Still doing pretty well at rebuilding myself into a stronger servant of the Lord. I'm half way through my leg workout for the day, resting a little before hitting the other leg. Morning prayers were a success kneeling at my bedside. I deviated a touch from personal scripture study last night to read material on teaching more effectively as the Savior taught/teaches. I still read a chapter with my family and listened to scripture and felt this was a reasonable adjustment for the night.

In Words of Mormon 1:14 we learn that, "in the strength of the Lord they did contend against their enemies, until they had slain... (and) driven them out of all the lands of their inheritance."

This morning I was listening in the book of Omni and there was some discussion about finding the people of Zarahemla and how their language had become corrupted and they were taught in the language of the Nephites. There was also some discussion about the Jaredites who interestingly avoided having there language lost while those around them did. I usually have just thought about this in terms of not having records to help preserve language among the people of Zarahemla, but wondered if there might be something more to think on about the importance of retaining uncorrupted language.

This morning I had push-ups, triceps work and shoulders to attend to and left myself feeling it to a point that putting dishes away in the cupboard after was challenging to raise my arms high enough. I've received a new calling, I can't talk about what it is yet, but it's caused me to fast and pray for guidance. I find in doing so, I snack more at night after breaking the fast. I'll need to work on curbing this to stop the pattern from further taking hold on me.

Often we hear of this life being a process of refinement as if through a refiners fire, or the Holy Ghost acting as a refining fire as one undergoes the baptism of fire. I was caught up in some other life burdens last night and realized this morning that I neglected my evening scripture reading. I could say I failed to read my scriptures, which may be true enough, but did I allow the miss to knock me down and despair over missing, or to refine me and teach me to do better? I choose the latter. I simply need to refocus on ensuring it's a top priority as part of my day. While various stressors were at play and my wife needed me to be there to comfort her, I could have still remembered to get my scripture study in for the night.

For today's update and thoughts, let me start off by saying that my small commitments are still going strong. While listening to scripture this morning in Jacob 4, I heard instruction to, "seek not to counsel the Lord, but to take counsel from his hand" which had me thinking about how I pray. How often do I approach the Lord with the outcome I want and petition for it, as opposed to asking the Lord to help me navigate a given situation even with outcomes other than those I prefer. I'm worried it may be sign of laziness and lack of faith on my part. It's so much easier to ask for what I want than to ask for answers, when answers don't always seem to come clearly. I'm afraid I may be more like Laman and Lemuel who when asked by Nephi if they have inquired of the Lord responded to the effect of why bother, He maketh no such things known to us.

I am keeping up with small and simple steps of daily scripture study, kneeling prayer, and workouts. Today's workout had pull-ups at the base with biceps curls and backflyes for added targeting to those sections of the back and arms. I am likely ready to raise my standards in what is considered a valid effort, or adding to the things I do.

Yesterday I had an annoying ankle issue that flares up from time to time show up. Sometimes when I'm lucky I can just walk it off, but other times it sets in for a more protracted period and then moves down the side of my foot and starts aggravating the bottom of my foot making each step excruciating. Still, I managed to get over 17000 steps yesterday, but today it's definitely grumpy so walking it off didn't work yesterday. Even though my workout this morning was an upper body workout having the pain shoot up from my foot and ankle made things more challenging and setting up for exercises took longer than they would have otherwise. This had me thinking about how spiritual injuries set back our progress toward becoming like the Savior. The same ambition and drive that can help us be go getters to do the Lord's work can also be the same attributes that drive us after money or chasing lusts and so on. Sometimes "walking" it off by refocusing on the attributes that can lead us to Christ will carry us through to a better place, and sometimes the attribute may take us in the wrong direction and we need to reevaluate. I'd encourage all of us to evaluate where we are at and what spiritual injuries we are working with, some chronic and recurring I'd expect - what course corrections do you need to allow healing to take place? If continuing the same course has been creating reinjury, a different path likely needs to be explored.

This morning I woke up around 5:30 am to get ready for some fitness clients at 6:00 am. I received a message they weren't doing well today, so I took the opportunity to get outdoors for a nice morning stroll. It was lovely whether and so nice to catch the early morning rays . Upon returning from my walk I enjoyed a great pulling workout complete with pull-ups, biceps curls, back flyes, Posterior deltoid kick backs and trap 3 raises. It was nice not to feel rushed. I then moved on to dishes and listening to scripture.

Still going strong with scripture listening, reading at night, little workouts sprinkled throughout the day and especially in the mornings, and kneeling prayers. This is not to say that I can't do better, I can and need to improve - the point is that by letting small changes take place in him greater changes are being made and I am becoming more consistent all the time.

I seem to be back to struggling for time in the morning to go into greater detail and know that I won't get to posting in the evening. My morning prayer was on my knees and on point, and my morning workout felt great and I'm seeing results. I also finally got some things in my place cleaned up enough following a plumbing failure in my  home to where I could access my weight vest and add load to my push-ups.

Still working through Isaiah chapters as I listen in the morning. It's clear if one believes Isaiah is speaking to our times that the consequences for wickedness are rife with suffering and the blessings of righteousness, while not avoiding suffering, are filled with tender mercies. It let's me know that the time is at hand for me to repent daily.