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Are You Wearing Baggy Pants?

I want you to picture a melting ice cream cone in your head...the top melts onto the layer below it and it all slowly pools over the cone. That's what I was feeling like back in November...when I sat in my chair at work, my chest rested on my stomach, my stomach squished over my waist and settled on my hips, and everything else just oozed on down towards my knees. Gravity is a cruel mistress.

So is a love of food.

I decided to make some healthy changes before the holidays started; I knew my ice cream cone would be headed for my ankles if I waited to make a New Years Resolution which never really work for me anyway.

Long story short, joining Weight Watchers is working for me. It keeps me accountable and, at the very least, aware of what choices I'm making. Lots of programs are out there...this just works for me.

After a few months, my jeans started getting a little looser; then I had to cinch in my belt. Eventually it became obvious that the pants didn't fit but being a frugal girl I hated to buy new ones. As I was getting dressed one day, though, it hit me that if I keep wearing the pants with room to grow, I will at some point grow back into them.

The simple reality is that we gravitate towards that which we surround ourselves with.

If I want to stop gossiping but sit with the same people I gossip with every lunch hour, I'm probably not going to stop. I can pretend I'm there to be a good influence, but that probably isn't step one.

If I want to be a more positive person with a good attitude, I can't spend time replaying every conversation that gets under my skin thinking of what I should've said. I need to focus my thoughts on the whatever's...whatever is true, noble, praiseworthy, honorable...think on those things. (Phil. 4:8). Practicing snarky comebacks doth not a good attitude make.

If we really want to make a change, we need to set ourselves up for success. The Bible says we need to strip off every weight that slows us down (Hebrews 12:1) and run with endurance the race set before us.

I think we each know which race we are supposed to be running. For me it was to lose the emotional connection to food and lean on God. Weight Watchers and Lysa TerKeurst's Made To Crave are effective tools for me, but that's all they are...tools. I have to make the choices. And wearing baggy jeans gives me too much room to make poor ones. (Pun totally intended.)

So, your turn. Are you wearing baggy jeans? Have you made it comfortable not to change? Set yourself up for success. I think when Jesus promised life to the full, He intended for us to conquer the things that slow us down and keep us from that life.

The best part: He makes the way. (John 14:6)

Posted by Debbie Giese at 2:30 PM No comments: 

Living through Saturday

When I was a teenager, just the word Saturday was enough to make me smile. It was the high point of the week, promise and anticipation wrapped up in its very essence. My heart would beat a little faster as I considered all the possibilities that day held. Saturday was the day to aim for.

But 2,000 years ago, for a ragtag bunch of guys hiding out in a city otherwise celebrating, Saturday held anything but promise and anticipation. Their Saturday was filled with despair, fear, disbelief, sorrow, and anger. The promised king, the one the prophecies claimed would deliver freedom for their nation, was dead. Murdered like a criminal. And with him in the tomb lay all their hopes and dreams.

Maybe you find yourself living in a Saturday like this...hopes dashed, promises left undelivered, dreams left broken. Maybe you thought that all signs pointed one direction and your life has made a detour through unknown landscapes. Maybe the results you've worked for have been handed to someone else. Or maybe things have turned out like you planned, only the joy you thought would arrive never showed up.

We know the rest of the disciples' story, that Sunday came and changed everything. The burial tomb was empty; Jesus had conquered death. Even the most final of circumstances was no longer final.

My prayer for each of us is that we take the Resurrection of Christ and apply it to our lives. What looks like the end might just be the Saturday before the most amazing, life changing Sunday in history.

"As it is written, no eye has seen nor ear has heard and what no human mind has conceived the things God has prepared for those who love him. (1 Corinthians 2:9)."
Posted by Debbie Giese at 11:34 AM No comments: 

TBT: A Challenge to All Control Freaks

It might be a Christmas based blog, but the message is timeless and timely. Step back to November 29, 2010 for our Throwback Thursday selection, blog #275...http://debgiese.blogspot.com/2010/11/challenge-to-all-control-freaks.html
Posted by Debbie Giese at 8:12 AM No comments: 

Operating Systems

Windows or Mac?

Apple or Android?

Fear or Trust.

Maybe it's time for an upgrade.

Posted by Debbie Giese at 6:00 AM No comments: 

Be the Donkey

On Palm Sunday, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey amid the cheering of the people. "Hosanna, Hosanna," they shouted. "Glory to God in the highest." They waved palm branches and laid coats down so He would not be carried by the mud. The donkey looked around and thought to himself, "It's about time they realized who I am."

He didn't realize he was just the one carrying Jesus to the people.

Be the donkey. Carry Jesus to the people who need Him. Don't get caught up in anything other than the fact that Jesus came to Jerusalem for us, was crucified for us, and rose again for us.

All of us.

Look at the crowds around you. Every face you see needs what Jesus did. No one needs it more, and no one needs it less.

Jesus knew when He entered the city that day what His week held...betrayal, beatings, and ultimately death. But He never turned back. He never wavered, because He knew there was no other way.

This season, bring Jesus to someone who needs Him. Be the donkey.
Posted by Debbie Giese at 8:21 AM No comments: 

TBT: An Open Letter to My Friends from the Old Days

Welcome to Throw Back Thursday...and kids, this one is a doozy. Please join me as we travel back to May of 2009....An Open Letter to My Friends from the Old Days. (THanks Jolene for picking #438!)
Posted by Debbie Giese at 8:18 AM No comments: 

Broken Ground

This winter will go down in the history books as one of the harshest for my state. I stopped paying attention to the weather forecast in January sometime; cold had lost its meaning for me and I just figured it would be easier to adapt to this new normal instead of hope for better.

Even the spring hasn't seemed "springy"...until I saw this. Little tulips leaves breaking the ground apart. Evidence that we will see warmer days again, or at least tulips. I marveled at the way such a delicate shoot could displace such hard earth. And of course, the David Crowder song Wholly Yours flashed through my mind...

"And a certain sign of grace is this...from broken earth, flowers come up, pushing through the dirt..."

I am also reminded of the many scriptures that promise the restoration of God. Where only cracked, dry ground could be seen days before comes the hope of spring, life in place of death.

I only need look at my own life to see these promises bearing fruit. God has restored relationships that I feared broken beyond repair. He has brought friendship to places that enmity should rightfully exist and laughter in place of tears. I know that the situations that continue to grieve my heart are in His Hands and that He is at work in them.

If you are looking at dry ground that brings forth nothing but dust, look to the God who says to a valley of dry bones, live. (Ezekiel 37:5). Look to God who saves.

Here's the song Wholly Yours by David Crowder...it reminds me not only that God brings forth life from dirt, but that I am the ground and the work of His Hands and that He will fulfill His purposes. He will bring hope to the hopeless and life to the lifeless. Here I am Lord...I am wholly yours.

Posted by Debbie Giese at 6:40 AM No comments: 

TBT: Conviction or Conviction

TBT, Throw Back Thursday, is here again. My friend Kari Anne picked number 7 which takes us back to almost the very beginning of my blogging days, 2008.

Here's a link to post #7...Conviction or Conviction. Man, that was a long time ago.
Posted by Debbie Giese at 7:05 AM No comments: 

Lighting the Way