"wls Is Not What God Intended..."

[PdxMan 4,292]

I'm in need of a reply when a friend says to me: "It wasn't God's intention for us to remove 80% of our stomachs. It's too drastic. It's not natural. Diet & exercise - AND STICKING WITH IT - are what you need to do. I've always said that."

My reply was: "Breast implants weren't God's intent, but you got those."

Her reply: "But they can be removed. You're taking out 80% of your stomach & you can't put it back."

Any KINDLY WORDED suggestions will be greatly appreciated, as she is, after all, my BFF, so I am not looking to disregard her feelings.

** NOTE: After several responses, I have edited this post to also say: Everyone's opinion is valid; however, I personally believe in God & pray continually that I am making the right decision & that he is walking beside me, or carrying me, through this. I am requesting KINDLY WORDED responses. If you do not believe in God or that this is not a God issue, then I kindly request that you not reply to this post. Thank you.

I'm just dying to know if you have spoken to her since. I'm guessing she will have some other snappy come-back justifying her actions yet still questioning yours, as I have found some people play the God card to wield His power as they see fit. Which just cracks me up.

Let's elevate ourselves to cast judgement, yet not be judged. I know it is a defense mechanism, but it still kills me.

[Mich grand 35]

I'm just dying to know if you have spoken to her since. I'm guessing she will have some other snappy come-back justifying her actions yet still questioning yours' date=' as I have found some people play the God card to wield His power as they see fit. Which just cracks me up.

Let's elevate ourselves to cast judgement, yet not be judged. I know it is a defense mechanism, but it still kills me.[/quote']

The part of this whole situation is the fact that the woman doing the criticizing - (are you ready for this) HAD A DAMN BOOB JOB. Now that gives her every right to talk about God and his intentions.

[Tipintx 41]

Pipula, I too prayed about this and that was the scripture that I kept hearing:). Susan, it seems to me you have great regard for your friend and will love her regardless of her opinion of this surgery. I suspect she may change her mind once you lose weight. May God bless us all as we progress and win this war on obesity:)

Sent from my iPad using VST

[delta_girl 931]

Every time I see this thread rise under New Content it just gets alllll over me. Sometimes I think about commenting on it, but I'm not sure if the forum has enough "paper."

[Mich grand 35]

Every time I see this thread rise under New Content it just gets alllll over me. Sometimes I think about commenting on it' date=' but I'm not sure if the forum has enough "paper."[/quote']

Go ahead, we can take it. I have stewed about this for days. But now I'm done. I just want to say that you can't please everyone. Good luck to you!!!

[Huntingnurse 510]

When people start bringing up god and throwing it into every conversation to try to justify their point or make their beliefs right they just need to be slapped. I'll keep my religious views to myself but where's God now? not in Lybia.. or Syria... or our inner cities... or Mexico where cartels murder mass amounts of people daily... so until he comes back and fixes everything, people need to quit using him to justify everything. Sorry for any toes I may have stepped on.

[funkeechiggen 135]

Pipulla gave you the same verse I was going to. Personally' date=' I have unintionally worshipped food for far too long. I have thought about every meal, obsessed over the scale, perused recipes, wasted on failed diets, read books, and on and on and on with food, more so than my God. I have been deeply convicted of this. My heart has been more focused on food and my weight for years. It's like a love affair - I think about my weight and my size all the time, I plan my next diet just to fail at it and feel badly about myself. Food, and diets are my idol. If I have a good day with my diet than I feel good about myself. If I have a bad day with it, then bad about myself. I have gotten my self esteem more from my wieght than from God for years. This is not how He wants us to live nor where he wants us to gain our identity from. Food and my obsession with it and my weight is the biggest sin in my life. God commands that we love Him first and have no idols before him, and if something causes us to sin, we are to flee from it. Or as Pipulla stated, if our right eye causes us to sin, we are to cut it out. I believe that this surgery will help me get rid of this idol. I will no longer be distracted by food. I will eat to live, not live to eat. God intended food to be sustinance for life, not the center of all enjoyment. I have had total peace since I decided to have this surgery. I personally feel that I am doing in obediance to Him.

Now that said, that's me. If you DON'T have a peace about it, or if this surgery will cause you to obsess more, than carefully consider if it is God's will for you. I totally appreciate your friends thought process and where she is coming from, but she probably doesn't understand the sin and idol that food is in your life. God bless.[/quote']

Wow, thank you for this... Your post resonated and God really spoke to me through your message. This describes me completely!

