Leah Stirewalt

Welcome back to those of you that joined me for Makeover Monday last week. If you haven’t any idea what I’m talking about…you might wish to start HERE and then come back and join us for this week’s Makeover Monday.

After last week’s confession of my 7.5 pound gain over a two-week period, I knew I had my work cut out for me. There’s just something about announcing your struggles for all the world to see that equates to accountability. I worked hard this past week, because I didn’t want to let God down, my hubby down, me down, and all of you down. Last Thursday, I went to my doctor’s appointment for my weekly weigh-in, and…drum roll please…

I lost 8.5 pounds!

Yes…8.5 pounds in ONE week! I don’t know that I’ve ever done that in my life. Granted, a lot of it was water weight that I had allowed to creep back on from too much sodium I had taken in the two weeks before, but several pounds of it was pure-T fat! My doctor happens to have one of those fancy scales that measures not only overall pound loss/gain but fat, water, muscle mass, etc. I learn a lot about what’s going on inside this evolving body of mine. I (nor the doc) dreamed I’d lose all I gained in one week plus a pound, but – by God’s sweet grace – I did! So, I’m up to a 26 pound weight loss. Little-by-little, a day (sometimes an hour) at a time…I’m getting there.

It’s funny how losing weight reminds me a lot of what it was like when I first became a widow. I never thought I would feel happiness again. Gracious, I couldn’t wait for evening to come just so that I could close my eyes, take a little sleeping pill and go to sleep for the rest of the night. I literally lived hour-by-hour in those early days, because I just couldn’t think past the moment.

In a similar way, I know that I’ve got quite a lengthy journey in front of me. But, just as God has worked miraculously in my life before…I have no doubt He’s got a handle on this too. So, for now…I focus on the small joys…the baby steps until I reach that end goal.

Speaking of goals…I find that if I make some small ones along the way, I feel success a little sooner.

This week’s goals:

1) Lose 5 pounds…I know that seems extreme, but it’s possible with the type of program I’m on (not every week but occasionally). I’m going out on a limb and trying for a 5 pound weight loss this next week.

2) Exercise 4 days for at least 30 minutes. This is a STRUGGLE for me. I used to love to exercise, but I injured my knee a little over a year ago and ended up having surgery to repair my meniscus, so exercise isn’t quite the same these days. I’m praying God would restore that desire again.

3) Water – I’m doing fairly well in drinking 64 ounces a day of pure water plus other liquids, but there are some days I’m a little short on the water. I’d like to change that for this week and have a successful 7 days straight of drinking my water minimum.

I’ll report in next week on how I did with my goals. I promise to remain accountable to you as well. Would you keep praying for me? I need all the prayer I can get to reach goal. I’ll eventually share more about how long I think it’ll take, etc., but I’m just not quite ready for that yet. Baby steps…

For those of you joining me in making some health and/or fitness changes…how did your week go? I would LOVE to hear about it. Good week or bad week…I’m cheering you on!

To continue the “unveiling” of some new blog themes I’m going to try for awhile (to aid in accountability with consistent posting, among other things)…welcome to Freedom Friday! I hope you were able to visit this past week for my first Makeover Monday and again on Whimsical Wednesday. Today…I return to a more life application/devotional type posting. That’s “Christianese-speak” for I’ve experienced a LOT of junk in life, and I’m still here to tell about it. Maybe you can relate?

I’ve been in prison.

Whoa…wait…don’t run away. Let me explain.

I’ve not been in the type of prison you might be picturing…the one in the movies with the “bad guys” behind heavy steel bars wearing orange jumpsuits. Although, in many respects, my prison experience might have been just as bad. No – I’m certainly not trying to diminish life behind those “real” bars. I have come to love some precious women friends that I correspond with, on occasion, who are living in very real prisons as a result of some mistakes they’ve made along life’s journey. Their prison experience is nothing to belittle. It’s hard. It’s lonely. It’s real.

But, I’ve allowed myself to be locked up…in my own self-made prison. The one I’ve crawled into with every life-altering, life-damaging, difficult situation I’ve ever endured. At times, I’ve served a longer sentence than at other times. My prison became a place of ~~refuge~~…a place of escape in all actuality. I didn’t have to face the situation that ushered me there…I just had to “do my time”. The “punishment” may have been self-imposed, at times, feeling like I deserved it. However, there were many other times where I was thrust into a prison – NOT of my own choosing – by circumstances out of my control. In either scenario…my response to the “prison-induced punishment” was my own.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve endured some pretty shocking…let’s just call it “yuck”…in my life. You know the kind…stuff you might see in a Lifetime movie or daytime soap opera but don’t personally ever have to confront in “real life”. Then again, there are many of you that have walked paths much more horrific than mine. I’ve come to realize that it doesn’t matter the level of difficulty in the grand scheme of things…what matters is our response to it and our ability to allow ourselves to be healed from the damage that resulted from it.

Let me introduce you to a couple of men that I’ve come to call “friends” although I’ve never personally met them (yet)…their names, Paul and Silas.

Paul and Silas were unfairly imprisoned…they were stripped, severely beaten and then thrown into the INNER prison with their feet fastened in stocks. But…it’s what happens next that makes me smile…that makes me want to jump up and down, wildly clapping and hollering for joy…

“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened.” ~Acts 16:25-26, ESV

Did you notice what happened? AS they were praying and singing to God…they were set FREE! God didn’t set them free and then they chose to offer up praise to Him…it was while they were in the thick of it. I love those guys! It was their actions that I read about many years ago, coupled with the grace, love, and mercy of Jesus Christ that enabled God to set me free from several of my own prison experiences!

When my previous husband passed away…I entered another prison, of sorts. I grieved in that prison…HARD! But, at the beginning of my prison experience…within minutes of learning my husband had passed away…I CHOSE to offer up praise to God. I vividly remember sobbing and saying, “I still praise you God…I still praise you anyway.”

I had many dark, dark days…but, I still prayed…I still praised. Was it easy? Not. In. The. Least. But, I wanted to be well…and, I knew that if God could free Paul and Silas in the miraculous way that he did…He could certainly do that for me.

One day…He did! He unlocked my chains, and I began to walk in freedom. I stumbled at first…sometimes I even attempted to crawl back to prison, but I could almost hear Abba say, “No Leah. You can’t go there. I set you free, remember? Keep walking with me, and you’ll feel the effects of that freedom soon.” It took a little time, but I did just that.

I allowed God to shower me with grace and mercy.

I allowed God to heal me.

I allowed him to set me free!

Father, I lift up all my blog friends and readers to You right now. I pray and ask You to set free any of them that are still “locked up” in prisons for “time” You’ve never asked them to serve. I pray You would stir their hearts for the desire to have freedom…TRUE freedom that can only come from You. Show them how to pray again…show them how to praise again…or perhaps for the first time. Pour out Your love so deeply upon them that they can feel their chains loosening and eventually falling at their feet. Thank You, Lord, for setting us eternally free through the redemptive death of your Son, my Savior, Jesus. And…it’s in His name, I pray. Amen!

Scale Redemption (a Makeover Monday post)

Locked Up! (a Freedom Friday post)