What IF....

I tape certain Bible verses on my bathroom mirror to remind me of God's love and to learn new ones.  To be completely honest I really hadn't looked at them in awhile.  But today one verse caught my eye.  It got me thinking...

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."  Jeremiah 29:11

I pondered a few things.  Here goes.  What if we are the only things that stand between us and the prospering God has promised.  What if we took the fruit of the spirit literally and began to let it operate in our lives.  Love, JOY, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and SELF CONTROL.  Beautiful words to say, hard words to put into practice.  What if the 2 words, SELF CONTROL, were active in our daily lives.  What if having a bit more SELF CONTROL in our lives started to open doors and release us to the life and the plans God says he has for us.  What if we are the ones holding back His plans?  What if we started taking care of our bodies, His temples?  What if we laser-beam focused on improving our health, both emotional and physical, to be all he has for us?  Wonder what we could achieve?  What if changing to a healthy diet (like the salad a day), getting more sleep and exercising caused our own ills to disappear and we could focus on others?  Or even focus on our passions? What if we let SELF CONTROL visit us and help us become all God has planned for us?  And all we have hoped for ourselves.  What changes would they make?  If SELF CONTROL came walking into my life, the first change it would make is a reasonable bed time EVERY night.  So tonight is the night.  I don't even know what a reasonable bed time is.  9:30 or 10?  I'm going to start with 10.  Bring it on SELF CONTROL!

Start your salad a day.  Add fruits for snacks.  Look at labels on any processed foods you buy.  And how about cutting down on eating out, especially fast foods.  Or maybe releasing some endorphins with exercise.  Of course, you can always join me in a reasonable bedtime.  Different beds!  Pick one.  Make a change.  Start now!!!