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How to Make Time for Exercise

Even When Life Gets Crazy

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Let me start this post by painting a clear picture to you of my current reality: I am a stay at home, homeschooling mom to three girls six and under. My husband has a demanding job, I broke my big toe three weeks ago (which gets stepped on numerous times a day by my two year old), and I’m in my ninth month of pregnancy with my fourth child in mid-July.

These are all excuses (very, very good excuses, mind you!) of why I “just can’t make time to exercise.” I have chosen to deny them all, get creative, and keep moving my body in spite of it all.

Why, you may ask? We all know that regular physical exercise is good for your body, mind, and soul, but maybe you need a little “jump start” reminder as to specifically what you get when you prioritize regular exercise.

According to the Mayo Clinic’s article “7 Benefits of Regular Physical Activity,” regular exercise helps control weight, combats serious illness and disease, improves mood, boosts energy, promotes better sleep, improves your sex life, and can be just plain fun when you do something you really enjoy!

Prioritizing Your Personal Health

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My father-in-law has a plaque hanging above one of the doors leaving his home that says “A man who is too busy to pray is too busy.” Prioritizing exercise works the same way as prioritizing our prayer lives, time with family, or anything else important to us.

My husband has found it difficult to find time to exercise since we have had kids, seeing that he works at least 8 hours a day and wants to spend time with the kids when he gets home. But he has realized that he wants to prioritize his health so he is able to be the best husband and father he can be – and live long!

He’s found that working out at a gym after the kids are in bed a few days a week, riding his bike to work, or playing volleyball with the men at our neighborhood pool are ways that he can get regular physical exercise without compromising his other main priorities.

I’ve personally found that the best time to exercise for me is early in the morning. If I’m up by around 6:30am, I can get in a 30 minute jog or (right now) 30 minutes of lap swimming before anyone in my family really needs me.

Letting Go of Excuses

One of my neighbors asked one morning how (and I think, why) I keep up my exercise routine during pregnancy. I responded, half joking and half not, that I exercise so that I don’t yell at my children during the day. She laughed and understood completely.

When I exercise, I find I am more calm, patient, relaxed, and just happier overall. And this impacts everyone around me, especially my family. I sleep better at night. I make better eating choices. I think more clearly.

Yes, I am a morning person, but I have to tell myself to get in bed every night by around 10pm if possible so that I get enough sleep and am able to wake up early enough to exercise.

Do you prioritize regular physical exercise? What is your favorite way to move your body and de-stress with physical activity?

Have you put off prioritizing exercise, saying “one day when I am not so busy, I’ll take the time to do that”?

Make a choice today to prioritize your personal health. Take a good look at your schedule, chat with your spouse if needed, and find a way to include some regular exercise into your weekly schedule.

Your body and your soul with thank you for it!

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Trusting in God’s Perfect Timing

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There is nothing like being nine months pregnant to remind a woman that she is not in control of life. I was told yesterday at my 37 week prenatal appointment that I am officially “full term,” but all that really means is that I can go into labor at any moment.

Babies don’t wait until everyone is “ready” for them – they decide to come when they are good and ready. You could be in the middle of a traffic jam, on a great little weekend getaway, at the office, or trying to get a good night’s sleep (which seems to be their favorite timing to enter the planet) and we moms and dads just have to accept it. They come on their terms, not ours – and often when it seems like the most IN-opportune time.

Ecclesiastes says, “There is a time to give birth….” (Ecc. 3:2) The word “time” here is “a fit or proper time, an opportunity.” God knows the day that each of us ought to enter and exit this world and He planned it long ago, before the beginning of time.

If the day of our birth and death are pre-determined by God, why should we think that the other events of our lives are up to chance or that we (necessarily) have control of them?

Letting God Lead

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Timing is everything. Speaking your mind, flipping a pancake, changing a car’s oil – it’s all about the right timing. Many of the most important events in our lives, though, can’t be pre-planned, even if we wish they could be.

Falling in love, the exact day or week of the conception or birth of a child, landing “our dream job” – these are all things that we can’t control.

Proverbs 3:5-6 holds some great advice for us at each turning point in our life journey: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”

I often think I know what is best for my life. So do you. It’s a human condition called “pride.” I think I know what my children need, too. Often I am right. Sometimes, I realize that I was totally wrong.

