30 Day Fast From Mediocrity (yikes!)

You may be familiar with the scripture that says, “I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” (Romans 12:1 NKJV) I love that scripture.          It reminds me that my life is not my own.  At the very least, I should continually be striving to present myself to God as a living sacrifice; all that I am and do should be for His glory.

But beginning in April, I’ve resolved to present my body in another way…to someone else.  Of course, the above scripture will continue to be my goal.  But for 30 days, I am also committing to present myself to my husband in a way that is acceptable and pleasing to HIM.  And when I say ‘myself’, I’m more so talking about my appearance – the clothes I wear, my hair, etc.  I will definitely be working on my physical body also, as far as exercise goes.  I’ve already jumped back onto the exercising bandwagon, which I fell off of and then got run over by!  But because I’m not sure how much my body will actually physically change in 30 days appearance-wise, this blog is about my focus on how I LOOK for my husband…make sense?

In case you’re wondering what brought this about…HE actually did.  He didn’t say, “Man, Niesy…you’re starting to look a little rough around the edges…”  (aren’t I blessed that he’s not that blunt?! lol). But a couple months ago, I had mentioned that I wanted to post something on our blog, but didn’t know what to write about.  He replied, “How about ‘The 30 Day Fast From Mediocrity’?”.  I asked him what he meant and he said that I should write something about spouses keeping up their appearance for their partner and not becoming complacent.  Yes, I DID immediately become defensive: “What’s THAT supposed to mean?  Are you indirectly referring to me??  What, you don’t like how I look now?  You don’t like my hair??…”  He assured me that he wasn’t talking about me, but knows that this IS sometimes cause for concern in some marriages and that he merely thought that it would be a good topic to write about.  At least, I THOUGHT he assured me…until I found myself periodically replaying the title in my head…until I found myself typing notes into my phone about what I’d say, if I DID decide to write about it…until I found myself firmly hitting the ‘home’ button on my phone (before I even finished typing out my thought into the notes), rolling my eyes, turning out my bedside light & telling myself that I MIGHT try to write more notes ‘tomorrow’ – IF I felt like it.  After weeks of the back and forth in my head, I had to eventually ask God, “what if he was referring to me…what if his mouth was speaking out of the abundance of his heart and he didn’t even realize it?” Nahh!!  Couldn’t be…could he??  He still insists that’s not the case.  But to put MY mind at rest, I decided to “interview” myself.  How do I look now compared to how I looked 18 years ago, or even 13 1/2 years ago when we got married? Obviously, people change as they age and won’t look exactly the same forever.  But I had to ask myself, how am I maintaining?  How am I staying healthy?  Am I eating right, exercising regularly, getting enough rest, etc…?  The answers were not shocking.  I see myself, and so I had to own what I know is true (even if Oli really wasn’t directly talking about me):  I had been taking advantage of my husband’s acceptance of me.  I wouldn’t say that I have let myself go, per se.  But I will admit that I have not been working on me as much as I could.  I have become mediocre – doing juuust enough…and not even doing THAT consistently.

So, hence the challenge to myself: The 30 Day Fast From Mediocrity.  Phew!  For a girl that works from her home office 99.9{27137a86aa7d9cdfea4ba1def08dc828a168f4c684c8f7b748a0d9ae77799d7a} of the time, that is  indeed a COMMITMENT lol!  When you work from home, it’s challenging NOT to just keep on your head scarf and high-water sweatpants.  Or how about the leggings with the thinned-out-to-almost-a-hole and tiny, rolly lint balls at the inner thigh area?  Oh, I’m the only one??  Ok, I’ll own it.  Yeah, right…come on, ladies, you know I’m keeping it real! I know I’m not the only one with a favorite pair of sweatpants or leggings…or a tee shirt that’s so out of shape & baggy now that it hangs off of one shoulder and has become A-symetrical. So there you have it, folks…no sweatpants and no baggy tee shirts for 30 days!  I will comb out my hair and not keep my scarf on all day.  Heck, I will even put on make-up.  Ok, who am I kidding…? Let me keep it realistic – I’ll wear lip gloss, at least…maybe a little mascara! lol

Now, I know I said 30 days, but I’m hoping that I will be able to continue even after the 30 days are completed.   They say it takes 30 days or so for a habit to be formed, right?  So I’m hoping that will be the case for me.  I’m not writing this as encouragement for others to follow suit.  No two marriages are the same.  This may not be an issue or even a concern for you or your spouse.  It’s not even an issue in my marriage.  But I feel like it can’t hurt my marriage.  And as much as Oli does for me & the family, it’s the VERY least I can do.  And he’ll smile – win/win! 😉

So keep me in your prayers!  This should be interesting… 🙂  Follow me on Facebook, I may post a pic or two!

Blessings!