What Motivates YOU

I’m going to get a little spiritual today – I hope you can handle it. You may not believe in God and that is your choice; it is not my aim to preach at you this morning. However, I do believe we can all draw something that impacts our lives from the Bible. It is my hope that my personal beliefs do not turn you away from reading today’s post, but instead that you find it; motivational.

Motivation [moh-tuh-vey-shuhn]:

       1.    The act or an instance of motivating, or providing with a reason to act in a certain way.

2.    The state or condition of being motivated.

3.    Something that motivates; inducement; incentive.

As I was reading a young woman’s blog this morning and my heart went out to her. She is struggling as we all do from time to time. Reading her post reminded me of one of the reasons I began this blog; to motivate.  I believe I’ve been slacking in that department. I’ve a few posts in the works that I hope meet that standard of judgment.

Looking at the definition of motivation let me say that I have found the ‘reasons’ I continue to press forward, to go to the gym, to aim to eat healthy, to try new things, and share the journey with you. What are those reasons you ask?

1.    To see just exactly what I am capable of.

2.    To insure that I am giving my family the best I can by providing a healthy meal options.

3.    To motivate, encourage, and help you realize how strong and beautiful you are.

The problem…I am NOT in a constant state of being motivated. It comes and it goes, but for the most part it’s been a stronger presence in my life since November 2011. Before November, I could barely get motivated enough to wash my hair!

My love for scrapbooking…seemed to have vanished. My love for reading…slowed to a snail’s pace. My love for and desire to do anything had diminished so greatly that I felt as if I were just going through the motions of life and not truly living. Like, like perhaps I’d lost something. The truth of the matter is I did; I lost me. I thought I’d gotten ‘me’ back when I lived in Ohio and recently I have realized I was just beginning to touch the surface.

I don’t want to just scratch the surface anymore. I’m tired of not finishing. Half-way leaves you hung in the balance; it doesn’t take you down or move you forward. You’re just…STUCK.

After reading this young lady’s blog I realized she’s stuck. I don’t know her, never met her, and not even sure if I’d know what to do to help her. It got me to thinking though about how many other people just might be stuck. Then I thought of seeing what the Bible had to say about motivation. Here is what I found:

“Where does your motivation come from? Paul tells us that in all things we do, we should do it for the glory of God. What we eat or drink doesn’t matter, so long as our motivation is rooted in the glorification of the Lord.”

The related verse it gave: Corinthians 10:31. Here’s where it got good. I read a comment about it that basically said the verse does not directly relate to motivation. Be as that may, when I lived in Ohio one of my biggest motivators was to have a better dwelling (aka my body) for the Holy Spirit.

I then decided to pull my Bible out and read the passage for myself. I wiped the dust and hugged it to my chest. Yes, I’ve struggled to read my Bible. I don’t have a Church here and I really struggle with that. I miss Ohio for more reasons that I have time to list.

I turned to 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and read what I thought was verse 31…one might say I had a moment of dyslexia or that the Lord decided I needed to read chapter 10 verse 13 more. Either way, I read the verse and smiled.

Temptation:

1.    The act of tempting; enticement or allurement.

2.    Something that tempts, entices, or allures.

3.    The fact or state of being tempted, especially to evil.

4.    An instance of this.

5.    The temptation of Christ by Satan. Matt.4 (yep, that was in the dictionary)

Temptation is something we ALL struggle with, no matter what journey we are on. For those trying to lose weight, food is a big one. So is skipping the gym session.

Corinthians 10:12-13

“So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! 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.”

Any idea why this might have made me smile? What that says to me is that my creator knows just exactly how strong I am and that he does not want me to fail. I may not know how strong I am, but he does and having that knowledge is empowering to me.

I then scanned a few more verses and landed on Corinthians 10:21.

“You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s Table and the table of demons.”

Do you know what that says to me? It says you can’t fifty-fifty-it. You have to go all in, 100%. All the way, and cross that finish line! What if God only gave you half a body, forgot to finish you??? Whatever the journey is that you are on, do you really want to be stuck hanging in the middle of it? How much fun would that be? It’d be like saying, “We’re going to Cancun!” And then getting stuck in windy, dry, flat Kansas! I do believe I’d be just a bit livid, don’t you?

