pattygreen

Sil, congrats! So glad you are doing well. I had my surgery 4 mo. ago at St Raphaels hosp. (Dr. Yood) In New Haven. I, too, couldn't believe that I had no hunger the first week. Be careful, for that will return as soon as you start eating purees and then mushies. You s.l.o.w.l.y start to bring your food content up gradually. and soon you'll be eating more than you want. Thus the need for fills. My advice to you would be to try to never eat more than 1 c. of food at a time and eat very slowly. It's great to hear when someone gets thru the surgery and is doing well! God bless. Patty

Fed up with what?! I have never even had a conversation with her before.

V-queen, First of all, I never assumed or stated that you were not a christian. I only assumed by your tone and comments that you might be angry at God. But if I am wrong, and you're just frustrated with my 'dribble', then you may choose to stay away from my postings. bye now.

Wouldn't a good christian take the money from the extra food and send it to someone who has no food, you ask?........ Why do you call us good? For only God is good.

Mans laws are made for them to try to control what is wrong in the country. They bring forth consequences for the laws that they enstate. How do you suppose that man would be able to monitor everyones eating, for everyone eats every day many times a day. Prostitution is not being done by everyone. Yes, Gluttony is a sin to God, but so is lusting in your mind. Do you think that I would want a law enforced that controls what we think? If we put every sin there is into law, we wouldn't be able to move. For God says that even the good things that we do are as filthy rags unto him. That shows us His holiness, and shows us how sinful man really is. We can't even be in his presence. I am not a hipocritical person. I believe that I am the worst of all sinners. I would love it if we were able to control sin and its consequences, but we can't. We can only try to curb sin. God says that when He returns, that is when sin will be forever gone.

V-queen, after rereading your post, I would like to ask you why you are so angry at God? He isn't the one who thought of and then brought to fuition the idea of children sex trade. MAN did that. You should be upset with MAN and his choices to do wrong. I believe that God has his hand on everything that happens here. I think that he directly intervened with the planes landing simply because there were many on the plane who confessed to having cried out to God for His help, so I believe He heard their prayers. Sometimes things happen in life that are not fair or just. (Like child trade for sex) Most of the time it is because of mans sin. Whenever anyone sins, they and everyone around suffers the consequences. There will never be an end to it until God returns to earth to restore it to himself and binds Satan in Hell forever.

You are right there. I can remember when I was first searching for truth about who God is, The Jehovah's witnesses came to my door. I let them in and we talked. When I learned that they did not allow their congregants to read any other material except for their own (the watchtower stuff and their JW bible), That's when I said good-bye to them. Another reason why I left my catholic upbringing was because you couldn't find bibles in the pews. Any denomination that doesn't let you think for yourself should be avoided in my opinion.

Personally, I don't believe in luck.:scared2:

V-Queen, Wow! Are you alright? I'm sorry, but reading your post just floored me for a moment. I can understand how you might feel that the news media may have played it out longer than you wanted them to but you have to admit, there isn't enough good news being reported lately. Why shouldn't the good news of the survival of those on the jet get plenty of coverage? I don't hear anyone complaining about all the coverage of the first African American president, because it's good news. Those people made it through something that in all likelihood should have caused them to perish. That's something to celebrate! I thank God that the pilot was trained to land planes in trouble.

I'm looking forward to hearing from the pilots and copilots own mouths about what they went through, and their thoughts.They got a special invitation to the inaugural for Obama. (did I spell that right?) I'm a homeschooloing mom, so I tend to get uptight about spelling and proper grammar) They asked the media to leave them alone during it because they can't speak about it anyway as yet. (the media are such hounds sometimes). Do you think there will be a movie? If there were, it would be short. Unless they go deeper into the lives of some of them on board, like the pilots life. I'd go see it. Idon't live to far from the Hudson. I've been on it and crossed it and I've visited NY many times.

In every denomination you will find 'people putting on a show' as carrie calls it. There are so many people at so many different levels spiritually. Christianity is a very 'Personal' experience. It is a 'relationship' with God. Some find that relationship at a meeting place called 'church', and others in their own homes. I said this once before, and I believe it's worth repeating. The biggest difference between Christianity and all other 'religions' is this...Religion is Man trying to find God (through good deeds,works,going door to door,penance,etc.) and Chrisrianity is God reaching down to find man.(nothing to do but...accept His free gift of eternal life) That's why I don't believe Christianity is religion. It's a relationship with God. That's all. Parents make mistakes with their kids. We all know that. But now that we are grown and make our own decisions, I find that if we search for truth within our own hearts, diregarding the failings and teachings of others, God will not let us down.

Brad, you are right. I apologize. Will you forgive me? I do feel that most of the time I have stated that these are my beliefs, and if I didn't say 'I believe' it's mostly because I felt that everyone here that I was talking to knows me and knows that that's what I believe. Either way, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to disrespect you.

Sometimes it is hard to break old habits. If we could follow the doctors orders, we wouldn't have needed the lapband in the first place. How many of you were told by your doctor how to eat right and what kinds of exercises to do in order to lose weight? Most of us, I would say. Were we successful? No. That's why we needed the band. I can't really understand how within the first 6-8 weeks post op people could faulter so soon, but I can understand how after 3 or 4 months postop people slack off on the protein, start eating brocolli and some breads and other things the were told to stay away from. (I do it myself sometimes, but then I remember what I went through with the surgery and all, and tell myself to get back on track because I've come this far.)

