As I said in a previous post, I love/hate discipline.

About a week ago I got to the point where I was so frustrated with my circumstances.  I had a self-imposed (and somewhat Publishing-imposed) Dec. 15 deadline for Story, the new Mission Prep Workbook.  Well, that date quickly passed me by and I was still nowhere near the finish line on Story.

As I read the Scriptures I see time after time where man (or woman), hide and blame. Hide from God or others we’ve offended/sinned against and then blame others for our sin/circumstance.  This has been my temptation (and unfortunately my fallback).  There are reasons I didn’t get the writing done on time.  Legit places for me to place my blame and hide from my own shame.  However, the bottom line is this: I will continue to be sinned against.  I will continue to have circumstances get in the way of my own agenda.  And the flip side is unfortunately true as well–I will continue to sin against others and mess up the agenda for someone else (a quick reading of Romans 6-8 will tell you that this is not an excuse to keep on sinning).

Pride stinks. At the risk of offending others, I’ll say it.  Pride Sucks.  However, I am full of it. (yes, you have known that I was “full of it”), so much so, that instead of writing in that post, “because I missed my writing deadline,” I said, “I have to finish some ‘projects.'”  How silly.  Was I trying to fool myself?  Ha.

So, rather than sulking, I bunkered down and did what I could to compete the process of the writing.  I did my best to strip back everything that was not necessary so that I could concentrate on 3 things: God, Family and Work.  Biking, blogging, Facebook time, Fantasy Hoops and watching ballgames… GONE.  More time in prayer, study, prioritizing (as best I could) time with family and disciplined time of writing became my priorities.  Not to say that these three aren’t still my priority, they still are, however the margin for “others” returns a bit now.  This excites me.

Side Note: My family is such a blessing to me.  They are/were so supportive of me in this time of completion.  A special “shout out” to Elisabeth is due.  She carried/carries so much of the load during this time.  She is such a supportive Mommy to the kids and wife to me!  I love you Elisabeth, I am truly thankful to God for you!

The content of Story is now complete (yesterday at noon).  There is still much to do for the completion of the total project, but I will now take a good day and half to not do much on it!

Today I look forward to the following:

Blog post: Check

Start Christmas shopping: leaving as I hit “Publish” on this.

Bike Ride: First one in 3 weeks… (good news, only 4 pounds heavier than I was at the beginning of December)

Lots and lots of Family Time!!!!!!

Christmas Eve service!… If you don’t have a church to attend, hit me up, we’ll take you with us to ours!

I do love/hate discipline…And it’s fair to say, I hate Pride!

Stocking stuffers, here I come!

Grace,
Brian