How Am I Like Stained Clothing?

 Hebrews 10:22 Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart & with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience & having our bodies washed with pure water. NIV

This morning, I was going to put on some clothing and hesitated, because I noticed it was stained. I immediately thought, it may be stained, but it's clean.  As I mulled that over in my mind a few times, it was on my heart, that I'm just like the stained clothing!

I've made many poor choices in my life. Overeating is just one of them, but I've made many bigger poor choices, so many I'm not very proud of. The thing is, just like the clothing I picked up that was stained, but clean, and so am I. 

I was negatively affected by many of those poor choices, that left the stain, but the blood of Christ, our Savior, has washed me and my many sins clean! I realize that I haven't posted in a while, but when this was on my heart today, that I may have stains from past poor choices, but I'm clean through Christ, I couldn't wait to share this with you! Faith in Jesus Christ is very amazing!

Continuing to be Tempted by Sweet Foods

 They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb. Psalm 19:10

Actually this Bible verse is saying the Lord God's decrees are more precious than pure gold and are sweeter than honey. In recent posts, I told you how I ate some strawberry shortcake made with artificial sweeteners. Unfortunately, I don't handle artificial sweeteners very well. They throw off my sleep cycle and my digestive system!

Also, since I'm hypoglycemic and a compulsive over eater, eating what has artificial sweeteners in it, although it's not sugar, starts a cycle of my body craving sweet foods.  On the way home from the trip, I started munching on a bag of what I thought was artificially sweetened kettle corn, to stay awake on the long trip home. Well, that should have been enough of a warning to me!

Later, I enjoyed the kettle corn so much, I decided to look at the list of ingredients. I knew I shouldn't have any more artificial sweeteners after the strawberry shortcake. As it turns out, it was made with sugar and had reduced calories. I decided to eat it, even knowing, that my body doesn't handle sugar well, either. It was minutes later, that I bit down and broke my crown on some popcorn. Although I was frustrated about the broken tooth, I feel very fortunate that Christ stopped me in my tracks, from continuing to do something that causes me so many problems. It often takes me several prayerful weeks to get the cravings for sweet foods out of my body. Fortunately, the Lord God stopped me when I wouldn't stop myself!

Many Thoughts, Sleepless Nights, Oh My!

 When he found a certain place, he stopped for the night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. Genesis 28:11

This is really referring to Jacob, but it remined me of recently traveling and trying to go to sleep. I put my hotel pillow, not a stone, under my head, and tried to drift off to sleep. I think I did get some sleep, at first, but then, my mind was filled with many thoughts. 

I tried to go to sleep, but it just seemed that my mind just kept going and going. Unfortunately, this is one of the side effects of my using artificial sweeteners. I knew that before I had taken a big piece of strawberry shortcake sweetened with artificial sweeteners. At the moment I ate this decadent sugar-free desert, I didn't want to think about how the artificial sweeteners [that] I had used to make this cake would affect me.

It has started an irregular sleep pattern for me. This last week, I keep going to sleep, but I'm waking up and staying awake for a couple hours before getting back to sleep. Then, I'm overtired in the middle of the day, doze off, but when I go to bed, I sleep for a while, but wake up and can't go back to sleep for a couple of hours. I'm prayerfully trying to return back to a normal sleeping pattern. The sugar-free strawberry shortcake really wasn't worth it, although I thought it was when I was eating it!