She's Growing up

This is a post dedicated to my beautiful daughter Anna. Anna is the most amazing teenager that I know. I honestly say this not because she's my daughter, but because she is a blessed young lady. God has gifted her beyond belief.

This is Anna's last summer before highschool begins. A whole new world of opportunity and blessings await her. Yesterday was the first day of a rigorous schedule for Anna. We woke up at 5 a.m. and headed to Harrison for a 6-8 a.m. conditioning program for volleyball. This will be every M, W, and F morning (other than a couple of breaks). Then, she had summer school PE from 8 a.m.-12 p.m. This will be M-F for the month of June.
Volleyball tryouts will be the beginning of August. So, she has all summer to train and prepare her body :)

As we headed to conditioning yesterday morn, I had many flashbacks to my own high school experience. I too played volley in highschool and remember the pain-staking days of training my body and conditioning to be the best that I could be. I remember vomitting out of pure exhaustion and panting so hard that I thought my heart was going to explode. I remember feeling nervous about the coaches, other players and the boys that walked by. I remember so many feelings and thoughts that yesterday, my heart began to beat fast for Anna. I remember not wanting to get out of my parent's car until I saw someone I knew to walk in with and feeling intimidated by the older "highschoolers" who looked so much bigger and taller and smarter than me. I found myself praying to God for peace over Anna. She was sooooo nervous and as a mom, I just wanted to protect her and take away all of that uncertainty. Then, I had to remember that she must experience things in life that are uncomfortable and will grow her to be a confident young lady.

After picking her up at noon, I found out that this had been one of the toughest things that Anna had ever done. Those 2 hours of conditioning were excruciating, exhausting and tough! She almost gave up at one point and wanted to call me to come and get her...but then she pressed on and through until the end. Muscles were strained and pushed to a new level- yet, she said "Mom, it was so hard, but when I now that I'm done, I feel great...almost hyper!" Hmmmmm....isn't that so true! Often, things that are difficult to press through have an amazing result on the other end. My encouragement today is to remember that this life is going to be hard, tough, full of aches and pains...but on the other side of the pain- there will be victory that is ooooooh so sweet!!!

Press on, press through and persevere today my friends. If you are like me, you fight food addiction daily, moment by moment. You don't want to drink water. You don't really want to exercise. You don't want to go the extra step to serve, but you know it's right. Through Christ alone- we can press on :)
love you all friends!
k