Idols Part II (day 2)

     I hope all of you had a happy Christmas and Merry New Year - well not too Merry! :-)  I am glad to be back here with you all and ready to tackle the subject on body image and weight.  In part one of this post I talked about Idols.  For me - food is an idol.  I LOVE food.  I think a good marinara sauce is a little bit of heaven soaked in garlic bread or give me a corner piece of wedding cake or a chunk of chocolate.  I am quite often thinking about food - and it is a really bad idea for me to shop when I am hungry - all kinds of things end up in the cart. 
     And then when we finally decide to do something about our weight or the types of food we eat, our attention turns to...you guessed it....FOOD.  Words like, fresh, low calorie, low fat, low sodium, vegatables, fruits, non-dairy, God forbid, rice cakes...the list goes on and on.  But our focus is still there, on food.  We shift from what we were eating to what we are going to eat from now on at least for a while until we have shed those pounds.  We say to ourselves, "I will eat these boring tasteless foods just until I am at my goal then I can eat the other stuff, and I will be able to control myself!"  Really?  Some of us never really even get to the boring foods - that day is always another day away.  "But I have that party on Wednesday, you know the jewelry party where Doris always has the most delictable things, I would certainly hurt her feelings if I didn't eat them - I will wait till after Wednesday."  Then, "I have that dinner with the girls on Friday, I will wait till after that and then I will get started - then I will be serious."  And on and on it goes.  All of that to say that our focus never leaves our idol, our eyes remain firmly on the food.  We feel trapped by our own self destructive behavior.
     So where do we go? And what do we do?  Well, for starters I need to start with what I know.  I know that food, in it's many forms is a beautiful thing.  God created food.  In fact, in Genesis, the first book of the Bible, food is mentioned as a good thing.  It says in Gen. 2:9 that God made all kinds of trees to grow out of the ground that were pleasing to the eye and good for food.  And wouldn't you know that the very first temptation for humanity was, yep, food.  Food is an incredibly powerful temptation.  Who did Satan approach first with this powerful temptation?  He temped the woman - she was no less vulnerable than we are today.  And of course, there was more to it than the food, really it had to do with power - the power to be like God.  But lets not forget that the catalyst for that was....food.
     We live in a different world then the one that God first created.  We are technically more advanced, we have new medicine, new lots of things.  But the temptation is still the same isn't it?  When we take our focus off the God who loves us we are vulnerable.  Just like Adam and Eve we wish to have control - to have power.  And we believe that if our bodies are just the right size, if we eat just the right things that we will be like gods.  Diets and dieting can be just as dangerous as those twinkies (which I am not sure can even be categorized as food - but you get my meaning).  This time the enemy is not dangling that tempting chocolate cake he is dangling that perfect diet or that perfect workout routine.
     Let me be really clear, I am not saying that diet and exercise are bad.  We were made to move our bodies to dance and enjoy all kinds of foods - even the foods that might not even be foods!  What I am saying is, just like Adam and Eve, when we take our eyes off the One who wants a real relationship with us - when we do that we will fall for the lies that we are being told.
     At the end of each post I will have questions for you to ask yourself and I will have some scripture for you to look and pray over.  On occasion I will also recommend good books which will help to steer us in the right direction.  If you do not have a Bible you can buy one at any good books store - or if you do not have the means to buy one - we at Life Stream will make sure you get one.  If you are not a Jesus follower I would challenge you to give this study a chance - who knows - if your only goal is to lose weight and that happens then awesome!  And if you learn something about God even better - who knows you may learn a lot more than you bargained for.  I want to make sure that we get as many women as we can involved in this.  Please pass this blog on to your friends and loved ones who would like to do this journey with me.  So the journey officially begins on Sunday January 9.  A good day to diet...I couldn't resist.  It is a good day to begin this incredible journey with ourselves, each other and God.  We will talk about relationship, food and exercise.  And we will trust God for the answers!
     Read Genesis 2:8-3:24
What is most tempting to you and what do you think are your idol(s).  After reading the scripture above pick out a verse or two which stood out to you and right them in your journal.  Meditate on them and ask God to help you understand His Word.
     One book that was recommended to me was Made to Crave by Lysa Terkeurst - I have not read it personally but Lysa was featered on Focus on the Family.  Looks like this is right up our alley!

New Year

The kids are back in school,  my husband went to work and now I'm  packing getting ready for a conference.  As I'm getting things ready, I'm taking down the old 2010 calendar and putting up the new 2011 one.  Do you do this - do you look back at last January 2010 and flip through the other months and think back on the year?  I do.  Around this time, I always have a twinge of sadness because the year flew by so fast - (which also means not only are the children getting older but I am as well!)  I looked back at the basketball games, recitals, soccer games, vacations, get togethers, all the fun things that were marked on the calendar as a reminder.  Wow, 2010 went by fast.  Then I realized I was getting stuck in the past.  How many of us are "stuck in the past"?  I think we all know someone who hangs on to the past. "We use to do this..."  "Remember when we did this...?"  Or I think we know someone (and it might be you) who can't forgive their past and it keeps them from doing great things.  Or we might look back and say, "What have I accomplished so far?"  "Did I make a difference?" - and find themselves discouraged if their life hasn't gone as they had planned.

I did something a little different this year.  I still looked back at 2010 and looked at what was accomplished but I also took the new 2011 calendar and looked ahead.  I went and marked the next time school would be out and then started filling in get togethers and then found myself starting to look forward to this upcoming year.  I started thinking about the basketball games we would be seeing soon and then looking forward to Spring Break and other activites in the future.  Now, usually we don't mark the bad things on our calendars. We don't write in the May 18 box "Dentist appt. @ 9:00 and Impending doom @ 1:00" - so I can't know everything that will happen in 2011 but that makes it exciting as well.  There are some events we can mark down and be prepared for, but if we are living a life with God you know that He sometimes doesn't look at our calendars and adhere to our schedule and plans!

Let's look forward to 2011 and know that God has amazing things for us.  Some of us have to stop living in the past or clinging on to the past.   Do things this year that you haven't done before.  Meet new people.  Try a new activity.  Read your bible! May God bless this year and use us to do wonderful things!