Last week was a tough week. I was, obviously, quite distraught over my friend… plus (TMI moment) I had some major PMS which amped everything up a coupla thousand watts, dontcha know.
Tuesday was the worst day, of course, being the day I found out about Heidi. I spent the better part of the day crying and praying. As evening fell, I wrote a post over on OWOA. Here’s a piece of it:
And with all the crying, and all the sad, and all the “There is nothing I can do to help” feelings… I have wanted to EAT. I wanted candy. I wanted to go get a Cafe Mocha. (something within me thinks that is a healing elixir - go fig) I wanted to have a third muffin after dinner - and I even got it out and put it in the microwave… I can have three carb servings a day, after all. And I’ve only had two. (both were muffins, obviously) But I’m only nominally hungry. And I realized that I don’t want the muffin for food. I want it for comfort. And we all know that is baaaaaad.
I’m telling you ladies. HABIT is the only thing that got me through this day, foodwise. Planned lunch. Thought out snack. Preplanned dinner. And the habit of munching raw veggies while I make dinner instead of chips. And the habit of water…. Otherwise I woulda eaten myself insensible today.
Very true. It was seven months of conditioning that got me through. In the days that followed, despite being rather depressed, habit also kept me going with intense workouts as well as the healthy eating. In the past, I would have thrown the workouts out the window as I would have been “too sad to move”. But my body is used to moving now, and I now know better than to indulge myself in such a stupid way.
This isn’t a post about how I’m all cool like that, though. 
Sunday rolled around, and the sermon was from 1 Timothy.
1 Timothy 4:7b-8 …discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.
Pastor Mike was talking, obviously, about spiritual disciplines. He touched lightly on that “bodily discipline is of little profit” bit. I’m glad that he pointed out that the verse doesn’t say it’s of no profit. As a matter of fact, he stepped on out and proclaimed that we do need to have bodily discipline and care for the bodies God has given us. Personally, I’ll take it even farther and say that, to some extent, I think that bodily discipline is a spiritual discipline. After all, she that is faithful in that which is least… But of course, we aren’t supposed to be focused on the body to the neglect of more important matters.
What hit me most about the sermon was when Pastor Mike spoke of habits. How when we have spiritual disciplines as habits, we won’t fall away from them in tough times. The habit of prayer, the habit of study, the habit of gracious speech, the habit of forgiveness, the habit of kindness…. the list could go on and on. And I thought of my post about food habits and realized how much work I have to do. My food reactions are under control, yes. But how about my prayer time? How about my Bible Reading? When life gets the least little bit stressful or just a little busy, how quickly do these things get lost in the shuffle? How about my tongue and my temper? Oh how quickly those can get out of control when life rubs me the wrong way. Why? Because I have not made these things HABITS. I’ve taught myself that bad food and no exercise is absolutely NOT an option, no matter what happens, because I know where I’ve been and how badly I don’t want to go there again.
What if I applied the same attitude toward my spiritual life? What if I looked at the flabby, out-of-shape Christian that I am - who gets “winded” at forgiving a simple slight.. who has forgotten how to “exercise” her faith - and decided that I didn’t want to be that way anymore. What if I applied the same drive to getting in shape for His service that I’ve applied to shaping my body?
Something to think about…
2 Timothy 2:15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.