I’ve been on a path to eating healthier since this last May (for posterity’s sake, 2023). I started this journey when I went to a Doctor’s visit, and I weighed nearly 300 pounds (293, but who’s counting?). Following the Doctor’s visit, I had some down time: I was sick for a few weeks, and had some time to think about my life and its direction, so I decided I needed to make some changes. My wife had begun a program to help her make healthier food and exercise choices (they don’t call it a diet, because, let’s face it, every time we hear that word, we equate it with failure), and so I decided to join her on that journey. And this wasn’t like anything I’d ever done before.
I didn’t start a new diet, telling me what I can and can’t eat, rather, this new program helped me monitor my intake of calories, how much I ate, how often, why I ate, and so on. The point was to make a healthy, sustainable lifestyle change that didn’t make me miserable forever, but change my relationship with food and my health. As of today (July 18th, 2023), I’m down to 279.4 pounds, and I’m sleeping and eating better than I have in a long time.
Why do I say all of this? Because what we consume matters. And, no, I’m not going to continue on a healthy body kick (though God gave us these bodies, we should be good stewards of them!); I want to be clear, spiritually speaking, we’re not aware of what we’re feeding our souls. With TV, the Internet (these phones are slave drivers, I swear), and other entertainments, is it a wonder we feel spiritually dry at times? We’re feeding ourselves spiritually on junk, and wondering why we feel bloated, drained, and unhealthy.
The reason the Bible tells us to meditate day and night on God’s word is so that we will have a heavenly perspective, being fed from the source, Jesus Christ, who says He is the bread of life. I’ll admit, I eat a lot of junk food in my quest for entertainment, but I am now, from this point forward, as I am with my physical health, keeping track of what I am ingesting, aiming to make sure I’m feeding my spirit more than I am my desire to quell boredom. I pray you’ll do the same!
Psalm 1
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
Deuteronomy 6:1-9
These are the commandments and statutes and ordinances that the LORD your God has instructed me to teach you to follow in the land that you are about to enter and possess, so that you and your children and grandchildren may fear the LORD your God all the days of your lives by keeping all His statutes and commandments that I give you, and so that your days may be prolonged. Hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe them, so that you may prosper and multiply greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you.
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is One. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
These words I am commanding you today are to be upon your hearts. And you shall teach them diligently to your children and speak of them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as reminders on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates.
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