This year I
recently started caring a lot more about my health. At the beginning of the year my wife and I
were very purposeful about what we ate and what kind of activities and exercise
we were doing. The whole thing came as a
progressive movement in my family.
My mother was a
heavy smoker. She would easily put away
a pack and then some a day, though she would never admit it. My dad was a smoker too, but not nearly as
bad. So the irony of the situation was
that my dad was the one who was told that smoking was going to kill him. Since my mother is the most stubborn woman on
the planet (and I mean that in a good way, I definitely inherited that from
her) she decided that she would quit too.
And she did. My mother and father both quit smoking after
decades of inhaling clouds of death and cancer.
And they quit cold turkey. How did they do that? I mean people seem to think that’s
impossible, right?
And it didn’t
stop there. You see, after my mom
stopped smoking, she came across a common problem quitters face: their taste buds go into overdrive. So, suddenly, food became the most amazing
thing ever. Needless to say, my mom and
dad both put on a few pounds rather quickly.
But my mother (again, incredibly stubborn and strong willed) said that
wasn’t going to happen any longer. My
mother, my 50+ mother (she’d shoot me if I put her real age) started to
exercise and eat right.
Mom had never
really been big, but not exactly healthy.
I’m sure there were several times my mom wanted to quit and go back to
her old lifestyle. But four years later
she is still smoke free and just finisher her first half-marathon. That’s 13.1 miles, people. My mother is a shining example of discipline.
Hebrews 12:11
“No discipline seems
pleasant at the time, but painful.
However it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace to those who
have been trained by it.”
The greater
context of this scripture is the discipline of God, how God works in our lives
to make us stronger and remove sin. But
the truth is wide-spread. All discipline,
whether from God or ourselves, is painful.
That’s the point of discipline. It
is a process of correcting the areas in our lives that need it. It is knowing where we are lacking and
improving it. But discipline always
comes at a cost.
My mother gave up
smoking, started eating right, and started exercising. It was hard, I heard her say it many
times. It was difficult and took a lot
of sacrifice. She had to give up things
she wanted and things she was used to.
It was painful! But at the end of
it, she took in a serious harvest: good
health and a much more physically fit body.
My sister went
through a similar process after her kids were born. She put on a little baby weight, but wasn’t
having any of that. She worked her butt
off, quite literally, and now is incredibly fit. She actually used her experience to help
other people and is now a personal trainer who runs marathons. So, I guess I said that to make it known that
I don’t really have a choice, I have to get in shape too because it’s now a
family thing. And I am.
I’m just starting
my discipline. I’m running in the
mornings, eating healthier, and consciously making healthier choices. I am in the hard, painful part. But it certainly helps that I can see the
harvest on the other side. Eventually, I’ll
develop my discipline and the pain will go away. Not only will it become easier, it will
actually become pleasant. That’s the
harvest.
“Heath, what in
the heck does this have to do with biblical budgeting?”
I’m glad you
asked, random no-named person. Budgeting
is hard when you first start. Don’t let
anyone tell you otherwise. Like I’ve
said before, you are probably going to fail when you first start. I say that not to discourage you, but to
actually encourage you. When you know
that it’s hard and you know that you are likely to fail when you first try, you
will fail and say “oh yeah, Heath said I would likely fail the first time.” That way, you’ll know in your heart that you
may not fail the second time, the third time, and so on. Eventually you develop discipline and over
time you stop failing. Then, not only
does it become easy, but it becomes pleasant.
That’s your harvest.
Zig Ziglar once
said that you don’t pay the price of success, you pay the price of
failure. Success pays you. It’s true for both physical health and
financial health. If you put in the work
and develop discipline, success will pay you with a healthy body and a hefty
net worth. However, if you fail, you’ll
pay the price of failure. For your body,
that’s medical bills and feeling awful.
For your money, that’s paying more debts and not being able to retire
when you want.
So get out there
and start running the race. You certainly
can’t finish it if you don’t start. That’s
Common Cents.
-Heath
No comments:
Post a Comment