My Run, My Pace, My Peace

As I ran this morning, this verse came to mind after I said to myself that this is my run at my pace:

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” John 14:27

Yesterday was one of those kind of tough autistic days (my kids are legally blind with low vision but two also on the autism spectrum with additional disabilities) where we dealt with several behavioral issues culminating in an outburst that caused me to almost jump out of my skin. I sent the kids upstairs early, loaded the dishwasher, wiped down surfaces then watched an interesting documentary on natural cancer treatments/cures available in Germany (“Cancer Can Be Killed”) before heading up to bed.

I’ve long since given up emotional eating—even with healthy foods—by God’s grace, and believe me it is by His grace. Popular culture tells us, “Come on! You’ve had a bad day! You deserve that (ice cream, cake, donut, pizza, candy bar, alcohol,chips, _______)!”

But you know what I’ve realized that we deserve? We deserve to live in good health. We deserve to have love, support, and community. We deserve to be able to move our bodies to the best of our abilities the way God has made us. We deserve to put food in it’s proper place and context—as fuel and nourishment and NOT as a drug or numbing agent. It never really works or lasts for long anyway. When the affects of the food comas wear off, we are right back where we started or even worse off due to the additional abuse heaped on our bodies. We deserve peace.

This morning I still needed that quiet time to myself. So I put on my workout clothes and went downstairs in the small gym to run alone with my headphones on, My music 🎶 playlist on, and decided to just do a nice, sustained run (30 minutes run with a 5-minute warm up and cool down walk) at a slow and steady pace with a few inclines for a total of 2 miles. I felt more relaxed doing my own pace. I really do like running with my family but sometimes—and today was one of those days—I feel good doing my own run, at my own pace, in my own peaceful space.

#TreadmillMom

#BackYardRunner

#PlantBasedGodsGrace