Day 186 - DON'T STOP - until I tell you to!

Funny how God works.  Tonight while reading my devotional, He covered the VERY thing that I had discussed with Nikki tonight. 

On Monday, when I did my workout, I have apparently really made the muscle in my right shoulder sore under my shoulder blade.  (Praise Jesus Larry said he'd rub Ben Gay on it for me!!) But I was explaining that I started out my push-ups as "boy" push-ups, but that the next 2 sets, I had to do them as "girl" push-ups.  I still HATE to admit that in over 6 months doing this I'm not strong enough to do everything like a "pro".  It's easy for me to get down on myself for not being "as good" as I think I should be.  But then comes along someone else who is battling the VERY SAME THING that I am, and it comes easy to be a cheerleader.....because I KNOW....I CAN RELATE to what they're going through, and I just want to be the voice of support.....maybe the ONLY voice of support that they may hear.  NOT a voice of enabling, but rather a voice of encouraging!

So as I said, I'm reading when all of a sudden God said to me through this devotional "Do it NOT in your strength, but in Mine.  Every time you WANT to stop, pray for that struggling friend you just challenged not to give up and take your own advice - don't stop until I tell you to." and then went on to say "God's strength can replace my excuses step by step and it will be about me realizing the power of God taking over my complete weakness."  And "learn to embrace the benefits of exercise rather than resisting the hardship."  DANG!!

Confession is good for the soul right? well.....I HATE having to "make time" to exercise.  Funny thing is, I don't "make" anything! We are all alotted  the SAME 24 hours in a day, or 1440 minutes or  86,400 seconds. I can guarantee that 8-9 hours of the 24 is spent at work, another hour on cooking/eating and another 3-4 on Facebook/internet/paying bills "me-time" etc...and somewhere in there I sleep too! Ummm....I think I need a reality check that exercise IS "me-time" AND holds more value than half of the other stuff I do....but yet it's hard! It requires effort! It's NOT fun! Need I go on?? 

So, for me, when I'm tempted to drop that last rep because I feel like I'm going to die.....I'm going to pray for those of you that I know are struggling in this too, and I won't stop until I've obediently completed what God is challenging me to do!  I challenge each of you my friends to identify the "challenge" that God is putting before you and I encourage you to embrace it and go for it!

Breakfast: cereal
Snack: yogurt and grapes
Lunch: salad and turkey bacon
Snack: missed
Dinner: spaghetti sauce

Feel free to PM me and I will lift you personally up in prayer!