A Dificult Time of the Year to Eat Sensibly

For the last several months, I have been trying to eat much more sensibly. I have been successful, and have shed some serious poundage. For the last couple weeks, with all the Christmas goodies, I have moved into a maintenance mode. Today, our family was at Silver Dollar City, and we had lunch at one of the nice buffet restaurants near the city square. Although I ate more for lunch today than what I normally have had for lunch, I was more sensible than other times. Still, I look forward to the end of the festivities, so I can get back to eating more sensibly, which means eating less. Though I weigh less today than what I have weighed at any time over the past ten years, I still have some poundage to drop before reaching my goal.

A few weeks back, a colleague spoke to me about a movie that he had seen. His commentary made me want to see it some time. Before we left town yesterday, I swung by the Joplin Public Library, and checked it out. It was documentary about the fast food industry, particularly about Mc Donald's. The movie's title was Super Size Me! Watching that movie made my resolve even stronger.
We will return to Joplin tomorrow in time for services at our church tomorrow evening. Mom and the nuclear family in the Joplin area will come to our house for Dinner tomorrow night after the service at church. Kim will work tomorrow (Christmas Eve Day) at Cracker Barrel from 8 AM until 3 PM or so, when they close. Many of the OCC students serve breakfast at Watered Gardens (a ministry that reaches out to poor people in Joplin) on Sunday mornings. Kim usually serves in some capacity at the ministry on Fridays, and coordinates in some way the OCC students that help out there. Since so many of them are gone, she has asked us to go serve breakfast this Sunday. The head of the ministry decided to keep the breakfast going, even though it is Christmas Day. The three of us will go there to serve breakfast to poor people at 7:30 AM. Later in the day then, we will have Christmas with our nuclear family at Charissa's.

Van and Tammy Benson (Stef too) have been in Brownsville with Greg and Emily for the past week. Rose and I will be flying there next Friday afternoon. I will preach for Greg in Spanish on New Year's Day.

Jesus is the reason for the season. Some intolerant persons may not like us to say so, but it is true. Christmas is not about the new PDAs or DVD players, or TIVOs that one might receive or even give, but rather is about the best gift of all times:

The Word became flesh and blood,

and moved into the neighborhood.

We saw the glory with our own eyes,

the one-of-a-kind glory,

like Father, like Son,

Generous inside and out,

true from start to finish.
John 1:14 (The Message)

May the Christ of Christmas be in your thoughts and words, and may He richly bless you. Merry Christmas!