[pink grace 31]

I'm in need of a reply when a friend says to me: "It wasn't God's intention for us to remove 80% of our stomachs. It's too drastic. It's not natural. Diet & exercise - AND STICKING WITH IT - are what you need to do. I've always said that."

My reply was: "Breast implants weren't God's intent' date=' but you got those."

Her reply: "But they can be removed. You're taking out 80% of your stomach & you can't put it back."

Any KINDLY WORDED suggestions will be greatly appreciated, as she is, after all, my BFF, so I am not looking to disregard her feelings.

** NOTE: After several responses, I have edited this post to also say: Everyone's opinion is valid; however, I personally believe in God & pray continually that I am making the right decision & that he is walking beside me, or carrying me, through this. I am requesting KINDLY WORDED responses. If you do not believe in God or that this is not a God issue, then I kindly request that you not reply to this post. Thank you.

[/quote']

Hi, I am a Christian and have just had my surgery postponed due to a blood clotting issue, I am really sure that God is with me and yet a few people have said that I don't need to have the surgery now and ? Me if I should be having the op , because I am doing so well with loosing my weight on my own.

It is nearly 2 years since my first appointment, and I have sought God so much, I have no doubts about having the operation.

I understand where they are coming from, but also know that they don't really understand the battles I have had with loosing weight and always putting it back on, it is soul destroying.

Because I am so sure, it is easy to tell them that I am sure that i should have the sleeve and would really appreciate their prayers for me, all have agreed to pray, most Christian's are gracious and I'm sure your friend will be, especially when she sees how much you want to change your life with this tool.

It will still take a lot of work with the sleeve to get to our new healthier weight and having support from friends is a precious thing. God bless u and your friend, Janet, x

[pink grace 31]

When people start bringing up god and throwing it into every conversation to try to justify their point or make their beliefs right they just need to be slapped. I'll keep my religious views to myself but where's God now? not in Lybia.. or Syria... or our inner cities... or Mexico where cartels murder mass amounts of people daily... so until he comes back and fixes everything' date=' people need to quit using him to justify everything. Sorry for any toes I may have stepped on.[/quote']

Before I became a believer I asked the same questions as u, but now I believe I understand that God gave us freewill because He didn't want robots, but a family that chooses the way to become part of Gods family, He gave His son to the world, to make the way to him open to Him again, because when Adam disobeyed God the way was closed, in the old testament God gave rules to follow, but that didn't work, so He had to send His son, who was without sin to make the way open again, a door that we open and let Him in when we hear Him knocking.

We don't bring God into conversations to justify anything, we do it because we believe in Him and we love Him, and know that He loves us.

We should have the freedom to bring our faith into our conversations, and if you don't want to read it, just ignore the posts, and read all the posts that don't nave faith or God in them.

I haven't seen any rules that say we cannot be ourselves and talk about God, we are Christians so we will mention our Christ in us, it is a big part of our lives.

If the rules are that we can not be ourselves and talk about prayer and our faith in God then I will leave, because I would not want to offend and break the forum's rules, so please let us be us be the real us and talk about God when we want to.

I really can not see how it can be hurting anyone, we are not wanting to slap non believers so why should us believers be slapped, live and let live, you are free to not believe, that is your right, but you are not free to slap people who don't believe the same as you.

[julielle 199]

When people start bringing up god and throwing it into every conversation to try to justify their point or make their beliefs right they just need to be slapped. I'll keep my religious views to myself but where's God now? not in Lybia.. or Syria... or our inner cities... or Mexico where cartels murder mass amounts of people daily... so until he comes back and fixes everything, people need to quit using him to justify everything. Sorry for any toes I may have stepped on.

You know, I'm agnostic, but I've never understood why people have to join a conversation between followers of God and criticize them for talking about it. I may not be a believer but I understand and respect that the belief is very important to so many people.

OP I'm sorry I know you said you didn't want any non believers posting, but I can see that your friendship with your friend is important, as is your relationship with God and I can totally respect that.

[Dooter 1,457]

I'm in need of a reply when a friend says to me: "It wasn't God's intention for us to remove 80% of our stomachs. It's too drastic. It's not natural. Diet & exercise - AND STICKING WITH IT - are what you need to do. I've always said that."

My reply was: "Breast implants weren't God's intent, but you got those."

