Morning, friends.  Greetings from sunny Florida!

I woke up this morning to a beautiful 70-something degrees and the birds chirping.  I half expected to shake my head and wake up to the real 7-degree snow apocalypse that is my house.

But I wasn’t dreaming… I really am in beautiful, sunny Jacksonville with my bestie Nicole!

Picked up from the airport.  I had to take off three layers of clothes!

FITNESS
So this might be cheating since it’s not really a workout, but it involved body movement, so I’m using it. :-)

Yesterday we hit up the beach in order to take advantage of the warm weather.  It was a little chilly down by the water, but fabulous to be outside and actually soaking up some Vitamin D instead of having every inch of skin covered in snowsuit.

Their faithful pup, Brody.  He guards the beach like it’s his job.

We took a nice, long walk along the beach, finding sand dollars and washed up jelly fish along the way.

What a beautiful day!

Nicole & Dan’s 10-month old, Margot.  She’s cute as a button.

Keep an eye on her, will you Broads?

FOOD

Besides some healthy snacking on the beach (veggie sticks and organic strawberries), we filled up on warm oatmeal with frozen berries.  Tasty!

One of the things I like about staying at a friend’s house is learning about new foods and broadening my horizons of healthy eating.  Nicole uses Nature’s Path oatmeal with flax seed and Cascadian Farm’s frozen berries.  Both were excellent, especially together!

FAITH

Hanging around a friend from high school and watching her as a new mom made me reflect on last week’s Courageous study that we did with my sister and brother-in-law.  (We’re totally not parents yet, but why not do a parenting study?  It’s like pre-marital counseling, but with kids… ;-) )

This line came up:

If you don’t win your child’s heart, someone (or something!) else will…

Whoa.  That line stuck with me because of the truth that it held.  Especially thinking of a father-daughter relationship, with so many distant or disinterested fathers in the world today, there is only a small window in your child’s life that you have to win their hearts.  You may be doing other things with their best interests in mind, (i.e. working overtime to pay for their college, fixing stuff around the house, buying them the latest and greatest…), but you better believe that if you don’t fight for their hearts, they will soon give it to someone or something else, (whether boys or sports or their friends…).  And most importantly, if you don’t direct your child’s heart towards the only One who can truly satisfy, then they will be left to constantly search for things to fulfill their hearts.

The movie Courageous does a great job conveying the importance of spiritually leading your family and being actively involved more aspects of their lives.  If you haven’t watched it or done the study, I definitely recommend it.

QUESTION OF THE DAY

Did you ever give your heart away to someone or something in your youth and regretted it?

I sure have.  Although I had a fabulous father who was very active and involved in my life, I didn’t understand Christ’s role in my life as the ultimate lover of my heart until college, after I’ve sought satisfaction in boyfriends, academics, sports, and friends.