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Howdy everyone! How's your Thursday morning going?

Mine's been a little tough. I just had to drop the hubby off at the airport for a few weeks of intense training on his part. I don't know exactly when I will get to see him again although I know I will at some point. It's always tough for me (or anyone for that matter) to drop someone I love off at the airport. First off, I'm going to miss them. Second, I'm jealous because I want to travel too! I hate saying goodbye no matter how long it will be before I see someone again.

This time however, was a bit different. Today was something that's been looming in front of me for a few weeks now and I would always get sad when I thought about it. Same for Jared. But yesterday we sat down and talked about how were feeling and how we would deal with everything going on. What we discussed coincided with something that we heard this weekend and it really helped. I thought I'd share for you in case you need to hear it.

This weekend we went to Fellowship Church Dallas, our future home church, so that we could see what it was like. Pace Hartfield gave the message. He's someone that I've always looked up to since my high school years since he was the youth pastor when I was attending the Mix. I still look up to him and what he had to say really spoke to my heart.

He talked about how we all need a reminder sometimes. That's why we have things like Memorial Day. In the Christian's case however, we also need a reminder that God loves us, no matter what. So many times, we get caught up in what we do and let that define us. We let circumstances define our identity and what the world says about us define our self worth. It's an outside-in flow of information and unfortunately, it's not the way to live.

I do this all the time though. I mean, if I go look at my Facebook, it's got all sorts of stuff on it that defines me to the world. I'm a Children's Pastor. I volunteer on a weekly basis. I like to craft as evidenced by my Pinterest posts and I am constantly running as exercise. Even my exercise has become a means for me to help others thanks to the Charity Miles app. I like to watch crime solving TV shows and I like to read. I'm married to the most amazing man ever and if you look at my pictures, I'm usually acting slightly goofy. So if we were to define me just by my Facebook page, I'd be pastor, runner, crafter, wife and volunteer.

But you know what runs in my head often? Questions like, "What happens if I can't run anymore?" "What happens if I don't volunteer?" "What happens if my husband is gone?" "What do I become if I ever leave the ministry?"

You see, if I define myself by what I do, those things can change and I experience identity crisis. I've experienced it once before, right after I got married! I mean, when you change your name and move to a different city, it's really easy to feel like you are a totally different person. But what I learned after I got married, and was reminded of after attending church this weekend, was that I am not defined by what I do, but who's I am. This blog is titled "The King's Daughter." That's not by mistake. I am the daughter of the one true High King. God is my heavenly Father and someday I get to spend eternity with him. He loved me so much that even before I was born or learned about Him, He died for me without any guarantee that I would love Him back.

So I feel like I would miss the point if I never shared with my audience, if I even have one, the reason why I do everything I do. I love God with all my heart, more than anything. From that love I begin to love the things that God loves, which includes teaching children about him, helping others in need, taking care of the body he gave me, and enjoying life to the fullest.

As I go into this next phase of my life, changing cities once again and changing churches and learning a new lifestyle as my husband starts his next part of his career, I am choosing to remember the fact that no matter what, I am the Lord's. Instead of the world and what I do defining me from the outside-in, I'm allowing my identity in Christ influence my world from the inside-out. And honestly, it looks a ton more exciting!

Not Tomorrow

Hi everyone! Happy Memorial Day weekend! We've been in Dallas this weekend getting ready for our move. This has brought a great amount of time to get to spend with my family. I love it! We've also been getting ready for summer. Dad cleaned the porch and we used the pool after our long run!

Today shouldn't be a long post since I just have a small bit of encouragement to give today. There have been several times during the last couple of weeks while I've been traveling where I have had to adjust my routine with my workout schedule and my diet. I don't have everything I have at home and sometimes eating out requires me to be the demanding customer. Unfortunately, I have to in order to keep my body healthy...I don't want to get sick by eating something I'm allergic to! Sometimes I'm very good about what I eat and how much. Sometimes, I eat way too many chips at the Mexican restaurant. Other times, I know I've made good choices with my salads and fish!

When it comes to my workout schedule, I don't get to work out at the times I normally do. I have to adjust my routine in order to spend time with family. Some weeks, that means my long run is on Sunday instead of Saturday and my whole schedule feels off. 

