Changing My Environment: Guest Post
This is a guest post from Gaye Lindfors.
Gaye Lindfors speaks to churches and groups on living a faith-based life in a world that demands so much. Her presentations are filled with stories, humor, and hope. Gaye’s consulting company, Significant Solutions, Inc., helps business leaders create great places to work: Organizations where employees come early, stay late, and work hard…because they want to.
I just learned that I have to run almost the full length of a football field to burn off one M&M!
Good grief. (And you and I both know…you can’t eat just one M&M!)
Choosing to eat healthier has been quite a journey for me. (Check out my recent blog post – I’m moving through my fear of cooking!)
I’m learning what works and what doesn’t work, when it comes to creating new eating habits. One of my most important lessons:
Environment is everything.
If the chips are in the pantry, I will find an excuse to eat them. (The salsa in the fridge is getting old.) If I don’t have fruits and veggies available, I’ll go for the carbs. If there’s ice cream in the freezer, there’s no hope.
To get even healthier, I have to make sure that I have set myself up for success. The right foods have to be available. Those tasty, unhealthy snacks and I can no longer co-exist.
It dawned on me recently that the same principle applies to our spiritual life.
Environment is everything.
The books we read, the TV shows we watch, the people we interact with…they all influence our ability to lives as Jesus has called us to live.
Even as children we were taught, “Be careful little eyes what you see…little ears what you hear…”
The lesson is still there for us as adults.
What does your environment say about your values, your priorities, your heart? (I’m asking myself the same question!) Does your environment need changing? Is God asking you to change some of your habits to make more room for Him?
I’m choosing to be more mindful of what I surround myself with, in my kitchen pantry and in my entertainment. My physical and spiritual health depends on it.
Colossians 1:9-12 “For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and mayplease him in every way; bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.”
If nothing is more important to me than my relationship with God, then what I watch, read, and listen to, must reflect that.
I love my life! I have a passion and a purpose to share my recipe for health and happiness with RDNs and others – maybe even more so now that I’ve officially retired. If you want to learn what I discovered through coaching 1000 people over 9000 hours check out my final post, “Live Like This Is Your Last Day. Someday It Will Be!”
“THANK YOU for sharing years of your energy with us (with ME). Several years ago, I attended a seminar you taught, and I got some great ideas so I subscribed to Abundant Mondays and I’m so very happy I did. You make a difference in my life even though we have never met. I continue on my journey to adjust and adapt to the changes life brings and to remain positive and a positive influence. With your help.” -KJ