Daily Disciplines

As I work on my daily disciplines I find myself making progress in some areas and still faltering in other areas. This means I should give up, right? Wrong! We are way to willing to “throw in the towel” and quit at the first sign of trouble, difficulty, hard work, and tough decisions.

We need to be encouraging one another to go on, to move forward and not let the things in life stop them from achieving what they want to achieve. As I think of our granddaughter graduating from 8^th grade she, like everyone else is going to need to have that ability to stand up and face life head on and not be stopped by it.

She needs to know like everyone else that we will succeed in some areas that come easy to and stumble in other situations that come with great difficulty and pain. Either way it doesn’t matter, the instructions are the same. We need to keep moving forward and the best way to do that is with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. What He has to offer us goes beyond what we see on earth, it takes us into eternity where we fall alive into the mansions He is currently preparing for us. John 14:2,3 “In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you. I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”

Today as I drop to my knees in prayer one more time my point of pray for my granddaughter, myself, and all my “All UDDERS” as I call them is this, “Lord God I pray this day that each and every one of us will walk worthy of you Lord, not as fools but as wise redeeming the time, because the days are evil as we understand what Your will is Lord and seek it. For every stride forward we take may we do so to Your glory Lord God as our actions draw us closer and closer to the You and the goals needed to succeed in walking worthy. Guide us on this path, show us where we need to go, forgive us when we fall short, be patient with us as we get back up on our feet and try again.

Praise you for allowing us access to Your throne thru the shed blood of Jesus Christ that opens a door that once was closed. Thank you for Your love. Praise you for Your wisdom. We love you Father, thank you for loving us. ”

Daily Disciplines:

My daily discipline today is keeping up on my cleaning. I did well as I found I can take a moment or two and accomplish a lot more than I think.

Another daily discipline is working on my closet clutter. Being a pack rat it’s hard to keep the piles down. I’m proud to say I threw away some denim material the other day and it didn’t kill me. I’m alive to tell about it. You have to realize I have more denim in my house than anyone could possible need in their lifetime.

Now on to the confession….the daily discipline where I falter is my eating habits. That one is going to take some time to conquer, fight, and give up as I strive to replace them with better more healthy habits.

One day at a time, one discipline at a time.

Saying no

Recently in our quest to lose weight and eat healthy my granddaughters and I have joined forces. One day as I said no to this lovely muffin I sent a picture of it to them and told them what I did. Or better yet what I didn't do. I didn't eat this. Some of life's journeys are hard and it helps to have the encouragement of others to get through them.

There are journey's that are not always fun but having a cheering section around you helps. Our plan is to go without sugar until July when we go on vacation. We may mess up once in awhile on our journey, so far so good, but that's okay as we learn to pick ourselves up and keep on going. Moving forward in life in spite of the obstacles that may come our way. The best thing our cheering section can do for us is to holler "jump" when those obstacles appear as an encouragement to keep on going and don't let life stop you.

Let the Journey Begin

Journal note #1

Before starting my quest to work on areas in my life that need improving I kneel before the Lord. I have found out the hard way over the years the best way to start and finish all my expeditions is to do so on my knees. Doing so as I call upon the Lord to travel with me, to not only be my guide but to be my companion as well.

The beauty about prayer is it doesn’t require physical knees to bow upon what is required is a spirit willing to bow humbly before the Lord. We can do it in a chair, from our bed, or walking down the street. We just need to do it.

Its funny how when we find something wrong with our car we instantly get it into a shop for service but we seldom do that for ourselves. When I came down with cancer I had several people tell me I needed to stop thinking about caring for others and start caring for myself.

Although I don’t plan to stop caring for other people I will try my best to care about myself. I have several paths of improvement I want to take and learning to control my eating is one of them. I love food, I love to eat, I love the taste, I love to munch. Like my puppy dog I seem to always need to have something in my mouth. Over the years I have lost weight only to gain it immediately back. I’ve probably have lost over 150 pounds over the years only to gain it back three, four, five pounds at a time.

Thinking of what Hebrews 12:1 said about throwing off everything that hinders us I need to throw off the need to eat when my head tells me to eat and not my stomach. I need to throw off the desire to not hurt anyone’s feelings by not saying “No” to their offers of food I don’t need to be eating on. I need to throw off being lazy and not exercising like I should.

At work today I was doing okay. When people offered me candy I took it but didn’t eat it. However, when it came to the special cheese someone had I never hesitated to eat a slice of it. Going along with the crowd hinders me and it is something that needs to be thrown off as well.

Another path of improvement is my house cleaning skills. I’m good at cleaning my house when I take the time to do it. Being a packrat, or someone who likes to hang on to stuff just strictly because, hinders my ability to improve in this area. What is a person suppose to do when they go into a room with a black garbage bag to throw things away but yet can’t find anything they would throw away. Anyone else who came into the same room would have found multiple things to toss in the trash.

A third area I want to work on at the same time is the vicinity of handling my money well. For too long now I have allowed it to control me instead of me controlling it. It’s time to start telling it where to go instead of it dictating my life.

Another area I want to discipline myself in doesn’t necessarily need “improvement” but I want to do better just the same. That is the area of writing out my journal notes on a daily basis. With a notebook full of half written notes again I’m reminded of my need to finish what I start. So daily I have made it my discipline to finish one handwritten note a day.

Last but not least my biggest path of improvement ties the pavement of all these paths together and that is improving in the area of doing something all the way to the end, to finish what I start.

So here to the diet that only lasts a week, here to the money who dictates too quickly, here to my packrat tendencies that clutters my life. I’m on the path to improvement in a race I intend to finish to the glory of God and the benefit of myself.

Let the journey begin!

Welcome Paulette's

If you haven’t read my profile you need to right now. In it you will read the purpose of this site. The purpose is to learn the failed art of self-improvement. For too long we have stopped taking responsibility for our own actions and started to blame others for our own end results and harvest.

I have my own struggles with self-improvement and I am going to use this site to not only help me but help other struggling Paulette’s. People, men or women, like Paul who struggle with doing the right thing. Do you have that problem? Don’t lie! We all have that issue because we are human. Some are good at mastering the art of self-improvement and others like me are not so successful at it.

This site will be my journal as you walk with me thru the areas I want to improve. Read the notes, laugh with me (not at me), struggle with me as together we strive for the prize at the end of our race.

It’s a journey on our knees because that is how we need to be traveling, on our knees in prayer forever seeking God and His guidance. He is our tour guide, the one who will see us through to the end.

Recently at my grandma’s funeral as I looked around the full church I thought of how all those in attendance were people she picked up along the way in her journey through 90 years of life. The person she started and ended with remained the same, the Lord. It was the others she picked up along the way that may have differed.

No matter who we pick up along the way, where our journey leads us, the trials along the way, the One we start and finish with never should change. It needs to remain Jesus. Our success needs to be His glory and our benefit. He is the one who equips us with things necessary to succeed. Our job is to figure out how to use his provisions correctly.

So, let the journey begin down our paths of improvement.