Following God - even when it's not convenient.

Lately, I have been pondering a thought that permeates all elements of my life, I just cannot figure out how to word in a witty and concise way. Maybe some of you can help.

I coach gymnastics in the evenings and we tell our girls that they will never get stronger without conditioning. We relate it to school and any thing else that we can think of to make them understand a little better. Since I coach a younger team, they always look to the big girls and want to do what they are doing. We tell them that if their arms are not strong enough to do a pull up and a push up, then they will not be strong enough to support them in a back handspring.

I have caught myself using this thought process in other parts of my life as well. If you want to improve at anything, you must, at some point, become uncomfortable. If you want to become a black belt at martial arts, you are going to have to work through the other belts first. You will have to get some bruises in order to learn how to block. In order to learn how to dive, you will have to learn how to drive your heels up and hold your body tight. You will go through several belly flops before you become strong enough to dive correctly.

In other words, you are perfectly prepared to do exactly what you are doing right now, but nothing else.

I had the chance this last week to reaaaaaalllllllly step out of my comfort zone. I had a casual friend that was in kidney failure. I went through the testing and ended up being a good enough match to be able to donate. On Friday, my friend went from kidney failure to having normal kidney function numbers. I am so so happy for him. Everyone is making a big deal about me donating the kidney, but to me, that was not the hard part. The hard part to me is the down time, not the surgery itself. I do not like being "weak." I do not like having to depend on others. Giving up a physical part is not hard, the vulnerability that comes with that is the difficult part.

However, if there was no "uncomfortableness," then how would that be serving others? It is easy to be generous if you don't have to go out of your way to do it.

This has been quite the spiritual journey for me. I have always thought of myself as somewhat caring, but have never really had to test it before. I really have had to trust that this is what God wanted me to do, even though it was definitely NOT convenient.

I have seen amazing spiritual growth in my husband as well. I have seen him step really out of his comfort zone and take the other family under his wing as well. He has risen above and beyond anything I have ever witnessed in him before.

My hope through this journey is that I will help myself to remember that God doesn't call the equipped, but equips the called and that he will prepare you for the journey He has for you - although there are no guarantees that the journey will be an easy one. I hope that my kids will learn this lesson in their life as well.

No one wants to push beyond the comfort zone, but that is where the greatest rewards are.

I just hope that I remember this as May rolls around and it is time for the Iron Girl Triathalon that I have signed up for. Anyone want to teach me how to swim?

My "other" girls

As some of you may know, I coach a level 3 gymnastics team.  We had our state meet this weekend.  They finished 8^th in the state, out of more than 30 gyms.  YAY!!

 

While I am excited about how well that they placed, that is not the point of my entry today.  As their season comes to a close, I look back at some of my favorite memories, both of the season and of the state meet.

 

As I look back on all this time together, I have decided that I am too much of a softie to ever lead a cut-throat, unbeatable team.  What has touched me the most has not been high scores and 1^st places.  It has been watching them grow and mature and become a “team.”

 

They came in as a bunch of scared and nervous girls.  Now they are friends and supporters.  I have seen my girls hug each other when they learn a new skill.  I have heard them cheer each other on when they see one of their own struggling.  I have had them jump up and do the “stay on the beam” dance when one struggles to stay on the beam.  I have had them crawl in my lap and snuggle.  I have had them wrap around my legs when I am walking.  I have seen them holding hands with each other while they are getting instructions. 

 

I am more proud of my girls for their actions at the meet than if they would have come out in 1^st place, but without their wonderful personalities.

 

Let me tell you a couple of excerpts from the meet so that you can see what amazing young girls that I have.

