God's Promise

Ok, so this is a little long, but I will try to get the point across in a brief space!

My friend had gastric bypass surgery. She wants to run a marathon in honor of her losing over 100 lbs. However, she wanted me (the "athlete") to run it with her, so she would be more motivated and things are always easier with a friend. Well, after debating, being negative and hating myself, I felt obligated to give her her wish. So, I am two weeks into training for a marathon that we will run February 15th. (What a way to spend valentine's right???)

So come Wed, I am having the most horrible day of my life. My children were all moody, cranky and crying; I was moody, cranky and crying. I do say I was at the bottom of the barrel. And at that point, a barrel would have been nice! I was fighting with Big J- and my kids, it was awful.

Finally at 7:15 I decide to go run to get my running in for the day. (yes, I did not feel like showing my redened madened face in public at church.) As I go outside, dreading the heat and the running, Big J- tells me I better run then b/c it is going to rain soon. I take off doing my timing and working on all that we are supposed to for our "training." I round the corner of our street and yep - raindrops; fast, hard, many raindrops. "God, what are you doing to me, I was already down, did you have to add rain?" I dig down deep and remember them saying at our meeting, we will run in rain, sleet, snow; we must train. "OK, God, I am in training. I am determined. I will run the race. I will fight the fight, but God, I am down and I need you to do this. I have nothing left in me and I am beaten. You will have to get me through this!" I make it around the corner of our subdivision and I look up in the sky and see it - a promise, just beaming beautifully at me. The biggest, brightest rainbow I have ever seen in my life. "Ok, Amy, I am here. You are not alone, I will never leave you. I will carry you and I will get you to the finish life. It will be ok, and the sun will shine tomorrow. I promise!"

Oh, I have never felt such peace in life. It was a different peace. I ran the rest of my time and just focused. I couldn't listen to my music, I couldn't look at the houses and my watch, I just looked straight ahead and focused. This has so much more meaning than the marathon. I just had to be training for the marathon to see that I was at my bottom or I would have never seen His promise. This is our spiritual walk: testing, obedience, endurance, questioning, recognizing, hitting the bottom and in the end - peace in being lifted up.

If you have been keeping up with my blog, you know how God has been at work in my life. You know that he transforming me and "training" me. All I have to do, is stay on course and run the race and follow through with my training. How awesome is that? He has made a promise!

and the winner is............

Ok, i took the five people who responded and wrote all your names on a piece of paper. i included you busy suzanne - if you have time to be blogging at 8:30 in the morning, you have time to read a book!!!!

i then drew a name out of a cup and JILL O'BRYANT, you are the next winner in the Skizzer book contest!!!

Yea! Let me tell you what you will win - you will be receiving the book in the next few days. Read it, sign it, and play the game yourself. Then ship it off to the next person. Be sure to tell me when you are playing the game, so I can track it on my blog for those that did not win.

Congratulations!!!!!

Game Time!!!!!

A friend of mine started a book game for bloggers. I have read the book and am now having a contest. To compete in the contest, you must comment that you are interested. I will give you a number to all commenters. Then on Wednesday, I will draw a number and notify the winner! So comment that you want to play and then check back on Wednesday to see who the lucky winner is. I will then mail the book to the WINNER and then they will do the same as they read the book.

Now that you know the game, here is some info on the book. It is titled "Skizzer" and is written by A.J. Kiesling. She is a Christian writer, but this is her first non-fiction book.

Summary: A lady discovers her sister is missing. While trying to find her, she has to dig and research their past to figure out where she is. While she is researching, she uncovers lots of "issues" and skeletons in closets that she was not aware of.

It is an awesome, easy and fast reading book. I love how the author puts subtle christian values and ideas throughout the book. It is interesting and hard to put down once you start!

Detour in Direction

As Kirk and I were talking one late night with his sister and brother-in-law, R-man told us this story:

Sometimes God uses decoys to get us to do what he wants us to. He used two coffee mugs on the table to make his point. Look at these two mugs. These represent two different things. I notice the black mug immediately and am attracted to it. I think, ok, this is what God wants for me. So I head towards the black mug. Right when I get to the mug, I find it's gone! What? I thought I was doing God's will for me. Where is my black mug? However, off on the other side is a blue mug. Where did that come from? I never saw that mug. Then you realize that the blue mug was next to the black mug when you first noticed the black mug. Since you were so attracted to the black mug, you never took notice of the blue mug. God knew you would need a "decoy" to get you to the place where he wanted you. He used the black mug to attract you to that direction and then changed the course for you.

R-man had no idea how this was so true in my own life. We were talking more about church and religion, but this was true for my professional life, too. We live in China Spring school district. We love it and are so happy with our kids going to school there. I have wanted to get a job there, but there are never openings. When there was an opening, the HS principal's wife got it before I got the interview. I kept getting frustrated. I want to be at China Spring! Then I get a call from another school five miles from our house for an interview. I then discover that the principal is a guy I knew in college. I took the job - only as a second choice. However now things are a little more clear and I realize this is the best for me and my family. It is a 1-A school, I will be teaching 8th grade English/Reading and speech. They have a daycare for teachers' kids, a preschool and Syd is exciting about transferring. We will all be at one school, I can see Tater's room from my room, I will be able to see them during the day and hopefully eat lunch with them sometimes, and attend their parties and such. I was at a school with over a 30 minute drive and I had 130 papers to grade. The work load was overwhelming epsecially with my youngins. I am so excited to get to take my kids with me and home with me. No drop offs here and there and extra stops on the way home. Pay-cut, yes; but more valuable in other ways!!!!

China Spring was my black mug and Bosqueville is my blue mug. Isn't it great that God is in control? We have no idea what is really BEST for us, but God does........