Do not look right or left

“Keep vigilant watch over your heart; that’s where life starts. Don’t talk out of both sides of your mouth; avoid careless banter, white lies, and gossip. Keep your eyes straight ahead; ignore all sideshow distractions. Watch your step, and the road will stretch out smooth before you. Look neither right nor left; leave evil in the dust.”
Proverbs 4:23-27 MSG

The longer I live and the busier life gets, I must watch over my heart. I feel like I am the person that these verses are describing sometimes. I do talk out of both sides of my mouth. I have an incredible amount of careless banter!!! I struggle to not gossip, but sometimes I just gossip. I hate to tell a white lie but I know that I do!

The answer lies in this verse...keep my eyes straight ahead and watching my step. As women we all know about looking right or left. I will be walking along in life with my eyes fixed on Jesus and out of the corner of my eye, I see something that looks a lot more exciting and I veer to the right. Maybe a longing for another girl's life that looks a lot more relaxing or more fulfilling or just simpler. So I travel that way and let jealously simmer in my heart.

For just today, let's keep out eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Let's don't turn left or right. Protect our heart against useless wandering off the path. Protect our heart with all the energy that we have. And then that is where the joy of the Lord will seep in.

Fear of Exercise?

“The Spirit God gave us does not make us afraid. His Spirit is a source of power and love and self-control.”
2 Timothy 1:7 ERV

As I am writing this post, I am taking Ibuprofen and alternating ice and a heating pad on my legs. I feel like I am a 100 years old! I missed two weeks of Body Pump(extremely rare for me to miss). When I returned on Monday to work out, I was faced with the consequences of missing for two weeks...sore muscles. 

But then I read this verse. God does not give me a spirit of fear. He is a "source of power." He will provide the power that I lack to move about and play with my grandsons and help me to rapel on a school trip and think about riding bikes when I am old. He gives the power and courage! Let me be totally honest. I do not like to hurt like this. I want to give up exercise forever. So the power that I am experiencing is from Him, not me. 

The verse also mentions that He gives "self-control." The definition of self control is to "control one's emotions and behavior in the face of impulses and temptations Self control is necessary to achieve goals and regulate our behavior." We need to ask boldly and often for a spirit of self control. Our own control is pathetic. We choose the wrong path most of the time. 

If you are facing fear about starting an exercise program for any reason...age, years of inactivity, physical limitations- read this verse. Ask God to remind you of His part. Quit focusing on your part. Start today and let God get the glory when others see you displaying courage in your exercise program.

Diet Tips

“The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.”
1 Corinthians 10:13 NLT

What a great promise to us when we try lose weight or begin an exercise program. When we attempt to eat healthy because we are strong or disciplined, it only lasts for a period of time. Then temptation strikes and we eat a trigger food and fall back into old old ways.

But if we rely on the Lord and hold his hand throughout the day, he will show us a way to escape the temptation. The secret is to rely on him and trust his promise to show us a way to escape. God is faithful. He wants us to live in victory. He cares what we eat. He gave us our bodies in the first place!

Praying for each of you to walk close to him today and experience his grace and mercy.

Success in Losing Weight

“So, my brothers and sisters, we must not be ruled by our sinful selves. We must not live the way our sinful selves want. If you use your lives to do what your sinful selves want, you will die spiritually. But if you use the Spirit’s help to stop doing the wrong things you do with your body, you will have true life.”
Romans 8:12-13 ERV

I don't know about you, but yesterday I compared every bit of food to "red stew." Read previous post. When I was tempted to make an unhealthy food choice, I compared it to giving up my birthright. I had to decide if giving up my birthright was worth that delicious snack(and we had a lot of delicious snacks at our faculty meeting yesterday). None seemed more important than keeping my eyes on being at a healthy weight.

I love what it says in Romans. "If you use the Spirit's help to stop doing the wrong things you do, you will have true life." I really want true life! I don't want to settle for an overweight, out of shape, sit on the couch and watch tv every night life.

At age 60, my family can tell you that I have lost and gained weight so many times. However, for the past three years I have kept off the weight and exercised! What is making the difference? I am seeing that the answers are in God's word and not a diet plan. A diet plan can come after reading God's word. But my success can't come from a human plan. The success can't be a once and for all magic formula. It will be from a consistent searching and seeking of the Lord.

I want wide open spacious!

“Dear, dear Corinthians, I can’t tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life. We didn’t fence you in. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren’t small, but you’re living them in a small way. I’m speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively!”
2 Corinthians 6:11-13 MSG

This is what I feel like when I am walking in obedience...living expansively and openly. When we let everything be about us and always want to be "comfortable" and eat what WE want because we feel IIke it, we feel small and fenced in. Because when we eat a bowlful of chips or bag of cookies or three slices of pizza, we will have put ourselves in the small, cramped space.

