Process vs Product

hang in there! 

don’t give up!

if i can do this, believe me, you can too.

i’m actually feeling much better this week about the whole health challenge at church. i’m finding myself much less hungry and therefore, less grumpy.  i did this by amping up my protein intake, and making a batch of weight watchers’ chocolate muffins that are only 97 calories each. 

(1 box of cake mix (whatever flavor you prefer!), 1 can of pumpkin, 1/2 cup of water...that’s it! bake it at 375 for about 30-40 minutes...pumpkin makes everything so yummy and moist!)

something else i’ve noticed this week: i feel like my soul, body and mind are all functioning at higher levels. yes, i realize that sounds ridiculous and frou frou... but humor me here...

i’m working out to the point that everything feels sore...but, this means i can actually feel my body. i feel present in it all day long.

i listen to great podcasts while i work out..thus, feeding my mind.

and when i make the commitment to sit down and listen to what God has to say to my soul, i feel like my spirit is getting up off of it’s lazy boy recliner and taking a walk around the block. 

yesterday in my reading, the author was making a point about how prayer doesn’t prepare us for greater works, but rather that “prayer IS the greater work.” i wrote in my journal that “it’s not the result of prayer that we’re to chase after....the ‘i want’ & the ‘i need’; it’s the actual discipline of prayer that we should be seeking.”  

God wants us to be in relationship with Him and prayer is simply communicating with Him... i think of it as like a higher level of a phone call with my dad...we catch up..he tells me stuff.. i tell him stuff...occasionally, he’ll ask me to do something for him, and i do the same..he’ll even challenge me about areas of my life that i need to improve on...but this is how we know we each other...it’s not just me picking up the phone and asking for stuff.

stay with me. 

i have a point. 

i think.

if prayer is about the process and not the product, shouldn’t my view towards my health be the same?  

i started the WhoLly Fit series with 2 small goals: eat better for 8 weeks and be able to fit into a pair of anthropologie pants that i bought last year on clearance that have always been just a little too tight. 

but now, i think my goals are changing..

ok, i still really, really want to fit in the pants. 

but now, i think it sincerely is about the process. maybe i’m getting a little taste of how He wants us to feel every day...when adam and eve were created, they had this amazing garden all around them...but they had to work in it physically and learn about it mentally and they had an incredible relationship with God to feed and exercise them spiritually. 

doesn’t He still want that for us today?

i tell parents of any new music students that i am a “process teacher”...as long as they’re learning and doing their best, who cares what a song sounds like at the end? yes, we learn discipline and how to polish a piece, but that’s just part of the process. why don’t i apply that to myself?

the greatest commandment all through the bible is to “love the Lord your God, with all your heart, soul, mind (and strength gets thrown in there too...)”

how do we do that?

don’t know about you, but i have so much more mind to develop...(*insert blonde joke here..*) i know i have a ton of work to do when it comes to my heart & soul..and what about my strength??? yup-i think i can push that more too.

so hang in there!! it’s not about losing weight! it’s about being WHOLLY fit! exercise your mind, your body and your soul and you’ll become more HOLY fit. 

little by little. inch by inch.

think it’s too soon to try on the pants? maybe i’ll wait another couple weeks....