Remember Our Heritage

Well, I bet you thought you would never hear from me again since it has been so long! It will take a lot more than time to get rid of me. I have just been going through many life changes and it has side-tracked me for a while. I usually write about things dealing with food and weight loss and how God has been talking with me over my food addiction, but today I thought I would change it up. Many of us are moving rather quickly into a new phase of our lives and there have been many lessons to learn with all the outside influences that have been bombarding us lately. The phase I speak of is Retirement. Things were moving right along as we had purchased our retirement home down South, getting our finances under control, and planning our R-Date for the countdown. My husband would name the R-date as this 'RDOR'--Richard's-date-of-retirement. I know, I know....He's a goof-ball! Got to love him anyway.LOL Let me get back on track...as time went along I was blessed with a pretty flexible part time job along with my full time job. Then things started to fall apart--trying to remodel a house from 1500 miles away is not easy! And it is still a work in progress. Our finances took a big hit too! My husband's job became quite shakey plus he had to take a hefty pay cut. This in turn put a big burden on our finances--we won't be where we planned to be by R-date. And now my part time job is critically needed instead of being extra money. And isn't it amazing how our purse seems to get slammed the hardest--my husband needs $2400 worth of dental work done(broke a tooth), my vehicle needed $1440 of work done to get my car inspected, and when I did our taxes this year, we owe $1551 in taxes! Needless to say I was in tears. Retirement never looked so far away or so gloomy. To make matters worse the political news is not much better. How can we not be depress over such a state we see before us? As I was voicing my woes to my daughter, Amanda, she kept saying God will take care of you and God has a plan. I agreed with her but added I wish God would let me in on his plan so I would quit stressing over everything. Then she was quick to remind me of all the different situations in the Bible like Abraham who was told to go but not given a destination, or Esther who became Queen and was given no advanced warning of what was to come and how to handle it, or Abraham and Sarah when God told them they would have a son and waited soooooooo many years before it happened, or when Jesus told His disciples to go to Galilee and wait. Just wait and trust in the Lord. When did she get so smart?! She made me realize that I am not really alone and that I stand in great company. I am a believer and a child of God. How could I think that God would do any less for me? God loves us all the same and He will protect and prosper me and my family as He did with Abraham, Sarah, Esther, and all the Disciples. Some times we have to have someone remind us of our heritage but also we have to have ears to hear. Today I pray that someone comes to each of you to remind you of your heritage and that your ears are open to hear the words that God is bringing you.

God Bless and prosper you until we talk again.

Shalom,
Lynne

Hebrews 9:11-14

Yesterday at work there was a situation that happened. I was terribly disappointed with what happened and the outcome. Through misinformation and misunderstanding a person at work missed out on a company benefit for a year. That is simply mechanics--that can be fixed. I was disappointed in the response I received when the mistake was discovered and no offer of correcting it was given. I lost some respect for a person that is in a leadership position and whom I admired greatly. After stewing about the situation last night I discovered with God's help that people are human and make mistakes. Yup! you are not perfect! Neither am I!LOL We need to extend grace to everyone. Even the ones that we think are so far ahead of the game and have it all figured out. Well, they don't really have it all figured out. They are struggling with their humanity just like you or I.

We need to be more like Jesus. He showed perfect grace to us--imperfect people. He laid down His life for us. In most cases, Jesus is not asking us to lay down our life for someone but to extend them the grace He has taught us to do in His Word. If we are truly believers of Jesus how can we do any less?

I have learned over the years that when you elevate someone they tend to fall and that is our expectation WE have for them that they can not live up to. Sometimes these people don't even realize that we have elevated them to this level of expectation. We always need to keep a right perspective on life, and the people around us. And always remember grace needs to be extended to everyone not just a select few who seem to mess up a lot--to EVERYONE.

I trust our Lord is blessing you and keep you until the next posting.

God Bless.

