First Place

Once again, it's been a while since I've posted. Thanks to everyone who puts up with my inconsistency and reads when I get around to writing. :)

I have just begun leading a class called First Place and I'm really excited about what God is going to do. After this first week, I can already tell that this is going to be a big push for me to be consistent in my own physical/spiritual/mental/emotional health. I feel like I've been slack in a few areas this week, but remain strong in God's grace to cover my weaknesses. My life verse is 2 Corinthians 12:9-10...

9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

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On another news, as it begins to get busy at work again, I find myself once again struggling with contenment in my current situation. But I pray above my own doubts, impatience, or struggles - I pray for God to use me for His will... He is faithful, and His purpose is greater than what I will ever know or understand. He has me where I'm at... in this exact time and exact place, for a purpose.

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I love my work, you know, the actual productive work... it's the non-productive work that i think realy wears me down. Virus-infected computers, spam mail, crashing software, ringing phones... all the things that keep me from being productive... not to mention my own distractions which would be hinderance enough without all the others.... I hate not being productive, especially because I feel like it hinders me from doing God's work...

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Victoria starts Preschool in two weeks!
And she's farely succesfully conquered potty training! We still have accidents here or there, but man this is great!
We're struggling with bedtime battles these days...

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Keith got major brownie points... found us a Wii Fit at Wal-mart this weekend. We've had lots of fun so far, and it's great knowing your burning calories at the same time! I managed to break 300 on the hula hoop!

"I Dare You To Move"

I know, I know... I am SUCH a slacker for not blogging in the past couple of months! Please forgive me! But here we are and I felt like it was time I update you on how things are going.

As you may remember (from previous 'episodes') I was doing really well with my eating, but kind of a slacker on the exercise. Well, for the past couple of weeks I've been walking at least 3 to 4 times a week, 2 miles a night. It's been great, and the past couple of times, I've actually been running parts of it! One of my dreams is to one day run in a marathon.

However, I've had a tough time staying committed to healthy eating. I blame part of it on the exercise, because i do think it has increased my appetite a little, but most of it is my fault! I've got to get back on the straight and narrow for this to work!

I've been pretty consistent with around 1 pound loss a week, although a few weeks ago I gained one - it was a little disheartening, but I had a feeling it was coming - that was the beginning of my fall back to eating not so good.

It's been tough because Keith's birthday was the end of last month, July 4th came around and yesterday was my birthday - so we've had major cookouts and get togethers.

But, I'm going to stay positive here! I WILL get back on track with my eating!

The really cool news is that in a few weeks I'll be starting a "First Place 4 Health" group at Bethel Baptist. For more information, check out http://www.firstplace.org/. I feel like God has given me such a passion now for good health (His way!) that I can't wait to encourage others in their journey.

I'd also like to start encouraging Keith more with his healthy living. We both need to lose weight and get healthy and I need to be as much of an encouragement to him as he is to me.

There's this song by Switchfoot called "I Dare You To Move" that I've always liked... here are the lyrics... I'll talk more about it aftewards...

Welcome to the planet
Welcome to existence
Everyone's here...Everyone's here
Everybody's watching you now...Everybody waits for you now
What happens next...What happens next?

I dare you to move...I dare you to move
I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor
I dare you to move...I dare you to move
Like today never happened...Today never happened before

Welcome to the fallout...Welcome to resistance
The tension is here...Tension is here
Between who you are and who you could be
Between how it is and how it should be

I dare you to move...I dare you to move
I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor
I dare you to move...I dare you to move
Like today never happened...Today never happened before

Maybe redemption has stories to tell
Maybe forgiveness is right where you fell
Where can you run to escape from yourself?
Where you gonna go? Where you gonna go?
Salvation is here

I dare you to move...I dare you to move
I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor
I dare you to move...I dare you to move
Like today never happened...Today never happened
Today never happened...Today never happened before

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This song has always encouraged me to move beyond my selfishness and laziness... to become who I know I can be. I've always known that I can be at a healthy weight, but it was just a matter of getting up off the floor and doing it.

So often we get caught up in our circumstances - we want pity, we want to complain, we want congratulations and a pat on the back... but whether are circumstances are good or bad, we shoudl live above them - knowing that God has all our steps laid out ahead of us... knowing that life is about more than this very moment.

There's something about that thought that motivates me in this journey. My life is more than about this moment... it's about more than the pain I feel when I'm running and just want to quit... it's about more than that extra slice of pizza or that soda. Life is about so much more than that, and when we think of it in bigger terms, it helps to put things in perspective.

The song says to "live like today never happened before"... it makes me think about when I mess up... sometimes when we mess up (spiritually or physically) we let it get us so off track that we just go into this cycle of bad decisions. Instead, I would say that we should live every day and every moment as a new moment. Put the bad decisions in the past where they belong and start making smart decisions today.

You know, just writing this has been a big encouragement to me with the eating thing. Thank you Lord!

So, today is the day for a new start... and I'd like to encourage everyone else in that. Whether it is spiritually, physically, mentally, emotionally... you can start new today... get up off the floor... stop living in misery about some circumstance in your life... Let's stop being Sunday Christians and start living our lives (every part of them) like it counts. God gives us the ultimate salvation of our souls... He is the creator of our bodies... He is the creator of every other human being and thing on this earth... shouldn't we start treating ourselves, others, and Him... like this is all true?

And so I say to you...
"Maybe redemption has stories to tell
Maybe forgiveness is right where you fell
Where can you run to escape from yourself?
Where you gonna go? Where you gonna go?
Salvation is here..."

The Spirit is Willing...

"Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." -Mark 14:36

What a great verse for this journey!

Jesus, Peter, James and John were in the Garden, and Jesus was preparing for his betrayal, arrest, and death. How intense it must have been to know what the near-future (and the far-future!) held for himself and his beloved disciples.

Peter had just 'assured' him earlier that he surely would not be the one to deny him. His spirit was surely willing to follow Jesus to the ends of the earth. But, as we see later on in the chapter, his flesh is weak - he does just as Jesus had said to him and denied him 3 times before the rooster crowed twice.

Later, as Jesus goes off to pray ("Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.") the three disciples fall asleep...repeatedly. Jesus has these stern, yet comforting words to say... "Simon, are you asleep? Could you not watch one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." (my emphasis added)

Here's what I think... Truly, in the journey to living a healthy life, and losing weight, there are plenty of temptations. But the key to strength in the midst of these temptations, the key to "not entering into" is to "watch and pray." We're repeatedly told throughout scripture that our bodies are to be temples of the Spirit... and other similar things. Our physical health and well being is obviously important to God... not because we look good when we're not obese... but because it shows discipline and the ability to overcome temptation, it shows that Christ is the center of our lives, not food!. However, just trying to do this on our own is obviously not God's plan (and in my opinion, not truly possible).

Through prayer we can overcome temptation and make wise choices!