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Welcome to The Overflow—the bonus round of faith and real-life conversation with Brandon and Susan Thomas. Every week, they unpack the powerful insights, behind-the-scenes experiences, and personal reflections that didn’t quite fit into Sunday’s sermon.
This is where the conversation gets practical, honest, and a little bit unscripted. Whether it's an encouraging word, a deeper dive into Scripture, or a hilarious moment from their week, Brandon and Susan bring fresh perspective and spiritual fuel to keep you going.
It’s real talk, fresh takes, and full hearts.
These are the conversations too good to cut and too real to miss.
Welcome to the overflow. And today, we are getting healthy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're getting healthy. I'm excited about this one because, this is an area that is so important for all of us. Yeah. And boy, I tell you, for me, I just wanna share a little bit of my health journey. I'd love for you to share some of yours.
Speaker 2:You definitely God's given you a big word on healthy. It's part of your story.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:But for me, full transparency, there's gonna be a lot of vulnerability in this Thank you. We're gonna be sharing some things. Yes. Honestly, a little uncomfortable for me to share. Namely that over the last year, as of us recording this, over the last year, I had a shoulder injury when I was working out, which is really funny.
Speaker 2:I was doing a workout that I had seen on Instagram, and I was like, This is gonna be awesome. And then, you know, shoulder problem.
Speaker 1:You're so strong.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:You are.
Speaker 2:And anyway, so I was doing that, and I had to recover the shoulder. And this is not an excuse because I've known guys that had worse injuries than what I had, way worse, and they stuck with it. They stayed in. And so again, it's to my, personally, my shame that I got out of the rhythm. I got out of my flow.
Speaker 2:I got out of my zone. And eight pounds later
Speaker 1:It's hard when you're hurting.
Speaker 2:It is hard, but that's not an excuse. It's a reason. It's not an excuse. And eight pounds later, Susan. I'm sure you're not aware.
Speaker 1:Absolutely not.
Speaker 2:But eight pounds later. Now, I was eight pounds higher than my goal. And my dad had taught me something as a young man. He said, Brandon, and I really appreciate this. He said, Brandon, watch it, watch your weight.
Speaker 2:Not because I was growing at that time, but just as a principle, this is something he applies. Watch your weight. Five pounds a year, ten years later, you're fifty pounds overweight. And five pounds a year sounds like no big deal, but I lived it. Eight pounds, it was easy.
Speaker 2:And especially as you age, now in my 50s, I found that it wasn't as easy to stay in the zone. I had to be more disciplined. I had to ramp it up. So I found myself eight pounds overweight. And for some of you, that'd be like, oh, what's the big deal?
Speaker 2:For me, was a big deal. And then there's these sneaky little words, these little phrases that come into my mind. Like, well, I'm not at my worst. I mean, I've been heavier than this before. It's not that big a deal.
Speaker 2:You know? And little and what old preachers would call stinking thinking. You know? And these were the lids to me getting healthy. Now, a definition of healthy, Susan, is not thinner, is not more muscular.
Speaker 2:Health, it may include getting thinner, may include getting more muscular, whatever. But the real definition of healthy is being your God given best.
Speaker 1:Yeah. For some people, healthy means you need to put on some weight.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:But being your God given best.
Speaker 2:I love that definition. Yeah. Being your God given best. And and what we're gonna do today is not try to give you a physical ideal. There are people that I admire that are genetically just predisposed to do better.
Speaker 2:Now they have to watch it too Yeah. Because they live in the curse as well. But genetically, they just have freaky genes. And and for me, I have different genes. Whatever whatever your natural default setting is, just be your best.
Speaker 2:Be the best version of you. And I've always said in beautiful marriage, whoever your partner is, that's your standard of beauty.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:Right?
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:But you should spur each other on to be the best version. Susan will spur me on, hey, you know, look out for the tummy. That's my zone.
Speaker 1:But you help me too. We help each other.
Speaker 2:Where do I help you? How do I help you?
Speaker 1:Well, you just say, hey. There's a pooch.
Speaker 2:But it's what do you call the
Speaker 1:pooch? Fatty. P h no. P h a t t y. Are we supposed to put this on this podcast?
Speaker 2:Yes. Let me say this. So here's the thing. Here's the thing. This is us, man.
