Marathon Or Grave Digging?

Proverbs 17:22

New Living Translation (NLT)22 A cheerful heart is good medicine,    but a broken spirit saps a person’s strength.my Glitter Milker

With our friends leaving back to Pennsylvania this morning and Chloe leaving to the beach around lunch, the only sounds heard around the house were those of the washing machine and the dryer.  A very quiet first day of summer and the longest day of the year.  I will likely be asleep before dark and have been lounging most of the day trying to recover from a week of fun!  I always say you need a vacation from your vacation and I assume our friends will have a nice quiet week of no zoo, lake, Alamo, or Dippin' Dots(those were a hit).  I think Fiesta Texas is in my future next week, but for now I will enjoy milking alone.  Wait, I don't like milking alone!!!!!  My Glitter Milker is now in Pennsylvania because her parents refuses to let her stay with me.  After a few days I think she would've been fine!!

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!

Today I received a text message from a friend who was down trodden.  She couldn't understand why things were so hard right now.  Here is my simple-minded view.  Life is good and bad.  It has ups and downs and sometimes it just stays the same.  We have seasons in life much like spring, summer, autumn, and winter.  They aren't in order and they aren't necessarily in the same pattern all the time.  If you imagine life to be like training for a marathon, instead of the shovel digging your grave, it seems less daunting.

When you train for a marathon, you start with a little bit each day.  You begin by walking, then a brisk jog, more jogging, and then half marathons until you get to full throttle.  Marathons are NOT an easy task and are NOT for the faint of heart.  I have chosen NEVER to run a marathon as the race of life offers enough adventure for me.

The training can get hard as does the stuff in your life.  The fighting, sickness, death, or financial hardships are all training.  Wait, not your death as your death would mean the end of the race and therefore I have no more advice!  Approach each day with gladness and excitement.  Today may contain the husband you've always dreamed of, the best job, the new opportunity, or the healing you've been praying for for years.  Today may also contain no perfect spouse, no great job, no amazing opportunity and continued sickness.  You can decide to be sad about your situation or you can place all the stuff on the cross(as instructed) and take one step forward.  Can you have a bad day??  Sure!!  But when you are done, pick yourself up by the boot straps(that is what they are there for in case you didn't know!) and keep stepping one foot in front of the other.

I think having kids has helped me to be more easily able to move forward.  I have to move forward for them.  I can't pout(for very long) and sit in sadness forever because kids ask you, "Mom, why are you sad?"  Some of my friends who don't have children find it harder to pull out of the funk especially if their spouse or significant other is not supportive.  Don't worry about their support.  All you really need is to look toward heaven.

Philippians 4:6

New International Version (NIV)

⁶ Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

I hope you will find some sort of encouragement in this post tonight.  I needed to remind myself to move forward.  Life is precious and this week of having my friend and her family over for a visit went so quickly!  Life is over in a FLASH!!  Enjoy it!  Move forward, don't look back and spread joy.  Oh and WORLD PEACE!

I am thankful for the safe travels had by my friends.(Day 169).  Goodnight Friends.