After my last post I realized, I was quite non-commital in my desire to be healthier. The funny thing is, almost immediately I started to cut the "extras" and eat with veggies on the mind. I cannot say I followed that all week but overall this week has been an improvement from the last. Along with this my hours of training have gone up a bit and I have been more committed to getting ever last minute out of my workouts. This week I will aim to step up the intensity slightly on selected workouts as to stretch my heart rate limits. I return home to Ontario in a week and that is where I will begin to be more serious about my food choices and start posting more on this blog to keep myself accountable!
On other and more important news, my mom is doing well and on her way to recovery. As I was laying in bed the other night writing in my mental gratitude journal I thanked Jesus for his healing hands on my mom and in that moment I saw clearly how our attitude toward prayer and Christ's healing power plays a major part in our ability to see the outcome of his Grace.
Let me explain. I have heard before that we can ask God for anything and He will answer, and I believe that. I also have heard that we need to pray for the right thing (seems kind of vague doesn't it). I have also learned how to do this, and sometimes by trial and error. But what I have been thinking on lately, even before my mom had more difficulties is that we need to pray, in my words, without looking back. That is we need to pray and BELIEVE that God is able to do what it is we are asking. Once we ask we need to let it go and trust it to God. Yes we should continue to pray that He do His will and that he heal, but not because we think He did not hear us the first time.
I found an article written by Roderick Meredith, that talks about prayer in 12 "keys". It does a pretty good job of laying out the whole picture of prayer as I have started to learn it (article: 12 Keys to Answered Prayer). In the latest with my mom I struggled for at least a week, worrying and trying to give it over to Jesus to deal with but was not successful. I am not sure exactly what happened to change this but one day I decided that I had not been praying with faith. I know God is capable but I did not pray that way. It was almost like clamoring up a hill with loose rock just trying to reach the top instead of taking the rope that had been dropped right next to me. When I decided to take whole of that rope it was amazing the relief and it was astounding how things improved. I do not think that my prayer is the only one that God listens to, especially when I know people across the world have been praying for our family (and thank you we are a blessed family) but one chink in the armor can cause it to fail right?
This got me to thinking about miracles. I wonder if more miracles would happen today if we believed better and had faith that made people turn their heads, faith to move mountains perhaps?
My mom is doing very well, and has moved now to a rehabilitation hospital where she is learning to work with her new hip. It looks like she has about 6 weeks until she can return home! I am excited to see her and talk to her about her progress. God will continue to bless her and mend her body, and I have faith that her lungs will be healed also.
Wow, I started this post today thinking I had little to say but here I am with even more thoughts to share. To close out I want to say how proud I am of my mom. I don't know what it was but at some point during her time of crisis she made a decision that she was not done with fighting with her body. She is an amazingly strong woman in faith and fight. It was after this decision that I started to see big changes in her progress, both mentally and physically, and to God we must be grateful for giving her that character. I don't get my ability to push myself in sport from nowhere. My dad has lots of athletic talent, but my mom holds some personality traits that also come into play and I am proud to share those with her. And on the topic of family, my sister has also shown the same fight and persistence in life in her battle with weight loss. She is doing such an amazing job despite a lifetime of disliking sport she has found a love and desire to make a change. I am so incredibly proud of her and I am realizing as I type that God might be teaching me something through both of them
Both of these women in my life are great examples of surrendering fear, failures, worry and a host of other things for the grace of God and his great plan for life. I am learning more from them every day.
As I approach the start of a new training cycle I am tentative, I am scared and I find myself trying to create "plan B, C" etc, but guess what God has told me time and again that the only plan is His plan and I should simply go with that. So, day by day I walk toward an end I am not sure, but in the end I can be sure that God's true Will is there.
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