2016-06-30
Food is an important part of a balanced diet.
-Fran Lebowitz

From "The Weigh Down Diet," by Gwen Shamblin:

With God's help you can learn to stop in the middle of a meal and have no desire to eat the second half if your stomach is satisfied! God did not put chocolate or lasagna or real bleu cheese dressing on earth to torture us, but rather for our enjoyment. However, He wants us to learn how to rise above the magnetic pull of the refrigerator so that food does not consume our lives!

We have been created with two empty, needing-to-be-fed holes in our body. One is the stomach, the other is the heart.

The stomach is a literal hole in our body which is to be fed with the proper amount of food. As for the heart, I am speaking figuratively of our deep-down feelings. To satisfy these deep-down feelings, needs, or desires of the heart, we may often turn to food and overload our stomach with more than it needs.

Trying to feed a hurting, needy heart with food or anything on this earth (alcohol, tobacco, antidepressants, sexual lusts, money, the praise of other people, etc.) is a common error. The person who attempts to feed a longing heart with food will stay on the path to overweight...there is nothing inherently evil about food, alcohol, tobacco, money, credit cards, etc. However, it is wrong to become a slave to any of these things or to let them master you.

We have been trying to feed our hurting, longing hearts with physical food. We have also learned to love food. Therefore, the solution is as follows: 1. Relearn how to feed the stomach only when it is truly hungry. 2. Relearn how to feed or nourish the longing human soul with a relationship with God. 3. Relearn how to recognize the different "hunger" urges and not confuse them.

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Also on Beliefnet:

  • How Silence Soothes the Harried Soul


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