2015: A Year of Discipline Week 1 lessons

God is still in control.
Grace is a choice.
Discipline is a choice.
Cutting sugar cold turkey takes a toll on the body physically and emotionally.
Patience really is a virtue especially with one's self.
I do feel better in all areas of my life when I make healthy choices.
Having grace for myself is one of the hardest things on my list of disciplines but probably the most important.
Reading Scripture is important even if it brings more questions than answers.
I feel closer to God when I journal regularly.
I am a better person when I am around people more than I am by myself.
Yoga is fun.
Love is a choice. It's also a choice to love yourself.
Loving myself is not easy.
Doing something daily a few minutes at a time really does make a difference when learning to be disciplined.
I didn't strictly stick to my diet for the whole week but I didn't gorge away and I did have grace for myself when eating one little Reece bite.
I didn't read my Bible everyday but again, I had grace for myself and didn't flip out that I am now behind on my reading plan. It's really okay. I also don't have to play catch up. It's not going anywhere and who says I have to read the actual passages on the specific calendar days?
I have peace.

Lesson #1 in discipline

I was wrong, this may be the definition of discipline.

2015: Year of Discipline

Recently, I had a conversation with a friend and was convicted particularly about my spiritual life. She was talking about how she just created a spiritual health plan because she knows she needs one and is not particularly excited about pursuing God but wants to and if she doesn't create a plan for herself, she will probably continue down the negative path that she has been spiraling. I can relate. I am there and not just in my spiritual life but also in every other aspect: physical, emotional, relational, and mental. Today, I decided that I am done falling down that dark spiral. I want to get healthy in all of these areas. I am deeming 2015 the year of discipline. That may seem odd but I believe it's the path towards healthiness.

For instance, when you learn about what it takes to be physically healthy it means making sure you get good nutrients in your body, and excersing. That takes a lot of discipline. You have to be diligent about the choices you make of what food enters your body and how you choose to get up and move...or not. It takes making good choices and great discipline. This is not just in our physical lives but also in spiritual, relational, mental, and emotional. I want to make healthy choices and discipline myself in all areas of my life. It's easy to get caught up in the everyday busyness and laziness.  It's easy to say I am going to sit and watch one episode on Netflix and then end up watching a season and a half. I am just going to have a few potato chips but the next thing you know, the whole bag is gone. I am going to read my Bible everyday, then one day you forget and then the next five days go by and you're like "what's the use anymore?". I am going to have that conversation I need to have with a person that involves conflct, but you run away instead. I can relate because I have done all of these things more than once.

I want to stop this unhealthy cycle. I want to be able to watch only one episode on Netflx. I want to be able to choose to eat something healthy and then have only one cookie. I want to dive into hard conversations with the people around me. I want to seek Jesus in the midst of hard stuff. I want to be healthy damn it. It's going to be a hard road and a long journey but I think if I start with small acts of discipline, I can get there.

Here are some things I am going to commit myself to this year:
Spending 30 minutes a day reading my Bible, praying, and journaling.
Making smart decisions about what food I eat.
Excersing at least twice a week for at least 30 minutes.
Blogging at least once a week about my journey in discipline.
Spending time with a friend in need at least twice a month.
Making a real dinner regularly (and then eating left overs)
Small cleaning every day so it doesn't all pile up.
Engaging in difficult conversation with my husband on a regular basis to develop better communication skills and a healthier marriage.
Walking my dog more regularly (assuming we can go outside...I mean I do live in Indiana).
Being more realistic about the things I can and cannot do.
Realizing that there will be days I will fail from this list, forgive myself, and try again the next day.
Have more grace for myself and others.
Choose my emotions more clearly. (Allowing myself to be angry but then choosing to let it go for example).
Read more books.
Play my flute more often.
Spend time in silence at least once a week.

I know I have more things I want to commit to this year but I think this is a great list to start with. I obviously have to actually make a plan instead of just listing things I want to do because otherwise they will not get done and I will continue to be stuck. I know this because I have done this before. It's the classic new years resolution syndrome right? It's easy to say I am going to do this, this year and then after one week, you quit. Having a plan is a really great start. I will share with you now one plan that I do have to get me started.