I used to be the person where if I couldn't follow a workout or diet perfectly, I would beat myself up about it and tend to not stick with it. But now, I realize I will never have a perfect workout routine or a perfect diet. The key is consistency. Having to go gluten free gave me a perspective that has changed my life. Every time I eat is an opportunity to intentionally give my body the fuel it needs. Sure sometimes I just eat what I want, but I do it much less now than I did a year ago. I used to not count calories. When I started I thought it was a bummer. But now, I can eat that ice cream without guilt because I know I've eaten healthy and I'm confident my little bowl of ice cream fits in my calorie count. 

Discipline and consistency in my workout and diet gives me freedom I haven't known before. Plus, since I'm consistently coming in with a calorie deficit, I'm slowly shedding the pounds. Am I winning any Biggeset Loser records? Ha. Yea right. But I am feeling better and living larger and I have more energy to do the things I have felt The Lord has called me to do!

So please, don't get discouraged or beat yourself up over eating that bag of chips or pack of cookies. Dont say you will start again tomorrow. Just see your next meal today as an opportunity to get back on track!

Musings

Hello everyone. Happy Monday (and yes, that is a legitimate thing to say. You CAN be happy on a Monday)!

I am lacking in any one big thing to share so I instead, am going to expound on a couple of small things I've had rolling around in my head. I hope they help you. :)

1. Life is always going to be crazy. What changes is the type of crazy and how much. What we can do however, is learn to keep it at a minimum or embrace it for it's fullest potential. Take Bilbo Baggins for example. He was offered a choice to sit on his behind in Bag End or to go on a journey. No matter what choice he made, we find out what kind of hobbit he was. But with the latter, we get an inspiring story of perseverance, loyalty and courage that has inspired generations. Imagine the Hobbit if he would have stayed. We would have had a short book and none of the Lord of the Rings.

2. Stop picking at scabs. We go through life and because of the chaos, we get hurt. We get some scabs. For example, I got scratched by a cat at my in law's house and I have a small cut on my arm now. It's been there for a week and now starts to itch. However, if I keep picking at it like I have, it will take even longer to heal much less bleed all over the place. If I do that with my mental or spiritual scars, I keep picking at them, bringing up the raw feelings again by thinking about them a lot, they will take longer to heal and will leave a more lasting scar.

3. What you put in is what you get out. What I eat is going to directly affect my performance while running. What I think about is like food and is going to directly affect my actions. When I feel something, I need to stop and think, "Why am I feeling this." Then pray. Then meditate on God's answer. The most important step is action. Why would I learn something from God and then not put it into action?

4. Don't undervalue hard work. Many people in my generation try to find the easy way to things. What they don't realize is that you often never get to the best things in life by trying to find short cuts. Some of the best places to see in the world require hours spent uncomfortably traveling. Fitness is never achieved through sitting on a couch. Without the hard work, you will never appreciate the end result or learn what you learn along the journey.

5. Don't wait for tomorrow. I just finished teaching my 5th graders who are about to become 6th graders. I had them write down their dreams and aspirations for their lives. Thing is, when you look at what they wrote down (learning a new language, helping people, learning how to take care of animals, becoming a better student, athlete, etc) I was showing them that they don't have to wait until they are "older" to do any of these. God gave them life now and they can make a difference now, no matter their age. Same goes with us. We shouldn't wait for the "opportune moments." It will never come and you will have wasted all that time that you were given.

Then I was looking through my Pinterest and I was reminded about some things that I really loved.

I think this is so true in my marriage. I hope I show Jared that I love him every day.



This is me with my friends. :)


Stop trying to be someone else. God made you, you. No one else! You never know who wants to be you!


Yes!

Our God is amazing. I hope to do this someday! Like...Alaska!

Last day booster...read Romans 5. It's my favorite!

God gave you today so let's make it amazing!

The Journey or the Destination

Hi everyone! I hope you are doing great!

So yesterday was my long run. I completed SEVEN miles. Never in my life did I think I could do that. I remember seeing an Instagram from Christine Caine talking about how nothing clears her head more than a seven mile run. It was like, no big deal, I just ran seven miles ON A TREADMILL. Just a day in the neighborhood. I was floored and thought, "Yea that would clear my head...because I would be too dead to think."

So I employed every mental trick I had up my sleeve yesterday. I knew I had run six miles and I wasn't THAT tired at the end, so I shouldn't be that dead at the end of seven. It didn't help to think about the fact that I had enough time to run to listen to three podcasts. Add that it was going to be too far for our dog to go and that we could actually park the car at the park, run back to the apartment and let her stay and run back to the car with pavement to spare. 

We ended up spending an hour and a half to run. Nothing for an hour and a half but the sound of feet pounding the ground, cars if we got to the street, and birds if we get to the trails.

