Losing Those 15lbs

15lbs. It’s the average weight most people would like to lose. I know I would. Ten pounds gets you to a healthy weight, but fifteen gives you room to wiggle. You know, the old gain-five-being-bad, lose-five-being-good routine. It’s been said the average person gains fifteen pounds each decade. Yikes. If you’re not aware of the gain, cognizant to stop it, that’s how you end up seventy years old, overweight, and with joints so old you’re unable to move and drop the weight faster like you could in your youth. It can be done, it’s just twice as hard to do. I want to stop the weight gain before it gets to the point where it’s too hard to do or more difficult than it needs to be.

But weight loss is NOT easy. At 40, my metabolism decided to get even slower than it had been in my thirties. I’ve been on a personal health journey for 15 years. I know way more now than I did then, but my clothes size doesn’t necessarily reflect the knowledge. Why? Because we live in a world of instant results, instant gratification, instant coffee, and microwaveable life. And knowing all the right things isn’t the same as doing them. Every day. Every minute of the day. Every second.

True weight loss and then weight management begins with daily, lifelong choices. Hourly choices. Minute-by-minute, craving-by-craving choices. I want sugar! Nope. You need to drink more water. Salty snacks!!! Nope. Try an apple or hummus first. I’m SO tired. One more TV episode. Nope. Let’s go for a quick walk around the block. Do you see the battle here? Constant desires of feeling good, tasting good, being comfortable—this is called temptation. It is constant. The barrage of temptations doesn’t quit in this world. It’s actually quite exhausting and no wonder why most people just keep gaining those fifteen pounds every decade. To fight off temptation can be a full-time job all in itself!

The same is true in your walk with the Lord, only the temptations come in the form of voices in your mind, lies that have been building since you were a child. Lies once whispers in adolescence are full on bull horns in adulthood. We ignored the whispers but cover our ears in pain at the bull horn. I don’t know about you, but I’m done with the bull horns. I want the voices silenced, and if they can’t be erased this side of heaven, I at least want them back to a whisper for goodness sakes. Those bull horns are heavy, and I want to drop some serious spiritual weight. How?

True weight loss and then weight management begins with daily, lifelong choices. Hourly choices. Minute-by-minute, craving-by-craving choices. I want recognition! Nope. You need to drink more Living Water. Influence!!! Nope. Try scripture memory and meditation first. I’m SO alone. No one even cares who I am. Nope. Let’s go attend that Bible study. Do you see the battle here? Constant desires of feeling not enough, wanting more, being discontent—this is called temptation. It is constant. The barrage of temptations doesn’t quit in this world. It’s actually quite exhausting and no wonder why most people just keep gaining those fifteen pounds of bull horns every decade. To silence them is a full-time job all in itself!

When I try to manage my weight loss, of any kind, on my own, I fail miserably every day.

I am in constant, desperate need of a Savior, an accountability Partner, a Source of Life and meaningful motivation. God the Father is all those things and more. Jesus provided direct access through His sacrifice. A direct intravenous (IV) line to the hydrating Living Water of God. Then when He ascended back to heaven to prepare eternity for His loved ones, Jesus left behind the Holy Spirit—His Spirit—to fill and guide His children, to provide a constant source of nourishment. As a child of God, I’m never alone. I’m always enough, never too much, perfectly content, fully satisfied and filled to overflowing in all the things of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. That is who I am. (John 7:37-39, John 14:16-27, Psalm 103:4-5)

If you don’t observe me living like this is true, it’s because at some point in time in my journey with the Lord, I messed with the IV needle. I might have even yanked it out, or maybe someone else bumped me and dislodged it, or maybe something done to me even yanked it out. Regardless, my source of nutrition, wellness, fullness, help—it’s come loose. It’s not in place and flowing like it should.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I hate needles, and if my IV has been dislodged, I am not about to even try putting it back in place. So, from my place of weakness, need, and/or discomfort, I cry out for my Great Physician, and He comes and puts me back together with as much care and gentleness as He can manage given the circumstances. He is patient and gracious with me, not condemning or withholding. (Psalm 18:6, Hosea 6:1, Matthew 7:11)

He freely restores my Source of constant Help—His Spirit—as soon as I confess I need it. (Proverbs 28:13, 1 John 1:9, Acts 3:19-21, 1Peter 5:10)

I think that’s the weight loss tip I have yet to master. I need help. Every day. Every hour. Every minute. Every breath. I need help. I need Jesus. I need His Holy Spirit connection to enjoy lasting results of any kind, physical or spiritual.

