There's a 6 in the Tens Place!

I've been on my journey to thin for a while now - almost a year.  One thing that I have had to get used to is that my weight can fluctuate as much as 3-4 pounds during the day.  It's all about water weight and whether I'm bloated and how much sodium I took in and all that kind of stuff.  I don't add excess salt to anything I eat and I try to avoid foods that already have a lot of salt, but sometimes it happens and salt makes me bloat, big time.  When it's hot I also retain a lot of water - you'd think I'd be sweating it all out, but that's not always the case.

Anyways, with that fluctuation I can be happy with my morning weight and then not so happy with my evening weight.

But today I am happy all around.

Today I am celebrating!

Actually, I started celebrating last night because finally, after a long time of waiting, finally there is a 6 in the tens place during my EVENING weigh in!

That's huge!  That's major success!

That's been a long time coming!

Oh, I'm not at the goal yet, but by golly I am approaching it!

Fruit Loops

I just think it is really cool all the things you can do with apps.  I took a picture of my daughter's bowl of Fruit Loops the other day...

Then I put it in the Tonaltopia app and did this to it...

Next I took it to Camera Bag and used the Fish Eye setting...

And finally, I tried out the Plastic Bullet app...

I've never had this much fun with pictures before!  I love it!

I Am Not Ashamed

I recently said something to a friend of mine that I think is really important because when you come to this point in your life it is what I would call a defining moment.  The circumstances behind the comment don't matter as that is just a whole other story.

What I said was...

I will not apologize for my faith, ever.

When you reach the point in your life where God has become that important, well, I believe you've finally begun to truly live.

A local park where my family and I enjoy life together.
iPhone 4s - Snapseed App

Romans 1:16-17
For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile. This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”

Reflection

He really does bring a whole new light into my world...

*Taken with iPhone 4s and tweaked in the Tonaltopia app

Dare to be Different

Romans 12:2
Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. (NLT)

Pretty Flowers

I love flowers, but really who doesn't?  I took these pictures while at my parents' house on Sunday.  All photos were taken with my iPhone 4s and tweaked in either the Photoshop app or the Snapseed app (so much fun!).

I love purple and I love how it just pops!

You can actually see the pollen - that is what I love most.

I purposefully didn't attempt any sort of focus with this one.  I think the blur gives it a nice bit of character.

The color of these flowers just amazes me - they seem so tropical yet they are in a desert!

Bears, Heaven, Angels

I had the most interesting conversation with my daughter.  She wanted to know if her giant stuffed bear would be in Heaven when she gets there.  It kind of went this way...

Bean: Mommy, when I die, like when I'm an old person, will my bear be in Heaven when I get there?

Me: I don't think toys go to Heaven, honey, but I do think you'll find much better things there.

Bean: Better than my bear?!

Me: Yes, better than your bear.  The Bible teaches us that Heaven is so wonderful there will be no more crying - that means it's going to be fantastic!

Bean: I don't want to go to the bad place, Mommy.  You know... Hell.

Me: Do you believe in God?

Bean: Yes.

Me: Do you believe in Jesus?  That He was God's son?

Bean: Yes.

Me: I don't think you need to worry about Hell.  You just keep loving Jesus and Heaven is where you'll end up.

Bean: If my bear isn't there, will there be angels?

Me: Yes, there are angels.

Bean: Are they pink?

Me: I don't know, but they will be beautiful no matter what color.

Bean: I love pink.

Drawn and Colored by Bug

Identity Theft

Today, in my morning devotional, I was reading this passage...

Colossians 3:2-3
Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.

The message was about identity theft - not the kind with your credit cards being stolen, but the kind where Satan tries his hardest to steal you away from your true identity.  This is the identity theft that Christians fight every day.

When we accept Christ into our lives, when we become Christians, we die to our worldly self.  What this means (and I'm just keeping it simple) is that the old way in which you may have lived - with anger and rage or lies and deception or theft or bitterness or sexual impurity or filthy language - this old way of living is no longer what you are about.  You die to that.  That is the worldly, fleshly life you were living, but now you live a life with Christ, the Spirit is in you, and you are like new.  You are born again.  You kind of get a new start.

And in that new start the enemy will try everything in his power to steal away your new identity in Christ and lure you back into the habits of your old life.  When it comes to lies and deception, he is the master, and he will use whatever he can to rip you apart from your Creator.

We can't let him win.

Colossians 3:12 tells us to clothe ourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.  

This is something we need to work on daily.  We need to wake up with the mindset that we are going to let those things wash over us each and every day - this is how we keep our identity in Christ from being stolen.  This is how we fight the good fight.  This is how we stand for what we believe in.

If we allow ourselves to constantly dip back into our old selves it is only a matter of time before that old self takes over.  Every day we must consciously choose to walk with God.

Every day we must choose to protect the gift we have been given by God in this new life.

They Soon Wither

I don't know what these little green flowers are (from some sort of succulent I guess), but I think they are very pretty and you can find them here and there along the trails and such at the start of spring here in Nevada... until they wither up.

Psalm 37:1-3

Don’t worry about the wicked or envy those who do wrong. 

For like grass, they soon fade away. Like spring flowers, they soon wither.

Trust in the Lord and do good. Then you will live safely in the land and prosper.

Righteousness Through Faith

Philippians 3:9
I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith.

Faith... My Pastor spoke on Philippians 3 today.  He went over this verse.  It wasn't until I got home that it began to sink in.

A good message often has that after effect.

It isn't what we do that brings us righteousness.  Paul did a lot.  Paul was an amazing guy who did everything a good Jewish man would do.  But it wasn't until he stood firm in his faith in Christ that he was recognized as righteous.

It was through his faith in Christ that he became the Paul we think of when we think of awesome men of God.

If we don't have faith we aren't going to live for God.  If we don't have faith we aren't going to trust in God.  If we don't have faith we aren't going to care what God's Word says and we will just live to please ourselves.

Faith is the foundation.  The law is the key that unlocks our knowledge of sin - it shows us the error of our ways.  But if we lack faith we can't really see the importance of God's law in our lives.  We can stand up all day and tell of the things we have done in our lives, be them good or bad, but if we don't have faith it's all just meaningless.