Wow, it's been almost a year since I last posted.   I wish I could do this more often but I just get so easily sidetracked.

So, my 50th birthday finally arrived 4 days ago.  For two years I had planned and dreamed of going to a dude ranch out west.  My goal was to lose 200 lbs and to be able to enjoy things that I had never dreamt I would do.  I have since gained weight.  I now weigh over 440lbs.  I struggle with walking, standing and doing so much more.  I hate who I have let myself become.  There is no excuse.  I remet my dad last year and that is going great!!!  I have so many people who love me.  I am otherwise healthy.  I have a great job.  And most importantly I have a God who loves me more than anything.

So, why am I still this obese?  Why do I continue to stick to my victim mentality and laziness?  What needs to happen to get me off my backside and get working on becoming the person that God wants me to be?

Let me tell you about how my 50th birthday actually went.  I have been in the process of buying a little house since April.  Things have hit a big snag but that is for a later post.

I got up Sunday morning and was actually happy it was my birthday even though I had accomplished nothing that I wanted originally.  I went to church and received several birthday greetings.  We then went to Texas Roadhouse so I could get my "Dude Ranch" "experience".  It was a small group, Polly, Tim, Micah, Phil, Sue, Ryan, Joshlyn and Andrew.  We had a great time.

I showed up to Bible Study at 5:30 like normal.  We started to eat about 10 minutes later.  Then the doorbell at Polly & Tim's rang.  Polly said it was Philip for me.  I figured he must have bought me some balloons or something so I cautiously opened the door.  There before me was around 30 people who had come to celebrate my birthday!!!  One by one they came in the door.  People that I hadn't seen in a long time.  All to share my birthday.  Polly had arranged it for me and I had NO CLUE!!!  To say the tears flowed is an understatement.  There ultimately was around 52 people with a few others that couldn't make it sending cards.  A beautiful cake made by Sheri Finley was displayed.  Tim hung a birthday present pinata on the basketball hoop outside.  Yep, I was blindfolded and spun in a circle.

I finally got home at 10:30 Sunday evening.  Words will never be able to describe what an amazing night it turned out to be.

Yesterday we got to celebrate Micah's 12th birthday.  Just a few of us eating dinner and playing games.  After dinner Philip gave me a hard bound book that all of the 18 nieces and nephews had made for me.  Each page was dedicated to one child and they had either written something to me or the mom had said/written something.  It is the most beautiful gift I think I have ever received.

What has made me want to write this post is because of that book.  As I turned the pages the notes became more detailed.  Reading them made me stop and wonder who they were writing about.  Because, I don't see myself as a Godly example that they talk about.  I don't see myself as someone they should look up to.  I see myself as an overweight, lazy, selfish person who hasn't truly given her whole self to God because of the fear of what He will ask me to do.

I want to be the person that these young people can truly look up to.  Not because I want the attention and love but because it is what God has called me to be.  He has not given me children of my own but he has surrounded me with so many young people.  I not only have an opportunity but I have a responsibility to lead by example.  Sometimes even more so than even a parent because a child will sometimes struggle with a parent/child relationship but an adult that is close to them will be watched and may have a different influence that the child will respond to.

Lord, help me to be the woman that these young people think I am.  Help me to see that I am not just the overweight, lazy, selfish person that I see.  Help me to open my eyes to what others see and not just the negative.  Lord there has to be something in me for those children to write what they did.  Show me.  Not so that I can become conceited but so that I can be an example of what it means to truly live for You.  I thank you Lord for each and everyone of those children.  I am blessed beyond measure.  Help me to remember that.  To know that I am loved and that what I see in myself is not what you made me to be.  Help me to know that if I want to be the woman they see then I can be.  One step at a time, I can be that Godly example.  In Jesus' name, Amen

A prayer answered - Where to go from here?

I haven't written about this because I didn't even know how to write it.  I didn't know my feelings.  I didn't know what to say.