Speaker 2:I told you we're getting vulnerable. And here's the thing. I'm I love you right where you are. Mhmm. But I do want you to be your best.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And you love me. I'm speaking it in faith, believing with all my heart.
Speaker 1:I do. I do.
Speaker 2:You love me right where I am, but you definitely want me to be my best.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:What's the motivation for you wanting me to be my best?
Speaker 1:Wanting you to be your best? Well, for one thing, I would like for you to live as long as possible. Yeah. I mean, I I don't want you to go any quicker just because of bad habits and bad choices. That would honestly.
Speaker 1:But as you'll hear throughout this entire conversation, you you know what I know? The real reason I want you and me to be our best is I really desire first of all, I really believe that if we allow ourselves to just coast down the current of the lazy river with our physical health, I believe it's a direct indication of our spiritual health. Yeah. Because they're tied. When we talk today about living healthy, being healthy, we're not just talking about physical, although this is a big application today.
Speaker 1:But it's an application of where's my heart with the Lord? Where am I spiritually? Because so goes one area of our life, others are up for grabs. Yeah. Because it's all coming from the same heart.
Speaker 1:Is my heart in the healthiest place? Is my attitude in line with God's attitude about my physical health?
Speaker 2:So be careful trying to objectify your spouse. Yeah. Especially with the men, but this is true with the women as well. Be careful comparing your spouse to others. I'd say that.
Speaker 2:And truly, as for the young adults in the house, for all those that are in high school, attraction matters. It really does. We would coach our our kids, hey. Be attracted to the people that you would think of dating, eventually marrying. But be very careful that for attraction, you will just skip over a lot of crazy, a lot of dysfunction, a lot of unspiritual, a lot of carnal, because these things do change over time.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And the outside, the physical body could be incredible in the best shape, in the best space, and the inside be so corrupt and so broken. I mean, God says really clearly, man looks at the outward appearance, God looks at the heart. And so in your dating for those dating right now, and that like you just said, do not let that be your marker. It is an element that gives you indication, okay, this person cares, but you better make sure what they care about.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So recently, we did a talk, just with our team about healthy and and this topic. And the feedback we got was so overwhelming, truly. People on the different teams, we started getting feedback from directors that, man, we haven't heard that. And and y'all were so raw with your own journey that it really helped us.
Speaker 2:It helped the people that we lead. So I talked about, and I'll talk more in a moment, about me being eight pounds over, and truly, I started whipping myself into shape and started getting back into flow, got into a brand new gym, and and all that. But you have a journey as well. Briefly, why don't you just share with us kinda your journey of health?
Speaker 1:Yeah. Absolutely. And I I look forward to, at some point on this conversation, sharing my testimony because there's power in our testimony, and it unlocks things for other people. And everyone has a story, and I definitely have a story. But part of my story was, early in my young adult life when I was still a student in college at Baylor, I developed an eating disorder.
Speaker 1:And it was coming from a lot of other places. It was a symptom of a deeper issue, but it became the first time where as far as physically, I began to struggle. I'd never struggled with weight. It just hadn't been my flavor, my my challenge. When I was, you know, high schooler and even first parts of college, I really took for granted.
Speaker 1:I can eat what I want, do what I want. And it wasn't out of self discipline or acknowledging God or caring for my body as a temple of the holy spirit. It was just purely because I had the gift of high metabolism, and so I ate what I wanted to eat and it didn't affect me or so I thought. But that, of course, began to be highlighted whenever it suddenly did begin to affect me in college, you know, the whole college college 15. And so that really began a journey where when I was so in the addictive cycle of food and misery and discontent and my body not feeling my best and weight gain that was due to my unhealthy relationship with food, that would be the first time that I began the journey of really having to own that I have a responsibility with my physical health.
Speaker 1:And in that situation, this is my story, my ground zero was I can't even begin the journey of health because I'm trapped in an addiction. And so that again, I can't wait to share that whole story. Yeah. But God and his goodness, I as I sought him and as I cried out to him over a period of about four years is how long it lasted, which, by the way, if you've ever been caught in an addiction or any kind of of cycle like that, four years, you just don't you start to believe that this is my life. That I mean, it's not we're not talking months.
