Stuffed or Full? Starving or hungry?

Novemeber 20, 2011 I exaggerate. I can lie like nobody's business, too. Atleast, I did before I made a decision to follow Jesus. And even then it took awhile to weed through the lies that had become woven into the fabric of my life. Sometimes someone would ask about something and I would have to explain that I had lied. And because lies are so much harder to remember than the truth, it often takes an event like that for me to remember and then make sure I have confessed to them. I am willing to guess that I havent cleared them all up yet. I know My Classmates are aware of many of my lies, so I have planned to say at one of our future reunions, "I know you know I was a liar in school so I thought I would clear those all up in the interest witnessing to the power of Jesus to change my life" I would then remove a list that would go to the floor. " I think it might be easier to confirm those things which were the truth.....My name was indeed Geri Gilstrap, and .....I was born in Texas". I once told my mom upon returning from a Billy Graham crusade at the Kingdome, that there were so many converts that they ran out of volunteer counselors, ergo my counselor was none other than BG himself. Did she believe me? I don't know for sure...but she had me share the event with the church. I look back now and think she might have thought I would be too embarassed, then admit it was a lie before I got up in front of the whole church...nope. I stood at the pulpit and told the same stinking lie to all the sweet little christians looking up at me. Did they believe me? I don't know. But if they did they shouldn't have. And if they didn't wow, what a fool I was. Actually that fool thing..pretty much true whether they believed me or not. Exaggeration is another thing. Oh I suppose it fits into a sub category of lieing, but when I do it, I just dont feel like it is the same. Some people would disagree and then if they confronted me I would have to say, "you are probably right, it is lieing". But is it more like 'making yourself BIG' to scare a bear off? or even putting emphasis on a word in order for a joke to be more funny? I think that's my favorite one. Emphasis. Whether it is the same thing or not, it can offend people. Exaggeration when you are relaying someone's shortcomings, failures or character flaws can be HILARIOUS. However, the laughter is paid for at their cost - and the price is steals from your integrity. Even when misleading someone to believe a certain thing in order to preserve their feelings - the truth will come out and then you can either admit to lieing(reccomended), or use emphasis to put a spin on it to preserve your integrity(doesn't work). For instance, using the words 'always' and 'never' are ALWAYS WRONG & NEVER RIGHT. So in an attempt to salvage your integrity after the use of those words, you resort to emphasis on percentages saying 75% or more is pretty close to always (nope), and that 3 times in 30yrs is close to never (wrong again). But you know what? If I say "The Hubby puts the seat down 25% of the time, and the other 75% of the time I fall in 50% of those times"....well you can see that doesn't have the comedic rhythm of the traditional epic toilet seat war stories which include exaggerted tales of freezing body parts which once frozen fall off, and of course near drownings. I want to tell the truth and nothing but the truth but it is so much more fun to exaggerate. So how does this pertain to my health, my walk with God, my weight loss journey and my marriage? Honesty is not the enemy of exageration 100% of the time. Grandparents know this. Children have been succesfully persuaded NOT to swallow watermelon seeds for only God knows how long, simply because someone said a watermelon would grow in their stomach if they did. Fisherman have known about and used exageration for years, sports fanatics have used emphasis to win arguments in bars since the first time the amount of time it took to build Rome came into question. And of course how long it took Rome to burn since so much of it was stone. There will always be the people who look at "truth' or factual findings, etc as the basis for all conversation, then there are those who know that sometimes facts are not consistently what motivates dreams to come true, battles to be won and last but not least, fun to be had! Which brings me to the scale in my bathroom. I know that it is off. I know that the number it says I weigh is not what the number the scale at the Doctors office will say I weigh. What I do know is that the distance between what the doctors scale said in March and what the Doctorrs scales says in November is 34lbs. Just like on my scale the difference between March and November is 34lbs. I also know that I am in the "twos" now on both those scales. I started in the "threes" on both those scales. My "emphasis" is on the successful loss of 34lbs, not on the factual numbers of the Doctors scale. I can not go to the Doctors office each time I weigh, and I do not exagerate the 34lbs by rounding up to 35, I want that victory to be real when I reach it. And to my marriage, I love my husband. There are times when I am very much in love with him. So much that it can make me cry when I miss him, or when he says something sweet and unexpected. Then there are times.....I just....wouldnt know where to hide the body...and I hate taking the garbage out. Yup, not wanting to take out the garbage has kept us together for 29years. But don't think you know me completely, I have taken it out myself. Taking out the garbage instead of him is the female equivelent of HIM bringing me flowers for no reason. You might want to write that down, girls. My walk with God. Hmmm. I have praised him for things that can be explained by natural means, I know that somewhere in my pathology file there is a document that has the words "divine intervention" scribbled on it. I know that at the worse of the two diagnoses God used a movie to confirm that He had changed the outcome of that diagnosis even tho the cancer didnt completely dissapear - making my claims of being healed an exaggeration. I know that many people thought I would not have had cancer the second time had God truly healed me the first time. Well, All I know is I am still here. I lived. So if I wasn't healed......and I lived.....WOW isn't that a miracle too? So onto the next miracle in my life...to have a pastor again. I love him. I have had such suspicion for pastors for years. And I will use facts here, some of my mistrust was attributed to some based on the failures of a few. That is a form of exaggeration...you hear things that sound familiar and build, exagerate, a back story that supports your suspicions. (A mind that can exaggerate well, will exaggerate often). I have had years of only Jesus to fill that pastor role and even now My need for a pastor is filled by Jesus, but I know God wants us to have pastors and fellowship because loners get weird. I do not take everything my Pastor says as perfect and without flaw, the grace of God in his life, and mine, covers the places where there are holes in both our finite minds. But I would rather live having something God calls me to have, and struggle with it, than to live in fear and suspicion without it. Ultimately, what I am saying is I choose to exaggerate grace based on my understanding -and that understanding is: that I do not and can not fully comprehend it's factual extent. Thanks for listening, Geri