As you have read in earlier blog posts my parents were separated when I was 7 months old and divorced when I was 1 1/2.  I saw my dad on and off until I was 8.  At that time he came up to visit at Christmas.  We took him to a small airport not too far from my house as he was learning to fly.  He promised that he would call and send cards and see us as often as possible.  That never happened.

Every day after school I would rush home to check the mail to see if the letter came.  Every birthday and holiday I would wait to see if the present came or the call came to wish me whatever it happened to be.  It never happened.

A few months ago his name appeared on Facebook and since my cousin had friended him I thought I would as well.  I never posted anything or said anything to him as I wasn't convinced it was him.  On my birthday the first message I got was from him.  To say I was surprised was an understatement.  40 years between birthday wishes.  I sent him a message and asked him to tell me something that only he and I would know to prove it was him.  A week or so later I got an instant message from him saying he had tried to send me an email but he had the wrong address.  I gave him the right address and he forwarded the email.  It was him.

We have exchanged several emails and phone calls since that time.  He explained that at the time he left, mom gave him an ultimatum.  Be a Husband and dad or nothing.  I explained that it was very hard on me because I have felt my entire life that I was never good enough to fight for.  He knows he should have fought for us and he does regret it.  It cost him his children.

I am thankful that God has answered that prayer in His time.  I don't know why it took almost 41 years and why I got the one response from him 26 years ago and then nothing.  I guess it wasn't the right time.  I look forward to getting to know him and Carol and her children.

The where to go from here part is that I have used the excuse of my dad abandoning me and mom not being there emotionally all these years as a way to be the victim.  Those excuses are gone.  My dad did love us and just wasn't able to be a grown up about it.  My mom did the best she could being a mom and dad.  She probably had some guilt about him not being in our lives as well.

I am a grown up now.  I am not the lost little girl who feels abandoned.  But this is all I have ever known.  This person.  The one who uses every excuse to avoid the work, avoid the relationships, to avoid being who God wants me to be.   I am SO SCARED!!!  I just don't even want to turn it over to God and truly let go.  I want to hold onto the excuses.  To continue to be who I am even though I don't like this person.  I have wasted so many years being someone that has missed out on so much and I hate that.  I am just so "comfortable" in being that person that I don't want to do the work to become someone different, someone that can make a difference.

I am still praying for that actor I mentioned a few posts ago.  I so want to reach out to him and explain the truth to him but I don't know how to do it without sounding judgmental.  I don't know why this particular person was put on my heart.  I truly think God is calling me to reach out to him but my fear of stepping out of my comfort zone continues to haunt me.  Stopping me from doing what I am asked to do.

So, I guess if you are reading this please pray that I start realizing that my past is not who I am.  That I will be able to truly turn it over to God and to let it go.  To become the person that He wants me to be.  The person who can spread His truth without fear.

God bless,
Karen

Regrets

Regrets, Webster defines it as: a feeling of sadness, repentance, or disappointment over something that has happened or been done.

I hate that word.  It should be a word that is not allowed to be spoken or felt.  Yesterday I NEEDED to call my brother.  I was driving to the city to get some permits and I was in tears because we hardly ever talk.  It was just something that I had to do.  Last night I was able to call him and he actually answered his phone.  We only talked for a few minutes but it was so nice to hear his voice.

Today I was going over to drop off Mikayla's present for Phil and Sue to take to Georgia tomorrow and I drove down Alkire.  I came to the bridge.  It went from a bridge that 2 cars could barely get through at the same time to a bridge that is so big they could probably bring a ferris wheel through.  It reminded me that mom never got to see that.  We went through that old bridge hundreds of times.  She would have laughed at the new bridge.  It was done several years ago but since she has been gone for 6 1/2 years she didn't get to see it. Then I went by my street that I grew up on.  

