America vs. Heaven

My little man is sleeping in today after a long night. It seems like this awfully long string of cold weather is not going too well for Jack or his other little friends. I am on hold with his doctor to see if they want me to bring him in. Poor baby.

I have felt so much better than last week. I had my 7 mile run yesterday and I felt strong. I ran at a nine minute pace the first six, then ran the last mile in 8 minutes. It was tough, but I feel like the better the quality of my workouts, the more comfortable I will be on race day.

I got some good news today: my little sister is officially a CPA! She has worked and studied so hard. I am truly proud of her; what an accomplishment. She joins her husband who became a CPA last year. I think it is funny how different we are sometimes. In a good way.

This morning, I got up late because I was up with a coughing Jack for a little bit last night.

I didn't have time for my whole four miles, but I managed to get in 3, so I don't feel that bad. I just have my 10-miler on Saturday and that is it for this week. I have started working on my abs because I still have weak mom belly. This should help strengthen my core and back so I have less cramping on my long runs. I need to focus more on stretching as well. My workouts have been so rushed lately, I have been letting that slide. I would love to have some arm weights to work out with too since I don't have time for weight training at the gym.

Yesterday was women's bible study at church. Our missionary friends are back for a short furlough and it was great seeing a dear friend that I haven't seen in three years. During a discussion she made an interesting point about focusing on things above. She described how easy it was to focus on heavenly things when her family is in the mission field because she sees real suffering, poverty, and lost souls daily. Heaven is easy to think of when it is the only thing that gives you hope in this world. However, in American it is hard to dwell on things above because living in America is so easy. America IS heaven when compared to other countries. I thought about how much truth was in that statement. It is so easy in this country to surround ourselves with things that bring peace and comfort: nice houses, healthcare, tons of food, new clothing, modern conveniences, gadgets, etc. Is is easy to forget that these things may be good but they are not what are going to be what matters in the end. They will never bring TRUE peace and comfort. They will let us down at some point. It was nice to get some outside perspective and wisdom. I am excited to spend some more time with her and her family before they leave us again to do God's work. What a great example to us all.