My sister is healing beautifully from her brain surgery. The doctor told her on her three week checkup that the typical recovery time from such a surgery is 6 months. He said that this length of recovery is second only to open heart surgery.

Then he said that her progress was amazing and that her recovery was as far along as most of his patients are at three months post-surgery.

I know that God has everything to do with this. He made me and her both a promise that she would be fine and He is faithful. But I can’t help but wonder if there is anything else that may be contributing to this quick recovery. God is always faithful but sometimes our actions can also hinder or compliment His plan.

Her unwavering faith has definitely had an impact on her ability to endure this ordeal. She faced this trial as if it was a journey with a beginning and an end. She had a great attitude and her strength and confidence in the Lord rubbed off on everyone involved.

Lisa is also a bit of a health nut. She knows what the body needs in order to function at it’s full capacity and she’s committed to optimum health. She is always the first one I call when I have a question about anything to do with health.

As you can imagine, healthy eating has now become the topic of choice around our home and among my circle of friends. Everyone has an opinion. I prefer to listen to those who seem to be enjoying better health from their efforts. In other words when Jim Bob chimes in, after nearly coughing up a lung, my mind tends to wonder as he opines.

I’ve read many excellent articles on good health but I’ve received the most valuable information just from conversing with my sister. Her information isn’t biased toward a particular teaching or company profit structure. The difference between what the average person knows about health and the actual truth is substantial.

Healthy eating benefits us more than just physically. Our mental and emotional health depends on healthy habits too.

Beginning the change over to healthier habits can be overwhelming at first. I wish I had made more nutritionally sound choices when my children were younger so that healthy eating habits had been instilled in them early on. But, it’s never too late to change. The thing to keep in mind is that a lifestyle change of this magnitude can be done in baby steps. For me that has been the only way to make changes. Slow and steady wins the race.

When I read The Maker’s Diet a few years back I’ll be honest, it scared the bejeebers out of me. It was so radically different than how I fed my family that it overwhelmed me. I will re-read it this summer because having already made a few changes I realize now that I can pick a few of the author’s suggestions and just run with those. Sometimes, it’s not advantageous to have my “all or nothing” kind of mindset because I tend forget that every single change is a step in the right direction.

Wow, where did the last 5 days go? I wrote about waiting out my sister’s brain surgery and then got caught up in all manner of things and forgot to write about the outcome.

My sister came through her surgery beautifully. The neurosurgeon was able to remove 95% of the tumor in about 6 hours of surgery. She has surpassed all expectations for her recovery and she headed home this afternoon.

God is so good. He assured me she would be fine and she is.

God is faithful and He can always be trusted.

As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”   Romans 10:11

It’s something to remember for the future especially when circumstances say differently.

My sister is in surgery right now. The description the surgeon gave to her husband of how he will get to the brain tumor isn’t a pretty one. He gave him the list of possible outcomes, some of which are not pleasant, just before they wheeled her away.

I’m keeping strong by praying and loading up on the carbs. It’s just what I do best.

I’m believing God too though! I’m believing for a quick, perfect recovery, the tumor to be benign, and for family members to come to know Christ through this journey.

When my sister was being wheeled off to surgery she told her husband the exact way he was to say goodbye to her. Because he loves her, he acquiesced to her odd request. He waved, smiled and said, “See ya, wouldn’t want to be ya!”

This waiting is hard. I have a feeling he lied.

My world is being shaken yet I stand on His firm foundation.

I can’t even imagine how it’s possible to make it through tough times without the Lord to lean on. I need Him like crazy right now and oh, He is so faithful.

A week ago, at Bible study, a woman there told us her husband lost his job for doing the right thing. Their home came with the job and they have just weeks to move. She voiced her concern about being homeless.

Homeless? Not a member of my church family. Never.

I assured her that our home was open to her family of five if they needed us. It wasn’t the only offer and that makes me so proud of Christ’s bride. I love to see people care for others. It’s a beautiful thing.

Right after I told her this though I had a distressing thought that I shouldn’t have made the offer because my parents had plans to visit soon. Then God gave me peace that everything would work out.

The very next night I went to sleep with the thought racing around in my mind, “God’s sovereignty overflows with grace.” It was as if He was saying that He has everything under control and we are covered with a blanket of His favor. I had no idea why He was impressing this thought on me but it must have been important because I woke up with this same persistent thought.

I even wrote it as my Facebook status. I thought I understood the meaning of what He was saying.

I did, I just didn’t know why.

Not until my baby sister called a few hours later. She started with, “Don’t panic. God has everything under control.”

Then she proceeded to tell me that at eleven o’clock the night before – about the same time that I was hearing from God – she found out that she has a brain tumor. A rare and serious tumor that, although this type is rarely malignant, needed to be removed as soon as possible. She was checked into the hospital almost immediately and the surgery will be Friday. It’s a seven hour surgery and it will be taking place over 1500 miles away. I can’t be with her.

She is being so incredibly strong. Her faith in God is infectious. And it needs to be because few of our family members have placed their faith in Jesus for salvation. The more time that my parents, brothers and sister spend with her the better.

Still Friday is going to be… hard. The waiting and the inability to do anything to help will be frustrating.

If it weren’t for the fact that God already gave me something to focus on I may just go buggy. Instead though, I’ll be helping a family move in with us.

God really does have everything under control.

find someone else on whom you’ll stay.

or

How I got healthy on my summer vacation.

It’s been over eight weeks since I had chocolate chip cookie dough, fresh from the oven, still warm and gooey fudge brownies or even a piece of bread. I’ve been staying as far away from white flour, white sugar, and white rice as I possibly can. They aren’t nutritious no matter how you slice ‘em.

I don’t go overboard and avoid ketchup because it contains some modicum of sugar. No, I stay away from ketchup because I’m not fond of the taste. You can add potatoes to that short list too.

I started eating better the day after we arrived in Texas. I was planning on starting a day later than that but was encouraged, well more like bullied into it a day early. It’s exactly what I needed or I may never have started.

I had complained to a friend that while changing in the hotel bathroom on the move down I had seen myself  without clothes, in fluorescent lighting, in a floor length mirror no less, for the first time in literally years. It was a fifteen second horror flick that left eyes burning. I still have nightmares. Ugh!

I refused to weigh myself before I started this new eating plan because I was afraid it would be a number far beyond what I had ever seen on a scale, even higher than when I had carried another human inside of me. Okay, actually I knew it would be. I kind of wish now that I had. I’d like to know exactly how much or how many peoples worth of weight I’ve lost. All my pants are loose and that’s the only thing I have to go by.

Beyond the benefit of weight loss I just feel so much better. I want to eat like this from now on. That’s why I didn’t call it a diet but an eating plan. The problem is, it seems to get some people bent out of shape when they see me refusing to put something in my mouth that they enjoy eating. That in itself won’t stop me from eating the way I want but I’d love to come up with a planned response that helps people deal with it better.

“I’m allergic or it makes me sick,” besides being a lie would make me sound a bit like a hypochondriac.

“I don’t like it,” makes me sound too picky.

“None for me, I want to look like Angelina Jolie before I turn fifty,” sounds stupid and impossible.

“Old women like me aren’t supposed to eat anything enjoyable anymore,” might work unless it’s an old woman like me offering the poison.

Eating to live rather than living to eat is a hard thing to manage in a country where food is abundant and nearly a worshiped idol at every gathering.

I guess I’ll just stick with my famous, “No thank you,” and put up with the weird looks for now.