Training Begins

Today is the first day of 12 weeks of training in order to get ready for my 2nd half marathon.  Today's workout was all about the legs and abs.  It was pretty much the same leg workout we have done for the past three months except we increased in weight today.  So here is the breakdown:

LEGS:

3 sets leg press 130 lbs.

3 sets machine kickbacks 35 lbs.

3 sets seated hamstring curl 65 lbs

3 sets stiff legged deadlift 50 lb barbell

3 sets leg extension- 2 sets at 85 lbs, 1 set 90 lbs

3 sets outer abductors 85 lbs

3 sets inner abductors 85 lbs.

3 sets calf raises 35 lbs - 1 set toes straight, 1 toes pointed out, 1 toes pointed in

ABS:

3 sets weighted crunches on decline bench with 10 lbs.

3 sets leg lifts

3 sets side bends on chair with 12 lbs.

3 sets standing side bends with 12 lbs.

The next 12 weeks is going to be all about pushing my body to new limits and also learning to eat in order for my body to have the proper amount of fuel to keep up with all the training.  The eating part is definitely going to be my biggest challenge.  The more I read the more confused I get...lol.  Besides that, this girl likes to have a candy bar or cupcake from time to time :).  Anyway, I'm going to journal the process...what works and doesn't work.  This way I can look back and see my progress and what foods worked and what didn't.  Maybe it will help someone else too.

Talk to you tomorrow!

I surrender...

This morning during my devotion the Lord really spoke to me.  Not only about forgiveness which was the topic of the devotion but on a couple of other things.  One being my salvation.  I grew up in church. For as far back as I remember, if it was Sunday or Wednesday, I was in church.  I remember being at a revival when I was seven at the Gardendale High School football stadium and at the end of the sermon seeing a lot of people going down to the bottom and praying.  I asked my daddy what they were doing and he said that many of them were asking Jesus to come into their hearts.  He asked me if I wanted to do that and of course I said yes...I mean what little girl who has learned about Jesus all her short life doesn't want that.  I prayed that prayer with my child like faith and was baptized within a couple of weeks.  Life for me at seven went on as normal.  Then in 1989 while away at church camp, I remember being moved by the Spirit that I needed to give my life to Christ which I thought I had done many years before as a young child but nevertheless, the push was strong and couldn't be denied.  So once again I gave my life to Christ but this time I wasn't baptized.  It wasn't long after this that my parents divorced and as if that wasn't enough, was deeply hurt by the church I was attending.  I quit going to church at 14.  I went on to live my life as a typical teenager.  I don't want to say that I turned my back on God but I did turn my back on His church.  I wanted nothing to do with a place that could treat me and my mother that way and call themselves Christians.  Over the course of my teen years I did a lot of things I am not too proud of ....did things that I knew I shouldn't and I overlooked the convictions of the Holy Spirit.  I prayed but mostly when I needed something from God.  I look back now and realize that His hand never left me and that it is because of His love and mercy that I am where I am now.  It wasn't until my daughter was about 8 years old that I went back to church.  She had been going with my grandmother and one day, God said to me..."It isn't your grandmother's responsibility to have Mikaela in church.  I have given that responsibility to you and Michael."  We both knew this was true and did just that.  We found a place and began taking our children to church.  The Lord really began to do a work in my life there.  I found a place to serve and both my children prayed to receive Christ and were baptized there.  For a time I served as the women's ministry leader and I loved it!  Now during this time, the Lord began reminding me to follow in believer's baptism and I just kept saying..."But Lord what will people think? What ministry leader hasn't been baptized...people will talk."  I didn't do what He told me to do because of my ego and worry of what others would think of me.  It's been a little over two years since that initial prodding and A LOT has happened.  I have begged and pleaded to understand all that has gone on.  I have gotten pretty mad at times too.  All that has been accomplished is that I have found myself doubting my salvation over and over again.  Going over and over it in my mind but being sure to tell no one because...what would they think of me. Afterall, I had been a ministry leader.  I led bible studies.  Today, in a devotion about forgiveness, I learned by identity is in Christ not others and who cares what others may say.  Isn't my eternity and God's sacrifice of His son more important than what others think of me?  Today, I learned that my prayer in 89 was real but I had treated it as a "fire-insurance policy"....that I had never truly surrendered my life.  Today, I surrendered my life!!! I say all this because I wonder how many people make professions of faith at a young age and then as they get older never really deal with the Lord about their salvation because they worry what others will think.  That was me. Without really knowing how to say this, my salvation experience has been a growing process.  I prayed a prayer at 7 because I loved the stories about God and Jesus and wanted Him to be in my heart.  As a young teen, understanding more about who Jesus was and what He did for me I prayed that prayer again.  Today, as an adult, with even more understanding, I surrendered my life.  And when we find the new church home God has for us, I will be baptized not worrying about what others think but instead, to show my Heavenly Father how proud I am that I am His child.

