By Ricinda Perry

Week 1 into my 90 day challenge …

PHYSICAL UPDATE:  I must say hosting out of town guests wreaks havoc on the healthy eating front.  Interestingly enough, God must have intervened as the top part of our oven broke during the self-clean cycle and our refrigerator broke the day our guests were expected to arrive, which incidentally fell on a Friday … long story short, it wasn’t until half-way through our visit that I got my refrigerator and oven back in working order.  I love baking and cooking and will use any excuses to whip up some pies and cookies.  This visit was the perfect opportunity, but my hands were tied and my waist was spared.

Exercise has continued – though not as vigorous as I would like.  A goal for this week.  I took our guests on regular morning walks at the beautiful park next to our house and along the beach.  It was a great opportunity to talk, and we all agreed that we felt better getting the fresh air.

SPIRITUAL UPDATE:  Spiritually I started a new Bible study this week with our wonderful church ladies.  It is called Mercy Triumphs by Beth Moore.  One of the goals of this study is to memorize the book of James.  To those of you who may not be that familiar with this book, James was thought to be Jesus’ oldest brother to Mary and Joseph.  Jesus was the first born.  The Scriptures talk about the fact that Jesus’ brothers and family, including James, did not believe that He was the Messiah.  They went so far as to publicly state that Jesus was “out of his mind” (Mark 3:21).

Perhaps they were jealous, fearful of the Jewish leaders, or embarrassed.   Do you hesitate to identify yourself as a member of the family of Christ?  Worried about how others will perceive you as one of those right wing holy roller fanatics?  Eventually James came to know the truth of Jesus and wrote this wonderful book of the Bible.  I’ll share a quick scripture that has inspired me the more I meditate upon it:  But by the grace of God, I am what I am, and His grace to me was not without effect (I Corinthians 15:10).  I love this!  I am what I am … a complete wreck with many failures along the way … yet every failure, every mistake has “space for grace” and God’s grace is not empty, vain, ineffective or useless.

MARITAL UPDATE:  Last, but not least, is marriage.  I will be honest, my sweet husband has been so very patient with me over this past week.  Remember my earlier article about perfection?  Of course I struggled with overcoming my fanatical cleaning impulse with our out of town guests.  Between our guests and very sick daughter, I had my full-on sleep deprived hostess and mommy hats on, leaving very little for wife time.  Despite my painful exhaustion and seeing six center lines on the road as we were driving back home at midnight from a concert in Orlando, we managed to squeeze in two date nights.  I also got his broken garage door repaired and programmed his garage door opener to his car.

Let me pause here and share a bit of insight as to how sweet my husband is.  The broken garage door was actually my garage.  He traded me a month ago when it broke so that I wouldn’t have to get out and lift up the door every time. Fixing his door seemed like a great way to show my love to him … and not a minute to early.  We have had torrential downpours all week.  Now he can get the door open from the convenience of his car opener system (that we tried to program for the last 5 years after moving into this home.  I can’t take all the credit for this one … the repairman showed me how it is done).

How about you?  What steps have you taken this week?  Stayed tuned next week as I share a list of ways you can bless your spouse.  Drop me a comment or email any suggestions you have for physical, spiritual, or martial improvements.  Keep up the good work!  Christmas is just around the corner.  What better gift to give you and your family than a better and healthier you!

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