Find Your Center

Put God in the center and everything else will come together.

I got that from a little business card that someone gave me years ago and I've had it pinned on my motivational bulletin board ever since. It's made me think a lot lately. Last June when I started my venture into training for a figure competition, one of the first things I did was I pulled out this Daily Devotional for Dieters Journal that I had purchased many years ago. I had started it once (in pencil of course), but got off track and forgot about it for so long that I eventually went back and erased all of my journaling and told myself that one day in the future when I was ready to take my diet more seriously I would rely on the devotional and use it to its fullest. Well last June I was finally in the right frame of mind to take my diet and exercise routine more seriously and to the next level, so it only made sense that I would pull out and rely daily on my devotional. It became part of my 5am routine. I woke up, put on my exercise clothes, brushed my teeth and headed to “mom's room”. Before I would jump on the elliptical or check my email on my phone, I would always first open my devotional and read the scripture and story for the day. Then I felt ready to hop on the elliptical where I could spend time thinking about what I had read and ponder how it related to me and my current situation. I would end my 45-60 minute cardio session with quiet prayer time and then write my thoughts in my devotional. It was a beautiful start to each day and always put me in the right frame of mind to help me get through another day. When you are training for the stage, some days are much harder than others. I recall some days waking up and feeling happy and full of energy. I also recall some days where I would “hit a wall” by about 10am where my legs would feel like heavy logs, but I knew I had to get through my work outs and through my crazy cooking sessions because there were weeks at a time where I ate tilapia, asparagus and brown rice for 5 of my 6 meals in a day!  Or Tuesdays and Thursdays when I would be teaching preschool and would agonize over the fact that I had to walk up the stairs with those logs to go and use the restroom.  And some days that I would actually be in my pajamas by 4pm and sitting on the couch marveling at the fact that I was sitting and not “doing” (Most of you that know me know that I cannot sit still or even stand still for more than two minutes! Yes, adult ADD!). As I reflect on those times, I know that I got through each day because I started my day with God first and in the center of my world. So, when my November competition fell through, I slumped into a funk and I let everything go. Not just my diet, but my morning God time. And you know, without putting God in the center of my world, my world seemed to fall apart around me so that the only thing left in the center was me. And that's a lonely and depressing place to be. So, along with my healthy resolutions that I started on January 1^st, I also put God back in the center of my world and we start off each morning together once again. And my journal that was well used from June through October has started a new page on January 1^st. Each day is new and different, easy or hard, fun or depressing, willpower or a lack of. But I know that with God all things are possible and that life is a giant circle. And when we put God in the center, everything else will come together.