My friend gave me such good advice yesterday and I have to share it in hopes that it will help someone else besides me.
When you overeat, you’re really just hungering or thirsting for God.
That need to stuff your face, comes from a lack of peace and trust in God.
To give you a little background, ever since our gala in February, I have felt under attack. One thing after another—CRAZY things happening.
Not all bad, there is a lot of really amazing things happening but the things that are bad have just been… crazy. I’m one who always finds a blessing in the storm, that’s just my personality. So, I do see the good in these crazy bad things but it’s still stressful when you’re going through them.
Along with this stress, has come a complete change in my eating habits. I have gained so much weight in the past month and what’s worse is that I feel a loss of control. When I am literally stabbing my food I know that is a clear sign that I’m eating from stress. Have you ever done that?
My eating and weight gain is a stronghold for me right now. Feeling stuck in bondage, I didn’t have the ability to even dissect why I’m doing this.
Did I know I was stressed? Yes, that was obvious but I’ve been stressed a million times before and haven’t reacted this way.
I just couldn’t figure out why I’m doing this–what’s different about this time versus other times? And let me say, this may not be different from any other time but my reaction is different. I’ve never stabbed my food. I’ve eaten junk food before and overeaten, but I’ve never been aggressive while I’ve eaten my food, if that makes sense.
Also, I rarely wake up starving and I am starving 24/7.
So, I was talking to my friend Teresa and she prayed and just had such a word from God for me that I feel so free and had to share.
She said, “When you overeat, you’re really hungering or thirsting for God.”
It’s so true.
I am hungering and thirsting for God to take all of this stress away. Instead of praying when I feel that stress rise up, I eat, stabbing my food and attacking it.
How is this relevant for an anti-trafficking organization?
This is relevant for our work to prevent child sex trafficking because we speak to teen girls who often make poor choices because they are seeking God. They are looking for God in all the wrong places and then end up trapped.
When you hear about girls taking “crotch shots” or photos of themselves without underwear in the school bathroom and then sharing those photos with boys, there is definitely a lack of peace there.
There is definitely a lack of trust in God.
How can I offer advice to these girls about breaking that stronghold when I’m doing the same thing but with food?
In no way am I implying that you need to be perfect before you help other people. Obviously, we all have our stuff to work through and we can still serve others.
We must serve others as followers of Jesus.
What I am saying, however, is that it’s a little hypocritical for me to talk about freedom in Christ when I don’t feel like I’m free.
Ironically (or not!) I just started Rebekah Lyons bible study yesterday called “You are Free” so clearly God is trying to set me free, hopefully from all of my strongholds, not just overeating.
So why not run a half marathon?
Three of us (at beLydia) signed up to a run a half-marathon. To say that this is far beyond my capabilities is an understatement.
It was actually my idea to run a 5k but then Kim asked if we should run the half. The impulsiveness in me reared it’s ugly head and I agreed to do it thinking it was a 10k. Not sure why. I know it says HALF but still, in my head I’m thinking, oh, it’s just a double 5k race.
Which is still outside my capabilities.
So I committed to it and so did Traci and Kim. I feel the need to publicly share their names in this blog post so they don’t back out.
We do have 40 weeks to train for it but immediately after signing up, my brain went to all of the excuses to bow out of the race. My autoimmune conditions, sciatica (which I admit is a pain–literally), all of the reasons not to follow through.
This is Rachel and Dave Hollis’ marathon and to be perfectly frank, I’m not motivated by rah-rah people. In fact, I tend to do the opposite out of protest. For example, in sixth grade my basketball coach excitedly told us to run laps and I just sat down.
I do think they do a great job motivating other people and certainly have tremendous business advice that I should take (and I do take from Dave’s business coaching).
We’re not running this race for them is my point. We’re not doing it just to be apart of the Rachel and Dave Hollis race, we’re doing it for personal reasons.
Which is why, after talking to Sue the Encourager, I knew I needed to share this journey on our Instagram stories just to force myself to follow through. She did have to tell me to do that but I agree, it will help me be held accountable.
Literally, I am starting from couch potato in the training for this adventure. My weight is not only a burden mentally and emotionally, but also physically. It’s harder to run when you’re carrying extra baggage.
If you’re on Instagram, you can follow along in our stories as I try to figure out how in the world I can run more than a mile but also, hopefully, trust God more (first!) and seek Him instead of stuffing my face.
Did you catch our post from last week on our mission?
Overeating when you’re really just hungering for God