Her reply: "But they can be removed. You're taking out 80% of your stomach & you can't put it back."

Any KINDLY WORDED suggestions will be greatly appreciated, as she is, after all, my BFF, so I am not looking to disregard her feelings.

** NOTE: After several responses, I have edited this post to also say: Everyone's opinion is valid; however, I personally believe in God & pray continually that I am making the right decision & that he is walking beside me, or carrying me, through this. I am requesting KINDLY WORDED responses. If you do not believe in God or that this is not a God issue, then I kindly request that you not reply to this post. Thank you.

Ok...Throwing my two cents in the pot here. And really....it's not MY two cents. It's from God's word. Your friend says WLS is not what God intended. Well, we have to back WAAAAAYYYY up to the beginning. Here's what God intended: Perfection. To give it a crude summary- He put perfect Adam on the perfect earth, gave him a wife and they screwed it all up. They plunged the creation into death and decay by their sin.

Now bear with me....A little more history....This is why God gave The Law to His people, to show them their sins and that they've offended a holy God, the price for which is eternal damnation and that's why God sent Jesus to pay this price for us, so that if we have God granted faith in him, we will be with God forever. Again...crude summary. (Lest you think God didn't see this coming, this was not "plan B." It was foreordained from eternity past....but that's another conversation.....)

Adam and Eve were not meant to die. Or get fat, or old, or cancerous or anything else. They were meant to live perfectly forever in perfect bodies. SO...here we are in decay. God has so graciously given us many many many means of keeping ourselves taped up, stapled up, sewn back together, medicated, sliced, diced, lifted, and healed in a variety of ways. WHO says that weight loss surgery is NOT a legitimate form of healing one of our many ills, and what is their qualification in that opinion?

The Bible does not say "Thou shalt not have weight loss surgery, but an appendectomy is fine."

Here's the bottom line: Can you glorify God in your surgery and weight loss? Can you lose weight to the glory of God? For me that is a resounding YES and AMEN!

[ozeedonkee 145]

I believe in God.....not strictly according to Christianity, but I believe nonetheless.

But I think what is important is that we only have a short time in this life, and we have responsibilities first and foremost to ourselves and our children. If WLS provides us with the means to meet our responsibilities (let's face it - being overweight makes parenting a whole lot harder), then it cannot possibly be a bad thing or going against god. It also means we appreciate our bodies enough to rectify problems we have created.

[ozeedonkee 145]

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[Joy00 18]

This is a great post the past few months I've been feeling if the surgery is of God. The reason that I felt that way a month post op I was feeling stressed about my decision especially about leaks so I ask my NUT how long after the surgery we are completely out of the woods for leaks and she said you will always have the possibilities of having a leak I said even when the stomach heals hence that prior to surgery that was my main concern (leaks) and what happens to the staples and they assured me it heals like a cut a scar forms over the staple line but that day when I ask her post op she said anything thats not of GOD always has errors my jaw dropped and then we kinda had a heated discussion about it. I turn to this website and read every post about leaks and how long after surgery. I just felt that I was probably being vein to want a surgery when I should have work out and eat right but deep down in my hearts of hearts I knew I made the right decision and your post just confirmed it so I want to say thanks to everyone that post a reply you made me feel 100% that I made the right decision even in GODS eyes.

[revmister 17]

Wow Forever that was a beautiful answer! I am an Ordained Minister who just had the surgery on Aug 27th, 2012. It seems that there are people who have pretty strong opinions about this surgery. People also have opinions about what they would do in your shoes ... I think some people can only see another persons problems through their own eyes or experience. I was told (at church) that I should go get hypnotized ... The person said that they read about an individual that had gotten hypnotized to think they had the surgery... I shared that story at the support group that I go to & the response was that the people who decide for WLS generally have read & studied and have educated themselves to the point that they understand that they need HELP! and the WLS gives them the TOOL to loose weight. SO, for me ... I try to educated people to understand why I did what I did & to WATCH how it helps ME! Perhaps as you go through the process of weight loss & your friend sees your happiness & improved health she will start to understand why you did it! It may just take time for her to understand! As far as God is concerned ... He sent Jesus & the Gospels are full of the accounts of Him healing! Funny thing is there were those at the time that hated Him for what He did... As to their motives why they felt the way they did about it ... Only God knows - But maybe in your "healing" your friend will come to understand what you did was good for you & your health! AND that God blessed you through it! God bless you! & I trust you will be able to help your friend understand.