Warm up: In my own sick way of teaching my kids the value of an active lifestyle I had my 7 year old daughter define the warm up portion of the workout. She came up with the exercises and the counts and capped it off with an evil laugh.

• Mosey around the main parking lot for one loop then over to the small drop off circle.
• SSH X25
• Merkins X 20 – It got a little quiet toward the end of these.
• Burpees X10
• Windmills X15
• Imperial Walker X15
• Mountain Climber X15
• Butt kickers
• High knees
• Mosey to the back lot by the middle school (which by the way has the lights timer set 20 minutes later than the rest of the school)

The next portion would consist of six pain stations marked by cones around the parking lot. The group moved from cone to cone completing the exercises written on the cones. The mosey between the cones were completed as a partner carry with distances ranging from 40yds to 70yds.

The exercises on the cones were as follows in this order.

• Big Boy Sit ups X 10 & American Hammers X10
• Elbow Plank while hand slapping with your partner X20
• Spiderman Burpees X10 (Burpee with 2 merkins that include bringing the right leg up then the left the way Spiderman climbs a wall)
• Lateral Jump Burpees X10 (Normal burpee with and jump to the side instead of straight up at the end)
• Pull Ups on the Bleachers or Partner Upright Rows X10
• Step Burpee (4 count of foot touches to the curb followed by a burpee) X10

This rotation was completed twice with a message on Pride was delivered between the sets. PLEASE READ THE MESSAGE BELOW

Mosey back to the picnic table area near the cars.

Wall of Worm: Balls to the Wall, walk hands out and then back X2 and then hold for a 10 count

As always, a true honor to lead such a strong group!!!

A Message on Pride:

“At the deepest level, pride is the choice to exclude both God and other people from their rightful place in our hearts. Jesus said that the essence of spiritual life is to love God and to love people. Pride destroys our capacity to love. The greedy and the gluttonous may still be capable of at least a certain kind of love, but pride is a form of antilove. Pride moves us to exclude instead of to embrace. Pride moves us to bow down before a mirror rather than before God.

Pride moves us to judge rather than to serve. Pride means not only that we want to be smart and wealthy, but also that we will not be satisfied until we are smarter and wealthier than those around us. Pride is essentially comparative in nature.

Jesus himself made this connection when he told a story about two men at prayer. The sins of the tax collector were obvious to all: greed, dishonesty, corruption. The Pharisee thanked God that he was in a different category: “I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.” (The Pharisee appeared to be seeking “extra credit” – fasting was commanded for only one day a year.) The Pharisee was right about two categories, but he was mistaken about which one was okay. He was noxious in the sight of God because he failed at the first command to love and didn’t even recognize his need for God’s help. He did not embrace sinners. He did not recognize that his own sin was greater than the tax collector’s. He didn’t realize that he was the biggest sinner in the room. Luke says Jesus told this story to some “who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else.” Pride and lovelessness always go together.”

Source: “The Life You’ve Always Wanted” John Ortberg

What to take from this:

Don’t confuse self-esteem with Pride. Self Esteem is a stable level of self worth. Pride is the extreme. Be wary of it. In Harvey Pinick’s “Little Green Book,” a book about golf instruction, he references a bottle of medicine. He relates a pill in that bottle to a piece of instruction and how a little tweak is good but taking the whole bottle or over doing the tweak is never good. The same is true for valuing yourself worth. Don’t take the whole bottle of your own self worth. It can creep up on those that are conscious of it and they forget the source of their success. Remember your gifts are from God, the majority of your love belongs to Him and to others.

Announcements:

• Joe Davis Run – 1/9
• Christmas Party 12/19
• F3 Dads for Star Wars at 3:40 12/20 Manchester Cinemas

Prayers for:

• Backdraft’s father as he goes in for an MRI with potential for knee surgery.
• Prayers for Vanilla Ice’s step daughter as she struggles with a recent DUI
• Prayers for all those struggling with family. There are a lot of us that are experiencing these struggles and this is an especially difficult time of year for that.