Morning, Gang,
 |
| Campers getting ready for a parade this summer |
I have another friend I'd like you to meet. I met Adrienne a few years ago at Wisconsin Christian Youth Camp. She was our cook and greeted us with every meal with the most beautiful welcoming smile (and the food was great, too!) Along with Lynne, Adrienne and I became accountability partners in our quest for good health. You're gonna love her...
Hello, my name is Adrienne
This past ten months with Deb and Lynne has been an
adventure from which I find myself in awe of God’s love and His care and also
in awe of the love of His servants.
It has been a revealing and powerful time for me to say the least.
I have been on a diet for most of my life. There were times I actually needed to gain weight, but still
strived to lose (this is not one of those times). I have tried Weight Watchers, T.O.P.S., Atkins, The 7-day juice fast (woke up at Dairy Queen on the 3rd
day) the cabbage soup diet, Jenny Craig and I had a moment, I hired a personal trainer and
incorporated the Bill Phillips eating plan (lost 32 pounds on that one…then my
mother died and I ate them back- and then some!) I used lean cuisine (lovely little appetizers!) and of
course slim fast (the chocolate-royale shakes are delicious... I gained twelve pounds), I have spent
over 10 years in therapy, often talking about my weight, and I walked on fire
with Anthony Robbins (only my wallet suffered burns). All of these programs have very good attributes for someone
who has a fairly normal relationship with food, however, this past 10 months have shown me that God
and I have some work to do before anything else.
I am so very thankful for these two ladies and for their support and
their prayers to the Father on my behalf!
I am grateful for the safety I enjoy and cherish as we share our deepest
frustrations as well as our victories! At this point I am down only 18 pounds in 10 months. That could be discouraging to me and
surely would be if not for our amazing God and these two wonderful ladies! Thanks to the kind but firm nudges from
my dear sisters, I am finally actually beginning to peel back the “layers” and
get to the heart of my emotional eating and all that it represents.
To me, food (besides being fuel the body needs to sustain life) is a
liar! I spent most of my life
believing that feeling full was the same as feeling safe. I was eating and
swallowing feelings too big to deal with, and the food deceptively convinced me
it was there to help me avoid pain.
In the past few months, with help and understanding from God and my
sisters, I have been encouraged to open a door which I have kept locked tight
and guarded for many years!
As the contents are starting to be sorted and put in their proper
places, as the layers are peeled away and the fog begins to clear, I find
myself feeling the relief and forgiveness I never thought possible. Through
this, I have been able to actually feel the prayers of my precious sisters! The urgency to swallow feelings is
slowly being replaced with the love, clarity, and forgiveness of a Perfect Savior.
This week I
began a Zumba class with some ladies from church. After the first workout I drove home and grabbed the dictionary. To my surprise, ZUMBA is not a 4-letter
word. This morning was supposed to
be a day off from Zumba, but my friend, Danielle and I did 20 minutes anyway
(instead of the normal 45). Zumba
is hard work, but I know I have been placed by His ever so patient and loving
hands with a group of ladies who will love, encourage, support and pray for one
another.
An accepted repugnance that still plagues our society today
is the bigotry toward those who are overweight. The bulk of society views overweight people as disgusting
gluttons who lack self-control.
While there may be some truth to such an assumption, I would bet my size
12 jeans that almost every single fat person you see is carrying a load of
hurt, betrayal, guilt, remorse, fear, and anger that is unbearable. Every single one of their excess fat
cells was born of desperation to ease the unbearable-whatever. The overweight woman walking down the
street may be stuffing the re-occurring nightmare of the sights, sounds and
smells of an abortion clinic many years past. She could be in a vicious cycle
of attempts to extinguish memories of one who was supposed to be a protector in
her life, but instead betrayed her in the worst possible way. Or, the
overweight woman you next see could be fighting a horrific battle as she holds
the memory of her precious son who went off to fight for our liberty –but never
came home. We just don’t know the
story in the fat cells, and we would all be much better served to say a prayer
for her/him. Pray that those struggling
and fighting to get back to a healthy weight will blessed by our gracious God
with wonderful friends like I have been. Pray that His love surrounds
them.
Zumba in the
morning, friends – then a chat with Deb and Lynne via e-mail. God is good-ALL the time!
“Right here, right
now, in the center of this wound-I have been betrayed by whom and what matters
and what I’ve got left is food.”
- WOMEN FOOD AND GOD by
Geneen Roth
“I can do all things
through Christ who strengthens me” Philippians 4:13
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