Ragamuffintop Challenge Week 1

With the official start of June 2 minutes ago, I’m completely up for a new challenge.  I’ve been reading Ragamuffin Soul for a while now and decided this could be a fun little thing to participate in.  Here are the rules:

1. You must have a measurable goal.

2. You must place a photo or video on your blog each weekend and give us the scoop on how you did.
3. You must link back here so that the readers of your blog get to see how the rest of us are failing or succeeding.
4. You fill out the linky thing below and then people can get to your blog from my front page and we can cheer each other on.

 

 

I don’t own a scale nor do I necessarily want to…(I’m a bit obsessive sometimes–not good).  So I won’t be going that route.  Instead, I’ve got a few measurable things that I’m going to work on.  

 

Now in the pictures these pants look fine, but let me tell you…they are a bit tight–too tight to wear for 8 hours at work.  I’m a BIG fan of comfy clothes so simply put I don’t wear uncomfortable things pretty much ever.  So the main goal will be to be able to fit comfortably in these again 🙂  Along with this goal I want to be able to participate in a triathlon if I decided to do so toward the end of summer.  I haven’t figured out a way to train for the swimming part yet.  The rest is measurable.  13 miles of biking and 3.1 miles of running.  Lastly, another subset goal is to complete the Biggest Loser 6 week program.  I have gone through 4 weeks of cardio and just gave in and bought the power sculpt dvd as well.  So I want to do the cardio 4 times a week and the power sculpt 3 times a week.  Yikes, who knew there could be so many things to do!  Here we go!  

p.s. I’m planning on posting a “why am I doing this” blog soon 🙂

Other Blogs :)

I love reading other blogs.

I love when I can see myself in their thoughts.

I love being challenged by their posts.

So, here are a few posts/blogs that have recently caught my eye:

Stress 

Always Late 

Compassion –This is one of the bloggers who went to Africa with Compassion–you can look at the other blogs from her site 🙂

Dating and Getting Up Early

Spiritual Masturbation Series and if you go back a ways then there are the Christian Cliches 

Credit Card Therapy 

Sexually Charged Culture

I listened to a sermon entitled “Sexual Sin” by Mark Driscoll, Mars Hill Church, today from his “Religion Saves and Nine Other Misconceptions” series.  This series came out of the “Ask Anything” challenge.  Basically, people were allowed to write in answers and then vote for their favorites.  The top nine questions make up the sermon series.

Now that you have a little background…I’ll get to a few of the thoughts that stood out from the sermon I listened to tonight.

1. Don’t try to manage or tolerate or suppress your sin.  Put it to death!  Legitimizing, justifying, and judging sin hinders us.  Sin leads to death.  Sin separates us from God.  Jesus died so that we could put sin to death.  (See Colossians 3:5-8)

2. Driscoll suggested fasting from television, your ipod, the computer, the radio, ect. for a few days and then returning to see just how “sexually charged” our culture is.  For me, the hardest part would be the internet…I use it FAR too much.  I waste time looking at things that are really not worth it in the long run such as Steep and Cheap, REI, Facebook, and my e-mail for the hundredth time.   I’m pondering doing a variation of this challenge.  I’ll keep you posted.

3. Number 3 of “How to Resist Sexual Temptation” consisted of living as a new person with a new mind.  This included not viewing men or women as potential sexual partners but as brothers and sisters in Christ.  I think you could rephrase this to not seeing men or women as potential boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands, cuddling buddies, friends with benefits, ect.  Personally, I’ve found myself with a little crush that turns into a downward cycle of temptation that does not honor that person as a brother in Christ but sees him rather as someone who I could date, kiss, cuddle, befriend ect.   I could add a lot of disclaimers to this and further the thought, but I think for now I’ll leave it at that.

4. Who or what do you worship other than God? Sex? Television? Sports? Relationships? Success? Money? Good looks? Weight? Books? Authors? Pets?
Worship the Creator not Creation

p.s. I’m impressed with my newfound skill of in-text links! 🙂

Salty

Since I got my wisdom teeth out I have to drink salt water after every meal…yuck! I can’t stand salt water!! Every time I gag and want to throw up and then end up eating/drinking something afterward anyway to get the horrible taste out of my mouth.  Thank goodness I only have to do this until Friday and then I’m free.

But the thing about my lovely salt water mixes is that I control the amount of salt, how well mixed in, and the amount of water.  Sometimes I cheat and don’t mix the salt in and let it settle to the bottom.  Other times, I don’t put in enough salt or I put in too much water and the drink doesn’t taste quite as bad.

 

Here’s some of what the Bible says about salt:

Matthew 5:13

You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.

Mark 9:50

Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with each other.

Luke 14:34

Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?

Colossians 4:5-6

Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

James 3:11

Can both fresh water and saltwater flow from the same spring?

—

Unfortunately, I do the same thing with conversations, relationships, and life in general that I do with my salt water mixes.  Sometimes I just don’t want to be salty.  I don’t want to “season” my conversation with salt–it’s much easier to let the salt settle and only infiltrate part of my life.  Compartmentalizing the salt happens far too easily…

Yet at the same time I desire to be so salty that whoever “drinks” me in can’t deny that the salt permeates my ENTIRE life–so salty that they can’t deny the presence and power of salt in my life.   To remain salty, I can’t choose a life of complacency.  I have to be filled through study, prayer, meditation, relationships, time, ect and I need to make sure I help fill others.

So, my challenge until Friday is to make sure my life and salt drinks are extra salty so I don’t get dry socket and the salt saturates my entire life.