May’s Food-of-the-Month: NUTS!
At the beginning of May I mentally placed nuts on our monthly food pedestal. But I’m so glad I didn’t get around to writing this post until after Mother’s Day–when my eyes were opened to the world of nuts in a brand new beautiful way. I LOVE when God does stuff like this….
It was a cool, overcast day–perfect for a temporary escape into another world of MY choice! How excited I was to look in the newspaper and learn of a movie called “Chimpanzee.” Based on the short description about a baby chimp named Oscar, I knew this would be my kind of flick… I LOVE animal movies! What I didn’t know is that I’d soon be entering the lush, “Biblical” world of fig trees and nut groves deep in the rainforest of Africa, a land to which I’ve desired going since childhood. But this is where Oscar and his family so blessedly live, thriving largely on the protein and healthy fats of the NUTS God gave them! Jillian Michaels would highly approve… of the chimpanzees’ skillful nut-cracking, I should say.
Read MoreA Secret to Fitness Success: Tell Someone!
If you only knew how often I think of you when I’m at the gym! Yes, “you,” the fellow soul who cares about your physical fitness. More than anything, I want to ENCOURAGE you on your individual journey, knowing each of ours is different. We all have unique abilities and goals, injuries or surgeries from which we’re recovering, or conditions we’re currently experiencing. Our workout regimes are very personal… custom-tailored to our likes, dislikes, strengths and weaknesses. This makes it difficult, I sometimes think, for me to write to such a diverse audience. But lately a message has been on my mind which I believe applies to everyone–no matter our age or stage in fitness–because it can benefit us all. It has to do with using our Orbicularis oris muscle: the muscle around our mouth!
We can tell ourselves before going to bed at night we’ll wake up early and go to the gym, but once that alarm sounds, it’s easy to turn it off and go back to sleep. We can tell ourselves we’ll go for a run after work or swim laps on Saturday, but once those times come and we’d rather do something else (like relax), it’s simple to forego our original intention. But when we tell SOMEONE ELSE our plans and ask this person to hold us accountable, we’ve most likely taken a giant leap in accomplishing our personal goals.
Read MoreNo Worries, Just Birds: Part Two
If there is one thing I’ve learned from trying to follow Jesus’ advice not to worry, it’s that the endeavor is DAILY. I may genuinely “cast all (my) anxiety” on God and “seek first his kingdom” today, but sometimes the very same worries–or possibly new ones–will appear tomorrow (1 Peter 5:7, Matthew 6:33). Perhaps you’ve encountered this reality, too… I think it’s called “life,” which, interestingly, is exactly what Jesus tells us not to worry about in Matthew 6:25!
Should the resurgence of anxieties discourage us? Does the recurrence mean we are failing in our faith or in our quest for peace and the kingdom of God? No–I say with all my heart–not at all! I think the “daily-ness” of our endeavor is exactly what Jesus is encouraging when he says: “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?… Do not worry about tomorrow” (Matthew 6:26, 34).
Read MoreLaurie in Oxygen Magazine
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