Accepting and Achieving....

The gym I attend is currently being re-vamped (following being taken over by Virgin Active – ghastly name for a Gym, but there you go!), and they have roped off whole sections of gym equipment whilst they paint/re-carpet etc. The scramble for equipment has become silly this last week. So I decided to do some walking around the estate where I live, and measured out in the car a loop that actually took 3.2 miles. The Race For Life is 5 km (3.1 miles), so I thought that I would try to a) walk the whole distance, and b) see if I could do so in a reasonable time. This loop has a tough up hill section for 0.4 miles, then a gradual meandering gradient for the next mile, a corresponding downhill section, and then the last mile or so home. I actually managed the 3.2 miles in 63 minutes, and I was really pleased.

Maybe more than folk realise…..

Last Thursday, I shared with our Thursday Ladies Bible Study Group some of my early testimony, from when I was in Grammar school to my Uni days. Very few people are aware of this – and following Helen’s earlier blog, one day I might share this here someday in more detail. But suffice to say, on the day I got my results that I had passed to go to Grammar school, I was actually beaten ( I had to “run a gauntlet” and was quite badly beaten around the head, back, neck and shoulders) for “daring” to pass. Only then did I realise that of all the girls entered for this exam, I was the only one who had passed. My poor parents suffered delegations from irate parents, convinced that there had been a clerical error, and that their darlings should be there, not me. I never mentioned what had happened for a very long time – years in fact – and only now do I feel really able to mention it at all – and that was 36 years ago.

The reason I mention it now, is that on that one day, I think I was robbed of the ability to appreciate personal achievement in myself. I put myself down, never feeling that I did well enough, never mentioning the fact that I went to a Grammar School (always called it High School) and always spoke of going to “College” rather than to University. Anything more always sounded arrogant in my head. Also, being overweight, I guess I tried to achieve things academically rather than physically.

So the fact that at this point in my life, and for good health reasons, I am managing to keep up with an exercise programme, and challenge myself physically, is a massive achievement. Yes, I have known and accepted God’s unconditional love and acceptance all along – but somehow, until very recently, I could not really rest in the fact that I could also take some credit, without Him losing the glory either.

It’s a good feeling…

Pat’s Thought for the Day;
I once said to a dear friend (she knows who she is!), then on the verge of a brand new phase of her ministry, “Believe He can, through you”. I still think it holds true, and am beginning to accept this more in myself, too. Have you doubted yourself recently? Reflect back on all that you have achieved, because Christ works in and through you. “And it will surprise you, what the Lord has done”!