Training. Not a word that I particularly like. It's something that I would associate with discipline, hard work and commitment. Things that I find difficult (especially when they are put all together). At the moment I am trying to build my fitness up, I'm not training for anything in particular but I try to run or workout every day, and that is really hard. My lazy human nature doesn't like the idea of pushing myself to to extra work each day. In the text written above (1 Tim 4:7-8). Paul talks about the value that training in Godliness has for us. There is value in training our bodies but even more value in training our hearts and souls to be Godly.
In her book Having a Mary Spirit, Joanna Weaver talks about training in godliness. She makes the comment that we like to be changed but we don't like to be challenged. We would love to be fitter, healthier and (probably) lighter than we are at the moment but we don't want to work at changing that, all the commitment and discipline that comes with the training scares us away. Even more so, we want to live more godly lives but we are lazy and don't want to work at changing our current lifestyle. We want an instant fix.