A spacious life comes when we are willing to deny ourselves certain things for our own good. There is no wrong food. We all realize that. But for our own good, there are healthier choices. Taking the healthy choice is a means to enter a wide-open, spacious life. For me, today doesn't need to include 3 spoonfuls of peanut butter:).

Need Christ's power and not willpower

“I begged the Lord three times to take this problem away from me."
2 Corinthians 12:8a

I had to smile when I read this verse and thought, "Yep, I have asked you more than three times to help me with my weight problem(or my "you fill in the blank" problem). What area of your life do you continue to come to the Lord and ask for help and he seems to be silent and not help you?

Well, the best part of the verse is so comforting.
But the Lord said, “My grace is all you need. Only when you are weak can everything be done completely by my power.” So I will gladly boast about my weaknesses. Then Christ’s power can stay in me.”
2 Corinthians 12:8-9 ERV

I will gladly boast about my weaknesses. I lack the discipline I need most days! But that's the good news. Only when I admit that to myself and to the Lord, can I be the receipt of his profound, unmatched grace! He says that "when I am humble, he gives grace."

Today i I will remember that I need Christ's power and not my "willpower."

Never Give Up

“That is why we never give up. Our physical body is becoming older and weaker, but our spirit inside us is made new every day. We have small troubles for a while now, but these troubles are helping us gain an eternal glory. That eternal glory is much greater than our troubles.”
2 Corinthians 4:16-17 ERV

If we flip this verse around, "If we give up as our physical bodies become older, our spirit is not going to be strengthened.

If we long to be stronger, in every way...physically, spiritually, emotionally...we must endure suffering. Obviously, if I want to increase my muscles I must exercise, which is a form of suffering for my body.

if I want to grow in emotional maturity, I must put myself in second place. I must humble myself. I won't grow emotionally if I stay in selfish mode.

But most of all, to grow spiritually, I must accept the trouble and suffering as a form of training that God allows In my life to grow from it. Delayed gratification...the eternal glory is so much greater than my temporary troubles.

Try Again

Wow! I read a great devotional by Max Lucado this morning. Here's part of it.

The Bible says that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:1). Thousands upon thousands of saved saints are looking down on us. Abraham. Peter. David. Paul... and Joshua. Your grandma, uncle, neighbor, coach. They’ve seen God’s great grace, and they are all pulling for you.

Press your ear against the curtain of eternity and listen. Do you hear them? They are chanting your name. They are pulling for you to keep going.

“Don’t quit!”

“It’s worth it!”

“Try again!”

After reading this, it reminded me of how many times I have failed at something and wanted to quit forever. Maybe you have done the same thing. 

Maybe you set goals about trying to implement a quiet time and it lasted a week. Or maybe you set a goal to lose weight or exercise and you were eating brownies by the second day. Perhaps your goal is to really be patient with your coworkers and show Christ to them but after a really stressful day, you found yourself acting like an unsaved person. I hate when I do that.

I have the very best intentions and set wonderful goals about what I want to accomplish. I want to write this blog everyday and I can't seem to do it. But the enemy wants to kill, steal and destroy. He genuinely wants us to fail. And he knows what triggers to push. When he makes me stumble, I want to give up say, "I am not equipped to do this."

This verse was a much needed reminder that "we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses" who are cheering us on. What a smile this brings to my face. Moses is cheering me on and I will thank him one day when we meet. Abraham and Joshua and Joseph and some of my other favorites want me to be "fit" and they are cheering me on. They are cheering you on, as well. So pick up the pieces and get busy!

Deal With Your Anger

Ephesians 4:26-27 ERV

“When you are angry, don’t let that anger make you sin,” and don’t stay angry all day. Don’t give the devil a way to defeat you.”God understands that we will get angry. We can get really angry. We can be disappointed. We can believe that life is unfair. But for our own good, we have to work through our anger and disappointment. There must be an end to the anger. Allow God to bring his perspective to our situation. Plead for his help in dealing with the anger.

Because if we don't...the devil will defeat us. We must realize that the enemy wants us to stay angry, to think that life is unfair, to think that God can not take care of us. The more we allow the anger and resentment to reside in our hearts, the more we allow a bigger foothold for the enemy.

I am thankful that God says in his word that "when you angry." I am always relieved that the book of Job is in the Bible. Job whined for about 40 chapters. But there was an end to it. There must be an end to our anger and bad attitudes-for our own good.

