So a month ago we decided to surprise my brother for his 30th birthday by showing up in Newfoundland to celebrate with him and my family! The surprise was successful and he was so excited that we were there… but of course we had to take things one step further…
Read MoreHere’s the last instalment guys! Well, for now. HEHE.
I’m a huge romantic so at least half of the race I was thinking about Josh. Naturally. LOL.
But it’s true. At the beginning of the race we started by running the first 1-2 KM together, and I gave Josh the thumbs up to take off. I did so gladly, not wanting to hold him up, and wanting him to exceed to his best!
Watching him take off and pass literally hundreds of people down the long flat stretch of road ahead of us was quite incredible. I could see his cute little red half zip sweater making his way though all the people until eventually he disappeared so far ahead of me.
If we compare this to the marathon of life that we’re all running, I think we can have 2 different responses to a scenario like this.
A) Dejected by the fact that we can’t keep up pace with the person.
B) Excited by their success and motivate to do YOUR personal best as they rock out THEY’RE personal best.
Option B empowers everyone. And option A tears down everyone.
When we get down on ourselves about the successes of someone else when our success looks “lesser” in the moment, we limit ourselves, and we limit the other person by burdening them to feel bad about their success. How unfair we can be sometimes! To ourselves and to other’s who we should be cheering on in their success making sure they’re enjoying and savouring every moment of it! Imagine someone working their whole lives to achieve something, and then we rob them of the joy of achieving and experiencing it because we want them to feel bad for us. We’ve all done it. But I think we an all realize how yucky that is.
When we CHOOSE even though we don’t always feel like it, to motivate ourselves by the successes of others and be inspired by their work and growth and achievement, we empower ourselves and we empower that other person.
It’s crazy how sometimes we actually allow, and make other people’s positives, negatives for ourselves, when we can choose for it to be a win win for everyone!
Even when Josh was SO far ahead of me I couldn’t even see him, I still thought about him. And I didn’t resent the several KM’s ahead of me he was. I was genuinely SO HAPPY for him and would actually get GIDDY thinking about how good he was doing and the amazing time he was going to achieve. And it made me run faster!
I would think about how he was killing it, and how for me and my ability to run, I was killing it! It just looked a little differently. But I also knew how proud of me He was going to be when I did cross that line. Even though it would be at a slower pace than him, it was going to be amazing and He was going to celebrate with me too.
Let’s think of other’s on their races, even when they’re ahead of us, positively, happy for them, and inspired for us. Win win!
All my love,
Ashley XOXO
I turned the corner, finish line in view, strangers and family cheering me on as I finished what would be a great accomplishment— 42 KM of straight running, no stopping. A final burst of energy and adrenaline came over me as I sped past a few more runners taking that intentional step across the finish line. As my sneaker made it’s way to full contact on that last step across the line I thought, “YES!”
A few minutes later after my awesome fiance & future Mother & Father in law greeted me with hugs and water and smiles I started to feel this weird sensation on my lower back, an intense bruise. I quickly realized that the small “runners fanny pack” that I had been wearing around my waist for the past 42 km had overtime, actually intensely bruised my back.
The funny thing is, I didn’t even realize it during the run. I was distracted by the task at hand, and the work I was exerting to reach my goal.
It’s also interesting that this fanny pack is as light mesh as you could get, it doesn’t seem heavy, it wasn’t necessarily a concern of mine, but it did have a huge impact on my back as the small weight of it throughout 42 km compounded on my back over time. For the next week, I was left with a very tender bruise.
Okay Ashley, so you got a bruise on your lower back. Tough cookie? My point isn’t that the bruise was a big deal, but what this experience represents is a big deal.
In life, it’s important that we continually evaluate what we are carrying that maybe we need to set aside and lay down. Things that we need to trust in God’s hands and not our own. Sometimes that’s easier said than done, sometimes this is something we have to do everyday. Lay down our worries, or cut unhealthy things out of our lives that we are carrying as weights. We need to free ourselves from that which may weigh us down even in the slightest bit. That little stress, or that slightly unhealthy relationship may not seem to be sinking your ship right now, but compounded over time, you may be left with a bruise and wonder… “Where did this come from?!”
I love how Hebrews 12 says let us strip off every weight that slows us down. What proverbial fanny pack is tied around your waist that you need to cut loose, you need to lay aside, or place in God’s hands.
Whatever that may be, I encourage you to evaluate what it is you are carrying so that you can free yourself up daily, trusting in God’s provision and not your own, cutting the negativity our of your life and focusing on the positive, so that you don’t find yourself 42 km in with a bruise.
Maybe you have a bruise already. Well good news. Bruises heal. <3
All my love,
Ashley XOXO
Running through back roads of Conestoga is pretty flat. You kind of ease into a comfort zone of straight roads, farmland, country sunshine… and then out of no where, there’s the steepest hill you ever did see coming up in less than 700 metres.
It’s easy in that moment to think, “How am I going to maintain my pace up this hill, how am I going to not stop, I can barely make it on this flat road, let alone a HILL.”
But it’s in that moment that you take captive that thought and start telling your body and your mind that you are going to maintain your pace up that hill, that you can do it. Declare positivity, faith, a can-do attitude over the hill, over your life situation. It isn’t this hooky magic, but it informs you mind, which then speaks to your body about what it’s attempting to accomplish, and thus it looks for every resource in your body to see that delcaration through to fruition.
Your mind and body will resource what you tell it. Whether it good or bad.
If you tell it there’s a hill and you can’t. You won’t. If you are saying you’re tired, you’re going to have a bad day, that you can’t— your mind will actually look for ways to affirm that.
