A Foods by God Testimoney: Joanna

My friend, Joanna, who is a very gifted and creative teacher, shared with me this past weekend her cookie jar 'victory'.  I asked her if she would write up her experience to share with you.  I know just how severe sugar addiction is and I praise God for her victory over the cookie jar last week.  Don't let Satan overwhelm you with lies so that you think you cannot succeed.  Focus on today and focus on God.  Take small steps, day-by-day, with lots of prayer - with God all things ARE possible!  Don't ever doubt that. 

 

 

An old eating disorder, no matter how long ago it was in the past, still lingers and can cause the formation of cloudy disordered thinking when it comes to food.  I want to be free from that old bondage.

 

I have been thin but I don’t know that I have ever been truly free in the area of my eating.  What I am learning is that I sure have spent a great deal of time condemning myself, but I’m awakening to the idea that my love of “bad foods” is actually all tangled in chemicals and additive substances in the foods I called “yummy”.  I thought I was bad.  Is the food the bad guy here, not me?  Now there is a novel idea?

What a gift to give a child, to teach her just to eat right.  Eat good foods.  Eat the right amount.  Be the ideal weight.  No thought to the matter at all.  Makes me sigh; it wasn’t that way for me.  I grew up eating wrongly, over eating, emotional eating, under eating, all out binging, and starving, every which way but right.

Now at age 53, I look over at the “Foods By God” blog.  What is this?  I look over at “Foods By Joanna” and I see chaos; I see disordered thinking.  I wonder, “How can I get from here to over there?”

I think about Nehemiah.  He took a survey around the broken down walls of Jerusalem.  He saw rubble, broken down walls, and more rubble.  It is harder to rebuild than it is to build, almost impossible really, but then I guess I shouldn’t mention Nehemiah and his broken down walls, because he actually did rebuild the new walls in 52 days, didn’t he?

I too have crossed many a personal “Red Seas” in my life.  How amazing has been the crossing of impossible waters.  To mention only one, my son should have died in Africa, but we made it out in a medical evacuation and the miraculous story still causes my heart to sing.

At this point, here is what I know: “Foods by Joanna” isn’t working so well!  This way of eating “Foods by God” way seems impossible.  But I do so love the story of Nehemiah, so I take a step towards the impossible crossing.

This week I came upon a cookie jar filled with fairly stale cookies.  I decided to taste one, then another, then another.  I left so that I wouldn’t get another.  I went home, went to bed, and guess what woke up on my mind?  Yes, the jar of cookies at school.  The closer I drove to school, the more I wanted those cookies!  I knew I should pray, but …I could pray later…after I had a few cookies.  I opened the door of the school and God whispered across my heart, “What if I had something else for you?”

 

I stopped in my tracks and looked heavenward.  I wondered what that could mean.  I threw all the stale cookies in the trashcan, and I began looking for the “something else”.  In my mind grew the most delicious idea for my students.  I could take my cute little first graders and we could write our own play, gather props, build a set, and have a wonderful time doing it!  By the end of the week, instead of having more white sugar flowing in my veins, I had ideas flowing wildly.

Simultaneously as I let go of the yucky foods (formerly named 'yummy foods), I'm finding less of a drive for them and a new question arises, "Did I really love them or was I really just addicted to them."  What will I do with my hands, mouth, and feet if I'm not running after those foods?  I know the answer; they will serve the LORD instead of my fleshly passions.

 

Nehemiah’s walls weren’t built in one day, but they were built one day at a time.  May God have mercy and teach me His ways.  “With man it is impossible, but not with God, with God all things are possible.”  Mark 10:27