I Don’t Care if You Exercise
Baby Girl,
You’re suddenly feeling anxious because you didn’t fit intentional exercise into your day. What makes you think intentional exercise is important? And if you think it’s important then why do you not treat it like a priority?
I’m laughing and glad you can also see the humor in how many sentences you just started typing and had to delete. Very creative excuses and storytelling but you’re completely missing the point.
You have had many excuses over the years to avoid intentional exercise. Some of those excuses were valid reasons that you could not do a particular exercise like all the years running and jumping caused incontinence, but there were plenty of things you could have done that would not have caused that issue. None of your reasoning sufficiently explains your stubborn opposition to consistently setting time aside for exercise.
You have never gone a day without brushing your teeth at least twice. In fact, if you fall asleep on the couch, you won’t go climb into bed without going in the kitchen and brushing your teeth. It’s a habit - it’s important to you.
What keeps you from treating exercise with the same level of importance? Over the years, you have spent more time belittling yourself for your perceived lack of physical fitness than you have spent actually doing something about it.
The reason you have such an internal conflict is because you think exercise is something you “should” do. Remember what I told you about the word “should?”
(From Letter - Willful Disobedience) “ANYTIME you think or say, ‘I know I should, but…’ you can rightly replace whatever comes after but with but I am choosing to live in willful disobedience to the leading of Holy Spirit in my life.”
So, here’s the problem: you’ve got to know how Holy Spirit leads to know how to follow.
You assume that anytime you think the word “should,” it’s Me. Baby, I don’t care if you NEVER exercise again.
You seem surprised.
Tell Me, do you think the Israelites woke up in the morning worrying about getting in a morning run? Did Sarai spend her mornings doing bridges and lunges so her behind would draw and keep the attention of Abram? Do you think Naomi advised Ruth to work on some tricep dips to tone her saggy upper arms so Boaz would look her way?
Why do you think your culture is so obsessed with body image? Vanity is not a new concept but revealing clothing and blatant, overt sexuality is. There is a universal desire to see and to show flesh that was not designed for that purpose. Insecurity about your bodies comes from trying to put them on display in a way they were never meant to be.
Blatant = bad behavior done openly and unashamedly; completely lacking in subtlety; very obvious
Overt = done or shown obviously or publicly; not hidden or secret
Your body was not created to be an airbrushed, chiseled sex symbol on display for all of society to pick apart and judge. Your body was created to simply be a mobile home for your spirit and Mine.
The purpose of physical strength and stamina is to have the power and endurance to carry out your mission on earth. That’s it.
I want My children to be fit but the motivation for that fitness is every bit as important as the fitness itself. If looking good is the desired outcome of becoming physically fit, the motivation is wrong. If the end goal of exercise is losing weight, the motivation is wrong.
To live and not die; that is a good motivation. There are potentially deadly and inevitably disabling consequences to not being in a strong, fit, healthy body. You live in an era where ignorance is no longer an excuse. You can look at a person and clearly tell how well they have applied their knowledge of both My Word and scientific facts about health and nutrition.
You understand excessive sugar intake is linked with higher blood pressure, inflammation, weight gain, diabetes, fatty liver disease, depression, dental issues, cancer, mental illness, dementia, Alzheimer’s, and puts you at an increased risk of heart attack and stroke; yet, until three weeks ago, you had weeks where it was your primary source of caloric intake.
Understanding that the bleached white flour used to make much of the bread, pretzels, and goldfish crackers you’ve been replacing those refined sugars with is essentially doing the same thing in your body. You’ve been consuming them in high quantities. You agreed with Me to call sugary foods “hamartia” and began consuming flour in sinful ways instead.
Not getting enough physical activity can lead to heart disease, obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and type 2 diabetes but you will circle the parking lot and sit for two minutes with your blinker on to get a spot close to the store, drive through at Panera instead of going in for your refill, and drive through the bank and pharmacy instead of walking inside. You get lazy.
You spent 33 years chasing pills and programs hoping desperately to find a shortcut to your desired end result: an attractive body. You weren’t concerned with what poor food choices were doing to your internal organs or how they might be shortening your life expectancy. You wanted to eat what you want, when you want, and live a life of ease, AND have the airbrushed body all the pills and programs promised… lies, all lies.
Do you remember who is the father of all lies? Not your Daddy, that’s for sure! Baby, he wants to kill you. Don’t be a willing participant in an early grave.
Your days are numbered but that’s only because I know how to count and I know what you will decide. My disobedient children choose cravings of the flesh over commanding their flesh far too often but you don’t have to -you can choose better.
It seems like a contradiction to say I don’t care if you ever exercise again and then to tell you how important it is to keep your body strong - but keeping your body strong doesn’t mean you have to formally exercise for the point of exercise. Find ways to intentionally make life a little more physically challenging and you’ll never need to exercise again.
Park in the last spot in the parking lot, take the stairs, and mow your grass with the push mower instead of the riding mower. Take 15 minutes a day to pick up litter and do a full squat or lunge with each piece you pick up. Don’t offer to go out for coffee with a friend; go for a hike or a walk or a stroll through the mall.
Your husband likes to go for walks, ride bikes, and play pickleball. You are still not honoring him with your time. Make time to spend with him and allow the physical movement to be a fringe benefit, not the main point. You have a canoe, take your daughters out on the lake. There are a thousand things you could do that are not exercising for the point of exercising. Allow movement to be a way of life.
I told you to learn to love water. Learn to love movement and you’ll never have to intentionally exercise again.
Sweet dreams, Little One.
Daddy
Proverbs 21:25
