Incest & Murder: the unraveling of a family (yikes!) - 2 Samuel 13-14

      The sermon on Sunday was about David's messed up family.   It reads like a soup opera or a talk show -  so much drama and so much sin.  I have found that sin always leads to drama one way or another!  It may strike a cord with the world, but is it relevant to us church going folks?  Incest or any form of sexual abuse is something we would hope God would protect us from, especially in our Christian circles.  But my heart can't help hurting for Tamar who experience such horrible things because of her brothers sin.    Despite my church going status, God has brought  many people into my life who have experienced the damage of being wronged in this way.  It appears that being a Christian does not grant you immunity from being harmed by others who choose to do the unthinkable.   I have to be honest: this has torn my heart apart and caused me to doubt God's goodness and faithfulness.  What is God doing about this heinous problem - where is He?

     Well this year my doubt met it's match when I took the wounded heart.  The wounded heart is offered by our church for victims of childhood sexual abuse.  I had felt that God was prompting me to take it for a number of years now.  However, my abuse was pretty minor compared to what Tamar and many of my friends had endured and was not inflicted by a family member, so I did not think the abuse was effecting me.  But God still kept whispering when ever it would be advertised.  Finally this year I signed up for the wounded heart and even went, and it has been the most life changing thing ever!  My doubt and pain has been met head on by the Creator of the Universe and the lover of my messed up soul.

      Before I took the Wounded Heart, I was single handedly trying to wrangle all the crazy emotions that are a natural result of being wronged in such a deep way.  I felt overwhelmed and condemned for having such strong and dark feelings and because I was ashamed I buried them.  Now if you asked me about how I was coping, I would proudly tell you how I was learning to live above my feelings, I would probably even offer to teach you how to do it too.  But really it was just a super spiritual way of saying I was in denial.  Denial is not healthy and oh how I know that now!  The fall out of 30 odd years of denial was a far worse than the damage done by the initial abuse.  If only back then when I was first abused,  I had brought my pain and brokenness to God and trusted Him with it instead of trying to pretend it did not bother me and I was fine!  But I listened to Satan when he whispered in my ear that I was weak for feeling such emotions and God wanted me to buck up and just get over it.  I felt like I was now an object of condemnation and I did not deserve to be blessed or happy anymore.  I was mad at myself for feeling and so I tried to teach myself how to ignore my feelings.  Emotions were seen as invalid or maybe even sinful.  

     God was longing to wrap me in his arms and comfort me as only He can but I couldn't go to Him because I thought I needed to fix this myself.   So as the years went by my doubt and frustration with God grew - although I did not admit this to anyone.  I was desperately trying to fix this hurt deep in my soul and the method I picked was trying to be a good Christian girl.  I decided that if I could just be perfect maybe whatever was wrong with me would go away.   If I could just please everyone in my life maybe then the depression and despair I lived with on a daily basis would finally disappear.  You don't need to be a rocket scientist to see this was not a great solution.  But I was so messed up inside at this point that I was not seeing things clearly.   God wanted to comfort me and bring healing but the lies I was believing preventing me from giving Him control and from trusting Him.  I was shooting myself in the foot over and over but blaming God for my pain. 

But then I finally listened to His gentle voice and took the Wounded Heart.  Through it I realised that it is not that God was not strong enough to heal me it was I was preventing Him from doing so.   Through this group I was able to uncover some of the lies that had got me to such a horrible place.  I was able to see that God loves me and is not disappointed in me.   He was feeling compassion and fierce love for me when I was abused not expecting me to forgive instantly and stop being so emotional about it all.  He wanted to hold me in his arms and soothe me and fill the hole that had been ripped in my soul.  I have value and I am a cherished child of the King.  He wants to bless me and I don't have to endlessly make up for my deficiencies.  He accepts me now despite all the sin I ended up getting into by not trusting Him.  I do not have to be perfect before I can rest in Him and rejoice.   My healing process has started and I have hope that was completely missing from my life before.   I am half way through the wounded heart program and am looking forward to all the awesome things God is still going to do.   I can trust God to continue my healing as my brain gets a complete overhaul.  My mind needs to be renewed in a big way but I have a big God.  I have a faithful, good God who loves me and that changes everything :)

I don't know how to express my Thanks to all the leaders of Wounded Heart so I will just ask God to personally bless them in one of the many creative ways at His disposal.

