TRANSFORMED.

Okay, so I have to tell you something.

I love to sing to God.  I love to pray to God.  I love to give to God.  I love to serve God.  

Romans 12 says:

"And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.  Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect."

If I'm really being honest, I'd have to admit that it's not very often that I have sought to offer my body to Him as an act of worship- as an overflow of adoration and praise for all He has done for me.  In fact, I'm pretty embarrassed to say that when I consider this possibility, it feels almost overwhelming for me.  Perhaps this is because I feel like I've let my body go to waste.  So, for me to offer up a wasted body would be, to me, like a millionaire blowing all of his money, and then giving God two pennies....  that he found on the ground.

But I can't read and seek to obey only parts of the Bible.  I've always heard that as long as you still have breath, God isn't finished with you- so I have to believe that as long as I have breath, it's not too late for me to make these changes.  I've said it before- either you believe all of the Bible, or none of it.  You can't pick it apart and choose to believe and obey the easy parts, or the fun parts.  So when it says that this is THE way to worship Him, I think I need to reconsider the way I'm looking at my "worship", my life.

But that sounds like "church talk".  How can we learn to do this?  The second part of that verse says "Don't copy the behaviors and customs of this world, but let God transform you in to a new person by changing the way you think.  Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect."

So it's simple.  The rest of the world may eat a certain way, may live a certain way.  They may consume Starbucks by the billions of gallons and throw  all of their money  on fast food (trust me- I know because I've wrestled with this).  They may spend countless hours in front of the TV, or focused on video games and Facebook and Pinterest (I know, I know- I'm working on this, too).  But the Bible says we shouldn't be like the rest of this world.  He said that He wants to transform us in to new people by changing the way we think. 

I don't know about you, but I want to become a new person, and I can think of no better time than the New Year to make that change.

So the first part of the secret is this:  let God transform you in to a new person by changing the way you think.   If your motivation is to worship Him with your life, with your body, then seek out His plan, His wisdom on how to make these changes.  I'll share everything I've learned along the way, but don't just depend on what you read here to carry you through.

I've learned that the greatest accountability I can ever have, is to God, and to myself.  If I ever needed to be convicted of a choice or a list of choices I was making, all I ever needed to do was open my Bible.  If I ever needed direction on how to live, how not to live, I just needed to seek out the answers in scripture.

And no, friend, I'm not a "super-Christian".  I'm just one of "those people", who believes we were created BY God, FOR God.  So I've learned that there is more to this whole "weight-loss thing" than simply exercising or counting calories.  This change has to become a way of life.

Please know this- I'm not "there" yet.  I told you before- I still have a ways to go, so you are in good company.  I'm going to walk you through some simple changes that you can make in the year 2013 that will help bring you closer to your goals than you ever thought possible.

These are changes that will affect your entire family, so be prepared.  God is transforming you in to a new person by changing the way you think... one baby step at a time.

Thanks for joining me on this journey!

The Fat Girl, Slim.