In the midst of all the political tension in our society over the last several days, I can’t help but think of our former President’s last words in an interview with Oprah and the former First lady. She asked him, “What’s one thing you want people to remember from your presidency?” He responded almost without question, “HOPE.”
It made me think of what hope means to me. The bible tells me that faith is the evidence of things hoped for. So, hope is often the promise attached to my faithful actions to achieve the picture that I see. But because I love acronyms I’ve been meditating on what in the world could hope stand for to help it take root in my memory bank, which is already jammed packed. Of course I scoured Google for ideas. I stumbled upon this one: Hold Onto Purpose Every day. Yes! Hold onto purpose every day. That’s it.
I’m hoping I will achieve my health and wellness goals. Hoping that I’ll get my act together and actually do the things I know to do. Hoping that I will enjoy the process. But what else is hope but a wish without purpose. I need something to anchor my hope and my wishes so that they can bloom into faith and action.
Hope. Hold onto purpose every day. To me, this means grabbing hold of something…a word from God, a new revelation or “aha moment” I had when reading something, a big dream…my big WHY.
You see this weight loss game ain’t for suckas. It can be grueling even. The stripping away of your old way of doing things, old habits, the old routine. Yes, I know that spiritually when I receive Jesus I became brand new. But unfortunately my mind, actions, behaviors are still a huge work in progress. My hope. Holding onto purpose everyday will help me to receive…realize irreversible change.
What does this mean practically speaking? This week it meant the following for me:
…every morning reading a devotional or something inspirational related to changing my habits
…finding one phrase, a simple word, comment, image, or scripture to anchor myself to throughout the day
…reviewing that phrase…over and over again in my head throughout the day; picking it apart, looking it up in the dictionary, looking for scriptures in the bible where that word or phrase can be found, talking to others about what they think about that word
This week my phrase has been “Build my house.” It comes from a scripture in Haggai where the people of God decided to keep up their own house rather than build God a temple (classic Old Testament drama that I love LOL). God told them to, “Build my house.”
Just like me, they had a ton of excuses for not taking care of God’s temple…they had more important priorities, they didn’t have time, their families needed to be taken care of. They started off hype and gung-ho but quickly fell all the way off their plan to Build God’s House. It made me question why and how I’m doing the same. I was so quick to judge the people in this classic bible story. But, what about me?
So, God in turn, instructed me to Build My House…my body is his temple.
I encourage you to find your anchor…your purpose to hold onto every day. It will help you at least reconsider your decisions between that bagel or the boiled egg and side of fruit. It is certainly not always easy. I for sure am still working to perfect this. But, I know I can do it. And you can too.
So what are you HOPING for? Find purpose in your wellness journey. Hold onto it. Every day.
XOXO