I kept reading…Corinthians 10:23

“Everything is permissible – but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible – but not everything is constructive.”

A verse I’ve seen and read before and yet just as fresh to me today. Everything is permissible; allowed. Sure go ahead eat that cheesecake, pizza, Doritos and have that Pepsi – after all it is allowed, but let me ask you this… What’s the benefit? Is a gain of 5 pounds, clogged arteries, and a caffeine addiction really the type of benefits you want? How is that constructive? How is that improving? That’s the type of verse that just smacks you over the head, isn’t it? Sure enough did me! Kinda like Cindy's math equation yesterday.

Know why I stopped at that verse when scanning through chapter 10? Because just before it, in bold letters it says: “The Believer’s Freedom”. Freedom – a word that I’ve been keeping pretty close to my heart lately. Who does not want to be free from excess weight? Do you really wanna be fat? If you answer yes, then honey, you are in some big time denial! I started off with 40 pounds to lose. I’ve 15 more to go…in 15 pounds I will be FREE! I am aiming to celebrate that personal freedom on none other than July 4^th 2012. See why I stopped when I read the word “freedom”?

Finally, I read verse 31 and came to the same conclusion as I mentioned above, a healthier dwelling for the Holy Spirit can be if it isn’t already a motivator. The question is, is it a strong enough motivator for you?

I thought it was for me…then I realized it wasn’t. I was only scratching the surface. I wasn’t digging deep enough to find all the small little things that motivate me and together become strong enough to keep me pressing forward. Everything in our lives works together…like a fine tuned engine. We are foolish to think otherwise.

Verse 13 reminded me of another passage that many of us know by heart. Philippians 4:13.

        “I can do all things through him who gives me strength.”

However, while reading it…I seen another bold title: "Shining as Stars". Something I’ve written but do not believe I’ve posted yet is about ‘shining’. We were made to shine, did you know that? Do you remember the little Sunday school song, “I’m gonna let it shine, let it shine, let it shine”, remember? God does not want us hiding! We were made to shine and it is real hard to shine when you don’t love yourself or see how beautiful you are.

Philippians 2:14-15

“Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe.”

He knows how strong I am and he gives me permission to SHINE! That just feels my heart with gladness. I can’t help it, it simply does. Don’t you want to shine? Aren’t you tired of hiding behind those over sized clothes? Hiding what you eat?

Speaking of which, do you know what I caught myself doing? Hiding an M&M wrapper. Never in my life have I hidden what I eat from anyone…however my husband has made a few comments. I’m going to assume he is picking on me, but truth be told I have no idea. He’ll notice a wrapper or something and saying, “You really shouldn’t leave your evidence” or “You sure you should be eating that”.

The other day my son gave me his package (fun size) of peanut M&M’s. I ate them. I love peanut M&M’s. Not so much that I’m going to keep a stash of them mind you, but if they are around or if I desire M&M’s – I want the peanuts too! Anyway, my husband came home and I took the wrapper from my desk and stuck it in the drawer. Apparently, his little comments have affected me more than I realized and it’s time to address them.

I am working hard to reach my goals. I refuse to make myself miserable in the process. Nor do I feel I should have to explain every item I eat. Everything takes time and baby steps. When I reach my goal in July it will have taken me 2 months shy of a whole year to lose 40 pounds! I didn’t gain 40 in a day and I won’t lose it in a day. Everything is a learning process…these healthier meals I’m aiming to provide for my family…major learning process. If you try to do it all at once you are going to get so frustrated, so irritated, and so in need of a shot of Vodka that you’ll quit.

Is that what you want, to be a quitter of your own life? Not me. If you want to, sure, go ahead deprive yourself for the rest of your life…let me know how that works out for ya. I on the other hand, refuse to quit and by George I’ll eat my peanut M&M’s if I want to!

DO NOT HIDE. YOU WERE MADE TO SHINE!

Now, get out there and DO it! You are stronger than you know, more beautiful than you think, and you were designed for more than simply hanging in the balance. One more thing; I too, believe you can succeed.

~T~

P.S. Sorry for preaching...wait, no I'm not. :)