- Saturday, June 28, 2008
- Battle Plan: Consistency
Consistency
First and foremost I need to obtain consistency in habit and schedule. What kills me the most is my irregular and erratic doings. I don’t maintain a schedule at all and it shows as I let things slip through the cracks. So the first step in my transformation is to determine what the few things that are important and establish a consistent adherence to them.
Sleep Schedule - This is perhaps the biggest part of my whole transformation. I seriously do not get enough sleep. I’m constantly operating in a sleep-deprived state and I seem to be forever accumulating a sleep deficit. A deficit that seems to rival that of the national one… Which is not good. It leads to a lack of energy, concentration, willpower, memory failures, and a loss of the ability to articulate thoughts and ideas. It actually leads to a lot of things…
This problem is moreso do to my inability to faithfully hold to a regular sleep cycle. I ignore my body’s cries for sleep and I go to bed far past the point in which I really should. The main reason why I stay up late is that I enjoy talking with people. I long to continue talking and talking… I’m afraid that I’ll have to become more disciplined and continue such conversations later. They’ll still be around the next day. I hope.
Work Schedule - Immediately following obtaining a solid sleep schedule is my quest for a consistent work schedule. This and the sleep schedule kind of go hand in hand actually. Retail shifts are feasible for me… on a short term basis. But in all reality it is not a sustainable proposition for me. This has been my strongest source of discontent and it’s past time to do something about it. More on that later.
Exercise Routine - Something that I’ve longed considered and thought about before but haven’t been faithful in actually doing. Right now I’m rather frail… It’s somewhat pathetic. I’ll gain a lot in better sleep quality, energy level, and overall health condition. I’ve been sickly for a while and I think one of the reasons for that is ’cause I’m not taking proper care of my body in this manner. Recently I’ve been encouraged to work on this and so there has been some improvement in this area.
Daily Devotions - And this area is the most crucial area of all. The one with the highest of priorities. The pursuit of God is something that should take preeminence over -all-. If everything else falls by the wayside, this one thing -needs- to remain. What else is more important than my Creator? And I find that though I ask myself that question, I’ve been making excuses not to daily pursue Him through prayer and meditation. Apparently I’ve found false substitutions that replace the Almighty. Which… cannot be… So this is the reiteration of my purpose to pursue after God.
It’s kind of interesting… I didn’t really know how much my pursuit of God was lacking until I saw how my pursuit of the Beloved was. If my pursuit of the Beloved was -that- strong, how much moreso should that of God be? If a fellow member of creation can consume my thoughts that much, how much moreso should the Creator - who should have preeminence even over the Beloved - be the passion of my life? If nothing else - and I most certainly hope and pray for more - this experience has shown me how much closer I can be to God.
An interesting tangent: God and everything of Him is perfection and fullness while everything on earth is merely an incomplete shadow or reflection of His glory and majesty. Marriage is a shadow of the Trinity. Thus… the relationship with the Beloved is a reflection of how our relationship should be with Christ. Mm…
I say daily devotions which includes faithfully reading my Bible and praying. However this really isn’t a set, scheduled thing. It’s not something that I can do (i.e. read my assigned Bible reading or pray for 15 minutes or whatever) and then check it off my list as something that I’ve ‘accomplished’ for today. No… it’s a constant thing. I desire to constantly be mindful of the things of God, to constantly be in prayer with Him.
End Thoughts
In establishing consistency in these four areas, I hope to kick off this life-long process of getting things into order. They aren’t really things that I can check off on my list, congratulate myself on my mile marker, and then forget about them. No, they are things that I’ll constantly be working on. And these four are just a start. Just a select few that I think will have the strongest impact upon me and my relationships.
June 28th, 2008 at 7:28 pm
Go for it! I believe that you can do all that :)… and more. You are a very dedicated and devoted person I have found. I never really thought about marriage as a shadow of the trinity before … I do believe that our relationship with our heavenly father should be more significant then any marriage or relationship no matter what. God is above all else and should be our number one priority. and then once we have that mind set everything else in your life will go into place (and you’ll have the best marriage ever!!)
June 28th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
Okay, you’re not the first to put something over God. Especially when it comes to people.
But it’s not easy to put God above your spouse, children, and/or siblings and parents.
