This past summer, I read six Jon Gordon books including One Word that will Change Your Life. In the prior years, I just picked a word that seemed like a good word that I needed to work on, however reading the One Word changed my perspective on choosing that word. Choosing a word, should be about where do I want God to change me. Once a word is chosen, God will start working in your life. I shouldn’t just pick a word -- I need to pick a God-given word. Thus, began the praying and the thinking and the praying some more for what should be my word for 2015.
Bring in Lysa TerKeurst’s The Best Yes book, I didn’t even get two chapters into the book, when I realized, I am not choosing the best YESes for not only my life but my family’s lives. Most days, our schedules revolved around the school calendar which is already packed to the max. Not to mention, I cannot say no...so add those to an already full schedule. So this book got me thinking and praying about making those best YES choices. It takes training to say "no", it takes a disciplined person to say no.
With my brain in overdrive, I decided what the heck, I am going to start reading Jen Hatmaker’s 7 an experimental mutiny against excess. Fantastic book. Wrong time to read it. If you haven’t read it, imagine yourself cleaning out your cupboards and reading all processed food labels, creating a whole foods grocery list, searching the internet for clean meals, getting out the bread maker and making bread, figuring out only 7 places to spend your income in the next four weeks, deciding which clothes to rid of….yep that was me! I had the same thought over and over, I wonder if I could be disciplined like Jen in this book.
With today, being the last day of 2014, tomorrow opens the door for that one new word. I really have thought that the word was going to be DREAM. I wanted to DREAM up that one big schedule to guide me in my book writing aspirations. However, DREAM, just didn’t seem right after reading the above books. The other night, I woke up with two things racing through my mind, “Shelly, life will go on as you write your book. You need to be disciplined about making time for it.” So there it was discipline.
Taken from Google’s Dictionary:
Discipline (verb) -- to train (someone) to obey rules or a code of behavior
Synonyms: train, direction, instruct, teach, coach, drill
A code of behavior. A code of behavior. That’s it. The word that will guide my 2015...DISCIPLINE. As I think about discipline, I need:
- Discipline to wake up 15 minutes earlier each day to continue my devotional, 365 days of the Bible.
- Discipline to set aside time each week to write.
- Discipline to make the Best YESes.
- Discipline to create healthy meals for my family.
- Discipline to save.
- Discipline to tithe.
- Discipline to exercise.
- Discipline to drink more water.