Doing things differently: Do you need to learn to trust God again?

Sundays are God's days.

By that I mean, God created all days, but Sunday is the first day of the week and therefore set aside for him.

Today my pastor preached a money sermon. Oh, how I love money sermons! Just kidding.

I could see that it was helpful to the hearers wanting to learn about the spiritual benefits of the tithe. Since that's already something I practice, I asked the Lord to help me apply the basics of the message to an area of my life. It was easy...

                                  Time is the most precious commodity to me.

It always has been, but now that illness and healing takes up so much of it, I find myself becoming gluttonous. Just picture me with my arms and legs wrapped around a giant clock.

That's right. Just like with money, we can hoard and protect our time. We can become stingy, guarding it and hiding ourselves away.

                            I find that I have to learn to trust God all over again.

Sad, but true.

So during today's sermon I asked myself: What can I do differently?

How can I be a good steward of my diminished time?

                  I know the first part of the answer is to give him the first part of my time.

Just like my financial tithe, I've got to give him this first day and pray that he'll bless the rest of my week.

The pictures below remind me of how he's answered one of my constant prayers. For years, I'd sit out on my front porch and complain to him. "Lord, it'd be a good day, if at the end of it, I could sit here and see the sunset. But I can't because there's a stupid house blocking my view."

No kidding. Every day, I'd sit there and say the same thing. I just wanted to have a clear and unobstructed view of the sun going down.

Last year it dawned on me that he'd answered my complaining prayer, years later, in a way I couldn't imagine...

Every day at 5:30, I go out on the porch and take a picture of the sun going down. My husband laughs at me and tells me it's the same view every day, but I think he's wrong.

So I've decided to lean in to God, especially on Sundays, and pray for his blessing on the rest of my week. I hope somehow, that I can take a picture of my answered prayer.

               What about you? Do you need to trust him in an area of your life?

Changing Bad Habits

I've chosen the top 3 bad habits to focus on right now based on how attacking one bad habit can often fix other issues with minimal effort. My top 3 are:

1. Lack of exercise - When I exercise, I get more energy for the day, I last longer and am much less cranky. I also pay better attention to what I eat. Frankly, the main reason I become unproductive is because I'm exhausted and I run out of energy.

2. Procrastination - It's easy to make excuses when you're exhausted, but procrastination is only prolonging the inevitable for me. If there's a menial task to be done, more than likely it's my responsibility so I'm only hurting myself by piling up loads of boring things if I don't just get over with quickly.

3. Not giving myself the luxury of time - God is the author of my life, and the author of my time, so I don't know why I feel like I have to learn everything immediately. Maybe it's related to the piles undone things that taunt me, like my piles of photos saying, "Really? You can't even send these pictures to your poor sick grandmother?" Which is probably because my son can never find his socks and shoes and my husband always wants to wear the shirt I haven't gotten around to washing.

An interesting thing I learned simply by being mindful over the last few days, is that these bad habits are caused by underlying issues. God really hit me over the head with the fact that I have an underlying fear of wasting time. Both my brother and I have this unexplained concern. We both believed we wouldn't live past 30. We have no idea where these thought patterns come from, but had I not taken the time to identify my bad habits, I wouldn't have realized the effect it's having on me.

Every time I tried to get something done, a little voice in my head would say something like, "You don't have time for that." or "That's a waste of time." I realize I've been letting that voice influence the choices I make throughout the day.

That's how the enemy works. He puts a phrase, negative comment, or totally irrational thought into your head and tries to get you to own it. Only when I slowed, and quieted down to listen, did I realize the effect it's been having on me.

I have placed a "Non-Negotiable" boundary around myself regarding giving these items attention.  Honestly, trying it already for only a day, has made me more focused than I have been in months. Here's my commitment to myself -

Exercise:  Cardio for one hour 4 days a week and strength training with my trainer 2 days a week.

Procrastination:  It doesn't exist in my world anymore. Nothing gets delayed. My husband has this philosophy and I used to just think he was a super freak, but his success has proven me wrong time and time again.

Time: No fear. I will plan my day accordingly and build in the hours I need in order to learn and do the things I need to learn and do and I will stop listening to "the voice."

I'm pumped! I worked out with my trainer for an hour yesterday, thinking I was going to die of a heart attack the whole time, but I pushed through...to the point of nausea. I almost puked and thought about taking a picture to show you what I looked like but then you may never come back to read. Instead, I'll leave you with a picture of my pretty pink gloves!

While I was punching and kicking my way to pukeville, I kept saying, "This is for you Jesus!" I sincerely, felt His pleasure.

Oliver Wendall Holmes said, "We all need an education in the obvious." The Bible tells us to examine ourselves closely. I urge you to take a look at your own bad habits and create a plan of attack!