It just really hit me that I miss my life when I was growing up. But it is not what you would think.  I was a very sad young lady.  I was selfish, I was angry, I hurt for the abandonment that my dad did.  I hurt that my mom was so sad that she gave up on life when I was young.  I was sad that I wasn't desirable.  I miss that I wasted the last 48 years.  I have had so many opportunities and blessings.  I have walked away from so much.  I was in honors orchestra in middle school but I walked away.  I never took my lunch tray up because I was afraid of people.  I didn't join the school plays, I didn't join the softball team.  I let my anger and fears rob me of a life.  God has answered so many of my prayers over the years and I still waste each opportunity.  I look at pictures of me even 7 years ago when I was losing weight.  If I had just kept going I would have been at a healthy weight for at least 5 years.  But no, I turned right back to food.  I got depressed again.  

I have signed up for a weight loss challenge that is over a month gone and today I ate a cheeseburger, 2 chicken strips from Raising Canes, Potato Salad, a huge piece of chocolate cake, chips, a burrito, a taco, a cake pop and 1/2 of a lunch bag of candy.  I haven't been to the gym in almost 2 weeks.  

Last year I wrote that I wanted to go on a trip for my 50th birthday.  That is only 54 weeks away.  I should have been 1/2 my size by now and had several hundred dollars saved up.  Heck, someone even gave me $500 towards that trip last year and I have spent it.  

I know that I can't let all the regrets over these 48 years cause me to give up.  I know that I need to use them and that I am still breathing and as long as the Lord gives me breath I can make the changes needed to be healthy both physically and emotionally but I just don't have the energy to let go of the regrets.  Satan is having way to much power in my life and sometimes I find it so hard to fight him.  I just want to hide in my dirty apartment and say what the heck.  If I just stay here long enough then all the things the doctors say about a morbidly obese person will finally come true.  That thinking then makes me feel even more depressed.

Okay, wow, my posts lately have not been very happy.  I truly do know I am blessed and I know that God is with me.  It is just so hard because I don't feel like I can talk to people about these deep feelings because I have been such a negative person and I would get tired of hearing me say the same things over and over again.  I know I sound like a broken record most of the time.  This blog is becoming my outlet.  I have been to several counselors, I have people praying for me.  I am just not sure what it is going to take to get me moving in the right direction.  It is just easier to be like this.  Again, if you read this blog, thank you for praying.  Please note that this is sort of a way for me to write out my prayer requests.  My way to let the Lord know what is really on my heart.  I know He knows it all and that He is with me and loves me.  One day soon I will get my act on the right tract.

Thank you Lord for letting me cry and vent and list all my heart on this blog.  I know that my information is pretty much the same every time that I cry out to you and that it is nothing new to You.  Thank you that despite all of that You continue to love me.  Amen

Netflix and Sin

Strange title I know.  Sometimes my brain works in weird ways.  

I was introduced to Netflix in late summer or early fall of 2015.  I have watched A LOT of tv shows.  I enjoy the fact that most of them have the entire seasons available so I can just keep watching. 

I have recently finished watching a series on there that was really good.  What I find I do when I watch a show is get fixated (for lack of a better word) on one of the actors.  What I then do is research that person on the World Wide Web.   What I found out about this particular actor actually surprised me.  I figured he was married with a few kids or had been in several relationships.  What I didn't expect to find is that he has struggled with depression most of his life.  He has tried to take his own life and finally "came out" in public not that long ago.  

This completely caught me off guard.  Not sure why.  In Hollywood you never know what you will find and a lot of what you read/hear is not real anyway.  This time, however, I watched a speech he made that explained all of this.  In one part of the speech he mentioned that he now felt a part of a community.  In a book we just finished reading at our Bible Study there was a part about a gang member who tried going to church but he was treated better by the gang he was in then the people at the church.  

