New Year, New You, No, Really
Reflecting on Biblical Truth
Check out this picture of my family just after our Covid Thanksgiving meal. You’ll see my bold decision to grow out my natural hair color. In a year when I didn’t have many options of where I could go and what I could do, apparently I felt the need to shake things up a bit.
Speaking of making things new, a major insight has come to me in the past few days. Are you ready for it? I’ve realized that sometimes I don’t make wise choices with food because I feel like who I really am is an overweight girl who doesn’t eat healthy. At times, I’m stuck in my former self’s mind and think that I’m forever destined to hold a Butterfinger candy bar in one hand and a Coca-Cola Classic in the other (my preferred after school snack in middle school).
When I think about eating “just enough” (God’s prescription in Proverbs 25:16) and using my freedom to make wise choices with food, there’s a little voice in me that says, “You’re an imposter! You don’t get to be healthy. That’s not who you are!”
Thankfully, I recognize that this is a lie and I’ve been reflecting on the truth today. God says I get to be new. He has been in a process of transforming me for many years. When I say I want to be healthy and make wise choices with food, it’s not a lie. I’m not an imposter.
Let me encourage you that you also get to be new. If you feel the urge to go and take a walk outside even if it’s 35 degrees outside, you are not crazy! You should go and take that walk. Let it be as short as you need it to be. Even 5 minutes out from your house and 5 minutes back is a perfect start!
No matter what, let yourself be new!
He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." Revelation 21:5
I am pulling for you and praying for you!
“So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time, we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit.”
Turns out this is a real thing in the world of psychology. There’s a predictable timeline in changing a behavior, and the moment of, “Oh, wait, I wanted to do that differently” first comes AFTER the regretted behavior, then it happens a little sooner, and a little sooner until, eventually, we begin to remember how we want to live BEFORE the moment of temptation. We start to wake up in the morning, aware of how we want to eat and live, and we can ask God to help us ahead of time. And He does.
Don’t be discouraged if you remember how you want to eat only AFTER you overeat. Be kind to yourself. Be curious about why you ate the way you did. Then ask God to help you make wise and beneficial choices with your freedom next time. In behavioral change, there is a process. Your “Aha” moment will come earlier and earlier each time if you don’t give up. God is faithful!
