So I’ve gained some weight recently.
I mean, not like The Nutty Professor, fat suit, weight, but still, I notice it.
My wife has confessed the same problem, although she looks awesome.
I can usually trace my weight gain to something like zero exercise, slight weather changes, football season, baseball season, basketball season, badminton season or just a desire to eat pizza for 12 days straight.
But this time I have a new excuse.
As many of you may know, my son has been on a feeding tube for most of his life. Several months ago, we stopped feeding him via tube under our doctor’s supervision. We do weekly weigh-ins like it’s a heavyweight fight. Without our beloved feeding tube we are trying to teach him what it means to eat to survive. Some weeks we feel victory, other weeks we fear we will have to go back to that infernal machine.
So my wife after a ridiculous amount of research devised a plan. We are not to encourage or force him to eat (because that would feel like pressure), we just need to eat in front of him.
Of course since our son is not a heavyweight, we started buying whole milk, chocolate milk, butter cookies, bacon, pirate’s booty and anything else that might contribute to his gaining weight. (Sometimes he’d just look at it and gag) Since we didn’t want to pressure him into eating, we just ate in front of him. But did he actually see me eat that cookie, I would think? Perhaps I should eat seven more in front of him to show him eating cookies is a good thing. Yes, I made a sacrifice people.
SO, yes, I’ve gained a bit of weight. Thanks for checking in, judgy.
But it’s for the sake of my child! Eating gallons of Ice Cream is the way I show my boy love.
The struggle is real. My daughter helps out by eating large chunks of butter.
(Does that make us paleo now?)
Recently this got me to thinking about my personal Bible study. Usually I wake up before the sun is awake and do my Bible study and time with God. The bummer is, like eating, my kids won’t always see me do that and thus learn of its importance. So I’ve begun thinking about how I can study with and in front of my kids more. What if I had my Bible open when they woke up on a Saturday morning? What would they perceive from that? I think they would consider the Bible to be important to daddy. Of course in order for this to work, I may have to read the Bible when I they might not see. Just like the seven slices of gluten free pizza on Sunday. No one may ever see me study and I’ll have to be okay with that.
The good thing is, unlike food, I don’t think you can have too much of God’s word. If I became full of God’s word I think that might be a good thing. If I devoured his word like those six avocados last week, I would actually become spiritually lean. My kids would not feel pressure to study the word but they would see the importance of it.
I like this idea. I think I’ll celebrate with a carrot stick.