No Go Zones



Since Ripley is doing very well and I have no new photos of my little angle, I thought I go back to writing down my thoughts. My blog originally started because a friend encouraged me to write about our church planting effects, and then it morphed into a way for me to sleep. You see I need to download my thoughts from time to time so I can sleep; if I don’t I just lay in bed thinking. Some of these thoughts have turned into introductions to sermons but most are just for me. I try to get the grammar and spelling correct in case other people read this blog. Sometimes I fail on both. ; - )

I’ve written this before but I avoid sweets. I’ve never been drawn to them even as a kid, but I choose to say no to sweets to maintain my weight loss. This time of the year, we have vendors who send sweets as a thank you for using their serves during the year. The Logistic Division is broken into three departments; Outbound Transportation (the department I work in), Domestic Inbound, and International Inbound (or Imports). The Departments have our own aisle, and this time of year the sweets are located at the end of the International Inbound aisle. This is what I call a “No Go Zone.” No Go Zones are anything place (physical or mental) where I do not put myself to avoid temptation.

Teresa and I went to a marriage retreat in the early days of our marriage. The speakers were a husband/wife team. In one of the breakout session, the men’s speaker said something that I never forgotten. He said that we need to set blocks in areas of our lives that we are weak. He used the illustration of if you have an issue with drinking too much and your favor bar is on the way home, you should take another way home even if it adds driving time. The speaker didn’t call these areas “No Go Zones” but I started referring to them as this sometime ago.

I do not see myself as all that; I can have a low self-esteem of myself steaming to my learning disability I had in elementary school so when I sense a woman eying me up, I avoid this person like the plague. The person becomes a No Go Zone; especially if I do not need to deal with her. I do not even want to give Satan a toe hold. I am so blessed with an awesome wife where I can get her help if I sense this. She confirms my concerns or assures me it’s my delusion. When Teresa isn’t around, I ask other women to help me because, like most men, I’m clueless if a woman is checking me out. When my concerns are confirmed, I become like one of the knights in Mighty Python and the Holy Grail; you know “Run away! Run away!”

No Go Zones can be anyplace, any person, or anything (like websites). You need to put blocks in so you can’t get to them. A block can be an accountability partner who you share things with that will help you overcome whatever is tempting you. A block can be web filters that won’t allow you to visit certain sites. Most blocks are mental ones that you put down yourself. Like the person with the drinking issue who goes a different way home because he has put blocks in the way on the old way home; these block were put in place in his mind.

What areas in your life should be No Go Zones? Not going to these No Go Zone will help you in your walk with God and strengthen you relation with others; especially your spouse. Thank about where you need to put blocks.