If you tell it there’s a hill coming up and we are going to crush it. You’ll at minimum, do better than you would of, had you told yourself you couldn’t. Your body and mind will look for muscles, energy restores, positivity, strength to get you through. You’ll start seeing opportunities that you hadn’t before, you’ll start seeing the progress you’re making.
What are you telling you body and mind? That’s what you’re resourcing yourself with. Don’t you want to resource yourself with strength, ability, power? Start declaring that.
Even focus the next 24 hours, to not tell yourself one negative thing. And if you do, actually say out loud, “No, (enter the opposite positive thought here). And just SEE how it changes your frame of mind, your energy levels, the atmosphere around you, even the situations and people around you!
It’s so simple, yet so powerful.
So back to the hill. I’m preparing for this hill, and before I know it, I’m on it, I’m in the middle of it, and I’m thinking, “Wow, it’s actually not as steep as it looks.” You see from far away, it can be intimidating, it can seem so steep in relation to where you are. But it’s crazy how every step forward, eats away at the height of that mountain, it actually puts it under your feet literally and figuratively, and you are ON TOP of it before you know it.
Here’s to the hills— and getting to the top.
— Ash XOXO.
It was about 9 km into the race and I had the realization that if I was going to really finish this thing, and run more than 3 times the distance I had already run, I was going to need SUPERNATURAL strength. Y’all know what I’m talking about?
So out of know where I just spoke out loud, the word anointing! (I’ve never done this before, it just seem to come out of my mouth!)
I prayed: Lord, anoint me to run this race, set it a part as a purposed journey for me to accomplish and see through to the finish through your strength and power.
ANOINTING is a biblical term that, in short, is… to be fuelled by the Holy Spirit’s power in order to accomplish something that is set apart for God’s greater purpose.
Every time I’d start to get tired, I would yell ANOINTING! I think I was starting to scare some people.
I was reminding myself I was purposed to run it with specific provision to do so. Meaning, I was declaring in faith that I was ANOINTED to run it, I had the authority, ability and power to run it, because of God’s anointing.
Back in bible days, you couldn’t become KING, and obtain the rulership and authority that you were being given, until you were anointed as king. When you were anointed, now you had the proper blessing, provision, and intention, the permission to go walk into what God had for you. Kings were anointed for a specific task and calling, and they were given everything they needed to accomplish their mission by God. Because they were anointed. For a specific thing, at a specific time.
The oil that they used to anoint kings was representative of the Spirit of God but also of the official designation to an office by God’s decree. It was an indication that they were sanctioned or ordained by God.
What is it that perhaps has always been a dream of yours, or something that you’ve been gifted in, talented in, that God is anointing you to do. I encourage you to think about that, identify what it might be in this season of life for you, uniquely. And then take hold of that thing, and do it with the confidence that you are anointed, purposed, to do this!
I’d love to hear what that might be for you!
Ash XOXO
Sometimes, without even realizing it, your present day activities & habits are actually your training ground for that which is NOT YET. Something you don’t even know about… How could you be training for it?
So my fiancé & I (meaning I signed us up, paid and didn’t tell him) decided to run a marathon in 30 days, meaning 30 days away we signed up & started training.
The only reason we were physically capable of running a marathon with only 30 days on intentional training, was the years of athletic conditioning beforehand.
Did I know that those early mornings at the gym a year ago would be preparing me for an eventual marathon? No way! Did I still somehow drag myself out of bed and do it? Well, most of the time. What is it that your daily routines could be setting you up for… (that is so exciting!) Start preparing— do what is good, what is right, what is healthy. That’s why we’ve gone to the gym for years. Because we knew it was good, it was right, it was healthy, we didn’t know for what specific purpose it may serve. If you’re having trouble knowing where to start and what to build into your routine, yes look at your goals & vision for your life, but also it’s in the simple doing what is right, what is good, what is healthy. Being obedient to God in the little and the big.
Treat your present with excellence, invest into it, you never know what it could be preparing you for. Then, at a moments notice, you find out about an open door, an opportunity, a challenge laid before you, and with only “30 days” of intentional training, you can actually do it.
When you’re in “training mode” you learn a lot. You learn lessons that help you grow and prepare you for your “marathon.”
You learn what you’re good at, and what you are BAD at. For example, I realized that I could not STAND Josh running ahead of me and waving at me to hurry up. I usually hit a wall at about 9 KM that I had to start preparing to get through, and then I’d be okay again, I learned that hydration is everything, without Water throughout a long distance run— your muscles are going to get super tired. I learned that water becomes a cupcake at the end of 20km and I learned that what you wear on your feet is IMPORTANT so get a good pair of sneakers and socks. I learned that training with others is so encouraging. Sharing the journey, having each other to be accountable to and get that run in, and then cheering together at the end— that’s everything. Get people around you. All of these learnings helped me make the right adjustments in order to face the full 42 KM.
I hope you are making the literary connections between whatever it is that is your training ground right now. What is it that you can learn and take away, and improve, that will set you up for success in your “marathon.”
I have SO much I have written about this whole marathon journey, but for now I’ll leave you with that. Train now, to be ready for what is coming even if you don’t know what it is. Maybe you’ll find out what’s next & be able to step right into it with little specific preparation because of all that has gone before it.
Here’s a sneak peak of what’s coming:
“Phone a Friend” what happened at 22km
Grace & Anointing - how I talked myself through the 42km
The HILL
Run with me
The family
Where did I get that bruise?
How’s he doing
Was that an angel?
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