Stepping Toward the Finish

"What saves a man is to take a step. Then another step." CS Lewis
  
This is the short list of things I want to finish in 2012 and these are the small steps I am taking toward finishing them today:

Finish losing the excess weight.
It's no secret to readers of this blog that I want to lose weight. I started in January of 2010. By the grace of God I had determination like never before. I lost 50+ pounds that year. Last year was more of a maintenance year. I completely fell off my wagon in the past couple of months. This fall gave me a renewed sense of why I am doing this--many, many reasons involved. I still need to lose 40 lbs. to reach the "healthy" weight category. That is my goal--healthy! What can I specifically do to move toward finishing this weight loss each day?

• plan/track my food and exercise daily
• blog daily
• in the Word daily
• constantly seek the presence of God for my portion

Today's lunch and would you believe--I finished it! Yea me!

Finish books I have started.
I have a terrible habit of reading a couple of chapters in a book and then being sucked into another one. I rarely finish a book.  I have packed all of my paper books away and am limiting myself to what is on the Kindle only. I am also only reading one book at a time. Currently I am reading The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges. Great book. One a month will do the trick.

Finish a half marathon.
Last year I completed my first half marathon. Considering where I started in the physical activity arena--anyone would agree this was quite an accomplishment for me! Besides the birth of my children, this is definitely the most remarkable thing my body has ever done. It was an amazing experience. Since then I completely stopped running. The Texas summer was my excuse. No more excuses. I feel like crap when I'm not exercising. I want my runner's legs back and I want to be able to run 13 miles without stopping again! I am going to be running in the Big D Half on April 15! Whoo hoo! Now to start training! Hal Higdon was good to me last time around...

Finish each day in the Word and prayer with the kids.
If I don't do anything else this is the ONE. This is my #1 job in life--to disciple my children. We have family time with God but is has never been consistent or daily. It should be. It has never been on the "goal list." It should be. If our relationship with Jesus is the most important thing to us, and we say that it is, then we should live like it is by making it a priority. We are using a kids devotional book Jesus Calling. There is an adult version of Jesus Calling that Justin and I use also. They coincide with each other. Highly recommend both! Last night Jonah read some passages to us from his new "Big Boy Bible" and we prayed. It was simple but everyone seemed much more at peace about facing today by the time we were done.

What do you want to finish this year?