Reaching for Hope

When I was young and single, I would go on long distance runs alone. While I would run, I would play little motivational “games” in my mind to keep me moving longer. For instance, I’d make up landmarks like “just make it to the next street corner and push hard”… leading to “okay, now to the tree”… and so on. As I would keep pushing physically, I was getting mental exercise to keep pushing. Before I knew it my 3 mile run that I never thought I’d finish, due to exhaustion, turned into a 6+ mile run! Oh those were the days haha.

These memories came back to me on my short jog/walk the other day (no longer long distance runs). As I thought through how motivating those thoughts were for distance running, I thought about how motivating our thoughts can be for current life circumstances. The circumstances we are in can be overwhelming, and we can feel defeated by them before we have even been defeated. Thinking about what I’m saying regarding to running, I can think, “I can’t go on, my legs are tired, my heart is racing…I can’t do it.” Then the run becomes overwhelming and I am defeated physically because of my thought-life. Or I can think, “you got this! Push through to the next landmark,” as we said above, and before you know it I’m an overcomer in distance.

In my journey with my three boys, it’s far more exhausting and overwhelming than a long distance run. And I don’t instantly feel or see the goodness that comes from it like a good, long run. It’s a constant playground of defeat if I allow it to be. I know other moms can relate. However, I am learning that my thought life can make me an overcomer in each moment of motherhood. If I can grasp the hope that lies before me, and make that my landmark, I will find joy, rest and peace in what I’m in.

There is a hope we can reach for, a gain when we embrace the hope before us

For us it’s 3 boys with its high energy, its high volume, losing sleep, doctors appointments, medical procedures, surgeries and learning a new language and culture. It’s a lot! The hope that I fix my eyes on are those Moms who have gone before me and made it through. Narrowing it down even more, Moms of deaf children who are now thriving with hearing aides and implants. I have found a great online community I find so much hope there. The hope is so empowering!

So, in-between the poopy diapers, the constant messes, the tantrums, there is a joy we find, as I press toward what God has for me in this season of motherhood. In a day it may be as simple as reading books to my boys, stopping and listening to my kids, doing a load of laundry, working on ASL as a family. We will reach the prize that He has in it for us!

I have been learning (and its not always easy) to become that long distant runner again, this time in my everyday life. Pushing through, with my eyes set on the hope before me embracing the high calling that is in it. The ultimate goal? To see my sons learn to push through the “hardships” in life and thrive, and to bring hope to others through our journey!

Philippians 4:13,14 – “Forgetting those things which are behind you and reach for those things that are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”