Ok, so it’s been awhile. I feel like I’ve typed lots of “sorry I’ve been gone awhile” posts, but this one just might be the longest yet!!

The day after my last post was my little boy’s 3-yr birthday. We had a great day and a great weekend. And then… 1 week later we were back at the doctor for a suspected ear infection. Long, long, long story short: we returned to the doctor 3 more times and our little guy is, to this day, on antibiotics, but he’s been well for a little over a week now. So, needless to say, it’s been somewhat tumultuous since my last post and I haven’t had a lot of time (or desire) to post anything.

Unfortunately, during this time, I have also felt a bit of a loss of control over my eating. I’ll be totally honest: I’ve made excuses and I’ve eaten pretty much whatever I’ve wanted during that time (because, of course, I deserve it after all I’ve been through and I don’t have the energy to make good choices, right?), and we all know that comfort food is usually not the healthiest. Yeah. So, I feel like I had done a good job of maintaining around what I weighed when we got here, even lost a little, but now I feel like my body just gave up and gained a bit. I can feel it in my clothes and I can see it in my face. Sigh.

I know this is a battle I’ll have forever and I’m sure this isn’t the last time I’ll gain a bit and need to re-lose it. I have to accept that. And I also know that we’re coming into the season where losing weight isn’t even something we want to think about. Can’t I just wait until the 1st of the year to start again?

NO! I was made for MORE!!

I don’t know how many of you are familiar with Lysa TerKeurst and her book Made to Crave, but it’s a FABULOUS book that I highly recommend to any Christian struggling with food and weight issues. The full title of the book is “Made to Crave: Satisfying Your Deepest Desire with God, not Food”.

I’ve been reflecting on her thoughts about how we’re made for more than this. She offered a simple prayer that I want to share:

God, I recognize I am made for more than the vicious cycle of being ruled by food. I need to eat to live, not live to eat. So, I keep asking for Your wisdom to know what to eat and Your indwelling power to walk away from things that are not beneficial for me.

This is a GREAT daily prayer.

So, while I’m sure I won’t likely lose much weight before the end of the year, I’m going to try to not gain any more. And I’ll leave you with this snippet from Lysa’s book that would do me good to remember:

But self-control is hard. We don’t like to deny ourselves. We don’t think it’s necessary. We make excuses and declare, “that’s nice for you, but I could never give that up.” And if we’re relying on ourselves, that’s true. But there’s another level to self-control that too few of us find. Before the apostle Paul lists the fruit of the Spirit in his letter to the churches in Galatia, he describes a power available to us that goes way beyond self-control: “So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature…”

Amen! I don’t have to go it alone. Times like now are when it’s especially important to remember this.

Have a great week everyone!