Guess what day it is?  It’s Thursday again and that means it’s my day off!!  🙂  Woo Hoo!  So today I decided it would be a GREAT day for a mommy get-away bike ride!  Since we’ve had this beautiful spring weather lately, I decided to take Daisy (some of you might remember from previous blogs that “Daisy” is my bike!) out for a ride!  So, after happily taking the kiddos to school, I ever-so-gently CRAMMED Daisy into the back of my car and headed for the trail!

Now, this may sound silly to some, but in my mind, I pictured myself biking at a somewhat leisurely pace along a nice flat paved trail.  Picture Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy in the Muppet Movie!  There would be birds singing, flowers blooming and some bees gently buzzing by off in the distance.  From somewhere probably beautiful, a gentle breeze would blow my hair back as I pedaled on…and it would be glorious! Simply glorious!

Unfortunately… somehow in my daydream, I guess I had forgotten to factor in all the many hills that are along the trail, and before too long I found myself in REALITY huffing and puffing up some treacherous mountain range instead! 😉  Did I take a wrong turn?  Was I heading up Mt. Diablo by mistake??  Sadly, no.  Were there birds singing or bees buzzing?  Ummm….that I don’t know…because all I could hear was my own loud panting and gasping for air!  Are you wondering if there were flowers blooming?  I really can’t say that I saw much other than the pavement up ahead as I’d track how much further to the summit!!  There WAS, however, that gentle breeze…ahhh yes, there it was…because I could feel it blowing through my sweaty helmet hair when I’d stop to breathe.

But I found that if I stopped occasionally to drink water, eat a bite of granola bar and rest a bit, I could keep going.  It was like I had “powered up”.

Daisy is not made for this type of bike ride.  She’s heavy and sturdy…and well, she has a cute little basket that isn’t that light especially when it’s full of my layers of clothing that got stripped off along the way.  She’s made for one purpose, and that is to simply look cute on rides to the Farmer’s Market, possibly with a small puppy riding in the basket and me wearing sandals, a skirt and a sunhat!  She’s not made for “real” bike riding adventures such as this!!   I wanted to cry out to the other bikers (the REAL bikers) that kept effortlessly passing by us, “What was I thinking??”

But today, even though I felt like quitting so many times, I just kept telling myself to push through it.  I’m doing this thing lately, where I’m trying to “train my brain” (in life and in exercise), not to quit.  You see, as hard as it was to pedal uphill for so long, I just kept thinking about how this is like my life (all of our lives) sometimes.  We’re on this “uphill” season and it feels SO incredibly long, but we’re almost there and we can see the top now! We don’t want to quit.  If we keep trusting God, taking breaks to rest up and refresh in His presence, and hold steady to and continue to stand on God’s promises for our lives, we will get to the top!  It might even be worth it!! 😉

Eventually, Daisy and I DID reach the top and you know what happened next?  You know that expression that says, “what goes up must come down?”  Well, we got to come down!  Do you bike ride?  If not, did you ride as a kid?  Do you remember the feeling of biking down a hill SO SUPER fast that your stomach flip flops?  It’s absolutely exhilarating!!  As I biked down the steepest hills on the trail, I could feel the exhilaration tingle through my whole body!!!  I even heard myself squealing and saying out loud, “THIS was SO worth it!!”  The wind seemed to carry us as we zoomed down with such speed that I think both Daisy and I were shocked that she had it in her! It was like we were flying!!

I wish I could type this with more emphasis than capital letters:  It was SO WORTH THE LONG CLIMB!!!

THIS was indeed my reward!

Instantly I felt God on that trail with me.  Must be why I felt so alive!  His love swept in with the breeze as we sailed down the hills, and He reminded me then and there that this “climb” we’ve been on in our life journey right now will be so worth it when we see what He has in store!!  Isn’t God so awesome!  He shows up when we least expect it!  Not just a bike ride anymore, but suddenly I had renewed hope for the days ahead.

Is life BEYOND tough right now and you want to give up?  Please don’t.  God is there with you, just as He was with me on this amazing ride! I’d like to think you’re reading this right now just so God can remind you that He’s got you in the palm of His hand…and if you put your trust in Him, letting Him simply love on you, He will see you through anything.  Nothing is too hard for Him!  “I am the Lord, the God of all the peoples of the world.  Is anything too hard for Me?” (Jeremiah 32:27).  See?  Told ya! 😉

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him.”

