I recently began wearing a pedometer. This has led to a shocking discovery. I am a sloth. A highly productive, busy busy sloth. The average woman walks 5,000 steps per day. I am NOT the average woman. I had no idea. I've been walking around the block for exercise more days than not...and even then I'm coming in just around average.
The pedometer does not lie. It doesn't even stretch the truth. It even keeps a week-long record. I've read that for weight-loss and improved cardio-vascular health, one should track 10,000 steps per day. Whoa Nelly.
I have a theory: Over the last 15 years, I've spent 70% of my time either pregnant or nursing or on physician-ordered bed rest. Throughout those circumstances, I found a way to run my household from a stationary posture - whether seated or standing. Rarely stepping.
The good news here is that I do not have a hyhpo-metabolic issue. I have a
mega-couch-potato syndrome....without the potatoes or the couch. I honestly would have never guessed.
In terms of food, I wasn't sure what else to give up. There are no sweets in this house. There are very few simple carbs, period. There are many leafy greens and fiber-rich foods. I rarely eat after 7pm and beyond my two cups of coffee, I drink water all day long. I wasn't sure what else to do nutritionally. I simply don't burn enough calories.
With Easter approaching, I asked the Lord, "What could I deny myself that would cause me to look toward You and go deeper in our love?"
"Therefore, I urge you, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God --this is your spiritual act of worship." - Romans 12:1
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I'm often convicted that I do not tap in to the power of God. I read in scripture that He has offered me access to His might and strength and supernatural power. Do I take Him at His word? Rarely.
Over the holidays, we managed to destroy 3 or our dining room chairs. Two instances involved testosterone surges at mealtime...Neanderthals with whom I live and dine...and the other was a mopping mis-hap.
I took a walk one afternoon and the chairs made it into my conversation with the Lord. "What should I do? Be patient and wait for Philip to do something? Go out to the shop and build my first bench ever? God, You know it would be SO simple and cheap if someone was getting rid of their chairs...but who would sell chairs without a table and how would I know about it?" I laid it at His feet and finished my second mile.
That very night, 9 minutes before I logged on to facebook, my friend across town posted, "6 Broyhill dining chairs for sale. $100 for all."
Seriously? I yelled for Philip, asked his for the go-ahead, and quickly typed, "SOLD!!!" The Creator of the Universe knows my deepest desires. If I'll talk to him about chairs, and He'll almost immediately show His might and mercy to work it out, what am I missing? What should I be pleading with Him about? Stuff more important than a place to rest a bottom?
What if I talked to Him every day about my husband and my kids? What if I trusted Him for specific victory in their lives? What if I "have not because I ask not"?
Lord, help me.
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I've been in crisis mode before on several occasions. This is not one. Physically and Spiritually, I have a deep, nagging need for consistent, deliberate, purposeful living. One step at a time. Walking & Talking with the Lord, my Friend and Father.
No quick fix.
No grand reveals.
No enormous undertakings.
No restrictions or deprivation.
Just reality, revelation, truth and action.
Sacrifice.
Step by step.
"So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law....Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep IN STEP with the Spirit."Galatians 5:16-18&25
40 Days IN STEP....here we go:)
