Goals vs. Grace

My family enjoyed a lovely week away. We started north, spending the night in Springfield, Massachusetts then continued north to spend three days in Bar Harbor, Maine. As the week came to an end, we began to make our way south, toward home, stopping for two nights in Newport, Rhode Island. I had intentions of running at least twice throughout the course of the week and told "J" and "K" to check in with me for accountability. Even after all the thinking ahead, I returned home having done a lot of walking, but did not get a single run in. 

This is why, after twelve years of running, I have a hard time thinking of myself as a runner. Committed runners would have gotten their runs in no matter what. They would have looked forward to running somewhere new. They, at least, would have made time to use the hotel treadmill. I didn't feel safe in certain neighborhoods, and I was not familiar with the roads and if there were shoulders or sidewalks to safely run on. Being in one hotel room with the four of us meant later bedtimes which meant I was getting less quality sleep than usual. Once the days were underway, it was non-stop action. I was already tired by mid-day. If I would have gotten up even earlier, I would have had a hard time enjoying the activities we had planned to do. All of these reasons may sound like excuses, and maybe they are, but this was how it went down. 

I had to let go of guilty feelings by the middle of the week and stop the negative self-talk. As I commented on a friend's Instagram post, "Sometimes not doing something is the win!" It's always a balance between pushing our bodies toward our goals or expectations and giving ourselves grace. It's a hard balance to find. We place multiple expectations on ourselves which isn't always a bad thing. After all, we can't just sit around, being lazy, doing nothing, but we also have to be open to God redirecting our plans. 

"Many plans are in a person’s heart, but the Lord’s decree will prevail." Proverbs 19:21 (CSB)

I pray you lay out your plans, make goals for yourself and push hard to accomplish them, but also give yourself grace when you fall short and allow God to direct all of your steps.