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"Pinch Me!"

"And I tell you this, you must give an account on judgment day for every idle word you speak."
Matthew 12:36

I'm just 6 days away from (hopefully) running my first 5k! I'm praying that enough people volunteer to help so that it doesn't get cancelled. I'm becoming less nervous and more excited as the day draws closer. 

First of all, I faced my fear of running in front of other people. In fact, I ran with two people tonight! Besides running alongside them, there were several other people on and around the track. It wasn't nearly as bad as I expected it to be!

Also, I'm confident that I can make the full distance! I've been so afraid I wouldn't be able to run the entire way, but tonight we finished 2.8 miles in 26:45 minutes, with a pace of 9:38! I couldn't believe it! My personal record was 11:07 and I ran nearly 2 minutes faster than that tonight! I'm still giddy with excitement! I seriously never thought I'd see the day that I ran less than a 10 minute mile.

The first time I ever recorded a jog, my pace was 14:42. Tonight was such a huge accomplishment for me and I just have to give thanks to the Lord with the words of Psalm 107:1:

"Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever."

On another note, a friend and I made an agreement to stop gossiping to each other. We like to call it complaining, or venting, because who really wants to call it what it really is? We sometimes find our conversations heading in that direction without even meaning to, and after we leave each other's company, we think, "Why did I say that?" I think it shows great maturity in our friendship to be able to admit this flaw to each other and then agree to call each other out on it. (We jokingly made a pact to pinch each other!)

So tonight while running together, we felt our conversation being pulled in that direction, in the form of complaints. Thankfully, this friend had the strength to "pinch" me, and the sin was knocked out before we even got seven minutes into our run. Reflecting on this, I think about Matthew 12:36, "And I tell you this, you must give an account on judgment day for every idle word you speak."

I'm sorry, but giving an account to God for every "idle word I've spoken" does not sound like a fun time to me! Instead, I want the Lord to be proud of the encouraging and positive words I speak! After calling out our sin, the rest of our jog was filled with building and edifying one another. Now that's the kind of person I want to be! 

So again, I have to give thanks to the Lord for convicting us in our friendship, for giving my friend the courage to speak up, and for allowing us to finish our jog on a positive note. 

"Don't use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them." Ephesians 4:29

As Joyce Meyer would say, when you're tempted to gossip or complain, "run to the THRONE, not to the phone!"

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