Ever had a "but yet?'

Today is the day that I pull the cork! Pull the cork and release the God-placed pressure that has been building up inside me for the last few years. Have you ever had that feeling? You have been blessed enough in this life to have found your passion...yet are in a place in your life that you do not feel as though you are utilizing your "talents". We know what happens when people waste "talents"...it is not pretty!

First a little background, I am a 37-year-old new Mommy of a six-month-old miracle baby...an answered prayer. I have a great husband who, for some reason, thinks I am cool. I have two great dogs and a wonderful and supportive family. I live the life that I have always wanted...but yet?

I knew when I was very young that I had two passions in this life...my spiritual life and all things related to health. I would sit on the couch at my Mom's beauty shop and read health books from the library across the street. I am not kidding when I tell you that I have read almost every diet book known to man. I am fascinated by weight loss and what is does to the human spirit. Not only weight loss, also watching someone take back control of their health! I would watch all the ladies in my Mom's beauty shop discuss all things related to health,beauty and relationships (think Truvy's Steel Magnolia beauty salon where most of the ladies in town would meet to watch "Days of our Lives" at noon). As a middle-schooler, this could have scarred me for life. Fortunately, I was fascinated! The one subject that would completely "STOP THE PRESSES" in Nita's Hair Designs would be weight loss. When you mention diet in a hair salon, it has the same rubber-necking potential as a ten-car-pile-up. Devouring diet books and also having a huge selection of Star, Redbook, Ladies Home Journal and Enquirer magazines laying around... I became the local diet authority. A middle-schooler who was completely fascinated with weight loss and health. Thanks to sweet Sherry Shaw, who taught the afternoon Jazzercize class at Coosa County High School in Rockford, I also became a great fan of exercise.

I knew this was my passion, no doubt about it. Unfortunately, I did not know anyone who made money at it. Bummer! So like a good girl, I attended Auburn University and was pursuing a degree in Pharmacy. I remember feeling this sense of "unrest" in my gut...the same sort of "but yet?" feeling that I was talking about earlier. Something was not exactly right. I was going into a field that I thought would allow me to help people with their health but what I really wanted to do is help people lose weight and take control of their health. If only there was a pill that could do that. Here is a news flash..there is not. Just ask Oprah.

I remember the day (as I was approaching my junior year of college and the beginning of pharmacy school)that I stood in my Mom's bathroom getting ready for church and told her that I wanted to get a degree in nutrition instead of attending pharmacy school. She looked a little puzzled but as always, she was supportive. I continued to tell her that I was going to get a master's in some form of exercise science and then get a Ph.D. in counseling or psychology. I told her I wanted to help people take back control of their health and for some that meant weight loss. She said "do what you love, and that is what you love". Novel concept, huh?

I did get the first two degrees but when it came time to get the Ph.D. in psychology, once again I felt the nudge in my gut. The gut always tells the tale...does it not?!? Something was not right. I started investigating other programs and eventually I was led to a program that would allow me to get a Ph.D. in Clinical Christian Counseling. When I took the first class, I was hooked. I read the textbooks and would then call friends to tell them of all my revelations from the reading. It got so bad, my friend Ruthie would answer the phone asking "what have you read about now?" As an addictions counselor and now, minister with the Salvation Army, she was always eager to hear the "big revelation". Everyone needs a friend like that...fortunately, I have several. These are the same friends that I could have called with a frantic " I need you to come here now, rent a van, and bring several strong hefty bags" and they would have never asked questions. The cool thing is...God brought me and my "hefty bag" friends together at the perfect time. At a time in our lives that we were all having "but yet" moments. God sends the perfect people at the perfect time, does He not? Now we can all sit back and laugh at the neurotic moments (although we still have these sometimes) and the stupid paths that we took to find enlightenment. If not enlightenment, then enough fun in the moment that we did not care! Then one day, it was not enough. We walked the journey together as many prodigals do...and Papa was waiting with open arms.

Now, as for the "cork", as I sit here today I get to preach the "health gospel" one, maybe two days, each week and the rest of the time I am a stay-at-home-mom which I LOVE! The only problem with that is my sweet Charlee gets tired of me telling her of all the many benefits of the probiotics that I am adding to her formula, and my dogs get tired of me trying to advise them of all the benefits of the Omega 3's that I am adding to their food. They just don't get it. So this blog is an attempt to give me an outlet to preach the "health gospel" (as I see it), to discuss with my peeps all the spiritual ramblings and revelation that go through our minds on a daily basis and lastly to answer my own "but yet" yearning in my spirit that is to write a Bible Study that will help people rebuild their health while being in God's Word. I have known this is my "but yet" for quite some time...and this blog is my attempt to start writing SOMETHING other than Walmart lists. Now I am waiting on the "Living Waters" to spring forth as promised.



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