I did 10 mins upstairs on the strength training stuff, then 10 mins on the stair-master, then 20 mins on the bike, then 10 mins upstairs again, then 17 mins on the elliptical. I think Sunday evening workouts might be my favourite. There are very few people at the gym, and since I'm not in a rush I have a lot of time to think, pray, contemplate etc.
While on the stair master & bike, I was reading the intro and chapter 1 in the book I'm leading the study on for PiM3. This is my second time going through the book, and I things are hitting me differently this time. I've changed a lot in a year since I last read it, I think. In the intro she talks about priorities.
#1 is your relationship with God
#2 is your relationship with yourself
#3 is your relationship with your spouse
#4 is your relationship with your kids/family
#5 is your relationship with your church/ministry
#6 is your relationship with the rest of the world, community you live in etc.
#2 is the one that really struck me; it's something that I've been working on. It might be because I was working out, and I'm doing it for myself. The rest of the weekend, I did stuff apart from Nick. I usually do my best to make sure my free time is available to spend with my husband, growing our relationship/friendship etc.
For a long time in our marriage we didn't get a lot of time together, so time together was a priority for me, even if we wasted time together watching TV, I counted that as valuable time together. I always try to run errands and take care of the cooking/cleaning when he's away so that when he's home, he's my #1 priority.
However this weekend I barely hung out with him at all. Friday night, I painted with my friend Mariah. Nick was going to be the one alone or having to make plans, instead of him having plans and me being alone/making plans. Luckily for him, the boys in the youth group were having a boys bonding night.
I picked Mariah up from school, I needed to buy a canvas so we shopped for a bit, then had pizza delivered to her place, and painted until 12:30am. She of course kicked my butt in painting.
 |
| Isn't that amazing! - she did it in about 4 hours! |
 |
| the progression |
 |
| Mine's not done yet - I'll add it when I get it done. |
 |
| this is her beautiful mom and our choir director |
Saturday, I had been invited to a baby shower for one of my PiM3 girls from last years group, and so I went to that.
 |
| This is part of my gift! |
 |
| I enjoyed this activity! |
 |
| Cookie Dough Cupcake - yes please!! |
I was having a lot of "girl time" this weekend. Which falls into #2 - putting myself as a priority; taking time for myself. Saturday afternoon, I took care of the coffee bar stuff for the first time by myself and it took a lot longer without the extra help. The 60+ degree's had me sweating while carrying in all the groceries. Then we (Nick and I) went and worked out. I did 50 laps again as well as some extra stretching and water aerobic type activities. Nick and I started using our official gym memberships Saturday, that I bought at Cost-Co (Friday on my lunch hour), for half the price you pay at the gym. (it's about $12/month instead of $39.99 or their sale price of $29.99)
Sunday was busy at church between running from the coffee bar to the stage, to the coffee bar to the choir room to get my music, to the coffee bar to the stage for the service, to the coffee bar - then back to the stage for drama practice then back to the coffee bar to finish the clean-up process. Oh boy was it busy. I sat in the window seat of the coffee bar/gathering place for a bit and watched Nick play 1 on 1 basketball with one of the youth kids, then went home and tried to nap. That didn't work, so when my parent's called to tell me that a new little baby entered our family moments before, I got up and made Nick lunch, then went back to sleep from 2:30-5:30.
So back to the book, and the title of this blog: "tending the fire" requires intentionally taking care of yourself and your relationship with God. I have been doing pretty good about keeping up with reading through the Bible. I started in early October, and am currently in the boring book of Numbers and Mark (which is the opposite of boring- it's the A.D.D. version of Matthew!). I tried using the time in the pool the other day to pray and sing praises, however when you loose track of where you are swimming wise, you hit your head on the wall at the end of the lap. Not cool, so I may have to leave that to the exercise outside of the pool, and now I'm understanding the take care of yourself priority.
This is a quote out of the book:
"One morning Jesus invited a group of exhausted, dejected and empty-boated fisherman to breakfast. As they gathered about his fire, several things happened. The men were fed (Jesus was very practical), they were affirmed in their relationships to him (he was sensitive to their uneasiness), and they were instructed and recalled to ministry (he would finish what he'd started with them). That morning on Galilee provides a great picture of what happens or should happen when you or I have fire time with the Lord."
"It takes time to come to the fire, it takes effort to keep the fire burning, it takes willingness to become quiet enough to hear what God might be saying, and it takes courage to snuff out competing sounds and demands that attempt to shorten or neutralize the effect of the fire time." (pg 5)
No comments:
Post a Comment