When enough is enough

First of all I’d like to say thank you for the encouragement and support for those who read the last blog post, “The Great DINNER Exchange.” It was the most read blog post to date, and I received messages from people sharing their heart with me about their situation. It is good to know we are in this together, and we are not alone in these struggles.

Tonight’s blog post is not about marriage or friendships or being a mom, but it is about a relationship. It’s about a relationship with diet and exercise or should I say the lack of healthy commitment in this relationship. The progression to this point of complacency started in the last year and a half. I got comfortable with being lazy and careless and didn’t really see it as a problem until this past Sunday’s photo. Now, I know it’s not that I am extremely overweight or out of shape but I know this is an area that has owned me and caused me shame. Here’s the photo from September 17, 2017:

This past Sunday

Now this isn’t terrible at first glance but this was a little less than two years ago:

November 2015

I didn’t quite realize all this had happened until the photo above this one was sent to me. It had several people all lined up for an after church photo and here was this person staring back at me that I didn’t quite recognize. I mean, she looked familiar, she had my clothes on but she wasn’t me. She couldn’t be! Let me just put it out there that I know this has been an area where God has said to honor Him and His Word, but I didn’t see it as a problem. Until now, until enough is enough! The laziness and complacency has held me down for almost two years, and I’ve been all too eager to just let it just happen with no conviction. Until now. It’s not just what I see in that photo that bothers me. It’s what it represents to me because I know me. It says that I don’t care about making sacrifices so I can be healthy inside and out. It says I don’t care about being a helper to my husband in his fitness. It says I don’t care about being a good steward of the body God has given me. It says I just do not care. And that is not okay with me because I do care, very much. I do use food for comfort and don’t exercise just because I am too tired or lazy and haven’t been intentional in this area on any consistent basis. So I am going public with this for the accountability and because I want to go on a journey for lifelong change not just a quick fix. I want to give my very best, and I can do that best when I am healthy. So I am embarking on this journey to healthy living and will share updates in the blog from time to time (definitely not putting a true “BEFORE” photo on here just yet) but tonight the challenge for me, maybe for us, is to be intentional with being healthy. Let’s discover what that looks like for us and start pushing the bad stuff away and inviting the good stuff in. Thank you for reading and the feedback. It means more than you know!

Philippians 3:14 The Message 

Focused on the Goal

^12-14 I’m not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don’t get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I’ve got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I’m off and running, and I’m not turning back.

With all my heart, Sonia