You might be thinking, 'Why is this blogger so obsessed with being healthy?' I thought we were all supposed to be obsessed with God, not with food!"
That is exactly true! God is to be our focus in life, not food. But why does food have such a priority in our lives, and why am I focusing so much on nutrition and health on my blogs and on Facebook?
In a nutshell, here is the reason why; All my childhood years, and first years of marriage, I never felt good. In fact, I felt terrible most of the time. When I was an infant, I had colic for 7 months, and believe that set the stage for everything that happened during the following years. For one thing, I never slept right. As a child, I would fall asleep around midnight or one in the morning. I never ate anything. My parents and grandparents tried everything to get me to eat. As a teenager, I still didn't eat, but I discovered junk food, which tasted pretty good.
When I was first married, I had stomach problems. Every night, I would have a hard time sleeping because of my stomach. To cure this, I would go out to the kitchen and eat Debbie Cakes. I didn't realize what I was doing until I started a Good News Club, and one of the participants was a young man who lived next door. He lived much like I did, eating Debbie Cakes and skipping meals. I could see how this eating habit was affecting him physically.
A couple of years later, I started selling 'Shaklee' products and went to their weekly classes. That was the beginning of my learning about nutrition and the affects of nutrition on our bodies. But the knowledge was so limited that it wasn't very much, yet it was enough to stir up my interest in the subject.
Years later, I finally figured it out. If I could eat right and sleep right, I would feel better. That would involve cutting out sugar from my diet (which is the hardest thing I had to give up). I could buy local produce that hasn't been sprayed with pesticides, and I can eat grass-fed beef and drink raw milk for the nutritional benefits.
I actually feel good physically now. I write this to explain why this is so important. When I was in high school, I came to Christ and was converted. I now had a new life, and new goals and desires. Life suddenly became very meaningful. I was so happy and grateful to have been rescued that I wanted everyone to know. This was exciting, but I was not trained to do evangelism, and there were no opportunities to go out with people to practice, so eventually, I put evangelism aside, and focused on my family.
I did not feel good during the time period when my two older children were small. I homeschooled them and got pregnant with others, but I still didn't feel good. I did a lot of things wrong, and with the knowledge I gained about how to be healthy, I didn't put it into practice for me or for my family. I just didn't have time for that. And I think we all suffered, because I, as the manager of our home, could not do my job well, because I didn't feel good.
The kids are grown now, and I returned to evangelism, with vision and zeal. Evangelism became my life goal. But I can't do evangelism the way I would like, because I don't feel good. How can that be remedied?
I have visited many nursing homes. I have seen elderly people with dementia. I have seen people with Alzheimer's. I have watched many people die at a young age from cancer. I talked with people who have diabetes. I see people who can't do the things they dreamed of doing one day, because they are unable to, due to poor health.
When I am in my 90s, I don't want to be in a nursing home. I certainly don't want to be in the grave! I hope to not be confined to a wheel chair. I want to be out on the streets talking to people about the Gospel.
If you have a vision to do something for God, go for it! But if you are a typical American, you might be resigning yourself to a nursing home when you get older. You might be assuming that you will get Alzheimer's because your mom or dad had it.
God gave each one of us a little bit of time on earth. That is all we get. How will we use it? Will we use it by feeding ourselves junk food and by ending up in a nursing home when we are older? Will we spend our lives living for pleasure and convenience, and dying of cancer before we are 60? What is it that God has put into your heart to accomplish for Him during your short stay on earth?
God created us to worship Him, but instead we worship other things and live for ourselves. We don't take care of our bodies because we don't see the connection between what we eat and how it relates to our health. We, out of ignorance, live on junk food and processed food because that is the American way, yet, will we have strength to live for and serve the One who gave us life? Can we give up our Oreos and soda pop in order to have the strength to do the will of the One who created us?
"Whatever you do, do it heartily to the Lord." Can we do this if we don't feel good? If we could change this, how could we change it? I wonder if we really believe that we could feel good and have strength if we took care of our bodies? I wonder if we our really willing to pay the price in order to feel good?
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