Food for Thought: Are You Relying on Food More Than You Are Relying on God?

          For years my life revolved around one question: What am I going to eat for my next meal? Food was my go-to. Food was my comfort. Food did not judge me. Food filled the empty void within me. If you're like me, someone after God's own heart, you can already see how wrong I was in my decision to let food consume my life. How awful of me! I was basically saying, "I love you so much God, but you come second. This cheeseburger has my full attention right now." Wow, talk about stabbing someone in the back. Now, how many of you have done this or are currently doing this? How many of you are replacing the most important relationship in your life with something that can only make you feel for a moment. Something that can only comfort you for so long. Something that does not judge you but makes your love handles scream, "I LOVE TO EAT!" Something that fills your empty void but for a second until you are left completely empty again. Starved.

          I'm assuming you want to know how to change that. How to direct those cravings towards something more substantial. Something more fulfilling. Ready? Here it is...you surrender yourself to the One who made you. You completely and utterly lay your cravings at His feet. My friend, you get down on those knees of yours and you pour your heart out. You ask for help. You ask for strength. You ask for wisdom. You ask for comfort. You fight through those cravings for food by asking the Lord into your heart. To fill you. Fill you with something that will allow you to beat any craving you might have whether it be food, sexual sin, drugs, alcohol, shopping, electronics, etc. By directing those cravings toward God, He will make you whole. Not with food but with love, and peace, and understanding, and wisdom, and joy, and comfort. You are His, and He is yours. 

          I mentioned in my last post about a book I am currently reading, Made to Crave by Lysa TerKeurst. I have to admit the motivation behind this blog comes from her and her book. One of my favorite quotes from her book so far is, "Basically I eat what a wild animal eats--meat and things that grow naturally from the earth. I have yet to see an overweight animal in the wild lamenting over excess cellulite." Wow. Just wow. I had a friend say to me this weekend, "Isn't it crazy that all healthy food are things in nature created by God?"  Shouldn't we be eating things created by God? Things He directly gave to us for good. After reading that chapter of Lysa's book, I went directly to my fridge and pantry with the mindset, "I am an animal in the wild," and I got rid of anything that was not something an animal in the wild had access to. Now, obviously I am human and am in no way perfect, so yes, since then I have bought things from the grocery store that an animal would never be
able to get a hold of in the wild. It is a slow process for me. Quitting cold turkey is just not something I can do right now, but I will say, eating like a wild animal has been one of the best decisions I have ever made.

Here are some benefits I have noticed by eating clean:

1. My skin. Not that I have ever had bad skin, but my skin now has somewhat of a glow to it. 

2. My hair. It is shinier and softer. What girl doesn't want that?!

3. My energy. This has by far been my favorite thing about changing my eating habits. I used to think I needed a nap everyday after school. Now, I never feel the need to nap. I can teach all day without yawning once.

4. My moods. This was something my mother noticed before I did. She texted me one day and said, "Are you happy?" Well I was not sure what happiness she was referring to so I asked her and she replied, "With your life." I smiled as soon as I received the text message. I could not have used enough exclamation points or smiley faces to express my happiness. My mother simply texted back, "I can tell that you are very happy." I have yet to be in a bad mood since I started eating better. No matter how frustrated my students may make me, no matter how rude the cashier at Target might have been to me, no matter how irritated I may be when someone cuts me off on the road, I smile.
5. My attitude. I have never been quite a Debbie-Downer, but I used to complain about EVERYTHING. I mean EVERYTHING. Now, I rarely complain about the things that are bothering me, I rarely talk about the things people do that annoy me, I rarely spill my guts to people about how difficult and impossible my school work is. Instead, I am thankful. Thankful for the people who love me because I know some people have no one to love them. Thankful for schoolwork because some people do not have the opportunity to attend college. Thankful for the dent in my bumper and crack in my windshield because I have a car that gets me from point A to point B. A very nice car at that. 

          Now, I know some of you are thinking, "How in the world can changing what you eat make you happier or make you thankful?" You see my friends, it's not the food that directly changed me, it was God. Because I chose to crave God more than I crave food, He changed me. And He can change you, too. You have to be willing and fully devoted. 

          You may ask yourself, "Does God really care what we eat?" Go read Genesis 1:29, Genesis 9:3, Acts 14:7, Psalm 34:8, Psalm 65:9-13, and tell me He doesn't care. Go. Go open your Bible and read for yourself. He cares. 

So, I ask you, are you treating your body as a temple of God? If not, what are you "weighting" for? 

Press on, my friends, press on. 

"Everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial." 1 Corinthians 10:23

A few of my favorite foods:
Zucchini
Hummus
Cucumbers
Tilapia
Ground turkey
Asparagus
Eggs
Clementines
Bananas
Oatmeal