The season of Lent is upon us. If you didn't already know I and my kiddos are practicing Catholics, hubby is a different Christian religion. While I generally keep religious and political commentary to myself, hubby or extremely close family I wanted to share what I will be doing for Lent this season. I have traditionally in the past given up such things as chocolate, ice cream, meat (for the entire 40 days- not just Fridays), soda, Facebook, etc. I have for the past few years tried to include something positive for myself as well during Lent: committing to more peaceful parenting, praying more, being healthier, as I felt that just denying myself something was not enough.
This year it has been tough trying to decide what exactly it is that I want/need to do with my life. With all the chaos of the move, licensure issues, financial woes, I just didn't know would be best. I really had this feeling that giving up sweets was inadequate seeing that God has provided my family with so much financial support via our extended family. I have made the commitment to be a healthier me. Which while I know that sounds vague in the extreme, specifically it means returning to working out 3 times per week (probably running) and counting calories to get back on the weight loss train. God gave me this body and it is my responsibility to take care of it for me, to be there for my children and out of respect for God.
You can imagine that after almost 5 consecutive years of pregnancy and pursuing a PhD I was not in tip-top shape and had gained some weight. Between pregnancies I was working out inconsistently and during pregnancy it was even worse. After Miss B was born I was committed to being healthy and began running. While I have never been a runner (I swam in high school), it was the fastest, easiest, cheapest way for me to tone up, lose weight and get healthy. Prior to the move I was running 2-3 times per week, with each run being about 3 miles and I had just started to include one 5 mile run per week. While I wasn't training for anything specific, it was just to keep me healthy. I have been running infrequently since we moved to our new location, but I am committing this Lent to returning to working out 3 times per week. So my friends, I am asking you to hold me accountable!
Now here is an interesting thing that happens to me while I run. I will suddenly have an overwhelming need to pray in the middle of my run, usually this occurs during the last half. It may be something as simple as Thank You Lord, or bless and protect my family/friends, to something more in-depth, or even just reciting prayers that I learned as a child. I don't have a clue if this happens to anyone else, but I would love to hear from you if it does. So maybe this commitment to running and being a healthy me is another way that God is drawing me closer to him. How is God calling you this Lent?
Did you know that the removal of things during Lent is supposed to be an opportunity to draw closer to faith? In the time that we have NOT doing whatever we gave up, we have time to pray, read our bible, attend an extra service... whatever. I think running is wonderful because it is giving you time to draw closer to God.
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