Food for thought

"He who has health has hope; and he who has hope has everything."

—Thomas Carlyle

Let's take a minute to be real.

When given a choice, do you choose scrambled eggs or donuts? If you have 30 free minutes, are you going to choose to go for a run, or catch up on the latest episode of your favorite television show? If your kiddos sleep in for an extra hour (I might be stretching here ;) ) are you going to spend some time in the Word and with the Lord, or are you going to choose to get an extra hour of sleep? Depends on the day, right. ;)

If you honestly answered with the latter, no judgement here. That was, and sometimes still is, me as well!

I was cleaning and thinking through so many aspects of my cleanse and I was overwhelmed with thanks to God for how much better I feel, and then I had this revelation.

If I am 100 percent honest with myself— I do not think I would choose to eat clean if my body had not reacted to and rejected food to the point of pain and discomfort.

I had such a trail of thoughts circling in my brain through this realization, so stay with me here. 

Fixing my eyes constantly on food that only satisfies my fleshly desires, whether it be by the way it looked or tasted, is pure gluttony and a sin. I may have said it before in another post, but my thoughts were constantly — in an unhealthy manner — fixed on my next meal. Before I was done with one meal, I was thinking about what delicious food I could eat next.

Through this 2 year long journey of trying to conquer my lust for food, I was often in over my head. I had symptom after symptom stacking on top of each other while my mind swirled with trying to figure out how to "treat" myself when I felt as though I had exhausted all options from my primary care physician. For several years I could tell that gluten was a trigger, but I did not want to exercise the self-control to refrain from so many of my favorite foods.

I was ok with enduring a little bit of pain every now and again if it meant I did not have to give up my control, my lust, my sin.

If you have never read how I got started on this journey of health, you should read this post I wrote a while back about my first Whole30 experience. It was my first break-up with food. But can I be brutally honest with you?

I did not follow it completely because there were still some things I loved way too much and had convinced myself that I could not live without, not even for 30 days. Namely— coffee sweetened with some coconut sugar and almond milk.

 It was as if I said, "Ok God, I trust you, mostly, but I still think my way is ok."

Clearly, my way was not ok. I shared a series of symptoms that just kept multiplying over the last year in another post here.

Being a month removed from every day pain brings about so much peace and a new sense of purpose and passion. It reminds me of when I first accepted Christ into my life, I was excited, I felt new and I felt like I had more clarity and meaning.

The bible tells us in 3 of the 4 gospels (that means your ears perk up and you listen because if something is recorded in 3 of the 4 gospels, it's important y'all) that if we want to follow Christ, we must deny ourselves daily and take up our cross. If I can not deny myself of the things I put in my mouth that are clearly not good for my body, how am I going to have the strength to deny myself of other temptations that come at me in order to walk with God and live the best life He has prepared for me?

Not only that, but we are called to be a light on a hill so that we can shine His glory and if our light is dim, how can others see to follow Him as well? 

Guess what?! You were made to feel exceedingly above and beyond ok! I can now be thankful that God took me to the place of not feeling my best, and through it so that I can see the stark difference. As I was thinking about it, it also made me a bit sad that I had to be taken to a place of feeling bad in my own body before I could surrender it all to God for strength and wisdom and then in turn choose foods that are living to feed my body, mind and soul.

But don't we tend to do this in our walk with Christ as well? We tend to go, go, go in our own might and strength until we encounter brokenness in our lives and realize that we can not do life on our own. Instead of choosing to praise God with our best in the ordinary and mundane times, it sometimes takes some sort of pain and brokenness for God to draw us closer to Him. So why do we wait for it to get to that point?!?

I believe this health journey was so much bigger than just "eating clean". To my core, I believe God wanted to give me a glimpse of a bigger picture.

Do you see the connection?

If our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit, meaning — a sacred part of the triune dwells inside of us when we become Christians. This spirit does not live inside of us to watch what we can do with our own lives. The spirit pushes us toward a daily hunger for the things of God, but only when we are feeding our spirit with the right foods.

That thought hit me hard.

I need to feed my heart, mind and soul foods that will bring health, healing and wholeness daily. I need to deny myself that temptation to mindlessly scroll Instagram, Pinterest or Facebook and purposely feed my mind with thought provoking podcasts that help me to grow in my walk with the Lord as well as life giving books and most of all disciplined time learning and memorizing the Word. 

If you never thought there was a connection between food and your spiritual life, I am convinced otherwise. After all, how did Satan temp Eve in the garden?

I am passionate about this connection because I have gone through it. I absolutely have grown in my walk with Christ through this experience. Where I was once too stubborn to see my the connection between the foods I ate and how I felt, I can now see so much more clearly that what I thought was normal to feel sub-par, is not normal at all. 

This Mama of 3 and wife to an entrepreneur (to his core) needs all the energy and clarity I can muster and I am so thankful I have found what it looks like to feel my best again.

Do you truly feel the best you could to continue to be your best for your family? If not, I want to encourage you to know that there is so much more for you! God designed our bodies in such a beautiful and intricate way, and everything works together for a purpose. The only thing we are daily expected to depend on is God alone. So when you press into God for answers on your health, I am confident that He will lead you to the wisdom you need to discover your best self and the hope in that alone is of such great value.

Hope, health, healing and happiness. This week's theme brought to you by the letter H. ;)

As always, feel free to email me or PM me over on IG (@happylittlemessblog). I love to connect with my community! :) 

Have a great week everyone.