First Day 2008

This morning I got up with new determination. That's not to say that hopping back up on the self-discipline wagon after a "long winter's nap" that didn't involve a lot of napping....wasn't challenging. It was, but tonight I am grateful and energized. I had a great online chat with my sis-cuz, Reida Sue, about encouraging each other to lose weight. She and I are going to work on slimming down together. I'm very happy to be encouraged and to encourage others in this effort.

Now for the accountability part. Today I got up and went directly to my Bible study. During December I began a study on self-discipline, but this morning I used my son's Bible since it was downstairs and mine was upstairs (no comment about being frugal with burning the calories--walk around in my morning joints before you say that to me.....) Anyway, I happened upon some scriptures on gluttony and decided to jump right into a topical study on gluttony. I started the study with Deut21:18-20, which I already knew dealt with the subject of what to do with a stubborn disobedient son. No comment about that subject either.....Anyway, what I read was very interesting, because I saw it in new light: "If someone has a son who is stubborn, who turns against his father and mother and doesn't obey them or listen when they correct him, his parents must take him to the elders at the city gate. They will say to the elders, "Our son is stubborn and turns against us. He will not obey us. He eats too much AND he is always drunk. Then all the men in his town must throw stones at him until he dies. Get rid of the evil among you, because all of the people of Israel will hear about this and be afraid." Equal in value to "eating too much" is the evil of "being drunk all of the time" --evil enough to purge that person from among God's people during the times before we had Jesus' blood to cleanse us from sins. That got my attention. I will not hesitate to warn young people against drunkenness....to the point that Don and I just don't take a chance with alcohol--coming from two families wrecked in a lot of ways by alcoholic relatives. But I don't think I ever really accepted in my own mind that equal to the problem of being "drunk all of the time" is "eating too much"....or gluttony. I have been told by people who know me well that I am not a glutton. But obviously, I eat too much for my body. So I just can't do that anymore.

It occurred to me months ago that it may just be evil that, in a world where three fourths of the population cannot eat every day, many of us, me included, have shelled out big bucks to get help NOT to eat too much. Today was a humbling study.

Then the next scripture was about Jesus and John the Baptist, and I found this really good! Jesus said--after being accused of gluttony and drinking too much by the Pharisees, "What can I say about the people of this time? What are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace, who call out to each other, 'We played music for you but you did not dance; we sang a sad song but you did not cry.'
(From that I get that Jesus recognized the religeous people's desire to manipulate Him and treat Him like a puppett...) He continued, "John came and did not eat or drink like other people. So people say, 'He has a demon.' The Son of Man came eating and drinking and people say, 'Look at him! He east too much and drinks too much wine, and he is a friend of tax collectors and sinners. BUT WISDOM IS PROVED TO BE RIGHT BY WHAT SHE DOES." That blew me away. How many times have I read it? But this time I think I really get it! The religeous people were judging both John the Baptist and Jesus. John came "not eating and drinking", intent on making a way for Jesus, and they accused him of having a demon. Did he lose his focus and try to defend himself? NO! His focus was on accomplishing his purpose in God's kingdom that was coming. Jesus came and was who He was....did He try to appear overly righteous by obviously fasting and praying to be seen? NO! He was focused on His purpose...to reveal God to the world and to save us from our sins. But did people judge Him? YES! Did He lose focus because of it? NO....both John the Baptist and Jesus were killed because they did not lose their focus of pleasing God instead of man. NOW...in our society the focus is on either eating and drinking or abstaining from eating and drinking--and people are judged on both sides of that coin. I judge myself in such ways often. I know the focus cannot be on eating and drinking or on not eating and drinking, but it has to be on our purpose here.....to live our lives in such a way that people can see our good works and glorify our Father who is in Heaven, to love God with all of our hearts, souls, mind and strength and to love others as ourselves, to seek and save the lost, to be a servant of all.....etc. Our focus cannot merely be on whether or not we eat or drink.

Having realized that, here is what I did today. (No, I'm not going to wimp out because of that realization.....I am humbled by it though) Calorie wise I went over by 200 calories....but still I didn't go over the number I need to eat to lose weight....not obsessing here. Calorie wise I ate 1736....had I not had gingerbread biscotti at Starbucks with my half caf expresso--did I mention Don got me a GREAT $bucks card for Christmas?--I would have stayed under 1500 calories....next time only coffee. I did a three mile walking workout with weights for an hour this morning, too. I also took down the Christmas tree and dragged it to the curb, organized and put away all of the ornaments and lights and packed them away in the storage space before Don got home. He was happy just to help me with the remnants of cleaning up Christmas....I leave my snowmen out for January. All in all, I feel very good about the first day of 2008. I am thankful God spoke to me about my sin as well as about how I should focus on my purpose not obsess about what I am eating and drinking or not eating and drinking. Tomorrow I'll talk about feeding the poor.