Weigh In Day

Today was my weigh in day and I lost another pound since last Thursday! That makes a total of 8.5 down. When I get to 10 pounds I am really going to celebrate (not by eating anything) but by doing something fun in the sun. I hope that's by next week. It's been so nice not having to stress at all about it. It feels really good to see the scale continuing to go down each week but that is not my focus. I'm also excited because I'm starting a new bible study tomorrow morning called "Experiencing Spiritual Intimacy" and I'm really looking forward to getting into it. God is becoming more personal to me but it's a work in process and I'm continuing to learn every day what it means to be spiritually intimate with Him so this study will be exciting.

His Holy Spirit, moving and breathing in you, is the most intimate part of your life, making you fit for himself. Don't take such a gift for granted. Ephesians 4:30 MSG

The Light of the World

I just LOVE summertime! This year because we had such a long, cold winter and it didn't even feel like we even had a Spring, I appreciate it even more then I usually do too. There is so much to do and enjoy in the summer. It's a time to relax and just enjoy the beauty that is all around us. Whenever I am outside and I feel the sun shining down on me, I can't help but get an overwhelming warm feeling in my soul as well because it just reminds me that God is the light of the world and that He has filled my soul with His sunshine as well!

We went up to the canyon yesterday and it was SO lush and green and B-E-A-utiful and I just felt at such awe once again that God loves us so much and is such a beautiful artist that He would create such an amazing world for us to live in and enjoy! What overwhelms me even more then that is to think that God himself is more beautiful then any thing we have ever laid our eyes on on this earth and that the place He has prepared for us is FAR more beautiful then we could even imagine! I don't understand how anyone can look at some of the wonderful, amazing things in this world and not be totally blown away by the Creator of it! Boggles my mind...

So today was my weigh in day and the scale is continuing to go down! I'm only down a half a pound but that is just since last Friday so that is awesome! I'm excited about the direction the scale is going but I'm mostly excited about the direction my heart is going!

You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it give light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise you Father in Heaven.

Matthew 5:14-16

God just wants our HEARTS to be clean

I haven't done a weigh in for about two weeks because I wanted to really focus on my relationship with God and not be deterred at all by what the scale said. I will now go back to weighing in every Thursday so I can keep track now that I have my head straight and know that it's not going to deter me anymore.

So this morning I weighed and I had lost another two pounds bringing my total weight loss to 7 pounds! Now you might not think that 7 pounds is that much weight loss for two months of doing this but for me that is HUGE because I had not seen the scale even budge a half a pound for SOOOOOOOOOOO long (up or down) and really, really felt like I was stuck in a rut with my weight! But what has been the most amazing thing to me about the past two months is how much my eyes have been opened and how much my heart has been filled! I am FREE FREE FREE from ever having to even think about dieting, exercising, starving or roller-coasting EVER AGAIN!!! My heart has changed towards the food and God has FREED me from the DESIRE that I used to have to over eat! I used to run to food when I felt anxious or when I was bored and now I don't! Not only do I not run to it, I don't have the desire to!! I have never felt this way in my entire life! Sure my heart toward food had started changing the first time I did Weighdown years ago but because I never fully understood the number ONE most important thing that it teaches, it never changed completely. I can't believe how so very obvious everything is to me this time and I still wonder how I missed it all before. I was just trying to change my portions and listen to hunger and fullness before but I never worked on changing my HEART toward the food and that is why it didn't work. Then this verse that I had heard a thousand times hit me so hard and completely turned everything around for me which in turn, changed my heart:

Seek FIRST his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you as well. Matthew 6:33

When I quit worrying about the scale and stayed focused on what God was trying to teach me and show me, everything just started falling into place and the scale is going down! I have NO DOUBT at all in my mind that it's going to keep going down too until I'm to the healthy weight that God intends me to be at. I don't even question or worry or stress about it anymore because I am that confident in God and how He is changing my heart! I don't have to follow man made rules anymore!! I'm SO excited with this new found relationship with God! It's growing into a relationship that I have longed for and prayed for!

I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt; open your mouth wide, and I will fill it. Psalm 81:10

He has brought me out of the slavery of Egypt and is taking me to the promised land and I stand in total awe and wonderment of Him!

The following is an excerpt from the book Rise Above by Gwen Shamblin that I just finished reading. It was an amazing book and SO insightful:

We have spent all of our energy on cleaning up the wrong things. Jesus said not to take the splinter out of someone else’s eye when we have a log in our own. We must first take the log out of our own eye; then we can see clearly to remove the speck out of someone else’s eye (Matthew 7:3-5). We are scared of “unclean” things on this earth, but what SHOULD scare us are the unclean things that God reveals about our own hearts! The heart is what is greedy. The alcohol is not evil-God created it. The money is not evil. The food is not evil. Sex is not evil. Tobacco is not evil. It is the worship of these things that is evil. Worship is focus and adoration. We worship these things. It is what you are drooling over in your heart that should bring you to your knees…because you can get the alcohol out of the house or the fat grams out of the house, but you cannot run from your own heart and mind. And your heart and mind will face the Judgment Day. You must change and pray-pray hard-for a cleansing from the Father through Jesus Christ.

On behalf of people living in the last few decades, let’s concede that we have never been told that we have a heart problem. I have a master’s degree in foods and nutrition, and yet I never studied the greed in the heart of mankind. We only dissected the content of the foods and labeled each ingredient as clean or unclean. And again, my experience has been that most churches have bought into the man-made clean and unclean rules. Everyone - even in church - confidently and self-righteously preached that broccoli was righteous, and that brownies and ice cream were sinful. But now we know the truth. The food is clean-God just wants our HEARTS to be clean.

DUN DUN DUN...I will weigh in tomorrow morning: Update to come. LOL

"Hungry"- by Kutless

Hungry I come to You
For I know You satisfy
I am empty but I know
Your love does not run dry

So I wait for You
So I wait for You

I'm falling on my knees
Offering ALL of me
Jesus You're all
this heart is living for

Broken I run to You
For Your arms are open wide
I am weary but I know Your touch
Restores my Life

So I wait for You
So I wait for You

I'm falling
I'm falling for You

Jesus You're all
This heart is living for
I'm living for you

I Love love love the words to this song!!