Yes, God is really there, with you, all the time — but sometimes, because we can’t see Him, we forget.  Practicing His presence is a good way to focus on the reality of our living God.    That’s why we our recent blogs have been about  walking and talking with God.  If you are new to the blog,  click here to read about the best walking buddy.

So, after you’ve thanked God for the good things in your life and have talked over your loved ones with Him — what do you say next?  Talk to Him about your enemies. Those people who really did something to make you mad — who stabbed you in the back and seem determined to trip you up somehow.  The ones who make your blood pressure shoot up.  Now is a good time to talk about them to One who knows all about what they did and who can do something about them!  You may find yourself walking faster as you pray about those folks — but that’s okay.  And after you have brought them to God, you will feel better about them and the situation.

Don’t have any enemies?  How about aggravating friends and annoying relatives?

It happens everywhere — at your job, in your family, even at church.  Someone will step on your weak spot.  Or maybe you will accidentally step on theirs.  Looking back, I can see times when I was particularly annoying to some folks in my life.   I was going through a difficult time and my heartache absorbed  so much of my brain and emotions that there wasn’t much left to deal with the rest of my life.  The folks saw, not my needs, but the failures and poor judgement that came from them.

“Why on earth did she do that?” they no doubt said.  And, viewing my actions from a distance, I wonder the same thing!  But instead of helping, they reacted to what I was doing, not what caused my absent-mindedness and emotional behavior.  I felt like I was being kicked while I was down, but they just saw me as being pesky.

I learned an important lesson from that difficult time. When people act particularly annoying, there is a good chance that there is some trouble festering somewhere.  Maybe you can’t fix it, but you can talk it over with the Lord who knows what happened and how they acted.

Bring each one to Him as you walk, and talk over the situation with Him. Ask for wisdom in seeing why they are acting this way and be ready to offer help instead of condemnation.

Whether enemies or annoying friends — one thing is for sure.  As you pray for them regularly, you will come to understand them and even love them.  I’ve had many people cease to be annoying, possibly because I came to care for them as I prayed for them.

Do you have lots of annoying people in your life?  That’s okay.  Keep walking and talking with the Lord.  You will have the advantage of gaining lots of extra steps!

How is your step program coming?  I’d like to hear from those who have been working on progressively adding steps.  If you are just joining us, you will want to read  some earlier blogs.  Click here to learn about an exercise plan you can actually do from now on.

Remember that exercise stimulates glucagon  the hormone that tells your body to burn the fat. Click here to read about glucagon — the “good guy” hormone. So keep moving!

Eating to live and living for Christ,
Susan Jordan Brown