A week of new challenges- I must be insane!

As if life with 6 kids weren't challenging enough : ), this week I've embarked on a few new challenges.

I learned about the 60 day Insanity total body conditioning program from Roan at Joyful Always, that crazy woman who just finished her first marathon despite falling in the midst of it!  That should tell you something about this program.  I'm now two days in and feeling quite out of shape, but challenged, definitely challenged.

I'm not a video workout kind of person.  The last time I remember working out with my tv was trying to dance along to my mom's Jackie Sorenson aerobics video.  I think I was 11.  Just when I would get down a move she would have gone on to the next one.  Frustrating.  I'm a simple person.  A simple, uncoordinated person.  Running and swimming are more my speed, albeit a slow one.  This is fun, though, and let's not forget challenging.

The second challenge I'm taking up yet again this week is the 90 day Bible challenge.  Last summer I read through the Bible in June-August, but August was really tough because of homeschool planning and starting the school year a bit early.  I decided to read in May-July this year which will give me August off to get our school year planned. 

This will be my 4th time to read through the Bible in the last year and a half.  This challenge has meant so much to me!  It's the boost I needed to get into God's Word enough to make me really hunger for it.  It's allowed me to make meaningful connections between the Old and New Testaments and provided a framework for the in-depth studies I participate in.  For instance, this year in CBS we studied the history of Israel and the minor prophets.  Have you ever studied books like Nahum, Zephaniah, and Habakkuk?  Thanks to the 90 day Bible challenge I already had the context in which these men of God prophesied.  More importantly, I've grown in my knowledge of God, which has brought me closer to Him.  I see that He's the same God yesterday, today, and tomorrow.  That He is both the covenant maker and covenant keeper.  That He is a God of love and mercy, but also a holy and just God who will judge the world.

And I'm still plugging away at the challenge of memorizing Colossians in a year, working on verses 3 and 4 of chapter 2 this week.  It's almost harder to keep at something for a year than just 2 or 3 months.  I'm loving meditating on the deep Christological passages in Colossians, though.  What a Savior we have! 

I'm grateful for the accountability these challenges provide.  Discipline is tough.  It requires work, whether to bring my body into submission through Insanity or my mind and will into submission through reading and memorizing God's Word.  Please keep the encouragement coming my way and I'll try to pass it back to you!  Sharpening one another is what it's all about, right?

What new challenges are you embarking on?