Wholeness

 

Wholeness

 

The following quote was part of a recent morning meditation

             God did not tell us to follow him because he needed our help but because he knew that loving                 him would make us whole.

                                                                                                                                    St. Iranaeus

 As I reflected on this quote, I focused first on the idea of God “telling” us to follow him, and I realized out of God’s incredible love for us, the Divine One has given us many resources in being able to love him, to live our lives his way, the way that can make us whole, filling us with peace and contentment.  

 We are triune people, made up of body, spirit, and soul. All three parts of us need to be kept healthy, and in this blog Gloria and I focus on food and eating, one aspect of the body. 

 As I reflected further, I thought of all the resources God has given us to keep our bodieshealthy--physicians, medicine, nutritionists, dieticians, food….  Over and over, we hear doctors, nutritionists, and dieticians tell us how important our diet is for a healthy body.

Proverbs 23:1-3 tells us “When you sit to dine with a ruler, note well what is before you, and put a knife to your throat if you given to gluttony.  Do not crave his delicacies, for that food is deceptive” (NIV).

Now, we realize that’s a little extreme.  I seriously doubt God wants us to put a knife to our throats, but the essence of these words is clear:  gluttony is not good for us.  It is not going to help us be whole.

As Gloria reminded us in her last blog post, we are in a season now where so much nutritional food is available (and tasty)--tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, sweet corn, melons, grapes, and on and on and on.

 So today I encourage us to go ahead and enjoy these gifts God has given us to help us be whole.

 

                                                                                                                                    Sharon Witty

Pray and Plan Ahead

Two things I’ve found helpful in my weight control journey are praying and planning ahead. Before doing anything, prayer will make the next step go better. 

 

It helps to take a day and plan meals and snacks for the week ahead. Usually grocery day is a good day for preparation. Clean, slice and dice the vegetables and fresh fruit so they are ready to use and to eat as snacks. If we have something healthy that is ready to eat we are more likely to choose it.

 

It also helps if we are going to eat out, to pray and then check the website for menu items and search for something healthy or low in calories. Usually they post calories with menu items. Praying and planning ahead is a good way to resist temptations. Deciding what would be a good meal choice wherever we are going helps us resist ordering what everyone else is getting. It also allows us the chance to relax as everyone else struggles to decide.

 

Praying and planning ahead gives us more control over our meals and snacks. It gives us something to look forward to and God helps us control our destiny. However, as the Bible says, it is important not to judge others because of what they eat. Because God accepts us no matter what our diet consists of.

 

“One man’s faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him,” (Romans 14:2-3 NIV).