Body, Mind and Soul

Watch out world.  Steven and I are on our way to being the newest power couple on the block...aka we will soon be replacing Bragelina and I'm sure get lots of offers for our own reality tv show.  :) Having one year of marriage under our belt we decided to examine our relationship and see what we could improve.  We came up with two areas and hit the ground running with a new semester of school!  This week has been filled with strengthening our body, mind and soul.

#1 Body:  Steven and I both decided that we need a little more consistent exercise in our lives.  I feel like I should tell you my philosophy on exercise here for clarity.  I am completely against weighing myself because I never want to be unsatisfied with my body if I don't fit within a certain number range on the scale.  To be honest I really don't know how much I weigh and I am completely ok with that. But I have noticed that when I exercise I have more energy (which is a must in grad school) and my pants fit a little better (which is a must when you are on a budget and can't go out and buy more pants. ha!)  So this past week we started working out every day at the SLC at Baylor.  I'm also attending my very first spin class tomorrow with my friend Aurelia!  I am scared out of my mind, but so excited!  It has been so nice to step away from the books for an hour every day and go lift weights/do cardio.  Hopefully we will keep this up throughout the semester!

#2 Mind:  I'm in grad-school...need I elaborate more?  To be honest this wasn't one of the areas of marriage Steven and I decided to work on for the time being, but I needed to add it in order to have the relevant title for this post :)

#3 Soul:  There is always room for improvement in spirituality, so Steven and I decided to look at what specifically we could work on as a couple.  We both realized we are really good at talking about the theology of our faith.  Between my seminary/social work classes and Steven's love to talk about faith and politics we have conversations around these topics pretty much every day.  Something we both struggle with though is the devotional side of faith.  I attribute this to our almost identical Myers-Briggs types: INTJ (Me), ENTJ (Steven) which highlight our amazing ability to analyze things based on facts but our struggle to be more in-tune emotionally with our faith.  We decided to start doing a devotional every night before we watch our Friends episode...um...I mean go to bed :).  We are using "A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and other Servants" as our liturgy for these devotions.  I would recommend this book for anybody (couple or individual) who struggles in their devotional life.  The best thing about this tool is that it does all the structuring for you.  It follows the church calendar and for each week provides you with a liturgy full of prayers, scripture verses, reflective readings and even a hymn.  It really has made the experience of leading a devotional life together very enjoyable for Steven and me.