I remember when the doors opened. There she was in a white dress. Her dad was by her side. I felt the breath catch in my throat. My eyes immediately started to sweat. She was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.
She was smiling from ear to ear as she surveyed the room. I don’t have a clue what the rest of the room was doing. My eyes were focused solely on her. I remember I sang a song and we said our vows, but the rest was a bit of a blur. Her beauty took my break away.
That day was more than 25 years ago. I can remember it as clearly as it was today. It is etched forever in my memory. It was our beginning as husband and wife. It was the start of a new family. It was the start of the future that I now sit in.
What one word comes to mind when reflecting over all the years that have gone by? Thankful. It is the only way to be. I have been blessed beyond measure all of these years. My best friend is my bride. She is my partner. She is my wife. She is the most amazing mother. She is the most amazing friend. I am so thankful for her.
If you haven’t noticed by now, I am a marriage enthusiast. I love being married. I love spending my life with this wonderful woman. I love who we are. I love that we have come so far together in 25 years. I can’t wait to see where we go in the days and years ahead.
Is there something or someone in your life that changes things for the better? Who are they? What did they do?
For me, I am so thankful that I had the presence of mind at 19 years old to ask this beautiful lady to be my wife. She said yes on the 6th of September 1998 and I have never once taken that for granted.
I remember seeing the headline. It struck me as funny and inspiring all at the same time. What was the headline? “Man Loses Hundreds of Pounds Walking to Walmart.” I did a double take and gladly read the story.
A man named Pat received a bad prognosis from his doctor. If he didn’t change, he would soon be dead. Overweight and out of shape, he devised a radical plan. He got rid of all the food in his house. If he wanted to eat a meal, he had to walk to his nearest Walmart which was a mile away. Over the course of 2 years he lost 200 pounds with this strategy.
I remember thinking, can walking really cause this kind of change? The answer is a resounding yes. Pat was able to change his life by walking several miles a day and altering the way he was eating. He eventually traded the walk to Walmart for walking on the treadmill and lifting weights. Over the course of several years he dropped 330 pounds and vastly improved the quality of his life.
Pat had to start where he was. When the doctor gave him the bad news, he had a choice to make. Would he continue down the path he was on? Or, would he devise a plan and take control of his life back? It started with a single decision. It started with a single step. And then a step after that.
I have reframed my own health journey in this way. I would love to hit the easy button and immediately be in shape. However, I choose to live in reality and know that is not the way this works. The journey to be healthy and in shape is one that consists of many steps. Every day I have to choose to take the next step.
What is my next step? Tracking calories, lifting weights 3 times per week and walking daily. As I develop consistency in these things, I believe I will see progress. As I see progress, I will reevaluate like Pat did, and take the next step and then the one after that.
What are your health goals? What steps are you taking to achieve them?
See you on Day 4. Next topic: Thankful is the way to be.
Imagine the view: The sun is rising over the ocean. The waves are crashing on the beach below. Your beachside home is hundreds of feet above the water on the cliff side. You step outside on the deck of your beautiful home to drink your morning coffee and enjoy the beauty of it all. Can you see it? It is peaceful. It is awesome.
Suddenly, you feel a shift. The coffee on the table spills liquid over the rim. You hear the sound of rock falling. Your view has tilted down ever so slightly. What is going on? The foundation is wearing away.
The scene above is from a story in the Los Angeles Times that I read last month. It is a billion dollar view that is about to be lost because the rocks holding up the cliff are falling away. The foundations of several beautiful homes are crumbling down.
It doesn’t matter how beautiful the house is. If the foundation is no good, it renders the structure unlivable. The view may be amazing, but if you can’t stand there safely it is worthless. The benefits of living on the cliff are all negated by the eroding foundation.
The same is true for my life. I could have amazing relationships, own lots of stuff and be involved in amazing things, but it could all be gone in an instant without a solid foundation. What is the foundation I am referring to? I am glad you asked.
My relationship with Jesus Christ is the foundation of my life. I accepted him into my heart and life when I was a young boy and I have been His since then. He forgave me for my sins and saved me. He has forgiven me countless times since. I have seen Him work in my life over and over. He has carried me through and loved me consistently. He is my foundation.
How does this help me in my daily journey? If you read my list yesterday you will notice my first point is Bible study and prayer. I choose to start every day by reading God’s word and connecting with Him. It centers me. It keeps me closer to Him. It helps me be the person I want to be. It is my daily foundation.
What is the foundation of your day? What habits do you practice to keep you on track?
I stood in front of the mirror this morning and took a long hard look. I have been here before. I said I wouldn’t come back, but here I am. It is time to make a change.
Do you know that feeling too? It’s the first day. It is the first step of what could be a long road ahead. It is the choice to make the change you know you need to make, even if you have tried to make it before. It is the choice to be different. It is the choice to live Every Day Strong.
You’ve been down this road too, haven’t you? Keep reading.
Let me introduce myself. My name is David. I am a Christ follower/husband/father/creative/and lots of other things that will get unpacked in the days ahead. Like most of us, I have a ton of goals that I want to accomplish, but have let a lot of years go by and am not as far as I want to be. That’s ok to admit, right?
