You’re Almost There….

"When it was over, I lay spent and exhausted on the cold, hard earth…never to be ranked with the average and mediocre..." This is a quote from one of our late presidents; my daughter sent me when I was toiling with one of life's many problems.

She continued with, "In essence…I am a winner and will not say it's over until I have given everything. Until there is nothing left in me to give. That makes me special and unique." I keep these words close to my heart and remember them when I struggle or want to feel my children’s strength.

The warm air is finally arriving: spurts at a time, not every day, but we’re getting there. After a foot injury, I have been trying to increase my walking steps in the last few weeks.

It has helped me to remember that once before, when I needed to build stamina, I took a step class.

It looked pretty easy to me. We began vigorously with simple repetitive movements and stayed at it until every muscle had been thoroughly worked. The steps were simple. There were no strenuous movements, so I figured I could handle it.

Yet when I began, I realized that the hardest part had nothing to do with movement; it was all about endurance.

After 15 minutes, I felt like a limp piece of spaghetti. I just wanted to drop to the floor. So, of course, I did what anyone who is out of shape does; I quit.

However, I kept going back. Over and over, I would go and last as long as I could and then stop. One night after quitting, I watched the class. It wasn't but a few more minutes before they reached the peak and began cooling down.

If I had only tried a little harder, I could have finished. The next time I went, I was determined to stay until I finished or, as the quote said, "lay spent and exhausted on the cold, hard earth."

I did the first 20 minutes without much of a problem, but it got hard. I wanted to quit, but I didn't. I just began to do the movements as I could until I could catch up.

Occasionally I had to stop and start again, but I refused to quit. As you have guessed by now, I finished the class, and it felt great! Exhausting but great! The class taught me to be more determined.

I wanted to write about this because life is like that sometimes. I gave up on some things in my life when it got hard, but I am most proud of the things that I struggled with and finished.

When the work is being done, the heart is hurting, and you feel like you can't take another moment of whatever it is you are reaching for, it helps to know that you are probably almost there.

When I reached the peak in my exercise class and thought I couldn't make it, I pushed and allowed the sweat to fall down my back, and then to my relief, the instructor began the cool-down movements. I made it.

If we work as hard in our marriages, with our children, and our jobs, we might find that the goal is not near as far away as we think. Wouldn’t it be nice to step back and see how things would turn out if we didn’t give up so easily? That we’re almost there!

One of the things parents often do when their children are grown is hope the efforts they made as young parents were good enough.

"Did I do a good job raising them," I ask myself sometimes. There are occasions when all I can remember are what I wished I had done better. After my daughter sent me the letter, I asked her where she learned to be so determined. She eased my heart by saying,

"Mom, one of the most important things I learned from you and Dad is never to give up."