This last Thursday was such a beautiful day! It was like spring had finally arrived, and I was enjoying the fact that it was my day off of work!  I was sitting in Macy’s getting a “makeover” of all things!  I do this about once a decade…  😉   I was just enjoying my day off of work for once rather than getting errands done or being given parking tickets (read last blog for explanation on that last one!)  😉  My cell phone rang and I saw it was the kids school calling.  Yikes!  Whenever the school calls during the school day, it can’t be good.  My Clinique gal was about to apply some beautiful blue charcoal eyeliner on my lower eyelid when I said, “Oh!  Excuse me, I need to take this call!” I answered the phone and was told by a very nice sounding woman that my six year old son who had been tested on two separate occasions for hearing had failed his hearing test in his left ear and needed to be checked out by a doctor!!

It felt like I’d been punched in the stomach.  My sweet Thursday suddenly turned sour.  We spoke for a bit, and I thanked the woman for informing me of this and I hung up the phone.  I felt like throwing up.  Wrapping up my make-over as quickly as I could, and trying to keep myself from falling apart, I headed to the parking lot, got in my car and began to cry.  So much for that beautiful blue eyeliner!!  Last Thursday was the two tickets and now this Thursday I’m being told my son is deaf in one ear???  What is going on?  I dried my tears and began to drive home as quickly as I could to make a doctors appointment for my son.  The sooner we get to the problem, the sooner we can fix it…I hoped…but I was not alone in the car on my ride home…fear had suddenly become my uninvited passenger!

All the worst thoughts come into your head when you’re afraid…do you notice that?  I kept thinking of the worst scenarios!  Needless to say it was a LONG drive home.

I began to talk to God…actually,  I began to CRY OUT to Him for help.  I do some of my best “crying out to God’s” in the car!  However, somewhere on Moraga Road, I found a little faith in there and I told God that I trusted Him…that I was going to stand on His word and believe for a miracle for my son and for his hearing. It was like I was spiritually shaking my own shoulders and saying, “Get a hold of yourself woman!   God is in control!  Trust Him!”

Suddenly remembering the most beautiful song I had just downloaded a few weeks ago by Kari Jobe called, “Speak to Me” I began to simply ask Him to “speak to Me”.  Everything in my heart was in that plea!  I knew one word from Him would put my heart and mind at peace.  One word of hope and assurance from God would give me the strength I needed to get through whatever was ahead.  Doing my best to push fear out of the car with my FAITH, I began to whisper to Jesus, “Speak to me”.  No sooner did I say those words out loud than my cell phone in my purse went:

PING!

Um…Is God texting me?!?  😉

That was sure interesting timing to say the least!  But now I’m curious!!!  I MUST see my phone!!  Now, don’t worry…I learned my lesson in the last blog…and I kept my phone in my purse until I got home to read the text.  But do you know what?  God DID text me!  Well… He used my sweet mother-in-law to do the texting part for Him, but it was definitely Him!  🙂  Before I had driven home, I had called my husband to give him the news and to pray.  He had called his Mom to ask her to be praying as well.  Mike and I are pretty smart… we know we’d be lost without the prayers of our mothers!!  🙂  The funny thing is… she texted me right at the EXACT moment that I was asking God to speak to me!  I can still hear that instant ping!

That’s no coincidence…especially when you hear her text.  Here it is:

“Hi Honey.  Mike shared the hearing test report.  I urge you to declare and stand upon God’s word.  Specifically Psalm 112:7.  “They will have no fear of bad news; their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the Lord!”  Praying for you all…”
I had just told God I trusted Him.  She didn’t know that.  I had just decided not to be afraid…I did not want fear catching a free ride!  She didn’t know that either…but yet God knew.  God saw me standing on His word in the car ride home.  He SEES!  He KNOWS!  It’s going to all be okay!  I had hope from then on!  God desires to speak to us!

Friday I took my son to the doctor and they gave him a more precise hearing test which he passed with flying colors!  They cleaned wax out of his ears too, and his hearing is back to normal again!  His ear doesn’t feel clogged and I can whisper into it and he can hear me!  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve whispered “I love you” into that little ear!  I can’t tell you how many MORE times I’ve whispered “I love you” to my Jesus!
If you’re reading this and feeling like you need a word of hope today…I encourage you to ask God to “speak to you”…He loves you so!  He desires to speak to you.  If you don’t know Jesus, I also encourage you to ask Him to come into your heart!  This God of love desires a relationship with you…and He can be trusted.  He is all joy and fulfillment and peace, and He LOVES you more than you can imagine!  He’s just a whisper away.

My son’s hearing became clearer…and I guess you could say that my hearing did too! 🙂