Speaker 1:We're not talking about a year. Maybe this is now my forever battle. And God and his goodness rescued me fully from that addictive pattern. But even since then, I think I've been on a journey, my whole adulthood of discovering a healthy relationship with my responsibility for this temple that I'm in. I think for a long time, I honestly and I laughed about this the other day talking to, you know, some people that I thought exercise and the benefits of exercise was truly an urban legend.
Speaker 2:And the the reason it's so ridiculous. The reason that you felt that and I'm what you're seeing on my face right now is such frustration because
Speaker 1:Well
Speaker 2:for twenty some odd years in our relationship, you had that metabolism, and I did not. And so I would watch you not exercise and yet still keep that figure, whereas I'm getting a different figure if I don't exercise. Oh. And but then you, recently discovered a pattern that really did help you.
Speaker 1:Well, I recently also discovered menopause introduced fatty.
Speaker 2:Oh, man. He laughs
Speaker 1:every time I say that word for the past several years. Yeah. But yeah. No. I mean, it's true when things began to shift in my metabolism and in my hormones and just this season of life.
Speaker 1:But I would say you're you're referring to even right before that really became, you know, on the horizon for me. I have had a history of a degenerative disc in my lower back, and that's been a real source of when it when it hits, when it gets irritated, it's debilitating. I mean, times, utterly debilitating. And I would say about three or four years ago, I really do believe that the holy spirit whispered into my ears. And by the way, that's a whole another conversation of how to hear the holy spirit, how to hear the voice of God.
Speaker 1:But what I think's interesting about, I'll just double teach this, how to hear the voice of God. Why do I believe that God spoke to me? For one thing, it's not something I wanted to hear. I would never tell myself this. I believe there's three main voices that you hear, well, four if you count others' voices.
Speaker 1:We hear the voice of God. We hear the voice of the enemy, the deceiver, and we hear the voice of our own flesh, our heart. The by the bible says our heart is deceitful above all things, desperately sick. Who can know it? So you kinda test, what voice am I hearing?
Speaker 1:And I'll tell you what was said, and then I'll tell you why I believe it was God. What was said in my spirit so loud was, if you don't choose physical therapy, physical therapy will choose you.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So good.
Speaker 1:Number one, no part of me wants physical therapy or wants to choose it. Like, that doesn't come from me. I don't want that. I don't wanna do it. And then secondly, my enemy would not want something good for me.
Speaker 1:My enemy is not wanting to build me up, only to tear me down, steal, kill, and destroy. So that's just a side note that I think is important as we all are learning. God, I wanna hear your voice. But that was so powerful, and in that moment, I believed it. I believed it.
Speaker 1:If I don't take a step, this is going this is coming my way. More pain so it's pain either way.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And so I did. I began to do, Pilates, which is just a strengthening type of exercise for your body, your core, your arms, your legs, which at this season in life is so important. I started it, didn't like it a bit, probably didn't smile a whole lot, but I kept going. And now three or four years later, I mean, it's not like I still jump It's in
Speaker 2:a regular rhythm for your life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I do, I go.
Speaker 2:It's a priority.
Speaker 1:Believe it. I know
Speaker 2:that You know, and I do wanna give you credit that even those years of your metabolism, just insane and all that, what you did have a philosophy of eating, and the philosophy was portion.
Speaker 1:That was born out of that freedom.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Born out of the freedom. You're like, I will not, you know, and and it it worked for you. You could for your body, you could eat a lot of things and the portion, and it would work. But I do believe that that message of health began to ring in a little later of, If I eat anything I want, that doesn't mean it's healthy.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:And this is one of the biggest messages that we'll give, and we'll give a couple of examples. Thinner doesn't necessarily mean healthy. And, we'll we'll talk about that a little bit. Sometimes healthy makes you thinner, but thinner doesn't also always mean healthy. Let's get through some scriptures.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I've got a bunch of scriptures I wanna walk through. And the first one is our anchor
Speaker 1:And some might ask, does God care?
Speaker 2:Oh, God cares. And this you're about to be surprised how much he talks about the body. Proverbs fourteen thirty, a tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones bones rot. I wanna I wanna focus on the front end. What gives life to the body?
Speaker 1:A healthy heart.
Speaker 2:A healthy heart. And so it's it's what you were talking about a moment ago. Here in the scripture, we see that the ground floor and the first thing you establish as important is the heart. It's it's the inside. It's the healthy heart, and then your body will have life.
