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How to Overcome Ice Cream Fears

April 15, 2018 By beautyinchrist 15 Comments

Icecream. It’s a major fear food for those struggling with eating disorders. To a normal person with a normal diet, it might not be a big deal, but when you start to see certain foods as ‘enemies’ and other foods as ‘not enemies’ ice cream becomes one of the enemies.

It was a major fear food for me, and I still struggle at times with people serving me ice cream, especially because I can’t ‘control’ how much I eat. Now, I have it at least once a day, and I love the freedom of being able to have that icecream without worrying about the calories.

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Five Things Friday: What a Day of Adventure Looks Like.

August 21, 2015 By beautyinchrist 6 Comments

(Who else loves train tracks as much as I do? And the mountains beyond = bliss. God’s creation is incomparably AWESOME.)

It’s Five things Friday with Clare, and I will try to condense our day of adventure to just that (only 5 things). Yesterday was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G, and this is what a day of adventure looks like in our house.

Yesterday was my sister’s 15th birthday, and that meant we got to do something super fun called ‘Whitewater rafting.’

Have you ever been white-water rafting? If you haven’t, you must go, soon. Come to my house and we can go again together (as long as you want to pay! 😉

Well, my siblings are very spontaneous when it comes to a day out. When we were in Europe last year I truly learned the meaning of spontaneity.

Going out holds a mix of fear and excitement for me. I love the adventure, but I still have an inkling of fear of not having ‘control’ over what I eat or missing a ‘workout’, but it is such a good opportunity to relax, enjoy God’s creation, and trust Him for this element of my life too.

This day of adventure had so many moments of fun and smiles and lots of yawning, but I wanted to share 5 of those things with you all today!

1. Opening Presents. It’s a birthday, so we started with the biggest present. She’s gotten quite a bit bigger in the past 15 years. <3 her.

2. Eating a little ole stack of pancakes before a big day on the river.

3. Taking pictures of an abandoned train car. It was so cool. . . I could almost imagine the engineer in the front and people in the car . . .

4. Eating Dessert at Country Buffet. 😉 We used to go to Country Buffet almost once a month when I was younger… It was pretty nostalgic returning, and I praise God that going out to restaurants is not a source of anxiety like it used to be to me.

This picture is of my sister’s birthday dessert… My carrot cake and icecream didn’t look quite as colorful. ;-D

5. Making beards out of cotton candy. Isn’t she cute?

And I didn’t take pictures of white-water rafting, because I didn’t really want to get my I-pod wet, and it’s SO nice to unplug for several hours and just enjoy the glory and beauty of God’s creation.

Psalm 19:1, ‘The heavens declare the glory of God. The firmament showeth His handiwork.”

What does a day of adventure look like for you?

Have you ever been on a train?

Have you ever been white-water rafting?

All Things for Good.

February 23, 2015 By beautyinchrist 5 Comments

I love snow. Snow is so fun to play in, to shovel, to throw on your friends. 🙂

I had a pretty good weekend. It was slightly traumatic, as my mom and I were out in our garage, and while my mommy was in the attic, she stepped on a spot that wasn’t a stud, and she FELL through.

Can you say ‘PANIC?’ I did panic, and I was praying as I ran out into the garage, because I heard it.

I ran out, and my mom had her eyes open. So I called 911 and almost lost it when the lady came on the phone. I told her the details, and thankfully we live within 3 miles of the fire station. They were there in 5 minutes, just as an EPIC snowstorm was beginning to downpour.

Well, I must tell you that right before, I had tweeted that I was going on a run. I’m thankful that I didn’t go on a run. There would have been times, a long time ago, when I would have stressed out about changed plans, but God gave me an overwhelming peace being reminded that a man plans his ways but God directs his steps.

My mom is okay, praise the Lord, with a slight concussion, and she is now home resting.

And I wanted to tie this all in to some encouragement for all of you.

‘GOD WORKS ALL THINGS TOGETHER FOR GOOD!’

For those of you struggling with an eating disorder or looking back at the havoc eating issues might have played with your life, God didn’t do that for no reason. I look back at the 6 years of this idol swallowing my time and my emotions, and I know that God used it for my growth. God used it to give me a sensitivity to the insecurities of girls around me, girls who are hurting, girls who try to put on a front that everything is ok, when they are falling apart inside.

It’s often frustrating to me how much food still threatens to consume my time and my thoughts, but it’s an opportunity to just cry out to God and place my trust and my faith in Him, not my food or my body. The more I learn to trust in Him, the more peace I find in the love of Christ and His sovereign control.

Psalm 46:1, “God is our refuge and strength, a VERY present help in trouble.”

Dessert is NOT evil. Idolatry is.

January 20, 2015 By Emily Swanson 1 Comment

For a while, I got this idea in my head that dessert was bad, even in small quantities. To a fault, I tend to be extreme and not self-controlled or temperate in my sugar intake, so I swung through extreme to extreme over six years. I went on sugar fasts, and then I would stuff my face with dessert and cereal, hoping that would satisfy my craving for it. It didn’t, and I often used it to make myself feel super guilty.

The point is that food isn’t supposed to fill you. I can’t take refuge in a bowl of ice-cream or a bowl of salad for that matter. Psalm 18:2 says, “The LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my mountain where I seek refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. The LORD is my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my God, my stronghold in whom I take refuge, my shield, the glory of my salvation, and my high tower.”

The Lord fills us. He is our rock, the One on which we can depend. He gives us good gifts to remind us of His goodness and His delight in variety, but not to make idols out of them or to abuse them.

If I keep this in mind, I can eat that fro-yo with no guilt. I can eat that salad with appreciation and pop those veggies in with delight because God created it, and He called it ‘good.’

Then maybe when you’re done, you can make funny faces with your friends and thank God that there are friends to laugh with, cry with, and enjoy Him.

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