Powerful Lessons from my Dad

Last week, our prayers were answered and my homeless Dad finally made to East Texas!! It would take too long to tell you about all the many ways that God has been at work in my Dad’s life. In short, it is a joy to know that my Dad is sleeping in a bed each night and getting three meals a day. However, it’s just hard to know how to love and support him during this time. It is safe to say that I have shed a lot of tears!

Over a month ago, God began to ask me to see people as He sees people. Little did I know that God would begin to help me see life through my Dad’s eyes.

There is a negative attitude about homelessness in this country. I am not pointing fingers, because I was one of these people! I never wanted to give a homeless person money, because they might spend it on drugs or alcohol. I never wanted to pick up a homeless person, because they might be some kind of psycho serial killer. In my mind, I would look down on the homeless and just assume that they brought this upon themselves.

I knew God’s word said to “sell everything you have and give to the poor” (Luke 18:22), but the reality is that my heart was cold toward homeless men and women. Seeing life through my Dad’s eyes has shown me that homeless people are just like you and me!!

Let me make myself very clear, not everyone who becomes homeless has a drug and alcohol problem. Unexpectedly, my Dad’s life took a turn for the worst and he has not been able to get back on his feet. He’s not a psycho killer, just my Dad and my girls’ Grandpa and we love him very much!

I am not perfect, but I am thankful that God is changing my heart!! Every homeless person that I see holds a special place in my heart, because when I look at them I see my Dad. I want to help them, because I hope and pray that someone will look past the stereotype and reach out to my Dad.

Finally, I want to say how thankful I am to the men and women who saw my Dad as a real person and reached out to him while he was on his “journey” from Washington to Texas. Thank you for giving him money, food, rides, shoes, backpacks, and so much more!! Your gifts and kindness are making a huge difference in his life!!

So, if you see my Dad (or any other homeless person) around town, please shake their hand and look in them in the eye and ask if there is anyway that you can help them. Sometimes just treating them like a child of God is all they really need!

“For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.”
- James 2:26

Hungry For Change

Occasionally, I have free time to sit down, prop up my feet, and watch something on Netflix. This past weekend I decided to watch a documentary called "Hungry For Change: Your health is in your hands". This documentary really challenged me look at the food choices that I make on a daily basis. They communicated the importance of our need to stop dieting and completely change our lifestyle.

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One of my favorite things that they talked about was that we need to begin to transform our minds. Personally, I believe that God's word is the only way to truly renew our minds and we need to fill our minds with scripture. However, I believe that there is value in the quote shown below.

If I tell myself that we can't have something, I feel deprived and want that food more than ever. However, if I recognize that I can eat anything I want, but I choose not to. Well now that gives me power over food, so that I do not have to be controlled by my cravings.

As a result of this movie, I am going to focus on eating more Weight Watchers Power Foods for the next few weeks. I tried the Simply Filling plan when I was pregnant with Sophie, but I didn't do a very good job of staying on plan. This time around, I am really going to focus on making healthy foods choices and being careful about what I put in my body.

How can you begin to make healthier food choices today!?

Missing In Action

Life has really taken its toll on me these past few months. I am not ready to go into all the details, just know that my Dad has been going through some hard times. As a family we have come together to begin to help my Dad, but he has a long road ahead of him.

Me, my Dad, and my brother

All that to say, life's circumstances have been so overwhelming that I have not had time to focus on taking care of myself. I haven't been following Weight Watchers either. In all honesty, there isn't much for me to write about, if I am not focusing on eating healthy.

For a while, I was eating whatever sounded good, which included a lot of sweets! I am doing my best to turn to God and not food. However, I am not perfect, but I am trying.

Last week, I recognized this problem and began to make small changes that should help me to begin to make myself a priority again. Life is never going to allow me the time to completely focus on myself, so I have to fight for it.

Olivia, Sophie, and me enjoying the sunshine

Everyday, I have to make a choice to fully focus on myself and living a healthy lifestyle. My first step toward a healthier me was going on a walk with my girls to the park.