It's all a matter of faith - food

      My eating healthy journey is going well.  I am not perfect and still occasionally eating things I should not.  Every time I make a good choice it is easier to make the good choice next time, so I am feeling energised.   My weight is still not going down the way I want it to, but I keep reminding myself that the goal is obeying God not losing weight.  This frees me to rejoice in the progress regardless of how much I weigh.  I found a scripture when I was doing the Bible study Made to Crave by Lysa Terkeurst that has really helped me get to the core of my eating problem.   It is Psalm 78: 21-22: " Therefore, when the Lord heard, He was full of wrath; a fire was kindled against Jacob, His anger mounted up against Israel, Because in God they believed not [they relied not on Him, they adhered not to Him] and they trusted not in His salvation (His power to save).  This verse is referring to when the Israelites were in the desert and they wanted food.  Even though God had miraculously provided water in the desert they did not believe He could give them food too.  I think I have the same attitude as the Israelites.  I don't trust God with my food and that is the core of my problem.  I want what I want, and I don't want to give the eating choices I make to God.  I don't trust him that He has the power to save me from the cravings that cause me to eat things that make me sick and fat.  I want to keep eating the things that are bad for me, that God has called me to give up.   I am afraid of losing the tiny bit of happiness I get from eating those bad things.  But God is the source of my joy and I can trust Him to replace the happiness of sin with a more lasting joy that is not tainted.  God does have the power to save me from my cravings.  I have seen that when I trust Him and rely on God, He can enable me to eat the healthy things instead of the junk.  It still hurts a bit to say no to 5 cupcakes but it is exhilarating to push through that pain and find the strength to make the healthy choice.  God is faithful and able and He is giving me the strength to win more battles in this food war than I lose.

Is my scale an idol? - food

So I am on a journey now of learning to get my happiness and peace from God, instead of the contra ban food that I crave.  It is going well.  Difficult at times, but I am learning to lean on God's truth instead of my addiction to food.   So you would think that since I have been following God's guidelines and not binging on fat and sugar, that I would be losing some weight.  However, the scale has been very disappointing lately.  I am not losing weight at all!  As a result I am struggling with depression and self-pity.  Why am I going to all this trouble to eat healthy, if I am not seeing any success in the weight loss department?  To be honest I am a bit ticked off at God.  The disappointment I feel makes me want to eat some cookies to comfort myself.

Why does the scale have such power over my emotions?  I am realising that I feel it is wrong to rejoice and relax, unless I have reached some specific marker of success.  I do not deserve to be happy when I am an obvious failure at meeting my weight goal!  Because I have not had success at losing weight, the feelings of anxiety and failure overwhelm me.   Until I have arrived at my goal, there seems to be no way to banish the anxiety and depression.  I must wait until my weight has gone down to be content and feel like I am succeeding.  This having to succeed before I feel joy or happiness, does not apply to just weight, but pretty much every goal I set in my life.  No wonder I am on anti-depressants and upset inside most of the time.  Add to that, that my goals I am shooting for are often perfection!  I have set impossible goals! I have sentenced myself to never being able to be happy or satisfied or feel like I am worthy.  This is crazy!  My own mind is the enemy of my soul.  This is why I need all my ducks in a row so desperately.  I have tied peace and joy to reaching all my goals and having everything just ducky and perfect.  So that has become my all consuming desire: to get everything in my life perfect and then I can relax and rejoice in things.  I can't ever accomplish that and even if I could I would find that once I arrived at perfection it was empty and unsatisfying.  I can not fill my soul by being perfect.  I can only fill it with God and a relationship with Him.

