I wondered if readers were confused by my healthy tip comment on the November 29, 2012, titled: Ashamed of My Body After Losing the Weight... Under the comments section, I put that I was thankful for being overweight. This came from lots of thoughts that God allowed to drift through my head around Thanksgiving. I say that I am thankful, but am I really thankful for everything?
The thing that came to mind was my on-going issue with being overweight. Sure, God allowed me to lose over 80 pounds and has kept the vast majority of it off for over 30 years. Now that I was dealing with gaining back a third of the weight, was I still thankful? I thought about it from lots of different angles. I thought that I am blessed in comparison to some, because being overweight means that I have food to eat and enough to spare. In some countries, they feel fortunate to have rice and water.
Then, God had this reflective thought go even deeper. He led me to realize that some of the magnificent changes in my relationship with Him, with myself, and others came about because of my overeating. I had been a Christian for years before God allowed me to lose all the weight. It wasn't until I turned my control of my food, body, eating, and life over to God, before He allowed this significant miracle in my life.
I thought the weight loss would be very freeing and in some ways it was. I, also, found that the weight loss drew other issues to the forefront and led me to realize I had been hiding behind food and my excess weight all those years. Without God's making me aware of these, I wouldn't have had the same depth of relationship with God that I have now.
I feel truly blessed, not just because of the weight loss, but more for the realization that if I hadn't had overeating as my vice (my tribulations), I might not have ever come to know God on this same level. The thing that is even more significant is that through daily Bible reading, God allows this relationship to continue to grow even deeper-something that gets me through even the most difficult of life events. Debbie
Since I have used this Bible passage as an example of how God has positively influenced my overeating, this does not necessarily reflect the whole meaning of the verse.
