When I ask the question “Do you exercise?” what comes to mind? I am sure everything fitness comes to mind but exercising can mean many things. Lets look at Wiki’s definition of physical exercise: Physical exercise is any bodily activity that enhances or maintains physical fitness.
We could use that same platform for many areas of our life.
1) Mental Exercise is any mental activity that enhances or maintains mental fitness. Think about this, if physical exercise can help the body then mental exercise can help the mind. We exercise our minds through reading and attending seminars. It helps us keep our mental capacity where it needs to be. We should be learning all the time. Read from a book everyday and watch your growth happen. Yes read your Bible everyday too but I hit that in another area.
2) Marital Exercise is any marital activity that enhances or maintains your marriage. If both physical and mental ability can grow then so can your marriage right? If we aren’t growing together in our marriages then we will eventually fall apart. Growth in marriage is essential to a long lasting marriage and especially one that is happy.
3) Parental Exercise is any parental activity that enhances or maintains your parenting relationship. I see a lot of people become passive parents in these days and times but God didn’t call us to be passive but to lead our kids. Any male or female can have kids but it takes a man or woman to lead your kids along the right path. Will they always follow? Of course not but that gives us no right to become passive in that relationship.
4) Relational Exercise is any communication activity that enhances or maintains your connections and friendships in life. Life is all about communication. Everything we do involves communication from the people at work to our closest friends. Without solid communication we will lose all friendships and become alone in this life. That’s not what God wants. He created community so that we wouldn’t have to be alone. The more you exercise your communication skills the better you will be at them and the closer your relationships will become.
5) Heart Exercise is any heartfelt activity that enhances or maintains your love. As the bible says in 1 Corinthians 13:13 – And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Love is always going to be the most challenging action we can have. Love without judging takes work but if you work at it and do daily deeds in love then your love or I should say your heart will grow. It is only when we do things that are lovable that we become more lovable.
6) Spiritual Exercise is any spiritual activity that enhances or maintains your spiritual connection to Jesus Christ. God is clear on this that we are to meditate on his word daily. By meditating on his word daily, our spiritual muscle will grow.
I see a lot of people who want to be spiritually strong but they aren’t willing to do the work to grow spiritually. By reading his word in the Bible each day, it will create a spiritual strength that only God can give you. He will give you what you need through his word.
7) Faith Exercise is any Faith activity that enhances or maintains your Faith. Have you ever seen people that just believe? It’s like nothing can stop them? The question is are they born this way? Some people may say yes but in most cases they weren’t. They grew their faith by exercising it. They believed in small things and as they saw God work in small things they then believed in bigger things to the point where they know God is the God of the impossible and you can’t tell them any different. They are faith warriors!
8) Prayer Exercise is any prayer activity that enhances or maintains your prayer time with God. WOW is this a tough one for many people including myself. I have the Faith one down but the prayer life is tough for me. Yes I pray but maybe not as often as I should. I see people pray and sometimes I have to pray after them and I am like I will never match that.
Granted, we aren’t supposed to match them, that is where pride stops us. We are supposed to be who God called us to be. God realizes that all of us start small in prayer life and that it is uncomfortable at first. The more we pray, the more we will pray. It is just like any other exercise. We become more when we do it more.
9) Physical Exercise is any bodily activity that enhances or maintains physical fitness. Now we get to the one that everyone probably thought about when I started this blog post. This is important too as we need to stay in the best shape we can if we want to pursue God’s purpose for our lives. Yes if we can’t do anything physical God will still use us. In fact he may use you more because your limitations can show God’s full power at work.
No matter what kind of exercise you do, it is going to take work and a lot of it. We don’t become great by choosing to be passive. We only become great when we choose to exercise all areas of our lives to take us to levels we only dreamed of.
No one ever said life was going to be easy and just handed to you. Not even God said that but if you will take your life in your own hands and stay disciplined to do the things you need to do then one day you can look at God and hear him say “Well Done Thy Good and Faithful Servant”.
Now go out and figure out the areas you need to exercise and create a plan of action so that you can create an environment for you and your family to grow in every area. Yes I left out some areas but you can take that same definition and apply it to any area of life that needs a little exercising.
Remember it is better to burn out than rust out!
Ask God to give you the courage and wisdom to know what areas need work and what areas to maintain in your life. Ask him to help you grow in all areas so that you can live the life God called you to live.
Be Inspired or Be Left Behind!
Chris Benton