Crawl . . . Walk . . . RUN!!!

Everything in life has a story. If the flower in the photo above had a story, I wonder what it would be. I wonder what things it experienced during its days of sunshine. I wonder how many storms it had to weather. I wonder how many obstacles it had to face to become the beautiful, exuberant color it is today.

Every person on this planet also has a story. Everything we have faced in our past . . . EVERYTHING . . . has molded us into the people we are today. We can either take the unpleasant things we have faced and allow them to keep us from living our lives the way that they are meant to be lived, or we can learn from them and allow them to propel us into living our lives full of confidence, love, joy, and compassion for others. If you read my last post, you know part of my story. Another part to my story is that I never learned to crawl. Since I had casts on my feet from the time I was a week old until the time I was almost two years old, I did not have the chance to crawl around like most babies do at certain stages. I went straight from casts that had to be changed on a weekly basis due to my constant growth to wearing corrective shoes with a metal bar in between. I have heard that crawling helps babies develop problem solving skills, abilities to run, and it also helps to develop their confidence. Confidence is something that I have struggled with for most of my life, even though I became a Christian when I was eight years old.

This journey that I have been on has set my mind reeling in so many different directions. As a Christian, I am a firm believer in studying God’s Word every day. I am not a Bible scholar, but I started embarking on a word study to see how many times the words “can” and “cannot” appear in the Bible. Guess what? I only found them one or two times! The only place I found the word “cannot” in the King James was in Matthew 6:24 where it says, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” The only other place I found the word “can” was in Philippians 4:13 which says, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” I LOVE that!!! Nowhere in the Bible does it say that I do NOT have the physical capacity to do the things God wants me to do! I strive to do everything in His strength alone. If I live my life in my own strength, I’m living it for the wrong reason.

Since I could not find many verses with the words “can” or “cannot”, I decided to look up the words “know” and “knowledge”. If, as a Christian, I am speaking of confidence, I have to know that my confidence is in God alone. I found the word “know” at least eighteen times in the King James Bible. Job 19:25-27 says, “For I know [emphasis mine] that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.” Psalm 56:9 says, “When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back; this I know [emphasis mine]; for God is for me.” If we truly know God . . . everything that He is . . . beautiful, holy, righteous, faithful, merciful, perfect in every way imaginable, (and I could go on and on), how can we not be confident in Him to continue to mold us into the people He wants us to be? I am so thankful that God has given me the desire . . . and the ability . . . to crawl, walk, and to RUN!!! Physical running has given me a new confidence . . . not just in myself . . . but a confidence in God to strengthen me physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually every single day.

Until next time, let’s keep on running!!!