Difficulties beat down my mood.  Thinking about these problems stresses me out and stress leads to overeating.  After a long dry summer, excessive rains are falling.  Our roof started leaking.  The check engine light warning light is on in my over 10 year old minivan that I don’t want to spend money on.  “So woe is me, woe is me, I need to eat” is my temptation of the day.

Before, I used any excuse to overeat.  Now I realize that life is stressful and tough times exist.  2 Corinthians 4:8-9 is, “We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed.”   (Holy Bible,New Living Translation, 1996, 2004, 2007)  I am encouraged by these words written many years ago. Paul faced problems worse than mine and still found the joy in pain.  God is helping me face my difficulties with joy and encouraging me to not overeat.  Yes, this is not the same joy I felt when I was while walking on the beach last summer.  I am grateful I have a family, we have a nice home, a car to drive, and are taken care of financially.  Ever since I started working on this blog, I have had one annoyance after another.  First it was the broken washer and endless trips to the laundromat, then it was air-conditioning going out in our 10 year old minivan. Not to mention day to day stresses of work and trying to balance personal/family time with getting everything done.

When I focus on what God is doing in my life, it makes the stress manageable.  I think God wants me to fully rely on Him and requires a deeper level of dependence than I am used to. Instead of dwelling on the negative, God is helping me to see the positive.  Because I focus on Him, I do not want to overeat. God helps me manage both my stresses and the temptation to overeat.