Dawn's Dialogue

I was honored to guest blog on Dawn's Dialogue today, check it out:
http://www.dawnwhitmorespeaks.org/2012/09/guest-blogger-sarah-roap-weighted-down.html

Arms

Everybody has the genetic part of their body that they like about themselves.  Physically, my part that I like about myself is my legs.  They have always been small, even when I weighed 300 pounds.  They have always been strong.  Everywhere else though... I carry all my weight in my gut so if I gain a little bit now in present day, I look pregnant.  I have what I call a tire that my fat preserves itself in around my lower abdomen and it goes 360 degrees around my lower belly area.  Then there are my arms. *sigh* First of all, I have the bat wings that I got from being morbidly obese and then losing half of my body, so there is the skin that hangs down and I can make it wave to you.  Part of me has so much shame based on the fact that I overindulged with gluttony.  The other part wants to wear my bat wings, kind of like a war wound, proudly because I was able to lose so much weight because of Him.  Very torn perspectives.  So my arms are my weakest link.  I have decided that I would like to get certified to be a personal trainer.  Well, I think if I am going to tell other people how to achieve their weight loss and strength training goals then I need to have some strength training goals myself, right?  So about 3 weeks ago I started trying to build up my upper body strength.  I workout my upper body about 3-4 times a week and then focus 1 day on legs.  It is exhausting! So this past week I made my best friend come workout with me at the gym.  I get up some dumbbells and we are working our biceps and triceps hardcore with these dumbbells.  I picked her up 2 8lb. dumbbells to work her biceps and I picked myself up 12lb dumbbells to work my biceps. So we are on our second set of 12 and after I got to 12 I wasn't feeling it very much so I told my friend, "let's just keep going, until we feel the burn."  She groans at me and I give her a little peptalk and tell her that she can do it!  She finally puts the dumbbells down and says, "I can't do this- I have the upper body strength of an infant!"  Come to find out... I had picked up the 8lb dumbbells and she was using the 12lb dumbbells... no wonder she was dying... oops! 

I want to challenge everyone that reads this to try to find the good parts of yourself and focus on positively changing the parts you may consider bad or you are not happy with. Make good decisions that reflect His strength in your actions.

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full and well.” 

Psalm 139:13-14

 

Temptation

Isn’t it funny how we always have the perfect excuse for not following through on our plan to “get fit”?  I know I have probably said them all before.  “I am too tired,” “I am too busy,” “working out is just too painful,” “it is such an inconvenience,” and the list goes on and on and on.  Nobody is going to do the work for you.  You have control over your actions.  You will never succeed if you don’t ask Jesus to help you.  God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to show us what it was like to live a perfect life.  He will blow all of your excuses out of the water by walking the walk.

            There are many excuses for why we over eat.  I used to tell myself, “I just want it.”  I would joke and tell people, “The heart wants what the heart wants”. When I was morbidly obese, it was not hard to tempt me.  The Bible tells of a time when Jesus was tempted by the devil in Matthew 4: 1-4:

“Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.  After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.  The tempter came to him and said, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.’ Jesus answered, ‘It is written: ‘man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’   "

This verse is so powerful and changes my perspective on the way I see being tempted with food.  Jesus stayed faithful during this temptation.  In this moment, Jesus was relying on his Heavenly Father for nourishment.  The most powerful part of that verse is Jesus’ reply to the devil. He is telling the devil that if He were to turn those stones to bread, it would not fully satisfy him because Jesus receives his spiritual nourishment that will make him fully satisfied from God and God alone.  Jesus shows us in his actions that we should remain faithful when we are in the midst of temptation.  The devil is not just some guy out there that has a chip on his shoulder that wants to influence people to do bad things to tick God off.  He is the archenemy of our God Almighty and the one who tempts people to evil because he is the host of darkness and he wants everyone to be miserable with him.

            By giving you this verse to void out the excuse of having no will power and being tempted, I am by no means telling you to blame everything on the devil.  Even if Satan tempted you to eat the whole cake, God is bigger and stronger than the devil!  Halloween is next month and it is a bad time of year for my sweet tooth.  Certain sweet candies are always calling my name. Every time I walk by the candy isle during that time of year with my grocery cart, I can’t help but look that direction! Is it the devil tempting me?  Maybe it is him and a little of my own sinful flesh.  I do not forbid candy from myself, because that is one of the ways that I got to be morbidly obese in the first place, by forbidding foods from myself.  What I do is I save the candy for night time because that is when my sweet tooth becomes mean. I hold that candy and I pray over it.  That sounds silly to most, but God is faithful to me in my temptations as He was faithful to Jesus.  

             I pray, “Dear Lord, I am going to have this Reese egg and I want to ask that you help me in my temptation to want more than this.  Please help me to feel satisfied after eating this, fill my heart with love for you God, and let me know that I am fully satisfied in you and your love for me.  Amen.”   

Try It.  I dare you.  I double dog dare you.

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are-yet was without sin.” Hebrews 4:15