That is the why the best move to take is to surrender our timing and plans to God. Multiple scriptures warn us against thinking we know best or that we can predict our future:

“There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.” – Proverbs 14:12

“Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.” – Proverbs 27:1

God Knows Best

One of my best friends just had her world turned upside down in the matter of a week. She had planned on staying in our area and running our homeschool co-op. She had planned on being an “auntie” to my new baby and to her other friends babies who are about to be born. She had planned on continuing to invest in her current community.

These were all great ideas, but God had different plans for their family. In two weeks, my friend and her family will be moving to the Midwest due to an amazing job opportunity that has opened up for her husband there.

Even in the midst of mourning all that she will be leaving behind, she has a peace in her heart and has watched God confirm in multiple ways that, while unexpected, this move is in His perfect time and plan for their lives.

Has anything happened recently to “mess up” the plan you had for your life? Or maybe you just think that God is behind on something – that you’ve been waiting too long and surely He needs to “get on board” with your program?

The God who knows every hair on your head and planned the day of your birth knows what to bring your way this day. This week. This year. He knows what is best for you even better than you do. If you’ve been resisting His timing, I encourage you to do what you must to release control and surrender to Christ’s plans for you in this season.

Often, this just means looking up to Him and saying, “I don’t understand why this isn’t happening (or is happening), but I choose to trust you. I choose to believe your time and way is best, Lord.”

Before long, I will be embracing a son. But I’m reminded today that it won’t be on my time table. It will be on God’s. And I’m cool with that, because His timing is always best.

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Dangers of the Comparison Trap

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Bleary-eyed and shuffling, I approached the water. It was 6:30am and no one in my family was awake yet, but here I was – at our neighborhood pool, ready for lap swimming. What, would you ask, could cause me to do such a thing?

If you read my last post, you will know that a little over a week ago I broke my toe which has prohibited me from my regular 5 day a week endorphin rush of jogging. As much as I need to slow down, I still need to move my body and exercise, so into the pool I descended.

While I grew up on a lake and even learned to slalom ski at the age of about 10, lane swimming in a pool is not something I am very familiar with. I have learned quickly over the last 7 days that there is really only one major rule for this: STAY IN YOUR LANE!

O.K. There’s more to it than that, of course. My eldest daughter and her best friend, who are in their first year on swim team, were quick to tell me on my first attempt at lap swimming that “you look like you are doggy paddling” and “You need to keep your head under water.”

I got some goggles and after several 30 minute sessions, at least I look like I know what I am doing. Sort of. But even if my form and technique are horrible, no one is going to reprimand me if I just stay in my lane.

Staying in Your Lane

This week I also went to a homeschooling practicum where a friend in our co-op gave a short devotional on the last day that was a great reminder. She shared how easily it is as a mom to compare herself to other moms who seem to have it “perfectly together” or have the “perfect life.”

She confessed that this ungodly comparison reveals jealousy, envy, and discontent in her own heart which steals from her the joy that she could have in just accepting the life that she has been given as a gift by God.

She also shared a story from the Bible in John 21.  Jesus has been raised from the dead and appears to his disciples on the beach after they have been fishing. After denying Christ three times, Peter is reconciled to his master and friend in a powerful conversation.

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Jesus asks Peter three times (perhaps one for each act of denial) “Do you love me?” Peter always responds in the affirmative. Jesus gives him one clear directive: “Feed my sheep.” He also gives him some prophetic insight into his future death as a martyr for Christ.

Christ basically tells him “This is what I have called you to do and this is how you will suffer and die for me.” Interestingly enough, after hearing clearly from Christ Himself what he has been called to do personally, Peter turns his attention elsewhere in comparison as John walks by.

Here’s how the conversation progresses: “Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who also had leaned back against him during the supper and had said, “Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?” When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about this man?” Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!”

What About Him?!

It’s tempting for all of us, even when we have clarity about what God is requiring of us in our current season of life, to let our eyes drift from Jesus and onto the person beside or behind us and whine or question, “Lord..what about him? What about her?”

Jesus says the same thing to us that He said that day to Peter: “What is that to you?! You follow Me!” Basically, it doesn’t matter. It’s not your business. Your business, your call, if you will accept it, is to follow Me. Period.

Do you find yourself slowly drifting into other people’s lanes? Have your eyes gotten off of Christ and onto those around you? Do you find yourself struggling with jealousy or discontent, caught in a comparison trap?

It’s never too late to take Christ’s advice. He’s beckoning you, He’s calling me from the edge of the pool – “Don’t worry about them! Stay in your lane! Follow me!” We are called to run our own race – not someone else’s.

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