For the Dieters....

Daily Exercise for the Non-Athletic: A calorie guide citing a recent medical association report:

"Proper weight control and physical fitness cannot be attained by dieting alone. Many people who are engaged in sedentary occupations do not realize that calories can be burned by the hundreds by engaging in strenuous activities that do not require physical exercise."

Here's the guide to calorie-burning activities and the number of calories per hour they consume.

Beating around the bush..................... 75

Jumping to conclusions......................100

Climbing the walls..........................150

Swallowing your pride....................... 50

Passing the buck............................ 25

Throwing your weight around (depending on your weight)..........50-300

Dragging your heels.........................100

Pushing your luck...........................250

Making mountains out of molehills...........500

Hitting the nail on the head................ 50

Wading through paperwork....................300

Bending over backwards...................... 75

Jumping on the bandwagon....................200

Running around in circles...................350

Eating crow.................................225

Tooting your own horn....................... 25

Adding fuel to the fire.....................150

Opening a can of worms...................... 50

Source Unknown.

"Never eat more than you can lift." .... Miss Piggy's Guide to Life.

"Diet tips: If no one sees you eat it, it has no calories If you drink a diet soda with a candy bar, they will cancel each other out. Calories don't count if you eat with someone and you both eat the same amount. Food taken for medicinal purposes does not count. This includes toast, hot chocolate, brandy and Sara Lee chocolate cake. If you fatten up everyone around you, you'll look thinner. Snacks consumed at a movie do not count as they are part of the entertainment. For example: Mild Duds, popcorn with butter, red licorice and M&Ms. Pieces of cookies contain no calories. The process of breaking causes a calorie leakage. Late-night snacks have no calories. The refrigerator light is not strong enough for the calories to see their way into the calorie counter. "
Source Unknown.

Ever think about the ordinary, everyday things? You know, getting out of bed after a good night's sleep, then being able to make the bed yourself. Taking a warm shower. Eating meals in quiet and contentment with those you love. Brushing your teeth and combing your hair. Putting on your shoes and being able to walk to the front porch or around the block. Holding a brand new baby and wishing you could press "pause" and keep that moment for longer than a moment. Listening to a young grandchild, or niece or nephew, read from a new book. Being able to see clearly, with or without glasses. The ability to hear another person speak your name.

All these things are ordinary, everyday things for many of us. We need to sometimes just stop and realize the preciousness of them. We need to see God in them as much as we do in the so-called 'big' things. I'm saddened to admit I'm not always in that frame of mind. But I want to be.

Because it's the ordinary, everyday things that make up the whole of who we are. It's how I handle the things that are unseen to everyone else that really makes me who I am. God sees it all, from beginning to end, He knows the steps I'll take and the attitudes I'll carry as I take them.

Help me Lord to be more appreciative and thankful, even on days when this body hurts and I don't feel like doing much of anything. Let me give thanks, for this is Your will for me in Christ Jesus. Let me be faithful to You in each small, ordinary thing I do. Let me take nothing for granted, and let me enjoy the small things as much as the big ones.

My Fred was officially received into membership at our church this morning. No big deal, right? Wrong. My Fred had been so wounded at our former church that he stopped going to church and for over 12 years I waited to see if he would ever want to come to church with me again. Two years ago this month he decided to come visit my church and the Lord gave him the desire to want to stay and once again be a part of a congregation of believers. Today might not be a big deal for many others, but for any woman who's prayed and waited for their husband, this was a mighty big deal. One only God could make happen.

10 Resolutions for Mental Health

This article was written on Dec. 31, 2007, by Rev. John Piper of Desiring God Ministries:

"On October 22, 1976, Clyde Kilby, who is now with Christ in Heaven, gave an unforgettable lecture. I went to hear him that night because I loved him. He had been one of my professors in English Literature at Wheaton College. He opened my eyes to more of life than I knew could be seen. O, what eyes he had! He was like his hero, C. S. Lewis, in this regard. When he spoke of the tree he saw on the way to class this morning, you wondered why you had been so blind all your life. Since those days in classes with Clyde Kilby, Psalm 19:1 has been central to my life: “The sky is telling the glory of God.”

