesn't say we're the head or the leg, or the finger it says we're the body. The body has many parts and each part was designed for different things, reacts differently and has different needs. It's the same for us as individuals. It is so important for us to quit trying to fit ourselves into somebody else's box and judging ourselves by somebody else's measurement. We need to embrace who and what God made us to be and ask Him to show us what will work for each of us. It is also extremely important be honest with ourselves and make sure our reasons are really reasons and not rationalizations or the dreaded excuse.
For the last 20+ years I've played Bunco with a group of ladies once a month. It is a very important night to me. My husband realized very quickly that letting me have this one night out, with no family responsibilities made me much more available to him and later to our son that I was without it. I come back happier and more ready to take on whatever needs to be taken on. Let me say here how thankful I've always been for his attitude, that's the one night of the month that's totally mine, I've never had to worry about him getting home on time, child care, dinner any of the normal things, he has always taken care of all that, for this one night a month. What a gift. Not exactly where I was going with this but maybe somebody needed to read it. The point I was going for was that last week at Bunco I gave myself permission not to worry about what I ate, to just enjoy the night, high carbs, chocolate, whatever was offered. I was just going to go with the flow and not worry about it. For me this was the right choice, I didn't feel deprived or that I was missing anything, both of which have been mighty sabotors in previous weight loss endeavors. Even after giving myself a free pass I noticed I ate less of everything than I would of in the past, and I was back to my plan the next day.
On the other hand a friend contacted me the next morning asking me to pray because she had got on the scales and gained a little. I am so thankful to have the kinds of friends who will call on me when they have a problem and that I know I can call on when I need help of some kind as well. We talked about it and prayed together about it. I had been at a function with her earlier in the week and marveled at her choices, she had been amazing, she just ate a little of the main course and I don't think she even nibbled on any of the candy, or had any of the different desserts that were offered. It was easy to remind her of this and help her see that she was winning the struggle, to help her focus on the positive and not worry so much about what the scales said, that wasn't the whole story. So what I'm saying is we both had the same choices but what was right for me wasn't right for her. Neither of us were wrong, we're just different. There's one other thing to point out here, while we prayed for her day, we also prayed for my day. I had been dreading it because I had so much I needed to get done by Sat morning before the Accountant came in to close out the books at my job. My day went so much better than anticipated, it was still a very long day but I was plugged into The Ultimate Power Source and it didn't drag me down. Once again nothing was a surprise to God, he knew we needed each other's support and He put the pieces together to bless both our lives.
Romans 8:28 (NIV)
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
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