What I found is that I severely doubted my ability and I went REALLY slow. Yes, my legs hurt. But my loving husband pointed out that I could have pushed myself a little harder and then gotten that much more out of my run physically and psychologically. I also found that I could either think about two things. 

1) I could think about what was going on now. I could listen to my podcast and learn and enjoy the trail I was running on. 

2) I could think about how far I had to go and feel the panic start inside of me. 

If we think about life, we are on a long road. Personally, if I look at my life right now, I've got a ton of things going on. We are moving to Dallas. I've got to train and transition my team at my current position. I've got to meet and transition into my new team in Dallas. I have to find an apartment, a second job. Jared's going to be gone at training leaving me by myself for a good portion of this change. I feel like my biggest obstacle is to go through my apartment and clean and pack everything up! But with this current change in life, I could think about it two ways.

1) I could think about what's going on now. I can listen to what's going on around me and help those who are transitioning due to my transition. I can still teach and love and learn. I can enjoy the time I have. 

2) I could think of all the stuff I have to do and the things to come and the uncertainty and feel the panic start to creep up. 

See the parallel?

No matter what's going on in your life, you have the opportunity to enjoy any circumstance you find yourself in. In running, circumstances change. Pains come and go, environments change, you get faster and slower. In life, circumstances always change. You can get frustrated about the pain, or you can stay obedient to the race you are living and put one foot in front of another towards the call that Christ has placed upon you. God has orchestrated so much already in my transition and I know He will continue to take care of everything else in the meantime of my change. 

So I'm making a choice to not just survive through the crazy times. I'm going to flourish by enjoying the time I'm in right now and working step by step to be the best God has called me to in the future. 

Boston Trip

For all those who want to see our shenanigans while we were in Boston...a very long video just for you!


Boston from Madelyn on Vimeo.

Consistency is Key

Hi everyone! I am coming back from a little "hiatus" from posting because I had a crazy week last week! I had to head out to a funeral last weekend, then fit everything in for work between Monday and Wednesday because Jared and I took our summer vacation early and headed to Boston!

It's ironic that I'm talking about consistency after I haven't been very consistent the last few days on posting. Enjoy the irony.

But today, I went running and I was feeling great. I've lost a few pounds recently (it's like my body finally had an "aha" moment...it helps to count calories too) and I can feel the difference when I run. I feel lighter, faster and dare I say, sleeker when I run. Don't ask me why I describe it that way...it's just the word that comes into my head when I try to describe the feeling!

However, I broke a cardinal rule of running; I started my run way too fast. I wasn't able to hold my pace and each mile just got slower and slower. By the end, I was dying. My stomach was really mad at me and was making me feel it while my legs protested every step of the last two miles (and it was only a four mile run). While I am proud of my mental skills to keep pushing myself, I'm mad at my mental skills for not using my noggin at the BEGINNING of the run. Many times, this is what makes or breaks a runner during a long distance race. They get amped up at the beginning, run with people who are going too fast and then dog it the last part of the race.

What we should do is find the point where we know we can sustain the whole race at that speed. What I've learned from reading Tom Holland's book "The Marathon Method" is the trick with the long distance race isn't who goes the fastest, it's who slows down the least. All I can say is, amen brother. So having a consistent pace where you can run that same pace the entire race is a crucial skill I need to learn in order to have a great race experience.

Consistency is something we need to learn in life too. I have been reading "Mere Christianity." It's my second time through the book and it still never ceases to amaze me the kind of wisdom that comes from C. S. Lewis' mind. He talks about morality as it pertains to an individual person. It's true, that when we see someone do a courageous act, we call them courageous. When we see someone being kind, we label them as a kind person. However, we could be wrong. We don't know the motives behind someone's actions. They could be kind but be doing it for the wrong reasons which would not make them a kind person. The key to having character, to being a just, wise, kind, loving person like God designed us to be, is consistency. When someone chooses to be kind to not just one person, but all the people around them, then they are a kind person. When someone is courageous no matter the situation, we then say they are a courageous person. Time and testing show the true colors of someone. We can't (and shouldn't every) judge someone just based off of one moment of their life. C. S. Lewis gives the example that even a broken clock shows the correct time at least twice a day.

So take a page from James 1:2-4
"My brothers and sisters, consider it nothing but joy when you fall into all sorts of trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect effect, so that you will be perfect and complete, not deficient in anything."

Let the testing begin. And in the meantime...run. :)