Putting My Foot Down in My 1000 Mile Journey

 

I’ve heard the about quote my whole life, and decided it was time for my finally journey to getting healthy. 

 

I’ve toyed with it in the past, gotten to the outskirts of my destination, but always ended back at my starting point, if not a bit worse for wear.

 

This has to be my last time. I will get there this time. I say this for a number of reasons.

 

1 – I’m in the worst shape ever. I’m over 400 pounds. That is as close to the actual number that I will get at this time. Maybe when I get away from the number, I will be able to utter it, we shall see. But I am so weak and sedentary, its plain sad.

 

2 – My health has deteriorated. I am now officially a diabetic, also diagnosed with hypothyroidism, among other underlying issues. I’m on three medications. Three! It brings to mind images of my grandparents basket of prescriptions that was passed around the breakfast table each morning. Makes me feel old. I’m only 44!

 

3 – I want to be the Mother and Wife I know I can be and the one my family deserves.

 

4 – I have God. Of course I’ve always had Him, but I never relied on Him when it came to my trying to work toward better health. With Him, anything can be achieved.

 

After these last few months, its even more critical.

 

Seven years ago, we helplessly watched a family member get sicker and sicker and do nothing to become healthier, until it was too later. We lost them years before it was necessary if he had taken the time to eat well, work out and stop smoking. A year later, we lost someone else, even younger, to poor choices and ignoring warning signs.

 

Now, even though he made it to 82, if he had gone to the doctor when he first started feeling poorly, you cannot convince me that he wouldn’t have had more time with us all and not gotten so weak at this point that he couldn’t have fought back even more than he did.

 

I had never been begged so much to step up and try harder, to please take care of me for myself, for my family. I hated the looks of pity I was getting from everyone, it just made me loathe myself even more. Time to step it up.

 

So begins my journey. You are welcome to walk along. I’ll need all of the allies I can get.

Lessons Learned Over These Months? There’s an App For That

Upon hearing the news of the job, we tried to lower our bills in any way we could, so we bit the bullet and joined the 21st century and got smart phones.

Wait. What?

How could upgrading your phone save you money?

It actually did.

By heading over and getting WalMart Family Mobile, it actually brought our bill down at least $10 a month, some months twice as much as that, so that makes our average savings $180 a year.

Plus, there’s the apps.

Come on.

Any Ebay seller lives to hear the “cha-ching” of their notifier, letting them know that they just made a sale. The first time mine cha-chinged, I squealed like a little girl at Christmas.

I’ve added many helpful apps, but of course two of the very first were a bible and a devotional. I just dove in and grabbed one, but it was obviously divinely chose, as God helped me with a struggle that I was just beginning to have and knew nowhere to turn to for answers,

It seems like when you turn toward God in a moment of crisis, Satan works ever so much harder to push doubts and irrational fears into your every thought. Every day that went on while my Dad was ill, he would have a good day, where he’d be asking to eat, asking for coffee, asking questions about family members and the like, giving us all hope that we were headed toward rehab and home. The next day we’d come back to him being moved back to ICU status and another surgery scheduled. We’d send out requests for everyone to pray for him, then the questions and frustrations began to creep in.

Luke 12:7–  But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

Jeremiah 29:11 — For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

If God already knows what is going to happen to you, what is the point of prayer? He sits and tells you in one moment that he will give you everything you answer as long as you ask, and yet, if his plans are for you to lose this person from your like, do you think he’s going to change his mind for you. or is he just lying?

These thoughts were manic in my mind for weeks. I asked a few of my family members, my Sunday School teachers, but never really got the answer my heart was seeking,

Fast-forward to my apps again.

I was sitting in the hospital room, and I was sitting quietly on the sofa while Mom and Dad visited. I got out my phone and decided to seek some solace in scripture. I opened up my Daughters of the King app, right to When You Pray For Your Friends.

The first sentence? “And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before” Job 42:10. I was hooked. While the route to the message had nothing to do with my questions and struggles,  it brought me to the same conclusion:

When Job prayed for his friends, the Lord turned his situation around. God gave him twice as much wealth as he had before. It is the Lord that will turn things around for you when you wise up and do what big girls do. As you pray, God will bless you richly with a release and will turn things around for you.

I held on and waited to the answer I needed to go on. And it came. It always does. I noticed my prayers changing from saving him to helping my Mom come to terms with the path that was beginning to clear out before us. The main request from our hearts became to assure us that both Mom and Dad had been saved, so we know that we’ll be together again soon.

And guess what?

God does answer prayers.

Just like He says.

About the last 24 hours:

Waking blood Sugar this morning:

156

Blood Sugar after dinner:

168 (not bad for a white carb dinner!)

Dinner Tonight:

I made fresh pasta sauce from a ton of fresh veggies I got at the Farmer’s Market right before Dad passed. I didn’t want them to go to waste – second batch on tap for tomorrow!

kicking the nasusea after its hold on me all day – thank you Jesus!