Guilty But Encouraged
Too much candy, too many chips, a lot of extra carbs from rice and potatoes, and left over cookies and candies sitting in my house – but not as many as yesterday!
I get mad at myself, I get discouraged at how I am able to eat without thinking about the consequences until the consequences show up in a skirt I put on Sunday morning. Why do I need constant reminders and incentives to behave myself with food?
What I am beginning to understand is that a little feasting is not such a bad thing. That my weight is not so out of control that I need to hate myself over three pounds (neither do I want it to become 13 and then 30).
Today I did a little study on “encouragement”. It seems that women become easily discouraged (by many things, not just overeating) and I wanted to see what I could say – from the Bible – that would encourage some women who have asked me to come talk to them on the subject.
Obviously, in one day I cannot go through all 66 books of the bible so I chose one chapter of one book to try to look for some encouragement of my own. I don’t want to be fat but neither do I want to live with guilt over every chocolate covered cherry I eat at Christmas –and now I have the fear of learning how foods contribute to illness. If for no other reason than I don’t want cancer, I should stop eating sugar today and never look back.
Oh, to have that kind of will power. I’m afraid I like my sugar too much!
Psalm 119 to the rescue! Most of you know that Psalm 119 is the very long (176 verses) chapter on the Word of God. The Psalmist uses lots of words to describe what God has left us: statutes, precepts, law, decrees, commands, word, and truths. Mainly, it gave me the reasons to listen, obey, follow, teach, and appreciate the Word of God – and amazingly, there was no indication that I should be expending a whole lot of energy on my physical size.
The word of God does talk about how we should treat our bodies (as temples of the Holy Spirit) but the encouragement I received today is some I have gotten before from the scriptures. That is that God is much more concerned about my spiritual issues than my physical complaints. In my afflictions His Word preserves my life. He is trustworthy so I can trust Him when people persecute me. His Word offers comfort, hope, compassion, and mercy. It puts the arrogant to shame. His Word brings good judgment and knowledge. His law brings understanding and makes us wiser than our enemies (not many things promise that!). (all from verses in Psalm 119.)
The list from this Psalm was very long and very convicting. As I keep His precepts He promises many things that are far greater than any number a scale can show me – no matter how small that number is. His law will keep us “from every evil path.” It is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path” (but never mentions the bathroom scale) It shows us God as our hiding place and shield and reminds us He is near. (all in Psalm 119!).
The conviction came to me about how much more concerned I am for my physical being than my spiritual. What a waste of time and energy! Truly, I am not living at a weight that threatens my health or my ability to serve the Lord. Perhaps if it was at those points I would need to consider the hindrance it was to serving. For me, it is a vanity, pure vanity (yes, I have been reading Ecclesiastes!).
Have we put such an emphasis on the physical in our culture that the spiritual has taken a back seat? Are we more grieved when we overeat than we are when we sin in other ways?
The encouragement I take from this Psalm is what a great advantage we would have if we would feast on the laws, statutes, word, and precepts of God rather than carbs! The hope (and compassion) I got from doing that today is that life is not all about what I look like on the outside. The heart and lips were the primary parts of the body this Psalm was concerned about. Perhaps we women should take a hint from the Psalmist and pay more attention to what goes into our hearts that comes out of the mouths than what goes into the stomach and sits there!
…give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the LORD?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God. Proverbs 30:8-9