Holiness in Weakness

While I've been training for this triathlon, I've been sharing my experience and goals with others. This has been a way for me to keep accountable to myself as well as the people I'm talking to. During this process, I've been suprised with how many people have found ME inspiring! I can't believe it, but I keep getting told stories about how others are starting to try exercising again, or training for something themselves, or they've told someone else who has really taken it to heart. This is hard for me to believe, because I don't look at myself and find what I'm doing inspiring. Yes, I feel excited and great, but I see it as something I need to do for my health and myself.

Feeling this way led me to be able to relate to a pod cast that I listened to the other day while running. It was on holiness. The speaker was saying how we should think of someone that we thought of as holy and why. He mentioned that if we took this reasoning to that person that they would deny it, being very suprised by our observations. His point was that holiness is not for us, but for others. We don't always see our own strives in holiness, but others observe it in us, and that is how we can tell that we are growing, or encourage someone else by telling them how we see them growing.

He also went on to say that it isn't in what we have done that we achieve holiness, but through our weekness. On that day when we see God face to face (God willing), we will not be asked about all the things we acompilishe without fault or difficulty. God will be asking us about how we offered up the things that challenge us and plauge us the most. He gave an analogy of a runner, which was a great picture for me since I was running.:) He says that they important thing is that when we fall, or stumble, that we get back up. We offer that to God. It may be the same thing over and over. But that is where the holiness is found, in offering that same stubbling block over and over.

This inspired me, that through my fault, I can still be striving for holiness. God is choosing to love us, even though we constantly screw up on the same things. This inspired me, I hope it inspires you, too.

It's been a while.....

Yes, it has been a while. The holidays kept me busy and, to be honest, I've been wondering how to restart this blogging thing. Then the idea of restarting got me focusing on the New Year how everyone tries to restart. That led to me restarting exercising. The next thought process was how to carry over the restart of exercising, with meaning, to my personal life. In thinking about that, it circled me back to exercising and how my attitude toward that has changed.

My husband will laugh as I admit that exercise really has changed me. I have come to discover what I always thought were myths about exercise, are tending to be true with me. I DO feel better, I DO relate better. I'm not as tired, have more energy, and am more positive. I didn't think that these things really would happen. But they have. With having taken a month off and now restarting in the last 2 weeks, I can see that these things hold true for me.

The nice thing is that this can carry over to my personal life. I am trying to have new resolve on how I face things. I trying to have a refreshing attitude to the daily challenges that come with being a mother of four. I'm trying to keep in mind that God has equipted me with, not only, the physical strength I need to exercise, but with the emotional grace and talents that go along with carrying out my duties.

It isn't that I am trying to be some great philosopher, but for me, I find great comfort in seeing parallels from one area of my life to another. I feel that if I can have a goal and be motivated in one area that hopefully I can carry that spirit over to another in hopes to be come a more well rounded person.