This morning I got on the scale for the first time in…well…a while. I’ve been telling myself that I need to do it for quite some time and frankly…I just did not want to know. It is the same thing I did last week when I wanted to cancel an appointment at the dermatologist where I was to get a full body screening for skin cancer because…I just didn’t want to know.  Everyone puts stuff off because we don’t want to know how it will change our lives and we don’t want the accountability.

Most of us don’t like to be held accountable.  After stepping on the scale this morning, it is confirmed what I knew in my heart all along…those stubborn 5 pounds that I had not-so-long-ago worked hard to take off…were back.  I could not ignore this fact anymore, for there was the number peaking at me from between my toes.  From here I could do one of two things.  I could choose not to care about my weight gain and continue living how I have been, which would most likely result in more weight gain, or I could take the instruction I have learned on how to live a healthier lifestyle and make a change.

It is hard work getting those stubborn 5 (or 10 or 20…or 50) pounds off!  It requires much discipline in diet, exercise and an overall change in lifestyle.  Loosing weight is not easy.  Being obedient to what is required to loose the weight goes against what we naturally want to do (i.e. lay around and eat Cheetos and drink Soda).  However, the result of our obedience is very enjoyable!

Reading the Bible is no different.  Many times, we don’t want to open our Bibles and read because it tells us how we should conduct our lives and, frankly, we just don’t want to know.  We don’t want the instruction.  We don’t want the accountability.  We don’t want the change in our lives.

Once we have made the choice to open our Bibles and read God’s instruction we are then faced with another choice.  Do we ignore what is staring us in the face and continue living the same lifestyle, which will most likely result in spiritual emptiness, or do we take the instruction we have learned on how to live a Godly lifestyle and make a change?

Living a life the way God instructs is not easy.  It goes against what we naturally want to do (i.e. think only of ourselves and what we want) and requires a great deal of discipline.  However, the result of our obedience to His Word is so very, very enjoyable.

“All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness” –Hebrews 12:11

Submitted by Alison Martin