Speaker 1:And is that healthy heart? I I'm curious. Is that our physical heart, or is that the the soul heart?
Speaker 2:No. It's talking about the soul. The in the in the scripture, when it talks about the heart, it's talking about the seed of all understanding. It's it's talking about the, the control system for your whole life.
Speaker 1:And I think that underscores what we said at the very beginning, that anytime we talk about physical health, it's absolutely tied to our spiritual health. That's the only real place it can come from that's sustainable. In fact, I would just say to whoever's listening, if there's part of you that's like, this is I'm I'm actually happy you're still listening because this topic may be annoying. Yeah. And if you feel in any way annoyed or if you feel in any way maybe it's not annoyed, but if you were if you are like me, what I would feel in this conversation even prior to now maybe is I would feel resistance.
Speaker 1:If you feel a subtle resistance right now, I urge you, do not let anything distract you from the remainder of
Speaker 2:your Spiritual
Speaker 1:warfare. Absolutely.
Speaker 2:First Corinthians chapter. So it starts with the heart. So really get it, get yourself before the Lord. God, man, just humble yourself before him. God, I wanna be my best.
Speaker 2:Do you struggle praying that prayer? God, I want because you're afraid of what he's he'll ask of you. First Corinthians chapter six verse nineteen and twenty. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the holy spirit? Therefore, honor God with your body.
Speaker 2:Okay. So couple of rich things there. Number one, he describes your physical body. K? Your physical body is a temple of the holy spirit.
Speaker 2:Jesus said the another one is coming, an advocate, the great counselor, the parakaleo. He is coming. And the power of the holy spirit is not bound by by a a place, that the holy spirit can reside in my temple and in your temple and in your temple, and it can the holy spirit makes his home in your body.
Speaker 1:I think that verse, if I really lean into it and and imagine it, in the old testament, there was a temple. And in the old testament, God would reside in spaces and places. He would have to build a place.
Speaker 2:He's still God the father was everywhere.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:But his manifest presence and where he chose to be worshiped like that Yes. Was in the temple.
Speaker 1:Yes. And that's where he would locate himself in connection with people. And so fast forward to now, post Jesus new covenant, if you've put your faith in Jesus, you maybe have heard this verse a thousand times, or you've thought, yeah, my body is a temple of the holy spirit. No. Can you even believe that God lives in me?
Speaker 1:Yeah. That he has chosen to make the place where he abides is inside of this physical body I've been given. It's just mind blowing when you really, really under begin to understand that or imagine and under to comprehend that. It's a very big deal.
Speaker 2:So dishonoring the temple of the holy spirit. That's a it gives you a whole new framework.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah.
Speaker 2:Being healthy is honoring the temple God has given you. Dishonoring the temple is unhealthy. And so how do we dishonor the temple? We cope with life's disappointments through food or alcohol. That would be dishonoring the temple of God.
Speaker 2:Turning a warning here. Turning to excessive alcohol and choosing the world standards for alcohol or food Yeah. As permission when it may not be healthy. So, you know, the bible's clear on alcohol. All in moderation, do not crush past the speed bumps of moderation, that when you drink, you do not drink to get drunk, not on your birthday, not on New Year's Eve, not on the bicentennial.
Speaker 2:I mean, I don't even
Speaker 1:Well, to be clear, do not be drunk with wine, but instead be filled with the holy spirit of God. Like we just said, the temple of God Bingo. Is our body. And so what are you filling your body with? Make sure that it doesn't in any way conflict with the holy spirit of God.
Speaker 1:He's the one that should fill it.
Speaker 2:But are you ready for this? Honor God with your food. Yeah. So how do I honor God with my food? You know, there's been a lot of preaching through the years on anti alcohol, but not as much preaching on anti dishonoring God with food.
Speaker 2:So dishonoring God with food would say, I have a temple, and am I honoring the temple with what I eat? Yeah. And so that doesn't mean you never eat ice cream or you never have fun with, because the Bible talks about, you know, delicious feasting and all that, but you don't live in the feast.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:We're not there. We can't be there. We're living under a curse where we deal with heart disease, and we deal with diabetes, and we deal with, food addiction and and and all of these broken expressions of our human reality. Therefore, we must turn our brains on when it comes to what we eat.
Speaker 1:Well, and you know, recently, I had my blood work done and found out that I was in the pre diabetic range with my a one c. You've been hearing all about it because I tell
Speaker 2:you about it. Yes.
