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You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone

WLC Day 2

We are officially in the crave stage.
And we're only 36 hours in...

Hopefully this stage will subside soon and be replaced by some kind of a longing stage, which somehow feels less intense.

Here's the thing folks: I really, really want to eat a chocolate chip cookie.
But I can't.

The Whole Life Challenge involves an 8 week sugar detox, as well as refraining from these non-compliant foods. The first 24 hours is fun, because it's new and different and I feel really good about what I'm doing. But my body hadn't caught on yet.
Now it seems to be upset at the lack of sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and other artificial sweetners that I have been refusing to feed it.
And it has every right to feel that way.
I have regularly fed my body a big healthy dose of sugar during and after every meal: breakfast, lunch and especially dinner. My body has learned to expect subsequent helpings of the sweet stuff as I have given it no hesitations about anticipating when its next arrival might be. I have become addicted to sugar. O sweet sugar, how I miss thee!!

 Last Saturday Katie and I took the kids on a "doughnut adventure" to Bizy Bee Bakery. Their donuts were extravagant! Truly remarkable. Fluffy and yeasty and sugary and everything nice!
And yet I wonder if the reason I liked them so much is because I knew what I was getting ready to miss. These donuts were especially delicious because I knew I wouldn't be able to have them again for a long time. Absence makes the heart grow fonder...of donuts.

It reminded me that I often don't stop and realize how sweet life is on a day-to-day basis because I take it for granted.
James 1:17 says that "Every good and perfect gift comes from above, coming down from the Father of Lights, in Whom there is no variation or shifting shadow."
Every day I am given blessings from God--sweet little nuggets of goodness that I enjoy without realizing it, just waiting around for the next little blessing to come around. And when I say sweet little nuggets, I mean little. Things like:
-I have extra food in my fridge
-My car started today
-My coat keeps me warm even when it's cold outside
-I have a smartphone
-I have electricity to power that smartphone
-Gas prices haven't gone up significantly in a while

I realize these may sound trite, but what if we appreciated the sweet little nuggets of goodness that God places into our lives and lived as if we didn't know when they were going to come again? Maybe then, each of those sweet things would taste like a doughnut on a weekend before a diet. Maybe....

Live life as if it all could be gone tomorrow, and you'll realize how sweet it is today. 

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