Preparing for the Distance

I have been thinking a great deal lately about the fact that life is not a sprint but a marathon. This thought has an effect on every area of life. Think about it this way: it is not good enough to go on a diet and lose ten pounds; it is what I do after to keep the ten pounds off that has the greatest effect. Or it is not enough to set up a budget for my finances if I choose not to follow it over the next year. How about correcting your children and then not following through with punishment when they don’t obey?
I have realized that it is really easy to start things but extremely difficult to finish. Short term we can come up with all kinds of great ideas that make us feel good and make us look good to others. But, it is those practices that we engage in over the long haul of life that really determine who we become. The only way that those practices become part of my life is through discipline. It is by figuring out the things I need to do every day and then making sure I do them–not just when it is convenient or when I feel like it, but every day.
So, what is one thing that if you started doing it today and continued doing it over the next years, would change the course of your life?
Now start doing it! Don’t wait; start today!

-Pastor Tim