Advice

Advice, we love to give it, but we are not always so receptive to receiving it. Often times the advice we receive is advice we know we should already be following. If you think about it we tell small children, whether they are our own or others, tips for life all day long: 

Don’t eat that. Use two hands when carrying that. Look before you cross the street. Use the crosswalk. If you don’t have anything nice to say then stay quiet. 

The list goes on and on. We expect other people to listen to our advice, but we don’t listen to our own advice. We eat quick meals that are often unhealthy because we don’t have time. Or maybe we don’t think we are worth the time it would take to prepare a good meal. But we spend the time on others. We make sure they eat and that they eat relatively healthy. 

I’m not sure why we don’t listen to our own advice. Why we insist we know what is best when we would be jumping at the chance to give someone else advice in the same situation. We are not invincible. We are not above bad choices or continuing to live unwisely. 

It’s Sunday as I write this and that means it is the start of a new week. This week I propose we remember we are children of God and as children of God we need to live according to the same advice we give the children we encounter:

We need to turn off the television and go outside. We need to do our work before we can play. We need to eat better. We need to put down our phones and talk to the people we love. We need to forgive those who have hurt us. We need to say sorry when we have hurt others. 

All of those little pieces of advice we give children, I challenge you to follow this week. 

An Update

Some time has past since my last update and post. Honestly, I was struggling to find a lesson to post. I was doing surprisingly well this time around and there wasn’t much to say. Since then some things have changed, but I am still lacking the wisdom to put the last few weeks into a lesson. So I will just start with an update from where we left off...

In the last post I was discussing my efforts to get healthier and to lose weight. I believe I mentioned trying to track my calories, not as a diet, but as a form of mindfulness about what I consume. The calorie tracking fell out the window fast. I was using an app to track my calories, but it was only really effective if I was eating prepackaged or take out food. Prepackaged or take out food was not really part of my eating healthier plan and it was difficult to get an accurate sense of my caloric intake when I made my own meals. Yes, there are people who do it and they even have food scales, but this wasn’t for me. 

From the few days I used the calorie tracking app, I learned that I am getting enough calories in a day (not too few and not too many), but that I could replace some of my choices with other options to get better use of my calories in a day. For example, I could replace my mocha from Starbucks with food for breakfast, which would lead me to feeling fuller longer and less likely to snack or indulge in sweets.

I was doing well with meal prepping my lunches for the work week and then I failed when I became bored with the same chicken everyday. The key to staying with a meal prep is variety. The ingredients can be more or less the same each day, but should be prepared differently (at least 2 different options for a week). Another key is to have your lunch ready the night before. If you try to make your lunch in the morning while you’re also getting ready to leave then it likely isn’t going to happen.

The Bible tells us we can’t plan for everything and even our best laid plans get changed, but we can make small plans or steps that will make the rest of our day go smoother. If your mornings are hectic then take the time to plan your lunches at night. This can also be applied to exercise. I like my sleep so it would be a struggle to wake up early to get my exercise in before I leave for work in the morning. Not impossible, but enough of a struggle that I likely wouldn’t keep doing it. However, if I come home after work and go straight into exercising I find I am not too tired to do it. Before I was exercising as the last part of my day and I was exhausted, which meant exercise was often skipped. There is not a set way to live out these healthier plans for our lives. Each of us must find the path that works best for us. Why? Because the Bible says our bodies are our temples. We should be doing our part to keep them healthy because that honors God. 

Obviously, it is not a dishonor to God if our bodies are riddled with sickness. Yet, if we are unhealthy and sick from our own choices then we should work towards returning our bodies to temples. Bodies that are temples are healthier and their occupants are happier, which means they can do more things for the kingdom of God. 

It might seem like I have it all figured out, but I don’t. I am still making conscious choices to meal prep and exercise regularly. My choices are working: I feel healthier and I have lost a few pounds. My advice is not to judge your progress by a scale because weight does fluctuate a bit. However, I still encourage you to celebrate progress (even a pound lost) and continue your journey towards a body that is a temple. 

Health update aside, this blog was started to communicate lessons I learned while seeking God and these lessons began in a moment of darkness. I took up this blog again when I found myself in a similar place of darkness. I tried to once again post the lessons I learned, but I found myself struggling to put these new lessons into words. My focus switched to the things I could write about, such as goals for the new year, and it became harder to switch back to the original content: lessons. 