In Matthew 26 verse 41, Jesus is pleading with his disciples to “watch and pray,” so they wouldn’t fall into temptation because “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Don’t I know it! To watch means to be aware. To pray is the act of seeking support from Someone higher than you. Whenever we fall to temptation, we’re either unaware—whether innocently or by our own choice—or we are refusing to seek support from someone Who knows more than we do.

Friends, I want more victory in my life! I want to shed these fifteen pounds. For good. God has increased my awareness for decades, now I pray He increases my faith to pray, to take courage, to access the power of the Holy Spirit readily available to me (2 Peter 1:1-4). This weight is coming off, friends, and it won’t be my doing. If you see me fifteen pounds lighter in the days, months, years ahead, let it be a testimony to my Helper, my Savior, my Personal Trainer. He prompted, led, guided, encouraged, and fueled the journey. And if I’m not, grace please. It’s so easy to forget we need the IV connection and try to live without it for a while.

We are all a masterpiece in progress, a world-class athlete in training. In progress. In training. There’s still a work in us to be done. A work our Jesus is faithful to perfect (Philippians 1:6). He’s doing His part all the time. Our part is simply to let Him do His. Believe, trust, obey, follow, have faith. Love Jesus in word and deed more than anyone or anything else. And when you mess up and miss the mark, forgetting His plan is better than your own, take some time to confess and return to Him once more.

I’m learning confession in all areas of life really is the best way to lose weight. Repentance—the returning—is the best way to keep it off. Confession keeps my proud heart in the right posture before God—humbled, aware of my great need that only He can meet. Repentance opens my heart to be filled by the Spirit once again, to live from the Spirit instead of just for Him. These small nuances make all the difference over time, like logging your meals or choosing fruit over ice cream. Confession and repentance are our reset button, like a daily cleanse for your gut.

When’s the last time you hit the reset button with Jesus? Not just a quick “I’m sorry,” but some time in prayer, on your knees, getting it all out there in the open? There’s so much more here I’m still learning to unpack. I’m learning to practice what I preach even today. So, I think I’ll stop here today and go do just that.

 

Psalm 105:1

Tonight I sit overwhelmed and amazed and in perfect, exuberant peace. Tonight my daughter accepted Christ as her Savior.

In September, her younger six-year-old brother joined the family of God. He was beaming from ear to ear when we went to pick him up from his Sunday morning class, and he matter-of-factly announced that he had said the prayer to accept Jesus into his heart. Being six years old, Joey and I were hesitant and probably even doubtful this was a real decision, but boy, did God prove this doubting Mama's heart wrong.

My son was different. He was more open to spiritual conversations, more attentive, more willing to listen and attempt to apply Biblical truth to his life. He drew a precious picture of his heart with a stick-figure God inside, writing along the side that, "Yes. I did it. The God of Heaven" with arrows pointing to inside his heart. I didn't even know he had drawn this picture. I had simply mailed the envelope for him, but then my mother-in-love texted me a picture of the drawing when she received it. My heart jumped! Of his own accord, he had willingly told someone else about his decision. In the days to come, he would write messages in the sand on the beach, and my shy, little-man-of-few-words would volunteer to lead prayer time in his Sunday morning class, saying prayers that only come from the most pure of heart.  There's no doubt in my mind, the Holy Spirit filled my son this past September, and the conversations we have had since then have blessed me deeply.

But in the meantime, my eight-year-old daughter was hesitant, even resistant toward conversations we had with her about this decision. The Lord had to work on me. He told me I needed to shut my mouth, speak carefully and gently only when those small windows of opportunity arose, and not press. This was her decision, not mine. Her life choice. So I shut my mouth and prayed so fervently every night because I knew she knew. I knew she understood, but her open defiance was also clearly on display. She is queen of changing the subject, and Lord help us if we ever started to go deeper into anything than a puddle, she was always the first to come up for air, distracting herself with silliness and giggles and goofiness.

