A few months ago, many of you read my entry about running the race of life for the crown in heaven with the comparison to myself running my first 5k…continuing the entry of running, I have had two very busy weekends in a row. The first was last weekend, when I ran my first 10K. Again, as mentioned in a previous entry, my goal this next year is to run a half marathon by the time my 28th birthday rolls around. In order to achieve this goal, I have had to set up mini-goals along the way and check myself to make sure that I am able to achieve them. The Heart and Sole race was in Olathe, KS last weekend, and I had some of my most supportive cheerleaders present…my students and coworkers. We met together prior to the race and then went through the check-points of the first leg together. Nothing was more uplifting to me then to run with my community and Countryside family. Cheering on Matthew as he ran and other Cardinals and calling their name, patting parents on the shoulder and cheering on my team really brought the memory home that we all can achieve what we set out to do when there is the right amount of work and praise involved. I knew this to be true when my team stopped after the first 5k and I continued on up the hill for the second round. I seemed to hit a steady pace as I ran and I thought about my kiddos. I saw their sweet faces as I ran. I thought about how proud they were of me and wanted me to be able to achieve what I told them I wanted to do…a 10k. I started crying when I came over the crest of a hill and I saw my friend Katie who is at Central filming me run the final leg…I could not resist calling out one of my favorite verses…"I can do ALL things through Christ whom gives me strength!!!" – Philippians 4:13…moments later, my students Hunter, Molly and Brandon jumped from the curb and ran the race home with me. They wanted to share my accomplishment and show their support. There is something incredibly special about the love of a child…the simple faith which they have in you and how a child is willing to move mountains with their ability to show their love. Never having had the joy of my own children, I experience this through my students. I was later transported to the verse in Mark 10:15, "Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, will not enter it." This same love and trust my students pour out onto me each day, my heavenly Father daily gives to me as well; it is just a matter of me receiving it.
Mother's Day was Sunday last and my mother, father and I all went to Avenues Bistro in the Mission Farms area for brunch. Truly, a brunch worthy of a meal off of my tracking and planning…caramel pecan sticky rolls, Grand Marnier drenched strawberry French toast, coconut macaroons, champagne & chocolate covered strawberries, lobster ravioli, shrimp cocktail, scallops seared to perfection and the Roasterie Coffee brewed blissfully on the bar. Not only was the brunch impressive, but the atmosphere was relaxed and service impeccable! Our server was wonderful, the kind of server that was more like a friend hosting a dinner party rather than a wait staff member, plus the manager came around and talked with every table. It is the little things which make the dining experience for me build to a crescendo of praise…food, service, atmosphere and price. Avenues Bistro is by far the most wonderful location for a special occasion brunch. If you have not experienced this hidden gem, next time you have the opportunity, make this local treasure your stop. That same evening, the show aired on Fox 4 Problem-Solvers. (Click on the underlined link in case you would care to watch.) I hosted a mini-watch party at the Other Place in Olathe, (where Betsy and I do karaoke) and had some wonderful family and dear friends come and offer support for the transformation occurring in my life. The next morning, I talked with Drew about it at the gym. It was weird to watch myself on the screen. I thought the entire time…"Is that really me? Is that how I really look?" I am still baffled when I see myself, I wonder, is that me? I know that reconditioning of the brain can take 1 month for each year of life…with this in mind, I could easily be over 30 years of age when I finally realize, yes, this is the new me. Positive reimaging self talk has already been started on my end…Drew and my wonderful family and friends have been supportive as well. I know that I do not see it yet, but I am starting to.
I continued closing some other chapters in my life last week with walking for my master's degree in curriculum instruction at ESU. My brother Sam flew in for the occasion and we went out as a family for lunch afterwards...the "Classic Cup" on the Country Club Plaza was my choice because online they were registered as having one of the best carrot cakes in the city. Of course, this in my mind would be the perfect ending to the hard work I put in. The Louisiana Shrimp and Grits I had for lunch there was superb, my carrot cake, lacking. I was hoping for more cinnamon and possibly a hint of nutmeg. Overall, the food and experience was wonderful, my dad got raspberry peach cobbler with crème fresh which was a little piece of what I envision Paula Deene would welcome a dear friend in with for cards and a catch up. I feel that my carrot cake cupcakes from Cooking Light is better, if you want to try it, click on carrot cake, but do google Ina Garten's cream cheese frosting, very bad for you, but sooo good on these cupcakes, (bake in 18 muffin tins for about 30 min. at 325 degrees…also, add in 1 tsp of pumpin pie spice, it really does help!) I made this past week for my class along with homemade granola. (about 100 calories per ¼ cup…did not add the brown sugar nor the dried mangoes.)
