so, i had a thought today.
i woke up this morning and ate a huge bowl of cheerios. about 5 minutes later, mom said, "hey, do you want to go for a run with me?" without hesitation i said, "yeah ok... i guess it's about time". my goodness - if i had gone by myself i think i would have stopped after about 100 m because i was tired already. but i kept going, mostly because i didn't want to be shown up by my mother too much. but after i stopped and she kept going, i started thinking about how similar this was to my weekend.
i had a really good time with one of my best friends this weekend - we laughed, talked and prayed together... she even cried on my shoulder. but we did it together. she said, "hey andrea, do you want to pray with me?", to which my response was similar to "yeah ok... i guess it's about time".
it's amazing to me how much farther we can travel, learn, and even think when there's someone beside us who's been there, who has done the training, and is encouraging you along. they know that you're limited because you haven't done this in a long time, but they're willing to go a bit slower so you can come along too. they're leading by example, and you can tell that they've done the work to get to where they are. you can see in them the fitness that they've attained, and even without them saying anything about it, it gives you incentive to finish the goal. to work harder. to get to where they are. i think that's why testimony is so powerful. it speaks to your own life without meaning to - you get to put the pieces together yourself instead of someone else doing it for you.
and those cheerios - man, i was regretting eating them really soon into our jog. it's not that they're bad for me, but for what i was doing, they were the wrong thing to put into my system. so as i look to eat healthy, shouldn't i be looking to feed my mind with healthy things? there are so many shows on tv, songs on the radio, magazines on the stand that aren't outrightly BAD for me... but for what i'm doing, they're not really helping me; they might just be holding me back.