Challenges

Sweat was dripping down my back as I white-knuckled the rock climbing hold.  I reached for another bump on the wall, but my fingers slipped off when I tried to raise my body up further.  My muscles were numb from exhaustion, and my pinching climbing shoes could not grip the plastic bumps covered with white chalk.  Defeat whispered in my ears.

Tonight I went rock climbing at the local gym after not climbing in 3 months.  I haven't worked out my arms since then either, and the muscle required for climbing are not ones used daily.  To put it nicely, I FAILED!  I met a challenge which I could not conquer.  However, the worst part was lacking the will to conquer.  I simply gave up.

I have always been the competitive one, the one who climbed tall mountains, the one who accomplished impossible things.  Whenever I met a challenge, my blue eyes sparkled with a determination to prove stronger than it.  But I have not been challenged in a long time.  In my 14 college credits last semester, I easily achieved good grades.  My job has not stretched me.  When summer ended, my challenging outdoor activities terminated.  Quite frankly, I have succeeded so frequently that I have forgotten how to ascend a brick wall once I have run into it.  I have forgotten how to keep going when the going gets tough.  I can't remember how to embrace a challenge.  Instead, I flee from it.

However, that must change.  I may have failed at rock climbing tonight.  But I am going to lift weights and do push-ups.  I will go back to that wall and conquer it.  I may have forgotten how to continue when difficulty strikes, but I can learn how again.  I will seek out challenges, for I want to be strong in the face of adversity (by His strength alone).

2 Timothy 1:7 ~ For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.

New Year's Resolutions

As the beginning of a January has rolled around once again, many people have made New Year's Resolutions.  Unlike many people, I do not make my resolutions on the first of the year.  Usually, a week or so later I learn of other's brilliant resolutions and decide my life needs some changing also.  However, my life dreadfully needs so much changing that I am soon swamped down by 30+ resolutions that I will never accomplish.

This year, 2012, I am determined to be different.  I am tired of saying I will accomplish a million of things and then never following through.  So I have formulated twelve resolutions as this fit with the current year.  These resolutions are not near as intense as I would like them to be.  However, it is better to make small progress towards a goal than to completely fail because I set the bar way too high.  So following are my resolutions in no particular order.  Drum roll, please!

Cassia's Resolutions for the Year 2012:
(To be accomplished by the strength of God my Savior)
1. Memorize one new Bible verse a week.  (This week's verse is Luke 11:23)
2.  Write down 1000 ways God loves me.  (Stolen from a friend!)
3.  Finish everything I start.  (It will probably take all year to make this goal reality in my life.)
4.  Exercise at least three times a week.
5.  Read my Bible and pray everyday, preferably in the morning.
6.  Praise God for one of His attributes each day.  (Today's is His lovingkindess.)
7.  Read at least one new book a month.
8.  Blog once a week.  (I need to write more, and this is fun even if nobody cares to read.)
9.  Not intterupt  other people when they are talking.  (Goal)
10. Keep an updated to-do list.  (I always forget what I am supposed to do!)
11. Clean my room each evening.
12. Read the news twice a week.
13. Keep detailed track of my finances.


Oops I made thirteen!  I guess I am a little too much of a perfectionist ;)  What are your New Year's Resolutions?