Bold Moves

Hello everyone; it’s been a long time! The journey has continued and I’m not going to lie and say that everything is ok now. I miss Dad so much and even more when I go home to visit Mom. The old saying is so true, to take one day at a time.
Because of the turmoil of the year and the extra travel associated with my daughter’s pageant title responsibilities, I had planned to take this year off — no marathon. I just didn’t have time to log miles like I had in previous years. And…I didn’t have the motivation.
Then I heard about Team World Vision (TWV) and during a sermon at my church on the Holy Spirit, I basically engaged in an argument with Him. I know when God is nudging me because he’ll pop thoughts into my head that I know aren’t mine. So throughout the sermon I’m having this debate with the Holy Spirit…basically being told to run for TWV and me saying “I don’t want to run a marathon this year.” At the end of the sermon, the thoughts went away and I felt bad…because I’m trying to do better at listening and obeying God and here I was saying “no.” As we stood to sing the closing hymn this thought popped into my head, “I didn’t give you the ability to run for no reason.” Indeed. I sang the song and immediately after told my Hubby, “Apparently, I’m running the KC Marathon for TWV.”
So….here’s what I’ve learned about this encounter. I am not a typical runner as you all know…I’m not fast or tall or thin. Yet God did give me a strong body and I have completed 5 full marathons and 19 half-marathons. 4 out of the 5 full marathons were for charity. I think God is nudging me to the next step of my grief journey…to get back to focusing on helping others which in turn helps myself. He’s telling me to stop looking inward to my own pain. And so my running is therapy as it always has been and a time to grow my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The truth is that our time on earth is unknown to us so we should use our time for positive things that lift people up instead of tearing them down. For me, that means running with TWV and raising $ to create clean water sources for communities in Africa that sorely need it. Can you imagine drinking filthy, contaminated water??
I’m asking that you support me in one or all of the following:
1. Keep me in your prayers between now and Oct 15th! The big miles are coming.
2. Visit my TWV fundraising page and donate, any amount would help.
3. Hold me accountable…remind me to focus on others when I have my sorrow moments and remind me that pizza and wine are not good marathon diet choices – ha!
www.teamworldvision.org/participant/ArmyDi
Hugs to you all!