Your Sister In Christ,
Lynne

The Little Foxes--Song of Solomon 2:15

Hello Ladies I am back again. Last week at weigh-in I had a .2 gain. Yuck! It seems I can't get passed this plateau. Then I got to thinking, where am I going wrong? Well it was warm the past couple of weeks and the least bit of salt causes me to retain fluid. But I don't salt my food any more? Where was this salt coming from? Then I really got to investigating what I was eating and drinking. Do you realize just how much salt is in Diet sodas? Or in the low calorie foods we try to stick to eating? I did not realize it either! We have to be more diligent in reading the labels on the foods we eat. All kinds of ugly stuff sneaks in on us without our knowledge.

Then it hit me like a ton of bricks that sin can creep into our lives the same way. Here we are thinking we are doing so good in our christian walk but if we really examine our lives we would find we are retaining fluid!! What we call the little sins trip us up but they get by us because we are looking for the big sins. A movie we shouldn't watch, or anger at another driver, or just simply speeding. Every day things that we do without a thought given to the action. An action that if Jesus were standing next to you, you would not have done. We need to be more aware of our every day lives just as we need to be more aware of the foods we eat.

So this week slow down and read those food labels and take stock in our every day actions. When you discover the little flaws, make those changes now. You will benefit in the long run. Take care this coming week and I will be talking to less of you in the future.

Your Sister In Christ,
Lynne

Midnight

I know it has been a long time since I have written. Things have been a little crazy with my dog having hip replacement surgery. Eve is doing well and only being 2 weeks out from surgery is acting like a new dog. It's amazing how good you feel when you are not in pain! She gets her staples out tomorrow. When it was time for Eve to come home from the hospital I picked her up on Tuesday afternoon and I took the rest of the week off from work to stay home with her. The first week she was on pain meds around the clock. I was having to stay up until midnight to give her the last dose for the day before I could go to bed myself. I found while I was waiting to dose her I started going through the cabinets and the frig looking for snacks. That started about 10:30pm and ended when I gave Eve her meds. Needless to say this was not good for the weight loss program! I wasn't hungry I was bored. Just looking for something to do to pass the time. Even though I over-ate I still forced myself to write everything down that I ate. So, even though I was out of control I was still trying to control it to a point. It must have worked because I still lost .4 lbs. I was really sweating the weigh-in last week.

As I was preparing to write about this, it reminded me of Paul and Silas in jail in Acts 16. How dark it was and being chained. I just know there is a tie-in with the midnight thing too. There aren't many people around so you are alone trying to deal with what ever you have to deal with. It can be a pretty bleak picture. Being a food addict as I am can be just a lonely. Instead of trying to go it alone we need to read the rest of the story of how God freed Paul and Silas. God can rock our world just as he did with Paul and Silas to free us physically, mentally, and emotionally. We don't need to turn to food for comfort. We need to learn to change this energy to do the wrong thing into energy spent with God, studying his Word, or doing good works, or even taking care of his temple, our bodies. So when it is late at night and you go searching for snacks I pray that each of you are sensitive to the shaking of the Holy Spirit to pull you back from the brink of over-eating. God wants us all to be successful in our weight-loss and we can be!

Take care until next time and I will be talking to less of you in the future.

Your Sister In Christ,
Lynne

Shaping

I bet you are curious. As you all know I am a dog trainer and I have been reading a new book on dog behavior. This trainer uses shaping to train her dogs and says this can be used to train just about any animal. She use to train animals at sea aquariums in Hawaii. Any way back to shaping... this technique is used in our everyday lives also. Shaping is changing the behavior by giving positive rewards for behavior that is desired. Isn't that what we are doing with losing weight. Our positive reward is wearing smaller size clothes, and she reinforced the idea of putting on paper our accomplishments. That way when we are weak we can review how far we have come. For myself I know that if I don't keep a daily diary I am not very successful with my weight loss. Even if you are not into dog training this book is a great study on behavior training (Don't Shoot the dog! by Karen Pryor.). As you read this book you realize that we are being shaped daily by all kinds of influences. Many of them you are not even aware of!

These simply techniques can also help us become better Christians. Such as reading our Bibles daily, and praying for others. The read through the Bible in a year is shaping our behavior. Or how about those that keep a prayer log when they pray for others needs. We keep a chart to mark off our daily readings or in a prayer log you date the prayer and when answered by God you put the answer date. Our positive rewards are reading through the Bible and seeing when God answers prayer. We learn more about our Savior and grow as Christians to be more like Him. That kind of behavior change I am all for!

