Run Your Race

“And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” Hebrews 12:1

The other day I returned to my high school football field. It was the first time I had been there in more than 20 years. I was there to see my daughter run in the sectional meet for her track team. It was the first year of the school and the first time the girls would compete in a sectional meet and the sectional at my high school alma mater was said to be the toughest in the state.

There were 13 freshman girls on the team but only nine, the coach informed me, showed up for the track meet. Girls had to run races that they were not used to running to fill in for other girls.

It was only the second year that my daughter had run track. She ran the 800 (two times around the track) in eighth grade. My husband, who ran track in high school, was convinced that our daughter’s race was the 400 (one time around) but the coach that year didn’t put her in the 400 race.

“That’s her race,” he assured me. I agreed. But we told her to do her best in the 800 and her time would come to show what she could do in the 400. At the sectional meet in eighth grade, I told her before she ran, “Leave it all on the track.” She took off and in the first lap of the race she was way ahead of the other girls. The first time around, her coaches and teammates were excited. “She’s going to state! She’s going to state!” they yelled.

I was on the cell phone with my husband who hadn’t been able to attend. I was giving him a blow by blow on the cell phone. He told me what to tell her as she came around the bend the first time. I was yelling his instructions to her from the sidelines.

But by the second lap, she ran out of steam and out of first place, just missing the opportunity to go to state.

But now she was in high school. Throughout the season I had been to every track meet, providing water, snacks and cheers for the fledgling team. Our daughter did well in cross country so her coach wanted to put her in the distance races. We asked him to give her a chance to try the 400.

“The 400 is her race,” my husband said. I agreed.

My husband decided to coach our daughter himself for “her race.” He started taking her to the track after school, timing her, teaching her the fundamentals, giving her advice, showing her proper techniques and track meets on television. The evening before sectionals I took her to the track because Coach Dad was working. I timed her and tried to offer some advice about running (although I never ran track in high school. I was on the football field being a pom pom girl.) She promptly told me, “But Daddy said…” I deferred to Daddy. “Do whatever Daddy said,” I told her.

Meditations on the Ministry of Motherhood

“Thanks, Mom.”

The two words from my son are like music to my ears. It will be a thank you for some small thing to me. Perhaps getting the bread off the top of the refrigerator or buying his favorite candy straws. But hearing those two words mean so much.

Sometimes I have felt that motherhood is a thankless job. But I think real motherhood is not thankless but selfless. And although it is work, it is not a job. It is a ministry.

If a Robin Can Say Thank You

“Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” Matthew 6:26 (NIV)

When I took my dog out into the frozen tundra which was my yard last month after a blizzard and a week of sub-zero temperatures, I saw and heard a miraculous sight.

I might have missed it if I had just concentrated on my internal mumblings and musings in my mind about the cold, the snow, having to get out of the warm bed to take the dog out, thinking about taking out the garbage and taking the kids to school.

The mornings are beautiful and despite the cold I love the stillness of the brink of a busy day. While the dog does his business I take a deep breath and take in the beauty of the snow glistening like diamonds, the beauty of the trees adorned with snow, the icicles hanging from the roof like stalactites in a cave, the architecture of a snow drift curved over the roof into the sun porch.

But what amazed me this particular morning were the birds.

A tree full of robins perched in the crab apple tree merrily chirping in the nearly sub-zero temperatures.

Why are all these robins here? Aren’t they supposed to be south in warmer climates? How do they survive in the harsh winter elements? What do they eat when the ground is frozen solid and covered in a foot of snow?

As I marveled at the tree full of robins, a scripture came to mind about God knowing when a sparrow falls. “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father.” (Matthew 10:29). Then another scripture came to my mind about how God provides for the birds. “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.” (Matthew 6:26)

Even in the dead of winter, there were berries left on the crab apple tree. It was full of dried up fruit. God in his divine, wisdom, order and plan left the berries on the tree to provide for the birds in the dead of winter.