That night Dr. Kilby had a pastoral heart and a poet’s eye. He pled with us to stop seeking mental health in the mirror of self-analysis, but instead to drink in the remedies of God in nature. He was not naïve. He knew of sin. He knew of the necessity of redemption in Christ. But he would have said that Christ purchased new eyes for us as well as new hearts. His plea was that we stop being unamazed by the strange glory of ordinary things. He ended that lecture in 1976 with a list of resolutions. As a tribute to my teacher and a blessing to your soul, I offer them for your joy.

1. At least once every day I shall look steadily up at the sky and remember that I, a consciousness with a conscience, am on a planet traveling in space with wonderfully mysterious things above and about me.

2. Instead of the accustomed idea of a mindless and endless evolutionary change to which we can neither add nor subtract, I shall suppose the universe guided by an Intelligence which, as Aristotle said of Greek drama, requires a beginning, a middle, and an end. I think this will save me from the cynicism expressed by Bertrand Russell before his death when he said: "There is darkness without, and when I die there will be darkness within. There is no splendor, no vastness anywhere, only triviality for a moment, and then nothing."

3. I shall not fall into the falsehood that this day, or any day, is merely another ambiguous and plodding twenty-four hours, but rather a unique event, filled, if I so wish, with worthy potentialities. I shall not be fool enough to suppose that trouble and pain are wholly evil parentheses in my existence, but just as likely ladders to be climbed toward moral and spiritual manhood.

4. I shall not turn my life into a thin, straight line which prefers abstractions to reality. I shall know what I am doing when I abstract, which of course I shall often have to do.

5. I shall not demean my own uniqueness by envy of others. I shall stop boring into myself to discover what psychological or social categories I might belong to. Mostly I shall simply forget about myself and do my work.

6. I shall open my eyes and ears. Once every day I shall simply stare at a tree, a flower, a cloud, or a person. I shall not then be concerned at all to ask what they are but simply be glad that they are. I shall joyfully allow them the mystery of what Lewis calls their "divine, magical, terrifying and ecstatic" existence.

7. I shall sometimes look back at the freshness of vision I had in childhood and try, at least for a little while, to be, in the words of Lewis Carroll, the "child of the pure unclouded brow, and dreaming eyes of wonder."

8. I shall follow Darwin's advice and turn frequently to imaginative things such as good literature and good music, preferably, as Lewis suggests, an old book and timeless music.

9. I shall not allow the devilish onrush of this century to usurp all my energies but will instead, as Charles Williams suggested, "fulfill the moment as the moment." I shall try to live well just now because the only time that exists is now.

10. Even if I turn out to be wrong, I shall bet my life on the assumption that this world is not idiotic, neither run by an absentee landlord, but that today, this very day, some stroke is being added to the cosmic canvas that in due course I shall understand with joy as a stroke made by the architect who calls himself Alpha and Omega."

Something to consider...

1 Peter 4 - Serving God in the Last Days

1 Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin,
2 so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.
3 For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.
4 With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you;
5 but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.
6 For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.

7 The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.
8 Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

9 Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.
10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace:
11 whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.



12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.
13 But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.
14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.
15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler.
16 Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.
17 For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?
18 And "If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?"
19 Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.

"The commitment God calls us to have is nothing greater than the commitment Jesus had in enduring suffering for our salvation. In the last days, we need to have a commitment to God that will endure through great struggles.

Jesus communicated the same idea when He told us that anyone who would come after Him must take up his cross and follow (Matthew 16:24). Taking up the cross meant that you were committed and not looking back!" - David Guzik commentary

Just for Arlene...

Hi Arlene, just wanted you to know I'm thinking of you and praying for you all. I miss your posts and emails, I could almost hear your voice as I read them you know. You have such an upbeat sound to your voice, have I ever told you that? Well, I am now. And your laugh! Your laughter is contagious.

