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Tuesday, February 18, 2014

When God rolls back the curtain.

"God is always doing 10,000 things in your life, and you may be aware of three of them."    ~ John Piper

A dear friend sent me a link to this article written by John Piper and it has resonated in my heart ever since.  Through the years as I have grown deeper in God's word,  one of my favorite qualities of God's character is His sovereignty.  Knowing that all things in my life have a purpose….that all things are filtered through his love…this makes the hard things easier to embrace.  Knowing He has allowed it for a purpose. (Romans 8:28-29,  Psalm 66)

I understand this principle and have seen it time and time again in my life and my family.

And this statement above…that He's always doing a ton of stuff when we can only see a few has just hit home with me.  Because He recently rolled back the curtain and let me peek in on what He has been doing in me and Nick's lives.

Y'all remember the little challenge  my girls and I started last April amongst the four of us?

It has been a tremendous journey for me.  Life changing.  It started off as one thing and ended up being another. What I thought was a little jump start to get me to lose weight so that I could look nice for my daughter's wedding ended up becoming a whole new way of life for me.
A life filled with daily exercise, learning to run, and a whole new mind set when it comes to food.

In the midst of that journey, I totally changed the way we eat around here.  The way I cook for me and Nick. We began to eat whole foods.  Fresh fruit and vegetables began to be a staple around here.   Gone were the days of consuming entire bags of Flaming Hot Cheetos and Diet Dr. Peppers, deep frying everything and smothering all my vegetables down in bacon grease and butter.  We began to eat our salads without drowning them in dressing and I discovered coconut oil (we are talking game changer, people).  Our snacks became roasted almonds, sliced carrots, hummus, hard boiled eggs and edamame.  And my favorite of all faves….avocados. They get tossed, chopped and smeared  on everything.  Of course, every now and then I would buy Nick a bag of Doritos or pig skins or something but he too pretty much began to eat just like me.  

So here we are trucking along.  Eating better. Dropping pounds. Nick wasn't even trying to lose weight but hey….if you eat healthier that's what is gonna happen.


And this is where God rolled back the curtain and showed me that what I thought was all about me losing weight on this journey of losing to gain, 
He was doing something far greater.

He was saving Nick's life.

You see, what we didn't know during this time was that Nick had developed diabetes. 
We always knew it might be in his future.  His dad is diabetic and we knew it's hereditary.  And then there is the way Nick loves to cook and loves to eat.  If any of you follow him on Instagram or Facebook, you know how he enjoys his food.  He's my favorite foodie.

Well with Nick's military background he qualifies for medical care from the VA and he went for a routine check up in the beginning of January.  When his blood work came back, his blood sugar was 285!  His a1c was 10.5!  His blood pressure was elevated and his triglycerides were off the charts high. Now with all of this being this high after 8 months of eating healthy, I shutter to think what could have happened had I not started down the road of losing to gain!!  I understand the reality of what can happen from living an unhealthy lifestyle …. Nick is the exact same age that my own dad was when he died from heart disease.  

But of course God knew this all along.  I would even go as far to say this is why He planted this little idea in my mom's heart…to host the contest for us girls.  She may have thought it was to help get us motivated to lose weight but I know God used her to play a pivotal part in the health of her son-in-law's life.

"God is always doing 10,000 things in your life, and you may be aware of three of them."

Wow.  Yes He is. And I'm so thankful for that.  

And just so you know…Nick has punched diabetes in the face.
He is down 30 lbs.  His blood sugar has been pretty much normal the last several times we've checked it.  His blood pressure has been great.  We are expecting great results at his next check up with his a1c. He has taken it serious and I am so proud of him.  Since we had already made so many changes in our diet, we only had to tweak how we were eating just a little bit more. So a new diet wasn't a challenge for us.   We actually are having fun in the kitchen together and have even taken it up a notch with creating our own recipes on this journey.  

Who knows?  A cookbook might even come out of all this.  
Perhaps that's something else the Lord is working on behind the curtain too!
That gets me excited!

This is the year we begin what we call "temple maintenance".  We now realize that we spent too many years abusing what the Lord has given us with our bodies and health.  We want to do our part to take care of it starting now. We want to be around to enjoy our grand kids if the Lord wills.
 ….and we have a lot of living still left in us.

It would mean so much to me, if you could lift us up and intercede on our behalf as we learn more about this disease and how to make the best choices for our new way of living.
I appreciate each and every one of you.

Walk in obedience, do the hard things….you never know what God is doing through what you can't see.
Hang in there…sometimes He gives us a peek behind the curtain. But even when He doesn't, we can trust Him.  That's one of the rich benefits of belonging to Him.
He is always at work in our lives.  Always. 

