Bible Toolbox by Authentic Walk Ministries

Daily Heartlight -- January 4, 2008

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January 4, 2008

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=========================== TODAY'S ARTICLE ==========================


Treadmill of Life, by Teresa Bell Kindred


One of my New Year's resolutions is the same one I make every year:
take better care of myself. In an effort to firm up the body parts that
tend to be losing their elasticity, I joined a gym for women last
January. At first I was attending regularly, at least three times a
week, but then something happened and I missed one week, then two, then
three. Well, you know how it goes

I talked to a friend of mine and mentioned my membership at the gym.
She asked which gym and when I told her she replied, "I don't belong to
that one, but I do belong to three others." "Wow, I'm impressed," I
said. "Don't be. I don't go to any of them on a regular basis," she
said. "You're kidding." "No, I'm not. I have really good intentions but
those intentions don't get me very far," she said.

I did get back to the gym and went back to working out three times a
week. Then I started having dental problems, lots of dental problems.
What began as replacing a lost filling escalated to a root canal, and
then several weeks later, an abscessed tooth. It took four hours and
three people to remove that tooth. I took it home and slept with it
under my pillow for a week, but the tooth fairy never came.

After that episode, I got back in the saddle again, or should I say
back on the treadmill again, only to come down with a sinus infection.
I recovered from that; then we decided to build a house, sold ours, and
the packing up and moving process began.

During that chaos, I had a root canal followed by mysterious pain in my
face and jaw for three weeks, and then another root canal. Because I
couldn't identify exactly where the pain was coming from, we did the
wrong tooth the first time. That's right -- two root canals in one
month.

That's right -- two root canals in one month.

One of the walls at the gym is the Wall of Fame with pictures of
members who have achieved their goals. I ran into the owner of the gym
the other day and suggested she create a Wall of Shame next to it with
my picture beneath it.

If my goal is to take better care of myself, shouldn't I include
spiritual goals as well? Many of us want to get in better shape
physically, but what about spiritually? Like my friend who joined three
gyms, I'm afraid many of us have good intentions that don't carry us
very far. We join a church and start out full of enthusiasm, only to
find that the daily business of living distracts us from Bible study,
attending services and prayer. Getting in shape physically takes time
and effort and so does being a Christian.

So again this year, my New Year's resolution is to take better care of
myself, physically and spiritually … and to take out more dental
insurance!

Happy New Year, friends.

So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and steady, always
enthusiastic about the Lord's work, for you know that nothing you
do for the Lord is ever useless (1 Corinthians 15:58 NLT).

---------
(c) 2008 Teresa Bell Kindred <kindred@scrtc.com>. Used by
permission. Visit TeresaKindred.com
<http://www.teresakindred.com> for more.

RELATED LINKS:
* Exercise Gives Energy

http://www.heartlight.org/articles/200610/20061019_exercise.html
* Exercising the Spirit

http://www.heartlight.org/articles/200601/20060108_exercisingspirit.html
* My Strength is in the Lord

http://www.heartlight.org/articles/200711/20071129_strengthinthelord.html
* TeresaKindred.com

http://www.teresakindred.com

This article can be found on the web at:
http://www.heartlight.org/articles/200801/20080104_treadmill.html

=========================== FEATURED PRODUCT =========================

SEE THE MORNING, by Chris Tomlin
Award-winning artist Tomlin offers a whole new set of soul-inspiring
easy-to-sing songs about God's faithfulness.
http://shopping.heartlight.org/cgi-shl/link?260

Find more great books, CDs and videos at the Heartlight store! With
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