In order to have the life you’ve always wanted you must act now and take steps to become the person ready to walk in that life.

You can pray to be a ballerina all you want, but if you don’t practice your stretching, leaps, and turns you’ll just be a lifelong dreamer.

If you want to play baseball you can’t just sit on the sofa watching baseball and wishing to be on the field.  You get a ball and a bat and go outside and practice your throws and hits.

If you want to be a child of God you don’t get saved one day and just continue how you were living.  You get up every day and pray for wisdom and guidance for that day and that He will open your eyes to truth and be a witness to someone.

Life is a marathon and not a sprint.  The journey is filled with obstacles, but just because you lost your footing in one stretch of the race doesn’t mean you give up.  A runner’s goal is to cross the finish line and you cannot do that if, when you get discouraged, you sit on the curb and dwell on your mistakes.  You can be bummed out, but you stand back up and keep going.  It’s one mile at a time… one foot in front of the other… inch by inch … until you cross that finish line.

Marathons are filled with like minded people encouraging each other and pushing each other to the finish line.  While crossing that finish line is the goal it’s in the training that all the hard work is proven.  You must sweat and spend a lot of time doing things you don’t necessarily want to do in order to endure that race for the end result of satisfaction.  Everyone has their own reason for the journey and different pace to get there, but they all have the same goal in mind.  In order to get your medal you must follow the course laid out.  You cannot start running and wander off any way you like.  You must keep moving forward and stay on the road following the markers.  Some parts may be daunting, but there are stations set up to replenish you and keep you going … “Don’t give up… keep running.”

There are some people who have run all their life and others who just started.  There are runners of all ages and it is never too late to start.  “A mile is a mile no matter how slow you go.”  Anyone can participate in a marathon.  It’s a matter of choice.

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” – Hebrews 12:1

“I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 3:13-14

What could be better than when you cross that finish line and hear … ”Well done, My good and faithful servant.”

“And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.  Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.“ – 2 Corinthians 12:8-10

“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.“ – John 14:6