Living Intentionally by God's Grace: #136 Showing Up Is Half the Battle!

9/2015 Updated PRAISE REPORT to this blog post: I published this post in August 2014 and I'm happy to say that I have a regular quiet time with my Lord every morning -- making it the first thing I do before I hit my feet on the floor for my day. It has been the best blessing I could give myself, my family and those around me.

Do you have a problem being consistent? Do you say you are going to do something and then when the time comes to do it you back out because you don't "FEEL" like doing it? Do you have a gym membership that you are paying for but you are not showing up? Giving away FREE MONEY!!!

This quote is on the outside of my gym!!

Why is being consistent such a problem for many people. Am I always consistent? No -- I wish I could say I was. When it involves other people I am quick to try to be as consistent as possible. For instance if I make plans to meet with a friend -- I make it my business to keep my plans. Just today I visited with a girlfriend and my boys went as well to visit with her boys -- it rained cats and dogs and my entire being was wanting to stay home and pull out a good book and just curl up in bed and read. I could have easily called and rescheduled -- but it is my goal to be a keeper of my word -- especially if I have know good reason other then the excuse "I don't feel like it." And I want to be known as a person who does what she says she's going to do. I don't want to be labeled in a negative way. So I guess I care what others think and say about me -- yes -- my character is important. It's a reflection of who I am -- who wants to be known as always late, liar, inconsistent -- the list goes on and on...

But what about being consistent to myself? Keeping up with my bible time, and prayer. Keeping up with eating a certain way -- things people cannot see -- but I'm aware of. Oh it's easy to not be consistent to yourself because you are not being held accountable for those things by others. When I'm consistent with these things I feel 100% better about what I do for the rest of the day -- when I'm not -- I know that I'm not being the very best to myself as I could be. So why is it so hard to be consistent in those things? I believe it's because it's easy to get caught up with the habits of checking our smart phones and everything else we get in the habit of doing -- but then -- check it out -- those things are just habits. We can form new habits.

This year I joined Gold's Gym and I started when lots of people joined -- in the month of January!!! Well I'm happy to say that I'm STILL GOING and I've turned into a regular Gym Rat now. I love going to the gym and I'm definitely getting my monies worth. No one is watching -- no one is keeping record -- it's a habit that I'm doing for me and I feel great about it! Now I just have to work on my quiet times at home. It can be done -- and I will make it happen. (See the Updated Praise Report at the top of this blog post). That's the best thing I can do for myself.