Random Thoughts

Today I ran 2 miles in 16 minutes (on a treadmill).

Last week I ran 3 miles in 25 minutes, 40 seconds.

I may actually reach my goal of a 24 minute 5K!

I have been lifting weights and seeing major improvements in tone on my upper body.  I am almost to the point that if I were tan and didn't have 5 children hanging on me, wearing a bikini would not be out of the question.

Noah?  Did you read that?

Today I was going to write an update on Berean, but it is already pretty late and I am not really feeling it.

Anyway, now that my fitness plan is firmly in place, I have moved on to other self improvement/home improvement projects. My mind is churning with possibilities.  I am always full of plans and ideas, and I have several brewing.  My ideas don't always make it to blogland, however, because Noah usually is not as enthusiastic as I am about the elaborate schemes that I concoct.

I just want to be different, to live differently than the culture that surrounds me.  I want a plan for our family that is deeper than our material needs and financial goals.  I don't want to just change our spending and our self discipline HABITS, I want to change our motivations and our hearts.

I want to show our kids how to make good goals and then meet them,

how to persevere even if something isn't fun,

how to look beyond what we want right now,

how to realize that we live privileged lives.

I will be very honest.  I don't mind at all living a privileged life.  I actually like to have plenty of income and flexibility- but I desperately want Noah and I and our kids to be acutely aware, at all times, that our situation in middle class America is just that, a privilege that we need to appreciate and that we need to use wisely.

I fear for my kids.  They are bombarded by stuff, by excess.

They daily see people spending what they don't have, borrowing for what they don't need.

They have no place to learn the value of hard work.

What can I do now to help them understand what is really important?

It is such a goofy thing, blogging about running on a treadmill, while others around the world are running for their lives. This blog post just illustrates what I struggle with, the love of privilege vs. the use of privilege.

They are two very different things.