Yesterday morning, I caught myself staring in the mirror at my super-duper hot body full of bubbly Barq's root beer and homemade delights and got pretty upset with myself...
...but thank the LORD for some additional free time coming right up!
I just finished up the last of my college finals, and now that I'm done with schoolwork for a while, I'm still feeling a bit lost.
The last month, my routine has been shaped around homework and doing video projects for different things, and I've ran into both walls and rabbit holes.
I've found that both YouTube and Pinterest are my weaknesses for sniffing out those rabbit holes of video after video suggestion and pin after pin suggestion. And in addition to those weaknesses are my Totinos pizza rolls and soda/pop cravings: two things that have found their way into my every other day/everyday routine.
I've been setting my alarms to wake up at 8am or even 7:45am the nights before when I'm eagerly looking at how my body could look in 6-8 weeks, or at least, by the grace of God, when this COVID-crap is gone, and I end up waking up at 9:45am or 10:30am to a phone call or another 10-page email.
So yesterday.......10:30am, I got myself out of bed, showered, a cup of coffee, and started my day off around 1 o'clock.
My first real project that I wanted to get going was cleaning out my bedroom closet, not something I looked forward to doing. However, I found so many little things in my closet that took me down memory lane.
High school year book, mechanical pencils, plenty of clothes that were 2-3 sizes smaller than what I currently wear, a graphing calculator, and some good ole things of Scripture and encouragement that I had challenged myself with anywhere from 5-7 years ago.
In addition to that good ole' encouragement from my 8th/9th grade self way back when, I had Josh Baldwin's "Stand In Your Love" playing in the background. (Spotify folks, Click HERE to listen to the song while reading this devo)
Some of his lyrics go like this:
When darkness tries to roll over my bones When sorrow comes to steal the joy I own When brokenness and pain is all I know Oh, I won't be shaken, no, I won't be shaken
My fear doesn't stand a chance When I stand in Your love.
Shame no longer has a place to hide
I am not a captive to the lies
I'm not afraid to leave my past behind
Oh, I won't be shaken, no, I won't be shaken!
and the one that got me thinking about what to write as I ate a SALAD for dinner:
There's power that can break off every chain
There's power that can empty out a grave
There's resurrection power that can save
There's power in Your name, power in Your name
I've had plenty of folks ask me about how my book, Spiritually Fit, was coming along. My answer is this: it's going just about as well as I'm moving my butt right now.
If I'm being honest, I'm Spiritually F.A.T. right now. Failing At Trying, when I need to be Spiritually F.I.T. where my Faith is In Training.
Each and every one of my bad habits have become these chains that have completely taken over everything that I want to do, such as writing my book, being in great shape, and getting a good night's rest.
With that said, I made myself and all of you nice people that read down to this part, a 21-day/3 week routine/habit fixer-upper for my own and your physical + mental health.
Feel free to screenshot or save the image(s) below to save the template or email me at brittontyleravery@gmail.com if you need a copy in another format.
Blank Template:
My Personal Routine:
Aside from this, I just wanted to say that I'll be taking some sort of a physical health go-after initiative with this 3 week routine thingy I've come up with, but you don't have to make this your weight-loss routine if you don't want to, and you really don't have to do anything at all.
But......what you can do is this:
BREAK FREE from unhealthy relationships.
BREAK FREE from online spending.
and in general
BREAK FREE from any and all bad habits/addictions.
Last, but not least, here's a Bible verse that goes well with breaking free:
James 4:7
So give yourself completely to God. Stand against the devil, and the devil will run from you.
We NEED to ask God to help us BREAK FREE from our chains.
Making that call to Him is completely up to YOU. If there's something you've been wanting to work on, RIGHT NOW is THAT TIME to do THAT THING.
As for me and my house, we will NOT be eating any more pizza rolls or downing root beer during happy hour(s).
Next week following this 1st week's "Breaking" routine, I'll be "Building" just as we all should rebuild our habits to make better habits than the ones we're breaking down.
And with that said,
Let's go break some chains!
- Britt