What will be your first step to a healthier you!?

If you think about my Dad, please pray for him and that he will take the necessary steps to get himself some help!

Guest Post: Following in Your Footsteps

 I am thrilled to have Toni Hammer with us this morning! Toni is an amazing Mom who is trying her best to lead a healthy lifestyle and be a positive influence for her family. I hope you enjoy what Toni has to share with us this morning!

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I am so excited to be writing this post for all of you! Jen and I met in college and it has been such a joy to watch her lose weight, be healthy, and become an incredible mom to her two little girls. 

I have two little ones myself. My daughter is almost two and my son is almost one. I was lucky enough to have been blessed with two children only 355 days apart. Talk about a challenge! 

My daughter is completely on solid foods, and can sometimes even navigate those foods with a fork, and my son is slowly entering the world of more solids and less nursing. It’s a struggle to find foods that they both like, and it’s even harder to make sure those foods are healthy. The challenge is made even more difficult when I’m faced with my choices at the grocery store. 

You see, I’m beginning to realize that what I eat is what my children eat. So if I have a piece of cake for breakfast—hypothetically speaking of course—it’s likely they will too. Okay, that wouldn’t actually happen, but it’s that principle I want to talk about. 

If I want my children to eat healthy, then I need to lead them into that by eating healthy myself. If I want my children to enjoy slices of bell pepper with hummus as a snack instead of gummy bears, I need to lead by example and provide those snacks to them. 

My daughter is in a picky phase and would rather have candy than broccoli. Who wouldn’t? However, she does like green beans and peas so I always make sure those are easy options available to me at dinner. She’ll also eat just about any type of fruit because it’s sweet. Another trick I’ve learned is to offer her food off of my plate. For some reason, she’s much more likely to try something if I’m eating it than if I just put it on her plate. It’s one more reason to make sure I’m eating healthy so my children will follow in my footsteps. 

I hope you found this encouraging! Please feel free to contact me at tonileah.hammer@gmail.com or at http://tonihammer.com.

New Food Finds: Onion Straws and Fiber One Fruit Snacks

I am so thankful when my husband is home from work, because he is willing to stay home with our two daughters so that I can go grocery shopping alone. Jon knows how much I love grocery shopping and he is more than willing to give me that time to myself.

Some of my favorite memories as a child include going grocery shopping with my Mom, which is probably why I love it so much.

I welcome the challenge of trying to find good food on sale, so that we can continue to stay within our budget. I also enjoy finding new low pointsplus foods that I have never tried before.

Here are a few of my latest food finds:

{Sensible Portions Onion Straws Southwestern}

Serving Size: 38 straws
  3 pointsplus+

I have enjoyed Veggie Straws for years. Onion Straws might not be "new", but they are new to me, because I have never bought them. I was secretly hoping that these Onion Straws would taste like Funyuns. Instead, they have a bold and slightly spicy flavor which kept me wanting more.

{Fiber One Mixed Berry Fruit Flavored Snacks}

Serving Size: 1 package
2 pointsplus+

I am a huge fan of everything Fiber One and enjoy all of their products. I was completely surprised, to find out that Fiber One had created their own fruit snack. What!? I never expected that from them, but I am so glad that they did. These fruit snacks are so good that it will be hard to enjoy them myself, because my family will want some too!

Prayers for My Girls

I have two precious baby girls, Olivia (19 months) and Sophie (3 months). I have prayed for both of these girls many times throughout the last few years, especially during my pregnancies. However, the Lord has shown me that, as their mother, it is my responsibility to be an example to my girls and show them what it looks like to be a follower of Christ. God is calling me to follow His lead as He breaks through generational sins that have been in my family for years. Praise the Lord!

In addition, I need to be a Momma on my knees before the Lord, fighting for the souls of my daughters now, before they ever face challenging circumstances. I wish that I could keep my girls from ever feeling emotions like disappointment, hurt, embarrassment, and shame. However, there is absolutely nothing that I can do to prevent Olivia and Sophie from experiencing these harsh realities of life. So, instead of running from hard times, I want to face them head on in prayer trusting that the Lord will use even the ugliest of circumstances to bring glory to Himself through these two precious lives!!

