Last night was a great reminder about our food choices and the repercussions when we choose to completely throw away all we have learned and act like everyone else for an evening.
Last night was “National Night Out” and our neighborhoods all got together for a wonderful time of visiting and celebrating. I volunteered to work the popcorn machine at 5:30 and didn’t make any food plans for the family. I guess I just got caught up in the whole thing; the Berkner band entertained us, door prizes were being given away, amazing smelling bratwurst was being grilled in the back, chips, sodas, popcorn, snow cones, pretzels, desserts… it was mini-fair cuisine. I met some new people, parents of Gracie’s classmate and got rather involved in talking to them. Ella and Gracie took full advantage (and I completely allowed it) and they had a hot dog, bag of chips, soda, popcorn, snow cone & some cookies. I had a bratwurst and corn chips and even a root beer.
When we got home, little Gracie walked around in a daze, grabbed her tummy, said “I don’t feel good.” She wrapped herself in her blanket and fell asleep on the kitchen floor. We got her and Ella both in bed for the night and all was well. I felt gross, huge, bloated and blah… a great reminder of why we shouldn’t do this.
And then a bigger reminder woke us up around 2 a.m. Ella climbed in bed and told us she didn’t feel well at all. Poor Ella has a history of over-doing it food-wise so Halloween nights and the night after visiting the fair prepared us for what to do next. Get a trash can ready. Sure enough, just a few minutes later I woke up to sounds of gags and the silhouette view of Ben holding Ella’s hair back while she flung forward over the can.
My whole night was restless and not just because of Ella’s intrusion. It was the food. I just didn’t feel right. I had just an awful feeling all around. Bad dreams, bad thoughts, just really restless.
I am incredibly thankful to God for a night of fun and visiting with new and old friends. And I’m thankful to God for the gentle reminder that we all got: we can’t go back. It still amazes me how much bad food assaults so many facets of our life -it causes physical pain, disunity as a family, grumpy moods, negative thoughts, etc. It was an eye-opening night that showed me that we have to continue to fight for the freedom He gives us from junk food. We aren’t “cured” from the desires of this world. We’re not going to wake up one day and never again desire something that is bad for us. This journey is about daily surrender to our God who can carry us through tough situations not with pride but with grace and peace.