* Love Heals

The healing continues. We are definitely seeing that feeling loved and accepted helps the healing process. Laughter truly is the best medicine.

We are all eating a nice variety of food each day. We love cooking and eating. Since everyone can now tolerate fruit and honey, our snacks and meals have gotten a bit more creative. We made chicken salad yesterday, and because everyone loved it so much we made it again today.

Recipe for dairy free chicken salad: chopped up chicken, chicken patè (in place of yogurt or mayo), chopped raw onion, chopped apple, chopped grapes, salt, and pepper.

God is healing us spiritually! He has freed us from fear, guilt, shame, anger, bitterness, etc. It tries to sneak in here and there, but we are quick to catch it and say, "NO! No more!!!" God is transforming us by the renewing of our minds and we are changing the way we talk and the way we think about things. As a result, we are tolerating everything better. Healing is easier, for sure, when your body is not constantly being pumped full of bad chemicals produced by bad thoughts. Dr. McBride mentions this on her website under the FAQ question under adrenals as quoted below:

"1. What recommendations are there for GAPS patients for boosting their adrenals?
Adrenals love fat and cholesterol. So, as far as the diet is concerned, eat lots of animal fats with every meal and cholesterol-rich foods, such as egg yolks, sour cream, butter and fatty fish. Another essential for the adrenals is sleep! Sleep is really not optional, so organise your life in such a way that you can have a nap every afternoon and a good long sleep at night. Another essential is to lower your stress, which is easier done than you may think. Stress is not the event itself; it is your attitude to this event. Research shows, that people react to stress very differently depending on their attitude to life. The one, who generally has a negative personality and tends to worry a lot, has all the stress hormones and destructive chemicals racing around their bodies. But the person, who has a philosophical and positive attitude to life, will have much less stress chemicals in their blood and will cope much better. It is the first type of people that “burn” their adrenals out. There are excellent books on this subject: you can start from Dale Carnegie’s book “How to stop worrying and start living”, for example."

I had a bad week, feeling irritable and angry, right after the homeschool conference. The children started reacting to the food again, or were they reacting to me?!? Rashes, eczema, and behaviors returned a bit. I immediately changed my thinking and began to act lovingly once again to my children and all of the reactions went away.

This week, my oldest started to sneak food (all GAPS legal and all well tolerated foods). He seemed to be reacting to something, but I could not guess what it could be. He reverted back to old rules. His memory became very poor. He started eating too much food at meals and would shovel it in and swallow without chewing (something he used to do all the time before GAPS). He made poor decisions. He didn't feel well and stopped getting up early in the morning and would move slowly and scuffle his feet while doing chores. I could not figure out why he was acting like this. Then...I discovered that someone had eaten half the bag of grapes in a matter of two days. Then I remembered that there didn't seem to be as many nuts as I was expecting when I put them in jars after dehydrating them. I asked him about these things and he confessed to eating them. I told him that I thought the guilt and the shame of stealing food and hiding it was probably what was making him sick. He agreed. I forgave him and even told him that it would be fine for him to take a nibble here and there throughout the day (keeping it to a minimum). Today was a great day!

I really do believe that fear, guilt, shame, anger, bitterness, and negative thoughts of any kind really do make us sick. Believing that I am truly forgiven by God and knowing that "there is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ." is indeed THE reason that I can now eat food that I couldn't tolerate before. Jesus is in me and the fruit of the Spirit is now evident in my life. The fruit is showing in my kids, too.

Not only is God healing us physically and spiritually, but new life is popping up all around us. Did I mention that I am gardening and that I go out and tend my garden and yard every morning after my Bible study? Also, we are caring for and learning about fish and rats and turtles (our pets). I used to think of gardening and pets as too much work, but I am learning so many new and wonderful things from reading God's Word and from observing God's World. It is all very exciting and wonderful! I love it! I enjoy the work so much now.

We are also serving in the body of Christ by leading worship on Sunday morning (I am on the praise team), teaching Sunday School (my dear husband), babysitting the pastors kids from time to time as they make hospital visits and such (as a family), and watching other children when needs arise (as a family). Also, I will be leading music for VBS next week and taking photos for the slide show and my husband will put the slideshow together. I am not bragging! All of this is a joy and comes so easily (totally NOT out of obligation) because God has done a mighty work of regeneration in our hearts. "It is God who works in us to will and to act according to His good purposes." (Phillipians 2:13) It feels so wonderful to use the gifts that we have and to serve in ways that fit our circumstances right now. We are doing what we were created to do, "for we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God has prepared in advance for us to do." (Ephesians 2:10)

In the book of John, it is repeated over and over again that a new command is given to Love one another. We are to love one another. We are to forgive, just as the Lord has forgiven us. We are to love the Lord with all our hearts, with all our souls, with all our minds, and love our neighbors as ourselves.

Trust and obey for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey. What are we to obey? The law of the Old Testament? No. The new commandment to love one another? Yes.

In our house, we are loving one another. Laughter fills the air. We are healing.

Love heals!