22 comments:

  1. Wow, brought tears to my eyes! That is incredible! God is so good!!!

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  2. What an amazing testament to His details in our lives! I love when He actually lets us in on what He's been doing, as so many times He doesn't. So happy for y'all and will definitely keep you both in my prayers! P.s. I do have a little belated V-day package on its way to you! Xoxo!

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  3. wow! stephanie! that is awesome. God is so good! so so proud of you and your husband. thank you for being such an inspiration to me! (ps - my dad has diabetes, and is going strong at 76. he lost 100 pounds last year and is in the best health of his life! :) ) hugs, lora

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  4. Lifting you both up. With God you've got this.
    Love and prayers.

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  5. Hey, Stephanie. Thanks for sharing. I do follow him on IG and love his pics... Food ones too! Will pray for you both.

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  6. Praying, Stephanie. My husband fights all those things, plus he's now on pills for diabetes. I need to instigate the change for him and for our youngest son who looks and has body build just like his daddy. I want my boys around for a long, long time. Hugs.

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  7. Will be praying for you both.
    Kisha Vargas

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  8. This sounds all to familiar to me. I lost thirty pounds and then faced my most difficult health challenge to date. I imagine it would have been much more difficult had I not been in the healthiest physical state of my adult life. My go to passage to meditate on through it all has been Jeremiah 17:7-8. I'm so glad you and Nick trust in the Lord and your confidence is in Him. I'm praying you have no fear when the heat comes, and your leaves are always green, you have no worries in a season of drought, and that you never fail to bear fruit. As always, you point to Jesus so beautifully in your story and marriage. Much, much love to you!

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  9. "Walk in obedience, do the hard things….you never know what God is doing through what you can't see."
    I love the way you worded that. I am always saying "the Lord blesses obedience". Every single time, even when it's hard and doesn't make sense. He blesses it and uses it for His glory. He's definitely doing that through you and Nick. Thank you for sharing your story!

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  10. I found you one day on instagram, looking around for other people's Stitch Fix outfits. I'm so glad I did. This post is exactly what drew me to you and I'm so happy for your entire family in how this gift played out.

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  11. LOVE LOVE LOVE this post!! I just love you whole family! Prayers for you and Nick and just so you know I would TOTALLY buy the cookbook!!! The eating is the worst part for me. So any help you can give in that area would be SOOO appreciative!

    Love to you and your family. Just know that you and Nick are what I pray our marriage looks like!! So any tips you got sister I'd love to hear. My husband and I have been married for 10 years and 4 kiddos. It's tough stuff.

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  12. Wow. I love that quote.

    How true! Thank you God.

    I battle my sugar by getting obsessed with something I hated my whole life: vegetables. I'm constantly searching Pinterest for interesting ways to make them. I've found a passion for them I would never have guessed. And I've found my body handles the carbs in high fiber veggies better.

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  13. I'm so glad that things are looking up for Nick. God is SO good! I'll be praying for you both, friend.

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  14. Oh, this is chilling!!! Our son was diagnosed with Juvenile Diabetes at the age of 7. He is now 37 and has done amazingly well. You and Nick have got this figured out and I feel sure he is going to do very well. You both look fantastic and are such an inspiration!!! Yea! for you and Nick!

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  15. Thank you of this post.

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  16. Oh Honey! I seriously love you guys to the moon and back :) Your encouraging posts are great and inspiring! Praying for you guys! You got this!

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  17. Wow! Amazing testimony! Yay for Nick!

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  18. oh friend...my heart is rejoicing with you! i have no doubt that God did use you and your momma to save Nick's life/health. what an amazing powerful journey. i would snatch up that cookbook FAST! do it!! you would sell them like hotcakes. oh and i want his shirt!! love you sista:)

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  19. What a sweet peek the LORD gave you and Nick. May He continue to heal and be glorified through you both. :)

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  20. Love that your getting healthy!! God is so good!

    ...I am in the process of eliminated almost all processed foods..it is really hard in the winter when we don't have a flourishing garden...one step at a time...Also, I started to drool at the word Dr. Pepper....baby steps, baby steps...lol.

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  21. Wow! I'm so thankful for God's grace and constant leading and guiding of his kids. This is such a great reminder of how truly trustworthy our God is. Things we could become so fearful about, He takes care of and we don't even know it. I will absolutely be praying for ya'll ;) and please know you are such an inspiration. Thank you for sharing some of your lives stories here. You are a blessing.

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  22. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for sharing this testimony of God's faithfulness! It helps to build our confidence in Christ and live in a stronger faith! So glad that God has worked this goodness into your life and that Nick is firmly on the path to better health along with you. A cookbook sounds amazing, I hope it's in the works for you!

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