Oops!!!!

I woke up this morning not feeling my best. I wasn’t sick or anything like that, but had a sluggish feeling about myself. Immediately, I knew what the problem was. Back in December I made the decision to stop eating past 7:30 or 8:00 pm in the evenings. Reason being, I had a problem eating junk food right up until I went to bed. What a difference this one little decision made in the way I felt in the morning! But last night I had a heaping spoonful of dark chocolate icing around 9:30pm.

The temptation to kick myself was crouching by my bedroom door and pounced on my way to the bathroom, but I quickly came to my senses as I was brushing my teeth. Oops—I messed up! Okay, so what?! Yeah, so what?!! Well, I guess the so what was to not give into the temptation to go down the “Woe is me” or “You can’t get anything right!” road, which can open the doors for a pity party. But you know what sisters, we have to get pass feeling bad and depressed when we mess up. We all have our “Oops” moments. Yes, they are an everyday part of life, but the key is to not let it get you down and keep moving forward.

The truth is—I blew it one night out of many others where I did achieve my goal of not eating past a certain time? It has been almost 3 months and that does count for something. Also, I have pretty much stopped eating desserts most evenings. If I’m hungry after dinner and I feel I really must eat something, then I have a yogurt or piece of fruit. As I look back at last night, I just wanted chocolate, (there was other junk in the house to eat). Yet, I could have told my flesh (as I have many times the past few months) “NO! You’re not getting anything else tonight. It’s too late!” But I didn’t and all I can say is, “My bad!” ~Smile~

We all have the potential to fall back into old habits or mindsets when we are striving to make change. It happens! But the key is to not let it throw you for a loop and cause a huge setback or you giving up.

Before Jesus became Lord in my life I was a huge gossip. My best friend (at the time) and I loved to gossip and talk about people. It was our favorite pass time of all. But that was one of the first things God dealt with me about when I joined His Kingdom. My best friend was no longer by best friend because I had to actually tell her that gossiping was a sin and I could no longer do that with her. Also, I stopped smoking, drinking and cussing, which were the other things we had in common and held our friendship together tightly. In fact I lost just about all my friends at that time. The blessing was, in time the Lord gave me a new best friend who was (and still is) a great woman of God. She replaced my phone gossiping with long conversations about the Bible. In fact (after all these years) we still get on the phone and talk a couple of hours about the things of the Lord. But it just didn’t happen overnight for me. I was still tempted to gossip about people. There were occasions when I would say something about my neighbors to my mentor and she would correct me with the quickness. “Well, why are you minding her business like that?” “What does that have to do with the real problem here?” And I would always feel bad about it, and at times even felt like I would never get it. And those feelings would usually lead to, “Well, why bother trying?!”

To make a long story short—God didn’t let me give up! After many “Oops” moments I became a woman who can keep your deepest and darkest secrets. I became one who can sit and cry with you as you share your heartbreaking life and sorted past. See, if I had fought God and given up, I would not have been fit for my ministry of helping woman and children in crisis. I had to be trustworthy for the job. A gossip is anything but trustworthy. But it took time for me to get to that place, and I had to keep moving forward after my many “Oops!”

Sisters, I hope I have encouraged you to keep moving forward in your endeavor for change.

Usually around this time of year, many of us have given up on our New Year’s goals or resolutions because we’ve had an “Oops” moment here and there. But I want you to remember, that change takes time and yes, we do mess up, but it’s all covered by the Blood which gives us what we need to “faint not”!



Love & Hugs
Ponnie

See you tomorrow!