I want to come visit but haven't been feeling up to par the past few days and don't want to bring any bugs your way. I know the importance of keeping your immune system strong when you're dealing with health issues. Soon as I'm completely over this though, I think I'll be knocking at your door to check on you myself. I'll call first of course. We ladies have a thing about visitors coming without notice. Most of us do anyway. I know for sure I wouldn't want anyone seeing me today.

Oh, and if you'll notice, I've posted quite a bit since I started this blog and it's all your doing. Well, yours & Trish & Pat & Thara's. I thought "if these ladies can do this, I can too". And my first post was done before I knew it. I thank you all for the inspiration you gave me to begin this journey of Internet journaling.

You've given inspiration to an awful lot of people since I've known you. Church family and prisoners and the homeless. You've always been the do-er. If there's a need, Arlene's been there to do what she could to meet it. Remember helping me at the church office all those years ago? You gladly gave of your time to come in and help me and I appreciated that. Remember when I had surgery ... way back in 1986? You and Peggy came to see me in the hospital and made me feel so special that you'd take the time to visit a relative new-comer to Mamre. Your sister Peggy is a special lady and you're blessed to have her as a sister.

And you & Barry have such a wonderful relationship. I don't know if I've ever told you that either. You can see the love for one another in your eyes. That is so rare Arlene, so many married people don't have that. He loves you and we all know it!

Well friend, I'll go for now and get ready for bed. In my new year's eve post I said I'd be going to bed to sleep soon. Not. Last night was one of those nights when sleep didn't come easy and didn't last long. Hopefully I'll do better tonight.

You are in my thoughts and my prayers dear one. Your face seems to be engraved on my soul right now and that's to let me know to pray without ceasing.

May God bless you and Barry & Amber & the kids.

Love to you,

Louise

New Year's Day, 2008

PERPETUAL NEW YEARS RESOLUTION

Let this coming year be better than all the others. Vow to do some of the things you've always wanted to do but couldn't find the time.

Call up a forgotten friend. Drop an old grudge, and replace it with some pleasant memories. Share a funny story with someone whose spirits are dragging. A good laugh can be very good medicine.

Vow not to make a promise you don't think you can keep. Pay a debt. Give a soft answer. Free yourself of envy and malice. Encourage some youth to do his or her best. Share your experience, and offer support. Young people need role models.

Make a genuine effort to stay in closer touch with family and good friends. Resolve to stop magnifying small problems and shooting from the hip. Words that you have to eat can be hard to digest.

Find the time to be kind and thoughtful. All of us have the same allotment:24 hours a day. Give a compliment. It might give someone a badly needed lift.
Think things though. Forgive an injustice. Listen more. Be kind.

Apologize when you realize you are wrong. An apology never diminishes a person. It elevates him. Don't blow your own horn. If you've done something praiseworthy, someone will notice eventually.

Try to understand a point of view that is different from your own. Few things are 100 percent one way or another. Examine the demands you make on others.

Lighten up. When you feel like blowing your top, ask yourself, "Will it matter in a week from today?". Laugh the loudest when the joke is on you.

The sure way to have a friend is to be one. We are all connected by our humanity, and we need each other. Avoid malcontents and pessimists. They drag you down and contribute nothing.

Don't discourage a beginner from trying something risky. Nothing ventured means nothing gained. Be optimistic. The can-do spirit is the fuel that makes things go.

Read something uplifting. Deep-six the trash. You won't eat garbage – why put it in your head?

Don't abandon your old-fashioned principles. They never go out of style. When courage is needed, ask yourself, "If not me, who? If not now, when?"

Look at the person you have blamed for your unhappiness, and ask yourself was the criticism legitimate? Did I do anything to help them or did I just decide I am better than he or she and walk away?

Walk tall, and smile more. You'll look 10 years younger. Don't be afraid to say, "I love you". Say it again. They are the sweetest words in the world.

-- Ann Landers