Saturday, May 17, 2014

Day 137- A Home Remedy First

Today, I drank apple cider vinegar in some water as my "first."

I hate the taste of vinegar. I hate vinegar dressings.  Once I was invited to eat at someone's house (many years ago) and they had some mixed vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, etc.). I thought they were steamed and took a big helping. It turns out they were soaked in vinegar and I almost spit them out. It is a horrid taste to me old taste buds.

I was visiting with a friend of mine whom I have a lot of respect for. He's a really bright guy.  He asked his wife for some apple cider vinegar.  He put some in some water and drank it down. "Why in the world would you do that?" I asked.  As it turns out, he had some acid reflux issues and since he started drinking this concoction, it had gone away.  He was able to quit taking his acid reflux medicine.

There are a lot of people that if they told me that I would not put much stock in it.  Like I said (wrote), this guy is really bright and I have a lot of respect for him. I questioned him about this remedy for a bit and I thought I might give it a try.  He said if you could find apple cider vinegar with its mother (perhaps that was with the mother), that was even better.

I've had some acid reflux issues as of late. In face, I spit up on a lady at Wal-Mart the other day.  OK, I really didn't, but I've been awakened in the night with acid reflux issues and that is no fun. Then I am up for a while trying to get that taste out of my mouth.  I've taken a bunch of antacids and the Doc even gave me a prescription a month or so ago. It's been working fine, but if I can control with the apple cider vinegar that would probably be better.  I drank some today to give it a try.



This is as close to a rabbit as I've been in a long time.  We were probably less 10 feet; Joel got the picture for us


 

I really don't like the taste of vinegar

I really like the idea of no acid reflux


The thing is that even though I don't like the taste, it would be worth it if this really did away with the acid reflux problem.  If I can drink something down in 15 seconds and be acid reflux free for a day, I'll do that and be happy about it.

The Christian life is like that sometimes.  There are times when God calls us to do something that is distasteful.  It is outside of our comfort zone. It is something that we would really rather not do.  We look for ways around doing it so we won't be uncomfortable and sometimes downright hurt.  When God calls us to do things like that, we should remember that it is for our long-term benefit.  Sometimes we need to have a difficult conversation with someone and I hate to do that. It is worth it to bring about reconciliation or to say something in love that I'll be glad I said 10 years from now.  Sometimes God calls us to sacrifice (probably an overused word in our Christian culture; most of the time for us it is more like a minor inconvenience) something like time, money, relationship, or our reputation for Him. If it is truly for Him and something He wants us to do then it will be worth it in the long run.  As a pastor for many years, I've heard a lot of stories about people that would not do the thing that was kind of hard in the short term and ended up with great suffering in the long term.  Examples of this would be things like marrying someone too soon, getting involved sexually with someone too soon, getting involved with an addictive substance to be cool (cigarettes, alcohol, drugs) and it ended up costing them big time in the long run.  Even Jesus had to forgo things in the short-run for the long term benefits.  Hebrews 12:2 says, "fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."   Aren't you glad He endured short term horror for the long term good? 

I heard someone say recently, "Don't trade what you want most for what you want in the moment."

Glad Jesus looks out for the long term abundant life
Barry

3 things I thank God for today
1. He is our shelter
2. Bream
3. Dare I say it?  Apple cider vinegar (I'll be a lot more thankful if it really does help the acid reflux).

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