I'm not a very organized person. It's something I really struggle with. I aspire to be organized and have spent a lot of time and energy organizing all the little details in my life but have trouble keeping up with it. I became particularly aware of this fault after having my second son. Things that I was able to keep up with with one child completely went out the window when child number two arrived. When I launched my business and put one more thing on plate my organization and time management grew even worse, which led to me feeling tired, burnt out and like my life was out of control. To paint a picture for you.. there wasn't enough time in my day. I would get up earlier in hopes of getting ahead of things, but it never seemed to matter. The laundry pile was overflowing, the deep cleaning always got pushed aside, and tension filled my home. The stress of juggling everything filtered into every area of my life.. including how I talked to my children and my husband. Things got a lot more exciting when the time came for my husband to leave us for 7 weeks for training halfway across the country. The fear and frustration of knowing I was going to have even more on my shoulders weighed heavy on me.. I was drowning. You wouldn't know it by looking at me because my "messy house" and my "busy schedule" may not be that bad to some.. but to me, I was drowning in all my failures and I didn't know how to get out of the mess I was in. In January as my husband packed up his bags to leave, I ordered a new personal development book that I thought would help me grow and improve while he was gone called Spirit Driven Success by Dani Johnson. Little did I know that one book.. 260 pages of print would completely change my life. This book spoke to me on the deepest level and opened my eyes to a perspective that I had never considered before and I want to share that with you today.

In Matthew 25 Jesus shared several parables (or stories), one of which was the Parable of Talents. If you aren't familiar with this story I encourage you to read it, starting in Matthew 25:14. According to the Bible, God gives us what we can be trusted with. Mat 25:21 says "...Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord." In this Parable of the Talents, this man took the 5 talents he was given from his master, invested it and turned it into 10. Because he was smart with what he had he was blessed with more. This story is a great way for God to show us that if we can be trusted with what we have, we will be given much more. We all have been blessed with so much, whether it's a roof over our head, a job that helps pay the bills or tiny little blessings of children to snuggle and love on. We have been entrusted with these things by our Almighty God, they are gifts. The question is, how are we taking care of the things we have been entrusted with? In January, that question was a slap in my face.. a big wake up call, because if I was completely honest I would have to say that I wasn't taking very good care of the things I'd been entrusted with. Here I was asking God to bless me, my family and my new business but I couldn't even take care of the little that was right in front of me. Ouch! I don't blame him for not giving me more because I don't think I could have handled it. Here is the amazing thing, when I changed my perspective and started viewing all the things in my life like gifts that have been entrusted to me, my world began to change around me. The chaos I was living in slowly starting working itself out. I conquered the laundry, I took pride in deep cleaning the beautiful home God has blessed us with, I treasured the time with my children and I was careful with my time, not wasting it by scrolling my Facebook newsfeed for hours a day.  Through Him, I was able to restore peace in my home and my business income tripled. Somehow my days that were once not long enough turned into days where I had free time to relax and read a book, while still accomplishing everything I needed to do.  For the first time in a long time, I was taking care of what I was entrusted with and God was blessing me!

This amazing example can be applied to so many areas of our life, including our health and fitness journey. There is no greater gift than the gift of life and good health. If you are breathing and reading this today, you have been entrusted with something very amazing. Something that we often take for granted. The question is.. how are you caring for the body that God has entrusted to you? Are you fueling it with healthy foods? Are you staying active and exercising on a regular basis to keep you strong and healthy? If you take care of the body you have, right where you are, God will bless you with a healthier stronger body. If you are responsible with your time, God will bless you with more time.. time that you can use to better improve your health, your home or even your relationships. You don't have to live a life that is spiraling out of control. Focus on taking care of the little that God has entrusted with you and He promises to bless you with much more!

I'm a born planner, no matter the situation I have to have a plan mapped out in my head. When my family and I got orders to move to Fort Drum, NY I was excited. After months of living with family, in limbo, I finally had the opportunity to plan out our next month. I dreamed about where we would live, what life would be life, what church we'd go to and all the amazing friends we'd have. In my mind living in New York was going to be this amazing experience. I presented my request to the Lord (Phil 4:6) and I never looked back. My God is a BIG God and I asked Big!  Early into our time in NY things didn't go according to my plan. I was suffering miserably from morning sickness with our second son, the military post we lived on was tiny and what was up with all the horse and buggies?! There was little to do, not that it would have mattered, I was too sick to do much. For months we bounced from church to church trying to find our church home with no luck. Jeremy's work schedule was crazy with long days and I spent the majority of my time at home with my oldest son because we couldn't find friends. My expectations and plans slipped away from me and I couldn't help but feel frustrated and let down with our choice to move to NY. I wondered why God wasn't answering my prayers and why things were so tough.