So what do I do now that I realise that I have set losing weight as determined by my scale, as the marker for success?  I am pretty sure that this is not the marker of success that God wanted me to set as my goal.  I guess I am trying to get happiness out of a scale instead of from God.  That is as empty as trying to get joy and peace from sugar and fat.  I just replaced my idol of sugar and fat to an idol of a scale.  I find journaling a great way to hear what God wants to say to me.  About a month ago I wrote down some stuff God said to me and maybe I should pull that out and see what He said.   OK here it is, "Let me be God and put the cares and responsibilities on my shoulders.  Rejoice in all the answers and blessings and praise me even when your mood is in a funk.  Obey minute by minute and let that bring you joy and peace.  Get back into developing good habits (such as eating right and brushing my teeth)  Your goal is obedience to the spirit, and to obey you must stay close to me.  Trust your emotions to my care and don't fear or worry but trust and rejoice.  Grab a hold of my peace and don't let go.  Evaluate your success by your lack of fear and your obedience to me, not by worldly markers.  Go for the gold, go for the best, Go for God!"  

Wow what he had me write down a month ago is overwhelmingly relevant for me right now!  God is so good and wise and supernatural.   Here are the clear answers that I have been longing for.  My goal needs to be obedience to God, which is this case is following the guidelines of healthy eating that He has been showing me.  My goal should not be losing weight as defined by the worldly marker of my scale.  I need to leave that to God to look after in His time.  I need to rejoice in each answer God gives and each little victory He enables me to succeed at.  The path to joy and peace is not in perfection or success as I define it, but in trusting and obeying God and looking for stuff to rejoice in all along this journey.  Peace is something I can decide to grab a hold of by getting it God's way not my way.  My way is so not working!  I can be a peace even if the scale does not show any progress.  My peace comes from obeying God and following His spirit.  I can be peaceful and joyful because I am obeying him and eating healthy.  I don't need to punish myself until I get to what the world says is success.   I can let go of the anxiety and be satisfied and happy right now.  I have been believing a lie and now I can replace it with the truth.  Satan has been stealing my joy and peace, and I do not need to let him do that any longer. I am not doing this perfectly but that is OK because I will not be perfect till heaven, and I am just aiming for improvement and obedience.

Donuts - dos and don'ts - food

OK so I've got my guidelines of healthy, common sense, eating set and I am trying to live by them.  On one hand it is very freeing. The struggle to determine what I should and should not eat was taking up a lot of emotional energy.  Also I can avoid the guilt and other fall out feelings, that happened when I would rationalise my way into eating things I was unsure of.   Now when faced with a food decision I can determine if it fits into my healthy eating parameters easily.  I can avoid doing damaging things like eating too much gluten or sugar, or eating when I am already full.  I also have been making sure I eat small meals often and making sure I have regular protein so that I do not mess up my blood sugar and hypoglycemia.   This has had the happy result of me feeling much better physically.  It is very nice to not feel sick or dizzy, or that yukky feeling when you overeat and feel uncomfortable.  These have been very good things that I am praising God for.  However, there are still some foods that though they are not within my healthy eating limits: I crave hard core.  It has been hard emotionally to say no to these things.   If I am not going to get to eat them I  feel a desperation and fear.   I also have realised that I feel I deserve and need the treats.  Somehow in my brain I have tied treats to celebrations, rewards, or the way to cheer up if I am having a bad day.  If I attempt to do any of these things without treats it just feels very wrong.  My mind really believes that the excessive treats will make me happy and inversely that if I do not get the treats I will become depressed.  This is a very scary thought for someone who already struggles with depression and anxiety.

For instance, I attended my daughters public speaking contest, which was hard for me because it gives me concussion symptoms of a headache and anxiety.  When it was done, and while they were calculating who won, they provided mounds of donuts, sweet soft donuts!  Donuts were not within my healthy eating parameters for that day as I had my one gluten choice for the week.  Because I had determined clear guidelines I knew that if I was to obey God and stay on the healthy eating wagon I need to not have a donut.  But everyone around me was eating them and that was not fair.  I deserved one as much as any of them.  The apple I had wisely brought to eat as a healthy option was tasting like dust in my mouth.  I felt like I needed to celebrate with my daughter because she did a good job on her speech.  I also felt I deserved a reward for making it through and enduring a headache.  It was crazy how powerful and painful my emotional need for that donut was.   My apple was not working as well as I thought it would in this fight against sugar and fat but I had another weapon in my arsenal.  This week in the  Bible study- Made to Crave, I had learned about how my thoughts can be based on lies.  The idea that I needed that donut or that I could not celebrate without a treat - that idea is a lie.  Also the idea that I could not reward myself without sugar or that if I denied myself sugar I would fall into a depression also were lies.  That donut was not my only option to find joy or peace.  Part of my brain still has trouble and believes these things are true, but the truth is That God is my source of joy and peace and He can enable me to celebrate and reward myself without food.  He a big Awesome God, and He is not limited to food as His only go-to option to make me happy.   This is still very hard for me to absorb though.  I struggle with depression and have been using food as my go-to option for years.  This is a habit, like a drug habit, or a smoking habit and I feel such crazy pull to the donut.   I feel life will not be worth living if I do not get that donut.

