ENDURANCE, CHARACTER, HOPE

"Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope..." - Romans 5:3-4

Endurance, character, hope.

You know, I am definitely not perfect. There was that time I had four Quest bars in one sitting (pretty sure they didn't mean "cheat clean" FOUR TIMES IN ONE HOUR, but whatevs). There was that time I cried on the stationary bike because, you know, fasted cardio the last week of prep just plain sucks. I have failed at every lift I've ever done (why snatch properly when I can clearly push press the sh*t out of that?!) and it took me a good 8 months to learn double-unders and only then because I had a dream one night about doing them and then the next day I walked into the box and I could just DO them.

"Do you ever wish we were like a normal couple that meets for lunch and eats pizza or shrimp po boys?" I asked him.

We just aren't. Because I was blessed enough to find a man who is a true partner and loves lifting heavy things and our Lord Jesus Christ.

I have absolutely no idea how I crushed this open workout, carb depleted and two weeks out from a figure competition. He scored me, shirtless of course. And then promptly ate 18 plates of food. While I wanted to die and writhed on the box floor for the next 30 minutes. Love, ya'll.

There's this line between "I have a dream to _________" and the grind. The threshing floor, where you wake up every day and you plan and you work a plan and you just do it - you make the choices. This is where most people fall between the cracks, this space between the dream and the doing.

Want to feel like a bad ass? Tell TSA agents that "I'm an athlete and this is my food" and then watch people wonder if they should ask for your autograph. Yes. I am famous. That's what they're thinking, right? Right? Um...

Between the dream and the doing. In that space, there is commitment and planning and choices. Endurance. Every threshing of the wheat, every seemingly monotonous task turns into character. And that character? That character gives you the hope to thresh out the dream.