Goals, Gardens, & Prayers

Do you have a fitbit or cell phone that counts your steps every day? If so, do you set specific goals? Do you ever meet or exceed your goals? I love my fitbit.

I made a personal goal to accumulate a minimum of 6000 steps a day. Like most hospital nurses, I walked that much or more every day before I retired.
I am sure the fingers of many writers or professional office workers powerwalk over the keyboard for hours each day. Too bad that doesn't count for steps or digit aerobics.
A sedentary lifestyle is so much easier than engaging in purposeful physical activity. But I believe we need to get up and get moving and pay attention to our steps.

We need mobility to stay fit.

Recently I participated as a vendor and spoke to a kind gentleman in a wheelchair. He explained the loss of his legs to be due to hyperlipidemia which probably contributed to arterial disease. His story paralleled one from a patient I cared for years ago. Both, He and my patient had been a computer geeks who sat at their desks for hours without a break.
My patient explained, "I was in the middle of an intensive update of the entire computer software system for my company. I was putting in sixteen hour days without adequate hydration or any exercise. Suddenly severe leg pain caused me to investigate. My leg was blue-black and I immediately went to the hospital. A blood clot totally obliterated the vessels in my leg. Thus, an amputation."

Don't you agree a goal of daily steps can be a good thing?

It truly is for me and I get amazed whenever I exceed my goals. It can happen!
The past two weeks I worked on my gardens as I am sure many of you did the same!
Gardening is such a love of mine, thanks to my precious grandparents.
Don't you love these blooming beauties?

This past week I walked 15,000 steps going back and forth to the tree line to dump the wheelbarrow full of weeds and wild onions. Then another day I tilled up a holding bed and my husband and I transplanted gobs of plants hogging too much real estate from their bedmates. I took 17,000 steps taking care not to lose my precious cargo of purple balloon flowers and bulbs from the front gardens to the newly tilled backyard holding area. I felt powerful and pleasantly tired.
It's thrilling to exceed a goal.

But the very next day . . .

I did above and beyond all I could ever think possible and surpassed the previous days goal with more than 22,000 steps.

Believe me, I never knew that fitbit could count that high. I shocked myself when I realized what I was capable of walking in one day.

Please celebrate whenever you exceed a goal. Remember, it is more than possible.

So what happens when life's storms pop up?

This year so much time spent cleaning up after wild storms, downed trees, and high winds. We created our to-do lists and with gusto we hit them early. We set goals, met goals and readjusted our schedules.

Physical storms can pop up unexpectedly too. This can be terribly upsetting, especially for someone like me who doesn’t do “sick” well.

This week on Monday, I woke up at 4:30 , a.m. made my coffee and started my day. I completed a Bible study lesson and created an invitation for a party next week.
My goals for the day were heavy. Write my newsletter, create May's blog and recipes, wash summer clothes, sheets and quilts. Put everything on the clothesline for it was to be a beautiful day. I needed to craft a query letter and work on book projects. I wanted to help my husband hang the yard swing, plant new pink flare rhododendrons and salvia in the middle bed, and sew asters and cosmos in my annual seed bed. But my goals for the day fell flat when I felt like falling out!
At about 6:00 a.m. I got so sick and dizzy I couldn’t hold my head up.
I don’t believe I have ever been so sick with flu in my life. I called and texted several of my closest friends to ask for help.

Do you know how to rearrange goals for the day when you are violently ill?

You call prayer warriors.

And boy did they pray. In four hours, I felt better. Chills gone. Nausea gone. I got up and went outside and sat in the sun. I did some dishes and cleaned the house.
I do hope you believe in prayer for when you are in trouble, please reach out.
Submit a prayer concern to me anytime. It is private and the Heavenly Father is well acquainted with my heart and voice. He is such a great listener. You need to know that He can do more than you can ever ask or think. I specifically told my friends to ask for my flu to last only for 24-hours.

God amazingly provided a much better time-frame and answer. Only 4 hours?

Yes. And I walked over 15,000 steps the next day and helped transplant 20 plants and then I mowed the back yard.
I will never forget May of 2025. I hope you take these stories to heart.
Please do get up and move, especially if you have a sedentary job. Stay fit. Even if it's in bits of time!
Also, believe you can meet your goals and exceed them sometimes.
Celebrate those moments.
And if the storms of life uproot your world and throw a wrench into you goals, just readjust, replant, rest, and relax.

Always give thanks and pray for your friends when they are ill. God will hear and do abundantly more than you could ever ask or think.

We want to be like the fitbit. We need to stay up on our steps and keep moving forward for the best goal of our lives. As the apostle Paul said,

12 "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus

Enjoy May 2025. May your goals be set and met. May your gardens bloom and grow. And may God bless your lives with His gracious Son shine today and always.
Love to all my prayer warriors and friends.
Donna