One thing I believe in doing is being honest with yourself. In one of my blogs, I talked about my greatest failure. Today, I want to share something that I hope will inspire someone who needs it. While, I guess I would have to say that this is a success in my life, I respectfully submit this not as bragging but in the hope that someone else will be inspired to make themselves better. I have a very dear friend who told me that this story inspired her and I cannot tell you how much that touched my heart.
It's funny because it seems easier to talk about the things that I have done wrong and I am almost ashamed to talk about the things I have done right. Why is that? I think it is because I have been taught that pride is a bad thing. There are some forms of pride that are very bad but I think it is OK to talk about things that go right in your life. That's part of being honest with you. See we all know all of our faults. I can catalog mine and cross reference them. And when we are feeling down, then we want to spend a lot of time working our self over about them which isn't good. But what about the other side of the coin? What about our strenghts?
Well, as you may have guessed the picture above is of my dad, my son and me. Doesn't look much like the picture to the right of the blog does it. Well it's really me. At my heaviest, I was 350 pounds. I am 67" tall and I was 58" around. I used to tell people that I was in shape because round is a shape! Nobody bought. I wore a 5X shirt. I made jokes about my weight all the time but the reality of it was that it hurt to be this big. It hurt physically but it also hurt emotionally. If you are big, I understand completely where you are because I was there myself.
Have you ever ridden on an airplane? Well you know when you sit down the flight attendant does a demonstration showing you how to work the seat belt? That thing she holds up can be used as a seat extension for people who cannot fit the seat belt around their waist. I was one of those people and always had to ask for it. It was embarrassing and I was ashamed of myself. I tried to play it off with jokes but it always hurt.
Finally, the Lord instructed me to get a personal trainer. Now at the time, I didn't want one because I didn't want to spend the money but I believed I had heard the voice of the Lord so I decided to hire him. After several months, I kept telling him I was going on a diet and I would (for at least a day or two at a time). But then life would happen and I would quit. One day, I told my trainer that I was starting another diet and he called me a liar. He told me not to insult him by saying that. He said that when I was tired of being the way I was, I would change. Until then, I wouldn't. Well, I am not used to people who I pay money talking to me like that but he was absolutely right. It's funny because today he is definitely a friend of mine and not just my personal trainer.
So I started journaling everything I wrote. I did this for about six months. Then one day, I had to face what I was doing. See, I wrote down everything on paper that I was eating but mentally, I didn't write it all down. After I admitted the problem I had, I asked the Lord to deliver me from my addiction to carbohydrates. Guess what happened. He did. I got sick for a couple of days but I came out of it a changed man. All the sudden, eating the right things and exercising was easy. I didn't tell people I was going on a diet but I didn't have to. They could see it. There is a life lesson in that point - Don't go around telling people what your are going to do. Just let your actions speak for themselves. They do anyway.
Then my trainer told me that I was going to be a runner. I knew that it was from the Lord but I told my trainer it would never happen. Long story short, within two years of being 350 pounds I had ran my first marathon. I have ran two. So here are the stats. I lost two feet (24 inches) in my waist. I went from a 58 to a 34. I lost 160 pounds in 14 months and it was one of the easiest things I have ever done because the Lord was helping me do it. I went from a 5X shirt to a medium/large depending on the shirt. Pretty cool huh.
Well, you might say, that was easy for you but I can't do that. Wrong. I am nothing special. If God can do that through me, He can certainly do that in your life. What areas are you weighing 350 pounds? Is it in relationships, your actual weight, friendships, finances, or school? Well dare to believe that you can change any area of your life. Because with God's help you can. It's never too late. He always has a plan.
And that's another Opinion of the Minion
