Well, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s January 8 and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had eight days to work on my New Year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s resolutions.
\nSo far, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going good.
\nI must admit, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m out of shape way more than I remember.
\nI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s due to being forced out of my position as co-captain of the Cold Cuts Intramural team, upon graduation in May.
\nNot that I was in the best shape while I played intramurals, but I sure don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t remember getting this winded after a short run.
\nI also don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t remember crunches hurting this much either although I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t remember doing them since six grade gym class.
\nI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been very tempted to accept my fate as having love-handles slightly larger than the average man.
\nBut then where would the progress be? And where would my pride and ego go if I gave up after only a week?
\nChange hurts. My abs can affirm that.
\nBut yet I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think I can think of a single instance in my life where change didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t hurt.
\nMaybe it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t physical pain; it might have been financial or mental stress, but either way there was some sort of pain.
\nI think we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re seeing that in Belton and Bell County right now.
\nThere\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a wind of change coming. People are beginning to realize what many of you have known your entire life.
\nBelton\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s great.
\nAnd that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why we continue to see more and more people packing up and moving to Belton in droves.
\nI think that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s great. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m glad it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the other way around. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m glad people aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t packing up and leaving Belton in droves.
\nIn the next 24 months, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll see some major changes in Belton — and it will hurt.
\nThere will be road construction on I-35 (hopefully). There will be new roads constructed and Les and his crew will continue working to maintain and update streets throughout the city.
\nNew stores and shopping centers will be built.
\nSomething will be done with our current jail\/ courts situation (and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m still hoping for that Christmas wish).
\nThe citizens of Bell County will hopefully see the need and benefit of building the new facilities on Loop 121, rather than forcing the county to lease jail space elsewhere or clogging up downtown Belton anymore.
\nBISD is looking to expand the High School and update several campuses.
\nThe students, teachers and staff won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t enjoy working around the construction I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure.
\nI know those students, teachers and staff won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t enjoy working around the construction work and we won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t enjoy paying an extra $5 or $10 a month on our taxes, but in the end we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll all appreciate the hard work we all did together.
\nI also believe that in the end, if the voters approve the new bond issue, the county as a whole will be very pleased with the new county facilities moving to Loop 121.
\nI think we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll all be pleased that we can find parking in downtown Belton again and I know the judges, clerks, attorneys and others will greatly appreciate the added security and room to grow.
\nNow we could sit back and reject the change. We could say \u00e2\u20ac\u0153No, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had it. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve changed too much and I want Belton to stay as it is. The change just hurts my pocketbook too much.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nBut what we had always said that?
\nI don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think Belton would be the place we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve come to love.
\nI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d hate to think that Billy Smitha\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s grandkids had to walk four or five miles to school — like he did — just because there was only one school for minorities.
\nI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d hate to think that we didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have the privilege of beating Temple every year in sports, because some people didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to change the high school to from a 4-A to a 5-A classification.
\nJust like my abs hurt and my legs ache after I work out, these changes will hurt, but I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t wait to see the results.
\nI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m also looking forward to achieving my other resolutions.
\nI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve already noticed a difference in my thoughts and talk after a week of scheduled Bible reading.
\nSure I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like getting up earlier. But making myself take those few steps from my bed to my Bible make a world of difference in my day.
\nA friend once told me, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Those few steps from my bed to my desk each morning, are the most important steps I take every day.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nYes, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cold in the morning and my new down comforter makes my bed even more desirable, but disciplining myself to take time reading God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s instruction manual is well worth the effort.
\nThe Apostle Paul wrote to the Roman church: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nIn other words, don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t rejoice and be happy just because things are going good \u00e2\u20ac\u201c rejoice also in suffering and in change and in hurt, because it produces character and hope.
\nSo while the next 24 months may be frustrating \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and you may continue to say to yourself, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ask for these changes,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s work together, for the betterment of ourselves and the community \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and give change and progress a chance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Well, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s January 8 and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had eight days to work on my New Year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s resolutions. So far, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going good. I must admit, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m out of shape way more than I remember. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s due to being forced out of my position as co-captain of the Cold Cuts Intramural team, upon graduation in … Continue reading With No Pain, You’ll Get No Gain<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2090],"tags":[2088,2089,2092],"class_list":["post-19","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns-reflections","tag-belton-journal","tag-columns","tag-newspaper"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pEnSo-j","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}