Today might be a bit shorter. I am exhausted even though I just woke up and today is a day FULL of “catch up”. I have errands to run, bills to pay, meals to prep, a whole house to clean, and the dreaded Mt. Clean Laundry to tackle. I was called 2 days ago from my PCP who informed me that my iron level is at a 10. Which is pretty low… and explains my constant fatigue. I want a day of rest but my husband will also want one and our only day off together, is tomorrow. So tomorrow it is.

I don’t want to start my day complaining. The kids and I made an agreement. One day. One day of happy servanthood and no yelling… from anyone. We would all work together to happily do what we need to do with kind words and helpful, happy hands. I’m not sure we’ll make it past 2pm, but here we go.

I hear my own words in the back of my mind. “Do the right hard things”. I say it to my kids and I said it to my women’s ministry ALLLLLL OF THE TIME. Every choice we make has a consequence, good or bad. We just have to choose the good hard thing. For example, working out.

1. Option 1 is to get up and work out even though it’s hard. I am tired. I am sore from PT. I want to rest. The dog will try and eat me if I am on the floor. It will take me 3 times longer because of interruptions. I could put it off and hopefully do it tomorrow or later tonight but we all know that I will realistically not do it later. Life will be harder now, but it will make my later easier.
2. Option 2 is to take it easy now. Put my feet up and rest. Choose uninterrupted mornings and kicking my feet up, maybe a nap. Let the dog roam and put it off until “later”. My later will be the hard thing. I’ll grumble about how I am not feeling my best later. I’ll be achy from stiff joints later. It will take me longer to get moving later. My long term health (mentally and physically) will suffer later. My later will just be harder. It’s hard to dig out of it later.

My health needs me to move. To get up and get momentum. I’m happier when I do. I have more energy when I do. It’s the good hard. It’s focused around bettering my health so I can keep up with and play with my kids. It is focused on healing so I can serve more and be interactive with my family and children’s ministry. It’s for my mental health, so the responses that come out of my mouth are rooted in self control, joy, peace, patience, kindness, etc. My flesh wants the bad, selfish hard… the “me focused morning”. Both things have a hard. Choose your hard.

I believe that this is a universal sentiment. You can apply this pretty much everything you do. I just have to ask myself, which hard will glorify God. Hebrews 12:11 says “No discipline will seem pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” When we don’t do the right hard things, I believe we get the consequences or discipline that comes with it. The fruit it produces is the harvest we get from our earlier plantings.

I guess I’m on a sow and harvest kick. But I think it matters.

Proverbs warns us “How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest – and poverty will come on you like thief and scarcity like an armed man.”. That’s Proverbs 6:9-11.

I think the scarcity and poverty can be literal. If you don’t go to a job, you don’t get paid. BUT. I also think it’s talking about the fruits of the spirit. If we are lazy and we don’t read, don’t honor our temple, steward our blessings well, we don’t practice having the fruits we want when it’s hard, we don’t sow the seeds of righteousness, we don’t love others in spite of inconvenience or “boundaries” we place, we will not get the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Boundaries are a whole other passage.

While on earth, everything has a counter. Where there is good, there is evil. What is easy now will be hard later. There is a promise of no more tears, no more evil, no more pain, no more sickness, no more wrestling with the enemy… if we choose the right hard.

So…Choose the right hard while…

Under The Sun.