Diet & Wisdom Appetizers

A couple of friends of mine are getting ready to leave on a two-week vacation. In preparation for their trip they’ve been “dieting” hoping to lose a few pounds so they can enjoy their vacation without guilt. Translated that means they intend to eat anything and everything they want while on vacation. In order to be able to do that, they both set out to lose 10-20 pounds before their vacation starts.

To the casual observer or any diet-conscious individual, this sounds like a stupid plan. Take it from someone who knows first-hand the dangers of yo-yo dieting – this is a really stupid idea.

But hey, it’s none of my business what other people do. I must confess though that some days I think God really does play favorites and I’m clearly NOT one of His favorites.

Case in point, the female half of this couple is a woman five years older than me, has gone through the joys of menopause and has had surgery on her non-working thyroid. She accepts that she’s about 30 pounds heavier than she needs to be. She watches what she eats and I suspect she will practice some restraint while on vacation.

Her husband on the other hand has seen his weight yo-yo up and down every year as he prepares for vacation. He eats his weight in fried foods and cakes and pies throughout the duration of whatever vacation he’s enjoying. Upon his return home, he cuts back slightly and manages to lose the 15 or 20 pounds of vacation weight. I’ve seen him do this pre-vacation starvation diet and watched him lose 20 pounds in a two-week time frame year-after-year, and then resume “normal” eating and regain all his weight.

Seriously, what’s that all about God?

It’s no secret that men and women lose weight differently. Being a member of the female persuasion and in the club that rarely loses weight even under the best of circumstances, I can’t help but feel extreme jealousy. (And I mean jealousy SO extreme that I’d like to do serious property damage to my friend’s new car, but I won’t!)

Life isn’t fair and when it comes to metabolism, body types, DNA, etc., we are NOT all created equal. I can sit around and complain (or blog) about the unfairness of life’s metabolic unfairness, or I can suck it up, accept the situation as it is and get over myself.

Yes, it’s not fair, but it is what it is and just because I can’t lose weight like any other person on the planet, that doesn’t mean I’m loved any less by my Creator. It doesn’t mean that I’m not a good person. It simply means I swam in a very challenging gene pool and I need to deal with it.

Yeah, some days “what it is” is sucky! But in the end, God is still good and in control!

Everyone is kneaded out of the same dough but not baked in the same oven. ~Yiddish Proverb

10 I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. 11 Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. Eccelesiastes 3:10-11 (NLT)

PRAYER FOR TODAY: Lord, I admit my feelings of jealousy over my friend’s weight loss and I ask that you would forgive me for feeling this way. Wipe away my sin and replace these jealous feelings with kindness, compassion, joy and love for my friend. May I exhibit grace to all and share in the success of others. Help me to stop comparing myself with others and be satisfied and content with myself just as a I am. I ask all these things in your name, Lord Jesus. Amen.