Me and the Seven Deadly Sins

My good friend Rita is a Catholic. I love discussing her beliefs with her. The other day we got into the topic of The Seven Deadly Sins. She had to memorize them when she was in Catholic School or for Catacism or something. I really have no idea what I am talking about. Maybe Rita will correct me in the comments on where she really had to memorize these. But anyway, I came home and looked them up online. I wanted to know how guilty I was.

I guess I could feel exempt since I am not a Catholic, but, you know, I'm a woman, so I always like to find things to guilt myself over. And you know I really have a problem when I don't have enough guilt in living one of the strictest tenants of faith, that I have to go to another religious sect for a good old fashioned guilt trip.

Here are the seven deadly sins: wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, gluttony.

I am pretty sure that out of all of these seven, my hardest one is gluttony. When I recently saw this picture when I was eight months pregnant and realized that I weighed less then than I do now, I about threw up. I am typing this now as I chow down on a big fat homemade waffle with butter and syrup and a glass of 2% milk. At least it's not whole milk, right? I am trying to give myself props once in a while, along with the guilt trips.

I need to make this glutony a matter of prayer. It is time to get it under control once and for all. But food is my friend. It is my friend that I go to when things are bad, when things are good, and when things just are. I especially go to food when I have a child who sucks me dry. Because let's face it...all kids are needy and they can take every last ounce of your energy if you let them. When little ones stretch me to the max, food is a great place to get lost. I always say that once I am done having babies, then I will be more motivated, but it just isn't true.

I am motivated now, but I just don't want to give up the fat grams, or the sugar, or the white flour. It's a disease. Seriously. An addiction. I hate when I eat gluttonously. I feel like crap. I hate exercising and not seeing any results because I just eat more, guilt free, to fill the calories that I have burned. Because after all isn't that why I walked this morning? So I could have two brownies beyond the one that I shouldn't have eaten in the first place?

What about you? What's your hardest sin of the seven. C'mon people. Let's help each other feel better here.

There is one thing I know. It's that we all have weaknesses. Some people don't like to share any of theirs because they want people to think that they are perfect, but I don't think that allows for God's grace into your life. I also don't think it's being a very good friend.

It's not that I want to know your trash. Don't give me nitty gritty details. You can just tell me one of the very broad seven deadly's. And tell me what you do to try and overcome it. Then I will be validated that I am not alone in the struggle and that you understand and you will reach out for my love and support as I do for yours.

Don't tell me to go to Weight Watchers. Don't tell me what I need to do, because I know what I need to do. Tell me what you do to overcome your weakness, and then maybe I can glean some wisdom for my situation. Even if your pet sin is one of the other six, I think that the help we need in overcoming all of them is universal. For instance, prayer, it would help with any of the seven I am sure. Or how about vacation time. Nobody is glutenous on vacation, right?

One thing annoys me in the blogging world. It is the same thing that annoys me in the Christmas Card world. I don't want to hear your best bragging. I don't want to see all the pictures of your perfectly matching children who have straight A's and play five instruments, and went on 10 mission trips, and have 12 pen pals in Zimbabwe. I can handle listening to all of this stuff, if you just add in one or two pieces of the reality with it.

Consider this my best attempt at reality.

Moms are so competitive. I think most of them will have the deadly sin of envy because they feed into the world created by the other moms. Oh, your kid does that? Then they turn around to their husband that evening and say, "I think that little Bobby should do ballet." Their husband says, "Heck no." But because the kid of the best friend of your sister's sister in law is doing it, you don't want your kid to be outdone. You think, "Why can't my kid do that? My kid is good. I want to be as good as them. I don't want them to have more than me. And you perpetuate this onto your children."

Well, my blog is not one of those places that encourages envy. What works for you, won't necessarily work for me. And I am wise enough to know that my kids don't need to compete with your kids. The only person they need to compete with is themselves. And that goes the same for me. Yeah, you may be a Size 2. I don't care. I don't want to overcome my love affair with food so that I can look like you. I want to overcome it so that I can overcome it and feel better with what I have accomplished in self improvement.

Come to my blog to feel better. Know I am on the journey with you. I'm imperfect. And I know you are too, whether you want to admit it or not.

Rita just stopped by. We were discussing sloth. I noticed all the cobwebs in the corners of my home. Maybe I have another deadly sin.

Oh no! I can't breathe. I'm dying. Oh yeah, I'm not Catholic. It's all good.