Speed Bumps

"Anything worth doing, is worth doing well." It's something I tell me kids from time to time. Usually it's said in frustration because it has not been accomplished in some given task, a homework assignment, a chore, a project - whatever the case may be. It's usually said when effort is lacking, or the goal of "getting it done" has just been to get past it, rather than to actually accomplish the task.

So when the reminder isn't required, when things are "done well" from the get go, I find myself very pleased. Those are those "proud mama" moments we mothers live for. Truth be told my children are not the only ones who often need the reminder. I am often tempted to do as little as necessary for the sake of being finished, perseverance isn't necessarily my strong suit. But when I manage to apply this principal in my own life, it makes me proud. Not the negative, "full of self" kind of pride, but the joyful excitement that I am putting my best foot forward, doing it (whatever "it" may be) "as unto the Lord."

So I've been really excited about how this year has started. I made a commitment to put "first things first," and have had the determination to stick to it. And I have to say, it had really started great! I found myself getting in to quite a groove with my daily work outs. Yes, did you catch that? Work outs, as in plural, more than one! I was getting up in the mornings before work and before my daily devotional time and getting a morning work out and then having a 2nd one in the afternoons. And did you catch that too? Morning devotionals... I have been keeping up nicely with my church's bible reading plan. I even discovered the benefit of working out first, I was wide awake and my mind was sharper for reading. I was really enjoying the sense of accomplishment, living out, "anything worth doing is worth doing well."

I read somewhere once that 21 days is how long it takes to create a new habit, so I was really disappointed when I ran into some trouble on day 6. The stomach flu hit our house Tuesday afternoon. When I picked my daughter up from school I was informed she had thrown up just moments before I got there. I had already missed a day's work with Ethan who had complications from a dental appointment that day. It didn't hinder my workouts though, and my reading was on track. Tuesday evening was spent racing after my daughter every time she raced for the bathroom, easily more than a dozen times before she finally went to bed that night. She said it made her feel better if I rubbed her back while things were... um... er... happening. This is the child who somewhere along the way cured me of my vomit issues. I used to have to run the other way, I remember flat out bailing out on Neal in the early days of our marriage when he got... uh... sick. But I digress.

After one episode that evening I looked my daughter in the eye and said, "you know you're going to give this to me, right?" Apologetically she smiled back and said, "I know, but I feel so much better when you're here and rubbing my back." Yeah, that's what being a mama is all about. So I kept running the race with her throughout the evening. Wednesday morning I got up and did my work out and my bible reading after I took Ethan to school. I was stuck home all day with my little sickie, so I took advantage of the extra half hour of sleep in the morning. Victoria had a pretty good day Wednesday, no races, and I did a longer workout combining my morning and afternoon routines and read the daily reading.

By Wednesday afternoon I was starting to feel a little... funny. I couldn't go to church with the boys, even though Victoria seemed well at this point. No school, no church. I spent the evening trying to figure out the funny feelings in my tummy. Was it hunger? (Wish I had guessed "no.") Was it side effects of being back on my low carb diet? (It happens.) Or was it something worse? And by about 10 o'clock that night, I got my answer. It was undoubtedly, the something worse. Thanks Victoria, you're such a giver.

Wednesday night was miserable, sleepless and awful. By Thursday morning I knew I couldn't even drive my kids to school with any confidence. Neal had to come home and take them for me and I literally slept buried in covers till 1 pm. When I finally got up things were still awry and I felt like someone had run me over with a Mack truck. It wasn't pretty at all. At all, at all. Working out was not an option. I did manage to stand on the Wii board long enough to do my daily body test. The computer told me, "your legs seem a little shaky." Yeah, you have no idea. It was even hard to be excited about the 2.9 lbs I had lost since the previous day. (Though if you're going to find a silver lining...)

I spent most of the day yesterday crashed on the couch. Achy, weak, tired and... off. Working out never became an option. It was almost bedtime when I finally grabbed a bible and read the daily reading. Yay for that at least, because of all my goals, that remains the most important. Today is a new day, but my body is still recovering. I got on for my body test this morning with a "Wii fit age" 18 years older than it was before the flu hit. That sounds about right. Although today I should have at least made it back to work but even that didn't happen because my daughter decided to have a relapse this morning, I blame her father's brilliant idea of giving her tuna for dinner last night. (Sorry for all you visual people.)

So, I have undoubtedly hit a hindrance along the way to 21 days to creating a new habit. I'm hugely disappointed. Now the question remains, will this be a detour or a speed bump?

Too many times in the past I have let glitches become detours, turning me away from the road I was on and never actually finding my way back to it at all. Unfinished stories, weight loss plans abandoned, giving up on reading plans three chapters into Leviticus, there's a long history of "almosts," "not quites," and "never was." And I have to tell you, I'm a little fed up with the me that has allowed them.

So I am determined not to let 2010 be another year that fizzles out before the first month of the year, much less the first week. I want this glitch to be nothing more than a speed bump, that may have slowed me down, but will not throw me off track. But my greatest determination comes in deciding that I'm not going to try to do this in my own strength. I believe the Lord is the One who helped me start this tear off well, and I am going to believe on Him to help me get back on track. As soon as my body cooperates, I'll get back to that work out... those work outs. I'll determine to keep on keeping on with that readinging plan, through Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronmomy! After all, the Bible says, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." So I am going to trust and pray He is in on the new "First Things First" plan with me, and we'll get back to it ASAP. It's worth the effort, after all, anything worth doing is worth doing well.

And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Colossians 3:17