I so want to quit!

Week 3, Day 4 and still far off from the promised results of my new diet. “Up to 20 pounds in 28 days…just stick with it for the entire 28 days, no excuses.” Another “new” diet, trying to get back to where my body is used to being before the last 5 years of stress, aging, back injury and plenty of other excuses. I usually give up by now, frustrated, discouraged and resigned to “this is the new normal”. But then at those moments I feel so bad about myself until I get enough motivation to try again, feeling that if only I stick it out the entire time, and follow all the rules, this one will work.

As I was eating my less than ideal breakfast, stuck in a lull of low energy, I was contemplating quitting this morning and moving back to my normal life of eating what normal people eat.

Right then I got into my car to take my teenagers to school. It was then, sitting partially awake in my car, that my devotions opened my weary eyes to compelled me to hang in there and persevere.

I can do this. Just one and a half weeks left. This is just a metaphor for your life. Don’t quit!:

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us (Hebrews 12:1 NIV)”

I don’t know the future of my dieting success or failure. In fact I don’t know the future of my other life challenges. But I do know that God sees me even in the area of my life other people may find shallow and stupid. I believe the repeated “giving up” on my previous diets is reflective of so many other areas of my life–could it be similar to yours? Do you give up when it feels hopeless? Perhaps you are sooooo much closer to breakthrough that you think. Literally tomorrow may be the day you have been waiting for it you don’t grow faint and give up.

Hang in there. Persevere and run your race, no matter what you are facing. With God, you can do this! From your perspective you are probably facing something much more life altering than weight loss. Whatever it is, hang in there, reach out to Jesus and do what I tell my friends when they feel ready to give up in the midst of tragedy–“just breathe in…breathe out….and let God take care of the rest. When all you can do is breathe, that is okay. That is enough for God take over and carry you.”

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up (Gal. 6:9 NIV).”