As of right now, there are 15.5 hours until the extreme healthy eating ends and some of the things that were given up will slowly make their way back into my life. I say "some" because I really hope to continue giving up things such as fast food and fried foods because we all know it is just bad for our bodies! However, chocolate is the most important "piece of perfection" that I have missed the most. So the plan is to stay up until midnight tonight and partake of chocolate truffles from Godiva as a reward! I can hardly wait! Tomorrow night, Mexican food will be the highlight of the day and you can bet that you will see some smiling faces at El Sombrero as we deplete their stock of chips and salsa!
Thirty-one days has been the longest I have gone without eating some of my favorite food items but I will say that it has been a great challenge for me and I am really glad that I did it. It was a lesson in self-control, a challenge for myself, and a way to clean out my body of "not so good things" and fill it up with "really good things." I did lose 10 pounds in the process - which was not my intention - but I am pretty sure I will gain part of that back pretty quickly, possibly by tomorrow night. This was not easy at times, but the goal was accomplished and my intention was achieved. I really like the concept of "giving up something in hope of something better to come."
Church this past Sunday was great! There were two songs that we sang that really stuck out for me. The first one was How He Loves Us. Every time I hear that song, I am reminded of the depth of God's love and how He is the only one who loves us unconditionally. And we are His portion and He is our prize; drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes. If His grace is an ocean we're all sinking. And Heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss; and my heart turns violently inside of my chest. I don't have time to maintain these regrets when I think about the way He loves us. If you haven't heard this song, look it up on iTunes. It is definitely one of my favorites.
The other song that really impacted me was the last song we sang. It is called Reign in Us and I wanted to write out part of the words here and hopefully you will look it up as well. You thought of us before the world began to breathe. You knew our names before we came to be. You saw the very day we'd fall away from You. And how desperately we need to be redeemed. Lord Jesus come lead us. We're desperate for Your touch. There is much more to the song but as I sat there listening to the words, I was once again blown away with the power of God's love and how grateful I truly am of all the things He has done in my life and will continue to do.
The pastor spoke on being a peacemaker in a continuing series called, Anything But Ordinary. As with most weeks, I learned a lot about what this scripture means and how it relates to my life and what I need to work on. The main points were that those who are peacemakers are 1. Ruthlessly committed to truth telling. 2. They are humble enough to pray for their enemies. 3. They pursue reconciliation at the risk of their own comfort. 4. Peacemaking isn't the same as peace achieving. One thing he said that I really knew to be true was that many times we will withhold the truth from someone in hopes that it will keep peace between us when in actuality it creates distance and frustration. As hard as it is sometimes, it is better to be honest with someone and work through that rather than choosing to hide the truth. In talking about it and confronting the issues, peace will come - or will eventually come in one way or another. I admit that I am not at the top of the list when it comes to being a peacemaker. I can be when I want to be, but it just does not always come natural to me. My sister, Christy, is a natural peacemaker so look to her for an example of how to do this. My other sister, Cara, well she and I have similar personalities when it comes to this characteristic so we will continue to work on improving ourselves in this area:)
My encouragement today would be to listen to those songs when you get a chance and the next time you are put into a situation where you want to seek revenge, try to make peace instead. The outcome is always better and it helps us to live the better life we are striving for. I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend and looking forward to a really great week!
Today I am grateful for: 1. A very fun, productive weekend 2. Church on Sunday - learning and reflecting 3. The power of songs 4. Completing the extreme healthy eating challenge 5. Only hours left until chocolate will be back in my life!
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