So, I was off to a great start this week. Strength training and two five mile runs I was pretty proud of. I was sure my long run this weekend was going to be just as spectacular. However, where we ended up brought this verse to mind:

Proverbs 19:21 “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but the Lord’s purposes prevail.”

Or, in other words, if you want to make God laugh, make a plan.;)

The allergies/cold/sinus infection whatever struck our home with a vengeance this week and my long run never happened. For many of us, deviating from our training schedule feels like an incredible failure. We are the Type A of the world who like things to be divided up neatly into categories that we can control. But human bodies, like anything else, are flawed and sometimes let us down.

I was starting to become strangely upset about this one week set back (as I stated before, I’m hoping to really work on speed which is tough if you can’t get your workouts in at all!) but then this came across my FB feed (as I’m sure it did for many of you):

I have run thousands of miles and prayed, and cried, and grieved and laughed. My body has limbs that work perfectly fine and all systems are typically go. This man has none of that and yet finds joy, and purpose and meaning and love. So I won’t whine about my lost miles this week. I won’t cry in my Afrin because a sinus infection has derailed me. I will, instead, rejoice that I serve a creator that loves me more than I can ever know. I will choose to be grateful even for a few days of being puny, because they remind me of who is really in control. That there is a God and that I am not, gratefully, Him.

So if what’s keeping you from training this week is something outside of your control, relax. Know that God loves you and has a plan. And that there will be other weeks, God willing, and other days not like today. Happy running. Or resting. Or whatever it is God has on your plate for today.

Jen