I mean, look at the disciples, many found that marriage and children weren’t the option for them because of the call on theirs lives set by God. I’m sure they didn’t have zero desire for a wife and kids, but it’s just not what God had in His plan for them. I think to truly want to ‘love God most’ a wife and children will be HUGE barrier. Even a girl friend would be something not good for you. Think about all the times you thought about ‘Her’, then multiply it by 10 and you get your wife, multiply that by 1983478975694 and you have your kids. Then think about how much the thoughts of Godly things deplete over time.
Im not trying to be downer, but, Im just saying, you have a hard road ahead of you.
June 30th, 2008 at 1:03 am
Just wondering, how much sleep are you getting? I have this same problem. It seems I’ll get home and have a plan to get to bed at a certain time, but something always comes up… and by that I mean I get distracted very easily. And there is a common theme with all my distractions: The Computer! “The Great Time Waster of the 21st Century.”
July 1st, 2008 at 12:18 am
@ Ana:
Oh, I’ve put much thought into this. It’s not as if it’s something that I’ve only recently considered but it’s only one of the mass myriad of thoughts that assail my mind. This is indeed a hard road -but- the same road that many before me have traveled and with success. Paul mentions how he wishes that many could be like him and share in his gift of singleship but also encourages the many who don’t have that calling to engage themselves in marriage. Marriage is the fulfillment of part of God’s plan.
The trick is not to become consumed by that. It’s a matter of priority. Who is number one? Your spouse or God? If God is first, then everything else will fall in line. If God isn’t -that’s- where you end up in trouble. For in doing so you are committing idolatry. God is a jealous God. There will be none above Him.
And in saying all that, I realize that you were only were mentioning how much more difficult it is to pursue after God when you have some Other in your life and not decrying marriage. Your words are much appreciated and I’ll take them to heart. I just get excited. I have -much- to say but due to time and space (I mean… let’s be honest: who really wants to read a block of text that measures out to a novel length? -Especially- via an electronic medium?) constraints, I don’t.
@ Tage:
Mm… I -was- getting around… 5 to 6 hours a day? Or less? Periodically my dad would remark that I looked like “the living dead.” There was a period where I just didn’t sleep… It was bad… Now that I’m putting this as a priority (as I’m looking at the time and realizing that I’m far past my own curfew… *smile*), I’m doing -much- better. I’m now getting about… 7 to 8 hours of sleep? I’m still experimenting to see what the optimum amount of sleep is for me. But the important thing here is not so much the hours of sleep but the consistency of the points when I go to sleep and when I wake up.
And I know… I’m weak. I require more sleep than most people that I know…
July 2nd, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Sadly I’m not getting the sleep I should be, but that’s not really practical or possible with my current work schedule. If I want to do anything besides work and sleep I need to either stay up later than I should or get up earlier than I should. Right now I’ll sleep 10-12+ hours if there is nothing to wake me up. I assume that’s just my body trying to recover from the abuse I’ve been subjecting it to at work. But this schedule should only last another week or two so I’ll live.
July 4th, 2008 at 2:17 am
[…] Battle Plan: Consistency …in a sleep-deprived state and I seem to be forever accumulating a sleep … be… So this is the reiteration of my purpose to pursue after God. […]
July 19th, 2008 at 9:45 am
Ah, the search for sleep or the denying self of it for other purposes. I have spent my whole life (well, when I was a kid and had a bed time I actually slept enough - thanks Mom and Dad) sleep deprived. In high school I read too late into the night - either for studies or pleasure. In college there were always distractions. Then I got married, got pregnant and 9 months later a wee one brought her own sleep deprivation techniques with her.
Fast forward to five kids and many years later…. my youngest is now almost 8. I finally get to sleep more. I’d have a bit more but I still have 2 teen boys in the house who push their own sleep deprivation issues which effect me since 1. I do not go to bed until everyone else is in their rooms and quiet for the night and 2. Even if I did go to bed before them, I would wake up to any noise they make (Mom hearing) and not be able to go back to sleep for 2 or more hours. So, when all cooperate I get enough sleep, which is 9 hours for me. My husband needs only 6-7 hours to function well. He still routinely gets 5, since we do have the boys up and and his alarm goes off at 4:30 am each morning. Every one is different, finding what your needs are is important for overall health, which you are finding out.
I’m glad you are seeking a healthy balance now. You will see improvement in all areas of life when you follow the wisdom wired into your body/brain by God.