Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Cleaning Out and Filling Up

Okay, can somebody help me with this? Our preacher, Dr. Jason Locke, has challenged us all to rid ourselves of the burden of extra pounds and credit card and other interest-sucking debt, while, simultaneously filling up our lives with encouragement for other people and reading Bible chapters.

So, here's how my week is going:

Monday evening: Host Pinterest Live! Soup Night. Exceed my daily point allotment for Weight Watchers because I want to encourage my good cook friends, who home-made soups for us to sample.
MONDAY
                 Pounds Lost                                                                   People Encouraged
                       (-2)                                                                                       +2
                                                                                                                                                                   
TUESDAY
Tuesday afternoon: Reschedule appointment with personal trainer at the gym I just joined so I can take my son Peter to Kaiser to pick up his vitally important medication, since he does not have a car.
                Pounds Lost                                                                   People Encouraged
                    (-1)                                                                                      +1        
Tuesday evening: I have been mentoring a young woman who is recovering from alcohol and drug addiction and was incarcerated on related charges. Our relationship has been going on for about a year and a half. I was able to give her a ride to work Tuesday evening because it was literally "on my route" for that day's errands. She has gotten a job at "The Craving", a resaturant that serves burgers and burritos and fries. I am very proud of her progress. She wanted to treat me, my husband and two of my sons to dinner because Tuesday night is "Family Pack" night: four hambugers, two orders of fries and four drinks for a great price. She wanted to treat me as her way of "giving back" for the many times I have picked her up and treated her to dinner. I did not feel that I could refuse her offer of generosity. And I wanted to express how proud I am of her excellent progress. (The food is really good there, too!)
                 Pounds Lost                                                                      People Encouraged
                        (-1)                                                                                         +1
_________________________________________________________________________________
WEDNESDAY
Wednesday: I had planned to pay credit card bills on-line on Wednesday, the 15th of the month, to make sure our interest-sucking debt is paid down. A friend called from the shop where I volunteer my time to help Children's Hospital of Central California. She needed to trade shifts because of a family need that arose suddenly in her life. I will reschedule my on-line bill paying to tomorrow in order to cover a shift today for a friend in need.
                 Debt Reduced                                                                      People Encouraged
                        (-1)                                                                                            +1
_________________________________________________________________________________

I remember a psychiatrist friend once observing to me that his Bible Study Fellowship teaching leader had challenged the entire men's study group to get up early and complete the Bible Study lessons as he did. This man arose at 4 a.m.  The good doctor, who is a very disciplined man, himself, but is also a keen observer of human nature, asked the question, "My Bible Study leader is an engineer. Don't all engineers get up early?"

Some people do better on one side of this "Losing and Gaining" equation, others do better on the other side. Maybe, within the entire church body, we will balance one another out. And I'll keep trying. I ate my grapefruit and fat-free yogurt for breakfast this morning. I meet with the personal trainer at the gym on Friday afternoon. And all the credit cards are set up for automatic payment anyway, I just need to keep an accurate record in our Quickbooks accounting software so I can balance our checking accounts on Saturday....

--Posted by Mama O.



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