I have been so burdened by this actor for the last couple of weeks.  I pray for him every night.  I want him to see the truth.  Not my truth but the truth of God.  I just read an article about homosexuality.  It was in correlation to all the sins found in 1 Timothy 1:8-10 (8 Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully,9 understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers,10 the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers,[b]liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound[c] doctrine, 11 in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.) and spoke about how all the other sins are still frowned upon in today's society but homosexuality is actually applauded, celebrated and becoming prevalent.  

I am not writing this trying to be "better" than anyone else.  I, in fact, am a still a sinner.  I struggle with so many things.  The good news is that I have a personal relationship with Jesus.  I struggle every day to make choices that will please Him and honor Him.  That is evident in the fact that I still weigh over 400 lbs and have money problems.  But I do know where my hope comes from.   I do struggle with depression as you saw in my last post.  And I know that my sins are no different than homosexuality.  I just pray for this actor that somehow he will hear the truth.  That he will turn from this sin and that he will come to know Christ.  I am working on the plank in my eye so I want to reiterate that I am not judging him.  That is not my place.  My job is to pray for him.  Pray for all those who have made that choice.  Pray for Christians who struggle with sin.  We are not perfect.  We never will be.  We just need to remember that Christ died on that cross for each and every one of us.  That no matter what our sin is, we can be forgiven and we can turn from that sin.  We don't have to continue living in it.  

Dear Heavenly Father,  thank you for what you are doing in my life.  Thank you that even though I continue to make choices that are opposite than what You want for me, You have not given up on me.  Thank you that I can pray for someone that I have never even met.  Someone that for whatever reason You have laid on my heart.  Help us both to change.  Help us both to turn to you for our happiness, our love, our knowledge that we are loved.  That no matter what anyone says or does that You love us.  You want the best for us.  Lord, I know what I need to do and I pray that I do it.  I pray that this actor you laid on my heart will somehow hear your word and know what he needs to do.  That only through you can he find the happiness and love he has been missing all his life.  If you can use me besides the prayer, please help me to be bold.  Lord, I do love you, I do want to do the right things and I know that if I just step aside and let you work that you have amazing things for me.  In Jesus' name, Amen

The power of words

I am sitting here at 12:16 in the morning on a Saturday night/Sunday morning.  Earlier today I went to see Anna play her flute for her middle school solo and ensemble contest.  Her grandparents, Annie and I were all waiting in the cafeteria for Anna's scores.  We were talking about a police officer who was shot and killed earlier last week.  Annie asked what had happened.  Sue started telling her and at one point I chimed in with a comment trying to add to the details of the story.  I guess it must have struck a nerve with Sue because she looked at me and said, "do you want to tell it?"  I said no. 

Now, that doesn't seem like it should be that life altering.  But, unfortunately, to me it was an affirmation that I am a know-it-all and busy-body.  NOW before you all go telling Sue I said this (even though at this point I am sure I am the only one who reads my blog).  I can tell you that was not her intention.  It is purely my insecurities coming out.  I want so bad to never cause her to be mad at me that when she gets frustrated, whether directly with me or because of something else and I happen to be the person that receives her reaction, it hurts.  It, by far, does not happen often.  I very seldom see her get upset with people in that aspect.  But the few times that it has happened where I have been the recipient of it, I have hurt for days.  I continue to dwell on it.  I get more upset the longer I think about it.  I have been crying on and off since around 5pm this evening.  Every time I lay down I start running over in my head how I will apologize to her for interrupting.  I want to just step away from the entire family.  I get it in my head that if I say or do anything that I will be annoying everyone. 

It is just so hard.  The older I get and the longer I am alone the more I struggle with the fact that I am just tolerated by people.  Sure, people say I am nice sometimes but then why don't they want to hang out with me?  Why have I never been on a date?  Why does no one ever want to come over?  Why am I alone more than I am with people?  It just makes me think that I am just not lovable and there is something seriously wrong with me.  In my head I know that is not true.  But in my heart all I can see is the loneliness, all the times that I annoy even myself with how I say things to people and react to things.  If I annoy even myself then how much more do I do that to others.  I try so hard to be someone that jokes with people and yet is there for them as well.  But my jokes and attempt at a sense of humor and my "help" just tends to put people off.  I don't know how to do it any other way. 

