He stretched and stretched and stretched.. As I stood there impatiently ( yup because unfortunately that is how I roll) drinking my chai, wondering why my husband was stretching my son like he was running a full marathon, when he was only doing 200 meters.
"Hon, hurry I want to make sure I get a good spot so I can see him run, its getting crowded." "Mommy I have to stretch for my marathon." To me it was 200 meters to him it was a marathon that he has been counting down the days to. Finally, lil Carl Lewis and his coached were done and with all excitement my son showed me how he was going to run, game face and all.
As they called out for his age bracket to line up, I turned to him and say run well son. He said "I will mommy, I'm going to run fast, come on daddy." They walked away and I stood there front in center of the finish line. With anticipation I held my camera waiting for him to cross, to see that huge smile, big eyes and mickey ears cross that finish line.
Minutes later, there he was running with his big ol smile, waving for brother and I to see. "Brother" Caleb screamed just as excited to see him as I was. Although he had already passed the finish, I kept cheering him on to continue running through to get his medal, and he ate it up!
Caleb and I made our way to Noah and my husband, and he was beaming, couldn't show me his medal fast enough. Look mommy, I got a medal like yours. I ran fast mommy, I ran for Jesus. With tears, I said "yes, son we are always running for Jesus."
As we drove home I reflected. If you are familiar with my blogs and my running experience you will know for me running is more spiritual than physical. Why? Because I am terrible at running, yet it has been something that I come to love, because I can relate to the athlete Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 in a different way.
If we parallel the events of the day to the race of faith we run we can learn a few things from my lil guy and his mickey ears. I was impatient, wanted to be a spectator, foolishly trying to cut down his time to prepare. He wanted to run, so he prepared himself for the race. I imagined myself like Jesus for a second, as I sat there will anticipation for my son to finish and do well. I thought about my God who also looks on waiting for me, encouraging me to finish strong and finish well.
It was hot, and crowded, Noah had mickey ears (that I convinced him would be cute) and when he ran he still had that smile. I saw the Joy that just beamed off him because he was proud to finish. I thought about the Joy I sometimes lack when I am running my race, and how I can sometimes allow circumstances to rob me from it.
Then he reminded me what we run for. He reminded me that we don't run for medals that will perish but crowns and Jesus. He later told me that he got a little tired but he remembered that he had Jesus in his heart so he was strong. Oh how strong we are when we have Jesus in our heart!
I paid 20 bucks for his "marathon" but what he got from the day was so much more. It was application for life, not in the physical sense but the spiritual one. He got to put his faith into practice, he ran his race well that day and it is my prayer that he will never stop running, and he will run it well with Joy and for Jesus always!
Are you running? Are you tired? Or you just a spectator trying to find a good spot to cheer on those doing the work? I encourage you to put on your mickey ears and run, and run well!!!!!
Mad love for you all!
Moni
No comments:
Post a Comment