Running a Half-Marathon

This last weekend marked my 1st forray into the world of being a "real" runner. I ran my 1st half-marathon, and completed in on my feet, not throwing up! A huge accomplishment! I have wanted to be a runner my whole life, but was never healthy enough to do it; I never thought I would be able to run a mile, much less 13.1! I have come a long way from being the unhealthy fat girl to the healthy half-marathoner. I plan to keep doing what I am doing, and put quite a few more races behind me. I thought I wouldn't want to do that again, but I do! I want to try a marathon some day...maybe the Marine Corps Marathon...Who knows what will happen next!

Week 1 Day 2

This is the first week of my half-marathon training. I am dedicated to doing this, as long as my body agrees with my mind. I am running with team WorldVision in order to raise funds for their efforts in Africa. This is dear to my heart because I support a young boy through their organization. I may not be able to sponsor more than one child right now, but I can do this! So far this week, 2 days in, I have accomplished my workout goals. I have run 5 miles in 2 days, haven't done that before. I am excited to see what my body is capable of; for so long I have thought of my body as something that is broken. God has been putting me back together and I am so excited to see what this new vessel can do! I want to push myself physically, mentally, and spiritually this year, and be solely dependent on God, and not my own strength. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me...My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. 2 Corinthians 12:9

What I Learned Today

Nothing like going to church to make you realize stuff about yourself, and it's usually not something feel-good! The passage today, Proverbs 3:5-6, talks about trust. It says "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways aknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight". A lot of things about this simple passage cause me to pause. The word "trust" meand to have a bold confidence in someone else, and the word "lean" means to place your weight onto something else. It's the bold confidence that gets me. I try to trust God, but my fear gets in the way almost every time. It's like I feel like I need to hold onto some aspects of my life because I don't fully believe and trust that God is going to accomplish what He promised in my life. How sad!Intellectually I know that my fears and hesitations are irrational, but I have such a hard time balancing out what I know to be true, and what I feel to be true.

The pastor tonight said that to trust the Lord means that we should have the bold confidence to surrender control of every decision, every hardship, and every moment to God. What an intense thought! This is something I want to strive to do everyday, to bodly trust God no matter what the circumstances!

New Year, New Start

Well, it is almost 2010, wow, 2009 went by so fast! I have accomplished so much this year that I never thought I would be able to. My faith in God has propelled me through some tough times, and it is only by His grace that I am where I am right now! I plan on spending 2010 not vowing lose weight, or diet, or whatever, but to focus more on God, my relationship with Him, and let that lead me to my heart's desires. I plan on running the New York 13.1, a half marathon, in April with Team World Vision. Sponsoring a young boy from Malawi through world vision, I will be running and gaining sponsors with him as my driving force! I hope to accomplish a lot this year, more than I can hope to dream for, and some that I already am dreaming for. This will be the place for me to share my struggles and my journey through 2010 with a new outlook on life, and a new found desire for change! Toast to 2010!

Family

I am sitting here staring out my window with a heavy heart. I am so far away from the people I love. I am truly thankful for the opportunity that God has given me, but I am sad that my family can't really enjoy it with me. I am living my dream, and that is amazing, I just wish I could hug my family. This is the first time I have been too far to just come home for awhile. I am praying that I get the job with NCMEC. If that happens, I will be working in a position I would be awesome at, and I would have the money to visit home more often. I am disheartnend that I may not be able to get home for Christmas. I would not have left my pets behind in CO, but having them here makes for a more difficult vacation planning. Sure I could just pile them both in the car and drive home, but what if I get stranded there. My life is here now, and it is so complicated with going home. I miss my family and I wish we were independently wealthy so that money wasn't an issue. Unfortunately money is always an issue. I just pray that someday money is no longer a limiting factor in my and my families' lives.

Fun stuff

I had probably one of the best weeks ever here in VA! I was handpicked for an internship with the ATF-Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, as well as handpicked for an interview with the State Department for a PT student job. This week I went to the ATF to fill out the paperwork and am more than excited to start interning there. There will be some many amazing opportunities for me, that I can hardly wait. Then, I interview with the State Department and they put me on the short list of candidates that are being recommended for hire! Incredible! Plus I got assignments back and scored full points on everything, think I aced my midterm and feel totally confident with classes again. I am so excited and thankful for this chapter in my life. I can't wait to begin!

Reflection

The last few weeks, I have found myself thinking about life. The anniversary of the September 11th attacks started me thinking about the state of things. The apathy from people surrounding 9/11 is startling. Some people have forgotten the horror of that day, or are distancing themselves from it in order to justify their belief that we should not fight. I am not some crazy conservative that likes war and thinks that we should continue on this path forever. I am a firm believer that there are some things you just can't negotiate away. There are people in this world whose only goal is to anihilate Americans in any way possible. Al-qaeda can be compared to the Manson family in the United States. Their ideals and outrageous beliefs are originated from a psychopath and perpetrated by people to weak minded to realize that. Just as Charles Manson led his followers, and encouraged them to carry out heinous crimes in the name of something, Osama Bin Laden encourages his people to destroy innocent lives in the name of something. That something is Islam. Muslims, as a whole, may not be a violent people, but the book they live by speaks clearly about people less worthy than they are. It is not a far stretch to see how a psychopath could distort the Islamic views and beliefs into what these rogue bands of thugs believe. This distorted view of the world is what makes these individuals so dangerous. They will not bend to reason or compassion. No amount of discussion or reasoning or barganing  will prevent them from doing what they think they should do, snuff out American life. For everyone out there who blames President Bush for the war, sighting supposed evidence that they had false information and acted on it, stop. What would you have done? The Bush administration and the 9/11 attacks were the result of trying to negotiate with terrorists and ingnoring evidence in the Clinton administration. The clinton administration knew of the danger and did nothing, seeking to perpetuate there agenda. That resulted in Al Qaeda getting a backdoor pass to the United States. Anyone who thought this through would be aware that such an attack would have needed planning for years. It was not spontaneous. In the years since the war in Iraq, we may not have captured Osama Bin Laden, but the Bush administration took down Saddam Hussein, and many other tyrants and dangers to the American people. This is what the activists choose to forget so they can perpetuate their agenda. The truth is out there, people just have to be willing to see if for what it is. If people in the United States would unite against the true dangers to the country and stop fighting over religion, the president, healthcare, and all of the other smoke screens, we may be able to protect ourselves against further attack. Right now, we are weak and divided. We have succeeded in making ourselves a bigger target than we could have ever imagined. At this rate, we won't need Al Qaeda to destroy us, we will do that ourselves.