What makes this book good for me now is that I am struggling with losing the weight. I have been at it since September and to keep motivated is hard. So any way that you can reward yourself for doing the right thing is good. I try to look for things that I would normally not do which makes it special and when I reach even a small goal I treat myself. Who would have thought dog training would fall right in line with training our daily lives. I love my dogs!

I am praying for you. And I know you can be successful. Let's do it together! Until next time I will be talking to less of you.

Your Sister In Christ,
Lynne

Prodigal Daughter, cont.

Good Morning Ladies! This is a continuation of my previous posting. God has been showing me things about my dog training classes on Thrusday nights. That just goes to show that God wants to be and is involved in every part of our life. As an assistant I try to be early to class to help set up, and during the class I give my full attention to the students and the instructor. That way I know what is going on and ready to help. The instructor does not have to look for me and ask if I will do something. I am there and I am ready. Mean while, the other two assistants come right at class time, they visit with each other and don't pay attention to the class or the students unless asked. Many times they are busy visiting and talking on their cell phones. The instructor has to look around to find them and ask if they will help with the class.

What God is showing me is that if I had gone in several weeks ago screaming and yelling about these two assistants and putting them down because of their unfaithfullness would have made me look bad. I would have looked liked a spoiled prema-donna, thinking how great I am. Instead, God tells us to be still and let Him go before us to do the battle. We don't have to do a thing except be faithful to God and do His will. Now don't you think that the instructor sees what is going on too? Our fruit that is produced smells sweet and attracts the right attention. I want what God wants for me because it is always the best.

God is even involved with our weight loss. He wants us to be healthy and live a long life. And just a side note, I did much better this week at weigh-in. I lost 1.8 lbs by weighing and measuring my food, being more diligent keeping my diary, and re-calculating my food points. How did you all do this week? If you did not do well, don't beat yourself up. It is a new day--start again.

Keep up the good work and I will be talking to less of you next week.

Your Sister In Christ,
Lynne

Prodigal Daughter

I guess you are questioning my title? It's something how these bible stories come back to shame you when you least expect it. Every summer I help a woman from our kennel club teach the dog training classes we offer to the public. In summers past I was one of three assistants who helped. As the years went by the other two people became not so faithful in showing up to the classes and eventually just not showing up at all. They always had an excuse. Mean while I stayed true and faithful to help teach the class even when I had other things come up. Well, this summer I missed the first class because I had to take my dog to the specialist in Syracuse to be evaluated for hip replacement surgery. On my way back from Syracuse that night I stopped by the class to see how things were going and to let the instructor know I would be there the following Thrusday night. As I am talking to the instructor in walks the two not-so-faithful assistants to help with the classes. I was hurt. Then I was upset and thought how dare they! Then when I settled down on the way home I thought it is not my class or even my club. The instructor can recruit any one she needs to teach the class. How dare I to think I had the monopoly on these classes! What a lesson I had about this. Don't get me wrong-I am not perfect and I still struggle with this when I go to class and they are there but I can honestly say I am learning to be more gracious about it. And I will overcome these emotions.

I can just see that son coming out of the field asking what is going on with the feast going on inside and everyone rejoicing. I know how he felt. He was the one being faithful and working. Then his brother just shows up and everyone thinks how great it is. And it really is wonderful that the lost has come home. We have to be careful not to resent these people least we lose our rightful place with our Lord. We have to remember there is room for all and our Lord rejoices at our faithfulness to carry on day-to-day. So stay steady and welcome the lost ones who have come back.

So how is the weight loss going? I am not doing so great right now. I have stalled and this past weigh-in I gained .4 lb. The strategy for this week is to be more diligent with my diary-write everything down and calculate my points on my foods again. I think I am getting sloppy and just taking a guess instead of actually looking up the point amounts in my books. And weighing and measuring my portions. You know how that 1/2 cup of something starts to become 2/3 or even 3/4 of a cup and we still count it as 1/2 cup. You know what I mean....so everyone get a fresh start! And I will be talking to less of you next week.

Your Sister In Christ,
Lynne