Till it Overflows

It has been stirring around in my mind  and with nowhere to go. The journey was physical and not. It has taken me a long way and a long time. And I am not there yet, but I am not where I used to be! The story goes...
We are a typical family doing typical things. Then God decides to teach me a lesson. Don't get me wrong. I am so glad He did. I just never thought of victory looking like this.
My Dad died at the age of 58 and like he had done so many times before, surprised me. He had been sick for a long time and I told myself that he would not live. I thought I had "come to terms" with the idea. What surprised me was that after cheating death countless times, he was gone and it hurt in a way that still boggles my mind.
Enter God's gentle hand...I was determined not to ever have my children deal with watching the things I had seen during my father's illness. Fear had my heart. I was running from everything. "And He walked with me, and He talked with me..." Through a series of events God showed me myself and stopped me in my tracks.
I was sick. I was poisoning myself. I was running in the wrong direction. I was so fearful that I was walking right into a trap and I didn't even see it coming.  But as a close friend often says, "The problem with being deceived is...you're deceived".  Through this time I was continually reminded in everything I read and everything I heard to "get out of the boat". God dealt with me about fears I didn't know I had. I made good on this lesson and trusted Him with my only begotten son. ha ha. After homeschooling till he was in 10th grade, we put him in public school. It was h-a-r-d. Lemme tell ya. I did not want to do it and had a good list of reasons why it was a bad idea. But every door that slammed in our face was followed by a big open window and a welcome sign.  He made varsity and National Honors Society in his first year. ahhemmm. I am so proud of him and Him.
It was about that time that my health got really weird. Doctors couldn't figure things out and I was frustrated and trying to stay determined without letting fear be my guide. What? Now I'm scared of being scared? Whoa. This is just embarrassing. God had His hands full. I would wonder, "Why are you telling me not to fear? What's gonna happen?"
I was going through books all day, every day. I researched everything I could about restoring your health. I learned a lot and tried a lot of things. Trial and error brought me to realize that gluten was a problem for me. Okay. I went gluten free. I felt better, lost weight and stopped swelling all over. Awesome. A few months go by and I am finding that my symptoms are not just gluten related. One grain at a time I went grain free. Trying to figure out what I could still eat I found Paleo/Primal Diet websites and blogs everywhere. So, although I follow this style of diet, it was not something I bought into as a program. I was dragged. It was a 360 degree mirror experience that I walked through begging God to let me out the whole way. But. Thank you, God! The number of things that have changed in my health are incredible. I feel human again.
All of this leads me to want to tell everyone I know what God has done. I am amazed more all the time at how healing the things He gave us are, when we stop messing it up! So, this is the story of why I post recipes and talk about the weird stuff that I do. I am not preaching about a program. I am talking about life. More abundantly. Till it overflows. My hope is that others will benefit along the way.             ~Sarah