Keeping Healthy with Gratitude

Keeping healthy is much more than eating a pile of cookies or keeping away from those carbs and calorie rich snacks. Exercise is good for the body; but isn't enough as God's ways are most often opposite from our fleshly way-of-thinking.

You can diet, do body cleanses, jog, swim, jumping jacks, and a cardiovascular workout for an hour each day but that isn't enough!!

WHAT, you say?!

For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. 

(I Timothy 4:8)

Now there's a verse to claim if you're NOT into exercising!! 

If you remember the ten lepers who were healed by Jesus, only ONE came back to thank him!!

Gratitude is something that is too easily forgotten whether by a healed leper or by me!! It is a powerful tool for spiritual warfare that heals the most discouraged person who has the least to be thankful for. We mostly have an abundance to be thankful for even when life brings us lemonade and it seems sour.

I am responsible for my responses in life. It is up to me (or you, my friend) to choose gratitude or attitude. Too often we snap at our children and feel the stress rising like an ugly face as the stressors of life turn our hearts cold and eventually into bitterness. 

I have found when I have gone through terrible circumstances that when I don't choose to start thanking the Lord for things...any thing...that I can't smile, I have no joy, and that I start to spiral down into the pit of despondency. When I start looking for things (any thing) to be thankful for to the Lord, my husband, my children, or anyone or anything else, it takes so little time until I start to pull out of that feeling of despair.

God is so faithful and through the hard and difficult times of our life He can become so real if we just let Him work. 

"In everything give thanks: 

for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning YOU." 

(I Thessalonians 5:18)

Since I live out 'in-the-sticks'... friends, like you are a long ways away!!

Sooo, I'd love you to follow me on: 

Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest.

In Christ Alone,

~Judith~

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Four Things I Do When I Wake Up

How I start my day makes all the difference in the world. The thoughts running through my head when I wake up set the tone for the course of my day, at least how I respond to the way events play out.

Photo Credit: Haven of Rest

If I wake up feeling defeated and discouraged, I can change that by the things I choose to do within the first hour or two of my day. If I wake up feeling happy and joyful all the better!!


The four most important things I do in my Morning Routine:

1. Make my bed
2. Quiet Time
3. Exercise
4. Shower

My mother always stressed the importance of making my bed. Her reasoning was because it made the room look better; even if everything else was a mess. I have made my bed over the years, at first, primarily because my mother 'said so,' but I have found other reasons she had for her instructions. 

• The bed is the focal point of the room. 
• It looks inviting and provides a feeling of warmth. 
• If other things in the room are cluttered, the made-bed draws one's eyes away.  
• It lifts my spirits and provides a peaceful place for my Quiet Times with my Lord.

My Quiet Time; a priority in starting my day. When the issues of life weigh upon my heart, they flee so quickly once I have opened my Bible. God's presence and still-small voice speaking to me through His Word is what I need to begin my day. When God is first in my day, the circumstances will be the same, but the outcome is under His control.

Exercise has always been important to me. I was an active youngster, always loving to run to my destination. I loved to swim and do jack-knifes off the high-dive. In college I was better at PE than taking tests (sadly so.) 

Once children come along it becomes harder and harder to find time to exercise. Motivation is a whole different story when you are up during the night, up early, and bone tired by evening. So, during those years, I was off-and-on with exercising as many of you ladies have experienced. If I had better understood the benefits, I might have tried much harder to be consistent, but this will be another post, another day.

It is rare for me to make it to breakfast without a shower. This has been so important for improving any distorted outlook on my day. It sure feels great to be dressed and ready for my day. How thankful I have been those days when someone has dropped by early in the day!! It has also been a blessing when my husband has made an emergency phone call needing me to run out for something!!

These are the first steps every day in conquering my foe, the enemy, who wants to steal, kill, and destroy. I am lazy at heart like anyone else and also a master procrastinator. The biggest start towards having victory each day with the Lord is by following this simple routine. When I haven't, it is strange how many things just don't fall into place as easily. I will come back to my room an hour later and see my bed unmade, or I will never find time to read my Bible the rest of the day as one necessary task leads to another. It is funny how it is much easier to read my Bible while it is still dark than once the sun is up!! If I have neglected to take a shower, it becomes harder and harder to find time as my children needed me to start our homeschooling day.

Lately, I have dwaddled away time in this and that, or laid in bed too long 'praying' but more than likely (if the truth be told) dozing. This is a call to myself to be more intentional about my routine, getting right out of bed, reading my Bible, and bringing my thoughts into captivity, putting the Lord Jesus first, worshiping Him, and living my life to His glory. 

And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, 

as to the Lord, and not unto men;

Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance:

 for ye serve the Lord Christ. 
(Colossians 3:23-24)

What does YOUR morning routine look like?? What are the first three or four things YOU do in your day?? Do these things help to chase the blues away and bring glory to God??

In Christ Alone,

Judith

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