INTEGRITY OF CHRISTIANITY

Chapter 2 Wait Loss, Sub Title: Long Suffering.

Throughout this chapter we will discuss three different components of wait loss- Physical, Emotional and Spiritual. Many of us have lost the patience of waiting and have chosen not to discipline our selves for obtaining a healthier life style in the areas of our Physical bodies, Emotional stability and Spiritual growth. In looking at the physical component we hear people complaining everyday about how huge they have become. When we look through the variety of magazines on the market today we find so many that discuss the subject of diets. Crash diets have become the norm across our nation. Many have participated in the 30-day crash diet and no one wants to discipline themselves to exercise and patiently wait for the weight to drop off. The hope of this plan is to rid oneself of excessive weight by making the body suffer through deprivation of the body's usual food intake. I am reminded of a lady whom I will call Candy Bar. This particular lady shared a sensitive story regarding her weight loss program. The program had proven to be very successful for her. However after many months of being slim and trimmed. Candy Bar discovered an interesting concept about herself. She discovered that she had an obsession with pleasing others and needing their approval all the time. She realized that her desire for losing weight was for acceptance. After obtaining such insight about herself Candy Bar decided that she would dig deeper into herself through a thorough personal examination of herself. During the self examination process she discovered areas of her life where she suffered from emotional instability on many levels. Her thoughts of what others thought about her were beginning to be self destructive for herself. The constant awareness of how others viewed her was quickly overshadowing Candy Bars self acceptance. Then one day it was as though the green light of life came on. She then decided to be courageous and reevaluate what her true priorities should be, the way others viewed her or the way she viewed herself. I am of the persuasion that when a person understands the value of self love then your world becomes more colorful. A very sensitive story of my childhood comes to mind when I think of areas of self acceptance. I can see the situation right now as if it just happened. I am grabbing hold of my Mothers dress tail with such fear and intimidation on my face. As I recollected the years that brought on this timidity. I am reminded of the many years when people had mistaken me for being a boy especially when I wore hats and slacks instead of my cute girlie dresses. My Mom was always very pleasant with letting people know that they were in the presence of a little girl. For many years this bothered me and contributed to me having a very low self image of myself on many occasions while growing up. It is sad that many adults do not realize that what they say about children to another adult can be really hurtful. Children are always listening even when you think they are not. Because of that I later developed an inferior complex and felt belittled and unaccepted by others. Then in turn I did not accept or understand myself. This inferiority complex hung on to me for years and I never felt accepted as a girl. I then became what I will call a Tom Girl which back in the days when I was growing up was called a Tom Boy. Meaning a girl who gravitates to liking what boys liked more so than girlie things; and boys became my best friends, because I felt accepted and safe in their world. Now, what I did not know was that there was a safer world that I would soon encounter, that would last throughout my life time. This world was designed to woo me into an arena of self acceptance through a season of long suffering. That season is when I learned the value of waiting upon the Lord through prayer. Many times I was losing the patience of waiting on the Lord and I had to train myself through the bible to trust that God would be faithful with honoring his word, the bible. Waiting on the Lord has to also be displayed within our emotional realm when we are scarred and in need of emotional healing and also for our spiritual growth when we are seeking a closer relationship with the Lord through Jesus Christ. We eventually gain the characteristics of patience as we learn to wait on Gods' timing for everything in our lives.