Showing posts with label Daughter of the King. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Daughter of the King. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 17, 2018

Fit to a Bit: The day I took my Fitbit off

May of this year, I decided to really grasp onto my health. I decided I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. I was tired of aching. So I charged up my Fitbit HR and put it on my wrist and away I went. I re-downloaded MyFitnessPal and started logging my foods.

Each day I tried to reach my goal of 9,000 steps.
Each day I tried to make sure I was taking at least 250 steps per hour from 7:00 a.m. through 4:00 p.m.
I participated in Workweek Hustles.
I participated in Weekend Warriors.

It was hard.

I work a 9-5 desk job (ok more like 730-5) and then go home and relax from that work day with my dogs who just want loves and snuggles.
There were a slew of days I slept in on weekends.
There were numerous days where I got knocked down (endo, migraine, sick).
There were days where I just didn't feel like moving.

I didn't always hit my 9000 steps per day.
I didn't always hit my 250 steps per hour.

I felt like a failure.

I counted steps like some count calories. I would push myself to sneak in as many steps on a bathroom trip by stepping in place trying to get the last of the 250 steps before the time changed to the next hour. I was a slave to technology.

So, on Saturday October 13, my Fitbit was low on battery, I took it off like normal to charge it. And haven't put it back on since.

I went dancing that night and didn't worry if I got more steps in than my friend dancing next to me. I slept in Sunday morning and didn't worry about the first 3 hours not having enough steps. Monday, I didn't worry if I made my 250 steps per hour of my desk job. I just worked and did my day. Tuesday was the same.

I didn't know how freeing that was, until I didn't choose to wear it.

I know I average 5000 steps per day with this job. I know abs are made in the kitchen. and I know without that Fitbit, it's been the most freeing time since I decided to take it off. Now I know that some people really need the help of the Fitbit to get them moving and to lose weight. But I am not one of them.  I'm going to keep it, in case I decide to wear it again (I wonder how many steps I'd get at Disneyland or Disney World...) but I think for the most part, I'm not going to need it.

How many other things in my life am I a "slave" to without realizing it? My phone, I realize that. Food? Perhaps. Friends? Perhaps. I'm interested now to pursue breaking chains and being freed of unconscious slavery.

What are you a slave to? What do you need to be freed of? Comment down below and let me pray for you.


Amen and Amen.

Wednesday, October 10, 2018

Working for the Weekend or Working for the Wonder

Are you just getting through the hum drum of the day? Or are you working for your maker?

Are you counting down the minutes until you're free from the workday? Or are you cherishing the moments to minister where you are?

I've had a number of jobs prior to the current career I'm in.
  1. First job I had was babysitting, which I think is a job we all have. I babysat mostly prior to finding Jesus, so I can't use that as an example.
  2. My first real job, with all the W-2 paperwork goodness was working for Hallmark (no, they did not invent Valentines day). I worked there for 3 months in Las Vegas, then when I went back to college I was able to transfer to a store in Reno.  I had Jesus in my life back then, but didn't fully know the extent of what He could do, or what I could do as a believer. I was still very self focused at the time. I ended up  leaving that job because I think I couldn't get time off to go see my family in Las Vegas for Christmas.
  3. My second real job was working as a Resident Assistant in the dorms. Oh how many lives I could have impacted if I prayed for all my residents. There were a few I'd pray for here and there, but over the 2.5 years I was an RA, that could have been 30+ students who had another stepping stone. (We could also talk about all the kids in my classes too, but that's for another time)
  4. The third job, after I said goodbye to ResLife was a brief summer job in Vegas working at a photography studio (school pictures). It was a small downstairs staff of 5ish people. Again, how self centered was I to just think about me and my circumstance, rather than those around me I could have been praying for! This summer though, I was starting to fall away from Jesus and do my own thing. This was the start of my not so great few years walking independently of Jesus.
  5. Following that was working at Ann Taylor (Job 4). It was there I met a friend who later calls me out on my lifestyle choices. There, I really got to see humanity. There I developed an appreciation for leaving clothes better (or as best I could) than I found them. There, God began to work on me. There, he provided a temp job which turned full time. There he provided me the foot in the door to where I am now.
  6. After a year in retail, and the last couple months working that part time and the new full time job, I said goodbye to that and fully embraced the full time career where I've been for 5 years now.
  7. Once summer hit however, I itched somewhere to work retail again, so for about a month I worked at a Coach outlet store.
  8. A short time later, while still working the fifth job, my seventh job was working as a Daisy Duke line dancer, which I did for 2 years and quit this past June.

All that to say, look how many lives I've interacted with,  whether one time customers or repeat ones, talking Jesus (when I could), acting like Jesus...