But in Bible study I learned not only to distinguish the lies, but to fight them with the truth found in scripture.  I had already found a scripture in Proverbs to fight the particular lies that I was being faced with right now.   My scripture was Proverbs 16:20 and it says  "He who deals wisely and heeds God's word and counsel shall find good, and whoever leans on, trusts in and is confident in the Lord - happy blessed and fortunate is He."  The path to true good and happiness is not found in disobeying God but in following the guidelines He had already given me about what food was wise for me to eat.  Also I realised that maybe all along, the donuts in my life had not filled me with the lasting joy and happiness I was looking for.  The donut would give me a few seconds of bliss while it was in my mouth but then it would make me sick for a few hours because I am allergic to gluten and sugar.  This is why God has given me the guideline to avoid gluten and sugar.   Also one donut would not really be enough.   I would be frustrated and wanting more instead of satisfied and experiencing peace.  The idea that huge amounts of sugar and fat is my go-to for instant happiness is the lie.  The truth is that God is my go-to for all happiness and peace and that trying to make other things that, just leads to addiction and despair.   I was made to crave God, and if I replace my craving with anything other than God, including food, it results in this whole struggle I find myself in now with the donut.

To get out of this vortex of craving food and then crashing over food that is not good for me, I am going to need some serious power.   Serious power is exactly what God has huge amounts of and a food addiction is no match for God almighty.  However, if I attempt to overcome this without God I am beat before I even begin, as my vast past failures attest to.  I need God.   I need to stay close to God!  I need God to teach me how to meet my need for happiness and peace through God approved ways.   When I put food above God in my life it does not give me that happiness and peace.  I am running after a lie and the result is sickness, guilt, and frustration all in exchange for a few seconds of chewing!  So I leaned on God and He enabled me to say  no to the donut.  Actually I had to say no to the donut about 21 times before I finally was able to get out of the donut infested building.  I still craved the donut and it did make part of me unhappy to not be able to put it in my mouth, but my spirit was exhilarated.  This is not a quick fix: God is going to have to completely re program how I think.  I am going to have to keep at replacing the lies with truth.  I am going to have to learn to crave God first, and look to Him to meet my needs instead of food.  I have a lifetime of attempting to get my satisfaction and peace out of what I eat.  Even though it has not worked so far, part of me still wants to cling to the lie and try that donut one more time.  So I now have my truth scripture from Proverbs 16:20 on a cue card and my goal is to memorise it.  To get the truth deep in my heart, and from now on  to face every treat with God as my help and the truth as my weapon.

Hopeless to Healthy - food

So my issues with food are not going to be a quick fix.  I thought that once I finally nailed down my guidelines after being wishy-washy for years, that I would immediately soar to victory.  Not quite the case in real life.  First of all, nailing down my guidelines was more difficult than I expected.

