Off To A Good Start

I am a firm believer in beginnings. I think that "how" you begin something sets the stage for how you will continue. Therefore, every January, we have the "Sweets Purging" ritual after the holidays. I wait until New Year's parties and celebrations are over, and then I do what my mother-in-law, Janice Ocheltree, taught me to do many years ago.

"Even if it's a half-eaten box of See's Candies, you throw it out," she instructed me. This solidifies a commitment to healthful eating habits as the year begins. Last night was that night at our house. Christmas sweets that had not been eaten were dumped in the trash: homemade and store-bought cookies alike. It hurt a little, as all sacrifices and commitments should. No pain, no gain.

Steve has the gym membership coupon. We sign up this week for the new year special.

Our house has been cleaned from Christmas and New Year's and is ready to support a disciplined lifestyle.

I got up this morning when my alarm rang at 5 a.m. I read my daily Psalm and chapter in Proverbs.

We have the ingredients for lentil and Swiss chard soup and whole grain bread out on the counter for tonight's dinner.

We just returned from several days at Pismo Beach, a sort of Sabbath rest, which renewed and relaxed and rejuvenated us.

I will download my book club selection for January onto my Kindle and begin to read it this week.

I will be at Rescue The Children this evening, where I have the privilege of working with women who have been in jail or prison and are now rebuilding their lives in a safe, Christ-centered environment.

I do not share all these New Year disciplines to brag, but to share my life with my friends, in hopes of encouraging one another to do right in the new year.

I just finished reading a wonderful book by Church of Christ preacher and teacher Joshua Graves. It is called The Feast: How To Serve Jesus In A Famished World. (Leafwood Publishers, Abilene, TX, 2009) In the final chapter, he gives this encouragement about practicing discipline in our lives:

"Spiritual disciplines are the daily means by which we come into contact with God.  These practices do not ensure a magical appearance of God, as if God is a genie in a bottle waiting for us to rub the bottle the right way. Rather, these disciplines give us the eyes to see the way in which God is closer to us than we are to ourselves.  The key element in understanding disciplines is this: they are not rules or practices one must follow in order to be 'saved.' Spiritual disciplines create space for the Holy Spirit to work anew, changing us in steady ways.  My friend, Rabbi Mark Kinzer, once reminded me, 'Josh, keeping Torah is not a burden, Keeping Torah is a blessing. It is true freedom, for it is life-giving.'"

--Posted by Mama O.