This past Sunday at church was the most powerful service I’ve ever attended at our church. This was part of the reason why…

Cardboard Testimonies 1/10/10 from Biltmore Baptist Church on Vimeo.

What would be on your cardboard for something God has already done in your life? What would be on your cardboard for something God is presently doing?
What, by faith, will be on your cardboard for something God is yet to do?

Happy Wednesday blog friends…

WOW…after writing continuously for 40 days, I suddenly feel as if I’ve abandoned my blog by simply taking a few days off. Never fear – I haven’t. Just trying to get back into “normalcy”. This is my first full work week in a month. Forgot what that was like. I’ve also been working on some of my 2010 goals, so that’s kept my focus on other areas, but so far so good. One of those goals is to improve my physical health, so here’s an update on how that’s going…

Unlike many, I didn’t re-start my diet until January 4! I never like to start on January 1, because I feel almost like it’s a setup for a failure – one of those “resolution curses” so to speak. Additionally, this year, I attended a wedding on January 1, and January 2-3 were the first weekend days of the year. So…I talked myself into one more weekend of blatant disobedience in the area of food and exercise. Shameful – I know. The holidays really took a toll on this body of mine, but I’m sad to admit that it was worse than I thought (or at least that’s what the scale revealed to me). OK – that’s in the past – moving forward (not dwelling there)…

So, I’m beginning day 3 of my adventure. So far…so good. I’m back to my low-carb way of eating. This really worked for me before the holidays, and I can’t tell you how GOOD I felt. I felt so much more energy than I recall in recent years, and the weight fell off at a reasonable rate also. Initially, I find that I lose a lot of water weight, so this first week is proving to be pretty high in pounds lost, but that will shift within a week or so, I’m sure.

In addition to the low carb way of eating, I’m also back to drinking lots and lots of water and one cup of coffee in the morning. I’ve really been failing at hydration lately, and our bodies need water desperately, so I’m flooding my system again! It shows…my bathroom trips have more than doubled!

I’m also trying to do some form of exercise daily. Something. Anything. On Monday, I went to the gym and worked out for almost an hour doing a combo of cardio and weights. However, my foot pain has returned with a vengeance (and seems to be worse on the treadmill), so last night…I exercised using my daughter’s Wii Fit! I only did this for about 15 minutes, but it was something!

Lastly…and perhaps the most important piece of this journey…I’m journaling. Right now – I’m journaling in a notebook. I’m too chicken to put it on here. I have a couple blog friends that have chronicled their weight loss journey in a blog format, and I so applaud them (especially sweet Charlie – you’ve got to check out her blogsite if you haven’t already)! However, I just can’t seem to do so yet. I hope that will change, because I think it will hold me more accountable and will be an inspiration to others on the same type of journey. We’ll see what the future holds on that…

On another note, I’m so tickled to see that some of you have decided to join me this year in a scripture memorization challenge. Kudos to you! Not only do we need to focus on our physical health, but our spiritual health needs to be kept in check also (even more so, in my opinion). What better way to do that than to focus on knowing God and knowing Him more intimately by hiding His Word deep in our hearts! I know some of you are doing this scripture memorization “thing” on your own, but I really, really encourage you to do so publicly, and I’ve given you an opportunity to join a group of us two times a month in a way that will cause us to be more accountable to each other. If you haven’t read about it yet…here’s my original post on the matter.

It’s hard to believe we’re at the halfway mark on the first week of the new year. I’m praying the rest of the week is a great one for you!

Oh…here’s a little heads up for you…I’ll be doing my first blog giveaway later this month! I mentioned last year that they would be coming in 2010, and my birthday is later this month, so I will be giving away a gift on my birthday this year! Stay tuned…check back often! Be blessed sweet friends!!!