He does the same and so much more for us. The verse in Matthew goes on to say, “Are you not much more valuable than they (the birds)?” I thanked God in my frozen tundra for the reality that God takes care of me--He provides for us-- even in those winter seasons when it seems like everything is dead.

Standing in the cold, a song came to my mind as I heard the robins cheerfully chirping their song.

I joined them with my own song.

“Everybody ought to praise his name. Be thankful and praise His name. Everybody ought to praise His name. If a robin can say thank you, you can do it too.”

A Righteous Inheritance

“A good man leaves an inheritance for his children’s children…” 
Proverbs 13:22

I read the posting on Facebook. It was a posting from the daughter of a friend. My friend, Jenny, passed away this fall. Her daughter commented on how she could still hear her mother’s words and even found herself saying her mother’s very words sometimes.

“Never stoop to their level,” is one of the lessons she could hear her mother saying.

Happy Mother-In-Laws Day

This Sunday, October 24, is Mother-in-Laws Day. Did you forget to mark it on your calendar? Do you plan on buying flowers for that special lady in your life? How about a card?

For so many, the notion of a mother-in-law and a celebration just don’t go together. A recent poll showed that 51 percent of the women surveyed would rather clean their house than spend time with their mother-in-law. Almost 30 percent would rather have a root canal than spend time with the mother of their husband. The stereotypes and jokes about mother-in-laws abound. Some in-laws are outlaws—

My Heavenly Home

But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. Philippians 3:20-21

“At death you won’t leave home—you’ll go home.” –Rick Warren, Purpose Driven Life

At various times in my life, I have lived overseas. I have lived in Spain and England. For that time period that I lived in those foreign counties, they were my “home.”

Being Trained to Reign: The Blessing of Obedience

“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” John 10:27

We have welcomed a new member to the Fountain family. He is cute as a button and thank God sleeps through the night now. He likes his Winnie the Pooh toy and is still a baby in many ways--except this baby likes to chew his rawhide bone and nip at my son’s pants’ leg.

Our new family member is of the four-legged canine variety and the last few weeks have been devoted to training our puppy. I have read booklets and online guides on everything from housetraining your puppy to teaching him how to follow commands, walk on a leash or go to his bathroom spot and go in an expeditious manner (which will really come in handy when these warm summer days turn into cold winter ones).

One thing that keeps coming across is that consistency and repetition are key to training a puppy. You have to say the same command and expect him to do the same thing every time. The puppy has to know that you’re the boss, the Alpha dog, the one that’s in charge. He has to learn your voice and your command and follow your directions every single time. And then you have to reward the puppy for the correct behavior, whether that reward be praise or an actual treat to eat. He has to know your voice. He has to learn that there is a reward in obedience.

We also have to know our master’s voice. We have to do exactly what he tells us to do every time. God is in charge. Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. The Holy Spirit is our guide and leash, teaching and leading us to truth. The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. He is the boss.

Name Calling

“Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.”

Philippians 2:10-11

Whenever I visit my elderly cousin, she quizzes me about my children’s names.

“Your kids have them African names?” she says.

“Yes,” I reply.

“But they’re American,” says my 92-year old cousin.

“African-American,” I say.

We laugh and I once again explain the meaning of their names and the hope that my husband and I have for them in the names that we have given them.

Christmas Lights and Daffodils

“In him was life; and the life was the light of men.” John 1:4

Outside my living room window two symbols of seasons have converged. Christmas lights and daffodils.

Christmas lights still adorn my bushes—reminders of the holidays and the season not so long ago when snow covered the grass and bushes and most of the trees were naked or wrapped in ice.

Now the yellow heads of the daffodils have poked out and bask in the sunlight. The trees are starting to bud. But my evergreen tree is still decked out with Christmas lights.

Now that the warmer days have come, one day I will take the time to unravel the lights from the bushes and put them in plastic bins until the season rolls around again. But for now I smile as I look out and see the lights and daffodils and contemplate their meaning