Up 0.2 pounds from yesterday, down 12 pounds from the beginning, and down 88 pounds from my highest weight. That gain is just normal fluctuation. I didn’t overeat overdrink.
I finished reading A Hunger for God and have started Made to Crave for the third time. I might have to get another copy of it after this! I’m doing the questions at the end of each chapter and will do the workbook too.
Thoughts from Made to Crave:
“…my body is not my own and that I need to honor God with the way I choose to treat it.” (a testimony at the beginning of the book)
“Made to Crave is not about weight loss; it is about complete dependence on God.” (another testimony)
“I’m a simple Jesus girl on a journey to finding deeper motivation than just a number on my scale for getting and staying healthy.” (underlining mine)
I identified with the two of the rationalizations listed for not tackling my sin:
I’m good in every other area.
I make so many sacrifices already.
“Read the story of the rich young man in Matthew 19. ‘Jesus meant this for any of us who wallow in whatever abundance we have. I imagine Jesus looked straight into this young man’s soul and said, ‘I want you to give up the one thing you crave more than me. Then come, follow me.’”
“When Jesus says, “Follow me,” it’s not an invitation to drag our divided heart alongside us as we attempt to follow hard after God.”
“Nothing changes until we make the choice to redirect our misguided cravings to the only one capable of satisfying them.”
“It’s about recalibrating our souls so that we want to change – spiritually, physically, and mentally.”
“The very downfall of humanity was caused when [a woman] surrendered to a temptation to eat something she wasn’t supposed to eat.” Whoa. That’s serious.
“I am made to rise up, do battle with my issues and, using the Lord’s strength in me, defeat them – spiritually, physically, and mentally – to the glory of God.” YES!!!
Those are just things I underlined in the introduction!
“…whatever we’re craving will always depend on whatever we’re consuming.” [We crave what we eat. Think about it. Do you crave poi? If you grew up in Hawaii you might. I’ve never been to Hawaii and never eaten poi, so I’ve never craved it. If you clear things out of your life that offer no real benefit, you’ll eventually lose your taste for them.
Finally, in question one at the end of chapter one, Lysa talks about a commercial a weight loss company had that personified cravings as a little orange monster that followed a woman around all day. She asked how we would personify our cravings. A year ago I wrote that for me a craving would be a giant monster whose reach is so vast it really doesn’t even need to move itself. It just opens its mouth and eats whatever it wants, no questions asked and no thought involved. It would laugh at me viciously because it knows I have no power over it. It would be very confident in itself. Of course, this was all before Jesus changed me. Now when a craving comes, which is rare, there’s a struggle. I fight it with prayer, scripture, activity, and setting a time 1-1/2 hours in the future when I’ll allow myself to eat in a controlled way.
Three months later I answered that question by saying that when cravings come now they still roar but not as loudly. I don’t cater to them anymore.
Last night I said that my cravings now are words that logically present their case and make a lot of sense. Their job is to make me eat what I don’t need to eat or at a time I don’t need to eat.
In the past year my cravings have gone from (almost all-) powerful to weakened but persuading, or at least trying to persuade.
I just got a slow dictator whom I don’t do very often so I don’t know if I should speed her up or not. She’s been talking for about a minute just stating her name, the patient’s name, and the doctor she’s dictating for. My thought was that I need to get a smoothie or some veggie soup to drink before I tackle this. NOOOOO!!! That’s wrong!!! I already had some of each and I’ll have some more soon. I don’t need food to deal with difficult situations.
Finished that dictator. I sped her up twice and will do it again the next time I get her. I now have a smoothie at my desk but I did that dictation that I thought I couldn’t do without any! Thank You, God!
I found this picture on Pinterest. It doesn’t need me to comment on it.
