Bits for Sunday, June 24, 2007

Mid-terms. The word that can strike fear in a student faster than almost anything. I never cared for mid-terms…particularly the one that I failed. I can’t remember if I was a junior or senior in college, but I distinctly remember the room I lived in when I had to make “the phone call” to may parents, so the location tells me I was in one of those last two years when I took economics. You know. The subject my father taught for millions of years? The subject I took under his teaching in high school and did very well? That economics. And yet there I stood, in my campus apartment, holding the ever-dreaded piece of paper that said Economics...........F. I had to call my economics-teaching father and tell him that his scholarship-receiving, dean’s-list-making daughter was failing his subject. Not a fun call to make. But he was nice and God was gracious and the professor liked my end of term paper, and I somehow passed the class.

Today is a mid-term of sorts for me. Though I know I have another week to go before I’m halfway through the year, I’m approaching the halfway point, and today I did some reflection on the covenants and commitments I made for this year. I made a list of 25 things (five topics, five things in each topic) that I covenanted with God to either change or improve in my life this year. I’ve been called crazy. I’ve been called overzealous. It’s okay. I might be a little of each. But this past six months has been a time of change and growth, and I’m excited about what is happening. I won’t tell you all 25 things, but I’ll pick one from each area to share with you.

1. Put on armor daily. This was a challenge I received from one of my accountability partners. She had been challenged by someone at her church to pray the section of Scripture from Ephesians 6 every day for thirty days. Then she was to see what happened if she skipped a day. So she challenged me, and I made a commitment to read those verses as a prayer over myself every day this year. I don’t think I’ve missed that more than two or three times since the first of January. I printed out the verses and hung them up in my bathroom so I can read/pray the words each morning as I get ready for the day. The first day I forgot (I think it happened because my routine was messed up – probably a Saturday – and I didn’t ever get ready) I had one of the worst days of the year. Later I realized I was not protected by my armor that day and Satan had an easy shot at me. While there’s nothing magical about that section of Scripture, I do believe that praying it and meaning it every day forces me to understand my dependence on God and makes me more aware when Satan tries to get in and mess with me.

2. Exercise five days a week. Boy wasn’t this just a shock to my system! The girl who probably hadn’t exercised five days in her whole life picked up a regular exercise routine. I’ve worked out on my elliptical machine, I’ve walked, I’ve done tae bo, I’ve played around on (and subsequently nearly killed myself on) an exercise ball. And it’s starting to work! There’s something to that crazy theory of feeling better about yourself when you exercise. This morning as I was helping myself to a donut during Sunday School, one of the ladies asked me if I’d lost weight. I licked the icing off my fingers and said “Yes, as a matter of fact, I have!” Clearly giving up fried, sugary foods was not part of the plan.

3. Entertain once a month. I love to invite people over to my house. It’s part of the genes I inherited from my Mom. She loved to cook for people and have guests over all the time. And I love it…but I had been slacking on following through with that love. So this year I determined that no matter how busy I became, I would leave time for at least one round of company every month. No fair ordering in pizza either! My entertaining commitment means I have to cook a meal so that I present the full effect! I’ve been successful with that each month – sometimes just barely. (So if you’re ever invited over for dinner on the 30th of any month, you can know I was running behind on this commitment…just kidding!)

4. Do weekly housecleaning. My Mama raised me better than to run around with a dirty house. But cleaning is just not fun. And I found that I was slacking on the cleaning. It’s not really a good idea to do that when you own two cats who like to shed. So this year I decided to test the theory that cleaning is not so bad when you do it regularly. And I found that this is also true! So every week I’ve cleaned my house! Maybe not the cobweb searching, sweep out behind the furniture sort of cleaning, but a good and decent cleaning, anyway. I find myself apologizing much less for the condition of my house when people drop in unexpectedly, and it doesn’t take three hours to do it because it doesn’t have six inches of grime built up!

5. Leave time open for emergencies. I like a full calendar. Too full. So full that I never could squeeze in an emergency. That wasn’t good. No one should be that busy. So this year I’ve been learning the fine art of saying no. There’s nothing wrong with viewing housecleaning as an appointment that needs to have its place in my calendar – instead of trying to squeeze it in alongside a six or seven hour adventure that wasn’t really necessary. This has been one of the hardest things for me this year, but I love having a more open schedule. And there have been some times that an open evening meant I could help someone at the very last minute. That’s a good feeling, too!

So there you have it – my mid-term report. I feel good about the changes that God led me to make, and I’m excited to see what the second half of the year brings as I continue to pursue even more growth!