Surrender

 Week 5 Run With Endurance Recap ~ RESPONSIBILITY

Lily pads ~ a pause on my run

Paul writes in Galatians 6 that each of us is responsible for our own conduct.
We are afforded God's grace for salvation and also for living out that salvation. But we each are RESPONSIBLE for surrendering to His grace.

Paul pleased three times that the thorn in his flesh would depart. Yet God responded, "My grace is sufficient for you for my strength is made perfect in weakness" 2nd Cor. 12:9.

In order to realize God's grace for living, we must surrender to it and believe that it is sufficient...that it is enough for us even in our darkest days. 

In doing that, we then see strength being perfected or completed in the weakness of our flesh.

Point to Ponder: What specific area in your life do you need to surrender to God's grace? 

Unify Yourself!

Out for a run ~

Week 4 RWE (Run With Endurance) recap

UNITY

In the book of Ephesians, Paul writes, that we are to endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
 

While the context is concerning unity among believers, I want to reflect upon unity as it relates to the individual.

 ~~~

Spiritual application: 
What does it take to be a person whose body, soul and spirit are unified? I believe it means living non-hypocritically. Do I present one attitude on the outside while harboring the opposite on the inside? 

In order to live in unity and with peace among others, we must first begin with ourselves. 

After all, we bring ourselves “to the table” in any relationship. Start within to endeavor to keep the unity in the bond of peace without.  

~~~

Physical application:  
To become a “unified” person whose outside reflects the inside, what is known in the counseling profession as “congruency,” I have 3 factors that will help us reach personal unity:

~~~

* Set personal boundaries.

* Determine what you are willing to do.

* Do that with a good attitude.

~~~

Make every effort to keep yourself unified in spirit and at peace.

Singing in the Kitchen

Big Girl Pants Productions

Interrupting this "running" blog to link a recording of myself and my daughter, Audra, singing Smokey Robinson's "The Tracks of My Tears."
Vocals ~ Melanie & Audra "Big Girl Pants Productions"
Guitar ~ Audra

Every once in awhile we sit down together and work on a song. We learned this in an hour this afternoon and recorded it at the kitchen counter.
Click here to follow the link and listen. Enjoy!

11 Good Things

A view from my favorite park where I run ~

Most days I run alone but a couple of times a week I  run with one of my friends. There are good things about  both and while out running today, I mentally composed a list (because it's hard to run with a laptop) of 10 good things about running solo ~ or not. 

Good things about running alone

• You can spit when you need to.

• You can speed up or slow down when you want to.

• You don’t have to worry about interrupting yourself when you are talking to yourself.

• You don’t have to be concerned whether if you smell your own stink, your running partner may smell you too.

• You don’t have to apologize if you get distracted and lose your train of thought in a conversation. (Pretty flowers! Look at that bird! What a weird tree! What was I saying?)

• It’s easier to run faster when you’re not carrying on a conversation.

Good things about running with a friend

• You get to share the experience.

• You can swap stories about how your week’s going.

• You get to use up some excess words so you don’t wear your (not nearly as talkative) husband out.

• You are able to multi-task a workout with a social visit.

• You can "do life" on the running path together.

What about you? Do you prefer to run alone or with a friend?

Determination

mossy trees in the park where I run

Week 3 –Our Run With Endurance (RWE) Focus for the week: 

DETERMINATION

Physical application ~ 

Determination depends upon having a made up mind. Once you make up your mind to do a thing, the usual culprits that tempt you lose a great deal of their power.
A determined mind is a powerful thing. Combine that with prayer and creating an environment that is supportive of your goals, and there is nothing that can stop you but you!

Spiritual application ~ 

We must also be determined in our pursuit of God. Paul the Apostle wrote to the Christians in Corinth, "For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2).
To grow spiritually, we must have the same determination. We must check ourselves to see if our notion of following Christ is the pursuit of our passion, purpose or calling. The cure for that is to DETERMINE that above all other things - even worthy things - we will follow hard after Christ and trust that everything else that glorifies God will follow that!

