Trying to Escape the Moment

Yesterday, I had one of those moments. While I changed my crying baby's dirty diaper, my daughter came running to me announcing that she accidentally wet her pants & her socks which left a trail all the way from the bedroom back to the kitchen where the incident started. While we were cleaning it up, my son dropped all his cheerios onto the floor & insisting that I get him down, “Now!” He may be non-verbal but he definitely knows how to communicate his wants. I wanted to scream or better yet, I wanted a piece of chocolate...anything sweet to help me “escape” from this undesirable moment and into a sweet world of bliss (at least in my head).

For the first time in a long time, I didn't turn to the pantry but to prayer. I asked the Lord for strength to get through this. I felt overwhelmed and anxious and I remembered once hearing an older mom say, “Just do the next thing.” That little word of wisdom helped me to gather my thoughts and peacefully care for my children one at a time. I praise God for His grace for that moment. After the kids were settled, I read an article in the latest Voice of the Martyrs newsletter that we received this week. It really helped me to take the focus off of myself as I remembered the persecuted church and lifted them up in prayer.

Many times we turn to food because we're anxious, overwhelmed, bored, discontent, etc. At those times, we should 1)Stop!, 2)Pray for God's strength and power to turn away from our fleshly desires and temptations, and 3) Use that energy to serve someone whether it's your family, church, or world. Romans 12:11, Galatians 5:13, 1 Peter 4:10, and many other scriptures remind us to serve one another. Many times when we take the focus off of ourselves and onto others, our temporal desires lessen as we strive to do those things that have an eternal value.

For my next post, I plan to list various ways that you can serve others rather than eating.

May the Lord help each of us to serve one another as we, “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires” (Romans 13:14).

I run far away from little girls with little boxes!

I'm referring to those sweet little Girl Scouts with those VERY SWEET little boxes of cookies. They seem to be following me for the last week or so. They've been at the entrance of most of the stores that I've visited and there was even one going door-to-door in my neighborhood on Saturday.

My first thought is, "Go ahead and help them raise money for their troops. You were a Girl Scout. You know what it's like to have to sell those very last boxes. Wouldn't it be nice to take some home to your family? It's for a good cause!

My wiser second thought is, "Those cookies are a lot better in their hands than on your hips. You know that once you open up that box; it'll be nearly gone in one sitting and they won't even make it home!"

Thankfully, I've been going with the latter thought! I quickly say a prayer, "Oh Lord, please help me to not buy any of those cookies!" Then I speed walk in the opposite direction before those Samoas (a.k.a. Caramel deLites) start calling my name! :-)

On The Road Again...Finally!

Okay my past Freedom Journey followers, I've jumped on the saddle again. I know it's been a while. I had 9 months of pregnancy which I call the season of “Eat whatever I want!” Now that my baby is 8 months old, it's definitely time! Oh boy, is it hard! It feels more like I'm on a bondage journey. It's been 15 months since my "skinny jeans" post. I have 15 pounds to lose to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight! I'm starting this journey again so keep me accountable and I need lots of prayer! I'll try to periodically share how things are going and I'd like to hear from you as well.

Here are the 3 things that are helping to keep me focused these days:

1) My Bible & My Freedom Journal as I mentioned in the post Running to the Savior.

2) I've started reading Slave by John MacArthur which is reminding me about the wonderful freedom that I have as Jesus' slave.

3) My post-pregnancy belly just won't go away! After the 3rd pregnancy, it's been a lot harder to get rid of the "baby fat" (I like how that sounds as oppose to "mommy fat" :-). So I got happy when I found this 7-minute ab workout in the newspaper. When I saw it, I thought, "Surely I have 7 minutes a day to work on this gut!"

Only A Few Moments

How will you spend your moments today???

Total tear jerker

Many of you probably have already seen the movie Like Dandelion Dust. Well, Kempton & I watched it for the first time on Saturday night. It had me on a serious emotional roller coaster from start to finish! If you haven't seen the movie, check it out & have a whole box of tissue handy. For those of you who have seen it, what did you think???

How Does Your Daughter Dress?

Check out this post from Justin Taylor's blog.

My Sweet Seven Month Old!

Black History Month Is Over...Now What???

My dear friend asked me to write a post on her blog about my thoughts on Black History Month.