You know most days I feel ill-equipped to be a Pastor’s wife or in ministry of any kind. The world we live in today is far from anything I was raised in or my parents prepared me for. Satan would want to tell me that because I have not participated in many of the so called big sins that plagues this world we live in today, means I am unqualified to help rescue those who are in the middle of those situations.  

Satan would want me to believe that there is no way I can relate to those who aren’t like me, raised in the church all my life and being introduced to Christ at an early age. 

Satan would also want me to believe I could never succeed at certain things in my life. Like, when I dropped out of High School my senior year. It took me 10 yrs to go back and get my GED and lets not even talk about what he said to me, when I went on to college.  Satan tells me I am a bad mother, He tells me I will never amount to anything and you know what the most recent lie he told me was. “That I could never lose weight.” 

You see, It didn’t matter what I tried, it seemed to me I could not lose any weight. Oh! I would read the latest craze and try whatever it suggested. I was determined I was going to do it myself! Eat healthy, eat clean, only eat organic, no processed foods, only things made from scratch. No sugar, no gluten, no fat, low fat, etc.  It did not matter what I tried, I could never seem to lose the weight! He had me believing that there had to be something wrong with me. I mean obviously if I had done all these things on my own surely there had to be something wrong with me physically to have not lost weight with everything I had done. 

Until January of this year,  I stepped on the scales in this 30 plus year long journey, finding out that I had hit the all time highest weight of my life. At that point you could have poured poison down my throat that day I would not of cared. I was willing to do whatever it took to get the weight off me. But instead of picking up the bottle of poison, I called a friend who I had watched weight melt off her. She told me about a doctor recommended  program that she was on and I told her to sign me up! I did not care what it took, that day I was done! I was done with my aching back and knees, I was done with not sleeping well. I was done with my clothes not fitting, I was sick and tired of being sick and tired and I hated what I saw in the mirror. 

So I decided to follow this step my step plan that was proven time and time again to work for others and you know what? It worked for me! This past week I hit my first goal of losing my first 50lbs. I am so excited I could dance! Well, actually I have done the happy dance around my house. I feel so much better, my blood work has improved. I am sleeping better, no more aching back or knees and I have more energy than I have ever had perhaps in my whole life! 

But you know what I have learned through this process, it’s a choice! I had to choose to change my old habits and embrace the new ones that would lead me to the goal I wanted to achieve. I also had to follow a plan that was time tested by experienced and knowledgeable people and you know what else I realized? I realized that wanting to lose weight is a lot like people who are not living for God and say they want to live a better life, they say they love God, but they have never totally surrendered their life to His time tested plan and because of that they continue to struggle and don’t understand why they are so miserable with themselves. 

See I had to choose to give up my will and my way and submit everything I had thought was right to follow this plan that was going to change my life, if I wanted to lose weight. Isn’t that what we have to do when we decide to live our life for Christ too? We can go around trying our own way, we can read the latest craze of the best psychologist self help book, in the country. But there is nothing that will beat the time tested, God given word called the bible. 

I knew I had to resist the temptation, if my life was going to change. I had gotten into the habit of seeing food and thinking, “I like it,I will eat it” My mindless habits were killing me! I had to resist the temptation to eat late at night. I had to choose to do things that weren’t comfortable to me because it was a new lifestyle I was choosing to live. In fact, one of those things was totally opposite of what you would think was the correct way to lose weight.  I had to start eating every 2-3hrs. This seemed ridiculous to me, after years of starving myself, to lose weight, because after all, you can’t eat to lose weight! But I did!  

You know that is a lot like our walk with Christ if we are really going to live for Him we have to resist the temptation to continue in the activities of our life that God is not pleased with. The stuff that is killing us, either spiritually or physically. When we make those changes they are not always comfortable because it is a new lifestyle we are choosing to live and often times we need to do the opposite of what we have done in the past. So it is uncomfortable at first to walk this new path. Because it doesn’t feel the same as living our old way.  

It’s uncomfortable, for some to accept that the creator of the universe, loves them with and everlasting love and gave His life for them even before they were born. (Jeremiah 31:3)

Satan wants us to believe something is wrong with us. That we will never be good enough, that we can’t ever change, that our lives will never be better. That no one could love us like that. He doesn’t want us to use the time proven plan in the bible because He knows it will change us and he is in a battle for our souls. It will not be until we get tired of the life we are living and we choose to make the change that change will happen. 

But for this process to happen, we often need someone to guide us. Show us the way. I know for several years I would ask my skinny friends what they were doing to lose weight, and they would give me vague answers, “Oh just eat clean”, “Cut out sugar”. Much like I have told many people “Just live for Christ”. Well because of this journey I am on, I now realize none of that advice makes any sense to the people asking it. We all need someone to come alongside us, take us by the hand and walk with us through this process, step by step. Because, to the fat person, eating clean is not going to change their life unless someone walks them through all the other parts of really changing your lifestyle to become healthy and to the sinner who has never known anything but living the way they are, they also need someone to walk with them through the process, step by step showing them exactly what it means to trust God and live for Him.

So maybe you’re reading this and thinking “Yeah!” I need someone to walk me through this life or, how many times have you just looked at someone and said “They should just live for God” and now realize they don’t have a clue of how to do that because no one has ever taught them. 

To the skinny person being skinny is what they know to do, and being a sinner is all many people know how to do too. Because we live in a world that doesn’t honor the Godly heritage that many of us grew up with. 

So how about today, we be that coach to someone, let’s take the hand of that one who wants to do better but just doesn’t know how. Let’s put an arm around someone and lead them, instead of pointing them in the direction they should go, like an employee at the big box store down the street, but let’s be like the professional customer service agent who when asked where something is, they walk you to it and assure you have everything you need before they go. 

I don’t know about you today, but that is my goal! I now understand how being lost feels and I am so glad someone showed me the way! I can’t wait to help someone who was like me! I have committed that I will be a different person after this because we all just need someone to take us by the hand and lead us to what we are looking for.