"Developing "Mental Toughness"

You might spend a lot of time thinking about how to get your body stronger, but have you ever thought about increasing your mental toughness? Think of your brain like a muscle you can strengthen, and you can improve your life. Mental toughness means you won’t fall apart with bad news, or when a challenge or a problem comes your way. With a strong mindset you can set goals, overcome setbacks (without unhealthy behaviors)." ~Chris Freytag

This article was not Christian related but boy can it relate to the Christian life. Here are a few tips about developing "mental toughness." 

First of all, God is our strength.
God said this once and for all; how many times Have I heard it repeated? “Strength comes Straight from God.” (Psalm 62:11 MSG)

So we will never be strong enough on our own to amount to anything.
That being said, I think we need to develop some mental toughness about facing life.
So my tip for the day is start each day with prayer and gratitude! Plank and praise is a really good way to express your joy to the Lord. 

Another idea about developing mental toughness is to keep your promises. I need to back up here for a second. I wrote a vision plan for my own life several years ago. I try to update the goals once a year. I call them "Pat's Priorities." If you feel like your goals are within God's will for you, then your goal is much like a promise that you intend to keep.

"When you do what you say you are going to do (from your workouts to meeting up with a friend for lunch) you are a person who keeps commitments. Whether it’s a silent promise to yourself or a commitment to someone else, keep those promises and you will be strengthening your mindset because you are a person of your word." ~ Chris Freytag

When we commit to ourselves that we will read our Bible on a daily basis or commit to a friend that we will pray for them, we need to keep that promise. Whether we are keeping a promise to a friend or keeping a promise to ourselves, we are developing that mindset that we will not disappoint our friends or ourselves.

If we continually break promises, whether to ourselves or others, life seems more out of control. We will break more easily in a storm. We will be more likely to forget that God ALWAYS keeps his promises…always!

One more tidbit about developing a strong mindset...

Two people are better than one. When two people work together, they get more work done. If one person falls, the other person can reach out to help. But those who are alone when they fall have no one to help them.

An enemy might be able to defeat one person, but two people can stand back-to-back to defend each other. And three people are even stronger. They are like a rope that has three parts wrapped together—it is very hard to break. (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10, 12 ERV)

Self-discipline doesn’t have to be about how much temptation you resist, it can be about how smart you are about creating an environment that supports you. Do you hang around others who want to grow in their relationship with Christ? Do you have friends and family supporting you and your goals? Do you have an accountability partner or a friend who pushes you a little bit? Each day commit to a little more "mental toughness."

An undisciplined, self-willed life is puny; an obedient, God-willed life is spacious. (Proverbs 15:32 MSG)

So much is said in this short verse. Undisciplined is what I am at times and my life starts closing in. Put the discipline back in and life does seem to be more spacious.

To be obedient to God requires discipline. We don't wait until we feel a rush of emotional desire to spend time drinking in his wisdom, spending time in prayer. To wait for the emotional feeling to be obedient means we are living an undisplined and self-willed life. 

ACE(quote from Mark) acting cures everything. When we begin acting in obedience, the feelings follow.

A Blog About Exercising

Some people are too lazy to plant seeds. So at harvest time, they look for food and find nothing. (Proverbs 20:4 ERV)

Lazy people want much but get little, but those who work hard will prosper.(Proverbs 13:4 NLB)

As I continue with the theme of transforming your mind, I wanted to talk about some of the reasons I believe we are not successful in the area of weight management.  Keep in mind, these are areas that I have struggled with and had to confront.

The major component of success in managing our health is grit. Grit is a favorite quality of mine:) Grit is defined as "perseverance and passion for long-term goals. A person possessing grit does not require immediate positive feedback. Individuals high in grit are able to maintain their motivation and focus over long periods of time despite experiences with failure and adversity." Wow! How true in the area of weight management. We did not become out of shape overnight and yet we want to become in shape instantly. Remember that managing our health is a marathon and not a sprint.

The opposite of grit is laziness. Everyone has to struggle with laziness. Our first response is to skip the workout. Always! Our second response is to do an easier workout:). We have to keep in mind that the instant gratification is not worth it. The long term reward is always worth the wait.   The principal of delayed gratification is true in every area of life...money, relationships, success in school, diet and especially exercise. That is where grit comes in.  Exercise will never be convenient or easy. It does not  show immediate results, other than the way you feel about yourself when you are finished!  