That same evening, I shared with Sam my concern about raising $14,000 within a month and not knowing quite what to do. I told him that I felt like the Lord has placed on my heart that I was to help someone else I knew fundraise first and part with a large sum which I had saved. I told Sam that I really hoped I could get in contact with this person later on this week, as I had already called twice and got no response, but also my concern about meeting my own goal now. Sam gave me the encouragement that I was to keep reaching out. I told him that Matthew 6:25-26 was my focus of the past week and that the Lord was really working in my heart about trusting His provision in my life with the story he is having me author, but Him edit. The verse talks about how birds and flowers do not worry about the days ahead and where things will come from, it ends with, how much more does your heavenly Father care about you? He cares so much and truly, I know that my God will supply ALL my needs, not some or partial, but ALL. This was poured out to me later on this past week…I not able to connect with my friend Sarah prior to Thursday, I kept calling and leaving messages, but got nothing back. Wednesday night, I sat in the parking lot of WaterWay waiting while my car filled and said to the Lord, "I did my part, I keep calling, but there is no answer. I thought You wanted me to give…and I am trying, but I cannot give, if there is no answer." Right then, a peace which I cannot explain washed over me, and I felt a calm that was, "Keep It." What? Seriously God? Are you sure, because I want your will, not my own in my life. I felt again the peaceful feeling, "Keep It." I called my mom, (of course!) immediately and shared what had happened, we both thought, well, maybe I am being tested…am I willing to part with my fundraising need to help another? I was hit full force the next morning at my mailbox on plan time. Thank Jesus that David was checking his mail and getting coffee with me at the same time, I was taken aback when I saw the envelope from Fox 4 in the school box. It was an anonymous letter signed, "Your Friend" with $1400 cash in hundreds inside. I started bawling right there, and not little tears, this was, OMG YOU DID WHAT FOR A STRANGER!? I shared with David that this was much like Abraham being asked by God in Genesis 22 to give up his only son and trust Him to provide a sacrifice.
Does the Editor of my faith end the week there…NO! God continued to awe-inspire me even more as I drove to Wichita for my roomie from the sorority…Happein' Hadley's bachelorette party and bridal shower. I finally connected with Sarah and had a good catch up as I drove. I shared with her what God had done, and she said, you want to know what is even cooler Meyer? I felt that I was not to answer your calls and take your funds this week. You were the only person who offered to give whom I felt that God said, No, you are not to take it. We both got goose-bumps as we talked on the drive about how the Lord was working in both are fundraising efforts because she is fully funded without my aid. How Great Is Our God?! I told her that I thought the Lord would do something big on the trip because she did not take it and followed what she thought the Lord spoke to her heart. She shared that she sees the Lord working big things for me as well. I explained to Sarah that I am trusting fully that as long as I continue to follow what I believe I am to do for the Bigger Picture in Mind by God that He will continue to guide and make my path straight…as in Proverbs 3:5-6, "Trust in the Lord with ALL your heart and lean not on your own understanding (because truly, I do not always understand) and in ALL your ways submit to Him and HE will make your path straight." Childlike faith is all that my God asks of me, to blindly understand that somehow, HE will accomplish HIS work even if I do not understand the way HE makes the storyline turn.
Seeing my sorority sisters and the supportive family that ASA has been for me with sisterhood through the years, I am blessed to know so many amazing Apples of God's eye. Elissa's shower was such a blast. We did the toilet paper bride and her grandmother was the winner. Seeing an eighty year old woman wrapped in Charmin ultra soft and carrying a bouquet of cardboard rolls was pretty funny. Later on going out to celebrate "She's had it with Hadley, she'll be Ternes now" was a reminder of what sisterhood is…showing up and celebrating the life and love of each other. We visited Old Town and ran into old friends from college as we went from stop to stop. Later this morning, Jenna, Laura, Sarah Jo and I finished some invites for the bachelorette party to happen in a few weeks for Laura Craven, it was exciting to celebrate the friendships which I have been blessed to accrue and discuss an idea of a sisterhood retreat as adults like an annual trip each summer together…much like something I could see the Red Hat's club or Ya-Ya!'s doing.
A third and final chapter which I am a mess of Kleenex debris is closing this week as well. My fifth grade loves are leaving me on Tuesday morning. Do NOT bring it up, because I know that I will start crying. I could have never imagined as class like this one. A class where you bring up new learning and the response is…"Yeah! We get to stretch our brains today!" J How could anyone NOT want to teach such passion for learning? Saying good-bye tomorrow night at the end of the year will be bittersweet for me. I know that I cannot hold them forever, they need new challenges and opportunities for growth that I am not qualified (yet) to give, but I cannot help but be sad to watch them walk out my door on Tuesday. As Drew told me at the start of August, "Enjoy it Erin, but remember, it will end…it may be May, but remember, it it will end." The truth of the matter is, it is ending, and I am so grateful that I got the best gift of all, a full year to invest in 24 young lives. Truly, their parents gave me a "borrowed" gift, and I simply have to pass the gift along. To end it all, I feel like once, years ago, I had a dream, and God has given me the gift of living it out each day, to which I have no idea the lives which I get to impact. The inspirational thing is that new dreams are currently being mulled over in my mind and heart these past few weeks. I am so ever grateful that I not only get to walk out the dreams in my heart, but I have not let the dreams of the past die nor lost the ability to dream. New dreams are being created as I see the fulfillment of dreams of the past. Just as the Disney song from my favorite princess, Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) once sang, "I know you I walked with you once upon a dream, I know you, the gleam in your eyes is so familiar a gleam. Yet I know its true, that visions are seldomd though they seam; but if I know you, I know what you'll do, You'll love me at once, the way you did once, upon a dream." Dreams and visions are seldom fulfilled, yet once, I had a dream, God has fulfilled it fully and continues to give new dreams and passions for me to walk out.
No comments:
Post a Comment