Monthly Archives: February 2013

Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon Lottery Acceptance
Dear Lindsey, 
Congratulations! Your registration was selected in the lottery and you are now officially registered for the 23rd annual Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon on June 22, 2013. We are looking forward to welcoming you to Duluth, and providing you with a world-class race.
We want your experience to be enjoyable and memorable. Please read the following important information:
The Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon starts at 6:45 a.m. on Saturday, June 22, 2013
CLICK HERE for a course map and course information.
CLICK HERE for starting line bus information.

Woo hooo!!!! Every year since I’ve worked at TCM-  I’ve gone to some other Marathon Expo! Its one of the fun perks of working with TCM.

2007 – Grandma’s Marathon

2008 – ING Atlanta Georgia Marathon

2009- Grandma’s Marathon

2010 – Marine Corps Marathon (In Washington DC)

2011 – Phoenix Rock & Roll

2012 – Fargo Marathon

2013 – Grandma’s Marathon


– I registered for Grandma’s 1/2 marathon in 2007 but then discovered I was pregnant with K, and in 2009 I wasn’t up to running a half marathon yet. 


I’m super excited to enjoy the last half of Grandma’s marathon this time around (since I ran the full in 2006 and was very untrained for it… the last 10 miles sucked very bad…), and I’m excited to finally run in the half marathon. I have tentative plans for K & Jason to come up and watch me, and then take a little vacation time, and maybe go up to Gooseberry Falls and spend some time on the North Shore with them!

Matthew

I was so very excited to start this chapter in the New Testament. The old testament was filled with wisdom and warning, and at times was very bleak and dark, but the promise of the Lord sending his only son down to us was promising, and I couldn’t wait to dig in.

Now, I’ve read through the book of Matthew many of times, but this time I read through it like I was really studying the word. Before I began this journey of reading through the bible, I would only occasionally mark the bible as i grew up thinking that the bible was to have clean crisp pages, and that writing in it, or highlighting in it was purely sacrilegious.

My bible now probably has more highlights than not, and more side notes written on the margins than my college text books! 🙂

Now the book of Matthew really bridges the old and the new testament together wonderfully. Matthew shows how Jesus fulfilled the prophecies of the old testament.

After coming through the Old Testament and fully knowing, and realizing now the true need for a savior I ended the book with Jesus’ crucifixion and then watched this video.

(Video from my church’s Easter service a few years ago)

Sunday’s Coming from Eagle Brook Church on Vimeo.

I cried at the end, and couldn’t stop myself. Between realizing what my sins cost Jesus, and the bright promise that death did not stick, and that death did not keep caused me tears of joy! Whats more – is that I finished the book of Matthew on Valentine’s Day, “For God so loved the word that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16. ~ Now that’s LOVE!

I Will Prevail

 “Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” ~ Proverbs 19:21 NIV11

Since this verse has been posted I have been breathing in every word of it this week.

We have in our neighborhood an outstanding K-12 charter school. Not only is it ranked for test scores one of the highest in our state, the children wear uniforms (which I have a daughter – and lets face it… girls are mean, and not worrying about if she is wearing Holister or Old Navy is a blessing of itself, school is almost year round, and the class sizes are petite! (max class has 18 or 20 students – as opposed to our public schools which are around 32-35).

My daughter will be entering Kindergarten next fall, and I have dREAMED of her going here since she was 8 or 9 months old. Many are the plans in a person’s heart….

The only downfall – is because of the petite yet amazing classes, teachers, and high test scores – a lot of people want to attend – but they only have so much room. So, what do they do? A lottery!

Since last November I have been praying that if it is in Gods will that my daughter attend this school He can provide divine intervention and get her chosen.

So last month I entered my daughters name in the “hat” so to speak. Since January 3rd I have continually prayed over this every morning, noon and night, and again – stating that if this will fit in God’s plan for my daughter, and our family to please allow us to get into this school!  Last year over 200 people applied for the kindergarten classes and only 54 got in (3 classes)…. So I’ve she’s got about a 25% chance of actually getting chosen.

Yesterday was Lottery day. I sat glued to my phone the entire day, and anytime it rang, or alerted me to a text message, or a weather alert I jumped thinking it was the school.  Later to find out they ran the lottery last night (February 12th). I couldn’t take it any longer. At 6:30 p.m. I anonymously called to school to find out the process of notifying families, and they said they would start calling families today (Wednesday), and hopefully be done by the end of the week.

Today (Wednesday) came and went, and while I literally sat next to my cell phone, again jumping at every single alert and text message, my phone miraculously did not ring until 6pm when my husband called me.

Today has come and gone, and I find this verse popping out at me.

“Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” ~ Proverbs 19:21 NIV11

Still tonight I am praying that we will be one of the lucky chosen ones but you’re called in the order that you were chosen, so as a day goes by my chances are seeming less and less. Obviously “it aint over yet” and I am still hopeful that I will get a call tomorrow… but I need to be ok if she is not chosen.

Thought I’ve had my heart absolutely dead set on her going to this school there is a real chance it may not happen. And I can get mad about it and cry and cause a fuss, but I have to remind myself that I haven’t been just praying, “Oh please God, please get her into this school… pretty please with a cherry on top”, but I’ve been praying that if it is in HIS WILL….