How do you figure out what is a healthy diet?  Because of some OCD tendencies, or maybe perfectionism, or maybe just being a girl I have some food baggage from my past.   This baggage was not something I had been able to get over by myself so I was going to need God's help to revisit my issues.  I prayed for wisdom and strength and gave the whole confusing mangled food mess in my mind to God.  Like pulling a band aid off fast, God revealed my first issue clearly as perfectionism.  God really is the ultimate counsellor and it is so neat that he can supernaturally reveal relevant stuff in your head.   My first problem was  I had not been in pursuit of a healthy diet but the perfect diet, free from all errors and all imperfect food.   This was not a reasonable or even doable goal.  My first clue should have been when I went to the food experts to find the perfect foods and they couldn't agree for two minutes about what was good and what was bad.  Furthermore various experts have something bad to say about most foods, disqualifying pretty much all food known to man  from being a perfect choice.  No wonder I was frustrated and stressed out, there was no way I could succeed at the perfect diet - I was already set up to fail!   For instance, if I ate a salad but had salad dressing on it: I felt bad about the salad dressing because it is not a perfectly good food.  If I was really being a successful dieter I would have salad without the dressing.  But seriously that is not even worth eating!  Every time I ate something questionable (all food known to man) my anxiety level would go through the roof!   I was a mess emotionally and that just made me want to each large quantities of the kind of food all \ all the experts agreed was really bad for me.   I got overwhelmed and decide to not make any firm  guidelines, but I still felt bad about just about everything I put in my mouth.  I know God wants me to establish what healthy eating is for me and I can see now that I have to get over trying to do it perfectly.

I think I am also easily overwhelmed because my food choices are already limited by allergies and sensitivities.    I was feeling sick all the time  a few years ago and went to a naturopath who did a blood test to determine what food I am sensitive to.   Her tests showed I needed to pretty much avoid wheat and lima beans and limit my intake of eggs, sugar, unprocessed milk, and almonds.  The Lima beans I have not had any trouble living without but I consume way too much of the other stuff on a regular basis.  Because I have been distracted by finding the perfect diet I have not had the energy to limit these things I already know I should avoid.   I should not have wheat more than once a week and only small amounts of eggs, sugar, milk and almonds but I have been avoiding making this a firm guideline.   I feel sick when I cheat on this stuff but I still have been binging on it.   But no more!  I solemnly declare to everyone who is listening that I will only have wheat once a week and only very small amounts of eggs, sugar, milk and almonds.   I will not binge or eat a whole package of chocolate chip cookies by myself.   I  also have been not looking after my hypoglycemia.  This is a clear medical condition and is easily managed.  I need to make eating smaller portions often and combining sugars and starches with protein a clear guideline in my healthy eating to avoid feeling sick and dizzy.  So shall it be!  I know though that this is easier said than done so I pray that God will be my strength and I admit I need His help.

OK so avoiding some foods is clear from a medical standpoint but what about the vast number of other foods that the experts disagree about.  My strategy to avoid all imperfect foods has not been working so what should I do to find healing?  Some wise women at the study Made to Crave by Lysa Terkeurst, suggested I try balance instead of extremes like perfectionism.   I need to let go of trying to do it perfectly and seek God to find a way to do it balanced.   I should not worry about what the dulling experts disagree about, just look at the basics they all agree on.  Also I need to get up to date information on what is healthy eating. My mind has achieved every food that any nutritionist has ever questioned and I am still avoiding them, when some they have decided are not questionable anymore.  Perfect food  is a myth and the reality is that most food has some good qualities and some not so good.  The balance is to eat the nourishing food that has lots of good in it and only small amounts of unhealthy content.  A little bit of fat in the dressing does not disqualify salad from being a good choice.    I need to measure my success by eating healthy not by eating perfectly.  Now in being balanced I also need to avoid or limit to very small portions, any food that does not have much healthy content.  My diet is not an epic fail if I have salad dressing on my salad but eating a whole box of turtles is not success either.  I can rejoice in all the good the greens give me and rejoice that I am not having a dangerous amount of fat but a balanced amount in the dressing.  I can look to the Canada food guide for the specifics to find a starting point of  balanced  healthy eating.  Then I can celebrate each food victory each time I make a healthy choice.  Give myself some food "Grace" and stop being a tyrant to myself.   This is especially important because my choices are already limited by my sensitivities.  .    I need to get creative finding healthy options that I can eat to replace the things in my diet that I can't have and not feel bad if these options are not perfect, but rejoice in the good parts of them.

