victory #1 (pants buttoned)

hello everybody. i thought it was about time to write about a victory. as you've seen before, i have series on pet-peeves & phobias, so i thought it would be good to add some victory into the mix. obviously, i'm not in the shape (yet) that they guy in the picture is. you know what though? a pastor friend once told me that you can't eat an elephant in one bite. you have to do it one small bite @ a time. i'm pretty sure that the elephant analogy is going to receive some jokes, but hey, it's true. one small little victory/bite @ a time. that's what it takes to progress in a healthy manner. no need for extremism here.

in the midst of all the "hard" stuff going on in our lives- i'm happy to report a victory. do you want to know what it is? hold on a second, so i can explain a few things first. over the last year, i've "expanded my horizons". i have expanded horizontally- to the tone of about 20 lbs. @ 5'-8" & 3/4 & 210 lbs.- i have been affectionately called a "brick" or a "bull". now i think those descriptions are being too kind. factually, i have resembled a 5 lb. bag- filled w/ 10 lbs. of crap (marine corps phrase). i could go on for days on why i look like this, but i won't. it has something to do w/ obedience or the lack thereof.

i'd like to report that, as of yesterday morning, i was able to button the top button of a pair of work pants. it's been a little over a year that i haven't been able to button the top bottom of my pants. how did this happen? i refused to hear the "lies" about not being worth it. i haven't listened to the normal negative thoughts that so often come my way. i decided a month ago to FOCUS on saying, "yes", to good things a little more often. i decided to say, "yes", to exercise. i "decided" to say, "no", to smoking & over-eating. i challenged myself to say, "yes", to positive/good things & "no" to destructive things. i mean, come on, if i could focus on a bunch of crap/negative things- couldn't i focus on some good things? there won't be perfection achieved of course in all of this.

my victory #1: i can now button the top button of my pants!!!

may seem "small" or ridiculous, but you gotta start some where. let's inch-away/take back the ground the enemy has taken in our lives. let's push forward in obedience.

1 little victory @ a time!!!

p.s. i know this may have sounded motivational. good! glad to be of service.