Reflections about the Year 2006

One word describes my life for the year of 2006: transforming.

My physical transformation is the most obvious to people. I loss 42 pounds and have been maintaining my weight within 1 or 2 pounds.

I'm thankful for my physical transformation, but I'm more thankful for the work that the Lord has done in my soul, which is less obvious to people.

The people that are close to me know that God has been doing a deep healing work in my soul, which has allowed me to draw closer to God. It has not always been an easy road to walk this year, but God has always been with me and has used many of you to help me along the way. I won't mention names, but you all know who you are and I'm forever grateful for your friendship and love.

I'm sure that the transformation work will continue in 2007, but I also sense that God is bringing me into a new season. A season where I will pour out into the lives of others. My only prayer is that in my pouring out that people will be touched by God's deep love for them and His transforming power.

In concluding, let me share some of my most favorite posts with you for the year 2006:

God Truly Hears & Understands

A Day with My Best Friend

A Birthday Outing

Before & After Photos

Laying Behind the Old & Receiving the New

Sledding

After work yesterday, I made a trip to Malone, NY to visit good friends. My friends had emailed me earlier in the day and asked if I was interested in going sledding with their family. I said sure.

I was amazed to see that there was about 3 inches of snow on the ground in Malone since the rest of the north country that I traveled through all day had no snow. My friends shared that Malone always get snow.

We loaded the sleds into my car and the rest of my friend's family piled into her car. After making a side trip to drop off the neck strap to her daughter's saxaphone, we made our way to the sledding hills. I surveyed the two hills and decided to go down the smaller of the two. My first trip down found me rolling over sideways and getting lots of snow in my face. Somewhere from deep within my memory banks, I was beginning to remember what and what not to do when sledding; I recall rolling sideways can be prevented if I positioned myself right on the sled to begin with - it is just a matter of physics. My second trip down was perfect. Feeling the confidence build, I decided to walk up the big hill and make my first trip down the big one. I must admit I had second thoughts when I got to the top of the hill. I was amazed at how small my friends looked at the bottom of the hill. My friends encouraged me to launch ... so I did. What a blast!! I ended up going down the big hill about 8 times. It was great fun!

Our sledding outing ended with all of us throwing the light snow at each other; it sure did feel good going down the back of my neck.

If you're looking for some winter time fun, go to Malone since they have snow when no place else does.

Christmas Presents

As a small child, I would always hurry to the tree on Christmas morning with excitement. I was truly amazed to find the number of presents that were under the tree for me. Over time, I lost the true meaning of Christmas since I thought it was all about the number of presents that I would get.

God brought back the true meaning of Christmas to me a few years ago. I was in San Diego visiting my brother, Wayne, during the month of December. Wayne and I went to his office one day. It was a long car ride and I made a visit to the ladies room when we arrived. As I was washing my hands, I noticed a Red Cross poster that had the following words printed on it: "What to Give? Give the gift of life. Give Blood." I stood there motionless as I read the words. The Lord began to show me the true meaning of Christmas.

Christmas is time for giving. It is nice to receive material gifts, but Jesus gave more than this; He gave His blood so that I may the gift of life and life more abundantly here on earth and in heaven. He did this out of His abundant love for me. This is the greatest Christmas present that I could receive.

I sometimes ask myself "What to give?" I now know to give the gift of life - give love. This is the greatest gift that I can give anyone during the Christmas season.

December 19 - Woman's World Magazine

The December 19 issue of Woman's World Magazine is available beginning today. For those of you that don't know, the magazine interviewed me and sent a professional photographer to my house for a photo shoot; see here and here to learn more. The magazine said that they wanted to feature my story about my weight loss. As you can imagine, I have been anxiously waiting for the December 19 issue to come out.

I received my complimentary copies last week. I opened the envelope with much anticipation of reading the story and seeing my picture only to discover that the magazine decided to only use quotes from me. They decided to focus the story on how snacking helps you to loose weight and included pictures and 34 recipes of snacks that you can eat. If you get the magazine, the article appears on pages 20-21 and my quotes are near the end.

