Daily Bible Reading - Saturday July 25th

Reading the devotional this morning brought about some memories when I was first trying to have WLS.  I would tell friends, family etc. what I was trying to do, that I wanted to lose weight and wanted to get the gastric bypass to help.  I was shocked at most of the responses I would get.  Oh just stop eating so much, stop doing this, don’t eat that, drink this, excersise more blah blah blah.  I had my closest friends and even pastor of the church I was going to at the time tell me the gastric bypass was NOT for me, that I was making a really bad decision.  But I knew deep down in my heart it was my last chance.  I even had people laugh and snicker at me saying I was taking the easy way out.  If this is the easy way out then I would sure hate to see the hard way out, wouldn’t you?  It wasn’t long after I kept getting all those negative responses that I stopped talking about it and just started pursing surgery with all I had.  Im sure most of us on the board here have experienced someone being very negative about WLS but any of you know as well as I do that until any of them walk a day in our shoes they have no idea what we are going through and how WLS was a last resort for a lot of us.  I knew I either had to lose weight or I’d die with in a few years.  I’m here to tell you now that WLS was the absolute best decision I have ever made and the best decision we made for Susan too.  Today I am 259 lbs lighter and Susan is 91 lbs lighter, there is NO WAY we could of lost that weight any other way but by using WLS as the tool it is designed to lose.  When we see the people that were so against us having it we want to rub it in there face and say  “ Look at us now"  but of course we don’t, we know they see it and realize we made the best decision for us, even though a lot of them wont admit it.  Well anyway, I say all that to say that DON’T let anyone tell you that you can’t or shouldn’t do something when you know in your heart your doing what the Lord wants for you, you truly wont regret it one bit.

Today’s Reading

2 Chronicles 14:1-16:14
Romans 9:1-24
Psalm 19:1-14
Proverbs 20:1

Daily Devotional

The other day I was thinking about a scene from the movie, "The Pursuit of Happyness." The movie is based on a true story about a homeless father raising his small son on the streets. One day, they were at a public basketball court shooting hoops. As they were playing, he said to his son, "I don't want you to stay out here and play all day long because you'll probably just be an average player. After all, that's all I was. You're usually just as good as your dad. We have the same genes. So I don't want you to waste a lot of time every day thinking that you'll ever really be good."

You could see that those words took the wind out of the sails of the little boy. He just dropped his ball and walked away feeling down and dejected. After a moment, the father felt convicted about what he had just said. He walked straight over to his son, got down on one knee, looked him in the eyes, and said, "Listen here son, don't you ever let anyone tell you that you can't be something great–not even me."

It's interesting that when people can't do something, oftentimes, they try to put their limitations on others. They have the attitude, "That's as high as I went, so that's probably as high as you'll go." But that's not God's attitude. God wants you to go further. He wants you to rise higher. He sees you excelling in every area. Don't let anyone convince you that you cannot accomplish your God–given dreams. Don't let anyone's negative words stop you from moving forward. Other people may not believe in you, but God believes in you. And when it's all said and done, He is the one who put the promise in you. He is the great architect of the universe! Before you were born, God laid out a plan for your life. He carefully studied what you would need. He didn't just randomly put something inside of you. He put in you exactly what you need to live a victorious life! Don't ever let anyone convince you that you're not enough, you're not talented enough, or that you don't have what it takes because God has equipped you to go further and rise higher than you've ever dreamed!