Invading Thoughts

Invading Thoughts     

               Okay, so this is time to ‘fess up:  How many times a day do you think about food?  After you’ve finished breakfast, do you think about what you’re going to have for lunch?  And after you’ve finished lunch, do you think about what you’re going to have for dinner?

            These are my answers:  I think about food, what seems to me, all the time.  It’s embarrassing.  Of course, no one else knows what’s going on inside my head, but it’s embarrassing to me to think about my next meal after I’ve just finished one meal.

            It’s embarrassing to be having a conversation with someone and be thinking at the same time, “I’m going to stop at the DQ on my way home.”

            Often I use this excuse (notice the use of the word “excuse” not “reason”), “Well, of course, I’m going to think about food.  I live in a single person household.  I’m the one responsible for meal planning, grocery shopping and food prep.  I HAVE to think about food.”

            Hm, yeah, well that might explain one-tenth of my thinking about food, but let’s face it:  it doesn’t explain my thinking about the DQ in the middle of a conversation.

            So what do I do about the voice that haunts my thoughts with food?  I think I found the answer taped to my refrigerator (must have needed these words at some other time in my life):

Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right.  Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable.  Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise (Phil. 4:8, Life Application Study Bible).

            I’m going to try to do this.  God’s way is always the best way.

                                                                                                                                    Sharon Witty

P.S.  Gloria and I pray you, our readers, a Blessed Easter.

The Habit of Eating

One reason losing weight or even controlling what we eat is so challenging is because we have to eat to live. That’s nothing new. Eating is what nourishes our body, keeps us healthy, and can be overdone. Eating is a conundrum.

I was raised by a generation that knew the Great Depression. They knew life without…without anything extra, without money, without gas, without sugar, without food. My mother was a wonderful cook and made do with little. Her greatest joy was feeding company or making sweet treats to give to those she cared about. 

Mary Pipher in her book, “Another Country” explains, “The women encouraged one another to eat, a habit that came from a time when food was scarce.” I have made eating a habit of pleasure, rather than of need. I eat for enjoyment and celebration. It makes me happy to eat. I eat to cheer myself up.

Instead, I should eat out of hunger, for nourishment and good health. I need to ask myself, “Am I hungry?” before I eat. Is my stomach growling? Or do I just eat because the clock says it is time? And do I quit when I am full?

Scriptures offer a reasonable way to eat. “When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God!” (Deuteronomy 8:10a NIV).

Gloria D. Stewart