When it comes to working out and losing weight, my wife wants me to succeed more than anyone, so I tell her my intentions of working out 3 times a week. She’ll hold me accountable and keep me to it. Even when I rolled my ankle in basketball, which was barely a good of enough excuse for her to let up on me.

Find someone in your life that will hold you to spending time with God, almost to the point that it’s annoying. Make sure it’s someone that you can be honest with, even when you didn’t spend time with God; otherwise it’s kind of pointless. Find those people that you can be accountable to and at the same time you can hold accountable.

So there it is. Three helpful hints to spending time with God:
1. Make it Realistic and Measurable.
2. Put It In Your Schedule.
3. Be Accountable.

Hope this helps.

When it comes to spending time with God, put it in your schedule. If you’re a morning person, spend time with God in the morning. If when you get to work, you can’t remember if you brushed your teeth before you left, you’re not a morning person and maybe you should spend time with God later in the day; like on your lunch break, or after work, or before or after dinner, or before you go to bed. I don’t care when it is, just put it in your schedule so you know when it is, and so you’ll know if you missed it or not.

A good friend and mentor of mine, Josh Clark, once said (or stole from someone), “You can’t MAKE time, you have to TAKE time.” The point being, we all have 24 hours in a day, we can’t create time, we can only take it from somewhere else. So if you want to get serious about spending time with God, you’re going to have to take it from somewhere/one/thing else.

I’ll also credit him for saying, “If you change the way you speak, you’ll change the way you think.” So, stop saying you’ll make time for God (as far as I know, science is not that advanced… yet) and start taking time.

So, instead I resolved to work out 3 times a week for at least 30 minutes. That’s realistic and measurable. I can take time out of my week on 3 separate occasions (not a huge sacrifice) to work out. Then at the end of the week, I can look back and measure how well I did. Maybe I only worked out twice that week. I can see that, correct it and do better the next time.

When it comes to your walk with God, resolve to spend at least 5 minutes a day reading your Bible and in prayer. To some of you, that may seem insulting. Well, we’re not as spiritual as you. And that doesn’t mean that’s all the time you spend with God. You can spend more, but resolve to spend at least 5 minutes. Is that too much to ask for the Creator of the Universe?

At the end of your day, you can look back and see if you spent at least 5 minutes with God. If you haven’t, do it before you go to bed. C’mon it’s only 5 minutes.

Come back tomorrow for more steps in a steady walk with God.

I love the New Year. The New Year is an excuse to start over, to change things, to do some things better and to stop doing some things. One thing I’ve realized about New Year’s Resolutions is the more realistic and measurable they are, the more attainable they are.

For example: Instead of me resolving to lose 50lbs, I will resolve to work out 3 times a week for at least 30 minutes. That’s realistic and measurable.

To add another layer of security, not only did I make my resolution realistic and measurable, but I put it in my schedule. The plan was to play basketball for a couple hours on Monday nights, and then do Wii Fit (don’t laugh, you can seriously get a decent work out from it) after work on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Rolling my ankle at basketball kind of threw a wrench into that plan. But it will be reinstated soon enough.

And finally, to insure that I was following through on my resolution, I told my wife. It was her job to keep me accountable. And if there’s anyone that wants me to lose weight more than I do, it’s her.

So now, let’s all apply what we learned. Check back over the next few days to see how we can apply these 3 steps to our walk with God.

In my last post I wrote about how it was the end of a decade, but it’s also the beginning of a new one. So, here’s to ten years of a closer walk with God.

Now, I know that “thankstaking” isn’t a real word, so let me define it for you:

thanks·tak·ing [thangks-tey-king]:
1. the act of taking benefits or favors for granted that one would verbally admit they were grateful for.

I know that the definition is a little rough, but work with me. There are a number of things that I would say I am thankful for if someone were to ask me, “What are some things that you are thankful for”? I would respond, “Oh, my health, my job, my wife, my friends, my family, etc.” But you would be hard pressed to find much evidence for my case by the way I live my life.

For instance, let’s take a look at my health. I exercise maybe once a week and only eat healthy when my wife is watching. I’d say I’m thankful for my health, but if I really valued it I would make a better effort to maintain it.

Now, we all have the gift of life given to us by God, and I would say that we can all be very thankful for that. But do our lives express it? Is there evidence that we are grateful to God for the life he’s blessed us with? Or do we take the benefit of life and and get all that we can out of it for ourselves instead of giving it back to God?

I know for me, I’m going to try to change my lifestyle from one of thankstaking to one of thanksgiving… Now, where did I put those leftovers.

Second of all, I have to admit, I bit off more than I can chew. When I started craigwarner.net I had big ambitions and high hopes, but clearly they were too big, I choked after a few posts and my bites became fewer and farther in between.

In my last post I had talked about the possibility of writing some posts about leading a young family and ministry. Well, turns out that things do not slow down after getting married, which leaves even less time for blogging. Although I did finish a book like I had mentioned in my previos post as one of my goals. It was Tribes by Seth Godin. It was good. And I’m only a couple of chapters away from finishing Visioneering by Andy Stanley. Also good.

Also, since my last post I ended up getting married. And it is awesome. You can check out some pictures at legacystudios.us (just enter your info and click next and you can view to your hearts content).

But in my defense to breaking the promises that I made to myself, that effects no one else but me, I have been very busy. You see, I am getting married the first weekend in May (Whoo Hoo!) and I have been putting quite a bit of energy, emotions, time and other things that takes one away from blogging and reading books into that. This process of engagement has become much more taxing than I expected. And it doesn’t come from my adorable fiancee, as some would expect. She has been far more gracious and understanding than I probably would be through this time. I have not only been trying to become a better future husband and take care of my details of the wedding, but I also lead the twentysomethings- ministry of our church. And while getting married and leading a ministry are both exciting and a privilege, to think you can do them both well and at the same time is dumb.

So, the only reason that either of them might be pulled off well, is because of the other people in my life that make it possible. From my fiancee to my family to my friends I owe them all a great deal of gratitude. In fact so much that I’m not even going to  attempt to express it through this entry.

But I may be sensing a series of posts coming  about a young guy leading a new ministry and future family through the growing stages of life. But not without your help. I need you to keep me accountable to keeping up with the entries. Please, leave a comment about your interest in hearing from me about this or if you have some advice to offer on the subject. Thanks.

Auld Lang Syne is translated into English as “old long since”, or “long, long ago” or we might say “the good ole days”.

So, as the good ole days of ‘08 are behind us, raise your sparkling-apple-cider-filled flutes, and toast away auld lang syne, because ‘09 is here with all of its resolutions waiting to be broken.

So, not to disappoint the new year, I have resolved to post a blog once a week, and complete reading a book every month. Now watch my resolutions dissolve, and when you see them dissipating leave a friendly reminder, cause remember, all I have to do is make it through this year and at the beginning of 2010 I can kiss those good ole times good-bye.

What are some of your resolutions?

For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we’ll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

And there’s a hand my trusty friend !
And give us a hand o’ thine !
And we’ll take a right good-will draught,
for auld lang syne.