Speaker 1:And I was so sad. And also, I should not be surprised.
Speaker 2:Then now this is common in your season of life.
Speaker 1:Is it really? Keep telling me that.
Speaker 2:It is. That's what I've read. That's what I've heard. This is not uncommon
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:In your season because you are not, you know, in a weight area that would necessitate this. This is something happening on the inside.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Definitely happening on the inside, and my ice cream does not help it.
Speaker 2:It does not.
Speaker 1:And my pancakes. Although I started eating pancakes when I eat pancakes. I'm not eating pancakes right at the moment. But when I eat pancakes, I started not using syrup. I lather it with butter.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. I mean, okay. I'm sure lathering it with butter is better than syrup, but are we
Speaker 1:Look. I'm just saying moderation.
Speaker 2:And truly, the ice cream was every day, but I know a lot of guys that do that. You know, I have my daily bowl of ice cream, whatever.
Speaker 1:Well, and here it is. It's not a legalistic, this is the way, step one, two, three. It really is a journey in your relationship with Jesus. Yeah. Listening to him, answering his prompting, partnering with him in the state of your body.
Speaker 1:And when he and when he reveals things to you, symptomatically with your actual temple, either having a bad blood test result or maybe in a space where it's just unhealthy, then we go to God and say, okay, Lord, will you search me, show me, reveal to me some areas where I have gotten out of out of joint, out of whack, and helped me be on the right track. And you and I have talked about this. We talk about it honestly all the time in every category. But I believe so much of this physical health does go back to the state of the heart that you just read, and that is the seed bed of desire. Am I des what am I desiring to an unhealthy level?
Speaker 1:And and you might say, well, how do I know? I mean, you said it actually at the very top, I think. Sometimes we know we're desiring something, in an unhealthy or ungodly way when we're going to that thing to help us cope with life. You said
Speaker 2:that earlier. That's exactly right. Honoring God with your body is not coping. You go to God. Yes.
Speaker 2:Go to God.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Okay. I got another scripture. Third John chapter one verse two. I pray that you may enjoy good health. Listen to the bible.
Speaker 2:Couldn't be clearer than that.
Speaker 1:Who cares?
Speaker 2:I pray this is John saying to the church. I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you even as your soul is getting see, they they just don't separate the spiritual walk with the physical walk even as your soul is getting along well. And good health, all right? So I wanna lock in on this healthy concept. And again, I wanna tap back into my story.
Speaker 2:I told you I started in a new gym. So this new gym, they acquaint you. They give you an orientation to the gym because it's a great gym. And one of the things that they showed me was this tool that the gym makes available. And you stand on it, and I thought, okay, this is gonna measure my weight, because boom, there's my weight.
Speaker 2:And I'd already been starting to lose some weight just by healthy choices and all that, but this was the next level. This was the next step. And there's my weight. Okay, I've lost a few pounds. Great.
Speaker 2:But I'm still not where I wanna be. And then they say, oh, no. And they had me take my shoes and socks off. I thought that was a little weird. And then they had me hold these handles.
Speaker 2:Said Yeah,
Speaker 1:because you don't like to be barefoot.
Speaker 2:That's true. Thank That's you for sharing. You K. Like derailing this point.
Speaker 1:At any point. Like, I just want everyone to understand at any point, you do not like to be barefoot.
Speaker 2:I've got a little better, but, okay. So I'm standing there with my bare feet on this instrument, and it's got my weight. It has my weight. Okay. And then he says, hold on to these handles.
Speaker 2:I hold on to these handles. And this machine begins to scan my body, and then it gives a report. And I was fascinated. It measures your weight. It measures your skeletal mass index.
Speaker 2:Measures your lean muscle, and it measures your body fat. And all of those things, I'm like, okay, okay. And it tells you, are you average, above average? Are you obese? All these things.
Speaker 2:And, I didn't like some of those numbers. As I mean, I was feeling better about my weight progress, but I didn't like those numbers. So I kept going to the gym, kept going to the gym. I'm watching what I eat. I'm even in a fast at this point.
Speaker 2:I'm going through a fast, and I get back on that machine after a few days, you know, probably a week, I'd say, of really being disciplined, and I had lost even more weight. Okay? And I'm like, wow. I am really losing weight. This is exciting.
