My Favorite Scripture for 2014

Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you. Proverbs 4:25 (NIV)

I have a bad habit of looking behind me, allowing my past failures to overwhelm my present and my future. I am my own worst enemy. I would never talk to anyone the way I have talked to myself.

Every year it was the same old thing, make a resolution to lose the weight. I wanted instant results, and when I didn’t see them, I gave up.

Why put myself through it? This is the only area of my life where I can truly say I have not been able to succeed. I went back to college at 35. It took me 12 years to get my degree. I am now in the MFA program pursuing my Master’s.

I know what to do. I know about good nutrition. I know about exercise. And yet there are those moments when the sugary goodness or the salty crispness call out to me, and I succumb to temptation again. I tried that whole thing of not having it at the house, the call comes long distance from a nearby stores and restaurants too.

Rather than focus on a list of resolutions, I’ve chosen one word this year: FOCUS. The verse reminds me to keep looking ahead. If I slip a little, I need to forgive myself and get back on track rather than allowing frustration to overwhelm me and drown my sorrows in food.

I picked verse 25, and yet when I went back to the whole passage, there was the key. I changed the original my son to my name:

Connie, pay attention to what I say; turn your ear to my words. 

Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart; 

for they are life to those who find them
 and health to one’s whole body. 

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. 

Keep your mouth free of perversity; keep corrupt talk far from your lips. 

Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you.

Give careful thought to the paths for your feet
and be steadfast in all your ways.

Do not turn to the right or the left;
keep your foot from evil.

Proverbs 4: 20-27 (NIV)