I love to eat. There is nothing better than delicious food. But what I have found is the most delicious foods pack on the pounds. Now that I am nearing thirty years old, my metabolism has decided that its wants to take short breaks. So because I want to eat delicious food and also be able to fit into my clothes, I decided that I have to exercise 4-5 days a week. The last couple of months I have tried different classes at the gym trying to figure out what I could do repeatedly without getting bored. I was told by a lot of people that if you want to burn a lot of calories quickly, spinning is the ticket. Now spinning is basically riding a bike inside with various levels of intensity. Watching as a spectator, you would think this couldn’t be that difficult but when you get on that bike and increase the intensity, you feel like you’re in the last days. The class is typically filled with all skill levels. Some are awesome and going super fast at high intensity while newbies like me is struggling to stay in the game. People in class sometimes distract me. When I am in class, and if I start looking at other people, I will slow down or may even stop. One week as I was in class, I decided that when I am on a path that was really hard and unbearable, I would find a point and focus on it. I wouldn’t look to my left, to my right, or anyone in the class. I would just focus on that focal point. When I focused on my focal point, I always made it through but the minute I began to look around, I would fall off my routine. As I walked out of the spinning class, God began to deal with me about the lesson I just learned in class.

In life, there will be ups and downs. There are times when everything is great and times when you are struggling to make it up the hill. But those times that are defining moments in your life is when you are going into an uphill journey. It is easy to compare yourself and look around at other circumstances; however, that won’t get you up the hill any faster. In fact, it will probably slow you down. If you focus on the focal point which is Christ, he will guide you during the uphill journey. So what does focusing on Christ mean? Prayer, mediation, reading the scripture, and worship. Staying in fellowship with God makes him your focal point and makes the journey a lot easier. Philippians 3:13-14 says Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Today I challenge you my sister to make God your focal point. I challenge you to forget all the things and people around you and embrace your next journey with God.

Spinning with intensity and looking to my focal point,

Felicia Smith