It is. Yes, it is. Whether you like it or not, it's Monday! Time to grab that cup of coffee as you're headed off to work or busy getting the kids ready for school. I guess it's supposed to be drippy outside, but remember you've got the Son in your heart, so you can manage today.
This is a busy week for a lot of us, as retreat happens this weekend. Yay!! After months of writing about it and planning for it, it's almost here! We've got 40 women attending Doing the Impossible, and it's going to be an incredible weekend. If you're going, please start praying for both yourself and the other ladies, that the Lord will work in a powerful way in our lives during our time together. If you're not attending, that doesn't need to stop you from praying for us. And please pray for my co-leader, Christina, as she's dealing with bronchitis and laryngitis. I need her well!!
Because of all that is involved in putting the retreat together, there will be no Common Grounds or Perk this week. Next week we'll resume our regularly scheduled programming! It's been exciting to have new women joining our studies. Remember, you can always invite your friends to come along.
Our mini-retreat will be May 10th and 11th at Ashberry Lane. The cost is only $10, and I'll start registration for that in a week or two. This will be a wonderful opportunity for you to experience getting to study the same material we'll be covering this weekend, and to get to know some of the women a bit better. Young babies are invited to this event. We'll meet on Friday evening, go home to sleep, and then spend Saturday together. We'll even have some free time for the hot tub or playing games. So let me know if you're interested in this activity and I'll add your name to my list.
Saturday, May 18th at 10 AM at the church is our annual Feminini-Tea. You've been hearing me talk about it the past couple of weeks, so I hope you've put it on your calendar. I'm looking for ladies who would like to host one of the tables, and I'll share more information about that in next week's WOW-Zine. We had 70 women attend last year, so you can see we'll need some help with this.
I'll close out this week's news with the article I just finished writing for the church newsletter that will be coming out this week.
Self-Discipline
Self-discipline. The combination of those two words do not give me a warm-fuzzy feeling! Instead, they sound like work, and maybe some sweat, and for sure some deprivation. That's not the kind of thing I easily embrace. But it’s a term that I’ve seen at work in my life over the past three months. I’ve gone through a significant weight loss, and discovered so many lessons along the way. As I’ve learned how to go from being “not sick” to being healthy, I recognized that so much of what I’ve experienced in the physical realm carries over to things in my spiritual life. See if you can identify with any of my findings.
We have to realize we have a problem before we’re able to do anything about it.
Most of you had no idea how much extra weight I was really carrying. Because of my height, I was able to spread the extra pounds over nearly six-feet of body. It didn’t show up to most people. I could look around and compare myself to others and think, “I’m not so bad.”
Isn’t this what we tend to do spiritually? We compare ourselves to those around us and think, “Well, at least I’m not as bad as that person! Sure, I’ve got a few issues, but I can hide them from others.” We can go through life wearing layers of “clothing” that make it impossible for people to see the real us. It’s not until we stand in our spiritual birthday suit before the mirror of God’s holiness that we finally see the real us. And that’s when we have the choice to either add another layer of cover-up, or to be honest before the Lord and admit our need for change.
A detailed plan helps guide toward personal success.
I was not uninformed about how unhealthy my eating habits were. I skipped breakfast (just had a mocha), usually skipped lunch, started snacking mid-afternoon on high-carb goodies, ate a big dinner, and snacked again at night. I read magazine article after magazine article about how to lose weight. I could tell you the right thing to do, but wasn’t doing it for myself. And I wondered why the pounds kept coming on! It wasn’t until I connected with my health coach, Nicole, that I found the help I could put into practice. It was one thing to read about the right way to do things, and another to have a person telling me exactly what to do. As I told Nicole, "I’m a good obey-er. Just tell me what to do, and I’ll do it.” She did, and I did! The personal involvement and knowing what I could eat when is what made a difference.
Do you see how that’s true with our spiritual health? We can know the right things in our heads, but until we put them into practice it doesn’t do us a lot of good. We can hear great sermons, read wonderful devotionals, and spend time in the Bible, but until we start acting out of what we know, it really won’t impact our lives. And it helps to have a real person walking along beside us, giving encouragement when life gets hard, telling us they believe we can do it. Celebrating even minor victories with us. That’s what happens when we’re involved in a women’s Bible study or a home fellowship group. It’s a safe place to say, “I’ve been carrying around a lot of baggage. I’m weighed down by life. Can you help me?” Spending time together in the Word, finding out exactly what we should be doing in order to be healthy in our spiritual life, is a huge benefit to us.
We can, with the Lord’s help, do much more than we think we’re capable of.
In those magazine articles, they all talked about cutting way back on white flour and sugar. Of eating more protein and getting the recommended daily amount of fruits and vegetables. I knew this. But, I also knew there was no way I could ever do that. Give up all my favorite things?? Why would I do that to myself? I didn’t like a lot of fruits or veggies. I loved desserts. I loved bread with lots of butter, potatoes with lots of butter, butter with lots of butter. (My family has kidded me for years that when I die and am cremated, they’ll put my remains in an “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter” tub!) But as I bought into my eating plan (literally!) I found a new side to my personality. I did have self-discipline. I did have the ability to hold an Elephant’s Ear at the zoo and not eat it. I did have the fortitude to bake brownies, not lick the spoon, and not eat even a crumb of the finished product though people around me were enjoying it. My tastes changed, and the healthy things became much more appealing.
The same is true in our spiritual life. When we begin to cut out the things that aren’t good for us, and ingest the milk and meat of the Word, we start to lose our taste for those things that aren’t good for us and can even harm us. Philippians 4:13 reminds us that we can do all things through Christ, who gives us the strength. This is the basis of our self-discipline. It’s not that we’re so great and that we can withstand temptations on our own, but that He enables us. Maybe your downfall isn’t butter. Maybe it’s worry, or anger, or fear. It can be anything that keeps us from experiencing spiritual health. We can either say, “I just can’t give that up,” or we can rely on the truth that we can do what we need to do because of His strength. We can exhibit self-discipline because our self is hidden in Christ.
Will you see me eat dessert again? Sure. I might even lick the spoon! Will I slather butter on everything possible? No, I’m not going there again. Life is meant to be abundant. God gives us pleasurable things that we can enjoy in moderation. My goal is to not allow food to control me again.
Is there an area of your life that you know needs a little self-discipline applied to it? If so, I hope you can use some of these lessons I’ve learned. You’ll probably find some of your own. Challenge yourself to continue to grow in your walk with the Lord. And don’t be surprised if He spreads a little butter on your path!
Sherrie Ashcraft, Women's Ministry Director
sherrieashcraft@yahoo.com 971-285-6699
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