Mandisa’s Mention

Hi sweet friends.

How I wish I could tell you that I’m all better.

I am not.

I still have a horrible case of the flu. High fever, chills, aches, coughing crud.

My 16 year old took me to the doctor this afternoon. He put me on tamaflu.

Now it appears I am having a reaction to the medication.

Uggghhhh!

Prayers are appreciated as I’m scheduled to fly to Charlotte, NC Sunday to appear on the final Made To Crave webcast.

The same webcast that hosted the beautiful & talented Mandisa last night.

As I sat shivering on my couch, sipping hot tea and watching her appearance, I nearly fell over when she began to talk about the section in Made to Crave where Lysa reprinted a post from this blog.

Seriously. I was a bawling mess.

So, since I feel totally crappy and am waiting for the doctor to call back to tell me what to do next, I figured I’d rerun the post that Mandisa said she could so relate to.

Please forgive me for being lazy.

I just want to sleep.

So, I’ll have to settle for a little rerun.

Hopefully, I’ll be back Friday. I’ll have a Proverbs 31 Encouragement for Today devotion running and a giveaway to boot!

Meanwhile, here is the post Mandisa mentioned. See you Friday!

________________________________________________

I was very hopeful as I hopped on the scale this morning. I kept track of my food, exercised 5 days at the gym for 30-45 minutes and my jeans were zipping up much easier than expected. So I whipped the scale out of its locked down location (I’ll post someday about my need to do this since hopping on the scale more than once a week proves often to be detrimental to me)

It said I lost …. 1.8 pounds.

A measly 1.8 pounds!

What!?!

I was sure it would say at least 2 or maybe even 3.

I felt gypped.

And I felt like running to the kitchen to make a frozen waffle or two, slather it with real butter, spread it with some Peter Pan and douse it with a load of pure maple syrup to drown my sorrows.

Then I stopped and remembered what I felt the Lord wanted me to say to you this week.

Define your week by obedience, not by a number on the scale.

The scale does help measure our progress, but it can’t tell us everything.

It can’t tell us if the problem was too much salt of late that is making us retain a pound or two of water that might not otherwise show up.

It can’t tell us if we actually lost a pound of fat but gained more muscle from weight training that wouldn’t show up as a total loss on the scale.

And, (in my case this week) it can’t tell us what time of the month it is and then give us automatic credit for the extra two pounds or so that glorious few days brings to us.

So I had to stop.

I had to ask myself the following questions:

  • Did I overeat this week on any day?  No.
  • Did I move more and exercise regularly? Yes.
  • Do I feel lighter than I did at this time last Wednesday? Yes
  • Did I eat in secret our out of anger or frustration? No.
  • Did I feel that, at any time, I ran to food instead of to God? Nope.
  • BEFORE I HOPPED ON THE SCALE….did I think I’d had a successful, God-pleasing week? Yep!

So, why oh why do I get so tied up in a stupid number!!!!!! And why did I almost let it trip me up and send me to the kitchen for a 750 calorie binge? (Don’t worry. I had a yogurt and tea instead.)

Sweet bloggy friends, we need to define ourselves by our obedience, not a number on the scale.

Okay?

Pinky promise?

Good.

Now, how did you do this week? Leave your thoughts and how many pounds you lost (or perhaps gained) if you’d like, but you certainly don’t have to.

I am more interested to see what changed for you? Your thought patterns? Habits? Feelings of hope?

Hop on and leave a comment. Hop on again to encourage someone else who left a comment.

We are all in this thing together.

And we WILL get the weight off, even if it is 1.8 pounds at a time!

Blessings,

28 Comments

  1. Praying for your healing. Thank you for reposting the blog Mandisa talked about. I strive to define my week by obedience and not a number on the scale! I pray you feel His healing touch upon you today.

  2. Oh dear girl- I know just how you feel. I am just recovering from a similiar bug. If you are at all into natural remedies I have a suggestion for you-
    go to a local health food store and get some Golden Seal and Echinachea as well as some Colloidial Silver- The Goldenseal can be taken every 30 minutes until you begin to feel some relief then take it every hour, again until you feel improvement, then every 2 hours- the Colloidal Silver can be taken up to 7 x a day to boost your immune system. Praying for you dear sister and believing God will be restoring you and you will make your trip on Sunday.

  3. Sorry that you are feeling so bad. Praying for you.
    Looking forward to seeing you next week on Made To Crave. Good questions!!! The Lord has been really working on me about obedience. I liked the statement that… We need to define ourselves by our obedience…..(gives you me a lot to think about in all areas of my life, not just the weight issue).
    Thanks for posting when I know you are feeling really bad.

  4. I remember this post, but today it made me think…I went several years without owning a scale and never thought twice about it. Then, after gaining some weight and wanting to lose, I bought one. I don’t think I’m obsessive about the number, but I do weigh myself most mornings. Maybe if I should go back to “is my waistband too tight and am I feeling like heck because I ate the wrong things”. SOmething to think about.
    Wasn’t Mandisa great? What an inspiration!

  5. Oh, sweet Karen! Soooo sorry that you are sick! Know that you are being lifted before our Father, the Great Physician, right now! May He strengthen you and completely heal you.
    LOVED the blog entry for today!

