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Thoughts about play dough

I have a love/hate relationship with play dough. Well actually there's not a lot of love for it. I stopped buying it for my kids because they would leave it out after play, and it would become dried out and hard. After trying to explain to my kids the importance of putting it away properly, to no avail, I just chose not to have that battle anymore; I don't buy play dough.

I began thinking about the concept of play dough, and what you can do with it as long as you keep working the dough. It's funny how the more you manipulate it, the more you can use it, but the more stagnant it stays, the harder the dough is to work. Then, I began to think about my life and how true this concept is in it. The more I work at something, the easier it is to remain faithful to it. The moment I stop, it's harder to get back on board with it. For example, working out and eating healthy. I actually enjoy taking care of myself and leading a healthy lifestyle. At some point, toward the end of last year, my schedule got hectic which means both eating right and exercising became less of a priority. What was once an easy discipline, now seems like torture to get back on track. Now, every day, I'm choosing not to settle for just enough but thinking about what decisions I need to make to get back where I want to be. It's neither fun nor easy; but I know that I've done it before, so I can do it again.

Taking this concept a little deeper, I begin to think about being moldable and teachable. The whole point of play dough is to be able to shape it into whatever you, the creator, plan for it to be. However, once it's out of the creator's hand, and left stagnant exposed to the air, it becomes less pliable. It's easy to become so self-sufficient that I feel that I can take over the planning for my life and try to create my own destiny. When I do, I can become hard around the edges and find myself stagnant, in a place that I don't want to be; the whole time, wondering how I got to this place. The good thing is that with Jesus, my creator, it's not a major work to get back into His grace. His grace is there all along. His grace is more than sufficient to smooth all the rough edges and make me pliable again. 1 Cor 12:9 states, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness." (NKJV)

The best way I know how to remain pliable, humble and teachable is to surround myself with people who believe in me enough to push me towards being the best me. But they also love me enough to be honest with me in my weaknesses and not allow me to stay stagnant.

What are some ways you remain "pliable"?