Our Inspired Journey

In our spare time...(that was a joke!)

I've been watching The Biggest Loser and been inspired to make exercise part of my regular routine again!

Since Christmas, the kids and I have been starting our days with an exercise video I've had for a long time. It's the not the latest and greatest exercise routine or anything, but it does get us all moving...something we've desperately needed throughout these cold Illinois winters!

Cora seriously loves it. Her and Ryder have even started making their own weights to use from a magnet set they got from Grammie and Papa a few years ago. It seriously is precious. She even lights up now anytime she sees someone is any kind of shirt that resembles a leotard...."Exercise, Mommy?"

T-Stand, Cora style! Can you see, she means business!

I love finding a way to get a little bit of a workout in with my kids...sometimes I ride our exercise bike instead (when I really want to break a sweat!) but the time spent with them is precious and it's so fun to see them getting into it too!!!

The more I read about the lives of those who are disabled in some way, I've been reminded that it is the intentional design of God for me to have full use of my body.

I've been reading a book my mom gave me for Christmas...Joni Erickson Tada's book, Finding God in Hidden Places. In this book, she tells stories about everyday moments in her life where she's seen and experienced the presence of God. What makes it so inspiring is that Joni is a quadriplegic. Everything she does takes great effort, but she does it all to bring God glory. I believe God allows disability for His purposes that are beyond our understanding. I've also been so humbled to meet women like Joni and Jennifer Rothschild (who is blind) who say they are thankful for their disabilities because they have seen God in more incredible ways than those of us with movement and sight could ever begin to understand.

Making exercise part of my regular routine is one of the ways I honor God with the movement he's given me. Joni pushes her ability to the limit...with the movement she has from her shoulders up, she paints, speaks and writes and glorifies God with every breath. Though Jennifer Rothschild cannot see, she uses her voice to travel the country speaking of the God she sees in her darkness.

I don't always feel like it, but as Beth Moore writes...Our old body of sin, the nature that must seek its own way, the person who is hopelessly depraved and resigned to failure, hangs limp on the cross. Raised in its place is the Spirit of the Living God poured into a temple of flesh so that God's presence will remain among men.

What ability have you been given that God is calling you to exercise for HIS glory? Because if He's given it to you, there is not a moment that goes by that He cannot be brought glory from a breath you take....in the way you parent, in the food you eat, the way you take care of your body, in the words you say, in the way you care for those around you, even the way you take a little more time to talk to people in the checkout line at the store.