Romans 12:2 states, "Do not be confirmed to this world". We are called to be different. Let us stand out from being the complainers and the gripers, from posting about how much Monday sucks and how the weekend is gone too soon. We are where we are for how long we are became God put us there. Let him use you.


Do not worry...there are many verses that address this, so pick your fave, but do not worry about your job/your career (also preaching to myself here). You're where you're at to serve a purpose.


I'm learning to embrace where I am and show Jesus when I can. I'm not in a place where I can necessarily talk about Jesus all day everyday to anyone I come in contact with, but I can read my Bible on my breaks or Lunch in the break room. I've left my bible on my desk between those times.


Work for the Wonder, don't necessarily work for the weekend. There have been so many times at my current job where I've hated every minute of every day. I've wallowed in the slowness, felt frantic and crazy in the busy times, gossiped, talked behind people's back. And after the first couple years, I wanted out. I also did not like nor get along with my supervisor for 2ish of those years. I looked for other jobs, somewhere I could be more free, wear jeans rather than business casual. But something kept me there.

God. 

There never was another job posting I saw that I liked. I never got interested enough to set up a job interview. I just stuck it out here, wallowing to myself "At least the pay and benefits are worth it." Man, what kind of life and perspective was that?

I have a purpose here, and in the past 2 years, I've worked real hard to change the way I talk to and about my coworkers. I've really tried to bring Jesus with me into the work environment. I'm still not great at counting down the minutes to the end of the day. I'm still not great at taking upsets and frustrations and looking for the good. But I've been more conscientious of thinking, "If someone didn't know, would they figure out I'm a Christian, would they figure out by my actions I love Jesus?" In a customer service field where most of your interactions are "scripted" so to speak, it's hard to talk about the day to day, especially when my time with the public is more limited these days, as I don't interact with the public like I use to.

As of today, I'm switching my mindset. I'm letting each day be a renewal for my mind to work for the wonder, "Jesus, I can't wait to see what you'll do today". I still get excited for the weekend for other reasons, but at least now it isn't, "I can't wait to leave this cruddy place."

What are you struggling with in the day to day? Comment and let me pray for you <3

God is so good and faithful to answer. Go into the rest of this work week asking God how you can work for the wonder instead of working for the weekend.

Monday, February 20, 2017

Rewriting the script: My identity

I’ve got some identity issues going on. And they’re related, and I can’t seem to figure it out. So I’m going to just brain dump my thoughts here


Now that I’ve been married for 5 months and 3 days, you’d think that I’d be totally accepting of my new last name. I write it on work stuff that I sign, but it still doesn’t hit me. When I see it on my Facebook everytime I post something, Facebook has a weird glitch. Occasionally I’ll be writing my draft as “Samantha Jo Pfisterer”, then, as it posts and loads in that semi-grayed out it’ll still show that, but when it posts, it corrects itself to “Samantha Jo Wolcott”. But, I am a Wolcott.


For 27 years I was a Pfisterer. So, I can see the difficulty in trying to break that habit of seeing who I am. It’s. Still. Weird. to me. Every time I write it, it comes off that I’m like a high-schooler, writing my name with my crush’s last name. But I am legally a Wolcott. I did get married. I did profess to our 150 guests that I will love my husband until my dying breath. I changed my name legally on all the important documents (minus my passport, but I’m working on it) I am a Wolcott. I no longer “belong” to my parents, I “belong” to my husband. Instead of parents over boyfriend, it’s now husband over parents. I am a Wolcott.


So that’s issue number 1. Issue number 2, is as follows.


I am a child of God. I am a daughter of the King. I have a destiny in the Eternal Heaven of God.


But I still find it hard to accept that. I still struggle through, who am I really? What does following Jesus really mean? What does His death on the cross really mean?


God’s been leading me through Joshua and Judges. And he’s been teaching me some really great things about my identity in him: Obedience brings victory; God uses the least, the unexpected to bring His glory to light; Among other things, there's just so much.


How cool is it that God uses stories from the Old Testament, from hundreds of years ago to teach us the same lesson He was teaching our forefathers (and mothers). I can't wait to keep reading through the OT and find what other nuggets of His great love He will reveal to me! I'm also trodding through Leviticus and that's been oh so cool to go through too! Who'd have thought right?


When you are in the dark about where you should be, or in the dark about who you are, turn to the Book of Light, the Book of Love, the BIBLE and open it up. There is where I will find who I am. There is where you will find who you are. There I am learning what it means to truly follow God, to have a friend in Jesus, to be reprimanded well, justly, but not cruelly.


I'm so excited to keep walking on and reading daily all that He has to say! Will you join me?


Amen and Amen <3