I enjoy running. I like to run through my neighborhood or in one of a couple special locations nearby. I love the way it taxes my body and the sense of accomplishment I feel when I am done. Basically, I love almost everything about it.
Ellie and Lindsey like to go with me when I run. If they are at home when I go, they always ask to go with me. Of course, at five-and-a-half and two-and-a-half, they can’t keep up the pace I can. This means I have to push them in our double stroller.
It is definitely not a jogging stroller. It is heavy, and it doesn’t steer well. With the weight of the two girls, combined with the stroller’s weight, I’m probably pushing an extra hundred pounds when I take them with me. Needless to say, this makes my workout quite a bit more difficult.
One morning when I decided to go running, Lindsey was at preschool, so I took only Ellie. I may have taken the baby, too. In any case, I was pushing close to a hundred pounds and trying to improve upon my previous run. It was tough.
One thing you should know about Ellie is that she is a great encourager. She is quick to see that someone needs encouragement and to come alongside them. In this case, I was the person in need.
I had made some comment about how I still had five minutes to go. I don’t remember if I specifically mentioned that the run was difficult, or if she must have heard it in my voice. In any case, Ellie said, “Do you need some encouragement?”
“Yes, I do,” I said.
So for the next five minutes, she sang, “Mommy, you can do it,” over and over, to the same tune, one which she had made up.
I have finished runs with more energy left, but I have never finished a run feeling more uplifted.
“Mommy, you can do it,” she sang, over and over and over.
I can still hear her sweet little voice singing to me.
When it came time for my cool-down period, I slowed to a walk. I let my breathing slow down a little, and then, I said, “Ellie, thank you for encouraging me. You really made me feel better, and you helped me finish running when it was difficult.”
“You’re welcome,” she said.
“And Ellie, I want you to know something,” I said.
“What?”
“I want you to know that just as you encouraged me when I was having a difficult time, God can and will encourage you when you are having a difficult time. All you have to do is ask him.”
Dear mommy friend, the same thing applies to us as mommies. Yes, God sometimes encourages us without our asking for it. But sometimes, he waits for us to ask him for what we need.
As I told Ellie, if we ask, God will be there, and he will encourage us. Maybe the encouragement won’t come in the way we were hoping for or expecting, but it will come.
There are times when God chooses to let us walk by faith without the specific word from him that we are looking for. But even in those times, we have the encouragement found in the Bible, and we can know that it is true even if we don’t have the emotions we would like to accompany it.
As I ran those last five minutes, I heard Ellie’s song over and over. Its sweetness flowed into my soul and gave me the endurance I needed to press on joyfully.
Was the run still difficult? Yes…and no.
Physically, it was still difficult. Those hundred pounds hadn’t gotten any lighter. But mentally, and in my heart, the rest of the run was a breeze.
I ran joyfully.
I wonder…is it possible to run the race of life joyfully even when things are difficult?
It is.
With God’s encouragement, his strength, and his joy, we can run well even when we’re pushing a hundred extra pounds. Maybe we can’t run fast, but we can run well.
That last five minutes was probably the slowest part of my run, but it was the best. My attitude was even better then than it had been at the beginning, when I ran with little difficulty.
The same can be true for any of us in any situation.
Maybe your situation, maybe someday mine, is difficult, tragic, even agonizing. That part may not change, just as the weight I was pushing didn’t change.
But what can change is the weight of your soul.
You can’t do it on your own. But God can, and will. How do we know? Because he’s promised.
From the front seat of the stroller, Ellie’s encouragement helped me finish my run.
From alongside you and within you, God’s encouragement will bear you up and carry you home.
Isaiah 40:31—But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
Nehemiah 8:10—The joy of the LORD is your strength.
Isaiah 46:4—Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.