Speaker 2:Then I grab the handles, and I see that my body fat index was the same percentage as it was the last time I checked. I'm like, wait a second.
Speaker 1:That's wild.
Speaker 2:This is not okay. Now I'm gonna I'm gonna freak you out on this point That I was holding that thing, and I'm like, but I've lost weight. I'm getting thinner. I know I'm getting thinner. I've been a big fast.
Speaker 2:My clothes are fitting differently. How is it possible? I'm losing weight here. How could I possibly still have the same fat percentage, body fat percentage? So I began looking it up, and I discovered that when you're on a fast like I was on, I was not eating protein.
Speaker 2:I was on full, just a normal fast.
Speaker 1:Water only.
Speaker 2:Yeah. No food. And water, tea, coffee only. And I found that what was happening was, yes, my fat was decreasing, and I was feeling it, and it was true. But my muscle mass was decreasing as well because I was eating no protein, and I wasn't working my muscles because I was in that extreme fast.
Speaker 2:And so what I learned in that moment was that I was indeed getting thinner, but I was not getting healthier. And so I had a plan. I had a plan. Okay. I'm going to now I'm gonna be I'm gonna be I'm gonna embrace this kind of diet when I emerge out of this fast to start building muscle.
Speaker 2:And let's keep these the fat lower, but let's build the muscle. And my fat I haven't tested it yet, but my fat, body fat percentage should start lowering. And I have a goal for that as well. All this is a journey of health versus thin.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Health versus this perfect body. I could take you know, I could become, you know, cranked car carcinically. You know? I could just be all roided up, you know? And and it could be destroying my body on the inside.
Speaker 2:You know? You know? But, hey. I've got muscles. Hey.
Speaker 2:I've got abs. Hey. I look fit, but I'm not healthy. And, of course, there's medicine that people take, you know, and they lose weight. And and certainly not saying that's a bad thing.
Speaker 2:It's not a bad thing, but, boy, don't neglect the heart.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Well, at the end of the day, whatever your journey is towards physical health, check your heart. What's the motive? Is it to look good to other people? Is it that you're trying to be admired by others?
Speaker 1:Is it that you, are trying to pursue something for your own for your own self adoration? I don't know what the thing is, but it can also be things of you know, there can be the goal of I just wanna live healthy, feel good, be strong. All those are good reasons also. But the primary reason, the foundation reason is, God, I wanna honor you with my body. I wanna glorify you in this temple.
Speaker 1:God, help me live in every way. Do everything the bible says as unto the lord. Whatever you eat, whatever you drink, do it all for the glory of god. And when we really do live that way, not it's not just talk where we just say these things, these words, these spiritual things, but we, our heart, desire that. But, god, I want to honor you with everything, including what I eat, what I drink, and how I take care of my body.
Speaker 1:There's lids that are lifted. And there I believe there are some really, just wonderful people, Christ follower people, that they're living at a lid in this area of their life, and they don't realize the life that could be on the other side. There's a breakthrough God would want to give, but there's this resistance that, you know what? I want the Lord to be in all these other areas of my life, but this area is this, almost unspoken stay out. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And that and anywhere in our life where we have those those padlocked rooms of our soul, it's just an opportunity for the enemy to hurt us, to rob us. And, again, this is physical health and taking care of our temple, it's not about God just trying to steal pleasure from us.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:It's not about God trying to keep us from good things. I truly believe the journey towards physical health and the self control, which is a fruit of the holy spirit, self discipline required, it's yet again God giving another answer to the decay of sin and death Yeah. To the current of sin and death saying, hey. Here's the way you combat that. Here's the way you fight that.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And I'd say the healthiest people I know I think the the right way to do this is it starts with worship of God. To the glory of God, I give you my body. Next step is I, because of that, because of what the Bible says, I choose to be a healthy person. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Like, it's a part of my identity. I am a healthy person. I am a person who chooses health. See, when it becomes that instead of this this push push pull, push pull, I'm choosing to be healthy right now. No.
Speaker 2:No. No. I am a healthy person because god has asked me to be a health a healthy person. I think that changes it just with motivation. First Corinthians ten twenty three, the Bible says, I have the right to do anything you say, but not everything's beneficial.
