baby steps

I hate exercise, I really do. To me, it makes you tired, hot and sweaty. Dispite being married to a man who daily rides his bike 11 miles to work each way, that hasn't changed. So, it should come as no surprise that I have avoided doing any form of exercise for years. Every year my doctor would urge me to start up some form of exercise and I would promise I would, but of course I didn't. I'd hastily assure him, "Oh, but I swim...", but what that really meant was, floating around the pool on my noodle and then stretching out in the warm sun with a mystery novel in one hand and a pool-side snack in the other!
I was pretty sick when I started my diet, so exercise was out of the question. In fact, it was prohibited by my doctor. As time went on and I got stronger, I realized the weight wouldn't continue to melt off without some form of phyical activity. The problem was, that years of carrying excess weight had done damage to my knees, and the terrain in my neighborhood is on the hilly side. The thing about hills, when you walk down them, ultimately you have to walk up them again! Lucky for me, it was a rainy spring, so I managed to put off doing anything physical until the warm weather arrived. Finally, come the summer, I resolved to get off my "noodle", so to speak, and to try to do some actual swimming.
I wasn't even sure if I remember how to actually swim across a pool, it had been so long. I started by trying what I thought might be the breast stroke, with some sort of frog leg kick. Slowly, I made it accross the length of the pool and back again. After a few laps, my back was aching and my heart was beating uncomfortably in my chest so I stopped. The next day, I tried again. "Baby steps..." I thought as I made my way across the pool. I ignored the other swimmers who passed me by...and then passed me again, while I was still struggling to make it to the end of the pool. "Lord", I prayed, "Help me to do this." I knew God wanted me to get myself healthy and I knew He would help me if I asked Him to. I started swimming laps a few times a week, counting how many I could do in an hour. Just a few at first. Slowly that increased, one lap at a time.
Summer is ending and the pool closes in a few days. I swim every morning now, though I am still by far the slowest one in the pool. I don't care. I pray as I go, asking for continued help with my diet and the strengthening of my self-control. I turn over my anxieties and burdens to Him. For so long food was my comfort and my refuge. How much better it is to turn to God. Baby steps.
The nights have turned cooler now and the water temperature has dropped accordingly. Some mornings it takes all my strength just to get in. This morning I stood on the steps and prayed that God would help me to withstand the icy water. I offered up the swimming of my laps as a offering to the Lord and got in the pool.
"Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust Him to help you do it and He will." Psalm 37:5 TLB