 

When we were at the bars and some of the girls would get to a skill that they had been struggling with, I would hear them quietly cheer, “YES” when their teammate made their skill.  They came and sat next to me during beam because they knew that I needed to hold on to someone when the girls are doing their handstands on beam.  They let me hold their arm or leg.  (There was once that I accidentally grabbed the leg of the girl that was the timer for beam, but that is another story for another day.)  They did a modified “stay on the beam” dance with me while their teammates were doing their handstands and leaps.  They cheered their teammates loudly, they told them good job and high fived them no matter if they stuck their routines or not.  They were able to shake off a bad event and not take it with them to the next event.  They made me and their other coach so very proud and we love them dearly.

 

The rest of the season will be spent training them for the next level, learning new “fun” skills and getting them ready for their new level and new coaches. 

 

I am going to be sad to see them go, but proud to see them progress.  It is almost like having kids.  You have to give them roots before they can grow wings.  Whether these girls stay in gymnastics or not, I hope that they remember the lessons they have learned and the coaches that loved them.

 

So, obviously I do not have what it takes to make these girls be state champions that will always outscore everyone else.  That would take someone much tougher than I am.  Someone who does not get teary eyed when they are crying during conditioning.  Someone who does not think one of the best parts of practice is getting the hugs at the end of practice.  Someone who does not feel so honored when they want to come sit in my lap or lay their head on my shoulder.  Maybe one day, I will be “tougher.”  For now though, I am going to enjoy the ride and the joy that comes with it.  

As always, leave me a comment (click the word "comment" below) and let me know you were here.

Pictures, gymnastics, and more

Sorry for the delay in posting.  March and April are insane months for us.  For March, we had gym meets the first and second weekends, then a retreat from church the 3rd weekend.  In April, J. had her state gymnastics meet the first weekend.  She did awesome!  She came in 5th All Around with a score of 36.075.  (A perfect score would be a 40 - which would be a 10 on each event.)

She has had an ongoing series of knee and ankle injuries lately.  The last one being that she landing a tumbling pass on the side of her foot, with her ankle rolled under.  It had a huge knot on it and turned many beautiful Easter colors; purple, blue, yellow, and green.  The colors were nice and vivid around her ankle and faded as it extended to her toes.  She went and saw our athletic trainer here at school every day for a week and a half and he would do some kind of e-stim boot therapy on it.  We were really hoping she would heal in time to compete at state.  She was hurting afterwards, but was able to do all 4 events.

She got 5th on vault with a 9.4.  Third place on bars with a 9.175.  9th on beam with an 8.5, and 11th on floor with a 9.00.  I am so proud of her!  

I am more proud of the fact that she did so much to help herself heal quickly and kept working through the pain.  This is what makes a gymnast - not the scores, not the placings at awards.  These girls work out 18 hours a week, go to school for 35 hours a week, keep up their grades, and do their chores.  For some, they are quite active in church.   They are usually leaders among their friends.  When they are hurt, they push through it.  I can personally say that there have been times where my daughter has saran wrapped ice bags to herself so that she can still work out.  She has gone in the bathroom and thrown up for one reason or another (sinus drainage, stress, etc - nothing contagious) and then has gone back out to the floor and finished whatever skills she was working on.  She competed twice last year with a fractured shin.  She has come home from practice and has had to have had help getting up the stairs because she is hurting.  She is not a rarity in the gymnastics world by any means.  They are all this way.  We had one girl still coming to practice with a stress fracture in her spine - she thought she just had a backache.  I have seen several girls doing conditioning with ice bags saran wrapped to their knees.  I have seen girls coming in and doing just conditioning when they have a cast on.  When they fall off of the beam or bars, they get back up immediately and do the same skill again and again so that they don't develop a fear.  I have seen them get hurt in the middle of a routine, finish the routine, and then not be able to get back up afterwards.  They have a work ethic like I have never seen before in kids.  They do their homework and dinner in the car on gym days.  Yet, when they take a couple of days off, they miss being there.  Since it is not a seasonal sport, they have these hours all year long, so the literally only get days off a year, not weeks.

Anyway, enough talking.  Here are some pics from the last couple of meets.  Keep in mind that you can not use a flash, the action is quite rapid, and the lighting is flourescent.  None of which allows for optimum pictures.

