Letting God Change Me

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Over the past few weeks, I have felt God leading me to put more structure or purpose, in my daily life.  I am so excited over the progress so far and it hasn't been very long yet.  (I do get excited pretty easily and discouraged when others do not seem to be excited with me.)  I'll share the things that I have started later in the post.  However, I want to share the things that Satan tries to use to discourage me and make me feel bad about myself.  As I have spent some time the past several weeks reading other blogs, I have been encouraged to make some changes in my life, but Satan has used this also as an opportunity to try to discourage me.  Anyway, here are my confessions......I believe that God wants me to be real in this blog, so that others are encouraged and not disheartened when reading about another person's life.  So here it is,

1) I haven't exercised consistently for the past 4 years.
2) I don't eat healthy and have not instilled healthy eating habits for my children.
3) I don't clean my house every week.  When I worked full time, I'm not sure that I even cleaned it every month.
4) My husband and I basically do not save money on a regular basis.
5) We use credit cards often.  However, praise God we do not maintain a balance unless it is a 0% card.
6) I have not been consistent with disciplining my children.
7) I get mad and pout :).  I have an absolute terrible time when my husband is sick.
8) My house is not organized very well.  Our closets are terrible.
9) I thought I was budgeting, but realized this week that I was missing an important part of the picture when it comes to groceries, toiletries, etc.
10) I think everyone else has it all together.  I believe that others are doing all the things listed above correctly!  I'm serious!

So, there you have it.  I have a long way to go in lots of areas!  However, God is helping me and I am feeling my spirit lift as I begin to add small goals to every day life.  Following is what I'm excited about...

1) I have established a goal of exercising 3 times per week for 20 minutes.  Basically only cardio and crunches.  I don't have a desire to push myself very hard in this area.  My goal is to become balanced in my life and not to go overboard in any area.  I'm on week 2.
2) I have started a Bible reading plan to read through the Bible in one year and it is going well.  I'm on day 36.
3) A couple weeks ago, I felt that God was leading me to be very consistent in disciplining my children.  That is going great!  I have noticed a difference in both of them.  My oldest is doing wonderful now cleaning up messes and doing what I ask when I ask her.  We are having some issues that I believe are disrespectful to me as the mom.  That was a large part of the reason that I felt it was important to work on this now.  That is going well too!  I am recognizing the event when it occurs and explaining to her that it is not acceptable, using time outs and having her repeat herself in a calm manner.  My 2 year old is great at cleaning up (most of time, we do have some battles!).
4) This week, I created a basic cleaning schedule for me.  I love it!

With the things that have been established so far, I am feeling like a lot of progress has been made!  More to come as God shows me others areas to begin to clean up in my life.