How one thing can lead to another...and another...

Cookies...chocolate chip cookies. An innocent enough item, and yet, something that I have to be more careful about...

Yesterday was a difficult day for me. Strange dreams and major difficulty with focusing on my work all day long...I had been encouraged about the issue of mental focus at work, because Thursday and Friday of last week were very good days...but yesterday was tough, and I was discouraged.

I am part of a small spiritual formation group that meets once each month, and I invited the group to meet in my home last night. In my effort to 'be the ideal hostess', I prepared fresh chocolate chip cookies for my guests...they enjoyed the cookies, but then they left...and I ate the entire remaining batch by myself. A total of 15 cookies, I think...to be honest, I lost count.

There are many things I could say about the cookie binge...I have a history of compulsive eating to explain the behavior, for those of you who don't know me that well. I have also begun participating in an online community to better manage my health habits (eating and exercise), and part of the community process is journaling our food...on good days, and on bad days...like yesterday.

I'll wrap this up by incorporating some things I've heard lately, and the passage of scripture I read before bed last night...

While listening to a CD last week, I heard a man say, "If your cholesterol and blood pressure is high...you better check your finances too..." He went on to say that the disciplines reflected in one area of our lives are likely to be similarly reflected in other areas of our lives as well. So, if you neglect the disciplines of good physical health, you better check your financial health, your spiritual health...and your relational health. If one is bad, the others could very well be bad too.

I've been sitting with this idea for several days now, pondering the decisions I make each day...about small disciplines, daily disciplines...physically, spiritually, emotionally...the small and mundane decisions each day that might seem insignificant, but have longterm impact on my life and the lives of the people that I love.

And then, there was this verse in James 3, which jumped out at me and seemed to communicate a very similar truth:

We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check.

There is a nugget of truth to be found here -- perhaps our ability to keep our tongue "in check" isn't able to make us literally "perfect," but the larger idea has to do with discipline. One discipline leads to another discipline...and likewise, the absence of discipline in one area of our lives will almost surely lead to a lack of discipline in other areas.

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. -James 1:22