My food habits.
I did this back in October and November, the slow carb diet. I am not really one for dieting. There are many reasons that it is not appealing but I believe it will help me to be more disciplined in the long run and help me get to a healthier place. I am reading this book called "The 4 hour Body". In it, the author has a lot of interesting facts about our bodies. I won't go into all the details (it's a really big book and I haven't even read it all yet...one of the books that I want to read all the way through this year) but in it he describes this diet called the slow carb diet. Bascially, you eat meat and veggies for six days a week and then on the seventh day, you can eat whatever you want. I did that for about six weeks in the fall and lost 15 pounds. I was set to continue but ended up getting my wisdom teeth out and never truly committed myself back to that point. So, starting on Sunday, I am going to again begin this diet. It's not really about losing weight, although I would really love to be able to fit back into this one red dress that I still have, but it is about getting healthy and disciplining my body. I am hoping that if I continue this diet and get to a heatlhy place, that I will be able to use some of the practices within the diet to temper out how I eat on a regular basis not having such strict rules but being smart in the choices I make. I think that if I start off with a stricter dicipline it will guide me to a healthier way of living in the future. It definintely isn't an easy diet because I can't even have fruit or cheese or rice but I think it's a sacrifice I can make toward the path of healthiness.

I know that there will be days that I am not so good at following my goals to becoming well roundedly healthy but I want to choose to have grace for myself and continue moving forward. I am excited to see where God takes me on this journey. I think it will definitely be an interesting year. I will keep you posted on how the start of my diet goes next week and other plans I have for the year of discipline. Maybe it will inspire you to join me along on the journey.

I leave you with some interesting thoughts:

Definitions of discipline

noun
1. training to act in accordance with rules; drill
2. activity, exercise, or regimen that develops or imporves a skill: training
3. punishment inflicted by way of correction and training
4. the rigor or training effect of experience, adversity, etc.
5. behavior in accord with rules of conduct; behavior and order maintained by training and control
6. a set or system of rules and regulations
7. Ecclesiastical. the system of government regulating the practice of a church as distinguished from its doctrine
8. an instrument of punishment, especially a whip or scourge, used in the practice of self-mortification or as an instrument of chastisement in certain religious communities
9. a branch of instruction or learning

verb
10. to train by instruction and exercise
11. to bring to a state of order and obedience by training and control
12. to punish or penalize in order to train and control; correct; chastise

Scripture on discipline

Proverbs 20:30 Pysical discipline may well save them from death.

Psalm 94:12 Joyful are those you discipline, lord, those you teach with your instructions.

Psalm 119:67 I used to wander off until you disciplined me; but now I closely follow your word.

Proverbs 12:1 To learn, you must love discipline; it is stupid to hate correction.

Proverbs 13:1 A wise child accepts a parent's discipline; a mocker refuses to listen to correction.

Proverbs 15:5 Only a fool despises a parent's discipline; whoever learns from correction is wise.

Proverbs 23:23 Get the truth and never sell it; also get wisdom, discipline, and good judgement.

2 Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.

1 Corinthians 9:27 I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.

Titus 1:8 Rather, he must enjoy having guests in his home, and he must love what is good. He must live wisely and be just. He must live a devout and diciplined life.

Hebrews 12:11 No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening - It's painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those are are trained in this way.

Quotes on Discipline

"Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment." Jim Rohn

"To enjoy good health, to bring true happinness to one's family, to bring peace to all, one must first discipline and control one's own mind. If a man can control his mind he can find the way to Enlightenment, and all wisdom and virtue will naturally come to him." Buddha

"Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers. It may not be difficult to store up in the mind a vast quantity of facts within a comparatively short time, but the ability to form judgments requires the severe discipline of hard work and the tempering heat of experience and maturity." Calvin Coolidge

"Character contributes to beauty. It fortifies a woman as her youth fades. A mode of conduct, a standard of courage, discipline, fortitude, and integrity can do a great deal to make a woman beautiful." Jacqueline Bisset

"Success isn't measured by money or power or social rank. Success is measured by your discipline and inner peace." Mike Ditka

"Confidence comes from discipline and training". Robert Kiyosaki

"We must all suffer one of two things: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret or disappointment." Jim Rohn

"It is a full time job being honest one moment at a time, remembering to love, to honor, to repect. It is a practice, a discipline, worthy of every moment." Jasmine Guy

"Self-respect is the fruit of discipline; the sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself." Abraham Joshua Heschel

"Once you have commitment, you need the discipline and hard work to get you there." Haile Gebrselassie

"The discipline you learn and character you build from setting and achieving a goal can be more valuable than the achievement of the goal itself." Bo Bennett

"Most of us don't mind doing what we ought to do when it doesn't interfere with what we want to do, but it takes discipline and maturity to do what we ought to do whether we want to or not." Joseph B. Wirthlin