What kind of shape are you in?

Although we are only 3 short months in to 2010, God has already amazed me with some incredible blessings.


A few months before the New Year was underway, my college pastor (James Myers) challenged our group to read the entire Bible through this year. He picked out a great plan that allows us to read an old testament passage, a new testament passage, a Psalm, and a Proverb so that we don’t get too burnt out (like reading straight through Leviticus), and it has been SUCH a blessing!

The second blessing came along at the end of January. It was unexpected, but I am SO thankful that it happened! James’ wife, Michelle, works with a company that she had told me about and I knew some of the very basic information, but she invited me to a home show and I went out to support her. I wanted to learn what she was doing so that I could support her and encourage her along the way. I had NO idea how my life would change that night. On Thursday, Jan. 21, I signed up as a coach for Beachbody and my life (and mind!!) have yet to slow down!

These two things challenge me in a way that I simply can’t explain. I know DAILY time in the word will strengthen my relationship with Christ. I also know that we are supposed to follow His examples, and one that CONTINUALLY comes up in the first 4 books of the New Testament is that Jesus rose EARLY in the morning and spent time with His Father.

Beachbody challenges me to be a better person as well. Being someone that struggled with anorexia, I always worried that taking control of my diet and fitness would lead back down the same route…but boy was I wrong! I have learned that owning my health doesn’t mean I have to starve myself or have a super-model image to be happy. I have also learned that striving for HEALTH is far different that striving for SKINNY. The relationships I have made and the life lessons I have learned are immeasurable.

Health is something I think a lot about now (and considering my husband is now on the kick with me – I couldn’t get it OFF my mind today). And not just, did I lose weight? Do I fit in to my old jeans? I look at health in other areas of our life – like with our finances. We have goals of where we would like to be, and that is what we call our financial health.

But today, the area of health I couldn’t stop thinking about was my spiritual life. I wondered what a person would look like based on their spiritual health. Think about someone who is anorexic. It is obvious from the outside that they are sick. You can see their collar bones protruding, their shoulder blades look like they could cut through the skin, and the dark circles under their eyes make it appear as if they’d been in a serious fist-fight the night before. I wonder what someone who is starving their spiritual life would look like? Would we be able to recognize that they needed help? And what would we do to help them?

And what would a spiritual six-pack look like? My calendar is scheduled from now until the end of the year with workouts (for many different reasons! The main one being the fact that I’m totally out of shape) and I’m hoping that the abs I had as a freshman in high school will finally make their appearance again. But I think about all the hard work that goes into getting them. I think about all the different things you need to do to build those muscles – So building a six-pack in our spiritual life would take the same type of work. You can’t simply go to church on Sunday, sing a little praise and worship, listen to a message and expect to be in-tune with the Holy Spirit anymore than you can expect to get a six-pack from doing 50 crunches once a week.

I have read the Bible my whole life, been involved in bible studies, and all that comes with growing up in a church – but the discipline of a daily, personal relationship with Christ is something I’ve never followed through on. I’ve always WANTED to read the Bible through, but there are a lot of things I’ve wanted to do and never get around to – so far, it is March 30th, and I’m on March 30th in the reading plan. There have been some times that I have had to “catch up,” and I have yet to set my alarm, wake up early and spend time with Him in the morning. But I know that it takes time. I don’t expect to start P90X tomorrow and be able to complete a whole workout without breaking a sweat (and breaking down!). It takes time to get your body in shape…and it takes time to get spiritually in shape. So I’ll set my alarm and try my very hardest to start each day for the rest of this week in prayer with my Heavenly Father.

My goal for 2010 has been physical health, but I’m switching up my priorities and putting God where He belongs. My new goal for 2010 is SPIRITUAL health – You can expect more on this later, my wheels are still turning!