  6. Thank you so much,Ephesians 6:12-13 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.
    This verse came to mind as I read your blog. This has taken on a whole new meaning for me, just today, right now! Wow I love when God uses others to reveal one more truth of His word to us!!!
    Praying you will be up & well soon! Thank you for sharing your heart. May the Lord bless you as you have blessed so many!!

  7. Oh, don’t even think you are lazy. I will pray you get better because I WANT TO SEE YOU on the webcast!!!! Rest and get well.
    I thought it was neat when Mandisa spoke about that too, how very cool and the funny thing is, I just finished reading that chapter before logging on. I am going to write those questions down for my weight loss support group, TOPS, and encourage other members when they feel they have had a great week and the scale doesn’t say what it should.
    Thank you for blessing us now go rest!

  8. Praying for you Karen.
    Thank you for your encouraging words from last weeks, too! My daughter was sick and reading your blog helped me. We are not alone facing problems.
    I’ve had some really good days where even I was surprised of the peace I had and how I didn’t go eat again after dinner!!! It was a quiet and peaceful resting and trusting in Christ’s arms.

  9. .4!! Yep that’s POINT 4!! I weighed in at WW last week and what a bummer. But..I got right back on it (not the scale) and am anxious to weigh in again this friday! At least it’s a loss…right? Thanks so much for your encouraging words! Can’t wait to see you on the webcast next week, and will be praying for God to bless you and heal you. Feel better

  10. Oh Karen, you are soooo right. It all comes down to simple obedience, which sometimes is not so simple. Thank you for that list of questions. I am going to print them out and post them on the wall above my scale. And then my next step will be to return to weighing myself only once a week. It’s all about who I am in God’s eyes, not anybody else’s.

    I will be praying for your recovery in God’s time, which I am sure will be in time for the MTC webcast…

  11. May God bless you with healing soon and a fabulous trip to NC. Sleep dear sister, sleep and allow God to heal your body.

  12. Reading your re-run made me cry, too. I do hope you are much better by Sunday. I was thinking that your post about obedience can be related to many things besides food as well. Sometimes I get frustrated about other things in my life, but what it comes down to is am I being obedient or not? So Tough! I hope that I am, but in all honesty, sometimes I don’t know. Basically because I jump in and do things without asking Him what He wants me to do. ‘My bad!

  13. Sweet Karen…praying for you today! You have powerful words to share, so I’m confident you’ll be well by your trip!

    Today the scale said .8 down, which I’ll take as the choices I made the last week could have been better! I can relate to the above blog post so much tho! Locking up my scale just might be the trick I try, when I see it siting there, it’s hard to stay off. Especially when I’m doing the right things…if it goes up, I freak out! Thanks for putting into perspective what I should be using as a measuring stick more so over the scale!

    I love you friend! Be well…SOON!

  14. Thanks for republishing this. I didn’t see it the first time. I will choose today to be “defined by obedience.” That is what I need more than anything. I’ll be praying for you to get well quickly so you will feel great when you do the MTC webcast next week.

  15. Thanks Karen for reminding us even though you are sick. Praying for a speedy recovery. I can’t wait to see you on MTC. I will so miss those webcasts, each week proves better than the last. I haven’t lost any weight yet but I am making better choices and starting to excercise more. Thanks again.

  16. I’m so glad you chose to rerun it, I was about to search through your blog in the vain hope I would find what Mandisa had mentioned! Yay! Hours saved!!!! xx

  17. Praying for healing, comfort and restoration for the weekend!
    Personally, I haven’t weighed myself since I became a mom 18 years ago–it messes with my head. I go by how my clothes feel and fit–that’s my measuring stick. If I look trim, then who cares what the number is and I know no one else really cares either. I use to teach a weight control class in high school and when I weighed my students I discovered that the number on the scale was in no way related to what they “appeared” to weigh.

  18. Father envelop your daughter Karen in your loving arms as you heal her today. Remind her that you are the greatest physician ever and you care about how she feels.

    I have been watching what I eat, has eliminated sugar in all forms (except fruits,exercising and trying to crave God more than I crave food. I do not know how much I weigh because I do not own a scale but I do notice that my clothes fit differently so I have been having some success. I think I am glad for now that I do not have a scale because I do not want to be defined by the numbers on the scale. I want to be defined by who God says I am. Looking forward to seeing you on Monday at MTC.

  19. Oh BOO, Karen!
    So sorry you’re sick. My hubby and two of my kids have been battling it all week too. They’re begging for mercy (so I know you must be feeling rotten too).

    Praying for a comeback, quick! Stinkin flu!

  20. I’m so sorry that you are still feeling icky. I will also pray for you to be better soon. And thanks again for the reminder about obedience, it’s a good thing to remember in all areas of our lives!

    Rebecca Ann

  21. Praying for healing and a wonderful trip to NC for you Karen! Can’t wait to see you on Made to Crave – you will be fantastic! Thanks for sharing the blog again – it is a powerful reminder to be obedient no matter what the scales (or other measures we put on ourselves) says.

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