All things are possible for You....

The girls on Easter.Sorry that it has been awhile since I have last posted. A lot has been going on in the Elliott house. Matt lost his job a little over a week ago. He has applied at a lot of places but has not heard anything yet. I have had some tears and some stress eating that I am trying to get under control.

I was thinking a lot the week before Easter of my worries, continually giving them to the Lord. I remembered the Lord right before He was about to die. Do you know that He was so troubled before He went to die that He was sweating actual blood? In Mark 14 it says that He was greatly distressed and troubled....yet He never sinned. In verse 36 he prayed, "Abba ,Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what You will." Now getting ready to die to be the atonement for the sins of the world, that is something to be troubled about. I was thinking on that to put my own troubles in perspective for me.

I know that God could give Matt a job today. I don't doubt that at all. He cares for us more than sparrows. I am still fighting the sin of worry. I have about 5 weeks of teaching left and then I am done for the summer and no more pay checks. Please pray with me that he gets a job.

He has been working really hard to get one.

Digesting Truth

Ok. I have been struggling for the last month on my weigh loss journey. I don't LOVE to talk about it. As a matter of fact, every time lately someone tells me how good I look, I feel discouraged on the inside because I know that I am barely hanging on.

Here are the facts. I have lost 42 pounds but I have gained almost 4 back.....with in the last week. Granted, I just took a mini get away and I wouldn't be so discouraged but it had taken me a whole month to lose 3 pounds! And before you say that I have hit a plateau, I don't think that I have because I am not doing well in the self control department. I also REALLY hurt my knee this weekend. (It is actually a really funny story of how I did it....it involves me, my coordination...or lack there of, and trying to dance a little/ act out me on a treadmill). I haven't been able to get back to working out and I MIGHT need to see a DR. to make sure I didn't tear anything. ANYWAY, THAT IS OFF THE SUBJECT!

I have felt really off. Like all of these convictions I had are slowly fading away as I resort back to the way of eating I have lived for 38 years. OK, I was a preemie and skinny for a few years. I also started to notice other areas in my life where I had been working on self control start to lossen it's grip and relax. But, there was a little voice inside of my saying" NO,wait! I want to change! I want a life filled with holy self control! I don't want to give into this sin again!"

As I was ready to put my focus back, the Lord gave me a blog post today. It was by Lysa Terkeurst. You can read it on her blog but this is what spoke to me.

" How many people choose to ingest truth but never choose to digest it?..... Just taking the inspiration of truth but never being transformed by it, will lead us down a dangerous path of doubt. Doubting ourselves. Doubting God. Doubting the effectiveness of thruth. ...... Reading truth but not applying it. Like a message I hear at church but not living it. Knowing what I must do to experience life change but never putting it into action. Taking in knowledge but never letting it make a difference in my life."

I know what the truth is about my sin. I have been studying why/ how I have been sinning against God with food and my lack of self control in certain areas of my life. I know the lies I tell myself when I really want to eat something I shouldn't. I am so thankful to the Lord for that blog post today. I prayed for something to give me the desire to get back on track. In her book "Made to Crave" Lysa talks about this. There has to be something more than us wanting to lose weight to look good,etc. (insert your reason). Pretty soon the compliments fade, people will be used to the "skinny you", you will be done losing weight. So what will keep the weight off? It is the fact the your number one reason is to honor God with your body and in my case, honor God with my self control.

Does any of that make sense? I hope one day I can look back at these blog posts and say "Hallelujah! I have done it!" Or at least I might not struggle as much as I do now.

What are you struggling with? If you are a Christian and you know your struggling, what have you been studying in God's word to help you over come your sin? Are you digesting the truth or just ingesting it?

Psalm 51:6 " Behold you delight in the truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart."

Girls trip San Diego

I had such a refreshing weekend with some girlfriends this weekend in San Diego. It was just what the doctor ordered for all of us. There was me, Ashely,Kelli I., Cindy, and Sara. We had such a great time talking,talking, talking, seeing movies, laughing, eating, sleeping, game playing, and more talking. I LOVE these girls. It is funny because we all went to college together at the same time but (besides Kelli I. and Ashley) none of us were really friends. I love how God has knit us together to be so close.

I looked around the room at one point and thought about what God has brought us through. Cindy and Ashley have both lost children. Kelli I. and Sara were both adopted, I have adopted... we have all been through all of these trials with each other. HAHA...Sara and Kelli I. being adopted was not a trial like I just made it out to be. I just mentioned that because I thought here are two women that I can show my daughters that were adopted just like them! :)

Kelli I. (from Tennessee) and Sara (from Sacramento/Roseville) flew into San Diego and Cindy, Ashley and I went to pick them up. Here are some highlights....

We ate lunch at a great restaraunt on the beach.
Ben Garate gets the special husband award for having snacks waiting for us in our hotel room when we got to our room! Props to Benny!
This is the view out of our hotel rooms. We had two rooms that were ajoining. Kelli and I stayed in one room while Ash, Cindy and Sara stayed in the other room. (because Kelli and I worked out in the moring.)
The view is at the front of the hotel.

Eating lunch at my favorite restaraunt...The Cheesecake Factory
The girls talked me into playing games. Ugh! Phase 10
It took about 65 games and 4 hours to finish! 2AM! Towards the end I was just asking what cards Cindy needed so she could win the thing and I could go to bed. Sshhh...Serect....I didn't hate it as much as they thought I did. I loved the company, just 4 hours is a little much don't ya think? Ben's candy basket kept me going. :)
Found this sign and made me miss my girl even more!
Ended the trip with some Captain Crunch french toast that I split with Ashley. Hello! So good!
We missed our families, the time went by fast but I love these girls and am so thankful that they are in my life. They are such a blessing to me.