FITNESS FRIDAY: OFF ON A TANGENT

"All the impossibility is with us when we

measure God by the limitations of our

unbelief." - (Smith Wigglesworth)

This week's assignment was to expand on our goals, which is what I started out doing.

Food: Drink at least 4 large glasses of water a day; eat slowly, taking small bites and chewing well before swallowing; stop eating when I feel full.

Exercise: Do one of my Leslie Sansone in-home walking workouts at least three times a week.

But at this point I digress. I'm thinking of what I said in my first Fitness Friday post about commitment and discipline. This is my biggest battle, and my most important goal is to gain mastery over my flesh, because I know everything else will follow. So this week I'm going to go back to seriously using my planner instead of just making up lists. The lists are great in that I feel a wonderful sense of accomplishment each time I cross an item off, but my days seem to escape me before I get to the end of the list. There never seems to be enough time.

The truth is, we are all given the same 24 hours to work with every day, and there is no way to squeeze in even an extra minute. So the secret is in prioritizing. What are the things that are most important. In order to say yes to those things, we may need to say no to some others. And right now the most important thing to me is being able to spend more time in the Word. So this week I will keep a record of how I am spending my time so that I can see what it is that is keeping me from doing it. There are some things I may need to eliminate going forward. I need to learn to make wise choices. And here I digress again.

Unlike most of you in this group, I am in the winter of my life, and have spent much time bewailing the poor choices of my past. I condemned myself for a wasted life and time squandered so that I have nothing to show for all the gifts I started out with. But the past cannot be undone, and regrets serve no useful purpose. All I can do with the past is acknowledge my mistakes and learn something from them.

What I have learned is that I serve a loving God whose mercies are new every morning, and so every day can be a new beginning. I will never know if I truly missed out on God's best for me, and what that best might have been, but I do know that He is in control. So if He allowed my life to unfold the way it did, He must have a special purpose in mind. He can turn all things around for good, and do it when we least expect it.

Looking back, I see how ignorance and instant gratification played major roles in the decisions I made. Self discipline was definitely not my forte. What I wanted were instant results. So now it's time to work on that self discipline and to gain mastery over my flesh by renewing my mind with the Word of God, something I knew nothing about in those earlier years. It's also time for new goals. I used to think it was too late for me, but that is a lie from the pit of hell. It's never too late. And so I have turned this blog over to the Lord and pray that He would use me as His instrument to provide hope and encouragement to anyone traveling along the path I once trod.