Speaker 2:You know? So, yeah, you may be able to eat this, that, and the other, but how does it work for you? And on this, be careful of generational patterns.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah. I I would just say again in my work, having the privilege to work with so many people in the counseling realm, but also you and I just working with people in our own lives, really examine generational strongholds, generational potentially patterns. And, again, when you anytime side note. When you delve into your childhood or your family of origin or your spouse's family of origin, it is never for the point of condemnation where you're shaming your parents, where you're condemning their failures. Absolutely not.
Speaker 1:I I mean, that's a whole another podcast because it just frustrates me so badly. Do we grieve things? Absolutely. And sometimes there's such pain there that it's gonna take some work to get to the healing and and just absolute mandate of forgiveness. But do look at it instead of from a view of being a victim of those days or being the judge now of your of your family.
Speaker 1:Instead, let the Lord inform you of areas that you may now have to fight. And I would say to the person listening, if you're a young parent in the room, one of the blessings, I think, that we as young parents, if we understand this, and I would urge you right now, is that you have the ability to fight battles so that your kids don't have to. Yeah. If you can fight some of the battles with your own flesh and your own broken patterns that maybe you even have inherited as well, just because you picked up the habits that your family laid down and you just kept it going, You have the ability to be the one who says in Jesus' name, it stops here.
Speaker 2:Amen.
Speaker 1:In Jesus' name, this is going to change, and it's a way to bless your family. And if you have if your kids are older and you look back and see areas where you blew it, go tell them. Go tell them. Be honest. Confess it.
Speaker 1:And ask, you know, for their forgiveness and ask and pray for for their freedom. They may be battling some things that that were a part of you just didn't even realize or you were in denial of patterns that you were doing in your family. But generational impact is it's no joke. It's absolutely real. We are shaped by our families of origin, but God is so much more powerful that he can even break things that need to be broken.
Speaker 2:That's so powerful, Susan. And, scripture is so honest and so bottom shelf, and I love this. On the generational thought, even I've I've seen you do this with our daughters. I'm very careful talking about this area with our daughters. I feel like I'm ill equipped, and I'm afraid I'm gonna plant dysfunction.
Speaker 2:You know?
Speaker 1:Sure. It's tricky.
Speaker 2:Because it's tricky. But I would also say for my son, you know, I was like, you know, I really encouraged him to be, for the glory of God, but to be fit and to be in the gym and to be, you know, all those things at an earlier age because I was naturally very, very thin when I was young, and I hated doing all that. I did it here and there, but I just hated it. And so I just think installing these things in your kids, you want them to be better than you. You want them to get a good shot.
Speaker 1:You do. I think there was things I would do different. I'll just confess this right now. You know, joking and all jokes aside, I'd I love sugar. I have a sweet tooth.
Speaker 1:I my one of my first jobs was Baskin Robbins. Whenever I got my bad a one c blood work back, I was talking to my doctor, and I said I said, but I love ice cream. I used to work at Baskin Robbins. And he looked at me and he said, you don't work there anymore. Was like, that is so rude.
Speaker 2:That's so rude.
Speaker 1:But, yeah, I love him. He's a great doctor. But he said, you don't work there anymore. Maybe just enjoy it on Sundays. You know, he was just being Yeah.
Speaker 1:He was speaking rhythm. He was speaking moderation. Yeah. And whereas I thought it hadn't hadn't really bothered my body, in reality, I just think that there needed to be a healthier Yeah. Restraint.
Speaker 1:And again, not to I mean, I fully would enjoy ice cream right now, right here. But but the restraint of sometimes you know what? Sometimes I'm go for my plain yogurt with monk fruit Mhmm. And a little bit of, you know, dark chocolate.
Speaker 2:So that's an example right there.
Speaker 1:It's just a small change, but it's like a a decision. And so all that to say, I think what I would do differently with my children is I just think because at the time, I did have a high metabolism and I did enjoy ice cream so much and just sweets, that I would I would have more of a rhythm of restraint. It probably was a pretty often, hey. Let's go to Baskin Robbins to get ice cream. Partially why?
Speaker 1:Because mommy wants ice cream. Yeah. And everybody has ice cream. So, you know, it was just a season where I I think I would tweak that. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And that's okay to say. I think it's actually important
Speaker 2:So good.
