the hard thing

This week our state director challenged us to step up as a staff and do the hard thing.  "What is the hard thing?" you ask.  Well, it's loving the ladies so much that we discipline them when they break the rules.  And I'm not talking about huge, massive rules, I'm talking the little ones.  Ones like not turning their hair spray in on time, still being in bed 3 minutes after wake up, not signing off on chores.  Little bitty things that don't seem to be that important.

Why are things like how neat their desks are when they leave important?  Basically because they won't be here forever and it's the little stuff that will trip you up and throw you right back into the pit that you just clawed your way out of.  We as a staff have been called upon to serve them women by helping them to become disciplined in everything.  Little things like getting too much food, regulating how many times they can have soda a week, keeping them in check with they words and jokes matter.

And it doesn't just matter for recovering addicts.  It matters for you and for me.  We have to choose to do the hard thing in our lives and to be disciplined.  Right now I am struggling with how I use my time.  I have so much to do that I don't want to do anything, so I've been choosing to watch "Friends" for hours on end.  It's got to stop. I've got to choose to do the hard thing in my life and be disciplined.  I can not give disciplines out to my students for not doing what I don't do.

It is the little things that will get you in the end.  People will tell you that affairs don't just happen because they don't.  There are a thousand smalls steps leading up to the actual affair.  A thousand small choices like what you are going to watch on TV tonight, or read while you lay in bed lead up to huge issues.

That is satan's gimmick.  If he can convince you that one little lie won't hurt anyone, then he will eventually convince you that cheating on your taxes is okay as long as you are still giving to the church.  We can not live lives of compromise.  In the book of Revelation Jesus tells the church of Laodicea that he will spit them out because they are living lukewarm lives (Revelation 3:14-22).

I choose to live a life that is decisively for God.  A life of integrity and honesty.  It hurts and it is not an easy path, but I choose it any way.  I choose the hard way with my students and with myself.  I'm not sure what this means in my life right now, but I will keep you up dated on the changes as they happen.

Choosing the road less traveled,

Mel C