We Have Not Because We Ask Not

Why did I wait until a few days before the Marathon to ask for prayer? When I finally sent an E-mail out to folks called, “I’ll pray for you, you pray for me” with a list of prayer requests for the Marathon, the response was overwhelming and overwhelmingly positive! (By the way, one prayer request I gave was that people would pray that the Lord would hide the sun behind the clouds most of the day so that we would have cool weather…and OH MY GOD DID HE DO JUST THAT!!!! We started at 7:25am and the sun did not even make an 'appearance' until around 12:30pm AND EVEN THEN, the Lord wouldn’t allow it to just be 'all out' and make us uncomfortable. The clouds kept covering the sun up as if the sun and the clouds were playing peek-a-boo, AND there was still a cool breeze the entire day!!! LOOK AT GOD!!!!)

But what took me so long to ask for help? Women, who lied to us and told us that we are suppose to have everything together all of the TIME and if we don’t, then we ought to just figure it out because every other woman does have it all together so why shouldn’t we? Who told us that lie? In that E-mail that I sent, my asking people to send me an encouraging word between Noon and 2pm of the Marathon, when I knew it would be the hardest, WAS ONE OF THE BEST IDEAS THE LORD EVER GAVE ME!!! Those encouraging text messages were SO VERY helpful!!! And some people didn’t wait until Noon so I was actually receiving the messages for most of the event!! THANK YOU! It turned out that those text messages were just as much the fuel and energy that I needed as were the energy chews that I chewed throughout the day.

Guess what? You aren’t the only mother who took fast food to her child for lunch because you still needed to go grocery shopping. You aren’t the only mother whose child wasn’t dressed up for picture day because you didn’t even know it was picture day. You are not the only woman that still serves leftovers! Your children are not the only children who have a T.V. dinner every once in a while. You aren’t the only woman who has elderly parents to care for and you are struggling. You aren’t the only wife who could really use a date night with her husband. You aren’t the only woman who needs to learn how to say ‘No’ the next time the folks at church or her child’s school, ask her to volunteer to do something. You are not the only woman who just can't seem to find the right nine-to-five for her.

As we choose to live healthy, let’s choose to ask for help when we need it. We all need help from time to time. And here’s an idea, since we know our girlfriends are usually reluctant to ask for help, just like we are, then let’s start asking more often if there is anything we can do to help. Especially, if we’ve ‘been there done that’ and we have an idea of what the person is not telling us when we say, “How are you doing?” and they say, “Fine”. Also, since this is a two-way street, when someone asks us if we need help, let’s not be too proud to say, ‘Yes….as a matter of fact, I really could use some help.’

Yes, these bodies are our temples, but sometimes if we have some help, we can do a lot better job of taking care of them.

Life Happens

IT'S MARATHON MORNING!!
Morning Devotional? CHECK!
Foot Orthotics? CHECK!
Bib w/participant number? CHECK!
Timer thingy for my shoe?CHECK!
Scriptures to wear on my back?CHECK!
Powerade?CHECK!
Kiss from Hubby?CHECK!
Driving in circles between closed off streets before finally being able to get on the freeway? YIKES! NOT ON THE LIST!
Exit off the freeway CLOSED earlier than they said it would?!YIKES! NOT ON THE LIST!
Parked where I did not plan to park?! YIKES! NOT ON THE LIST!
Slight cramp (not enough to stop me; but just enough to annoy/distract me) in my right calf from the beginning of the day and throughout?YIKES! NOT ON THE LIST!
Arthritic zinger in my right hip at the beginning of the day?YIKES! NOT ON THE LIST!
Having to STOP FOUR TIMES to use port-a-potty!!!!! YIKES! NOT ON THE LIST!
Now, WHERE DID I PARK MY CAR?!! YIKES!! Not on the list!

Sometimes as we move forward to a lifestyle of healthy living LIFE HAPPENS! Sometimes we will have our healthy breakfast planned but then we oversleep and grab whatever is quickest! Sometimes we will have the perfect healthy lunch planned and get to work and discover that lunch is being catered for everyone! Sometimes we will have the perfect dinner planned but little Johnny’s game goes to overtime so it’s fast food here we come! Sometimes we will have our exercise clothes in the car, drive STRAIGHT to the gym after work only to find EVERYONE AND THEIR MOTHER is there too!! Life happens! Life may happen but we are still in it! We must continue to make healthy choices in spite of an unplanned event that may occur. An unhealthy breakfast does not mean the remainder of the day might as well be made up of poor choices. An unhealthy DAY does not mean the rest of the week might as well be made up of poor choices. An unhealthy WEEK does not mean the rest of the month might as well be made up of poor choices.