I am going to be candid for a moment and do a brief recap of the last 2 months. At the end of December, right before Christmas, my dream of restoration was crushed. My heart was handed back to me as mush, not even as pieces I could put back together. I was struggling to understand and my mantra was “It’s in Your hands”, which was said in a prayer to God. I was so lost and alone that I truly had no choice, but to continually give everything to God. 10 days after this happened there was a glimmer of hope. This is the same time I started to write an update post, but couldn’t because of the unexpectedness of the message. The last few weeks have been filled with random messages that hint at hope and then at the same time do not. Needless to say I am confused. 

So my lesson this week, the lesson I have been learning over and over again the last two months, is when you are feeling confused or there is nothing you can do then just give it to God. Repeat as many times as you need “It’s in Your hands.” My prayers have been a time to come to God, tell Him how I am feeling, and to give Him everything I am feeling and/or dealing with. The outcome is not something you can necessary see or tell is happening from the outside, but I feel differently after these prayers. There is a relief in releasing it to God. Whatever happens next is in God’s will and God has a plan for each of us, a plan to bless us and not to hurt us. 

Resolutions Update

The first week of January has flown by and there have been 7 days this year for us to work towards our goals and resolutions. How have your resolutions been going? The first week is full of motivation and then history has demonstrated motivation usually tapers as January goes on. Resolutions are usually kept through planning and dedication to continue these changes. How are you planning to keep your resolutions going? 

My resolutions are health, organization, and education. I have been focusing on the health aspect of my resolution since this resolution needs more planning and requires daily input to achieve. I am increasing the days I exercise at least 30 minutes. Last week I exercised at least 30 minutes 3 days and this week my goal is to increase that number to 5 days. I have returned to meal planning and prepping my lunches to decrease the frequently I eat out during the work week. Meal planning has helped me keep on track and eat better throughout the week. This week I added more fruits and vegetables to my lunch menu. I also downloaded a calorie tracker so I can be mindful of how many calories I am consuming each day. 

While I downloaded the calorie tracker app, I am not concerned about tracking my calories or limiting myself specicifcially. My resolution is to get healthy and to live a healthier lifestyle. I am not interested in a diet or limiting myself. I want to be able to enjoy life. The calorie tracking app is just a way for me to be mindful about the calories I consume so I’m not overindulging daily. 

This was a shorter update than I imagined writing going into this week. My graduate classes started up again and my available time has been cut drastically. Being busy is probably a good thing because it keeps me from thinking about the hardships I am facing, however it also means less frequent posts to Lessons. My goal is to try to post at least once a week. 

Let me know how your resolutions are going in a comment. 

Goals Not Resolutions

Today is the first day of the new year. Last night people were celebrating with loved ones and remembering their favorite moments of 2018. 2018 ended in a snowball of bad news and it was difficult to think of anything good last night. So instead I thought about resolutions. I don’t make resolutions. Resolutions are just good thoughts that tend to disappear as the new year progresses. So instead this year I made 3 goals. You might think that goals are similar to resolutions and I suppose in many ways they are, but goals are different in one major way: they have steps. You start with a goal and then under the goal are the little steps that it will take to get there. These little steps are manageable, but they lead to a big accomplishment at the end.

There are plenty of goals I would like to achieve by this time next year, but I also don’t know what tomorrow is going to look like and it would be unrealistic, even impossible, for me to plan out each day for the next year. So instead, I chose three goals to work on this year. Goals can be added as other goals are completed. My goals:

1) Get healthy
2) Get organized
3) Obtain my masters degree

These goals might seem vague, but each goal has several steps underneath it. For example, get healthy includes eating 5 servings of fruit and vegetables each day, along with drinking more water each day. The trick is to have specific steps that are measurable and obtainable. You don’t want to say lose weight, but have a target goal like 20 pounds. Start with something that is manageable, but not achievable in a day. You need to strive for it, but you shouldn’t struggle for an excessive amount of time to reach the step.

I will explore each of these goals further in future posts and talk about the Bible verses that support these goals. For now, I am going to reflect on the new year and get ready to return to work tomorrow. What are your goals for the new year?