We’ve just passed through the holiday season and are now heading into the New Year. Many people make New Year’s resolutions centering on an area of their life that they are seeking to change.
 
But for some, their New Year’s resolutions aren’t just to improve their financial or career goals, but to gain back some of the control that they lost during the past year.
 
What I’m talking about is loss of control due to an addiction. Addictions can wrap chains around our ankles making it almost impossible to break free from its control over their lives.
 
The most common addictions are tobacco, alcohol and drugs, but the kind of addiction I’m thinking of is an addiction to food. Yes, many peoples’ New Year’s resolution is to lose weight. That’s a good goal. And with the new diets, like the Mediterranean or Keto diet, they provide a pretty good chance of success.
 
I’m not here to judge the benefits of one diet over the other. But I’m talking about something that has a stronger pull on us – a food addiction. I want my readers to believe they can break free from habits that control them. Loss of control can cause you to feel that you can’t live without a certain food such as sugar or chocolate.
 
To many this problem can seem trivial. But to those of us who are constantly thinking about food, it can affect all areas of our lives. The problem with a food addiction is that it can point to a much deeper problem. Here are some examples:
 

• Food can be used to cover up painful memories such as child abuse.
• It can help you seek to replace an area of loss in our lives such as the loss of a spouse.
• As a child you were told to “clear your plate,” so now you still eat everything on your plate even if you feel full.
• Food can be eaten because you are bored.
• It can be eaten because you are lonely.
• Thoughts of food can become so strong that you feel you can’t live without a bite of chocolate.
• And food can be consumed in great quantities, because you battle feelings of negative self-worth.

 
Whatever the reason that you feel you’ve lost control over your addiction to food there is hope. Myfitnesspal.com in their article, “5 Steps to Take Control of Food Addiction,” provides a plan of action. Some examples are following a structured meal plan because it can help you set safe boundaries with food; and, learn healthy coping strategies which can include finding out your reasons for overeating.
 
Thoughts of food have visited your mind almost all of the time, and you didn’t develop your food addiction over night. Breaking your addiction will also not happen without time and working at it. As you begin to use some of the suggestions in the article above and with God’s help, you will begin to stop worrying about what you eat and how much of it. I know this all may seem impossible, but it is possible to overcome your addiction to food.

You’re sitting at your doctor’s office waiting for you appointment to find out the results of a test. It could go either way. You have some of the signs of cancer.
 
The doctor begins to tell you what the test results mean, but he lost you after he said that there was nothing he could be done - you only have six to twelve months to live.
 
After the initial shock wears off, you begin to think about your life. You look at your past and see the many mistakes you’ve made and all the time you lost putting your efforts into something that didn’t amount to anything.
 
Then you look at your future and think, “Future. What future?” You realize that making plans for the future doesn’t seem to matter anymore.
 
After that, you’re mind takes a look at your present. That’s all any of us have regardless if we’ve been given news that we aren’t going to live long.
 
As far as the cancer, would you want to spend your remaining time going through treatments that will make your present life hard to bare? Would you take the chance and try the treatments hoping the outcome could change? Or, would you use the time not to try the treatments, but do things that you’ve always wished you could do?
 
A bucket list. That’s what they call a list of things that you’ve always wanted to do, but never had the time to. Now that you know you only have a short time to live, what are some of the things you’ve always wanted to do?
 

• Take a trip to the Bahamas and relax on a beach.
• Visit New York City and go up the Empire State Building.
• Take the whole family on a vacation trip.
• Go to Hawaii and snorkel.
• Get a book published.
• Do something that would make someone else happy.
• Or perhaps you would just stay home and enjoy some peace and quiet.

 
So how do we make each day that we have left count? Here’s some ideas from an article on huffingtonpost.com article titled, “How to Make Each Day Count,” such as express yourself through creativity and appreciate the beauty of our world.
 
Whatever you’d choose to do, you’d want to make up for all the time you’ve lost in the past and make today a better day.
 
Take a look at the Bible verse above. Paul had been on a ship, but they ran into storms, lost time and had to run the ship aground. If the captain of the ship had listened to Paul and put the ship into port instead of risking hitting winter storms, they wouldn’t have been in the predicament they got themselves into.
 
It’s important to listen to what God and other’s advise us to do so that we don’t waste the time we have left because of a cancer diagnosis. This way we won’t look back and see all the time we’ve wasted, but instead find a way to enjoy today.

​​

Psalm 23:4 - Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

Loss. There are different kinds of loss: loss of a job, loss of a friendship, loss of finances, loss of health, loss of direction and many others. But the loss that is most likely to cause you to walk through the darkest valley is death.
 
This loss is universal. It hits everyone at some time of our lives. And when it hits, the light that once flooded our life is shut out.
 
Up until a couple of years ago, I had experienced all the losses above except for a loss in death. But then, my father passed away. I’d seen other people go through loss of a loved one, even read about it, but I hadn’t experienced it. And until you personally go through this kind of loss, there’s just no way you can understand what someone else is going through.
 
When I found out my father had died it was like as if someone had thrown a punch at my stomach. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t move. Everything around me felt like I was going through slow motion.
 
I found myself walking through that ultimate dark valley. But I wasn’t in it alone. I had my family who were also walking through grief. And I had my friends who supported me and the One who is always with me.
 
In the Bible verse above it states that God’s rod and staff comforted the writer. This reference was in correlation to a shepherd taking care of his flock.
 
The staff was not used to beat the sheep into submission. The staff was used to gently tap the sheep to move them in the direction they needed to go, or it was raised in the air as the shepherd himself guided the sheep to greener pastures.
 
It was also used to protect the sheep from the attack of a wolf or other wild animals. So it is with God. He uses his staff to guide us on our path and to protect us from harm.
 
We need not fear a dark valley for ultimately our sure hope will guide us even through the valley of death to our eternal home.

​To leave a comment just click on the blue "comments" below. I look forward to hearing from you.

​Psalm 147:3 - He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

With chronic pain and illness, many times people can see your pain just by looking at you. Whether it be walking with a cane or clutching your belly. The pain is visible.
 
With emotional pain sometimes you can tell when someone is hurting, but for the most part, emotional pain and loss are the “invisible” pains.
 
But even though the pain is invisible, it still hurts just as much, if not even more than physical pain.
 
It’s so easy, at least for me, to put on a good face and act like nothing’s wrong. I have masks I can pull out of the closet in my mind and put on. No one would ever know I’m hiding my true feelings.
 
But that’s not the healthy way. Our pain only deepens as we try to push it down. Eventually the ticking bomb will explode.
 
This is the real danger. Eventually, we will break down. Our hearts will lay before us broken and crushed. Nothing seems to matter anymore and we stop caring about life and slip into the darkness.
 
This is where the writer of the Bible verse above, David, found himself. He was in the middle of painful circumstances which he felt he could do nothing about. His broken heart was oozing into all areas of his life. It was difficult to move and take part in his normal activities.

For, just as I stated above, emotional pain not only affects the mind but also the body.
 
But things didn’t stay that way for David. He knew where to find true help. He reached his hand out to the One he knew would never desert him in his time of need. In turn, a healing balm was placed on his wounds and bound up with strips of love and hope.
 
Light can shine into our lives once more, dear friend. Won’t you give your pain to the One who truly cares? He’s ready to be there for you and help heal your broken heart.

​To leave a comment just click on the blue "comments" below. I look forward to hearing from you.