Eating on the RUN

Greek Salad

Because I work from home I also have the time to cook. A lot! On an average week I prepare 14 meals and sometimes more than that. We rarely eat out. Actually I enjoy the cooking part but I can't say the same for the clean up.

I am what my mother would  call "a good eater." I grew up on delicious, home cooked food in the tradition of Southern Cuisine and if I had to pick one cuisine to eat for the rest of my life it would be the food I grew up eating from Mother's southern kitchen.

Fortunately I don't have to choose and now as the "chef" of my kitchen, I like to try out new recipes and also tweak the old ones to make them healthier.

For week two of my Run With Endurance Group, our focus was on what we eat. The Bible tells us that our bodies are the "temples" of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we are admonished to give due care to the bodies that house the Spirit of God. One of the best ways to care for our bodies is to eat nutritiously and an easy way to do that is to increase your fiber intake.

Physically ~ Specifically let's zero in on our fiber intake which should be about 25 grams/day for women and 35 grams for men. Fiber is the fibrous part of a plant food that your body does not digest. It acts as a broom to sweep our "temples" clean. It also helps us feel full and as we eat more fiber we will eat less "junk."

Easy Ways to Increase Your Fiber Intake 

 (I rounded the gram counts to the nearest whole number.)

1 serving cooked oatmeal - 4 grams
2 tsp. cinnamon - 2 grams
Lite multi-grain English muffin (Thomas brand) - 8 grams
1 cup of coffee - 2 grams

organic apple with skin - 4 grams
1 cup blueberries - 4 grams
1 medium orange - 3 grams
1 medium banana - 3 grams

1 cup avocado - 10 grams
1 cup baked sweet potato - 4 grams
1 cup corn - 4 grams

1 cup pinto beans or black beans - 15 grams
1 cup cooked turnip greens - 5 grams
1 cup cooked spinach - 4 grams

Spiritually ~ When Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tested, He responded to the temptation of turning stones into bread with this, "Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God" Matt. 4:4.
In what way will you feed your spirit this week? As you nourish your body, so must you make wise decisions and cultivate healthy habits to nourish your spirit. 

One of the most powerful spiritual disciplines I practice is a routine plan to memorize two scriptural passages each month. I'll be sharing more about this on my faith blog found here.

I'll come back and link the post on scripture memorization when it's up.  

Am I Willing?

Run With Endurance ~ Tampa Bay chapter

I've just started a local chapter of Run With Endurance. RWE was founded by Casie Dussia and is an organization based on Hebrews 12:1: "...let us run with endurance the race that is set before us..."

The RWE mission: To equip women to be who God created them to be by building endurance physically and spiritually to run their personal race.  

The local chapter that I am leading meets on Saturday mornings from 8:30 - 9:30 at a local park. We have women of various ages and stages in life. We are open to any woman in overall good health. We meet, have prayer and walk or run for 35 minutes. Following our work-out, we stretch and I lead our Bible study, which lasts about 20 minutes. 
Our first 9 week study is the ENDURANCE series. Last week our focus was creating an environment that is conducive to moving closer to our spiritual and physical goals. 

Our week one scripture: "As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend." Proverbs 27:17 NLT

I gave our group a point to ponder:
"What are you willing to do to move closer to your goals?"

So often we have a mental list of what we ought to do or of what someone else is doing. Rather than setting a goal that is beyond what you are willing to maintain, why not decide what it is that you are actually willing to do and just do that. It may only be one thing. But it may be the one thing that you can maintain and build upon. And that may be the very thing that leads you a step closer to personal success.

If you live in the Tampa Bay area and are interested in learning more about Run With Endurance, email me at mdorsey@tampabay.rr.com and put RWE in the subject line. 

In the meantime, as you consider your own desire for personal growth, what are you willing to do to get there?