As a part of this 2 year journey God has had me on so far, He has been working on giving me peace and showing me what peace looks like with Him. It's strange to have known God for so long and yet not know what it really feels like to live in His peace or to live with the peace that only He can bring.
John 14:27 says,
"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid."
I'm also reminded, right this very moment, that in Galatians 5, God tells us one of the fruits of the Spirit is peace. Praise God for growth. So often we can't see personal growth, but this is an area in which I can say I've seen enormous growth.
Some of that growth has taken form in food. Food had been the bane of my existence. It has tormented me and has caused so much unjust heartache. In our society, with size 2 models and actresses portrayed as the only way in which one can look; in our society in which size 4 models and actresses are starving themselves because they believe themselves to be "too fat", what conclusion does a size 12 woman make?
But for the first time in my life, food has been not my enemy - or at least some foods are not. :-) God brought me to a place (through the diagnoses of my mothers diabetes, a health and nutrition class and through the desire to break the chains of family history) where I have peace about food. More importantly, I have peace about who I am... all 12 sizes of me.
When I began to change the way I ate and the way my family ate, I had a peace in my life that I had never known. I know this may sound strange, but I did. I would never have said I fed my family poorly, but when I compare it to how I feed them now, I feel such a peace about what I am doing.
God showed me, through other resources, that the foods He made for us - raw veggies, fruits, whole grains, and nuts are how He wants us to be eating - or at least how He designed our bodies to function best.
What came of the changes we made - better health. My son, who had been having several health issues, no longer struggles with those issues. My daughter, who had different health issues no longer experiences those - at all. The whole family has seen health benefits from our digestive systems, hair, nails, skin, colon health, and weight loss.
Along the way, I have learned to make my own yogurt, my own bread (and mill my own wheat berries), cakes, apple sauce, began canning (tomatoes, jam, tomato soup and stew tomatoes, apple sauce, and more). I learned how to compost, garden (and now have 5 raised beds, a large fruit garden, and apple, pear, plum, and nut trees.)
As I began to do the research on how to make my family healthier I found more things I wanted to change and changed those as well. We went to a non-plastic household - hoping to eliminate any BPAstainless steel cookware. Non-stick cookware, when over-heated, has been questioned in the release of a carcinogen known as PFOA or also known as C-8. contamination's. I also got rid of all our non-stick cookware and went to
In addition to that, I also continued to research the foods that were already in our house and eliminated all foods that have partially hydrogenated oils, dyes, and high fructose corn syrup (in that link, scroll down to the health effects) in them. All of those ingredients have adverse health effects on the human body and as I learned more about them, I decided they were not ingredients I wanted to be putting into my family's bodies.
So what does this all mean? Why am I bringing this up? Because this has been a huge part to Fully Surrendering. God called me to change - to change, what I believed to be be unchangable. A long family history of obesity, poor eating, and a barrage of health effects that come with both of those - high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, and more. I did not believe I could change. I thought my lot in life was to walk in the same tracks of those who have gone before me - but I am here to encrourage you that that does not have to be true. When you are willing to lay it all down at the feet of the cross, give it all over to Him, He will change what you think cannot be changed. He will give you the courage and the strength to do the impossible.
I put it all down in front of my Savior - I handed it all to Him. He carried this burden for me and in the process He gave me peace. The peace I now have is the peace that tells me that I am a daughter of a King and that I was fearfully and wonderfully made. I have peace, for the first time in my life, about the size I am. About the food I am eating, and about the life style I am living. This is not because of anything I did, but because I was willing to hear my Father speak to me and then obey the things He was telling me.
God wants you to know that too. Whatever your struggle is, He is there to carry that burden for you. He is there to teach you, give you resources, and give you the strength to change.
Romans 6: 15-18 in The Message says this:
What Is True Freedom?
15-18So, since we're out from under the old tyranny, does that mean we can live any old way we want? Since we're free in the freedom of God, can we do anything that comes to mind? Hardly. You know well enough from your own experience that there are some acts of so-called freedom that destroy freedom. Offer yourselves to sin, for instance, and it's your last free act. But offer yourselves to the ways of God and the freedom never quits. All your lives you've let sin tell you what to do. But thank God you've started listening to a new master, one whose commands set you free to live openly in his freedom!
In Acts 11:21 (Amplified) the Word of God says this:
And the presence of the Lord was with them with power, so that a great number learned to believe and turned and surrendered themselves to Him.
God's peace comes in all forms and, for me, it came in this unlikely form. Are you willing to give it all to Him?
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