   

Free from Food? AHHHHHHHH ! - food

      I have issues with food.  Even my kids tell me on a regular basis, "mom you have a problem!", usually after I ate half a pie or their share of something.  Until recently I just shrugged it off and did not worry too much about it, feeling it was an endearing quality.  If there is a acceptable problem for a Christian to have it is eating and I thought it was not really impacting my faith.  But more than that I felt as a "good Christian" there were so many things I gave up like not getting drunk or sleeping with men besides my husband that there should be something that I could indulge in.  Food seemed pretty safe and so I just let myself go in the food department.  Now I did not admit this to anyone especially myself.  But I took a Bible study at my church called "made to crave" by Lysa Terkeurst and God has used it powerfully to open my eyes.

    I would have to classify my previous limits about food as wishy washy.  I  never really nailed down my goals or aspirations but kept them vague.  I think i did this so that I did not have to feel compelled to actually follow any "rules".  If you do not set the bar at a particular height then you don't have to feel bad about not reaching the bar.  But the funny thing is that the indecisiveness I used to protect me from failing caused me huge amounts of anxiety.  Here's what it looked like in my real life.  I would eat a cookie and immediately feel bad because a cookie was "cheating".  I am not only sensitive to sugar because I have hypoglycemia but I am very allergic to wheat which is the second ingredient in cookies after sugar! But despite those realities I somehow convinced myself that it is OK to have cookies.  Now I did not do a good job of convincing myself and so I still had  that deep down unrest when I ate anything that was not perfectly good for me.  But one cookie is just the start of the food drama that overshadows my life.  One cookie does not satisfy me but just makes me want more cookies.  Since I do not have any set limits it is fairly easy to convince myself that it is OK to have more cookies but again I suck completely at fully convincing myself so that nagging anxiety and guilt deep down still exists.  Two cookies are not enough for me, the second one makes me want more too, so number three finds its way into my mouth.   Again though the uneasiness of compromise sucks the joy out the situation.  When left unattended with cookies I have eaten 7 large ones including ones that were earmarked for my children.  I have taken cookies out of the mouths of children!  I have also eaten an entire tray of turtles - 12 right down the hatch.  This does not bring joy to my life but I am driven by an all consuming need for food and I do not want to limit my indulgence so I didn't make clear limits.  Eating like this makes me feel sick but I struggle to find ways to keep doing it.   I thought the lack of limits would help me eat more cookies guilt free but this brilliant idea was not working.

     This struggle is as old as the fall and I don't think I am alone in my pain.  My eyes have been opened in taking this Bible study and I am starting to realise that the root of this problem is trust.  I am afraid that if I give my food choices to God I will not get to eat all the fun indulgent things that I think will bring me happiness and satisfaction.  Yes I am deluded, and still thinking that somehow the road to happiness is down the road of no limits, even though this has not worked in the past.  I think Satan must be laughing at how his lies are so effective, that he has me unwilling to give up what is causing me immense misery.   It all boils down to me wanting control and thinking I know how to do this food thing better than God.  I am afraid that if I give my food choices to God he will hold out on me and limit my freedom.  Like Eve in the garden, Satan lied to her, and as a result she was questioning God's goodness because he had limited her freedom and God had told her not to do something.   I look like such a fool clutching to the food that is harming me not only physically but spiritually as well!  I need to give this area to God completely and submit everything I put in my mouth to Him.  Everything!!!!  This also means figuring out what are healthy food choices for me and what are not, by asking God for wisdom.  This out of control cookie monster needs some clear limits.    Anytime God asks us to yield something to Him he is not holding out on us: He wants to save us from the mess we end up in when we refuse to give him control!  Not trusting God with my food is not an acceptable sin, its just a sin like any other.  True freedom lies in giving this area to God not holding it from him .

Join me in the following weeks as I take this food adventure with God.

Warning:The holidays without faith in Christ can be dangerous to your health

The Christmas season is a lot of peoples favourite time of year but for some it's far from pleasant.  My friend works in retail, and the impatience and swearing that comes along with the Christmas season has already begun.  Who knew that not being able to open an extra till because it is already closed for the day and having to go back to one of three lines that were open, would quickly unravel some customer's whole day.   Two were so upset that they threw down their merchandise on the counter and swearing loudly stormed out of the store.   This can definitely be a difficult time of year and my heart goes out to those who are suffering through it.  This difficult time of Christmas originated with Jesus being born as a baby who ironically came to save us and help us through the difficult times in life.  He is the reason for the season.  However by leaving Jesus out of Christmas, the materialism, business and time spent with family can turn into more of a problem than a joyful celebration.