Here is J. and her friend A. getting ready to compete at state.  These are two of the most amazing young ladies:

J. doing her favorite event.  

J. doing her least favorite event:

J. and A. holding the team banner.  The team came in 7th!  Yay!

M. had a meet the same weekend.  She got her first 9 on beam.  Look at those pointed toes!

M. on bars.  She is such a flexible person that she has to really focus on staying tight.  She looks so much better on bars since she has learned how to focus on that:

This pictures look a little better as the lighting was a little better.  Here is J. hitting her handstand on the bar:

Look - her heels are together!  YAY!  (Since she is pigeon toed, this is a big struggle for her.)  

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the pics.  The photographer at state got some really good pics, I will post them when I get them.

My team has state meet this coming weekend.  I am so excited and nervous for them!  

The next weekend, M. has her state meet.

Then, we are done competing for a few months and will work on training for the next level.

We went to the mountains over spring break and I am working on an update that will have "prettier" pictures for those of you that are not into the gymnastics stuff.  I forget that other people have a life that does not revolve around gymnastics schedules.  

**For those of you that get email updates - I'm sure that you noticed that you only got the title of the blog and a link to get here instead of the full entry.  I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.  There were several reasons for this.  I realized that for people that do NOT visit the actual site, you and I both were missing out on some things.   You would not get to see any pictures that I place on the blog template.  You also would not get to see my blogroll on the side.  Those sites are absolutely wonderful and I encourage you to visit them.  Also, for you guys that don't blog, something you may not know:  Bloggers LOVE for their hit counter to go up.  We also love to get comments.  We like to know you were here.  There is nothing more rewarding for a blogger than to see and read that people were here - another reason to visit my cyber-friends on the side over there.**

As usual, thank you for stopping by!

Gymnastics pictures

Well, competition season has started. J. has had 2 meets and M. has had one. Below are a few pictures from their meets.





Before I get any harrassing comments on my pictures, let me provide the following caveats:





* All of the pictures are taken inside a gym





* Lighting inside gyms is not conducive to picture taking - think flourescent bulbs





* You cannot use a flash while taking pictures at a gymnastics meet.





Therefore, the pictures are not great. Some of them are not even very good. Some of them are outright bad. These are the best of the lot, though.





If any of you have any suggestions on how to improve these pictures, please let me know!





Thanks.








Here is J's dismount off of the beam:

















Split leap on the beam:









The bars are her best event. Below is her handstand on the high bar:












Part of her floor routine:













Back tuck in floor routine:






M. in the middle of her tumbling pass at her first meet:









Split leap:









Not really an exciting picture as far as action goes, but it turned out well. This is during the dance part of her floor routine:









Dismount on beam:











Scale:









In dance portion of beam routine:






Preparing for 1/2 turn:












Rebound:









Stretching out:











So, if you are not a close family friend or a gymnast, these are probably not that exciting to you. However, it is the icing part of a gymnasts life.





If you have never been involved in gymnastics, it is hard to understand. I am working on a post to tell you what the life of a gymnast and their family is like. Here is a quick snapshot:





J - 18 hours of practice a week


M - 9 hours of practice a week


This is every week. There is no off season. The girls get 1 week off a year. There is anywhere from 30 - 60 minutes of conditioning in each practice. This is hard work - and the meets are where they get ONE CHANCE to show off what they can do, so it is a pretty big deal to them.





Here are their stats from their first meet:





J: - 1st on all 4 events and 1st All-Around with team placing 1st


M: - 1st on vault, tie for 1st on floor, 3rd on bars, 2nd on beam, and 2nd all-around with team placing 2nd.





At J's second meet, she placed 1st on vault, 2nd on bars, 3rd on floor, and 4th all around with the team placing 1st.





This past weekend was homecoming at our school, so I will be posting some pictures from there soon.





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Thanks for stopping by!