I hate running. My kids would get on to me because I said the word hate… ok so just for them I will rephrase it, I dislike running, like a lot. Something always happens to me. I decided I need to be more active and running sounds like an easy way to get started except for after a few weeks in, I get shin splints or the time that I get Achilles tendinitis. That was not fun. So instead of running, I started lifting weights which I actually enjoy most of the time.
I had given up running because my body seems to strongly dislike any form of running. That was until my girls decided they wanted to join a running club at school. Do most parents run with their kids? No. Did I tell my girls that I would run with them to encourage them? Yes. Have I kept that commitment? Yes! Is it a few weeks in and I have already hurt myself? Also, yes. Surprise, it’s like clockwork but this time my calf muscles cramped up and I believe are a tad swollen. At this point, it is almost comical how my body responds to me trying to be healthy.
How did this happen you ask? Last Monday the girl’s practice was canceled and since they have a meet coming up that same week. My husband and I decided we would take the girls on a run to prepare them. Nothing crazy just one mile around our neighborhood. It has a few hills but that works out well because their meets are on cross country tracks so they come in contact with multiple hills during the meet. My husband was running with our oldest and I was with our youngest. About halfway through my calf felt as though it was going to rip out of my skin. I slowed down but just enough so my daughter would keep up her pace. If she wouldn’t have been there I probably would have stopped but I made a commitment and I wanted to show her that no matter what I am with her and we are going to finish. Finally, we hit the one-mile mark and thankfully we live in a subdivision that we can loop around and finish back at our house. The rest of the night I limped around the house and continued to be in pain for the next few days.
Don’t come at me. I know my body enough to know how far I can push it and when something is really wrong. In the bigger scheme of things, my daughter saw perseverance that night. Also, the sweetest thing happened the rest of our run she cheered me on and encouraged me. Talk about a proud mom moment. As she said “come on, mom, you can do it” on the inside I was like “woohoo! I am raising a decent human being that pushes others when they are struggling.” As I sit down now with my foot propped up, it makes me think about how we are running this race called life. Experiences in life can come and try to take you out at the knees. But God is always there just like my daughter was for me. He is not standing on the sidelines to tell you how bad you screwed up or that you failed, but instead, he’s here to cheer you on and encourage you to finish this race with perseverance. You can find multiple scriptures that say this same thing. Hebrews 12:1-2 is one of the first verses that comes to mind, it says, And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. Just like verse 2 points out we need to fix our eyes on Jesus and ignore all the other distractions that try to stop us from finishing strong.
I pray that this blog today was an encouragement to you and can help in your daily life. Always know I am available to pray with you or just be someone to talk to when life gets hard. E-mail me at megan@churchanywhere.us if you need prayer!
Talk to you soon!