Faith, Family, Friends, Fitness and Food!

The weekly update on the important things in my life, an update from Daytona Beach!

Faith- Hanging out at the Surrender Youth Leaders Summit in Daytona Beach.  So far it is going great!  I'll be blogging about some of my insights later on.  Some good things are brewing here.  One cool thing is that I have had the opportunity to share my testimony twice so far.  I haven't shared my testimony lately, it felt good to be reminded of how much God has done in my life.

Family- I miss my wife and kids while I am here in Daytona, I wish they were here with me.  The boys and I made pizza together Sunday night, I love making pizza with them.  James was rolling out the dough, he is getting good at it!

Friends-  Making lots of new friends here at the youth summit, I should have a good network going on before I leave. 

Fitness- I was unfortunately unable to pack any of my workout stuff (I didn't want to pay for large luggage).  So I will have to "double time" it when I get home on Friday. 


Food-They are feeding us very well here at the conference.....very well.  We had steak and baked potatoes for dinner....zesty!  It seems like there is food everywhere.

Talking myself into it

I knew I needed to do my workout today.  I got home from work and did a fair amount of talking myself out of getting on the treadmill for my two mile run. "I'm tired."  "I worked hard today." "Why bother, I'll always be fat."  If I ran as fast as these thoughts run through my mind, I'd be in shape in no time!  I kept trying to talk myself out of doing what I needed to do.  It's easy to talk yourself out of doing things that are hard, but good for you.  Trust me, I am lazy by nature!

It was an effort to get these thoughts to a minimum, but then I started talking myself into it!  "It's only two miles, you'll be done before you know it."  "You've come this far, you can't quit now."  "You're gonna bring sexy back!" I had to tear down the negative comments and start building up positive reinforcement. I then got my butt on the treadmill, and busted out two miles.  Go me!

Ever notice that you have to talk yourself into doing things that you need to do, especially in your relationship with God?  Like daily devotions, daily prayer, daily picking up your cross and following Christ!  We find that we talk ourselves out of doing what is right.  I guess that's why the Apostle Paul writes in Romans 7: 

15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.

We have no problems doing things that we shouldn't though!  Sleep in instead of going to church, skip out of daily devotions, not praying for your meal when you go out, not witnessing when the opportunity presents itself....the list can go on and on and on and on!

So what do we do?  We talk ourselves into what we need to do!  2 Corinthians 10:5 says: 
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

When we take our thoughts captive and demolish arguments and pretensions then we can start talking ourselves into doing the right things for God. You're giving yourself a pep talk, so that you can get your out of shape spiritual butt back on the treadmill!

Faith, Family, Friends, Fitness and Food!

The weekly update on the important things in my life:

My wife mentioned that I didn't update my blog last week.  Well I didn't update last week because the hard drive went out in my home PC and I had video card driver issues with my laptop.  I am back up and running now!  As an apology for not updating, please accept this picture of a penguin in a tuxedo.

We should be even now, so on with the show!

Faith- Our youth group is doing the 30 Hour Famine this coming weekend.  If you would like to donate some money towards Ty's (my son) fund raising goal, please go here!  Also I will be heading to the UB youth leaders summit next Monday in sunny Florida!

Family-My wife is going to jail in September!  She will be taking part in a prison ministry called Kairos.  She is really excited.  But, we have to bake 200 dozen cookies for the event! That's a lot of cookies, anyone wanna help????

Friends- I got to hang out with my good friend Keith Friday night.  It was good for the soul to just hang out and talk.  

Fitness-Wow, I just started week 2 of Jillian Micheal's 30 Day Shred.  My wife and I are both convinced that she is the anti-Christ! It is an amazing work out though, very intense!  My 5k training is going pretty smooth, I should be ready for the Race for the Cure.
I also hooked up with Mitch Derr on Nike+ Running.  He's faster then me........Wanna follow my running training??? Check out my Nike+ profile here

Food- Gonna throw it out there for you all....I'm sick of being a chef and would love to be paid to be a full time pastor in some capacity!  There I said it, I can start breathing again!  I am thankful for my job, I just know that I am called for other things now.

Peace out friends!

Faith, Family, Friends, Fitness and Food!

The weekly update on the important things in my life:

Faith- Our Easter Egg Hunt Outreach was beyond words!  We had between 250-300 people show up for our first community egg hunt.  What a blessing!  Click here for pictures of the egg hunt!
I'm currently working on our new series for youth group, based off the youth group mission statement, I'm very excited about it!

Family-Got to visit everyone at Mom and Dad's house for Easter.  All my siblings were there, it was great to see my new niece Myrah  for the first time.  Also my sister was nice enough to take my boys for the week, I look forward to going to visit her when I pick them up.
Unfortunately my wife is very sick.  She has had a bad cough and sinus issues for over a week now.  Praying that she feels some relief soon.

Friends- Got to hang out with my good friends Pastor Tom, Keith and Jessica Saturday night. They had a special Easter service at their church. It was very good, aside from the smoke from the tiki torches!!

Fitness- Great week for working out!  My 5k training is coming along great!

Food- Ate too much Easter weekend, just sayin'.........

Peace out!