Speaker 1:To say because I wanna learn from my own shortcomings. And whenever the lord blesses us with grandkids one day, you know, I mean, I probably will give them ice cream, but I'll ask their parents' permission first, and it won't be every meal.
Speaker 2:Right. It'll be as
Speaker 1:good times.
Speaker 2:Proverbs 25, so practical. Verse 27, it is not good to eat too much honey.
Speaker 1:Well, and there it is. I mean
Speaker 2:It says it.
Speaker 1:It should say ice cream.
Speaker 2:It's not good to eat too much honey. I mean, look at that. And then
Speaker 1:Wait. Side note. It didn't say you couldn't eat honey.
Speaker 2:No. Right. Too much. Philippians three nineteen, their god is their stomach. They set their mind is set on earthly things.
Speaker 2:Oh. And then first Timothy four eight, physical training is of some value, Paul said. It has value, but godliness has value for all things.
Speaker 1:Can we go back to that other one?
Speaker 2:Yeah. I think it's all the point, but go ahead.
Speaker 1:Read that one right before.
Speaker 2:Their god is their stomach, Philippians three. Their mind is set on earthly things.
Speaker 1:Okay. Think for me, this is the crux of the issue. When you talk about getting physically healthy, and we keep saying it starts with spiritual health, the bible is being diagnostic. And he is saying god is saying to us, their god, little g god, is their stomach. What does that mean?
Speaker 1:That means my pleasure. My pleasure is my god. That thing that I perceive will give me pleasure, that is my God. My stomach being happy and content with whatever I just ate or my taste buds being excited about whatever I just ate, those actually are gifts from God. Well, how's kind of God to let us taste food and enjoy and be nourished by by food?
Speaker 1:It's not this just bland experience. He has such a variety, right, of opportunity to bless and and please us. But if that's the God I serve and I abandon the one true God in those moments, oh, you know what? I'm gonna do what I wanna do what I wanna do with no thought.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And, you know, feasting needs fasting.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I've shared it so many times when I went through a three day fast of another three day fast, different than the one I was referring to recently. But I went through a three day fast, and when I went through that, God gave me a supernatural experience where I had no hunger. No hunger. Yet, and that's a miracle. I mean, no hunger pain.
Speaker 2:No growling of the stomach. And yet, I would feel this invisible arm reaching out for food as I passed it by. And what I began to realize was God in this fast, what he was teaching me was that desire can be as stronger than need and than hunger. And and I went to work on my desires. You see, feasting needs fasting.
Speaker 2:Yes. And we need to be healthy people who embrace that rhythm.
Speaker 1:And feasting is not the same as idolatry.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Can we talk about that for a quick second? Yeah. Because there's a space in scripture for feasting, enjoying the good things. I mean, absolutely having a meal and all the great things that come with it. There's pictures of it in the bible of feasting.
Speaker 1:But idolatry is when we lift that feast up to a place that God never meant it to live, and that's on the inner workings of the heart. Right? That's a big deal. Because it's not like, okay. I'm gonna blow through all of the, you know, barriers and call it feasting.
Speaker 1:Right? I just I'm gonna cast all of my restraint to the wind, and this is my feasting time. No. It's intentionality whether you're feasting or you're fasting. In the feasting season, it's a, god, thank you for this this moment of feasting or this season of feasting.
Speaker 1:I thank you for it. And even there, I don't wanna gorge myself. I don't wanna make myself unhealthy by drinking too much and dishonoring you or by going past the satiation of my my stomach and my taste buds and eating beyond what this meal requires. But I just think that's important. But then there's also a season of, okay, some of the things I'm feasting on, I'm gonna fast from that for a little bit to have that rhythm, that healthy rhythm in my life.
Speaker 2:So good. So are we saying that, you know, diets and all that's bad? No. Get the help you need, consult a dietitian, take the supplements that that God has made available, whatever works, but start with the heart. It's an alignment of the heart.
Speaker 2:To the glory of God, I want to be my best. And I'd encourage you, you know, decide right now. Maybe for some of you, it's I need to take the next best step toward a destination that's on the horizon. Others of you just need to jump in with both legs and, like, go extreme. Whatever it is, get before the Lord and say, let's start with healthy.
Speaker 2:And healthy starts with God. I wanna honor you with even my body. This has been another episode of the overflow, and we have loved it. It's been awesome being with you, and we'll see you next time. Be healthy y'all on The Overflow.