Monkey Kung-Fu

Every week during our Journey Group, we take prayer requests. One person, who we will call Geoff, always prays for discipline. I am always completely fascinated by this. I always look at this guy who seems to have it completely together. He is married to an amazing women (0ne of the most amazing people that I have ever met), and they are completely in love with eachother. He has a great family. He is gainfully employed, loves his kids and wife, is spiritually centered, and is just an over-all nice guy. Yet, Geoff prays for discipline every week. I can't remember the last time I left his presence without wondering what he needs all of this discipline for.

Lately, I have noticed that I need to have much more discipline in my life. Last week, I took a huge step (for me), and vowed to cut some of the vulgarity out of my everyday language. It doesn't seem like much of a challenge, but the only thing that I have ever found harder to do is quit drinking coffee... keep in mind, I had 2 cups this morning.

Everytime I said one of the two designated swear words, whoever was in front of me received $1.00. People were loving this, especially my friend who received 6 of the 10 dollars that I gave away in the last week. Some thought that it was funny, constantly bringing these two words into every single converstation, waiting for me to relax enough to slip. I remained strong. I tried to laugh this off, but then realized that it wasn't really funny. I had hoped that some of these folks would support me in this, but rather ridiculed my actions. I know that they were doing it in fun, and at the time it was actually funny. It's like when you go on a diet, and someone offers you a huge piece of chocolate cake and insists that they made it just for you and then gets mad that you turn down the cake, in all of its deliciousness.

I have been trying more and more to introduce discipline into my everyday life. I smile at people that I really don't care for at work, people who have been nasty to me in the past. I am trying to cut some of the sugar out of my diet. I am wanting to join a gym, as soon as I can afford it. I am trying to find my spiritual center. I am trying to find the discipline to to "let go" and allow God to lead me, wherever He wants me to go.

Yes, my apartment is still a complete disaster area. I live an an organized-chaos that I have become comfortable in. I am hoping to adopt Geoff's desire for discipline and find the floor of my bedroom in the next few weeks.

I'm so darn glad He let me try it again,
'Cause my last time on earth I lived a whole world of sin.
I'm so glad that I know more than I knew then.
Gonna keep on tryin' till I reach the highest ground.
~Stevie Wonder