|
||
Lesson #16Â
Today is the most wonderful day! We have gifts right in front of us and we are ready to grab those gifts and say WAHOO! Look around you at your extraordinary treasures.Â
For my 50th birthday, my nieces gave me a CD by Tim McGraw entitled Live Like You Were Dying. They paid me a wonderful compliment and said, “Aunt Tami, you’re the one we think of who is living like you were dying." What a powerful message to me as I blast that song every morning to rev up my energy. Of course, picturing Tim in those tight jeans helps!Â
Remember I used to live in such deep doo doo with fear and worry. Through daily practice my connection to God becomes clearerâ€"it’s corrosion free. It takes practice to transcend fear and putting those daily activities in place to help bring in the positives. Want to have some fun with your inner child? Sticking your tongue out at fear does help. So let’s practice. Stick out your tongue and face your fears and shout, “You’re not the boss of me." It’s kind of hard to have your tongue hanging out while talking but it sure feels good, doesn’t it?Â
I am reprinting some lines from the song so you can breathe in the message.Â
Live Like You Were DyingÂ
He said, “I was in my early forties, with a lot of life before me,
When a moment came that stopped me on a dime.
And I spent most of the next days looking at the x-rays
And talking “bout the options, talking “bout sweet time."Â
And I asked him when it sank in
That this might really be the end.
“How’s it hit you when you get that kind of news?
Man what’d you do?" He said,Â
“I went sky diving; I went rocky mountain climbing;
I went two point seven seconds on a bull named Fumanchu.
And I loved deeper, and I spoke sweeter.
And I gave forgiveness I’d been denying."
And he said, “Someday I hope you get the chance
To live like you were dying."Â
He said, “I was finally the husband that most the time I wasn’t.
And I became a friend a friend would like to have.
And all ‘a sudden going fishin’ wasn’t such an imposition
And I went three times that year I lost my dad.
And I finally read the good book and I took a good long lookÂ
Powerful message, right? So what are you going to do? Tell a friend you love him or her.  Call a family member whom you haven’t forgiven and forgive.  Do something nice for your neighbor. Ready to ride the bull? Just for today, “Live Like You Were Dying!"Â
Lesson #15Â
The simple aspect of breathing is the most incredible experience. Each day we get to breathe and be grateful that we are alive. Take a moment and take a deep breath and thank God for your extraordinary life.  He has great plans for you. You know this, don’t you? The opportunity is just waiting for you. That’s why it’s important for us to get on with our lives, our purpose, and to live each day fully expressing our love for ourselves. Your weight loss goals are right here and so is your purposeâ€"to feel alive with the riches that God has given us.Â
I want to share with you why life is so meaningful to me. My daughter, Lindsay, just celebrated her 21st birthday and came home from college to mark this occasion with family and friends. As we all know the 21st birthday has significance attached to it as it’s our entrance into full adulthood and all that it brings to us.  Â
My ex-husband, my daughter’s friend from junior high and I took Lindsay out to dinner. We laughed and shared stories of their teenage years.  During the course of the conversation, we remembered the traumatic events which surrounded Lindsay’s birth. My ex-husband then retold the story of how she came into this world.  Â
These experiences I’m going to share with you are condensed. You can get the full view in my new e-book, Close Kept Secrets to Overcoming Illness, which will be on my website soon.  Â
I was six months pregnant on March 4, 1984 and awoke that morning with intense pain in my leg. I called my doctor and he thought it might be a blood clot, but wasn’t too concerned so I got in the shower as I didn’t want to go to the hospital with unshaven legs. Interesting where my focus was? While I was in the shower, I began to feel faint and quickly lied down on the bed. After this episode, we decided we better leave immediately. Upon arriving at the ER I began to feel faint again. I told the nurses and they instantly wheeled me into the trauma room. I could hear them working on me, but all of the voices felt as if they were light years away. They shouted, “We’re losing her and the baby’s heart rate is dropping." I can’t describe the peace I felt and I only wanted to go to sleep.  I felt no pain as I was slowly leaving this world, but God had other plans for Lindsay and me. Once they administered a blood thinner, I woke up and didn’t quite know what had just happened. Unbeknownst to me, the doctors had told my husband at the time that we could both die and to be prepared.  Â
What followed was a long sequence of events, but I was able to carry Lindsay another month.  She was born on April 6, 1984 after almost four days of labor. Yes, four days!! She was born two months early weighing a strapping 3 lbs. 11 oz and was 18 inches long. What a gift from God.  Â
I tell this story to illustrate that God has plans for you and me. I believed in God, but wasn’t fully connected to him 21 years ago as I was deep in my own struggles with worry and fear and continued that way for several years. It was through another painful time nine years ago when I was very ill that I began to know Him on such a deeper, profound level. Releasing my childhood stuff was the catalyst for the change in which I saw the world. Through this experience I realized He had a dream for me. It took some time for me to appreciate what living in faith meant, but now I am immersing myself in it as I help others with their weight loss goals and adoption of healthy lifestyles. This is the dream He has for me. Thank you God!!Â
Dreams come a size too big so that we can grow into them--
                                                                                  Josie BissetÂ
What is God’s dream He has for you? When are you going to start living it?Â
Love yourself as God loves you. Connect to Him and watch how all the right people show up for you in your weight loss adventures. I’m so glad you were born.Â