Running Towards Gratitude

I’ve been feeling a little bit better recently. I’m finally starting to see results from my “time out” and I’ve gone from having 5-7 seizures every day to last week having roughly 2-3 a day. Which is awesome!

I’ve been taking a lot of walks recently. And gradually, I’ve pushed myself to go farther and farther on these walks. Sometimes it’s been accidental (I wonder where this road comes out?) and other times I am testing my body and brain to find its limit. Probably not what the doctor would order but…

Anyway, with all this walking, I’ve just been itching to go for a run. It’s been sooooo long and the weather has been beautiful and I thought, surely if I can walk 4 miles, I can do a short run, right? So this morning I woke up feeling a little extra ambitious and thought, this is the day, I’m going for it. I had walked a route yesterday that was about 1.7 miles so I planned to run that same route.

I started out nice and easy and within the first 2 minutes I could feel the pressure building in my head but I wasn’t giving up that easy. I pushed and pushed until it got to the point where I was kind of scared that if I kept going, something drastic might have to happen (like a horrible ambulance ride, ugh.) So I came down to a walk and looked at my running app- 1.02 miles.

Instantly I felt this sense of defeat. Defeat, because I didn’t complete the run and walked back, which I hate doing. If you had told me two years ago that soon I would barely be able to run 1 mile, I would have laughed at you.

But in that walk back home, I had time to pray. I realized that it’s a blessing to be able to do all the walking I’ve been doing in the first place. It’s a blessing that I’m not shut up at home all the time, but can be out and about doing things. And what I really should be doing is thanking God for that one mile, instead of discarding it in disgust. I kind of needed an attitude change and to remember all the things I have to be thankful for.

And so today, I am grateful that I could not complete a run so that God could remind me of his goodness and give me time to thank him for it.

 

A Thankful Heart

 

I feel very thankful right now and I think that’s a problem.

I think we have this idea that thankfulness is a feeling.  When things go our way, when we get what we want, we are then thankful.  I don’t think that is God’s idea of thankfulness.

“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”  1 Thess. 5:18

Oh, it’s so easy to be thankful when we are feeling blessed and loved, when someone does something extra special for you, when you get to visit your family for thanksgiving.  But God calls us to be thankful in all circumstances. When we are homesick or lonely, when our car breaks down, when you receive an unkind look from someone.  That’s when it’s hard to be grateful.  I think it’s a conscious choice we must make. We must DECIDE to be thankful. Are you a saved son or daughter of the King? Then you always have an amazing reason to be thankful to our Savior!  You always have a reason to be joyful and full of gratitude!  No matter what is going on around you, you are blessed beyond belief!

This Thanksgiving, I am thankful for sanctification. I am thankful for God’s ever-loving hand that teaches me and brings me constantly closer to Him. I am thankful for the hard lessons that cause me to love Him more. I am thankful for His grace in my life.

I am thankful.