Dying for a Diet Coke

Christina,

Yes, in reply to your reply to my post about Diet Coke, yes, DOES give new meaning to the phrase “Dying for a Diet Coke.”  I don’t think I will ever say that phrase again.  Or if I do, I think that I will remember the sound of the gun shots and the smell of the market that day as I thought I would be shot in a big yellow tuk tuk buying soda.  That may be enough to make me kick my habit.  (MAYBE…)

 

Some responses to comments

Dear Amy,

You wrote “Maybe He has placed these foreign culture “familiarity” feelings into me for a reason, and He’s still teaching me here to prepare me?”

Wouldn’t that be just like Him???  The Father is the great economist…He uses each and every little tidbit that happens in our lives to equip us or to teach us. 

I was (and still in my heart am) little more than a Southwest Missouri housewife and then BOOM!  I find myself walking down a path that blows my circuit boards if I spend too much time dwelling on it.  If I had known way back when where the Father was leading us, I would have ran to hide under the bed.  Mark (my husband) would have had a hard time coaxing me out from under there.

An example from our own life…DH and I loved camping.  We owned a pop up camper and enjoyed it as often as we could with our kids.  It was a perfect way for us to be able to vacation with our large family on my DH’s modest salary AND it was perfect for both of us.  My DH “relaxes” by doing.  He will go out and work in the yard, tackle a project in the garage, etc etc…He will go out and DO something.  Me????  I “relax” by just vegging.  I don’t do anything more strenuous than turn the pages in my book.  So camping was the perfect activity for us.  DH would relax by planning and executing these great, big wonderful meals around the campfire while I sat there and relaxed in the lounge chair and the children would go hog wild at the campground or state park.  We would all come home being very satisfied.

Well, that hobby of camping was a major factor in our success on the field that first year.  We were living in a Third World country so even though we were in a house and sleeping on a bed, the unexpected happened enough that we were often thrown for a loop.  But because we had camped so much and been through so many unexpected events, we kept bouncing back and improvising as we went along.  In the kitchen when I didn’t have a “necessary” ingredient…I would adapt because how many times did I forget a needed item when we went camping.

So the Father will use everything…even if it is just a vague feeling of familiarity with cultural differences…if we will allow Him free reign in our lives.

Dear Gavi,

Kati and I use Leslie Sansone’s Walk Away the Pounds DVD and I recently brought back with me Walk the Walk, which is a Christian version of it.  It takes very little room and we do it right in front of the TV.  So even in a country where it is unsafe for us to go out and do anything….and in a country where we have very little in the way of facilities or equipment…all we need is our shoes and the ability to play a DVD….either a DVD player with TV or the laptop.  The heat can make it pretty intense so we do the best we can by hydrating, using every fan we can, and doing it as early as we can in the day.

Kati hasn’t lost anything but didn’t need to anyway.  I have lost 22 lbs and now I hope to keep it off and lose another 5 lbs.

I have much less pain from my arthritis and whatever those hormones are that you get from exercising must be doing me some good because I can tell by my attitude that exercising helps.  I do not see any kind of energy boost like I did after losing my baby fat each time.  But I think….(said sheepishly) it might be my age.

Thank you to all who are joining us in our walk here on the blog,

Breathing in, breathing out,

Rhonda