i have been on this Running Journey for over two years now...maybe even three!
it's still hard but not as hard as it was.
i still get mad at not being as strong as i wish i was (aka...didn't work out enough to get strong)
i still get annoyed when others seem to enjoy it more than i do.
but i do enjoy it... when i am done.
i really like that i have good friends to run with me.
i KNOW i wouldn't have kept running if there was not accountability and reward with them.
we have run a few races and maybe lost a few pounds.
we have run probably hundreds of miles together by now.
we have strengthened our friendships (it's amazing what you can talk about while running 5 miles)
we have gotten much stronger in our two years.
we no longer need bathroom breaks...even on long runs.
in six days we will run our first HALF MARATHON.
13.1 miles.
and for 6 months i have cringed when i said that.
dread.
frustration.
unhappiness.
nervous.
scared of failing.
but this past week the Lord changed my heart.
i have a new outlook and i literally have done a 180 about it.
it was time to change my focus.
off of ME and onto God.
"You were bought at a price. So glorify God in your Body"
1 Corinthians 6:20 (NASB)
and the same verse in a different translation....
"God owns the whole works. So let people see God in
and through your body."
1 Corinthians 6:20 (The Message)
i love that...the whole works!
like a cheesbuger with everything on it.
awesome.
so now i am feeling different.
i am not afraid.
i know i will not fail.
I know i am not alone.
even if i end up physically alone at the race... i am never alone.
I have Jesus in me.
"Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that
God’s Spirit lives in you?"
1 Cor. 3:16
what in the world is there to be afraid of???
i am filled with the Spirit!
He's got me.
i have felt full of gratitude when i think about the race the past few days.
grateful for a body that CAN move (even as slow as mine does).
thankful for the friends that run with me.
blessed with a body that is healthy and it is a GIFT.
i may not be a size 5.
i may not be fast.
but i am blessed.
"I appeal to you therefore, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship"
Romans 12:1
i am using this week to prepare spiritually as well as physically for the race.
offering myself again to God.
"here i am Lord. use me how you want. whatever you have for me i want to do."
because running a race with thousands of people 2 weeks after a terrorist attack at a race is a little scary....at a memorial race for past terrorist attack?
but really no matter what happens
EVER...
God has me in his hands.
and i have peace in that.
"Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;
you formed me in my mother’s womb.
I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking!
Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
I worship in adoration—what a creation!
You know me inside and out,
you know every bone in my body;
You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;
all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
The days of my life all prepared
before I’d even lived one day."
Psalm 139: 17-22
how could i read that and ever worry?
i will not be fearful.
i will worship in adoration.
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two more things:
1. we will revisit the subject of raising teenagers again.
thanks for hearing my heart.
2. the winner for the Lisa Leonard giveaway is:
I would love to buy the jumble of charms necklace with our sweet kiddos names :)
email me Bree for the details! Congratulations!!
