How to Find Balance in an Extremist Society

All verses will be NIVProverbs 30:7-9 "Two things I request of You (deprive me not before I die): remove falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches--- feed me with the food allotted to me; lest I be full and deny You, and say, "Who is the Lord?" or lest I be poor and steal, and profane the name of my God.

I love watching gymnastics but the one event that scares me a bit is the balance beem.  If that girl goes to far to the right or left she will lose her balance and fall.  This is what the writer of Prov. 30 is telling us;  to have too much or too little can lead to sin.
This is exactly what has happened in our society today.  If you took a look at our society as a whole you see 2 extremes thin and fat.  Very few people are balanced.  They either workout like crazy or not at all.  It starts early on.  How many kids are invovled in everything or they do nothing.  It is like we live a life on a seesaw.  We are either up or down.
This is not the only scripture that speaks of moderation.  Lets look at Matt. 6:11 "Give us this day our daily bread;" Luke 11:3 "Give us day by day our daily bread."  Mattthew is a very familiar passage, its the Lord's Prayer.  Infact it was so important that Luke also recorded it in his gospel.  We need to see what God is telling us.  I love the way the ESV study Bible explains this; "Daily bread includes all of the believers physical needs, which the Lord supplies NOT once for all but day to day."
Balance- It does us very little good to excercise for 3 1/2 hours one day a week.  It is better to do 30 minutes everyday.  It is not healthy (even if we eat only healthy foods) to eat all our calories for the week in one day and nothing else all week.  We are to seek God daily, going to church is awesome but to only get spiritually fed one day a week is not what is best for us. BALANCE
Joyce Meyer in her book gives some bery helpful information.
Gen 2:16-17 "and the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."
God gave Adam and Eve to eat freely of every tree but one, each of these foods had different nutrients, so it was important that they ate of many kinds.  Since food is to nurish our bodies and NOT our souls then we need to eat a variety of foods.  We need to eat them as close to the way God intended us to eat them.  Grains in their most natural form.  Fruit without sugar added in or veggies without being smothered in lowfat cheese sauce.
In the 2 decades (80s & 90s) that pushed low-fat "the percentage of obese Americans doubled"  it was 15% and went to 30% and the percentage for kids tripled!  There are many factors to this so lets discuss them.  335 calories is the amount of increase in women alone as apposed to 30 years ago.  Oh and to add insult to injury heart disease and diabetes have sky-rocketed; but we are cutting the fat so how can that be?
There are several things the contribute to this and here are the ones I think are the most obvious.
1. Fat and fiber fills you up but carbs (especially simple carbs) leave you wanting more.  Our bodies burn carbs fast and furious but it takes our bodies more effort to burn fat and fiber.  Simple carbs cause super highs and super lows in blood sugar.  This is not good.
2. In order to make food taste good after removing the fat the food companies have to add sugar.  The next time you are in the grocery store take a look at the difference in the number of carbs and sugars in low-fat, fat-free and full fat salad dressing.
3.  Take a look at the number of ingredients in lowfat or fat-free products, how many of them have multiple names that you have no idea what they are.  These chemicals can mess with the way our bodies process food and can ruin our metabolism.
4.  How many time have you said "Since these cookies are fat-free then I can eat more of them."  Calories are calories and just because you are eating low-fat doesn't mean we can eat more calories.
I know your next argurment.  "But fat will clog my arteries."  But I say NO!  Saturated fats (the fats that are solid or semi-solid at 98 degrees) can be but unsaturated fats can actually keep your heart healthy.  Eating fats that are cold-pressed will be the best for you.  Protein is what we are made of so this is a very important piece as well.
Matthew 18:8-9 If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut if off and cast if from you.  It is better for you to enter into life lame or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into the everlasting fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you.  It is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire." 
I know what you might be thinking "what does this have to do with wightloss?" but stay with me.  An alcoholic that doesn't want to drink will remove all alcohol from his home so a person that has a weight issue better be throwing out foods they can't control.  Once again as I stated last week if you don't need it your kids probably don't either.
You need to decide why you continue to eat like you do?  Where is there imbalance in your life that is causing you to eat in a way that brings imbalance to your body!
Lysa in her book Made to Crave suggests that over indulgence in anything is an attempt to fill out souls with anything and everything when that soul is craving for God.  Remember what I said earily food is to nurish us but God is the only one that will ever nurish our souls.
Psalms 42:1-2 "As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God.  My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.  When shall I come and appear before God?"
Psalms 143:6 "I spread out my hands to You; my soul longs for You like a thirsty land. Selah
Whether you are a child of God or you aren't sure God exists it doesn't matter because He does exists.  He has created us in His image with a soul that until we come to our knees asking for God to forgive us of our sins and to turn our hearts to Him and live a life that honors our Lord and Saviour our souls will always be empty.
Do you thirst and hunger for God like the psalmist did?  If not start there!  God will meet you there on your knees.  Start with a few minutes a day if time is an issue.  Ask God to show you how to make time for Him.  We all waste at least 15 minutes everyday.  Find your wasted 15 minutes and use it to fill your soul with God and find the balance only He can provide.