God and That Girl in Checkout Line.

So I went to the grocery today intent on buying some quality food. So I bought greens, some dairy, and lots of fruit and nuts.

I avoided my "trouble aisles" and pretty much anything that wasn't on the perimeter, like all the weight-loss gurus say to do.


And as I was pulling my cart into my friend Marion's check out line, I looked down at my cart, pleased with the plethora of color and health that would soon be filling my fridge and my body.


Then I heard God speak as clearly as I have heard him in months.

"It's all well and good to eat better foods. But if you really want to get healthy, we need to deal with this food addiction you have."



You see, food has been one of my "golden calves" or an idol that takes the place of where Jesus needs to be in my life. Sometimes if I am sad, or afraid, or upset, or missing my mom, or happy, or excited, or nervous, I head to the cupboard or the freezer for the comfort I need instead of opening my Bible, turning on some praise music, or talking to God.

Because of this, my lifestyle is unhealthy and my body, the Temple of the Most High God, scripture says, is not glorifying God. Granted, Jesus tells us it's not what goes in that makes us polluted but what comes out. However, eventually what we put into our minds, bodies, and spirits is going to come out into our lives.

When I did the No Other Gods study last semester with the OCU Women's Bible Study last year, God began showing me that I could no longer go at the pace I was going ministry-wise, pursue my passions, love my family well, and be a good wife and mom someday unless I chose to give up the idol of food in my life.

It's many moons later, and still, That Girl, That Girl two-by-four can barely fit into her pants anymore. Something's gotta give. (Providence girls are hoping it's not the button on my gauchos!)

This has very little to do with outward appearances and much more to do with the state of the heart. God wants a relationship with us no matter what size we are. And I'm convinced that those people I love don't really care what the scale reads as long as I am healthy and happy.

It has more to do with my relationship with Jesus and how I don't want anything, not even a freaking blessed bonbon, getting in the way of knowing Him and He knowing me.

So I am asking you to pray for me, Bloggerotsky. I need the power of Christ to overcome my addiction to food so that God is honored in every single part of who I am, not just the parts that are already surrendered. Right now I am working on developing some good habits, but mostly I will hopefully be using A LOT of prayer and reliance on Jesus. I expect an all-out war from the enemy, so a little battle would be a nice surprise. However, I have allowed the Enemy a stronghold in my life for many years now and it will take lots of work, trial, error, and forgiveness through God's grace to overcome.

I imagine it will also take a few more checkout line conversations between The Big Guy and That Girl.