Yesterday was insane! I had seven kids for daycare, ranging from 1 yr to 4 years in age, from 7 in the morning to 6 in the evening. I managed to get in my 30 minutes on the treadmill (God really protected this time for me yesterday), washed and folded 4 loads of laundry, swept my kitchen floor, changed countless diapers, fed them all multiple times, washed faces and hands...and so on. For you moms out there, this is nothing new for you. It is somewhat new for me right now though, as I've been sick for so long. I am a little lost as to what to do with all this energy I have again.
Still, as my daycare hours started to come to a close, I was exhausted. I was rocking a baby, she was peacefully asleep in my arms. I closed my eyes, and began to imagine it was 6:30. Daycare would be gone, I could have some dinner, a hot bath and totally turn off my brain AND my body.
And then I heard a whisper. God said to me...you're not done yet. You owe me. It's time to pay your tab. My eyes opened instantly, and I thought immediately back to the pop tarts I had eaten that morning. Now, I don't keep pop tarts in the house for this very reason. I'm desperately embarassed to tell you all I had FOUR of them yesterday morning. Ironically, if I'd had a diet coke to wash them down, I would have had that with them. So I thought through this and was of course reminded of what I had just studied the day before about "counting the cost." It's terribly
sad to me that I forget so quickly what God shows me, and I'm thrilled He brought this particular lesson back to my attention the way He did.
Luke 14:28 says this: suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won't you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? As I apply this to my food, I see clearly that God expects me to be aware of the calories I take in and the calories I burn. If I can't afford the calories, I shouldn't eat it. Plain and simple, right?
Well, here I was the very next day, eating four pop tarts and not considering the cost, the energy I would need to expend to "pay" for those calories. But God reminded me very clearly of what I had consumed, and that I owed Him some more exercise. It was time to pay my tab. This was the first time God has done this for me, insisted on collecting from me in such a way. But, collect He did. Once the baby woke up, I shook off my exhaustion and moved to the back yard. I spent an hour pulling weeds and cleaning flower beds while the daycare kids played on the swing set and in the sand box. Next, I cleaned up my kitchen, living room and the playroom, and ran the vacume. Then, I rotated another load of laundry.
Now, don't misunderstand me. I'm under no illusion that I was able to burn the 720 extra calories I had consumed, with an hour and 45 minutes of light work. But God made a critical point crystal clear to me. I had gotten into a rut of eating and praying for forgiveness, indulge and pray again, eat something else and pray some more. I have been so desperate to avoid counting calories and becoming obsessed with such things, as I'm prone to do, that I have ignored some very basic science in my efforts to lose weight. If I can't afford the calories, I can't have it; furthermore, if I eat it anyway, I will have to pay my tab with additional exercise.
So, next time you are tempted to eat something you shouldn't, ask yourself...can I afford to pay this bill? Is this food worth the exercise it will require?
I'd also like to add that this morning on the scale, my weight finally reflected a positive change. I'm down 1.5 pounds. Finally. Coincidence? I think not. In fact, I KNOW not...there is no reason except God's reward for there to have been a change on that scale. Not one. That, my friends, was from God to me.
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