Friday, July 19, 2019

Questioning! (Trina Agee Cornell)

Good evening! For the next 19 days, I will be on a mission trip to Vietnam. During that time, I will have new blogs each night from guest authors! (Also, on many nights, I will post pictures from my trip here!) For the next 26 evenings, my spot will be filled by my dear sister in Christ, Trina Agee Cornell! Trina and I went through many mission trips together and I have been a guest in Trina's and her husband, Bob's home. Please keep me in your prayers!


Question #120
I spent an afternoon at Barnes and Noble a few months ago – this is a place where I could spend hours upon
hours. As a reading specialist by trade – and a reader by nature – it makes sense. On this particular trip, I
found a book, tucked away with the journals in their display, called 3,000 Questions About Me. I opened it
and started thumbing through – and I have to admit, I was quite intrigued. I started looking through the
questions, thinking about what my responses would be. I knew I just had to get it – the book sat at my house
for a month, collecting dust. I finally pulled it out and decided to answer one page of questions a day. 3,000
questions can be overwhelming – but how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time! As I answer my page
of questions each day, I read the question – and I put what immediately comes to mind. I do not overthink
them – I answer them honestly and openly. My series of blog posts will focus on certain questions that I
believe get to the core of who I am – as a wife, mother, and a child of God.
120. Do you ask enough questions, or do you settle for what you know?
This question brought back a number of memories for me as I read and processed it. My response to this
question was the following: “I ask enough questions now – there was a time when I didn’t”. There was a time
when I took things at face value – if it seemed legitimate to me, and I trusted the person from which the
information came, I went along with it fairly easily. I have since learned that I need to cultivate my curiosity a
bit more – it is not enough to just settle. If I do not know something, I need to seek it out to the best of my
ability.
This came into play for me in October of 2018 – it found me tired, worn out, overweight, and feeling terrible. I
was over a year removed from having Connor, and I just could not seem to get the excess baby weight off. I
gained 60 pounds with my pregnancy – and at this time, I had lost about 30 of those pounds. This was
progress – but not the kind of progress for which I had hoped. Bob had seen commercials for Slim 180, a local
weight loss program focused on eating healthy and regular activity. I have never had trouble with working out
or drinking my water – the eating part has presented the biggest struggle. From what Bob shared with me, it
sounded like something I could dig into – something that might help me lose the rest of my weight.
I went in for a free consultation a few days later – and the rest, as they say, is history. I started with the first
phase of the plan the next day, cleaning all of the carbs and sugars out of my system – then I focused on losing
the weight. They gave me a food plan to follow – I knew the number of portions I could have of each food
group each day, along with a list of foods to stick to throughout the process. In the first seven weeks, has lost
right at 35 pounds. By the end of the weight loss phase, I ultimately lost 62 pounds, my baby weight and then
some. I then moved through the stabilization phase – I started adding back foods that I had cut out during the
weight loss phase to allow my body time to process the food. I am now currently in the maintenance phase,
learning how to manage my weight and living life.
It has been a journey like no other – and continues to be quite the learning curve for me. I thought I was
eating healthily before – but I had no idea what I was doing to my body. I stepped out of my comfort zone and
asked these people a ton of questions – what to eat, when to eat it, why one food works better than another,
and the list goes on. I became a student of the plan – and I followed it to the letter. I had to ask – because I
knew each question would have a direct impact upon my success with the program. We have to do the same
thing with our faith – we have to ask those tough question of ourselves. We have to dig deep – make sense of
what the Lord shares in His word. The Lord does not mind our questions – Job asked the Lord a number of
questions as he processed through his personal predicament. It is OK to not know everything – the Lord fully
expects us to ask.

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1

E-mail me at shawley@westburychristian.org

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