I SO WANTED to be finished by a certain time today! I admit; I am really disappointed with that aspect of the day. But! As my performance was developing I did not allow that reality to stop me from pushing, and pumping, and moving as hard as I could throughout the day. WHY? Because I was still in it! We’re still in this thing! And, I was reminded by the back of SOMEONE ELSE’ T-shirt, the race is not given to the swift! Not only was I still in it, but the scriptures on my back were STILL blessing people whether I was going to make it in my desired time or not! Countless people went by me thanking me for the word of God, and I in response encouraged them in the Lord!! Hallelujah! Toward the end, one young man came up to me and said, ‘I almost started to give up until I read you shirt. Thank you!’ Look at God! Another lady said, ‘I was feeling like I might not finish but I read your shirt. Thanks for the inspiration!

So, don’t give in to that curve ball of the day that is thrown your way! Keep moving forward! You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you!

Accountability Partner

So, who do you have in your life to help keep you accountable as you move forward toward a healthier lifestyle? If you said, ‘the one in the mirror’, WRONG ANSWER! If you said, ‘God;He speaks to me about everything’, that may be true but, WRONG ANSWER! What HUMAN BEING other than yourself do you allow to look in your face and say, ‘Now you know you need to put that doughnut down!’ Who, after you’ve eaten like there is NO tomorrow, do you have in your life to tell you, ‘Today is just one day. You will do better tomorrow.’ Who will you listen to if they tell you, ‘Come on…give yourself a break….you’ve been doing well…..you deserve a little treat.’ Accountability is one of the reasons I continue to attend Weight Watchers® meetings on a weekly basis, and weigh in monthly as suggested for all Weight Watchers® Lifetime members. I have a roomful of people to keep me accountable EVERY week! (And even so, I wish I had an accountability partner who would call me some evenings and simply ask, ‘What are you having for dinner?’; because the dinner meal is often where I blow it. Often I’m running around and don’t have time for a nice meal OR, I get home and start munching (even healthy snacks can be dangerous if you eat too much of them), then lose my appetite because of all the healthy munching then by 9pm I’ll want to snack. HELP!) As a matter of fact I just returned from a Weight Watchers® meeting earlier tonight and my son said, ‘Why do you have to still go to those meetings?’ I politely informed him that I don’t ‘have’ to, but. I ‘choose’ to! So, who have you chosen to help keep you honest….to encourage you to run one more lap…..to take that walk with you when you don’t feel like it…..to eat crunchy veggies with you instead of crunchy potato chips? I have learned on this journey of embracing healthiness as a lifestyle that not only do I most certainly need God’s help, but I need a person or persons that will help me along the way when it’s difficult to do what I know to do! Sometimes I feel like the Apostle Paul when he said, “For what I am doing I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what hate I do.” (Romans 7:15) Another version puts it this way, “I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead I do what I hate.” I’m sure you’ve been there too! Come on! Be honest…..You have! That’s why we all need someone to help keep us accountable. So, who in your life needs you as much as you need them in this area? Who will be honest with you, and allow you to be honest with them? Who can you trust to hold you accountable? Your husband? Your wife? A co-worker? Your child(ren)? A sibling? A friend? A church member? Accountability is key!

Masters or Slaves?

Most women take pride in being masters of multi-tasking. As little girls we watched our grandmothers, mothers, and aunties take on several things at one time and we learned and then mastered the skill of multi-tasking with our own individual style. And, rightfully so, that we multi-task; there is just so much for us to do. It seems as if a woman’s work is never done. So, Yes, we do need to be able to accomplish/complete/work on more than one task at a time and do them well. Our husbands, children, and employers, are all counting on us to be able to do more than one thing at a time. That’s what women do! Isn’t it?! (And of course whatever we have been taught about the roles of men and women also have influenced our behavior in this area.) But, I wonder …..are we masters or slaves? It is almost impossible for me – and most women - to come home from work and sit down and do nothing; even if I’m tired. Yet my husband – and most men, as wonderful as they are, and we love them dearly – most men don’t have a problem with this. They come in and plop right in front of the television and it’s O.K. with them. No guilt. No shame. No fuss. Just peace. Unless I am exhausted, something within me won’t let me sit down until I’ve ‘done’ something, i.e. cooked, straightened up, opened mail, called someone, typed something, etc. Have I really mastered multi-tasking or have I become a slave to it? And, when I am multi-tasking do I make it even more challenging to have a healthy lifestyle? I believe I do. Knowing when our bodies need rest – and giving it that rest -, and not allowing ourselves to get stressed out is also a part of being healthy and fit. I believe we will have more time to eat healthier and exercise if we’re not ripping and running doing a gazillion things at one time or if we are not pushing our bodies beyond what they can actually handle! Years ago I was challenged to stop ‘doing’ and ‘be’. Just be a wife. Be a mother…....more being and less doing…. What a concept! It’s not easy……I NEED HELP!!! Observe the men in your life. Notice how they are not even TRYING to do more than one thing at a time and life goes on and they are not stressed out. There are always going to be dirty dishes. Children are always going to need something. There will always be dirty clothes in the laundry. If you miss a game there will always be another one. If you miss a church service, buy the tape, or there will always be another one. There will always be something that needs to be done. But we only get one life; one body; one mind. “……I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life…..” Deut 30:19a

I'M ADDICTED!!

