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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Before and After (05/14/09)
Dieter’s Dilemma


As a person who has consistently thought about, been engaged, or coming off a diet for the past thirty-five years, I can honestly say there is no worse combination of words in the English language than before and after. I am convinced that as Paul had his thorn in the flesh, so do I and a lot of other menopausal, middle aged ladies. It is the fat, the weight, the fitting into or outgrowing, middle age spread. College ladies have the dormitory fifteen, twenty and thirty something’s the pregnancy blues, forties and fifties hormones and after that more or less hormones. And then there is the husband, who skips lunch for a week and loses twenty pounds. You skip breakfast and lunch and only see the scale quiver in a negative direction.


So let’s get down to the skinny of it all. We are stuck on appearance. It captivates our thought life, makes our clothes shrink and remember ladies; it is not our middle, but our dryer that shrinks our clothes. How many of you out there know that you have gained too much weight because your underwear doesn’t fit right anymore? I am raising my hand!

Are you counting? Counting carbs, counting calories, come on you Weight Watchers people counting points, we are counting. Are you reading? Reading labels, reading fats, deciphering fiber grams, we are reading. Do you get the picture?

Before and after pictures are sometime exhilarating, many times depressing because we focus on the outward, the size, the shape, and not the true value of the person we are in Christ Jesus. I don’t mean we are to let go and “eat, drink, and be merry,” Paul reminds us in I Corinthians 6:19 that “our bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost that dwells within.” I know that God wants us to take care of the “earthen vessel”, after all the weak, tired; body can’t truly proclaim the gospel. It lacks the energy!

Maybe that is the answer to the dilemma of weight. Treat our bodies as a finely tuned Holy Ghost vessel and remember what is to be used for in our Christian walk. I used to tell my students that ears were made for more than hanging ear rings or sunglasses on for looks. They were a unique sense created by God and having a brother who is hearing impaired drove that point home to me early that the gift of hearing and sound is a blessing.

Before Christ, I am a clay vessel, easily broken by the world. After Christ I am a Holy Spirit container, victoriously proclaiming the Gospel. So what about the diet, the weight, or the clothes that shrink with the middle age spread? Work on it, fight the good fight of fat and pray that in heaven there are no calories in the manna!
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Member Comments
Member
Date
Myrna Noyes
05/22/09
"And then there is the husband, who skips lunch for a week and loses twenty pounds. You skip breakfast and lunch and only see the scale quiver in a negative direction." :D That is sooooooooo true! My husband can lose 5 pounds without hardly trying, and I struggle and strain to lose 1!!

I also loved your last line about praying there are no calories in the heavenly manna! AMEN!! :)

Brenda Rice
05/24/09
I liked your story. I too have counted everything possible to lose weight. My husband can lose 10 pounds in 7 days without a blink. As for me--no such luck. I have always imagined the Marriage Supper with every imaginable food but there were no calories in any of them. Good story.