Forgiveness. Food. Freedom Are you Serious these GO together?

Forgiveness. Food. Freedom. The 3 F- words we have a love hate relationship with. Agree? Well,
Last Night at our table the discussion was a very interested one. I had made a meal that all three girls were less than thrilled to eat. Salmon, creamed garlic cauliflower and steam broccoli.  Instead, hearing the praises of the meal I slaved over.  My beautiful meal was greeted with comments of YUCK what is this? Do we have to eat this? I want something else.  

Cort and I have been on a journey together we had decided back in July of 2012, after we got in the new house we would be getting ourselves back in shape.   I had heard this phrase several times. If nothing changes nothing changes.

So in January we kicked of a 24 Day Challenge with some of our friends. I have done several 24 day Challenges already alone, but this journey together has been both wonderful, but also in a weird way a spiritual experiences.  While we are both very very competitive with each other and well just in general like to win!   So we all set up a little wager. Whatever couple loses less has to sing Karaoke.  Well, let’s just say singing on stage is not my talent and no way are Cort and I going to lose. Just to give you a little insight on The Bethmann competitiveness when we have family game nights we divided up and let’s just say we have TEAM NAMES. Chaise and I are normally teamed together. We dubbed ourselves and have the team name of “TEAM WINNERS”!   While, normally Rielly, Kailee and Daddy join forces and well… that is that. Who is really counting if they tend to beat us more than we beat them? I am not I take the stance what you speak you will become!

However, today Cort and I finished our herbal cleanse together. I am proud to announce that we are both seeing HUGE results, but that the results go pass weight lost for me.  I have already dropped 10 pounds, but I will tell you that God has done more than that and I want to share what I truly feel God wants to do for several people.

With those 10 pounds that have come off, in a strange way each pound represented a pain that I have dealt with. It was if I was hiding under the weight and trying to hide from dealing with the hurt.  While physically, I had a pressure washing experience going on in my digestive track. In the heaven God was ready to take me to a new level of healing. While healing for some comes in a miracle form all done at once. God is having me walk it out.

While most couples get their first year as what they call a Honeymoon phase, we both were faced as newlyweds, and on the third day of our Honeymoon. We were both  at a young age of 20 with a baby girl caught up in a tornado experiences. If you have ever had to deal with Betrayal you will know and be able to relate to the feelings that come from that experiences, but manifest themselves years down the road.  I can’t tell you how many times I would hear people say, “Tiffany, you have to forgive them.”  I wanted to scream at them. Seriously, do you think I don’t know that. I can’t tell you how many times I have written in my journal healing for them, forgiveness, even asking God to bless them with a 100 folds, but with that being said. Forgiveness is a process for so many people, and I am amazed how so many times we as Christians do not show grace to those walking through it.  Seriously, I mean think about this…. Jesus was ultimately betrayed by me. He took on my sins, and yours. Do you know that with the story of redemption and the cross I have not once heard one preacher ever say forgiveness even for our Messiah was a process. The weight of Betrayal and hurts are overwhelming. He knew what he was going to be facing in the garden. He asked His Heavenly Father, begged him please take this, is there anyother way. He understands the weight of betrayal and the process that it takes to forgive.  While we can never put ourselves in the place of Jesus on the cross, in a weird way I have peace knowing that God is not bound by time and that he allowed his son that time in his human nature to walk through the process off forgiving each one of us for how we betrayed him. 

While we might deal with years of taking the layers and pain off. I believe God in flesh (JESUS) was not bound in time was walking through the process.  It gives me Hope that  He was able to raise His weak Head and cry out.FATHER, FORGIVE THEM THEY DO NOT KNOW WHAT THEY HAVE DONE!

So many times when we deal with hurts, we long for that call, and letter of asking for forgiveness, but our own savior did not get that letter. He has to journey on the path of forgiveness. The journey of forgiveness is a dark, bitter lonely path, BUT GLORY TO GOD! Jesus has given us the secrets to forgiveness in HIS WORD.

 I don’t know all of your pains and hurts you are dealing with. We each deal with our own, and forgiveness comes in bits in pieces, and sometimes all at once. I heard this on the radio this morning. A father called in and said, If I could ask God one thing I would ask Him why my  10 year old son  was killed in a car wreck  driving with his mom. He said you know the hardest thing is when people say “God is in control and will use this.”  While, yes that is the truth, but we have to walk through the forgiveness. Forgiveness for some comes in a big BOOM. Others depending on how deep the hurt goes I truly believe God pulls it off in layers. Why? Because we serve a GRACIOUS GOD, and he knows how deep the Betrayal, tragedies and even circumstances we bring on ourselves  affects each one of us. 

The one thing I have discovered on this journey of forgiveness is that it a process. A process that you walk out daily.  When you take one step forward towards your healing you have an enemy ready to launch an attack only to push you back. 

There comes a point when you want your Freedom! Because in a weird way when you have a betrayal on such a deep level that I experienced you somehow are hit with not only the betrayal, but that of shame, anger, bitterness, and guilt all wrapped up and launched. It is like being in the snowball fight with a baseball practice machine. As fast as you can hit one ball you are back up having to swing to hit the next pitch.

