12 in 2012 - February

My scripture for February is Ephesians 4:31-32.

Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

I like this scripture because it reminds us that we need to rid ourselves of bitterness and anger. I want to put away these things from my life and choose to focus on positive things. God has forgiven us our sins through no act of our own other than to ask and believe. Who are we to hold on to anger and wrath?

Review: In An Instant

I finished reading "In An Instant" by Lee & Bob Woodruff last week. My sister in law gave me the book for my birthday in 2007 when the book was first published. I was really excited about reading the book when I first received it but it got put on the bookshelf and forgotten about. Every once in a while I would go to the bookcase when I was ready to start a new book and I would see "In An Instant" sitting there. I would usually tell myself I was not in the mood to read this story thinking that it would be kind of a "downer".  Finally, I pulled it off the shelf the week before Christmas and started reading.

For those of you unfamiliar with the book, "In An Instant" is the story of Bob Woodruff's near-death experience in Iraq while he was embedded with the military. Bob fell victim to an IED and suffered a severe brain injury. The book's narration alternates between Bob and his wife, Lee. The book is as much about Lee and how she coped with this terrible situation as it is about Bob's recovery. There is also a great deal in the book about the Woodruff's marriage and their careers. I found the way they have supported each other and made sacrifices for each other over the course of their marriage to be admirable.

This is a great story that was not at all depressing to me. Instead, I found it inspirational. It gave me a desire to strive to be a better partner in my relationship.

12 Months of Scripture

Crystal Lewis is one of my favorite christian recording artists. I recently started following her on Twitter (@thecrystallewis) and now I am also following her blog (crystallewis.blogspot.com). I love her idea for the new year to pick and memorize one scripture for the month. She invited her followers to share their scripture with her on her blog.

I picked 2nd Peter 1 5-8 as my scripture for January.

...add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;

And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness.

And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.

For if these things are in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I also want to share Crystal's scripture for January which is an awesome scripture to start the new year.

1st Timothy 6 11-12

...and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.

Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold of eternal life...

These scriptures will be my mantra for January.

Why I Run

If you told me a year ago that I would be running anywhere I would have laughed at you. I have never considered myself athletically inclined. In grade school I was always the last kid to be picked for anything. I was awkward and uncoordinated. Team sports always made me feel uncomfortable. As I got older I knew that I should be doing some type of physical activity as my metabolism slowed down and my pants mysteriously seemed to shrink a size every few months. My problem was finding an activity that held my interest. Joining a gym? Too intimidating!  Running on a treadmill? Too boring. So for many years I did what many of us do and continued to eat what I wanted and bought new clothes as the old ones "shrunk".

In January of 2011 my employer offered a 12 week Weight Watchers program for free if you went to all the meetings. I think to myself "how easy is that?" and I signed up. My first weigh in was 202 pounds. After the first couple weeks I could not be bothered any more with counting points but I got into their Power Foods program and I was starting to lose weight.

In February my employer offers to pay the entry fees for anyone who wanted to participate in the Louisville Triple Crown of Running. The Triple Crown consists of a 5K, 10K and 10 mile race each spaced two weeks apart. My friend and coworker, James, emailed me and suggested we do it. I replied back to him "you have fun with that!" Later that day I started thinking about it again and told myself that it would help me lose weight. If I couldn't finish the race at a run at least I could walk. So I signed up and I started training. My first goal was to finish the 5K without stopping to rest.

The day of the 5K came and I was nervous. I had absolutely no idea what to expect. For some reason I expected everyone to be hardcore. To be sure there were hardcore individuals there. But there was also just about every other type of individual there you can imagine. Young, old, thick, thin and everything in between. There was nothing intimidating about. In fact, there was a sense of community and camaraderie. I finished the first race (without stopping to walk) and I was hooked. I completed 8 races in 2011 including 1 half marathon (more on that later).

I don't run as much as I would like. I am not the fastest or the strongest. I don't have the most endurance. But I try. I love the feeling of accomplishment when I finish a run. I appreciate the way running makes me feel physically. I like the fact that running gives me a little time to myself to clear my head. I have been able to keep my weight around 180 pounds since mid-April and running has certainly played a part in my ability to maintain that.