Loving Myself to Life

My kitchen clock tells me it is now 7:31 a.m. as I sip on yet another morning shake. Having just returned from the gym and having not yet begun the 'walk of the day' (a 6 mile trail by the river), I'd actually prefer a bowl of oatmeal with fruit and nuts but no, I'm being a Good Girl and drinking the shake that has shaken the world of dieting.

According to numerous friends, THIS diet plan is the one we've all been looking and waiting for. And I've seen the proof in the pictures: some of my friends lost 30 pounds in the first 3 months of drinking this wonder powder. Me? I've been following the plan for 6 weeks now and have yet to lose anything but my patience as I await it's wonder-working power.

And so, once again this morning I have choices to make: Do I continue on the program or give it up? Do I continue working out or give that up, too? I already know the answers to these questions: I'll keep going. I feel great so will stick with the program until it's completion.

The bigger questions are these: Will I think and speak aloud the horrible, hateful things I so easily think about myself at these times? Or will I take those thoughts captive and make them be obedient and submit to what God's Word says about me?
Will I compare myself to someone else and come up lacking? Or will I compare myself with myself and realize I'm much stronger and healthier and physically alive than I've been in years?


Will I hate myself to death or love myself to life?

Last weekend I held a women's conference in Franklin, PA, for the women of 4 Mile Presbyterian Church. We had a great time! Holy Spirit was there and we left the weekend more in love with Jesus - and more accepting of ourselves - than we'd been in a long time. Perhaps, ever. To them I dedicate this blog.
Because you see, it was as I was heading to PA that I realized how easy it is for us as women to 'hate ourselves to death' and speak words of hurt, sometimes actual curses, over ourselves and our bodies. When Father God met with me that day and began talking to me about this, it was as though I could feel a bit of His sadness and hear a bit of His pain as He listens to His daughters and sons rip apart what He, the Master Potter, so carefully and loving created.

So, along with my friends from 4 Mile, I'm going to dedicate a portion of this blog to a page on 'Loving Myself to Life'. A page where we can interact and help one another to 'Remember Whose We Are'. I hope you'll join us and share with us the 'thick and thin' (sorry, bad joke) of what you are going through, as we journey through not only doing what we can to be healthy and well, but accepting, along the way, that which the Potter has formed in each of us. We can be honest and positive and life-giving all at the same time, my Friends. This is enough to make me start enjoy blogging!

And my advice? Skip the shake, go for the oatmeal!
Here's to LIFE!