* The GAPS diet did NOT heal us

While I am thankful to God for leading us to the GAPS diet and I agree that it is a very healing diet, the GAPS diet did not heal us. God healed us. He did not heal us through the GAPS diet. He healed us by His Word. (Psalm 107:20)

God is love. Love heals. He IS the Great Physician.

I will try to explain what happened, but by no means do I have a formula for receiving healing. It is God who heals. There IS power in the blood and in the Name of Jesus!!!

I was so very depressed after more than one and a half years on the GAPS diet and seeing regressions, yet again. It felt like a prison. There was NO way out!!! A friend counseled me by listening to all that I had to say and by asking me one simple question. The question was, "What are you doing to seek first His Kingdom and His Righteousness in your life?"

At first, I was a little bit annoyed because I really thought that I had been seeking God all these years. I couldn't get the question out of my head. I began to wonder what it really meant to seek Him. How does one go about seeking Him? I didn't know.

I came to realize that I knew a lot about God, but I didn't really know God. I read His Word. I listened to the sermons and tried to apply the teachings to my life. I memorized lots of scripture and tried to apply what I knew to my life, but I just could not do it consistently. I participated in Bible studies. I prayed all day everyday, but my prayers were primarily asking God to help me and to help others. I did praise God, I thanked Him, I confessed my sins, and I made my requests, but I was not seeking a relationship with God.

So I did the only thing I knew to do: I humbled myself as a little child and I asked my Heavenly Father to teach me. I figured that He is really the only One who has all the answers. In Jeremiah 33:3, God says, "Ask me, and I will show you great and unsearchable things that you have never known."

I was reading through the Bible so I began to talk to God and ask Him about passages of scripture that didn't make sense to me. Later, I would find the answer in another part of scripture, or in a Bible study, or a sermon. I began to notice that certain topics were very repetitious. I kept reading, "Your faith has healed you." I kept reading, "Love one another," "Love your neighbor as yourself," "As I have loved you, so you must love one another," "a new commandment I give you: Love one another," "The entire law is summed up in this one command: Love your neighbor as yourself," "but the fruit of the Spirit is love..." "These three remain: faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love." "Nothing matters except faith expressing itself in love."

If anyone reads this and wants to know the references for any or all of these, I will gladly share. I just want to post this soon. I recommend reading all of Galatians, John 13-17, and all of 1 John.

I have found more, so much more, but it is best if one seeks the Lord for these things so I do not want to give it all away as it would not mean near as much to one who had not searched it out with the Lord. I have simply believed what God has written in His Word.

Note: Previously, I was not confident to read my Bible and try to understand it, because I had been told so many times that you have to understand the history and the context to understand the true meaning of the words. What a lie!!!! I was afraid, but 2 Timothy 1:7 says that "God did not give us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power, of love, and of a sound mind."

I began to read the Word of God and I tried to understand it. I asked my "Abba" to help me understand it and I reasoned that if I guessed wrong (as my children often do) that He would be patient with me and would teach me all things as I become ready to learn it, just as I am patient with my kids and I teach them new things as they become developmentally ready to learn it. God is so good. He is teaching me.

I became convinced that love was more important than anything else I could do for my kids and one day I simply had faith that my daughter could eat honey and would not react. She did eat and she didn't react. I later gave some to CKS, and he did not react. They have been eating fruit and honey ever since. They only had reactions on bad days where love was not reigning in our house. I found that I could make my kids sick in an instant by criticizing them or yelling at them or shaming them in any way. I would love them back to health and, indeed, the reactions would go away. So I concluded that Love heals. However, we all still reacted to everything NOT on the GAPS diet.

I kept reading God's Word, seeking God, His Kingdom, and His Righteousness. He is amazing!!! I can't and won't tell you everything I have learned. I will, however, encourage everyone to "seek first His Kingdom and His Righteousness" (Matthew 6:33). Also, check out Matthew 7:7-8. Ask God and He will tell you everything you need to know. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 1:7). Don't just read His Word; talk to Him about it and believe what He tells you. It is amazing!!! HE is amazing!!!

I came to a point where I believed that it was indeed God's will to heal us. I prayed for complete healing everyday, believing that He would indeed heal us. I spoke the Word of the Lord (verses I have memorized) all day and talked to God as if He were my daddy in the room with me. At some point, I knew we had to step out in faith (prove our faith genuine) and expose ourselves to the foods/environments that we had been reacting to for so long. We bought some bread at the Farmer's Market and ate it with butter. We were fine. We kept eating bread and butter and added in other non-GAPS food. We were fine.

Note: When I began to eat bread and butter, about a week earlier, the kids had reactions akin to pre-GAPS or early GAPS. CKS regressed. KES became enraged and hateful. It was insane. I'm the one who ate the food and no one else knew of it. The children were still having "reactions" when I gave them the bread and butter, and I believed that they would be fine and would actually improve. They were and they did. Rashes were as bad as they have ever been, but they have been improving.

You see, it was God who healed us, not GAPS. We had been reacting to so many things just a few weeks earlier. Now we are fine. Praise the Name of Jesus!!! All glory to God!!!

We have enjoyed treats at Christmas parties. We had our own special day where we decorated the Christmas tree, watched the Nativity Story, drank hot chocolate, and ate candy canes. We shared a Thanksgiving meal with our family. We ate dinner at church with our church family. We can eat anything. My kids can play with play dough again!!! WooHoo!!! Healed!

The GAPS diet did NOT heal us! God did!!!

[As of 12/20/14, we have been off GAPS for more than three years and are enjoying freedom from the fear of food and toxins.  You can be free, too!  I want you to be free!  Please go to http://gapsfamily.blogspot.com/2014/12/our-story.html to find links that will guide you through our story.  Be encouraged!]