Get Your Mind SET!

So I just started P90X this past week and its kicking my butt. I threw up 20 minutes ago because I had acid reflux coming up. I guess I need to learn not to eat pizza and drink coke and hour and a half before the workout.

My goal is to change my mind and set my mind for action. I am trying to set out an hour - an hour and a half each day to do this workout. I obviously learned that I have to change my mind about eating as well. Someone said workout is 20% and eating is 80%. If I do it right, then by day 90 I will be healthier and ripped!

I think about my life and how I live. Just as I have to get my mind set on my workouts, I have learned that I need to get my mind set on life as well; on my relationship and time with God. I have been growing a lot with my wife lately by spending time with her and hanging out. How much more time should I spend with the God that made me. Whenever I get a lot of time in with God, the more I have joy, peace and love.

Not sure if you have these same struggles, but if you do join me and change your mind about how you do life and what you set your mind and your time on and in the end our God will say to you "Well done my good and faithful servant".

What You Can Do With Your Time?

A lot of our lives are consumed with our wants, desires and our world to TAKE UP OUR TIME AND ATTENTION.  You agree? We are thrown a lot of things our way that make us lazy/self-centered creatures. Take TV for example. They go out of their way to make a good show that will make us turn on the TV every Thursday night at 8 just to watch "the show of our week". Facebook takes our minds and thoughts (at least for me) and captures my attention enough to tune into it a few times a day.

What can we do in life to make more of it? Not sure if you are a Christ follower or not, but if you are, we should focus our lives on what we can do with our time. In 1Peter chapter 1, Peter talks a lot about time and the coming of Jesus. We are not promised tomorrow here in this world, so what can we do tomorrow? What will you do with your tomorrow? More TV and Facebook? Maybe, but what about more serving the poor, loving our wives, taking out the trash, inviting a neighbor over for dinner, spending reserved time with just God, encouraging someone, showing love, hope and patience to others. Tomorrow is yours, you can use your time wisely or waste it. What Can You Do? What Will You Do? 

If tomorrow is given to you make the most of it. What Can You DO?

$2 a Day Results

This last week I ate off of $2 a day. I did it for a few reasons. 1. To be thankful for what I have. 2. To save money. 

Well, I did it. It was encouraging to have a goal like that and complete it. I am more aware of saving money and living life more simple. People even gave me free food and coupons during the week. Not sure if you have taken a challenge like that, but I recommend it.

What You Want is Not What You Always Get

Do you ever think that you have everything figured out about a goal or a dream and then not all the things that you put together turned out the way you thought? Maybe you had goal to workout and you bought all of your workout clothes, got your food list and set off on your journey, but you got busy and life crowded out your goal. Maybe you had a dream for a job or going to school and what seemed like a good idea seemed to fade away because time and life crowded it out.

I worked my tail off studying church planting and networking to launch Awaken Community Church. Not much has worked out the way that I had planned. It is for better and for worse. Worse - because I had all of my goals put into place, but other things changed the direction in where we went. Maybe it just hurt my pride and plans. For better because our team, our church, is loving one another and we are developing who we are; our DNA and identity. Because we are coming together, we have different thoughts and opinions that are making who we are. "I" launched the church, but when people came, "WE" became the church and now "GOD" is growing His church. It was all about God in the first place and we just had to play our roles to get where we are.

Now that we are 5-6 weeks in as a church, I can't believe where God has brought us. We have 60-70 people interested and coming off and on to Awaken, over 120 people attend since we launched and out of that group we have about 30 strong that are committed to grow in their faith and reach their community. I think 30 people excited about the things of God and people can change a city. 

Sometimes when things don't work out the way you want, you find in the end that although it worked out differently, it worked out better.

How to Eat Off of $10 in a Week

On Monday October 19th I will embark on a one week challenge to eat off of just $10 for a work week. Below is the breakdown. By the way, shop at Aldi's; great prices. The goal is for me to be more grateful for what I have. Over half of the world lives off of $2 a day. Come join the challenge.

$10 budget

2.49 - Turkey

1.89 - Ramen Noodles

1.39 - Bagels

.99 - baby carrots

.89 - Cheese

.79 - white bread

.40 - eggs

.15 - 1 bowl of cereal

.8 - 1 apple

= 9.16+ tax

-----------

$ 9.98

Monday

Breakfast: Bagel and  2 eggs

Lunch: Ham, cheese and carrots

Dinner: Ramen Noodles

Tuesday

Breakfast: 3 eggs

Lunch: Ham, Cheese and carrots

Dinner: Ramen Noodles

Wednesday

Breakfast: Cereal

Lunch: Ramen Noodles

Dinner: Ham, cheese and apple

Thursday

Breakfast: Bagel, egg and cheese

Lunch: Ham, cheese and carrots

Dinner: Ramen Noodles

Friday

Breakfast: Bagel ham, egg and cheese

Lunch: Ham, Cheese and carrots

Dinner: Ramen and carrots.

A Challenge That I Bet You Wont Take.

Did you know that over half over the world lives off of $2 a day? $2 a day!!! That is it! That is nuts! I cannot even eat off of $2 a day.... wait, I cant even eat off of $2 a meal or can I?

I want to throw out a challenge to you but let me tell you why first. I have been thinking about life and what's important to me. I have been thinking about everything; my wife, kids, bible study, work, food, time, money, friends, prayer, cleaning, free time, hobbies and more. I started to think about all of these and how I approach them in my life. Am I more concerned about games and free time than my family? A lot of times I would say yes. Am I selfish? Yes. Am I spoiled? Yes. Am I rich? Yes. Starting next Monday I am attempting to strip away many things that are not as important to focus on the things that are for one week. I hope the results will make me more grateful for what I have.

One of the things that I am doing  and that I would like to challenge you to is is I am going to try to eat off $2 a day. Thats kind of crazy when you think about it. But then again, think of the rest of the world; $2 a day is what they make to cover everything. You up for the challenge? Let me know if you are by leaving a comment below. Click "post a comment". For me it will be tough, but the goal is that I need to be thankful for what I have.

By the way, I am asking Faith if we can have our whole family eat off of $2 a day. I will let you know what she says. Leave a comment below so we can see how many people are up for the challenge. Let's do it.

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