Days 18 &19 - Fear

Whoa!  Oopsie daisy - did I really let 2 days go again without recording my entries?

Well, I'll get to the point of today's entry:  Who/What do you fear?

Our pastor mentioned something in our sermon this morning about fears and how they can be correctly/incorrectly placed.  For example, if you don't fear God, then you will fear many, many other things in life....everything from dying of cancer to fear of what people think of you.  BUT, if you fear God FIRST, then all other fears fade and take second stage.  I'm not trying to minimize things that are legit fears ... two of my kids had to be screened by a pediatric neurologist last week..I understand fears. But if we fear God first and foremost, then everything else can be put in perspective.

This got me thinking about Whole 30 and why people do it.  As a girl, I KNOW that so many of us struggle with body image - aka being skinny.  We fear other people not thinking we're skinny enough and we flat out fear knowing that we're not as skinny as we want to be.  Why?  Because somehow our culture has defined beauty as skinny.  I know some of those that are genetically blessed may say that being skinny isn't all that, but I would challenge them because if they all the sudden lost their 'skinny gene', I bet the pursuit of being 'skinny' would become paramount.  I say that because I used to be like that.  Before having kids, being thin was easy....I worked out if/when I wanted to, ate pretty much what I wanted to and never had to worry about being thin and I would tell folks that being thin wasn't such a big deal.  But post four kiddos and my metabolism slowing down and having to work a little harder to fit into my jeans, I now truly understand the desire/pursuit to be skinny.

So how does that all tie in with fears?  Because I wonder if it's the fear of our body image that drives some folks to do Whole 30.  I'm not saying everyone....but some.  And the fear of eating something 'bad', 'evil', 'dirty', etc.  And what I learned this morning is that the biggest 'fear' I should have is what I will face on the day of judgement.  When I stand before the God of the Universe I desperately want to hear Him say 'well done, good and faithful servant'.  I fear not having loved God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength because I was too busy being afraid of other things.

I don't know if this will make sense to everyone, but it convicted my heart today.  I need to fear one thing and one thing only....and it is not 'not being skinny' or 'unclean food'.