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Tuesday, December 16, 2008

First things First

Hi everyone. Rebecca just made a great post about her weekend. And I realize that by posting right after her, I may be upstaging her. Which I don't want to do. So, if you haven't read her post yet, go do it. Now! Get going!



Back already? Did you leave her a comment? No?? Well go back over there and leave her one. Then come back. (please, come back! don't forget about me!)



Ok, back again? Well, then let's get started, shall we?

Let me introduce myself.
I'm Aubrey. I'm a friend of Michal's. We actually know each other IRL, but haven't seen each other in about 6 years.
I am mom to three girls, wife to one boy, and busy as all get out, as I imagine everyone else on here is.

And I have goals. Many, many goals.

And Michal is letting me join the blogging fun about these goals. So if you don't like my posts, blame her. Just kidding. You can blame me of course, just don't tell me about it.

Today is a gray, chilly, rainy day 'round these parts. It's actually a refreshing change as it rarely gets below 65 here and rains, well, almost never. (I live in Arizona. Or, more accurately, Arid-zona)

So it is a slow, tired kind of day. Days like these make it hard to stay on top of my goals. They make me sleepy and droopy and much less motivated.

I have goals to eat healthily--and lose the rest of that stubborn baby weight.

I have goals to live within my budget. (I recently switched to using cash for everything. It's been helpful!)

I have goals to exercise more often and more intensely.

I have goals to speak more kindly and lovingly to my children. Patience is not one of my innate virtues. I am constantly trying to improve that.

And, most importantly, I have goals to study my scriptures and make meaningful prayer a real part of my life.

As I am going about my life and goal making and keeping, and generally running around like a chicken without a head trying to keep up with everything, I often think of the scripture in Mosiah chapter 4:27

"And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order
for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has
strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby
he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order."

Wisdom and order. I know for me, I need to concentrate on putting the spiritual before the physical.

My goal to pray and study the scriptures should probably come before my goal to lose weight. Not that losing weight for me is not a worthy goal. It just isn't as important as putting the Lord first in my life. And if I am running faster than I have strength (or running somewhat like a headless chicken), maybe I need to remember the order of importance for the things I want to accomplish.

And if the day is gray and droopy and I really don't want to do anything, then even more the reason to keep the order of things.

Because everything seems to fall into place when first things are put first.

What are your thoughts?

3 comments:

Michal said...

i am so sorry that i haven't even checked blogs since you posted. i am so out of blogging these days, caught up in my to-do list!

well put, aubrey, and a nice reminder to put first things first. i must say that whenever i do that, and make MORNING scripture study and prayer a priority, it makes a tremendous difference in my ABILITY to accomplish my other goals. and i needed to be reminded of that, as i have been more and more reluctant lately to rise early for scripture study and exercise. it makes me a much less powerful person. i have been getting the scripture study in daily (although twice that has involved watching conference talks while folding laundry, but i'm counting it), but not usually in the morning, when it has the greatest impact on my daily life. i think i'll go do that this morning before my shower.

Rebecca Blevins said...

You are absolutely right, and I love this post. Putting the spiritual before the physical is definitely more important. I think it can be harder sometimes when the physical is staring you in the face, unblinking.

I love that scripture, and I definitely need to put more of the spiritual first.

Thank you! Great first post, btw.

TheQueen@TerrorsInTiaras said...

It is amazing to me that when we out our spiritual goals first, the other goals seem to fall into place a little easier. (I said easier--not easily. We still need some chances to grow and improve.) :) Great post and reminder of what our priorities should be, especially at this time of year.

My goals this week have been faltering a bit. I blame it on feeling lousy, but the truth is, I could have been more diligent at my scripture study, no matter how much my head hurt. I only added extra veggies once this week, and only half of us completed a service project because the other half were sick. This week, we have grand plans for service, but we also have my parents coming tomorrow, and my chronic headaches have been on the worse side, so we'll see how it all goes down...