Lose the Excuses & Gain an Attitude of Gratitude!

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Rip came home for lunch today and I just had to share with him what happened at the gym this morning.

Getting on the treadmill is how I always start into my workout…and I love it! I get to walk and watch an entire row of TV’s that are all set on different networks – CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox, ESPN, and others. Today on one of the morning shows, they were talking about getting physically fit in 2016 and to start at one important place – Lose the Excuses!  They went on and listed all the excuses in the world that people will use as to why they won’t take ownership of their health consistently.

As I was watching, I couldn’t help but think….”Some folks aren’t just giving excuses. They are literally not able, don’t know where or how to start, or they can’t seem to find the time, so they settle for “less than” in their efforts for physical fitness.”  

About that time, I felt someone behind me and that someone was moving so incredibly slow. It seemed to be taking them so long to just move from behind me to all the way around to my side.

But, when they did get to my side, it was what I saw that (for me…just for me personally), it instantly made me lose all and any excuses!

I saw a precious senior adult man with his walker inching his way through the gym. And I do mean inching. He was hardly moving at all, because something was wrong…either MS or some kind of debilitation was there because he walked with such a limp and was severely knocked kneed. For him to take 1 step, just 1, was almost excruciating to watch, but as I watched him, I noticed attached to his walker was an oxygen tank and the tubes from the tank came up his shirt and into his nostrils.

My first thought at the sight was – “I can only imagine what all it took this morning for him to just be here.”

Then, as he made it to the stationary bikes, I watched (yet, fighting back the tears) as he ever so slowly pulled his way up and onto a bike. He put in his settings and started peddling. No real speed, just peddled. And he peddled. And he peddled. And he peddled.

For 10-15 minutes, he sat on the bike, with a machine helping him to breathe and peddled his little heart out. He was directly in front of me and I just was beyond words at the sight.

Then, as he got off, I watched him slide his way across the gym floor to be with the “big boys!” Yep, there were other men there lifting weights, pulling on heavy weighted bars, and just getting after it. And then there he was, making his way to the same area of the gym to lift his own weights or two.

I tell you…I got off the treadmill after my typical 3 mile run, went to the Stretching room and finally let the water works roll on! I was alone and so I was able to prayerfully give God all my pitiful excuses.

For me…there ARE no more excuses! As I’ve been working through Kim Dolan Leto’s book, Get F.I.T., I keep hearing the same powerful message, chapter after chapter…and it’s this –

Fitness is a choice, a choice that starts in the heart. The heart is the place of our “will & want to.” And when taking care of His temple starts in our place of “Want To,” then all excuses fall away. They literally no longer exist.

As Rip sat at our table today, listening to me share about that man, (crying all the way through the story), I told him – “If that dear man can face the freezing cold mornings, (ALONE), bring himself to the gym, get on a bike, and lift some weights…all with a walker and an oxygen tank, then why in this world would I ever not take the best care of my body as I possibly can? Why wouldn’t I give our ministry and business the best I got? Why wouldn’t I want to do everything to the glory of God?”

I wanted to go right up to that man and tell him that out of everyone in the gym today, HE was my inspiration, but I didn’t want to make him feel uncomfortable or bring any attention to his disabilities.

But I DID give my workout MY ALL today!! 1 hour and 30 minutes of pushing myself to the limits….and praising God and thanking God for every muscle, every tendon, every ligament, every cell and every ounce of Spiritual power HE was giving me to just kill it today! I rejoiced that I could squat! I was elated that I was able to lunge, lift and sumo through every exercise and add to my repetitions! I was just wanting to give to God my ALL in the gym today…..

But it didn’t stop there!

I came home and got busy in our business! Made calls, lined up clients, got Skype meetings set up, and worked on ideas for a new client’s renovation. I could not WAIT to get to this desk and get after it!

It’s an attitude, y’all!

And as I have read Kim’s book and as I am seeing in my own prayer closet….a spirit of GRATITUDE is one of the most energizing things we can have!! When we are truly grateful, we will show it. Or maybe I should say it this way: When we are truly grateful, it will show in and through every single thing we say and do!

Lose all the excuses ladies! Let’s lose every excuse and make it our place of surrender to be aware of His presence –

Be  grateful for the Grace He gives so that we CAN exercise our bodies, exercise our minds and our obedience, and exercise our freedom in Christ!

How about this — write out on paper every excuse you have ever hidden behind in why you have not taken the efforts to take GREAT care of His temple? How you feed it? How you exercise it? How you keep it pure, inside and out? Write those excuses down on paper and then go to your prayer closet and give them all to Him. Cast all your burdens of excuses onto Him and He will sustain you.

Then, throw them in the trash. Get rid of them, and then make a new list. A list of all the reasons you have to start TODAY taking care of yourself. Go to your Bibles and support reasons with Scripture. And THAT is where you can start your new journey of scripture memory for the year.

My Rip will tell you that Kim’s book IS transforming my life! I may have dropped a pants size but have gained so much in my “renewed mind” that I’m becoming so addicted to what HE says, and not what the world or what others may say.

Lose the Excuses and Gain an Attitude of Gratitude!,

Lisa

*the featured image is not the man in my gym. we are not permitted to take photos, but this is a very close and accurate portrayal of what I saw today.

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