When I first started praying, I wasn't even sure what was important. What did I want to pray over/for my daughters? Thankfully, I found some amazing prayers, which come from two articles written by, Lysa TerKeurst, "If we aren't praying boldly for our kids, who is?" and "10 prayers for your daughter".

10 Powerful Prayers to Help You Fight for the Heart of Your Daughter:

1. Give my daughter a deep desire to listen to You, Lord, and pray often, “What message does my Lord have for his servant?” (Joshua 5:14b).
2. Let her learn early in life that to obey You, God, is the best way to the life her heart truly desires, (1 Samuel 15:22).
3. May she find comfort in Your ability, God, to reach her, hold her, and rescue her, (2 Samuel 22:17-18).
4. May she please You, Lord, by desiring, asking for, and utilizing a discerning heart full of wisdom, (1 Kings 3:9-12).
5. Let her find confidence in You, God, even when hard times come and she doesn’t know what to do, by keeping her eyes fixed on You, (2 Chronicles 20:12).
6. Give her a great desire to accept Your word, God, and store up Your commands within her so her ears will turn to Your wisdom, (Proverbs 2:1-2).
7. May she keep herself under control and not give full vent to people and situations that anger her, (Proverbs 29:11).
8. Give her the ability to rise above the traps of people pleasing so she can be kept safe by trusting You, Lord, (Proverbs 29:25).
9. Let her walk in the security of Your assigned worth to her. Give her a strong work ethic and health to accomplish all her tasks. Give her a heart that desires to extend her hand to those in need. Protect her for the right husband, a man of respect and godly honor. And let her be a woman of joy and laughter whose Christ-centered character is what makes her most beautiful, (Proverbs chapter 31).
10. And every time you, Jesus, whisper, “Follow me” she does so with great grace, (Matthew 4:19).

3 Things I Pray Over My Kids Everyday: 

1. I pray they grow up to be some of the most godly people in their sphere of influence.
2. I pray that they would be caught when they make wrong choices.
3. I pray that God would save them from the wrong friends and save them for the right friends.  And that goes for their future spouses as well.

I know that this is a long list of things to pray for your children and if you are just starting out, this could be overwhelming. That's okay! I have chosen a few things to focus on praying for my girls and written them on 3x5 cards. Throughout the day, I take these cards with me and pray for Olivia and Sophie. It really is just that easy.

"But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind."
- James 1:6

Weekly Weigh In - Small Victories

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I have changed my weigh in day back to Tuesday night, because I am no longer leading the Saturday morning Weight Watchers meeting. Evenings are not my ideal time to weigh in, but it works perfectly with my schedule so for now that's what I am going to be doing.  I prefer for my weigh in time to be in the morning when there is nothing in my belly. However, weighing in Tuesday evening helps me to stay on track throughout the day, because I know that I have to weigh in eventually.

I am excited to share with you that in spite the fact that I changed my weigh in day...I still lost weight this week! In total, I lost 1.2 pounds, which puts me at 169.4 pounds!! For over a month I have not been losing weight, because I have not been seriously committed to the Weight Watchers plan.

My Weight Record

Now that I am back on track, I am using this small victory to help strengthen me as I continue on in my new weight loss journey. I have written Bible verses on 3x5 note cards. These verses help me to remember that my strength comes from the Lord. These verses paired with small weight loss victories like this, help to motivate me to continue on in my weight loss journey.

We do not walk into Weight Watchers with all the motivation we need to get to our goal weight. I believe that God gives us motivation and strength to achieve small goals. These small victories help to motivate us to continue on in our weight loss journey one step at a time, so that we will remember that God is our source of STRENGTH.

What small victories can you celebrate that will help to motivate you to reach your weight loss goals? How can you meet with God and read His word today and ask Him to strengthen you when you need it most?

 "My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." 

- Psalm 73:26