I had three reasons NOT to participate in the Los Angeles Marathon this year. One, the organizers moved it to May 25th! How inconsiderate! The weather will be much warmer than in March when the event is usually held, which can be very hazardous to the participants. Two, the tendonitis in my left foot will not allow me to run. I would have to power walk the entire event. I really miss running. Though I have not run the entire 26.2 miles yet, each time I’ve completed the event I’ve run for a longer distance and I was looking forward to running even more miles before starting to walk, this time around. Though I am beginning to enjoy power walking and its benefits, would I have the same thrilling experience if I walk the entire route, I wondered? Three, I HATED the route last year! It was awful!! We could see the finishing point then the route would take us South!!! It was so discouraging mentally! And to my knowledge I don’t think they are going to change the route this year. All good reasons, right? NOT!! I’m addicted! I don’t even know why I THOUGHT I would not participate! I’m addicted! You know how addictions are, right? You can’t always explain them. You don’t always understand them. You just do them. For me, from the marathon it’s the camaraderie…..!....the adrenalin!..... the crowds cheering you on..!... Striving for a personal best!...AND OF COURSE, THE MEDAL!!!!!! Yep! I’m addicted! By God’s grace I’ll once again be one of 20,000! My adrenalin is starting to pump at just the thought of it!! So what are some of your addictions? Certainly, when we hear the word ‘addiction’ we don’t think of anything positive or fairly harmless like the addiction I just described. Often an addiction is something that can cause us harm and that we need to be rid of. As you move forward in your health you may have discovered an addiction that you want out of your life. For example, another addiction of mine is night time snacking. Even though I now snack on healthy foods, it’s still an addiction that I’d like to be rid of. I don’t want to give it up all together but I need help in this area. Let’s join forces. Let’s pray for each other that we will have the strength and desire to stop our unhealthy addictions. Remember, we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. (Phil 4:13)

P.S Don’t think I have decided to walk the Marathon without any effort up until now or a plan to train from here out. NOT! Since I haven’t been able to run, I’ve been walking about 15-20 miles per week. And in the last couple of months, since I knew I was contemplating doing the Marathon, I walked to my Weight Watchers meeting several times which is just shy of 10 miles total, to see how my feet would feel after such a walk. So! Now the real training begins! I’ve got a good 7 weeks. So I will add additional miles during the week and 10-12 miles at one time on Saturdays until the event. If God be for me, who can be against me! (from Romans 8:31)

Never Alone

The words of the chorus of a beautiful hymn called ‘Never Alone’ are, “No, never alone, no never alone. He promised never to leave me, never leave me alone.” Believe it or not, it has been my experience that even at our work-out venues not only will the Lord be with us, but he’ll send someone to be there with us to remind us that we are not alone; we are in this together; I’m getting fit with you; you can do this! When I power walk in the mornings I usually look like ‘who shot John and why’. I usually have on a big bright yellowish, orangish jacket (my Overcomers jacket), an off white winter hat like a skull-cap, green winter gloves, wearing my glasses (I don’t sleep in my contact lenses.), swinging a small golf club as my rod and staff to comfort me, stepping fast and strong as if I am in a parade with my baton like I did when I was a child. It is an interesting sight to say the least. But just the other day I had the nerve to see a woman who was going in the opposite direction, say to me, ‘You go to West Angeles, don’t you?’ IT WAS 5:15AM! A few days later a group of runners ran past me and as we said ‘Good morning’ to each other, I looked at one of the women and she was a parent from my son’s school! IT WAS 5:15AM! And, just a few weeks ago a co-worker came to me asking for some exercise tips. She said she had gotten into a slump and she knew I would be able to help her. I gave her some suggestions and she came back to me the following week excited because she said early morning work outs are working out great just as I suggested. She said she started going to the gym at 4am (4 am was her choice, not mine) and to her surprise she was not the only one there! When I first started running at the track (Boy, I miss running!!), my husband used to be concerned because I was going so early, but I quickly found out that it was a group of the same people at the track there at the same time every day and they were not just ‘there’ they were there for each other. Eventually, you start acknowledging each other, and noticing when one misses a day, and encouraging each other. A great camaraderie can be experienced when people gather together to be fit. So, don’t be fooled. Don’t be deceived. Don’t convince yourself that you will be the only one somewhere. Go on! Get out there! Remember, He promised that you would never be alone.