Isn't it amazing what God will do in our lives thru a simple devotion :)

James 1:12

“Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.” James 1:12 (NIV 1984)


I often find myself worried about tomorrow...worried about next month...just worried in general.  I try to remind myself that I am not alone.. that I don't have to face this by myself ... that I don't have to rely on myself to fix everything.  But yet every time the life lesson comes my way, I take it on by myself...I rely on my strengths to fix it.  It isn't until it is out of control that I take it to God...in a panic!!!! Needing an immediate fix...knowing that sometimes that immediate fix may not happen...that there is a lesson in the waiting...that there is an opportunity for growth in the waiting.


My devotion this morning was from Proverbs 31 ministries and it included the verse referenced above.  In the devotion I was reminded that so many times I focus on the trial instead of the ONE who is going to carry me through it.  I know that God is calling me to a renewed dependence and surrender.  He is calling me to Him.  In Deutoronomy 31:8 He reminds me that He will never leave me or forsake me.  He reminded me that just because my prayer isn't being answered immediately or at all doesn't mean that He isn't listening, acting on my behalf or at my side but instead that He has something for me learn and something better in store for me than what I want or am asking for.  Maybe it's time that I stop just claiming Jeremiah 29:11 as my life verse and start believing it!


Dear Heavenly Father,

You know the struggles we face today.  They are not new.  They are the same struggles we have had for 13 years.  Lord, I bring them to you today because I am so tired of being in the same place.  I seek your guidance and your will.  I don't seek my fix for this situation any longer but yours and I ask that you would give us the strength we need to walk thru this valley and get to the mountain top.  Help us to have discipline and will power to change the things in our behavior that need to change.  Lord, see us to financial peace.  Forgive us for not being good stewards of your many blessings and help us to change that starting today.  Thank you for the trials that have brought us to this place..that are bringing us closer to you and to one another.  Lord, continue to remind us daily that we do not face these challenges alone and that Your love for us is CONSTANT and that our circumstances are not a reflection of a changing love or Your absence. Help us to wait on You, to trust in You and to depend on You.  I love you!  In Jesus Name, AMEN

Happy New Year!

Well, here it is January 1, 2012!  I started this year worshiping God with my whole family...which is an answer to prayer.  I took so much away from this mornings service...here are a few of the highlights.
1.  Don't carry the baggage from 2011 into 2012.
2. Worship EVERYDAY, in ALL things.
3. Worship isn't something we attend or something we do...it's who we are.
I'm saying goodbye to a lot more than just a year.  I'm saying goodbye to my home of almost 14 years, to my church of  5 years and in the past couple of years I've had to say goodbye to people I thought I would never have to say goodbye to.  In all these things, I can still look back and see where God has been faithful.  I say I can "look back"...in the moments I couldn't see what on earth He was doing. I have to remember He doesn't ask me to understand...He asks me to have FAITH in the One who is able :)  So here we go...moving forward in faith.  I will not sit here and mull over all the bad the last 2 years has brought..I will look to 2012 with great anticipation of the wonderful things coming our way.  It truly is a year of new beginnings.  It reminds me of

Lamentations 3:22-24  "Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed,    for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning;    great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion;    therefore I will wait for him.”  

Isn't that wonderful?  Every day that we are given is a day where His mercies are new and we can start fresh!

So here's to the new and the beginning chapter of Journey 29:11!