Its Time To Give It Up?

Do you ever get the gnawing feeling that you are forgetting something?  It happens to me all of the time.  Lately I am having "vocabulary" challenges.  Such as, I know there is a word that envelopes the entirety of the point I want to make, but some how its just not on the tip of my tongue - how annoying!



I entered in to fear thinking this was the beginning of early on-set Alzheimers, but then I discovered something about myself.   After I have had about 2 diet sodas, my vocabulary recall worsens.  The more diet soda I have, the fuzzier my brain becomes.

I don't want to hear about how diet soda is bad for me, etc.  I know it is.  Diet soda is my vice.  I love coke zero.   The most common artificial sweetener in diet sodas in aspartame.  In addition to many things, a side effect of aspartame is memory loss.  Oh, Lord, I did not want to give up my vice.  My diet soda is like the nectar of the gods.  That first drink is so satisfying - if you are a morning coffee drinker, you know what I'm talking about.

Last year I gave it up.  Cold turkey.  I was in bed for a day, in pain in every joint in my body.  I could not believe the pain I was in.  It didn't occur to me to supplement the caffeine, so not only was I detoxing the sweetener, I was going caffeine-less.   Oh, that was horrible.   It took about three days - without complaining - for me to start feeling like myself again.  I did however, start drinking green tea with caffeine and used Stevia as my sweetener.

It lasted 3 weeks.   I went to Belize.   I got on the plane, "what would you like to drink?", the flight attendant asked.  I said, coke.  I drank a coke.   Mmmm, mmm, mmm, mmm, mmmm!  That was good!  Then I started buzzing.  The sugar and the caffeine.  Woow!   Ok, that was system overload.   I wasn't sure about drinking the water in Belize although the resort had promised it was filtered, and we were able to get bottled water most of the time, but how was I supposed to get my morning caffeine?  I didn't have the means to make iced tea, and that diet coke looked so good .... I caved.  Diet coke, here I come!  Its been over a year now, and even though I have tried, I can't get off the diet soda - Coke Zero is my vice.

If I want complete vocabulary recall, if I want to be healthier, if I want to not be addicted to something, it is time.  I can not let my love for coke zero run my life.  Coke zero has become a god to me, and I crave it every morning, I can not function with out it.  What am I going to do?

No, really, what am I going to do?   I have tried tea - tea and coffee upset my stomach.  How can coke zero not upset my stomach if tea and coffee do?  I don't know, moving on.

I have to give it up.  I don't know when, where or how, but it has to happen.  It sounds easy, but really is it?  Put it in to a different perspective.

I have a friend who has a situation in her life that has become a god to her.   She can't give it up.  Every time she runs in to someone that she hasn't seen in a while, "catching up" means that she tells the whole story, the whole situation, not a detail left out.   Usually there isn't time for the other person to share what is going on in their life, she monopolizes their time with her issue.   I have mentioned to her that she needs to move on.   Her comment to me is, "Well, Kristi, you just don't know, if you were in this situation, you would do the same thing."

It is time for her to give it up.  It is time for her to take herself out of the situation.  Is it as easy as going off diet soda?   I don't know.  I do know it is holding her back, just like diet soda is holding me back in many ways.

My husband has a real estate business.  Recently an old friend, a realtor, came to work in his office.  The realtor brought with him some deals that were in the works.  One of his deals involved a man that had a grudge against my father from 30 years ago.   The man told the realtor that since he had gone to work for a Halvorson (my husband is clearly a Maas) that the realtor could no longer have the deal.  The man took his deal, that man took money from a family, because he had a grudge against a man who would never know this deal was transpiring.   The man would have to find another realtor, start all over again, and hope he received the good prices, honesty, and integrity that this realtor had to offer.  The whole situation is ridiculous.  After 30 years, it is time for that man to give it up.

These three scenarios may seem silly to you, but what do you have that is holding you back?  Is it as simple as giving up diet soda?   I don't hold grudges - not that I know of anyway, I could much easier forgive someone than give up diet soda - it is true!  I would think that I could easier quit living in a dead situation that my friends were willing to help me move out of, than I could give up my diet soda.   It's all perspective.

God says that His strength is sufficient for us.   He says He will give us the grace, favor, loving kindness and mercy to bear our trouble manfully.  He tells us that He will provide a way out. (2 Corinthians 12)

It is time for me to give up my diet soda.  God is going to have to give me a way out, because I can't do it on my own.  Very soon you will read that I have successfully given up diet soda.   Until then you can pray for me.

Maybe there is something in your life that you need to ask God to help you give up.  We all have something we hang on to that is not good for us.  I know that God is going to help me, and I know He is going to help you.

K