A person with good sense is patient, and it is to his credit that he overlooks an offense. (Pro 19:11)

We all go through periods of growth when out soul grows a couple of inches in a few months, and I feel as though I’m in such a process right now. Unfortunately, my bones ache.

There are 4 areas of growth in my life right now. The first two of these God told me a couple of months ago would be my next two areas to conquer. God told me that until I conquer these two issues, I’d be stuck where I am. The fact that the Lord has moved two more items into my internal battle lets me know that I’m progressing.

1. Eating. I was tempted to call this “weight loss” or “physical discipline”, but the bottom line is that I need to discipline my eating habits. I’ve been on a campaign to eat what I need to…period. I certainly haven’t arrived; however, my average caloric intake has probably halved.

2. Money. I need to discipline my spending habits. I’ve worked to spend less and less each month. I’ve been paying down debt and investing more and more in retirement and the stock market.

3. Offence. I am ambivalent as I attempt to judge myself on this issue. A while back, I took offense over something that a person close to me did. I finally recognized it and dropped it about a week ago, but I feel like I have secretly taken offense over other things since then. I’ve perhaps used the excuse of trying to help people to bring up their offenses toward me in order to help them not do this toward someone else. I have felt clean and guilt free, but in retrospect, I’m not so sure. I guess I feel like offence is sort of sticking to me right now.

4. Purpose. I realize crystal clearly that my life and my family can not afford to just travel along anymore. I have to be purposed in everything that we do. We must trim away anything that doesn’t enhance the vision and mission of this family. The things we do must enhance our talents and abilities, and our purpose for being. This can be difficult because there are things that we currently do that we must cut off. Those people who count on us in those areas may not understand what I’m trying to do with this family.