The Lord was faithful. He used a dear friend to point out Romans 2:4 to me, which basically states it is God's kindness that leads us to repentance. Kindness. That is not a character quality I would rank high on my list of attributes. We are a low mercy home in general. Practicing kindness seemed foreign. Good manors, respectfulness, obedience...yes, we do those, but kindness? Kindness relates closely to words like caring, heartfelt concern, mercy, compassion, empathy. Yeah, gut-check. I needed to work on those. My daughter needed to know my kindness, so she could understand in part the kindness of our heavenly Father.

So I stopped rolling my eyes at her dramatic flair; instead, at the Lord's prompting, I took more deep breaths and saw her for who she was right in her emotional moments. Hurt feelings, splinters, bruises, friend problems, school issues--these were all moments to put kindness into practice. Learning to love another person for who they are, right where they are in life, not getting frustrated at their unused potential, not seeing the person God is molding them to be, but seeing the person standing right in front of you, needy, hurting, responding to that person, that child--that has been embarrassingly difficult for me to do.

Lord, thank you for helping me to see my daughter through your eyes--valued, loved, wanted. Even in her rebellious heart, she was still wholly and completely desired as my child. Wow. Such a tender life lesson and peek through the looking glass at the heart of my heavenly Father. I don't think I really got it until I had to live it, to put it in to practice. Thank you, Jesus, for hard lessons.

Over the last few months, I've had to entrust my daughter over and over again back into the hands of her Heavenly Father who made her and knows her so much better than even I can hope to know. I've prayed often in tears. I've trusted the Lord's promise to me that before the age of 12, my children would choose to follow the Lord. I believed the encouraging words of wiser women who spoke truth that one day, my daughter would make that decision for herself. Somewhere in the past few months, I stopped focusing on my desires and my timeline and my daughter's attitude, and decided the only hopeful place to focus was on Jesus.

So I ordered the She Reads Truth Lent study. I've never observed Lent. I'm not even really sure what it stands for or what it is or how to rightly observe it. But I knew it was about my Jesus' journey toward the cross, and it was about intentionally focusing on Him and His sacrifice. So tonight, on Ash Wednesday, I sat my kids around our table. We lit the candle in our Lent Wreath and began the first of a 40 day journey toward the cross together.

Something about lighting that candle cast a spell on my children. They watched the flame and listened intently to the Scripture readings. They read some of the verses from their own Bibles. We talked and discussed and ate scripture together, and my heart was so full. And we talked about sin and repentance and confession and forgiveness and what it means to be a child of God. And in the tender closing moments, right before we prayed, my daughter tentatively announced that God was asking her to repent, that she believed in Jesus and what He had come to do, and that she wanted to follow Him and be a child of God.

And my heart overflowed! It burst open. Satan immediately tried to get in there with his voice of doubt, but I looked into my daughter's eyes, and I chose to believe God, just like she was doing. And she bowed her head and prayed, and I listened to her sweet words of repentance and confession and proclaimed belief in Jesus' death and resurrection. I didn't even have to say the words for her.  She spoke them all herself, and she spoke them perfectly. And then I knew she was my child because the tears of happiness began to flow and her eyes shone and glistened, and the joy of the Lord filled her countenance.

And in the quiet evening of Ash Wednesday our family of four was made complete in the Holy Spirit, sealed together in Christ for all eternity. My children choose Jesus. I can ask for nothing more.

At ages and six and eight, I know that they know. Their Spirit testifies to mine because it is the same.

I have no greater joy than to know that my children 

are walking in the truth. (3 John 1:4)

No. Greater. Joy.

May you also be encouraged. May you faithfully trust the Lord with the hearts and minds of those dearest to you. May the Lord hear your fervent prayers from heaven and look on you with favor. May you too know the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. (Psalm 27:13) Amen and Amen!

Oh give thanks to the Lord, call upon His name;

Make known His deeds among the peoples. (Psalm 105:1)