I think lately I have learned a lot about strength and just how much of it I have. You always hear that the Lord will never give you things you can't handle. I know that is the truth. But really our tendency as imperfect humans is to underestimate ourselves. Why is that? I am 25 years old and just really learning just how strong I am emotionally, spiritually, and physically. It is a fantastic feeling to accomplish and live through things you for whatever reason never thought you could.
For example. My second triathlon ever and first triathlon this year came and I did great. I trained, I put the work in, and it totally paid off. I remember while I was swimming last year thinking, "can I really do this? I feel like I'm going to drown!" but this year my thoughts were "This should be hard, but it isn't... I am so much stronger than I have ever been... I can finish this and finish strong!" So that's exactly what I did. I finished in 1 hr and 38 minutes beating my last years time by 7 minutes or so and placing 2nd in my age group. I have made amazing strides in my athletic abilities especially since I didn't know I even had any until last year.
I am so grateful for my Aunt Debbie for doing the tri with me. She is an inspiration and I am so lucky to have her. I pretty much volunteer her to do this with me every year, send her the training schedule and she still kicks my butt every year. Anyway she is amazing, maybe I will beat her one of these days.
We have a sweet new baby in our family. Jace was born two weeks ago, a few weeks early but healthy. Then a few days after being home he was back in the hospital for a transfusion. It was pretty scary and I felt pretty helpless being in Washington, they were in Idaho. I haven't really had a lot of experience with babies in hospitals or any kind of risk of my close family members being ill. It was really scary and hit me really hard. I kept going though. You keep moving, you pray a lot and you keep living your life. Baby Jace is now back at home and is doing so much better. He is strong, even for a little new born. The whole thing made me grateful for my family and our close relationship. I don't know what I would do without my family. They make me who I am. I get to go down to Idaho in July for the baby blessing, so I am really looking forward to meeting the new addition then. Skype just isn't enough.
I'm not sure why but the last few months I have been pretty brave. It's like Andrew's daredevil skills have transferred to me since he is on his mission and unable to use his. This year I have jumped and landed on a snowboard (definitely have fallen a lot), I have drove a four wheeler of a ramp and landed, got about an foot of air, oh yeah! I have learned how to long board which is huge because falling on the cement hurts! And I can wakeboard better than ever including a few jumps here and there. It is crazy! Things I thought I was too wimpy to even attempt are happening. It may seem like a simple thing but it is so empowering and I feel like I can do anything. I love my life right now.
So now for the spiritual connection. The more you understand just how much potential you have, you begin to see yourself as our Father in Heaven sees you. Pretty cool huh? And you begin to recognize the potential in others because from your own experience you have overcome great things and you know others have the same potential. So your job is to instill that power and strength in others. You feel the love from our Father in Heaven and naturally you want to share that with others. Life is definitely about loving and serving others but before you can really understand the importance of that, you have to understand who YOU are. Hope that makes sense. So the moral of this post is... You are always stronger than you think you are. You can always do more. You have so much more to give than you even realize. And you really can make a difference in the lives of others because you are so much better than you even know.