Although the direction that the magazine decided to take with the article is disappointing to me, I am thankful for the opportunity of being interviewed and participating in the professional photo shoot. I am more thankful for my success with loosing weight and being able to maintain my weight within 1 or 2 pounds since May. I never thought that I would be able to loose the weight, but I have and now it is time to help people do the same.

I'm starting a Fire Up Club at my church beginning in January. The purpose of the club is to create a community for ladies to loose weight and get healthy in a mentally supportive, emotionally safe, and spiritual encouraging environment.

I'll be teaching ladies the eating principles based on the book titled "Fire Up Your Metabolism" and help them to incorporate the principles into their eating. My vision statement for the club is "Changing Lifestyles...Living Healthy." Changing the way I eat and my relationship to food (lifestyle change) has allowed me to live a healthier life. My desire is to help other people do the same.

God's School of Wilderness

The Lord prompted me to pick up a book this past weekend that I had read several years ago. The book is written by Charles Swindoll and it is titled “Moses-A Man of Selfless Dedication.”

My eyes scanned the table of contents and saw the chapter titled “The Desert: School of Self-Discovery.” I turned to this chapter and began to read. Here are some of the paragraphs that grabbed my attention:

Apart from the desert experience, you and I might live out our lives without ever hearing or knowing what the God of the universe desires to tell us. The wilderness-like desert changes that. In that lonely place, you find
yourself stripped of all the things you hang on to for comfort – all the stuff you felt you needed through life but really didn’t need at all.

Why does God lead us through desert places? Let’s get the answer from Moses, who had advanced degrees from God’s School of Wilderness. It is so that He might humble us, that He might test us, and that the true condition of our heart might be revealed. Not that God might come to know you (He already does), but that you might come to know you. There’s nothing like the desert to help you discover the real you. When you strip away all the trappings, peel off the masks, and shed all the phony costumes, you begin to see a true
identity – a face that hasn’t emerged for years. Maybe never. That’s what the desert did for Moses. That is what it has done for me, in the wilderness sojourns of my own life. It will humble you. It will show you your strengths and weaknesses. It will help you discover yourself as never before.

God never puts us through the blast furnace in the desert to ruin us. He does it to refine us. And in the midst of that howling wilderness, through the process of time, the stinging sand bites through the rust and corrosion, and we become a usable tool in His hands.

There has been numerous times in my past when I have had the joyful experience of rubbing shoulders with men and women who have been tempered in such a desert. You can always tell – sometimes within moments – when you have met individuals so refined by God. They are some of the most secure, genuinely humble, gracious, honest individuals one can imagine. It took the desert to do it.

I don’t like being trained in God’s School of Wilderness, but I must agree with Charles it is a place where I discover conditions of my heart and allow God to show me things that need changing in my life. It is a place of self discovery for the very purposes of being refined so that God can use me to touch lives of others. And yes I want to have the fruit that results from being trained in God’s School of Wilderness: security, humbleness, graciousness, and honesty. For these reasons, I’ll keep going to God’s School of Wilderness when needed. How about you, will you go too? Just think, maybe we can be in some of the same classes and help each other out.

Discovering the Peace of Christmas

I attended a Women In Ministry (WIM) event today at my church. The theme was focused on discovering the peace of Christmas.

The guest speaker shared that discovering the peace of Christmas is found by discovering the peace of who we are in Christ and that we always have a home in God. This is a place where we are accepted just as we are.

The home concept awakened my heart since just recently the Lord spoke to me about my home, or that place where I'm accepted just as I am.

On my recent trip to California, my brother and his wife talked a lot about me moving to California. I began to think what my life would be like there: I could easily find a job; it would be great living near my brother and his wife; there are certainly a lot of things to keep me entertained there; the weather is great; etc. etc. I guess I didn't realize how serious I was considering a move to California until I came home.

I was sitting in my living room Tuesday night sipping on a cup of coffee and listening to my favorite music. It was during this time that the Lord spoke these words "you are home, where you belong." I began to be filled with God's peace like never before; a peace that I can't find words to describe what it felt like. I just know that God confirmed to my heart that I'm home. I can truly say that this is a place where I truly feel accepted and loved in spite of my weaknesses and shortcomings.

Home is a great place to be! I wouldn't want to be any place else. Thank you Lord for showing me where my home is and discovering the peace of Christmas.