Stop Wasting Food

So yesterday, I caved and let Keana buy me Skittles. And then, I looked at the serving size and portioned out 1/4th of a serving size and enjoyed them. It was great. The kids made fun of me, but I felt good. I had a second serving later in the day, and then I put it away. It was a nice feeling, although, they had a good amount of carbs. Not as much as popcorn though! Man if I eat popcorn everyday I'll meet my carb quota every day. Craziness.

Today the book talked about eating food and not wasting it. That whole "clean your plate" rule that we all knew as a child, and the fact the we may have gotten praises for doing so. The book emphasized that eating food that you don't need is like wasting it on your body. You can either waste it in the trash, or on your tummy or thigh flab. Either way, it's not being used like it's supposed to. I'm a big fan of examples, and I loved this part:

"The eat-it-all rule is one of the hardest ones for most people to break. But when you fill your car with gas, you don't keep pumping after the tank is full, spilling the fuel on the ground. So why would you do that with your body?"

I have a hard time throwing away food that is perfectly good but that I won't eat, and no one else will eat, and it can't be donated to the food bank. Like the pita chips in my cabinet. They're perfectly fine, just terrible for me so I don't eat them. But I feel guilty throwing them away. Meghan is really good about this--I found a pack of m&ms in one of the drawers in the front desk and they're not really a temptation for me, but she took them and threw them away immediately. And in my mind, I was like "a kid could have eaten them" but she wanted to get rid of her temptation immediately...and she did. She's also a big believer in not keeping everything and giving away/throwing away things you don't need. So. I guess that's something I need to work on...starting with those dang pita chips. Sigh.

There's too many good things today to unpack in the time that I have. I'll try to do it :)

"Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he promised. This why "it was credited to him as righteousness" The words 'it was credited to him' were written not for him alone, but also for us, to who God will credit righteousness-for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith ino this grace which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God." Romans 4:20-5:2

Those last verses in Romans 4 caught my eye. I love how it said he believed the promised of God...even though they seemed unattainable, he believed that "God had the power to do what he promised." What an amazing statement and how often do I not do that? How often to I make God small and think that he can't do great things. I want to be someone who believes wholeheartedly in the things God says not only in scripture but also that he says to me.

"You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly." vs. 6

I LOVE that verse. It continues to say that it's rare when someone dies for someone who is good, how much more meaningful it is when someone dies for someone who is not good. In our powerlessness, God stood up for us. What character. It's amazing.

"Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man's sin: The judgment followed one sin (Adam's) and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ" vs. 16-17

The gift of grace is SO MUCH MORE POWERFUL and EFFECTIVE that the condemnation that was brought by Adam's sin. It completely blows that out of the water I love the last part...the wording "abundant provision of grace" "the gift of righteousness" "reign in life." This all comes freely. It's offered to all by God because of Christ's death and resurrection. I love the phrase that we will "reign in life." A definition of reign is having "dominance, power, and influence." But we don't reign with fear and anger, we reign under the same goodness of grace, faith, mercy, and love. THAT is powerful. That is good. Life does not reign over us, we reign over life. Guilt, condemnation, fear, anger, hate, greed, money, lust...those things do not reign over us. WE reign over them. Wow. God IS good.