(First time posting on this question.) I personally feel that each person needs to make that decision for themself. I had my surgery at 281 pounds. I gained about 50 lbs in the 1st year before my surgery. I spent nearly 25 years of my life weighing around 215. I was comfortable at 215. But not happy with my appearance. At 215, I didn't feel the need for surgery. Never even thought about it. But, by the time Ihit 270 or so, now I started contemplating surgery. Some may feel that at 215 they would have had it. It's definitley your own decision because only you know where you are comfortable or happy. You have to remember that wls is elective surgery. Thus why you and you alone can elect to have it at any weight you choose. It has been 4 months since I had my WLS, and I've lost 40 lbs. so far. When I reach my comfortable 215 again, I will be thrilled to be at that weight. Anything after that will be pure icing on the cake!!!

Good things do come from God and one of the good things is that He allows consequences when we do wrong. What 'good' parent doesn't allow consequences? Discipline is hard at the time it is given, but in the end it brings righteousness. And, Bad things do come from Satan. He is an angel of light waiting to devour you. He never has your best interest in his heart, as God does.

Caarrie, you're right. I agree.

my pastor said to his dad once " I don't want to go to any church where there are hypocrites!" He replied "Never mind what other people are doing and YOU do the right thing." We can't control whether others in the church are hypicritical or not. We can only control what we do or say. Therefore, I never let the actions of some keep me from worshipping God with like minded christians.

I stand corrected. You are right. You don't need a building. The church is not the building anyway, it is the people who believe in Jesus. But God did say 'Do not forsake the assembling of one another together.'

Did you ever blow up a balloon and then deflate it? If you look at it, it's larger than when you started and then when you put air in it, it blows up with less effort than the first time. You can still put just as much air in it as before you deflated it. You will need to control the amount of air you put into it if you want to keep it at half full say. Sorry, I meant it will go back into that position, but it will never stay there without your control.

I can give him the credit for the good things, because God is good. Yet, He also allows bad things to happen. He does not over ride mans will. If you choose to do wrong, he allows the consequences. He also allows the consequences of what we all do, good or bad, to affect others. Hence why all sinful acts affect society as a whole.

that is true, and I said that to him. He said that you will decrease your appetite some, but it's never the same and is much more easily stretched back out and will take far less time to do it.

Dear Was, the stomach is like a balloon. Very elasticized. My doctor told me this. He said that alot of people believe you can shrink your stomach back to its original size, but truth be told, you'll always be able to fit what you were once able to before dieting. Thus the reason for why it's just as difficult to maintain weight forever as it is to lose it. He said that this is the reason why he supports wls. to answer your next question..., I did. I recognized that gluttony was a sin, I desired to be free from it and God helped me by informing me of the lapband. And God did get me through it. You are right that sin is a christian concept. So, you don't believe as I do. So what. You have a right to believe any way you please. Just as I do. I guess to end that I'll just say this... In the end, we both shall see. God says that "Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord of all." This I believe and I will gladly bend my knee. By the way, we all vote acording to religion(what we believe).Your 'religion' if you call it, is atheism. You vote (make your decisions) accordingly. You are very right when you say that one day it won't be christianity, but other religions ruling the day. We are already there. God predicted this very thing, a turning away from Him and his truths, in the bible. It only brings us one day closer to his return. I welcome it. (I do not like the idea that man is dissing God and going his own way, but without that happening, we wouldn't see his return soon, for that has to happen first as the bible predicts.)

Dear Was, No, I don't support laws that limit the amount of food we eat. I think this country makes too many laws as it is, and besides, we can't have laws that we can't enforce.

I am truly grateful for the lapband which has helped me to keep from over eating, thus sinning. The sin of gluttony is like any addiction. In order to overcome it, one must have super strong determination to be impecably conscious day in and day out of the food they put into their mouth. For once the stomach is stretched, it can never go back to its original size and you will always be able to fit a football in there while all the while only allowing an egg to enter. Thus never achieveing contentment or satisfaction, and always feeling hunger pains. This can be conscrued as "consequence' for our years of overeating. But I believe that God in his mercy gave man the wisdom to invent such a device as the lapband to help those who are in a lose, lose situation with the sin of gluttony. I knew that My sin of gluttony was wrong, and knew that I could not stop overeating on my own, for all of my attempts at wt. loss were futile. I believe that God led me to the information I obtained about lapband. With that said, how do you propose that God help the prostitute?, for first I feel that they must realize that their lifestyle is sinful and then have a desire to get out of that profession. Then , God can intervene and help them also. If others along the way make it legal to indulge, and make them comfortable or safe while they sin, how will they ever realize it is wrong and then thus desire to get out of it? Tough love is a hard concept for most people. But even parents need to use it when dealing with their children who are doing wrong. Making any sin legal doesn't help anyone. Look at the abortion issue. Millions upon millions of babies lives are snuffed out every year, and the people say it's legal, so it must be ok to do it. Like I said before 'People desire to turn what's wrong into right and what's right into wrong simply because they want to do what they want to do and not even God can tell them differently.