I know that God has me here for a purpose.  I just struggle with what it is.  When I do things for people I feel like I am only doing them if it benefits me.  I feel like I am not doing it for the right reasons.  I find that I am very judgmental of people and that I take my insecurities out on those that can't benefit me in someway. 

It is 14 months until my 50th birthday and I have not lost a pound.  I have medical bills I can't pay and so am not saving any money for this grand trip I so want to go on next year. 

See, just one small statement from a dear lady has caused me to spiral into this horrible abyss.

Lord, I know that the feelings I am experiencing are not ones you want me to have.  I know you created me in your image and you are beautiful.  I just struggle so much with these insecurities, this fear, this loneliness.  I don't know how to let it go.  I only know how to dwell on these things and the longer I do, the worse they get.  I get so frustrated with myself for feeling this way and yet I can't pull myself up out.  Please Lord, carry me through this and help me to see that I am not a person that is just tolerated.  I know that I am not supposed to worry about what others think of me but if I can't even like myself then how do I expect others to like me?  How do I expect you to like me?  Lord, I struggle so much with truly giving you everything.  I know in my head as well that you are who you say you are but I have been disappointed by so many people including myself in my life that I have a hard time even trusting you.  Even when I've seen your work.  Please don't give up on me.  Please just hug me right now. That is probably the hardest of all.  Not having anyone here to physically hug me, to listen to me, to tell me it's okay and that I am loved.  That I am not as bad as I think I am.  Help me to not rely on others.  Help me to just know that you are enough.  I know it says it in Your word.  It is just sometimes I don't feel it.  Lord, I do love you.  In Jesus' name, amen

Thanks for reading. 

The Power of a Compliment

Yesterday my co-worker was talking to one of our plumbers on the phone and she said something about putting on makeup the next day and having me put on make up too.  The plumber said that it wouldn't take much because I was already beautiful. 

I lost it!!!  Why is it so easy to believe the bad stuff but when a nice compliment comes my way I have so much trouble believing it?  I know that he was being funny and I even texted him because I was not able to talk and he texted back, "True beauty starts from within...apparently yours has overflowed.  Your welcome."  WOW.

So then I opened a Dove mint chocolate candy and this is what the wrapper said:

I love God's sense of humor and the way He communicates. 

So, this taught me to just say "thank you".  Still struggling with believing the compliment but...

God bless,
Karen

The next two years...

So, today is my 48th birthday.  Yep, I admitted it.  I am only 2 years away from the big 5-0.  When I was a kid, 30 was old, now I am 18 years past that time.

Well, last night as I was preparing to spend some time with God it hit me that I have not done a lot of living in those 48 years.  I have just existed.  I have truly been blessed with so many people and my needs have always been met but there is so much out there and I have already missed so much. 

So, while talking with God He and I came up with a goal (at least I pray it is our goal and not just mine.)  Starting today, June 11, 2015 I will spend the next two years working on getting the weight off and saving up money for a very special trip on my 50th birthday.  Where will I go?  I have no idea.  I just know that it will be doing something that I didn't think I would ever do and will give me an opportunity to glorify God in the process.

Over this next two years I will also try to step out of my comfort zone and become more bold in my beliefs.  I have been saved for over 23 years now and again, have been too afraid to put myself out there and witness for God.  I was not put on this earth to be a lukewarm Christian.  He wants each of us to lead people to Him and that is what I want to do.   These steps may not be big but they will hopefully open someone's eyes to what God has to offer as a free gift.

So, if you are still reading my blog then I ask for prayer.  Saving money and weightloss are two of the most difficult things I have ever done so I will need all the prayers that I can get. 

God bless each one of you.
Karen

Jeremiah 29:11New International Version (NIV)

¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.