Inspirational Song of the Week 6.28.14

"It is Well With My Soul"

I love this song. It is soft and beautiful and so powerful.

I did a bible study at the beginning of the year on the book of James and the part that resonated with me the most was the part about trials.  We all have them, right now I feel they are constant, but one of the beautiful works God has done in me is to always look for the blessing. Every trial has a purpose, we just don't know what it is yet.  We wouldn't want God to ruin the ending would we?

At the end of the day, no matter the trial, "It Is Well With My Soul". And that is amazing.

What does running have to do with all of this?

Let's just say it ..... Exercise sucks.  Running sucks. Eating healthy sucks.

You know what else sucks ..... being overweight.  Being exhausted. Hating what you see in the mirror every day. Not being able to play with your child because your winded. Feeling repulsive and awful every day.

Yep, that's me in September of 2012, my son's 2nd birthday.

Now that I'm done with the self-loathing, let's move forward.

At my peak I was 208 pounds.  According to the BMI (I hate the BMI by the way) I had slipped from the overweight category into the obese category. How in the world does this happen? I'll tell you.

You start out a little heavier than you were because your getting older and your metabolism slows down. Then you get pregnant and eat your way through the next 9 months. Then, just when you are getting back on track and starting to lose the baby weight you have hip surgery that you spend the next year recovering from. Next thing you know you are 2 sizes up from where you were and feel awful, not to mention that hip issue you had surgery for isn't helped by the extra 40 pounds.

When I started going to church, and when I started believing in Christ, the funniest thing happened .... I started believing in myself.  Finding Christ gave me the strength and hope that I needed to live. For the first time in my life I didn't feel hopeless or helpless anymore, and let me tell you, NOT feeling hopeless and helpless is the first step to getting up off of the couch and doing something about it.

I started slowly by changing how I ate. The more I engrossed myself into the church culture the more fulfilled I felt and the less desire I had to stuff myself with chips, large amounts of pasta, pizza, ice cream, and cookies. I lost a few pounds ... at least my current wardrobe was starting to fit again.

Then I started walking (on the nice flat, air conditioned, no humidity, controlled treadmill that is) but it was sooooo boring (worse than running on the treadmill, at least when you're running you have to pay attention so you don't fall off and go flying across the gym), and so unfulfillin., I mean I just spent 30 minutes walking instead of doing something fun like eating potato chips, having a milk shake, or taking a nap and I only burned 120 calories, geeze! I mean I can burn that many calories walking into Chick-Fil-A and standing in line to get my nuggets, fries, and aforementioned milkshake.

So one day at the end of my 30 minutes on the treadmill I thought, "Hey, I wonder if I can run the last minute". I did and I felt great. After that one minute run I felt better after my workout than I ever had before. I tried it again the next day, same thing, hmmm maybe there is something to this running thing after all.



I decided to give the Couch to 5K program a try. I worked the whole program and to keep me motivated I signed up for a 5K that would be right at the end of the 8 weeks, The Color Run 5/31/2014.  Somewhere along the way I started to like it.

I'm not sure if it's the actual running, ok, it's not the actual running because let's face it, really all that happens there is that it starts to suck less .... what I really liked was that I was able to do something that I never thought I could.

I have since done another 5K and I've made the goal to do one run a month for the next year. I'm going to alternate between 5Ks and 1 mile fun runs since my 4 year old wants to run with me.



I know the Lord is making me stronger every day.  He is helping me build my strength and my character, he is preparing me for something great .... and I can't wait to see what it is. All in His time.

The First Post-How it All Began

This is my first blog post of any kind .... ever. This all started in my head last month while training for my first 5K. Running on a treadmill is mind-numbingly (pretty sure that's not a word) boring. I do prefer it over running outside because it's flat, air conditioned and no humidity, all pluses when you are starting out.

To keep myself from quitting from sheer boredom I came up with this idea for a blog - my journey in finding Christ and my sudden love for running and all of my thoughts and revelations in the process.

To truly understand where a person is you have to understand where they've been, so here goes ... deep breath in and out --

My religious upbringing was .... eclectic to say the least.  I grew up part Episcopalian, part Atheist. My mom took us to church occasionally and my dad told me once that "God is either as dumb as a donut-hole or mean as hell". I never really knew what I believed or where I stood, it's safe to say I spent the first 32 years of my life questioning God, Jesus, Christianity, Heaven, and Hell.

In September of 2013 my whole life changed. I made the terrifying decision to end my marriage.  The day that I made that decision I had lunch with 2 very dear friends, and a 3rd happened by after I made the announcement.  We went to a private room and the three of them held hands in a circle around me and prayed for me.  They prayed for strength and clarity.  They prayed that God would be with me and help me through this horrible time. They prayed for God's plan to be revealed. They prayed and I cried. I cried huge raking, snotty, can't breath crying.

These three friends knew that I was "iffy"on the subject of Christ, but they prayed for me anyway. Their belief and strength in that moment changed my life. This was the greatest turning point of my entire life, and I will be forever indebted to them for taking those few minutes for me.

It just so happened one of these friends was going to host a small group at work starting that week. The timing could not have been more perfect ... of course I know now God's timing is always perfect. Another of those friends invited me to church. I attended with her at first, then ventured out on my own. Because of these three friends I was able to be surrounded by strong, caring, selfless, Christian women during this emotionally tortuous time.

I immersed myself in the church culture. I continued in the small group at work. I went to church every Sunday and then began attending the first Wednesday services.  In January of 2014 I participated in the 21 days of prayer and fasting. Then I joined a small group outside of work.

My journey is just beginning, I can't even fathom how much I have to learn , but I know that I am finally, for the first time in my life, headed in the right direction. I am living life, a Christian life, that wouldn't have happened if not for those three friends who joined hands around me on that day in September.