The one thing that I must keep reminding myself of, is this journey is not about getting things done. I am a very task-oriented person and I have lists of projects that I want to get done. The task-master in me wants to work hard and see how many of those unfinished projects I can complete in three months. But this is not about completing tasks. It is about building a foundation. It is about becoming physically and, more importantly, spiritually healthy. This is about investing time in prayer and reading and quiet time to listen to God. For me, it is about learning to slow down and put the important thing, my relationship with God, first. That is why the first part of this journey is developing the habit of daily prayer and Bible reading. This is the core of our foundation.
Building new habits is hard and can be very frustrating. That is why I am not trying to completely change my life on day 1. Let’s start small. Everybody has a different starting point, and everyone has a different daily routine already established. As you begin this journey with me, I want you to develop the habit of reading a little from the Bible every day and doing some form of physical exercise every day. For me, a great place to start is to read one chapter from Proverbs every day. There is something in every chapter of Proverbs that speaks to me no matter where I am in life. As for fitness, I have gotten out of the habit of regular exercise, and I am starting with going for a walk every day and working on my core to build a good foundation for physical fitness. I start with doing planks for 30 seconds a day and slowly begin to add to that over time. After a few days of doing a few simple things, I begin to have more energy and mental clarity. Do not focus on your results, rather focus on the activity. The goal of the first 30 days is not to see great progress in our physical and spiritual health, rather it is to begin the process of developing habits that will lead to better health. These habits will become the foundation that we begin to build our house on. Building new habits and eliminating some old habits is not something you do overnight. It is a gradual process that takes time. Some habits need to be broken down into smaller steps and built slowly over a longer period of time. For now, we will just keep things simple and just read a little and exercise a little every day. No big goals of losing 50 pounds, reading the entire Bible, or completely changing your life in three months. The goal is just foundation repair and sometimes the foundation repair causes a few more cracks in the sheetrock and leaves a bit of cleanup to be done. But making the house look pretty without a solid foundation will lead to continual problems and repair work.
This challenge is about establishing new habits to build a solid foundation. What are your goals for these 90 days? What are the challenges that you are dealing with? Be sure to keep a journal every day to help you get your thoughts organized. Sometimes I don’t know what to write in my journal, but once I start writing, my thoughts just come together and my random, jumbled thoughts start to make sense.
Project for today: Read Proverbs 1, spend at least 15 minutes in quiet prayer time, and start a journal to write what God is speaking to you today through Proverbs and your quiet time. Spend time exercising today. If you are not a regular exercise person, like me, start with some stretching, core building (planks), and some walking. That is the foundation for us to build on. Most importantly, have fun.
