I have a confession.   I don’t like starting.  Anything.  Starting stinks.

Exercise.  Diets.  Vitamins.  Flossing.  Journals.  Etc…

Things that I know I should be doing on a consistent basis.  Good things.

Here’s how I convince myself that I shouldn’t start.

“Beth.  Don’t begin that blog, because you know you won’t be consistent.”                            ***spoken with sarcasm in my voice and a roll of my eyes! (oh, and throw in a whiney voice on the word “know”)***

That’s it.  That’s all I have to say to myself to get in a funk and turn off the switch of determination. Just the potential of being inconsistent ends things before I even start them.

Sheesh.  Am I really the only one who thinks this way?  Does potential failure stop anyone else?

I don’t start cuz I might not finish.  So when my brain thinks that way…how do I respond?

I just don’t do it. (sorry Nike!)  I don’t start.

But here’s the thing…I finally finished something. I actually started it and then finished it!!!

That bottle on the right has only one left.  First time in 54 years that I have finished a whole bottle of vitamins.

Yup.  Uh-huh.  Up high.  Down low.

But here’s what I learned 54 years in the making.  There are some things that just demand a commitment and follow through.  Things like——-

Driving on the correct side of the road. *Committed and following through!

Not using a flagpole as shelter during a lightning storm. *Committed and following through!

Lifetime marriage.  *Committed and following through!

Consistency doesn’t seem to be a problem in some things.

And so I think the difference in consistency comes by fully believing the commitment made is right and good and necessary.

I believe taking these pills is important.  (Full disclosure?…I am also swallowing my 5 year prescription and an extra vitamin D each night, so it’s not just vitamins.)

So that’s it.  Just do it. (thanks Nike!)

The lesson I am learning is to look for those things with which I am struggling and then determine if my struggle is because of unbelief in the right-ness or good-ness of that commitment.  That unbelief ultimately affects my discipline needed to complete the task.

I must only commit to those things I fully believe are good and right and necessary.  The follow through will come.  God promises to give us power and love and discipline.  Consistency will follow.

“For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.”             2 Timothy 1:7

Happily ever after, beth

**The verse I chose for the picture is not about discipline and consistency (the point of this blog post) but rather about the belief that my healing ultimately comes from God — with or without pills.