Have you ever felt that way when it comes to your health and fitness journey? You start out on a workout program with plans of things going exactly how you plan. You are going to eat healthy foods, rock your workouts and then watch the pounds just melt away. You envision yourself rockin' those skinny jeans or that swimsuit. You are pumped and ready to go!! You start out strong and you do great the first week, you feel strong and empowered.. or at least like you are getting somewhere. THEN, you step on the scale and BOOM.. you lost NO weight. You become frustrated and your heart sinks a little as you feel like that entire week of hard work was for NOTHING! You run through every meal, every workout and wonder what you did wrong. WHY are you not loosing weight?! Can you tell I've been there before?! Expectations, they can be very powerful. What's even more powerful is the reactions that come with them when they aren't met. After the first week with no SEEN progress the second week is often met with less enthusiasm, the psyched you is now just going through the motions because you've lost faith in the program you are on. You may even start looking around for other ways to get you to your goal. **sigh** I feel anxiety just typing that because I've been there! I know what it's like to not have my plans go the way I want them to or as FAST as I want them too. The question is, what can be learn from experiences like this and how can we grow to be stronger and perhaps more patient? Hebrews 12:1-2 says, "...let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the the joy that was set before Him endured the cross.." If you look up the word "endurance" in the dictionary it say "the fact or power of enduring an unpleasant or difficult process or situation for a long period of time." Well.. I can't think of a better way of describing a health and fitness journey. Learning how to eat healthy and navigate an active lifestyle can be extremely challenging and often times, unpleasant. Especially compared to the days of eating what we want and doing less, however, that's not God's plan for us. We wants us to run towards our goals, even though they are challenging and frustrating at times. The key to our success is looking to Jesus. Don't let the feelings of frustration and discouragement prevent you from moving forward. Look to Jesus and focus on him. Have faith that he will carry you through the challenging times and will get you to your goal. It may not be on the timeline that we want but God's timing is perfect. Trust in him. 2 Thessalonians 3:16 says "May the Lord of peace himself give you his peace at all times and in every situation." We can rest assure, that if we ask for it God will give us everything we need to get to our goal, even the peace that we so desperately need when things don't go OUR way. 

Looking back at our time in NY I can honestly say that things didn't go as I planned. All the things I wanted didn't pan out exactly the way I wanted, but I can say that God provided me with EVERYTHING I needed. I experience two years of incredible personal growth. I completed my bachelors degree, lost 45lbs (beyond the baby weight) and found a passion for health and fitness. Most importantly, outside of the walls of the church we never found, I truly found Jesus. For the first time in my life I truly handed my life over to God and my life has never been the same. My life wasn't all sunshine and roses.. there was plenty of struggle and challenge. God's plan for us may not be the same plan we have for our self, but it's always so much better. We may have to learn some lessons along the way and things may get messy (we can count on that), but don't let those struggles prevent you from running that race my friend. Keep pushing forward when you don't see results, keep your eyes on the One that knows you better than you know yourself, he will get you to where you need to be. It may not be the route we would have taken, but you can bet the result will be so much better.

Five thirty am comes awful early when you've been up all night with a sick kid. Heck, 5:30am comes early when you haven't been up with a sick kid! Staying on track and dedicated to my schedule definitely has it's ups and downs. There are weeks when I'm on it! I pop out of bed when the alarm goes off, ready to tackle my day. I feel strong and unstoppable. Then, there are weeks like the one I'm in now. My alarm goes off and I roll back over and snooze. When I do get up I'm unfocused and unmotivated. All of a sudden my Big goals don't seem so important and I find myself slacking. How is it possible to go from awesome-ness to slacker in a matter of just a week?! This is what I've learned.. this health and fitness journey we are on has many highs and lows. It's just apart of the journey. Just like anything else, there are bumps in the road and detours and some days.. you just aren't feelin' it. The question is.. what do you do when you just aren't feelin' it?!


The answer to that question is.. We Do It Any Way! It may not be perfect, it may be crumbled and messy, but we make our way and we move forward. Often times, at least for me, the weeks that I struggle the most I find that the temptations are harder to resist; temptations to be lazy, to eat what I shouldn't and to simply roll over and go back to sleep. Did you know that the bible tells us that we don't have to fight temptation alone? 1 Cor 10:13 says, "No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it." This is our fighting chance when it comes to those temptations! God promises us that on those days where our bodies want to fall to temptation, he will help us. He will provide us a way out. We just have to do our part and Move. Invite Him in to your heart and ask Him for His help to resist the temptations you are struggling with and keep moving forward, even if it's messy and not perfect. Lamentations 3:22-23 tells us "Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." I love this verse! Isn't it a great reminder to know that our God is full of grace? His compassion never fails. He loves us and every day we get a fresh start! I am so thankful for that.

My dear friend, life is messy.. and it's hard. There are days where nothing is going to go our way and we will fall to those temptations. Don't let those mistakes keep you from moving forward. Don't let your feelings dictate your success. When you just aren't feelin' it... do it any way! Your body doesn't know the difference between being excited  or hating your workout, it just knows you are moving. So, get up, get out and do what you need to do to move forward. So what if it's messy, God is right there beside you ready to brush you off and put you back on your feet! Great is His Faithfulness! Through Him we can do anything!