I do have plans for my daughter as any mother or parent does, but the Lord our Father knows best, and I feel so grateful I have this verse to really lean into – to hold me up if I do hear those words, “wait listed” and if I don’t get my way. Will I be completely heart broken and devastated even if it is God’s will? Yep. I will…. but I will prevail, because it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails… and that’s something I can bank on!

**Update** My daughter did NOT  originally get in to this school, but we were #4 on the waiting list [which is somewhat hopeful]. ~ They called about a month later to tell us they had a spot for us! YAY!!!!! Over the course of the waiting period I really really felt God prepare my heart for the ‘no’ answer. Only He could have calmed my heart and prepared it in this way. Thank you Lord for your unwavering love, and support!**

New Testament!

I have finally made it to the New Testament! When I started this journey back in June I had no idea the strong effect it would have on my life. Sure I knew I would become more knowledgeable in the rich history of the bible, and where my faith comes from, but I can see God speaking to me through his word, and more – I wake up and crave Jesus, and the word of God every day now! James 4:8 explains this so succinctly, “Come near to God and he will come near to you.” 

I look forward to this section; hearing the promise of the future, and following after Gods heart!

Daniel

Brave. When reading through the book of Daniel, all I could think of was, WOW! how brave is Shadrach, Meshac and Abednego, and how brave is Daniel?
Ok- if i’m the least bit honest, my faith has hardly ever been tested. I mean really! We live in a time and country where we aren’t religiously persecuted as they were back then, and the only real persecution i’ve faced is stuff I’ve made up in my head, like, if bring up God in a social setting, or even worse – if a song is speaking to me at church and I feel the urge to raise my hands to the Lord, will the people behind me and to the sides of me think I’m a huge dork?
Really?
These guys literally went into a FURNACE, and a lions den.
This is kind of a corny video, but also drives home the point too.
Ok- you only need to watch the first 20-40 seconds of this to get my point
Lions are scary when they are angry, (ok all the time) and a hungry pack of lions in a den that
Daniel is getting thrown into? And he’s still like, nope, i’m still going to pray the way I want to
even if it means getting thrown into a pack of hungry hungry lions.
And I’m self conscious of raising my arms in praise with fellow Christians.

On deaf ears – the book of Jeremiah

Oh how many times I have said things that have just fell on deaf ears.? Spoke to my daughter, “don’t do that – you’ll get hurt”, “Don’t do that – you’ll make a mess”, or even in the bigger scheme of ‘real life’ politics etc when people warned of things such as the AIG financial collapse – warnings fell on deaf ears.

So we come to Jeremiah. Oh how he preached and lamented to his people of the wrath of God. Turn away from your sins or the wrath of God will be upon you…. and his people, just looked at him, and said, “yeah – yeah whatever you say”…. and turned and went on their merry way.

Are things so different today? You have people on the street corners with their huge signs saying “repent and turn from God, or you’re going to Hell”, and people look and say – yeah and go on their merry way. We even have this amazing thing called the church, which I think is a better approach than the sign holding folks, and people still say – yeah whatever you say and turn on their merry way.

We have things like MTV leading our society in what is hip and cool. We have social media, and instant connectedness that prevents an escape from the mold that society wants us to fit into. So its no wonder that the Good news  falls on deaf ears.

Of course one of the verses I often lean on to is Jeremiah 29:11.
“For I know the plans I have for you, ” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future”.

Whenever life gets tough I just repeat this promise over and over again.

WHAT-EVER!

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.”
~ Colossians 3:23 NIV84

I work full time in customer service, and in this particular line of work I’m in; we can’t always give the customer what they want, and like anyone that works in customer service you have the good customers, and then there are the bad customers!
You know the type. Demanding, crabby, taking out all of their days stresses on you the employee because you’ve told them no. They’re the type that will barge in to your comfortable work environment, hand on hips and acting like Miss or Mr. Bossy Pants! (or on the phone you can imagine them strutting around their kitchen in this manner)

I just finished reading the book Unglued by Lysa TerKeurst in between reading Greater & this book, and I’ve discovered that sometimes – these “crabby pants customers” are not taking out their frustrations on me the worker… but rather extending their frustrations throughout the rest of their own life, and projecting it on me when I can’t give them what they want. Because isn’t it easy to “blow up” at strangers?

Regardless though – its my job as christian to show the rest of the world love and respect in imitation of how Christ loved.  Even if I don’t answer the phone, “Hello my name is Lindsey and I’m a Christian, how may I act like Christ for you today?”

Though I do have a human boss, ultimately I’m working for God the father who created all of us equally, and while it is so much easier to project love and a cheerful attitude with those customers who are kind to me I must remind myself that I always must treat everyone with the same level of courtesy.

Take e-mails for an example. Its so quick and easy to just go through my day and respond to myriad e-mails with the same generic and quick response, especially when I’ve rattled off the same answer a hundred times already that day, but how much better do you feel when you get an e-mail from a company that seems genuine, and real and kind…

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.”
~ Colossians 3:23 NIV84

Reminding myself daily that I work for the Father, and that maybe… just maybe the customer really needs to be made to feel special this day. Perhaps a very cheerful sound of my voice, and a perpetual smile on my face is just what they need even if they don’t extend the same courtesy to me!