About a week or so before Christmas, I started praying asking God. Why did I have to experience such deep betrayal not just me, but why do I have to watch my child at the age of 15 deal with these same emotions I have struggled with for some time. See it was not until my own child began to cry out and write songs, and poems of the pain she had to endure from the lies of others, and how they had put into her a seed of distrust at such a young age, and caused her to be traumatized. That did I know God was about to pull one more layer off. This layer is dealing with letting anger go. Probably one of the more difficult ones I have dealt with.

I mean honestly, as the Mom  the natural thing you want to do is call them up and say, let’s go you think you are so big and bad and really give them a good kick in the butt for their actions that destroyed so many lives and you watch stretch to a whole  a family.  To seat with them and say, “Do you truly, not see the division you have brought?  I mean that conversation could be a whole novel in itself. SO I will spare you from that. LOL  

While I would love to say that I have all the answers for you, me, anyone who goes through pain and betrayal. I don’t! I do know this. I believe with my ever fiber that if we want to see true healing not only in our emotional, physical, financial, relationships, even spiritually. I truly believe it begins with this…

Growing up I heard the story of Joseph and his brothers. I love love love that story! Growing up my grandmother jokingly called me the “Joseph of the family”. Oddly enough she and my aunt are the very ones who took on the role of the brothers and sold me into slavery.  Not a real slavery, but a slavery of what I would call un- forgiveness through they betrayal they brought on Cort and I. Just as Joseph’s brothers sold him off to be a slave.  

The neat thing about this story is that Joseph went through several things. It was not  a walk in the park for this man. He was imprisoned on false accessions, but it was through this journey that he was walking to fulfill his destiny. A destiny that would touch many lives, it was a destiny that would save a nation. He was raised up to protect the food and help provide the people and help them get the nutrition they needed while the famine was in the land. So they could stay strong.  

Now you might be saying, Girl! Please you have fallen off your rocker, but hear me out!  What if the answer of true freedom starts with the most basic principles?  What if it goes back to some of the old ideas and patterns? We all talk about being organized, feeling great. Well I would say, for my life I truly believe freedom is on its way not just for me but for others. For us to truly be healed we have to be willing to look at our lives in a new way.

I think we have to be the strongest we can to fight a very strong enemy. In Genesis, God said to the serpent he would put ENIMITY between the woman and snake. That snake was the devil.  I am doing a bible study called FIGHT LIKE A GIRL by Lisa Bevere. It is wonderful, but there have been some sentences  that have totally rocked me to my core. I cannot let go of. I want to share these with you.

1.       What would happen if women used their powers of insight and influences for healing and nurture? 

2.       We long for restoration of our lost paradise.

3.       Have we learned anything in all the years of pain? How many parents have lost their hearts of their children because they forgot why they had the? It was never to control them but to provide an environment in which they will flourish.

Maybe those will impact you as they did me. What I feel God is asking me to do is teach my girls and provide our family with the foundations.  In a weird way, I had this thought. What if our body was like a field or a foundation, and what if we as women teach our kids to put in the good stuff.  When our kids were babies we would go the distance to make sure they were getting well balance nutrients for their body to ensure they would grow.  Then it hit me: Like being ran over by a train! For me to grow spiritual and have those seeds and words truly be digested into my very fiber I have to have my temple prepared to receive. I want ever fiber of my being and my families to absorb the word, the truth and not be crowed or too busy stuffing our faces on the sofa with chips and sodas. All those do is zap our energy. I know we are in a new year and what better time to take on our role as women. What if we go back to the basics the foundations? We do what we were called to do nurture! What if start to raise a generation equipped to fight the Good Fight. Fueled on Good Foods, and the LIVING WORD OF GOD I truly believe that would be a generation that would do Great and Mighty things for God. 

  So I encourage every mom, and future mom that is reading this blog. Ask yourself this question? Are you teaching your kids how to properly fuel their bodies with good nutrition? America has a epidemic of obesity. It is time as women to stand up and teach our families how to overcome and use our insight and God-given role to nurture and care for our families.  

I mean, this is not easy! Trust me! Remember how my dinner started out last night, had a table of kids complaining, but it is our part. We can’t let a little crying and complaining knock us back! Our health our families Health and the Health of God’s people will be vital for the future.

God put us in a natural role and gave us the ability to nurture. If your child was sick with a sinus infection there is not one Momma I know that would not go the distances to get them that health they needed. Same thing! For your child to get the best and be their best we must teach them and make it a priority to  put those whole and living foods in them and us.

If there is one thing I have learned during this 10 day cleanse is that for me to get to the deep stuff, God has to pull the layers of pain off.   I truly believe that our bodies are the temple of the Lord and He wants the best for us.  So how about we stand and fight in our correct roles as women. What if we took this Generation we call X, and we marked it for the KINGDOM.

I am not a tree huger.  I truly am trying to make some huge changes in my family in the things we put in our bodies, and feel lead to bring my friends and girlfriends along and us do it together. Food can no more be a way to cover the pain for us! For us to be strong for the battle the Lord has us in, it is going to take more than just reading the scriptures, fasting and praying. He is calling us as women to bring back the community around the table, and teach our girl that what we feed our bodies is important!

My two cents of the day:

If Nothing Changes. Nothing will Change! How about join me on this journey of healing. I believe in this year 2013. God wants to pour out healing in so many areas of our lives, and  on a deep level. I am here to help you. Please if you want to learn more about  the 24 Day Challenge  call me 817-897-0023. 

Blessings to all you CHICKS! 

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