The Power of Daily Choices
These days we hear lots about "choice". We choose whether to go to college, marry, have children or have a career. We choose to go to church. We choose how to educate our children. We choose what to wear each day. We choose our personal care products for our skin and hair. And on and on it goes.
Daily, we make choices that don't seem to be so big or life changing as having children or a career, and yet, our daily choices, even the smallest ones, affect us so much more than we know.
I have been listening to Jim Rohn's CDs, "The Challenge to Succeed". It is pretty eye opening to have him connect what we eat and whether we exercise to our success in business and finances. He contends that it is the small daily disciplines that make or break us. He says if you can do something like eat an apple or walk around the block and do not do it, it is disaster.
Seemingly small activities neglected become major over time. Mr. Rohn talked about what a person's life would be like if he ate a Hershey bar a day instead of an apple a day.
I WAS that person. There was time in my life when I ate candy every day!
From Energy to Exhaustion
In 1994, I was slim and healthy. I had been sugar free for about a year and had energy that was unbelievable. Then, I decided to just get along and eat like everyone else ate. By 2000, I had gained significant weight and lost my energy. The worst part of it was that eating the standard American diet also meant I had brain fog. I barely functioned.
Basically, I made myself keep going for my children. Sadly, the sicker I got, the less I cooked and my poor children spent several years of their lives eating sandwiches and TV dinners!
I got into a vicious cycle of bad eating. I felt bad, so I ate sugar and grain based foods to comfort myself. Those foods made me feel even worse and so I felt sorry for myself and ate even more of them! Grains and sugar affected my gut and caused me to have to sleep sitting up at night, which caused my back to hurt.
A Wake-Up Call from the LORD
In the spring of 2010, people close to me were diagnosed with life threatening illnesses. Two of these were younger than me! It was eye opening for me! I was praying for them and asking the LORD to heal them. I made the comment to my husband that IF I were that ill, I would change my eating and do something about it. He and I had talked for years about how we would not ever take chemo or radiation, but would do juicing and alternative natural remedies.
The LORD strongly convicted me through these verses that I had NO right to put anything less than the best possible food in my body.
"Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are." 1 Corinthians 3:16-17
Conviction, Change, and Choosing Life
A research scientist that formulated a health drink that I enjoy made the comment that sugar ages and deteriorates the body more rapidly than tobacco. He went on to say that churches that would never put out ashtrays for the convenience of their members, serve enormous amounts of sugar, destroying their health.
I was so convicted that I had been guilty of destroying my own body and those of my family that I made a plan and STOPPED sugar cold turkey. In fact, I kicked it to the curb in July 2010 and made the decision to never willingly eat sugar again.
I made a decision at that time to eat clean. That means I no longer eat foods described as unclean in the Scripture and I also avoid synthetic chemicals, dyes and preservatives in food. Many have been upset with the clean eating decision because they believe that grace allows eating anything. I don't believe that eating unclean will keep someone from heaven. Going to heaven is completely the work of Christ.
Ephesians 2:8-9 "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast."
Actually some foods may send you to heaven sooner than you wanted to go! And at the very least some foods are making us fat, tired and sick. I decided I did not want to live out the rest of my days in pain and sick all the time.
From Bondage to Freedom
At the time that the LORD convicted me, I had severe fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue and esophageal reflux. It was painful for me to drive a car. It was painful for me to hold a book or Bible in my hands. Honestly, every thing I did was painful. I hurt from the top of my head to the bottoms of my feet and pretty much every where in between.
I was literally in bondage to the food I ate and the bad food was producing a sick and tired body. I wanted to be free!
"All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any." 1 Corinthians 6:12
Our Choices Matter
Each of us makes a choice what we eat and drink and what kind of lifestyle we live. The outcome is truly determined by our own choices. While genetics may play a part in the equation, studies now show that environment has a much larger effect on our health. Environment includes what we eat, drink and chemicals we put in and on our bodies. (Research indicates genetics are only 5-10%, while environmental influences are 90-95%.)
Basically, we are choosing life or death with our food, drinks, and personal care products. To be our best for the glory of God, we choose to read labels, ask questions when eating foods others prepare and make careful choices. I do that and more. I have a passion for showing others that healthy food tastes good and can even be fun! Thus, this blog was created to share those efforts with you, my reader.
There are places around the world where people have few if any choices, but if you live in North America and other countries with similar resources, you CAN choose healthy food. We have it available in abundance, even at discount stores. So what will you choose today?
We each only have one body to last us our life time. I am taking care of mine. How about you?
I choose Life!
"Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body[c] and in your spirit, which are God’s." 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
ALL to the Glory of God!
"All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify." 1 Corinthians 10:23
"Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." 1 Corinthians 10:31
"And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him." Colossians 3:17
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