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Today I'm going to use the second scripture text from the Daily Texts in a most interesting manner:
I used to hunger and thirst, particularly hunger, for all kinds of food, most of which were not healthy or sustainable. I would go to the grocery store and never step foot in the produce department. I certainly knew where the produce section was -- very close to the shopping carts -- but I made a nice detour around it, heading for the cookies and salty snacks (Cheetos and Sun Chips were my favorites back in the day). Fast food also used to be an addiction of sorts -- a cheeseburger of some sort along with fries or onion rings.
Now I look back on Friday, July 25, 2014 -- a day that would radically change my life, but I didn't know it at the time. I walked into the Fargo Profile location and was quite scared as to what might happen. I met with a nutrition coach who asked me a number of questions. The question that I still remember to this very day was: How much weight do you want to lose? The answer I had in my head was "a lot" but I knew that this person wanted a quantifiable amount, so I said "fifty pounds" because that sounded like a pretty fair answer. I had been on Nutrisystem back in the late 1980's and had lost 63 pounds, so I knew I could "do it again."
After sticking quite religiously to the Profile plan for a few weeks, I pretty easily lost fifty pounds. Once I had achieved that particular goal, I decided to lose another fifty pounds. This took a little more work on my part, but it was doable. Then, I thought, "Why not?" and decided to lose fifty more pounds! All told, I lost 152 pounds and I was very happy with myself. I also had a personal trainer who worked me really hard. (That's a story for another devotional...)
Now that I had lost all the weight, I had to work really hard to keep off the weight -- the maintenance or sustenance part of the plan. This was far more difficult than initially losing the weight, let me tell you! I am far from the perfect eater. One big thing I've learned on my journey is "a treat is a treat" but that does not mean a treat every day -- far from it! An occasional treat is necessary to remind me that I'm not perfect but I'm trying hard.
Others of you have been on the Profile journey or a similar journey concerning weight loss or something else. My prayers are with all of us as we strive to know what right looks like and then to try our hardest to succeed.
Let me now repeat today's second scripture text: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." (They will not be filled with food, but with good things from God.) Thanks be to God who helps us strive for righteousness each day!
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