My weekly weigh-in revealed a one pound and two ounce loss! In the words of my circled eared friend, “ZIPPITY DO DA!! 68 down and two to go! I’m particularly delighted as weeks (okay, months) ago I injured my right foot, and kept working out.
Why? Because I have an unattained goal…why else? Now I know my fellow Type A’ers are nodding their sweet goal-oriented heads with a, “duh, of course…gotta get to the goal!” And my Type B’ers are shaking your head in the east-west direction saying, “calm down already you crazy woman!”
Oddly, my foot didn’t heal, but rather got more tender (go figure, huh?)…
This past week, I deliberately took a week off of exercise in hopes my foot would stop hurting. And miracles of miracles…it’s not aching nearly as much! AND I lost weight too! Humph…that’s odd, eat less and lose weight? What’ I can cooperate with my body (instead of beat it into the ground) and still get results!? Huh?
Amazing what happens when I listen…not just to my body, but to God’s promptings! I’m learning…
This week’s nugget God spoke through the book, Slightly Bad Girls of the Bible – Flawed Women Loved by a Flawless God by Liz Curtis Higgs. Liz Curtis Higgs is one of the top five women in visible leadership, that I admire the most! Liz ROCKS!
I admire Liz for her contagious passion to trust God’s grace and forgiveness as she humorously and candidly reveals her life, Biblical truths and how God’s love is for her, and all of us! She has an uncanny way of making me feel like I am no surprise to God and even more, that I am loved by God, today, as the imperfect woman I am…right where I am!
Don’t you dare let her soft silver hair and beautiful crimson smile fool you…
I continue to chuckle as I remember that Liz said in the paramount of her former “bad girl days”, the Shock Jock Howard Stern (who Liz formerly DJ’ed with at the same station), told her that she needed to calm her party life down…that’s how dramatic her past life was. And she’s now a highly celebrated Christian author!
Well, no matter what, I believe I would have enjoyed some drinks, cigs and laughs with her in my former bad girl days. I feel blessed to be able to indulge myself with bountiful laughs today from her work, as we’re both on the other side of the fence, pursuing God!
Back to the nugget…
Liz wrote a beautiful description of Sarai (later named Sarah by God, aka: Abram’s wife) as well as a fiction account of what Sarah would look like in today’s terms. I’ve received infinite comfort from Sarah before, because, like Sarah, I too was barren for years. I know that pain and felt a kinship with her.
When Liz wrote in her chapter, appropriately titled, “A Matter of Time,” these words were the arrow that struck a bulls eye in my heart.
“Sister, when we stare anxiously at calendars and clocks rather than turn to God, we’re looking in the wrong direction.” (1)
Oops. I did it again. (Bad reference I know…I’m just too cheesy!)
Sarah was ninety years old when she held her first son, (from her womb), Isaac. (Genesis 21) Okay, I feel kind of wimpy because I was Sarah’s junior by only about 52 years when I held my first born son!
This time I’m not waiting on children to fill my arms, which the Lord has delivered abundantly! My repetitive clock watching for the past SIX PLUS years has been for, “when Lord, when will I be at my goal weight?” You see, my time line looked a whole lot shorter than six years!
And I’m certain, Sarah had to have thought the same thing, “my time line looked a whole lot shorter than…” as she too, took matters into her own hands (with making Hagar her surrogate).
“My definition of a Slightly bad Girl is simply this: a woman unwilling to fully submit to God. We love him, serve him, and worship him, yet we find it difficult to trust him completely, to accept his plan for our lives, to rest in his sovereignty.” (2)
Wow…
…to trust him completely,
…to accept his plan for our lives,
….to rest in his sovereignty.
I do love, serve and worship God! And I do have a difficult time trusting, accepting and resting.
Another reminder I’m flawed truly loved by our flawless God (see, Liz is amazing!)!
Do you too, have a difficult time trusting, accepting and resting? You’re not alone.
In those refining moments, I need to remember the same God that delivered my perfectly crafted sons to my arms…in His time,
is the very same God who restored my failing marriage, in His time…
will deliver me to my goal weight, in His time.
No matter where you’re “waiting” right now, whether weight loss, childbearing, finances, job changes…it WILL happen…in His time!
PS
For my fellow Jersey Girls, Liz will be in Bridgewater, NJ this October 17-18!
Friday 6:00PM – 9:30pm, Saturday 6:30AM – 3:30pm.
You can contact: Michele Lyn McKenna 609-267-2657 m_m@lighthousetab.com for more details!
(1) Liz Curtis Higgs, Slightly Bad Girls of the Bible Flawed Women Loved by a Flawless God
(Colorado: WaterBrook Press, 2007), p. 27.
(2) Ibid, p.4.
