Week 6: Training Complete

Amount raised so far for Amazon Medical Missions: $710.00.

Well, a pretty uneventful week of training is complete. This is the half-way mark of training. After 6 weeks and 6 miles, I am half the way there. This week was nice because the running schedule actually provided a little break in the running which was great to renew,refresh, and gear up for the last 6 weeks of training.

If I had to recall to you the most pressing lesson I'm learning right now with the running, it is one of perseverance. My current job stinks, and I've been looking for another one after much prayer and for several months now. And God said to me the other night after I have repeatedly hit dead ends on the job search: "Beth, I desire for you rest. I desire for you peace. I desire for you good. I desire for you perseverance."

This is a season of perseverance. With running and working and all that God uses to thread it into the fiber of me.

"And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us." Romans 5

Or as the Message translation says it, "There's more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we're hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we're never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can't round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!"

So, that, my friends, is pretty good stuff!

Happy persevering today, if you find yourself in some of those places!

---Beth