Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than human beings!” (Acts 5:29)
Thought for the Day: I must obey God rather than the scale!
My friend, Karen Ehman, was a great cheerleader during my healthy eating journey. On one of her “Weight Loss Wednesday” blog posts she wrote something I found incredibly insightful.* The biggest shift in her motivation from her yo-yo dieting days was replacing the delight of diminishing numbers on the scale with the delight of obedience to God.
Karen wrote:
I was very hopeful as I hopped on the scale this morning. I kept track of my food, exercised five days at the gym for 30 — 45 minutes, and my jeans were zipping up much easier than expected.
So, I whipped the scale out . . . and I’d lost a measly 1.8 pounds! What!?! I was sure it would say at least two or maybe even three. I felt gypped. And I felt like running to the kitchen to make a frozen waffle or two so I could slather it with real butter, spread it with some Peter Pan, and douse it with a load of pure maple syrup to stick it to that scale! Then I stopped and remembered what I felt the Lord saying this week.
Define your week by obedience, not by a number on the scale.
The scale does help measure our progress, but it can’t tell us everything. It can’t tell us if too much salt intake is making us retain a pound or two of water. It can’t tell us if we actually lost a pound of fat, but gained more muscle from weight training. And, it can’t tell us what time of the month it is and give us automatic credit for the extra two pounds or so that those glorious few days bring to us.
So, I had to stop and ask myself the following questions:
- Did I overeat this week on any day? No.
- Did I move more and exercise regularly? Yes.
- Did I eat in secret or out of anger or frustration? No.
- Did I feel that, at any time, I ran to food instead of to God? Nope.
- Before I hopped on the scale, did I think I’d had a successful, God-pleasing week? Yep!
So, why oh why do I get so tied up in a stupid number? And why did I almost let it trip me up and send me to the kitchen for a 750-calorie binge? Don’t worry. I had a yogurt and tea instead.
Sweet friends, we need to define ourselves by our obedience, not a number on the scale. We are all in this thing together. And we will get the weight off, even if it is 1.8 pounds at a time!
I love what Karen says about defining ourselves by our obedience and not by a number on the scale — or, for me, what size my clothes are or how I feel seeing models with unattainable sizes on the magazine covers.
Yes, eating healthy and exercising gets our bodies into better shape, but we are never supposed to get soul satisfaction from our looks. Our looks are temporary; if we hitch our souls to this fleeting pursuit, we’ll quickly become disillusioned. The apostle Paul wrote, “We must obey God rather than human beings” (Acts 5:29). I read that verse differently now: “I must obey God rather than human values — like a number on the scale or the size on the tag in my jeans.” The only true satisfaction we can seek is the satisfaction of being obedient to the Lord.
Dear Lord, I don’t want to define myself by a number on my scale or any other human value. I truly want to be obedient to You each day. Help me to follow hard after You. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
* You can connect with Karen and read all her great Weight Loss Wednesday’s posts at www.KarenEhman.com.