Daily Archives: March 30, 2009
Shape
Ok I may catch some flack for this but I am going to put it out there anyway.
I am a scrawny guy. I am around 6’2″ and weigh around 175. But here over the last year I have started to develop a little protuding belly. I figured it came with getting older and that I would level out after a while. Well the other night my youth group noticed and called me out on it. I will admit it had been eating at me but I thought it was all in my head. But with the affirmation I am taking it seriously.
My goal isn’t to loose weight just to change shape. To see the roundness of my stomach disappear. One thing I am doing is doing away with diet soda. I learned via the Google machine that aspartame is linked to belly fat now. So I ahve abandoned the Diet Mountain Dew for Propel water.
I am currently downing the strawberry-kiwi variety. I also have eliminated snacking on cereal and crackers rather opting for apples and carrots (what we had in the fridge). I just started this a few days ago and we’ll see how well it works. The lack of caffeine is bothersome but if I can get past the headaches I will be in good shape.
Cut ‘em Loose
Something me and my wife had to learn the hard way early on in our ministry was when to cut people loose. That is, to cut them out of our social circle. We have found in the ministry that people will take advantage of your friendship and try to use it to their advantage. Some will take your shared secrets and spread them around some will use their infuence to gain control some will even try to upstage you and some will just flat out lie about you. I remember a time when a friend took ideas from us and passed them off as their own all while putting us in a bad light.
As painful and as cruel as it may seem there comes a time when you have to cut people off. Ministry is a delicate thing and we have to be careful to guard ourselves against our integrity being marred and if you have people in your inner circle who are not adhering to the standards of integrity then it is time to cut them loose. I would even venture to say that you should be proactive. We were in a situation that was heresay at best but it was not the first instance and though we never knew exactly what had happened or what had been said we knew that it was happening far to often. So we cut ‘em loose.
It hurt. It really did and it still does looking back now years later , but it was necesary.
