This morning, my wife told me my son got home at 3 IN THE MORNING!!!
He was pretty frustrated when he learned that he had to work last night. He was looking forward to a very busy and productive night of homework. (he studies/worships at The Prayer Room)
Well, when work was over at 8:00, he drove straight over and studied until 3:00 A.M.!
I am proud that he pressed through and didn’t use the changes to his plans as a reason to fall behind in school or fail a test.
I just finished my morning run. It did not feel great. From about the halfway point, I was giving myself a pep talk.
“Just keep going. You can do it. You can make it. You’ve done it before.”
Imagine my surprise when I hit the button on my watch at the end of the run and discovered that I ran my second fastest time of the year! And I felt like trash.
I am beginning to think that I might have been entertaining a vain hope in thinking that I would eventually enjoy running. Today was just as challenging to my will as it was 3 months ago.
It is, however, very rewarding to feel the benefits to my body. I feel more energetic. My body is steadily getting more firm. I even have some muscles returning. Pretty cool!
My son, my youngest daughter and I were headed to The Prayer Room early this evening when I asked my son what his work schedule was for the week.
“I don’t know.”
“What do you mean you don’t know? Do you work tonight?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Dude, you should KNOW that! You need to call and find out.”
“O.K.”
“You need to call right now!”
Sure enough, he works tonight! …in 20 minutes! How did I know that?
We made a quick U-turn and headed straight back home.
Early this morning, I walked to the gym and officially added weight lifting to my fitness regimen. Hopefully, I will run three days and lift or do calisthenics three days. We’ll see how faithful I am.
I think that I can say that I am officially in fairly decent shape (for a 49 year old). I just finished a so-so run and discovered that I ran an 8 minute mile pace. Amazing! It was just a few weeks ago that I wondered if I would ever be able to run that pace.
My youngest daughter had just come from the computer room and entered the living room. My wife asked what the score of the Angels-Red Sox game was. Since we just moved from CA, we are obviously Angels fans.
“3-3.”
“Are the Angels winning?”
I immediately started laughing quietly.
As I turned to look at my wife, I saw my son’s face planted in the carpet. He had just started his fourth set of 50 push ups when Mom’s question knocked him to the floor.
She thought that Cakes had said 3-2.
Classic!
As I reflected on yesterday’s post, I grew very encouraged.
While it is true that my wife and I are entering a VERY different season and it is true that I feel a bit unsteady because of the change, it is also true that I have been preparing for this season for past 20 years!
Throughout our marriage, I have demonstrated that my relationship with my wife as the first and most important part of our family. I based this on the fact that God said that things were VERY good after He had made Adam and Eve. There were no children present at the time. Just the man and his wife.
Over the years, my children learned that, although we loved them dearly and daily laid down our lives for their benefit, our marriage came first. Mama was always most important in Daddy’s heart.
To the best of my ability, I also tried to help my wife remember that she was first my wife and then a mother. It seems that too many women are content to posit their identity in being a mother and too many husbands are willing to go along with that.
It is too easy to allow the children to become the center of the home. Children are constantly growing, constantly needing attending to, constantly needing to be taught and trained, etc. However, if we just give in to the gravitational pull of our children’s lives, we should not be surprised to find that we have no relationship with our spouse when their children are grown and have moved out of the house. The relationship has all been centered around the “work” of raising the children and now that work is largely complete. The focal point of the relationship has completed.
Thankfully, I have been planning and preparing for this season for many years. I am excited to see how our love will grow!
As my wife and drove to the Farmer’s Market, we were talking about all of the changes unfolding in our lives.
Our marriage started with a whirlwind. I was a full-time student at UCLA, working 24 hours per week and was the director of the campus outreach. She was working as a waitress. We had our first child before we had our first anniversary. God evidently wanted us to jump right into being a family. So, we had very little time to be just a “couple.”
I always thought that we would have that time later in life. Well, that time is rapidly approaching and it feels a little strange. To be honest, I don’t know what it will be like.
Over the years, we have always had so many responsibilities making demands on our time. Now, we have very little.
For the past 27 years, we have had an extensive network of church friends. We are just starting to get plugged into the church that we have been attending and still have not made any meaningful new friends. So, our rapidly approaching time as a “couple” seems intensified. We will largely have only each other.
I hope that my little posts on exercise are encouraging you.
This morning, I went on my morning run and ran my best time by 36 SECONDS! The amazing thing is that I wasn’t pushing myself too hard. It was just a good, quality run.
I think I am getting into pretty fair condition. I have now run 3.8 miles in less than 30 minutes!
Who knows? This might even get to be fun!
Our family just watched the Vice-Presidential debates. What a breath of fresh air!
I have heard clips of Sarah Palin on the radio and my wife has told me that Democrats at Costco were gloating that she was made to look foolish during an interview with Katie Couric but this was the first time that I have ever seen her speak.
First of all, she is very easy on the eyes. To employ a little Hollywood lingo, the camera seems to love her.
But I was struck repeatedly with the fact that she really is a regular American. She didn’t attend an elite Ivy League university. She hasn’t hobnobbed with the governmental elite. She is a wife and mother first.
My favorite line of the debate was when she told the third graders that they were going to get extra credit for watching the debate! So American. So family. So real.
I realized that I have become a little brainwashed. Can she really be the vice-president? YES, SHE CAN!
When did I ever start to believe that intellectuals should or could run the country? Where did I ever get that idea? Hmmmm…perhaps I had some help. Perhaps it is all of the years of listening to the mainstream broadcast media…
That is not what the Founding Fathers set up. It was government of the people, BY the people, for the people. Tonight, I saw an American woman, someone OF the people and it was invigorating.
