Eagles Wings

On our way to church this morning, I was listening to one of the CDs we have that I have heard a trillion and three times. As one particular song played through, my mind started to wander again --it's been doing that a lot lately. Anyway I have heard this song and sang along with this song countless times, but it really spoke today. Maybe its the things weighing on my heart or maybe it was something I needed to hear or maybe, just maybe God is trying to teach me something. The rest of the ride to church I was so focused on the lyrics of that song. Music is so powerful to me. I don't care so much about what instruments are used, but I am listening to words, the heart of the writer.

I don't know what got me thinking what was so special about eagles, but I was. I know the verse in Isaiah, a very familiar and well quoted verse and so I started there, but in my mind it still didn't answer the question--why eagles? Hey, I am a city girl! Animals, farms, and how many feet chickens have are Greek to me. So I looked further. What I found was very interesting, and it makes complete sense now! You might want to sit down for this ... and don't bother to stop me if you already heard it :)

Eagles are the only birds that love a storm. While all others bird try to flee and hide itself from an approaching storm, eagles will fly into it and use the winds of the storm to rise higher without using its own energy. It is able to do this because God uniquely created in it the ability to lock it's wings in place in the midst of fierce and powerful winds and use those winds to lift higher. While the storm rages below, the eagle soars above. It does not escape the storm, but rather uses the winds of the storm to soar above it! WOW!! What an awesome Creator! The whole eagle thing is so fascinating to me now. It was like God telling me to fly into my storm and lock my 'wings' in Him and without any strength or energy of my own, but all power from Him I am going to rise higher and become stronger and I am going to soar so far above any storm approaching or already thundering, that it all soon will be a distant memory. If this is common knowledge or old news, thats OK- I'm slow. I am the chick that laughs at yesterdays joke tomorrow, because I just got it-- so please don't rain on my parade!

I don't think I will ever look at an eagle now without remembering this very important lesson God showed me. I wanted to start collecting little lambs, because they are so cute and- well, duh- Lamb of God, but now I think I need some eagles!

God gives wings

When the race still lies before me,
And the wind is blowing strong,
When the witnesses surround me,
And my strength is almost gone;
When the valley plunges deeper,
And life shatters all my dreams,
Then I lift my voice to Jesus,
And He gives my spirit wings.

God gives wings, God gives wings as eagles;
God gives wings to fly and strength to rise above.
God gives wings, God gives wings as eagles,
When my feet begin to stumble,
And my dreams begin to crumble,
I mount up on eagles' wings.

Let us run the race with patience,
Let us lay each weight aside,
Looking only unto Jesus;
He will be our faithful Guide.
He has run the race before us;
He has won the victor's crown.
And He calls to ev'ry Christian,
"Follow me to higher ground."

God gives wings, God gives wings as eagles;
God gives wings to fly and strength to rise above.
God gives wings, God gives wings as eagles,
When my feet begin to stumble,
And my dreams begin to crumble,
I mount up on eagles' wings.

A journey of 1000 miles begins with one step

Saturday is the new Friday :) Friday is such a hassle with language school and then getting lunch done and the kids started on their school that I am so not focused so it will be easier for me to post my updates Saturday, sooo with that being said....

My weekly water consumption is about the same -- around 30-35 liters! I am totally proud of this fact. I ALWAYS have a cold water bottle in my hand at any given time of the day and I now love it. I actually crave it. After I get back from my rides I sit in the recliner to unwind for a few minutes and drink down 1 liter in about 5 minutes. I can't remember exactly how long last summer I went without coke but I am pushing 28 days coke-free tomorrow, and I think it is a record! With the exception of a rare glass of milk with my dinner and my post workout smoothies, I haven't drank anything else. Just my water and me. Funny about 2 months ago at this time I couldn't gag down a liter a day- now I drink close to 5. This week I have done my bar method 3 days and boy am I feeling it!

I rode my bike 15 miles

* it was down this week because my chain was popping off giving me problems, but hubby fixed it and I took a glorious ride today with no problems!

I walked 17 miles

*this weeks goal is 20 miles

I am so glad to have a walking partner again!! Kristina said, "lets start walking" (YAY!) and so we did-- first it was a little hard on her, I think, but she made up her mind too and if she is half as determined as I am, we are going to reach 100 miles in no time! Maybe we can celebrate with a coke! Kidding!

My inches I am going to measure every 2 weeks instead of every week, so nothing to see there :)

I have fixed my eyes on a new thinner, healthy me and there is nothing stopping me now. All fall and winter long I dabbled around diets, and half hearted exercise routines only to get discouraged and give up to start again and stop again and start again. Not this time. I told Kristina for months, that I have to work myself up and get to a certain point and then I just take off from there without looking back. This week was that point and I am stoked about my meals plans for the coming weeks and the results to follow. I still am not going to get so caught up on what digital enemy on the floor says, but of course I am going to monitor it weekly. My goals during this whole journey have turned a little. I am not going to set weekly goals of inch/weight loss, per se, but rather the fitness and eating goals. I will take whatever I get for the week, in loss or gain, with a smile and be happy about it... if I have reached my goal of eating healthy and fulfilling my exercise goals. I am doing everything right, so I know in time it will reflect that. Oh yeah, before I get carried away I am down 4 pounds!!

I have a ton of new recipes I am going to be testing in the next few weeks and I am eager to share the 'keepers' with you!

Before I go I want to share a teeny blessing with you. It may be silly actually, but I LOVE the little things God does to show just me how how important the little things really are to Him. I paid for a new month of web application for my bodybugg and had to upload all old info and before I was done it asked me to update it (I had not used it in months!) which I did and half way through that, it froze. I tried calling customer service and it was Saturday in California so of course they were not open, so I do some troubleshooting searches. I find out if it is unresponsive hold the status button down for 15 seconds to reset the armband. I did and the thing died. it would not come on, the computer didn't recognize it and I thought for sure it was fried and to top it off I had to wait until after the weekend on California time to get a hold of someone. To make a long story short on Tuesday evening I sat down to call them and get this chick on the phone that goes through all the yada-yada-yada and it still is not working. She tells me I will send you a new USB plug and we will see if that helps. Then she tells me she has given me 2 free months. I thank her and tell her I appreciate 2 free months, but if the thing does not work , those 2 months are useless. She said to wait on the USB and call back. Frustrated I hung up the phone. As I thought about all the steps she walked me through to try to reset it, somehow I remembered that the computer did recognize that something was attached to it so I called back to insist it was not a USB problem and I got another someone on the phone who successfully reset it and got it working again! I was so happy to hear the little beeps and see the green light! LOL. So the blessing is my bodybugg works again AND I got to keep the 2 free months! It would seem to be an unimportant request in the eyes of others, that my bugg would work again-- but in the eyes of my Lord it was another little thing to show me He's still there. He still hears, and He still is just as concerned with the insignificant things. Then He gives me a 'cherry on top' with my freebie!! That's what God can do! Hows that for motivation!?