A New View

A Devotional By Margot Cioccio

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”Matthew 4:4

For years I have looked at this verse and summarized from it that one should focus on the spiritual life and not worry about the needs of the body. Pair this with Luke 12:27 and in my mind it meant clothes and stuff is not important, building your spiritual life is what counts. “Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.  28 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith!  

Luke 12:27 is talking about not worrying. Worry is toxic, it causes stress, which cause us to hunch up into a closed defensive position. Consider how the wildflowers grow... tall and stately or spreading and multiplying. 

Jeremiah 33:3 ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’

I think when I was younger and faced some major disappointments I shut up a lot of my heart. When I became a believer I was not able to sort out what of my old life was worth keeping. So I distanced myself from most of it and started over with things I did feel were christian enough. It has only been in recent years that I began to look at the past that I had locked away. I locked away everything, the good with the bad. Since it was attached to some pain and disappointment I put a mental sign on the door or the trunk that said "Danger Keep Out". Over the past few years Jesus has been helping me to go through those things and to realize that most of it was not that bad. Yes there were some painful and disappointing things but one by one he has helped me to take responsibility for my part in them. He has helped me to repent, and to forgive. 

My pastor prayed for me not too long ago. He prayed that all the thousands of whys would become like butterflies. That when I walked past them they would flutter around a bit but they could no longer hurt me. He said look at the beauty of each of them, even the ugly looking ones and see what those things have worked in me. Blessings often are dressed up as troubles that we must find a way to overcome. I notice that I can now walk by the things that I have let free from the trunk and behind the doors that said "Danger Keep Out" and those things do flutter a bit but they don't hurt me anymore and I am no longer afraid of them or the emotions attached to them. 

Back behind those doors were also locked away things like painting, riding my bike and an interest in natural health and wellness. I think perhaps locked away also was the person that God created me to be because with out my own loves and dreams I have had to adopt the dreams of others. It has been a long journey and God has been working and fully knew when I would be strong enough to deal with the locked away things. His timing is perfect, so I am not filled with regrets of "oh if only I'd done this sooner". Along the way I have gained some wonderful skills and I have become strong in the word and learned to walk very closely with the Holy Spirit. Honestly most of the many years I was not even aware that the trunk and the Danger Keep Out doors were even there.  
It was just stuff I didn't think about or have any reason dig into. So its not like I have spent years in travail over these things. When in the Lord's timing, I was moved to discover the secret places, I have to say there were a lot of difficult and confusing emotions attached to many of the things that I found there. The Lord has been gracious to never give me more than I can handle and He has been patient and given me time to process each and every thing that has come up. I can say at this point that when memories surface they simply flutter a bit and then settle back into their places. Maybe there is still stuff that needs dealt with at some point, but I'm to the point that I can trust Jesus in and through the process because I have seen His gentleness and faithfulness and have learned to trust it. 

So this is the last day of my vacation. Tomorrow we head for home. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time with my mom and aunt.  We have had a wonderful time cooking healthy, nourishing foods. We got some wonderful books by nutritionist, Maria Emmerich http://astore.amazon.com/marisnutran05-20 that have added a greater understanding to the nutrition side of low carb and gluten free way of eating. I've been low carbing off and on for years for weight loss and for health. I just feel better when I eat this way. I realized several years ago that there were some emotional barriers to my weight loss that I needed to deal with and at this point I have discovered that it is really a chord of three strands that all works together. Learning to cook and eat differently, dealing with the emotional baggage, and understanding the nutritional science behind it all. I have in the process really re-discovered my interest in all things that promote wellness and wholeness of life. I am also looking at the Bible a bit differently and seeing that yes Jesus wants us to develop our spiritual life but He and the bible spends a lot of time talking about how to live this life. There is a balance that I had trouble seeing before. 

The photo at the top is of some of the healthy foods we have been creating. The jars are filled with fermenting vegetables. Before the industrial revolution it was a common way to preserve foods. The fermentation process creates probiotic good bacteria, that helps to restore the right conditions in our gut. When our gut it is out of wack people begin to suffer from various illnesses and from depression and anxiety. If you look around at our society we are an out of wack people living on processed foods devoid of nutrition. The fermenting process also makes the vitamins in those vegetables more bio available. I have read that the vitamin content goes up by 700%. Pretty amazing stuff. I find it fascinating. 
Anyway yesterday we made homemade cream cheese, which was pretty cool and tasted quite yummy. We've made wonderful meals and yummy treats. Its been a good 10 days. 

Today I have a long list of things to make so my moms freezer and fridge are stocked with before I leave and stuff to take home so my own home is stocked back up after this vacation. So I better get to it. I'll be back with you on Monday. 
Have a great weekend. Thank you to those of you who commented on posts this week, your feed back means so much to me.