YO-YOING

As a child, I loved playing with yo-yo's.  Only knowing a few "tricks", for the most part I threw the yo-yo out and it came back.

As with many words in the English language, yo-yo conjures up many images.  I laughingly called the years between graduating from high school and final launching for my children, the "Yo-Yo Years".  I sent them out and they invariably came back.  We wore out furniture by moving it back and forth--not from use.

Then there are the yo-yo dieters.  Those who take off 20 and put it back on even faster  as if they were in a revolving door.  There have been more fad diets and new weight loss techniques and secrets in my lifetime than I can count.  How many sizes of clothing are in our closets?  Friends laugh and tell me about their "Fat Clothes" and "Skinny Clothes".  How unfair to live in a country rich with fast food and more types of "food establishments" than I am able to recount.  The food industry is conspiring against us in hopes we will put on the dreaded 20 so their first cousin the diet industry can lure us in.  Affluence is not always good!

Weight is not my struggle--my confession is I am a Yo-Yo Exerciser.  I went back to weight lifting class this week after a five week furlough while on LuLu Duty.  I had GREAT intentions while helping with the grands--you KNOW what they say about good intentions.  I have jumped on and fallen off the exercise wagon more times than I care to recount in the past seven years.  I could paper the walls of a mansion with all the excuses I have come up with during this time.  OH--but I pay--and I pay dearly when I get with the plan once again.  The older I get--the more difficult it becomes to climb back onto the wagon and the longer it takes to get back into some semblance of shape.  You THINK I would learn--I appear to be in need of special education--it never sinks in.

My most distressing yo-yo ing comes with my spiritual life.  I draw so near--so close to God while pursuing Him--seeking Him.  Then I find myself distracted by the world--busy--running around in frantic circles and falling into the bed at night with only a brief prayer.  I cannot seem to get it through my thick head how much better I handle life when I am near Him--when I spend time daily with Him.  When I throw myself into the world, it takes time to make my way back to the Only Source Of Strength in my life. 

The good news---He is waiting for me to return---and loves me --even at the lowest point--He still loves me.

All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him. - 

Isaiah 53:6