Jesus came to give us peace and joy and it is available to all who have a relationship with Him. .  But  many don't include a relationship with Jesus in their holidays festivities and that peace and joy is missing them completely.  Jesus was born in a stable to bring peace and joy to all mankind but this "best gift ever"  is only available to those who will accept it and open their hearts to Jesus.  If someone gives you a gift but you don't take it or open it, you don't get to enjoy it or use it.   So how do we receive and open this Christmas gift of Salvation from God?    Receiving starts with us acknowledging that we sin and that our sin separates us from having a relationship with God.  Jesus was born as a baby so that he could grow into a man who dealt with this sin problem by dying on the cross.  Jesus was God come down to earth as a human and he did not sin at all while living on earth, so when he died on the cross that qualified him to be our substitute.   This might make more sense if I get Canadian and use hockey to explain.  If the goalie gets a penalty he does not serve the penalty in the box because he is the goalie.  What happens is another team member sits in the box and serves the penalty for the goalie while the goalie stays in the net.  Someone had to pay the price of our sin so that we could be reunited with God and that is what Jesus did on the cross: he sat in the penalty box for us and served our penalty.  He served our time so that if we are sorry for our sin and commit to stop sinning we no longer need to be penalised for our sin but God wipes our slate clean and forgives us all our wrong.   We can then begin a relationship with the God who created the universe.   Besides asking for and receiving forgiveness for our sin we also start this relationship with God by humbly giving God ultimate control of our lives.  Basically we yield ourselves completely to God and let Him be the boss.   Once God has control of our lives he can direct them in such a better way than we directed them.  Then He can lead us in the ways that bring us peace and joy and freedom.   Our Christmas can be transformed into a good season.

Even those who have a relationship with Jesus can miss the peace and joy if they get caught up in the rushing and trails and excessive business of Christmas.  Sometimes we do not actually give Jesus of all areas of our life but desperately clutch at control.  We don't leave our concerns in His capable hands but ruminate in them, and our peace is quickly stolen away.  Without trust in God, worry is free to grow unchecked and becomes a force to be reckoned with.  Faith is like an umbrella to protect us from the rain of worry.
The continuous drip of worry has stolen so much joy from my life.  I am not sure why I have been so reluctant to replace worry with faith?  Maybe I did not notice how much worrying I actually do.  About 3 months ago I prayed and asked God to heal the emotional part of me.  It has been such a revealing journo since then.  God has been showing me all the messed up things that happen in my brain and one of the main things is the actual extent of my worrying.  I think on average I worry probably once every three minutes!  My mind is so full of fear and concern it is no wonder I am on anti- depressants.  I can't enjoy life because I am continually pouring toxic thoughts out of mind that poison my outlook on everything.  I need AAA for worriers so I can stand up and say "Hi my name is Kristen Webb and I have a problem with worry" and then get help for my addiction.  Good thing our church offers an emotional 12 step program and I am in it right now!  It has pointed me in the right direction to find healing and freedom.

The prescription for healing is to take all your worries to God and drop them (actually let go) into God's capable hands.   When you are tempted to take the worry back - trust God to handle the issues!  Peacefully look to God for the solutions to all the problems in your life.   I discovered that all my planning and scheming was not a really good solution to my troubles.  Instead I give God that responsibility and confidently listen to his voice for the answers and then simply obey him and do what he suggests.  This faith we put in God enables us to let go of the worry and fear and replace it with peace and confident expectation of solutions.  The Bible says that God gives us beauty for ashes which sounds way to good to be true.  That is exactly what God has done for me.  As I give him the ashes of worry and fear he replaces it with the beauty of  faith followed by peace.  I needed to learn to trust God with my life because then even before the answer gets to you you can still have peace and joy while you wait :)  This is a truly amazing way to live and more fun than when my mind was overrun with concern because I was tightly holding onto the control of my life.