The single most important thing that I started doing as far as managing my health was weight lifting. Yep, you read that correctly...building muscle. As an older woman, I did not grow up seeing other women lifting weights. Now that I have completed 1 1/2 years of weight training, so many pieces of the puzzle are making sense. I started looking differently even before I lost an ounce. Once I began to change my eating habits, I found it easier to actually lose weight. I will not get into the concepts of "muscle burns more fat" or "you will continue to burn calories after a weight training day."  I do not feel knowledgeable enough on those topics.  I will say that I am a believer in weight training and wonder why I never knew about it for most of my life:)

In addition to weight lifting, I began riding bikes. The first time I rode a bike, I thought I would die.  It was just too difficult. I continued because of the grit factor. I purposefully attempt to do things now that are physically unpleasant in the short term because there are very pleasant in the long run...having to buy smaller sizes. In the beginning of my weight loss phase, all I could do was walk. I would encourage you to try something more difficult as you are able. I just finished week 4 of a running program. I do not even know who I am these days!

Long term results concerning exercise are listed in many articles...even increased mental acuity. A physically fit 75 year old will be miles ahead, mentally speaking, than an out-of- shape 75 year old. I think it is worth it to make small investments of time, consistently, to reap large benefits in the years to come.

I will blog about what I eat in my next blog. Nutrition is 80%. Exercise is 20%. You cannot walk enough to take off all the weight you want to lose. I am convinced that both components are necessary to achieving the health that we desire.

I exercised everyday on my vacation this past week. I am amazed.

How to Maintain a Consistent Quiet Time

In John 10:10, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. "

We read promises like this and we ask ourselves, "why do some people seem to enjoy a full life and I am plagued with doubts and setbacks?"  

This is similar to asking ourselves the question, "why am I overweight and out of shape?"  How are you fueling your body? What foods are going into your mouth on a consistent basis?  What exercises are you performing on a daily basis?  You know before asking those questions that the way you feed your body is the secret to your health issues. 

How do you feed your spiritual life?  Do you hunger and thirst for God's word?  Just like in the area of food, you can be so full of junk that you are not hungry for the healthier choices that your body needs. If you never eat fruits and vegetables, you do not have a taste for fruits and vegetables.  

Let's establish that many Christians really want to have a consistent quiet time spent with the Lord.  However, they just can't seem to be able to develop this habit in their own life. I want to humbly offer some ideas for beginning and maintaining a quiet time. 


Football is like life - it requires perseverance, self-denial, hard work, sacrifice, dedication and respect for authority.

You are probably wondering why I am using a Vince Lombardi quote about football right here.  Why is it that no one questions that success in the sports arena require perseverance, self-denial, hard work, sacrifice, dedication and respect for authority? But in the spiritual realm, we expect the abundant life without the same commitments. 

Okay, let's say that you are convinced that a change is needed. Let's agree that it is the most important thing that you can do. How do you begin? You need three W's.  When, Where and What.

When:  If someone walked up to you and asked you when is your quiet time, can you immediately answer? What Mark and I decided many years ago is a simple way to accomplish this. It is the first thing we do before___.  Fill in the blank.  We do this before we go to work.  I do not have a choice about going to work.  But before I go to work, I will spend at least 30 minutes studying the Bible and praying. On Saturdays, I will spend time feeding my soul before I exercise, eat breakfast, go shopping, etc.  Typically, on a work day, we will set our alarm based on how long would it take to get ready AND have a quiet time before we leave for work. Just add thirty minutes to the time it takes you to get ready.  You may already be thinking "I would have to go to bed earlier if I am going to wake up earlier." Yep, that has to be part of the plan. 

Where:  When I look at my love seat that faces my backyard, I equate that place as my place where I meet with God every morning.  When you know the location of your Bible study/prayer time, you will have everything you need nearby.  You will not have to search for your Bible, pen, paper, etc. In addition, you immediately settle in to the routine because your mind associates this as a special place. Notice that the place does not have to be fancy.  It is your spot!

What:  You can have a consistent time and place and still falter.  The "what" is a key component.  You need to decide what you will be doing during your time of study. Just like in the physical world, you could waste a lot of time trying to decide what exercises you will do in the gym. Or you could just "pre-decide." I am absolutely not suggesting that you take out the leading of the Holy Spirit in what scripture to study.  But to ensure your success in the beginning stages, I would decide ahead of time that you will be studying the book of John or The New Testament or the study of marriage. I spent the first 40 years, reading through the entire Bible each year.  Talk about stick-in-the-mud issues:).  When something works for Mark and I, we stick with it!

Take what you like from this blog.  Don't be legalistic.  You are not doing this to check a box or to earn God's favor. You are doing this to be connected to the living vine. Your health depends on it. Your life depends on it.