8:00 p.m. Today's project was to enjoy our son Steven's company while getting used to his ultra-healthy six-meal-a-day diet. Not that I would be eating it myself, although like Steven, I eat eggs every day and enjoy meat at each meal. What takes getting used to several times a year is my kitchen smelling like egg white omelettes, broiled chicken breast, and tuna fried in olive oil! He's carb-loading right now, so oatmeal is a breakfast item, and rice appears throughout the day. Like most healthy eaters, he avoids any simple sugars like white bread and "whole wheat" bread which is nothing of the sort.
Steven's meals are so precise because he is a competition bodybuilder and a fitness trainer as well. He does nutrition coaching and recently held a seminar at a friend's home for a few of us. He has won several titles since he began competing 3 years ago, all the way to Number 5 in the heavyweight category in California--all natural, no steroids. Since he has the Collegiate Nationals in May, he'll need to bulk up to 260 pounds, and then lean down with fish, eggs, almonds, chicken breasts and broccoli. It's the strictest diet you can imagine, and makes the Atkins diet I'll be on before our daughter's wedding look like party food! Add two hours of cardio a day, along with lifting, and it really becomes a lifestyle. Pure discipline is what it takes to be a winner. Or should I say, "The Winner!"
I have noticed that discipline in my Christian walk is essential to my spiritual fitness. By spiritual fitness, I mean having Holy Spirit ability to reamain calm when provoked or disappointed, while still maintaining a scriptural stance in a situation. Spiritual disciplines of reading and studying the Bible daily; praying and writing my praises, confessions and requests to the Lord each morning; and being mindful of my witness to others inside and outside our home go a long way towards having a victorious Christian life. Just like our son and his diet/exercise regimen, a believer who has made a stated determination to walk worthy of her God does not take a day off. Jesus is too dear, too precious, and this Life too hard-fought to let it carelessly slip away.
This is the abundant life God designed for us! Jesus said, "I have come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly"(John 10:10) or as the NLT puts it, "My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life."
I just had a wonderful if brief visit with my grandsons and my daughter-in-law. Adrian and Xavier are now 13 and 15, and know the Lord as their Savior. It's not that we have lived a perfect life, but our Jesus is perfect, sinless, God come to earth to save us from our sins. and what ever small part Steve and I have had in leading them to Christ, we are grateful for! But without prayerful planning and again, the stated determination that as many family members and others we come into contact with will hear about Jesus, who would have gotten the blessing of witnessing to our dear grandsons? I'm glad it was us!
As the next two days, Christmas Eve and Christmas, come, we will have opportunity to serve our family members: Steve's family on Christmas Eve, and our children, my dad, and their spouses and one significant other (Pavel) on Christmas Day.
May we do honorable service, with spiritually fit, humble and loving hearts, remembering that it is You we celebrate!
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