Revisiting Priorities

“Carolyn you don’t have a weight problem. You have a priority problem. You need to exercise. If I told you that I would give you a certain amount of money if you lost weight in 12 months, you would be in my office in 6 months to get your money. Change your priorities and you will lose the weight.” These are words from my OBGYN a few years ago after I asked him for a referral to a weight loss doctor. He saw me before I had my children, so he is familiar with my body.

Last week is over, and so is my sister’s visit. I weighed in this week at a gain, I hate to say… 217.2. I am convinced that some people (including myself) settle for mediocrity and being comfortable at the moment without considering the long term effects. Otherwise, why would anyone decide to smoke, over eat, living with excesses; and why did I decide to eat Swedish meatballs with my sister at 11:30 p.m.

Recently my son and I were watching television together and out of nowhere he told me, “Mom I love you so much that if one of us had to go to heaven and one of us had to go to hell, I would pick you to go to heaven and I would go to hell.” I was silent for a moment and then told him that God loves us so much that we both can go to heaven. He said, “Yeah, I know through Jesus”. That really touched me coming from a 4th grader. That caused me to revisit my priorities.

I have a second job that gives random drug tests. I have been there for five years and took my first one this week. I don’t use drugs; however that showed me that some things we should just be ready for. My later response to my son’s statement is that I love them so much that I want to teach them everything I know about God, and teach my grandchildren as well. I want to be healthy and around so that I can.

This week when working out, I keep in mind to push myself a little more (especially seeing that it is easier to gain your weight back than to lose it). With each extra lap around the track or extra minutes on the work out machine, I am preparing myself so that I am ready to be available for my children and in excellent shape to chase my granddaughters or beat my grandsons in basketball (all contingent on what God says of course). How is that for prioritizing and long term planning?