My husband is throwing me a birthday party. It will be missing my most favorite of celebratory foods - CAKE! It is truly one of the most yummy things I have enjoyed in my past... but this time is different. I committed to the Lord I would follow the Prism guidelines. So I decided to make a yummy dessert from NZ called Pavlova. I began researching sugar substitutes to use that wouldn't mess up the meringue too badly but would provide the desired nest to fill with fresh fruit. As I began to stress over how many I would need to make to serve the guests and the kid birthday party that would take up a chunk of my time the day of the party, I remembered another one of the guidelines... NO DESSERTS of any kind!!! I was so upset! Its my birthday for heaven's sake! Seriously? I called my accountability partner and asked her to pray for me. I was crying out of sheer frustration about what to serve our guests that is in keeping with our new "clean" way of eating. If I am not eating junk anymore I certainly don't want to feed it to people I love! My peaceful and calm friend just said a short prayer for guidance for me and we hung up. In a matter of 15 minutes I had my answer!
In my minds eye I saw a cake - made of strawberries! I shall stack each strawberry using toothpicks to hold it together and make a "cake" of sorts. It will not have anything on it but the lovely green stems God made and the gorgeous red of the fruit.
I am SO thankful for a God who wants to help me obey Him. He wants my obedience not to be hard. He wants it to be easy. We obey for love and for freedom's sake. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free... no longer to be subject to the yoke of slavery (to yucky food that does not contribute to abundant life). That is Galatians 5:1.
I want my kids to obey me so they will be safe. I want them to obey because they love me, not because they are scared of me or are going to earn a reward... I need to respond to my heavenly Father that same way. He wants me to be safe and healthy. He wants me to obey Him because I love Him. I am not doing this for the reward of a thinner me or because I am afraid I will die young of heart disease. I am obeying Him because it is the path to freedom. And I want to know, feel, taste, see, smell, and yes, even hear what that really is.This year, my freedom looks like a birthday cake made from strawberries.
I don't have to just have a "taste" of my birthday cake - I don't have too worry about feeling bloated or a sugar high from eating too much. For my birthday there will be lots of yummy strawberries to savor... just like every day of my life!
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