Motivation...

According to Webster's 1828 Dictionary, the word "motive" means - That which incites to action; that which determines the choice, or moves the will. Thus we speak of good motives, and bad motives; strong and weak motives. The motive to continue at rest is ease or satisfaction; the motive to change is uneasiness, or the prospect of good.

Have you ever wanted to do something, but lacked the motivation to actually do it? Or have you ever started a project with the intent of finishing it, but for whatever reason you didn't stick with it to the end? Maybe you've heard a speaker talk about a spiritual discipline or a character quality that you see is lacking in your life, and you decide that you need to do something about it. Your desire is to change! You leave the meeting emotionally pumped to go home and make changes, but somehow that desire fades....you realize how difficult change will be....you try your hardest, but it's not working.....you quit, feeling like a failing Christian and go back to your previous way of life....you feel guilty, because you know that you do need change in your life.....to ease the guilt, you compare yourself to others, and find that you aren't that bad - in fact, you're better than some other Christians you know.......you put up a wall of pride in your heart, and try to ignore your problems.......until a few months later, you go to another meeting and hear a speaker........

And the cycle continues. I've been there - have you? We all have this problem in regards to spiritual changes (we're in a fight against our flesh), and also in the every day physical stuff (What do you know? We get to fight our flesh again!). I don't know about you, but I have plenty of unfinished projects laying around my house. There's the cross-stitch penguins I began when I was about 12 years old. I didn't finish it because I somehow got off a line so nothing would match up. (The red heart between the two penguins didn't fit, and made it look like the two love-birds were squishing it. Their beaks had a funny zig-zag line, instead of a straight triangle. It wasn't pretty, folks!) But, I didn't want to pull out all of the hours of work I'd invested in it to remedy my mistake, so I gave up, and put it in a bucket under my bed.
And I can't forget the blanket I've been crocheting for the past three years. I wanted a nice blanket for my bed, especially when it gets cold this time of year. I told my mom, "This is the year I will finish it!". That was a few months ago, and I haven't touched it yet. (Maybe I should stop blogging and go find that thing!)

The point is, we all need motivation! We all have things we need to begin working on, continue working on, or put the finishing touches on. And if you asked me what the 2nd most common question I get asked, directly or indirectly (the first being, "So, how do you feel now?") it's this: "How do you stay motivated?". People want to know! How is it that I can keep going? How is it that I have been consistent in my exercising for over a year? How is it that I've been able to stay on the "healthy eating" wagon this long and not fallen off?

You see, when we start something new, it's exciting! We often experience an emotional high. We can just picture the end result, and oh, won't it be great? We start off full speed ahead, anticipating the moment when we will get the desired result. What a glorious moment that will be! We can easily become all consumed with this new project, giving it every spare minute of our time. And things are going great!

Great, that is, until we hit a bump in the road. Maybe you've been so excited about how the Lord has been working in your life, and you've been obedient to His voice as He's molded and shaped you. But now He's asking something else of you. Something He's never asked before. Something hard. You come to a screeching halt as you now have to make a decision. There's a fork in the road, and you're not sure which way you want to go.

Or maybe you're like I was only a few months ago. You're trying to get into the habit of exercising, and so far you've done pretty well. But then, your schedule changes unexpectedly and you can't seem to fit it in anymore. Or maybe you're not getting the results you want quickly enough.

Maybe you are notorious for starting household or craft projects, but not finishing them. Maybe you're struggling to keep your house organized. You may have closets overflowing but you just can't get motivated to tackle them. Maybe you're finding it difficult to spend time daily in the Word and prayer. You just don't feel motivated to do it.

What should we do? Where can we find motivation? How can we break this cycle of starting but never finishing? Because that's not the kind of life God intended us to live. We are challenged in Scripture to become more and more like our Lord every day - and He never gives up on anything or anyone. Can you imagine what the world would be like if God just stopped creating things because it wasn't "new" to Him anymore? What if He had an attitude that said, "Yeah, I guess that's good enough. All this work is making me tired.". We might not have fish, or mountains, or waterfalls, or stars, or broccoli!
Or what if Christ decided to call the angels to assist Him while He was on the cross? What if He decided that to sacrifice Himself was too hard? What if He left that job unfinished? He could have just used the excuse, "Well, I'm just not a very motivated person.". Why not? We do.

My friends, the answer to solve our motivation problem isn't to dig deep inside ourselves and find some "inner motivation". We might do alright for a little while working with our own strength, but remember where that has gotten us in the past? We have to turn to Jesus! We have to unite our will with His will and unite our motives with His motives. Because my flesh can only motivate me to be more fleshly. Bekah can not change Bekah. Bekah will continue to be Bekah as I am now unless some outside force intervenes and gives me both the power and the motivation to change. I could try and motivate myself in different ways. My motivation to lose weight could be to fit into a certain size, or to weigh a certain amount by a certain date. But if my motivating factor is something physical (i.e. beauty or praise of men), I will fail in the long run. That's not enough to keep me going when the bumps come.

To be honest, if I didn't have my eyes focused of Jesus and His perfect will for my life (which includes my health), I would have given up long ago! Especially now that I've been in the "plateau stage" for the past few months. The scale isn't telling me what I want to hear....but God is. He's telling me to keep going, to keep pushing, to keep drawing closer to Him and learning how to walk in the Spirit. So I'm continuing on; I'm pushing forward. My motivation is to do the will of my Father. And praise His name, He's giving me the strength to accomplish that.

Motivated by Him ~ Bekah

P.S. Oh, yes. Today is Friday, isn't it? Well, I weighed in at 168 again. Good grief! I've been so steady these past few months. The only problem is that I'm not trying to maintain - I need to keep losing! So, I'm going to continue with the added cardio this next week and hope to break through this silly plateau.