The End is Near!

The end is near! We are just days away from ending this 21 day detox diet.  Kory couldn’t be happier.  I could continue it forever.  It feels good to just eat plants.  I’ve never been big on eating animals anyway, so this whole vegan thing works well for me, but Kory isn’t so sure.

This weekend we are kicking things up a notch and doing a 3-day juice fast just to top off the whole body cleanse with some umph, then slowly go back to the vegan lifestyle next week.  It will be interesting to see what my body does when I eat bread again.  Dairy already isn’t my friend, so I’m wondering if I’ll feel a difference when I start eating gluten.

Kory’s craving steaks, but I’m begging him to stick with the vegan thing at least another six weeks so we will have done it three months, anyway.  Since I do all the cooking, it’s easy for me to keep at the vegetable based diet, but it’s a lot more work and I get very discouraged doing extra things for his health when he otherwise doesn’t follow the program, so we’ll see how it goes.  I’m just trying to keep the guy alive and he fails to understand the strong correlation between what he eats and how quickly his arteries get clogged up.  Ugh.

I’ve lost a few pounds in the process, but not as many as you’d think if I’ve just been eating fruit and veggies everyday for three weeks.  We bought an elliptical exercise machine though and I’ve been using that everyday so maybe that will help.  We bought it for Kory’s cardio workout but it’s become a favorite family pastime.  Kaleb uses it non-stop since he sets his little Nook screen on the book holder and watches “America’s Funniest Home Videos” via Netflix.  I love the whole TV on demand thing so it works out well for me to click on an old episode of “Frasier” and get a 22 minute cardio workout while watching it in the privacy of my basement.  Of course, our internet is so slow, no one else can be using it on their devices when someone is on the machine, but we’re cooperating.  It’s a new toy in our house that we all love and I’m glad to have it.  Kaleb needs a place to burn off energy, Kory needs it for his heart and I’m hoping it does something for my behind.

Saturday we are invited to an 80^th birthday party for my old Sunday school teacher, Mrs. Faast.  In lieu of presents, she just wants everyone to write down a favorite memory of her, so this is what I wrote:

My Dear Mrs. Faast,

You will forever be MY Sunday school teacher.  I don’t remember anyone else stepping into that place from the time I was in kindergarten all the way through sixth grade.   You were it.  You were Jesus to me when I was growing up.  You shaped my world in ways you will never know this side of heaven.  I know there will be many jewels in your crown one day for all the time and love you poured into me and all the other kids at May Valley Alliance Church.

As a kid, I loved to go to church because I knew I would find love there, and that love was wrapped around me with your arms.  I always looked forward to your hugs and your stories about Jesus –displayed so artfully on that big blue felt board.  The stories you taught us are still pictures in my mind of Noah and the Ark, or Jesus and the empty tomb.  I would sit, hanging on your every word, anxiously awaiting the next character or background image you’d put up on the felt board at just the right time to keep all us squirming kids entertained.  The basement of May Valley Alliance Church is forever etched in my memory. 

I also remember the little white church bank you’d hold up each Sunday to see if anyone had a birthday that week.  Sometimes there would be a line-up of kids with coins jangling in their pockets waiting to drop them in the bank, one by one.  We’d all sit with great anticipation counting each penny as it plunked to the bottom of the bank so we’d know how old they now were.  Sometimes someone would drop in a nickel and we had to put our math skills to work right from the get-go to figure out their age.  I also remember every year you’d hand out the “perfect attendance” pins to those kids who didn’t miss a Sunday.  I still have mine.  They are among my most treasured possessions because they remind me of you.

My greatest memory though is that every Sunday, while we all had our heads bowed and our eyes closed, you would ask if any of us kids wanted to accept Jesus into our hearts.  If we accepted that invitation, we were to raise our hands while no one was looking.  I raised my hand every week.  I knew I wanted whatever you were offering because it must be good.  I never felt any different, though, and I thought I should, if Jesus actually came and was living within me, so I’d begin to doubt my salvation all week long.  The next week I’d raised my hand again, and again and again, wanting to be sure I “got saved.”  I’m sure I got saved a couple hundred times over all those years.  When people ask me to share my testimony and when it was that I accepted Christ, I’m still puzzled as to which day it actually was.  But the good news is, I am, because of you, and I’m still living my life for Christ, nearly 50 years later.

There wasn’t a lot of love going around in the house where I grew up, but I always knew I’d find unconditional love and acceptance in you.  It’s safe to say without the foundation in Christ that you gave me, without that unconditional love that you showed me, without that dedicated servant’s heart you demonstrated week after week, I would not be who I am today.  I have thought about you non-stop my entire adult life, and thanked God for you many, many times.  I’m so happy to be able to say THANKS for all you did.  You are a wonderful woman of God.