The Three Fitness Plans You Don’t Want to Live Without – Part 3
Let’s briefly review. In “The Three Fitness Plans You Don’t Want to Live Without”, we discussed the first two in our previous installments:
- Our Body Needs A Physical Fitness Plan – taking care of your physical body is a must and the most popular of the 3 plans.
- Our Soul Needs a Mental Fitness Plan – you can not overlook conditioning for your mind. It too needs exercise and downtime. As the 2nd fitness plan, it’s one that could use more attention these days as more and more people experience issues due to stress-mental fatigue.
Today, we reveal the 3rd fitness plan that has equal importance when compared to the two above. Let’s dive right in…
Our Spirit Needs A Spiritual Fitness Plan
You might not know this, because that’s normal, that your spirit needs some attention. Actually it needs the most attention, because it’s the number one driver of what’s happening to your mind and body, the two other pieces that make up your being. If your spirit needs some attention, then having a plan for it is necessary.
Allow me to offer a few tips. Most would think that going to church is them feeding their spirit. While that may be true for some; it’s not always the case for everyone. Your spirit needs a connection with God. In other words, you need your own encounters with God. This can happen at church, but more than likely it happens elsewhere. Also, you need more than just the one to four doses you get during the month offered by a local church.
Daily preparation with prayer as the cleaning agent
Pamela and I have a plan which consists of daily prayer. As a part of our daily preparation to get ready for the world around us, we’ve made prayer the center piece. There’s never a bath or shower taken without there being prayer involved. It’s our time to meet and discuss with God from within our spirit.
The verse that carries me throughout the day.
Next our plan consists of our own personal Bible study time. You’ve heard it said that people have quiet time. I don’t like to use this phrase as it’s a way to take the word “prayer” out of prayer time and studying God’s word out of time for bible reading. These are things we now enjoy. As a goal, we try to have one passage, verse or thought that we can take with us throughout the day. We’ve made it so that these times are the best part of our day so that’s how we begin. During this time, many years ago, we decided to never again have another bad day. We learned that we can make the choice to be glad all day long and that’s exactly what we execute. Using a written family plan, provides a way to reflect back from where we used to be to where we are, and who we are today. It’s a great way to thank God for what He’s done.
Time to minimize the distractions
The goal of having a spiritual fitness plan is to have a way of never neglecting the spirit that your mind and body house. Thankfully our local church provides this during 2 distinct times of the year, 21 days of prayer. The first 21 days of prayer include fasting. In this way, we remove things from our lives that have caused distractions so that we can connect with God with fewer distractions.
In review, you’ve heard me mention the three pieces to my family’s spiritual fitness plan:
- Daily prayer
- Bible study
- Minimize life’s distractions
One point to keep in mind is that this is a plan and it can change, be revamped and improved. Start your plan today. Make it simple or complex, just make it.
Today is Friday!
What ideas or practices have you made a part of your life that qualifies as a spiritual fitness workout? Leave me a comment.