It is not that I haven’t achieved a fair amount in my life. I have. I’ve done many things that I am very proud of. I have SO much that I am thankful for (My relationship with God, my marriage, my son, my health journey, etc.). You will hear about that in the days to come as well. However, there are things that need to change.
It is time. It is time to cast off fear and procrastination and see what I can really get accomplished if I put my whole self after it. Have you felt that way before? That’s what I thought. Keep reading.
I am also finding that the older I get…I was born in the late 70s…the harder it is to get it all done. It has nothing to do with the things that need to be done, but everything to do with allowing myself to go on autopilot. The times I have coasted for too long, I have missed opportunities to be more and do more. For myself and for the ones I love.
To combat this, I have a plan. A roadmap of the days to come. What will I be doing? The road ahead will consist of the following 7 things daily/weekly activities.
1. Bible Study/Prayer – This is the foundation. It helps me be a better man, husband, father and friend.
2. Exercise – Weights/Walking – The older I get, the more I hurt if I don’t move. I have a lot to get done and I need to be in top shape to do it.
3. Diet – Track Food/Water – It is hard to run a motor on poor fuel. If I am to accomplish step 2, step 3 will be essential.
4. Learning – Reading/Courses – God created an amazing world full of awesome things. There is so much to learn and discover. I never want to stop learning.
5. Creating – Writing/Posting – The first things the Bible tells us about God is that He creates. It is what He does. It also says man was made in His image. We are creators too.
6. Gratitude – I am convinced that grateful people live happier lives. I want to take every opportunity I can to express how thankful I am for the life I have and those who share it with me.
7. Photos and Weight – Weekly – How do you know you are getting anywhere if you don’t know where you’ve been?
I will be posting the journey here. I am doing this for two reasons:
First, I need the accountability. There are a few things on this list I can do well and don’t necessarily need the support. The other items on the list are a little harder. I need to put them out into the universe so I know that I am on the hook.
Second, one of the things that is core to who I am is taking care of people. I want to help. I want to be a source of encouragement and, if possible, motivation. I want to be a light for the world around me. If I can do that by sharing my struggles and successes, I am going to do it.
This is my new journey and I invite you to come along with me. It will not be perfect or pretty, but it will be real and full of accomplishment and overcoming obstacles. It will be real.
Will you join me?
See you on day 2. The next topic? Setting the Foundation
We recently attended a family reunion, and it’s interesting to see how things have changed as we’ve grown older. There’s now a whole crowd of younger participants, which is both cool and strange at the same time.
During the reunion, I was talking to a cousin who is currently in college. I mentioned to her that my bride and I have been together for 25 years and will be celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary next January. She did the math and realized that I was her age when it all began.
The next question she asked was, “How did you know she was the one?” My answer was simple: she was my best friend, and spending the rest of my life with her was what I wanted most.
As I have reminisced about those days in 1998, I pondered what it was about her that made me so certain. Was it just one thing or a combination of factors? Let’s delve into that for a moment.
At the time, I was 19 years old, fresh out of my sophomore year of college, and sporting a rather ridiculous-looking earring (which she soon talked me out of). She was a couple of days away from turning 20 and was the most refreshing person I had ever met.
When did it all begin? Our official date is June 17, the day we went on a white water rafting trip with our college group. We sat next to each other in the van and played 20 questions. She answered honestly, and I wasn’t afraid to share my answers either. It was an awesome experience.
Throughout that trip, we made every effort to spend as much time together as possible. We would have spent even more time together if it weren’t for our van driver, who got a little too crazy with the brakes on Pike’s Peak. That kind of ride can make you sick in no time, and boy, did it make her sick. But even that couldn’t keep us apart for long.
We quickly discovered that we genuinely enjoyed each other’s company. Being together was simply fun and felt so natural.
On one of the days, I found myself behind the wheel of the church van, although I’m not entirely sure if I was old enough to drive it at the time. She and I were in the front seat, engaging in conversation when somehow we started discussing the kind of weddings we would like. It was all hypothetical, of course. I answered one of her questions by saying, “Yeah, we should do that for ours.” The moment those words left my mouth, I realized what I had said. I glanced over at her, but she didn’t seem to have heard me.
I thought to myself, “Dude, what was that?” I knew I liked her, but where did that declaration come from? Interestingly, one of the guys on the trip later told me it was pretty obvious that we were falling hard for each other. And he was right.
When the trip came to an end on June 20, which also happened to be my new girlfriend’s birthday, we drove back from Colorado and sat together again. During the van ride, we talked more and more until we found ourselves holding hands. She claimed that we hit a bump which conveniently place her hand into mine, but she didn’t let go once the bump was gone.
After we returned, I had to go back to my parents’ house in southeast Oklahoma before heading to a camp where I was working for the summer. It was less than a day since we had been apart when it hit me. I felt like there was a hole in my chest.
You know that Shakespeare line, “parting is such sweet sorrow”? Yeah, I call bologna on that one. There was nothing sweet about it. It felt like a part of me was missing, and I soon discovered that she felt the exact same. We expected to miss each other, but this was something else entirely.
Looking back now, it is all very obvious. I had just spent time with my wife to be. How did I know she was the one? All the signs pointed to the same place. Us. Together. Married. Now here we are 25 years later and I wouldn’t change a thing. I love her more today than ever.
The 740 Challenge 