The message from my church on Sunday has been sticking with me this week. The pastor preached from Genesis 12:1-3 and it had a wonderful perspective about how we should look for blessings in our hardships. He spoke about how we all have ways in which we are "cursed" and deal with hardships and in those times it is often very difficult to see in what ways we are truly blessed.
Many times our first instinct is to ask "What is wrong today" or "Why am I sad today" instead of "Where am I being blessed today?"
Now that doesn't mean we have to deny the ways we are cursed or pretend that those things don't exist, but we do need to make an effort to acknowledge the ways we are blessed even with the hardships we are going through.
We have to get in the habit of seeing blessings in the midst of our obstacles. And one of the important things he shared is that we need to remember that we are blesses so that we can be a blessing for others.
"I will bless you and make your name great, SO THAT you will be a blessing."
This whole message spoke to me in several ways but it really made me think about the things I have seen in this group lately. I see people who only a few months ago were really struggling and now they are thriving, feeling more confident, and encouraging others. I am so grateful for all of you and how encouraging of a place this has become, it's been a huge blessing to me and I hope it is for you as well.
Also if you are currently struggling try to focus on the blessings you do have, and think about the ways you do have the ability to be a blessing to others.
If you want to listen to the whole message I will link the recording below, but today I encourage you to think about the ways in your life you are blessed, and how you can be a blessing to others.
Yesterday we surprised the kids and brought home a puppy!! They have been begging for one for years and we felt like the time was right to bring one home.
Meet Angus 🐕 He's a Golden Retriever/King Charles Cavalier Spaniel mix. He's 11 weeks old and currently weighs about 8 pounds, he should be around 35 pounds fully grown. I know it will be an adjustment for a while as he gets potty trained etc but we are so excited. 😂 Wish us luck! 🤪
Cheese is good! I ate a block of chipotle oven baked cheese with lunch yesterday and it was divine. I love it, but know that it halts any progress I'm making, and will even trigger eating in excess to where I'll gain weight. It's sad but I have accepted it. If I eat it in small quantities with a meal, it's ok, but I really have to work to keep it in check.
What's your favorite cheese? How do you incorporate it? Do you see negative results when eating it?
Happy Sunday! Sharing a video today from our week, one of the highlights. This was Wednesday evening church, normally they have a more casual prayer meeting where someone plays the guitar, but they were doing some construction in the fellowship hall so they had their prayer meeting in the sanctuary. No one was there to play the piano so my my Grandma did it, she's been playing the piano in church for probably 80 years.
For context, she's 88, she had a really bad fall 5 years ago now and hit her head and ended up with a lot setbacks, similar to having a stroke. She has a lot of dementia like symptoms also (I am sure related to her Type 2 diabetes), she really can't read music anymore, and she has trouble seeing well, and she needs to wear hearing aids to hear but hates wearing them, so on this night she didn't want to wear them. My 93 (almost 94) year old grandpa takes care of both of them on their farm. Anyway, on this night she sat down on the piano and led worship as people called ...
It's about mid month for this September challenge that many of us are doing. Let's be serious, every month is a challenge for most of us. I wasn't unhappy where I was at but would love to be just a little leaner as a baseline. So far I lost about 8 pounds in September by going beast mode. Consistent with food and exercise. I've also cut my portion size a little. I find that I pretty much maintain whatever weight I'm at, eating as much as I want, as long as it's clean. So close to goal, I have to restrict to lean out. Once I hit another 5 or 10 pounds down, we'll see if that holds. Restriction is hard.
How is your month going? Goals?
Happy Wednesday evening Family!
It was a busy day with work, and then our new office space Open House and Ribbon Cutting. About 1/3 of our other co-works come up to our office so it was nice to put faces with some names/voices. I worked a long 11 hour day so I'm starting to fade here.
Exercise/fresh air/sleep
Standing desk, not much, 6.5 hours
M1: protein coffee and 2 more regular cups of coffee
M2: Homemade egg & turkey sausage quiche, 1 beef stick
M3: Leftover fajitas w a little sour cream.
I was proud of myself of not even being tempted by the cookies at the reception. I was busy giving tours of our new space and talking to co-workers.
Early bedtime as Farmer is fighting off the crud Again!
Swollen glands.
Good Evening Y'all!! Today has been a not so good day. I'm still not feeling well. I got a steroid shot today to see if it helps kick this mess. No fever just fatigue, cough, headache, and runny nose. I learned something about a steroid shot it made me eat almost everything in sight. I know I made a bad choice today, but I also know that the one bad choice doesn't mean I failed at changing my lifestyle. It will if I allow it to have control but that's not happening. I will be getting a good dinner here shortly.
I ate a burger patty with salt for brunch.
After the steroid shot I ate some junk food. Not a lot of it but enough for me to realize what I was doing. Then I ate some pork king good sour cream and onion pork rinds. Y'all those are so good. So tonight I'm gonna have either leftover pulled pork and chicken that we still have or some air fried chicken thighs. I'm honestly leaning towards the chicken thighs. I will post pics of my brunch and dinner later along with my macros. For me...
