Little Distractions, Big Delays

This is a guest post by a powerful woman of God, Christine McGruder. She is a powerful motivational and conference speaker who has an uncanny ability to bring great humor and clarity to help individuals eliminate roadblocks, improve their relationships and enhance their communication skills. She is a Certified Life Coach, ordained Reverend and holds a certificate in Lay Pastoral Care. She has extensive training in pastoral counseling in the laity, and as a licensed Minister, served at a well-known church in the Washington Metropolitan area for over ten years as the Director of the paraprofessional counseling ministry where she facilitated support groups, provided training for laity leaders and was a presenter for various workshops and seminars. Besides being a dynamic speaker and life coach, Christine is married to George and they are blessed with three beautiful daughters and four wonderful Grandchildren. ******************************************* Recently, I was out doing my power walk on a local trail in a nearby park -- the trail loops around a beautiful lake. I used to walk this trail years ago, and many times I would visit there, especially if there was an issue I had to deal with-- the beauty and tranquility of nature seemed to clear my head. The trail itself is very challenging in certain spots, and provides walkers and runners with a varied and wonderful workout. However, there are also long stretches covered by tiny rocks and gravel. As a matter of fact, my tennis shoes are black. and by the time I finished the walk, they looked GRAY!! As I walked around the trail, one of those tiny pieces of gravel got into my tennis shoe. It was so small, and I did not want to stop because I was moving at a fairly good clip -- so I kept walking, but I tell you that little tiny rock just really got on my nerve and it was so distracting!! I finally had to stop and shake my shoe so that I could move forward. I began to think about how that little pebble can represent life issues that come up, but we don’t stop to deal with it. So, we keep going about our daily lives, and that issue that we don’t want to think about comes back up; we ignore; it comes back up; we ignore and it comes back up! There are days that I don’t feel like eating healthy or exercising – and this prompting…this life pebble plucks at me -- I ignore it; it prompts me again; I watch TV, or I think of the hard day I had at work so I’m not going to exercise, and by the way let me get a big bowl of ice cream because I deserve it. Finally, the prompting goes away silenced by my decision to ignore it. Guess what? The next day, the prompting is back stronger than ever – I know without question I have to address this prompting and get back on track. Weight loss and fitness is but one issue where we can ignore the “life pebble” that tries to get our attention. For me, I believe the many times that I have ignored the promptings to make a change has been when I have not trusted the Lord. Somewhere deep inside of me, I have felt God would help everyone else, but not me. I felt I could trust Him to work out other people’s lives, but He surely could not be interested in helping me. So I have done my best, in times past, to sabotage my success and peace of mind by ignoring the promptings within me. I have learned in a big way, whether it is a physical, spiritual, health, finance, or relationship issue, to remember to heed the promptings given to me by the Holy Spirit of Almighty God. I can trust Him – He is for me (and you) and not against us. Jesus left the Holy Spirit as our Comforter, our Counselor, and He leads us into all truth and understanding. Galatians 5:16 New Living Translation (NLT) So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. Or a more intense version: Galatians 5:16 The Message (MSG) 16-18 My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don’t you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence?