Tip the Scale

Tip the Scale

Two weeks ago when I started this journey I told myself I was not going to blog about it.  But the lesson I learned today about what I could have done and what I did seemed like a good story to share.  I set myself a small goal and I was confident that I would make it today but when I stepped on the scale I was disappointed by the reading.  Let down by the what I saw, I tried leaning a little on the scale and to my happy surprise it registered the goal I had planned to give myself a reward at. 

It has been difficult.  I am not on a diet, not using a diet plan and not changing any of the food that I eat.  What I am changing is my portion size and counting calories.  Do you know how small a single portion is?  This is such a foreign concept to me because we live in a world of “SUPER SIZE” … the bigger the better!

My reward is a small 12 oz can of Diet Pepsi.  Every time I open the refrigerator door it is there on the second shelf staring at me saying “You can do it!”  The first week was really difficult because in so many weight-loss plans a person can lose up to seven pounds in the first week.  I thought it would be effortless with walking three miles every day and eating a normal single portion size.  Not so.  The weight loss is slow.  But then I am reminded that “all good things come to those who wait.”

I considered writing down the reading that would get me my Diet Pepsi reward, you know, tip the scale a little… but it wouldn’t be honest.  Not that I am in a plan where I have to do a weigh in and be accountable to anyone.  I am doing this for myself.  I thought about that and how many times I have tipped the scale in the past.  Not being completely honest:  showing up late to work but writing down that I was there on time, writing out bills and not signing my name to the check (I don’t think that works anymore), mailing the bills out without stamps, using stamps that have already been used once but without the cancelled mark; my list is endless. 

God wants us to be honest.  He doesn’t want us to tip the scale and He knows even when we do it and then try to justify it to ourselves.  I contemplated the reward.  I could have the Diet Pepsi and make up for it this week by eating a little less and maybe losing an extra pound.  But what good is a reward that isn’t earned honestly? 

That is how God looks at charitable deeds and everything thing we do.  If a person does something for recognition or some other compensation his heart is not right.  I am not referencing a job where one goes to work and collects a paycheck at the end of the week.  I am suggesting things that we do out of the kindness of our hearts should not be done because we think we deserve an incentive.  God knows our heart and He knows if we are doing it out of compassion or if we are doing it for accolades.

This was a hard lesson for me to learn but I revert to “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6 is the perfect Scripture that helps me and guides me and makes things right.  Maybe next weeks weigh-in will be rewarding and I will enjoy that Diet Pepsi.  But until then I will trust in the Lord and although it seems slow and hard, I think perhaps this is also a lesson for me in patience.

© Crackerberries 2011

Simple Things

Simple Things

It was a dark and stormy night…and then it became the wee hours of the morning.  Suddenly I was aware how important sleep was to me.  The value of it was never appreciated until it was interrupted. 

2:18 AM Chow Maine thinks she is in combat and starts doing laps around the perimeter of the bed to make sure the hatches are closed. 

2:37 AM Tall Cool ☺ne has had enough after the fourth lap pouncing on his pillow across the headboard to my pillow and then leaping to the floor with a loud plop as if she weighed 40 pounds.  He gets up and she runs out of the bedroom; he closes the door saying something about that’s enough of her.

3:01 AM I can’t take her scratching and clawing at the door any longer — it sounds like fingernails on a chalkboard.  I get up with the flash light, open the door and she peaks around the corner of the couch as if to say, “Want to play?”  I walk over to her dish and say, “Come here,” which she thinks she is going to get a treat.  I scoop her up and climb back under the covers.  Chow Maine does a little kneading with her claws and settles in under the covers, purring.  I am just about to go to the land of “La-La” when she is out from under the covers, across the bed over to the desk.  She commences to clawing the paperwork that awaits my attention.

3:32 AM Grrrrrr, she is driving me crazy!  I get up and she immediately runs out of the bedroom.  I toss a sweatshirt on the floor in front of the door hoping to dissuade her from digging at it.  Tall Cool ☺ne snickers and says, “She is just going to yawl”.  I get settled back under the covers and start that deep breathing that comes just before sleep and …

3:55 AM Bow Wow, Wow, Wow; it is Foxtrot.  He has a deep southern drawl type bark that almost makes me think that he is saying, “I really don’t want to put too much effort into this barking thing but I feel like I should bark.”  He has the Sam Elliot of dog barks.

4:09 AM I lay there thinking, he won’t bark that long, he’s not real loud.  He will quiet down in a minute and he does and I’m back in that mode of falling asleep when suddenly his brother, Charlie starts:  Ruff, ruff, ruff, ruff, and ruff!  He has that high pitched beagle in a big dog bark that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up.  He has the Pee Wee Herman of dog barks.

4:28 AM I drag myself out of the bed and open the window and yell for the two meatheads to be quiet, not in such a nice tone either.  Charlie, the daring one, tests me and barks a couple more times.  This time I yell just at him.  Again I am back under the covers and I am wondering why bother because the alarm is going to go off very soon.  Sleep seems to come easy and just as I am sauntering off, plunk right in the center of my stomach.  Chow Maine is back… How the heck?

Sleep is one of those things that the value cannot be truly appreciated unless it is interrupted.  As I thought about that through the wee hours of sleeplessness, I am convicted by how many things that I cannot place a value on because I have not been without them.  Food, water, shelter, clothing; all things I take for granted every day;  simple things like being able to take a shower and wash my hair, a washer and dryer so that I can clean my clothes.  It is very simple for me to look at other people and see some of the things that they have and don’t need.  Isn’t that always the way?  It is so easy to pick out the faults of others but to see our own faults, well that is a different story:  Matthew 7:3 “And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?” 

I am going to think really hard about this during the holiday season.  There are so many people that don’t have the simple things that I take for granted every day. Maybe my deprivation from sleep was a wake up call.  What else is there that I can give up?

© Crackerberries 2011