"Crave" Week 7

Hi guys! I missed being here so much last week, but I know it was just the thing I needed. Emotionally and spiritually I'm feeling so renewed and refreshed, like I spent some time actually spending time on what I needed to spend time on. There's a dream I'm chasing these days, that has been on my heart for so many years that I don't really remember life before it. Anyone else know what I'm talking about there? Nonetheless, the past few weeks I've felt God's leading to really start pursuing it. Like for reals. So I've been doing my best to do just that. And friends let me tell you-I don't remember the last time I've felt so excited/scared-out-of-my-ever-lovin-mind about something. Isn't life with Jesus the biggest blast? Soon I will fill you in on all the details, for now let's get along with "Crave"!!!

Welcome to Week 7!! Make sure to visit Crystal & Rebecca's pages, as well as link up at the bottom to join up.

Chapter 11: "Stinkin', Rotten, Horrible, No Good Day"

I've probably said this before (or numerous times before) but this chapter shook up some things in my heart and in my thinking that were desperate to be shaken up. Anyone else? Just as we "eat to celebrate" we eat when times are difficult too-I am so, so guilty on this one. I am so ashamed to say that there are times I know that when something bad happens, no matter how big or small, I reach for food before God. I shudder to think. Don't get me wrong I do turn to God, but more often than not I turn to food first. Just like the story that Lysa opens with in this chapter though, the comfort isn't real, it's temporal at best and leaves us in more guilt and more of a mess than what led us to that bad eating decision in the first place!

This is the cycle that I have been in hundreds of times and just like she says in the book, the only way we have a chance of stopping it is a plan. A part of that plan is realizing that the reason we are reaching for food is to satisfy us-to meet a need that only God can meet. I loved how she shared how she made a plan to combat those times of intense temptations by writing out the Old Lie, the New Truth, and the Favorite Verse.

Chapter 12: "The Curse of the Skinny Jeans"

This chapter was so transparent of Lysa and I really loved and appreciated that. As she begins talking about how good it felt to finally be able to fit into her skinny jeans but how that excitement was short lived, it served to remind us that our happiness really isn't tied to our weight. We will still deal with struggles on both sides of the battle.

"We are taught to remain in God's love so that we won't tie our happy to anything but God. So that our joy will be complete. Complete. As in not lacking anything. Complete. As in filled up to the brink with joy no matter if we are wearing our skinny jeans or not. Complete. As in satisfied with a fullness we can't get any other way. Can you imagine how beautiful it would be to live as a complete person?" (123)

This really got me thinking. How many days of my life have I spent living as an incomplete person. I hate that thought. What I hate even more is to remember that I didn't have to! I had another choice. The same is true today. If I will stop running to other things or people to fill me up and satisfy me I really know that I don't have to spend another day going through life not whole, incomplete.