Battling The Flesh

The last week or so has been very "light" spiritually. I miss my heavy spiritual days. I feel distant from God and heavy and bloated physically. I've been feeling hungry a lot lately so I've eaten more. Small amounts at a time but probably more overall. I just don't have time in my schedule to plan sit-down meals or meals at all. We have food but not meals. I'm missing sleep, but that's nothing new. I'm looking forward to next week when I'll have some time off from work for the homeschool convention and just in general. SLEEP!  

I remember back when I had the most success with losing weight. It was when I was relentless in denying my flesh. I got tired of that and thought I could loosen up a little. I guess I can't. Yesterday I decided to stretch my denying time to two hours after I first feel hungry. I'm going to read back over old posts, blogs, journal entries, and Bible verses to rekindle the spark I used to have.

I need more of Jesus and less of Michele!

2 Miles!

I'm now jogging 2 miles and walking 1!  : )

It's still not 2 miles all together, but I'm getting there!  I used to wonder what it would be like when I had only one section to walk and recover between jogging sections.  Now I know.  It's not so bad.   On the other hand, these last two days of jogging 2 and walking 1 have been difficult to actually jog.  I feel sluggish.  It's probably the few pounds that have crept on.  : ((((  Yes, I've gained a few pounds because I've been compromising and eating small amounts more than I need to lately.  I'm back on track but feeling the consequences of those decisions.  Siiiigggghhhh.  Just being honest.  Thank You, God, for forgiveness!

Another reason for the gain is very likely lack of sleep.  I've also asked God to keep showing me how to make wise decisions with my time so I don't have to be up so late and early working.  I have some off time coming up later this month to go to the homeschool convention and I'm looking forward to sleeping more than 4 or 5 hours a night!

More of Jesus, Less of Michele.  More of Jesus, Less of Michele.  More of Jesus, Less of Michele.  : )

Lessons In A Wave Pool

I often feel like I'm in a wave pool.  Not a mud pool with yucky, dirty sin overwhelming me but nice, clean parenting, work, homeschooling, housekeeping, ministry, friends, family, LIFE! coming as wave after wave after wave.  I can swim just fine, but..it sure would be nice to just rest in a calm pool.    God doesn't see fit to move me right now, though, apparently.  So here I stay and try to praise God in the waves.  

Brianne and I went to Adventure Island Friday and I wanted to see if God would have anything to say to me in an actual wave pool.  The first time I walked into it I heard, "Just go with it."  Just go with the waves and don't try to fight them.  I remembered part of a passage of scripture, "the unforced rhythms of grace."  It's Matthew 11:28-30 in The Message.   "Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."

Friday was a liquid day and I'd had a smoothie before we left the house and had more of it on the way over.  I planned to eat a regular meal at Adventure Island then smoothie after we got home and the rest of the day.  Of course, I would listen to my body and if I needed more solid food than that one meal since it would be such a physical day, I would have more.  My smoothie consisted of two bananas, milk, cinnamon, a few grapes, and an apple.  The second thing I heard in the waves was, "Don't attempt this on just the milk of the Word."  In other words, don't attempt to be in the thick of the waves of life nourished on only easy-to-swallow liquids.  I could stay in only a few minutes the first time then had to get out and get some solid nourishment in me.  You can't expect to handle big waves unless you've first chewed on something substantial and allowed it to permeate and do its job.      

Those are the lessons I learned in a wave pool. 

Inspirational T-shirt

I finally did it!  This looks less...impressive...than I imagined it.  Oh well, I did it.  Come race day, I may be less impressive than I imagine.  Oh well, I will have done it!.  For God's glory! 

It's not easy to write on fabric, BTW.  : )

The Future Is Here!

The title of the previous post was Glimpses Of The Future.  I wrote that I found myself sometimes running past my planned number of steps last week.  Today was the first day of running +140 steps and twice I found myself going past that.  What's going on here?!  Usually I'm carefully counting the steps and I know the 1/4, 1/2, and 3/4 numbers so I can keep myself motivated.  Each time I went past my planned steps, my mind was distracted and thinking about something else.  Why?  Evidently, I'm capable of running more than +140 steps, at least sometimes.  God is pushing me...and...I don't mind it.  :) (as long as He's doing the pushing and not just myself or someone else).

There's nothing wrong with my plan of increasing by 10 steps each section each week, but I need to hold that plan loosely and let God change it if He sees fit.  

What a ride this life of faith is!

Glimpses of the future

On two different jogging sections yesterday, I found myself going 140 extra steps.  Wait!  No!  That's next week's number; this week's is 130! 

I'm getting there, maybe faster than I'd planned. 

Hebrews 12:1b - "...let us run with endurance the race God has set before us." (emphasis mine)

He's pushing me in spite of myself.  And even though I protest a little at first, once I think about it I really don't mind.  My feet are in Your hands, God!  : ) 

I don't need easy.  I just need possible.

No Compromise Necessary

I ate supper this evening about 6:00, a piece of chicken I had slow cooked in Italian dressing marinade and some rice that I made in the rice cooker with the marinade.  Yummy!  But I didn't get my jog in this morning and if I was going to get it in at all today, I needed to start by 7 so I could be done before it got too dark.  At 7 I was still quite full from supper and didn't think it was wise to jog on a full stomach.  I decided to at least start walking and see what happened.  I came to the first jogging section and decided to take it very slowly.  I didn't get sick!  Yay!  On the next jogging section I decided to try for my normal pace.  I could almost do it!  I jogged every section I was supposed to for as long as I was supposed to and didn't get sick!  Now, I don't recommend this, and I won't be doing it again if I can help it, but it's nice to know I can if I need to.  I didn't need to compromise. 

I didn't need to compromise. 

I didn't need to compromise. 

Let me say it one more time.  I didn't need to compromise. 

: )