Our Spartan Race

You may remember when I mentioned in this post that I registered us for a Spartan race.  After much running, lifting and burpees the big day finally came for the race.  I really wasn't too nervous until race day arrived.  As we were driving to the race I felt like I do when I get on a big rollercoaster....all excited until we start going up the first big hill and I decide I would like off but it's too late.  The only way off is to scream your head off and ride it.  Which is exactly what I did with the race. :)

There really is no way to describe the true thrill of what we experienced in our Spartan race.  I am going to try though because it was just too awesome to not share.  

The first obstacles started out pretty easy with a little over and unders...then they took us into a creek that was up to my chest in muddy water with dead fish floating around.  I admit I screamed when I hit the water and felt how cold it was.  After that we went on a trail up and down hills, jumping over walls, flipping tires and logs, climbing ropes(or trying to I should say), throwing spears, scaling slippery walls and much more.  Spartan is kind enough to catch some oh so flattering shots of you throughout the race.  Here is one of me climbing up the bridge wall:

The one on the left is when the photographer yelled at me to look at him and that was the best smile I could muster up. :)  

When you fail an obstacle on the Spartan you have to do 30 burpees before you can move on.  I failed the rope climb(shocking, I know), the side wall climb and the spear throw....leaving me with 90 super fun(insert sarcastic smiley here) burpees!  

My husband was so sweet to wait for me at obstacles to help me over walls if I needed it.  If it weren't for him I would have done even more burpees!

You can't notice in any of my pictures because my shirt is covered in mud but I was wearing my 2 Timothy 1:7 shirts that says "POWER, LOVE, SELF DISCIPLINE".  There were a few times during the race that I started thinking I couldn't go on and the Lord reminded me of that scripture.  He reminded me that he made me strong and powerful, not weak and timid.  

As "horrible" as this race may look or sound I would highly recommend doing one if you are thinking about it at all.  I believe that if you can't see God in everything you will have a hard time seeing him in anything.  Here are a few things he spoke to me during my Spartan race:

Know the word.

Like I mentioned, I had the word written on my shirt to remind me of who I am in Christ. Do you need to have a shirt made for everything you do?  No.  But you do need to have it hidden in your heart so you can easily remember it in tough times that you want to quit.

Surround yourself with cheerleaders.

The other really cool thing about the Spartan race was how everyone helped each other regardless of knowing one another before the race.  I was amazed to see random strangers staying behind to make sure everyone made it over a wall or stopping to help me up when I fell.  It reminded me that we need to surround ourselves with people who are working towards a common goal and who believe in what we are doing and will not let us quit.  Ecclesiastes 4:9 says "two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed."

Don't be afraid to get dirty.

When people hear my story of our race or see our pictures they tend to freak at how dirty we got.  Normally, in my everyday life, I would never go crawl through mud and make a mess of myself.  However, when I had my mind made up that I was going to start a race knowing I would get muddy, bruised and a little bloody, I was okay with it.  I think too often we want to say yes to God but we don't want to get in the trenches and do the work.  Don't be afraid to get your hands dirty....you may find you like the feeling of doing something so much bigger than yourself that you really don't mind the mess.  Plus other people will respect you for it which is a great leadership tool. :)  

Do your training.

When the day of the race came I knew I had done everything in my power to train for this.  As I was running I had to tell myself more than once "I am prepared for this.  My body is equipped for this."  I think the same thing is true spiritually.  Read the word and spend time with God in worship and prayer and when your race day comes you can easily remind yourself that you are equipped for this.  

Enjoy the fruits of your labor.

In our go, go, go! society it can be easy to not stop and give God thanks for things He has helped us to accomplish.  It was such an amazing feeling to do our last obstacle, the fire jump, and run through that finish line! 

 Here is my husband charging through with confidence:

And then there is me, a little hesitant, but I did it:

Here we are with our hard earned medals after the race:

If you have nothing holding you back physically from doing a Spartan I highly recommend kicking fear to the curb and going for it.  My husband is now trying to talk me into running the Spartan Beast(which is more obstacles plus 12 miles).  I just love surrounding myself with people who challenge me.  Who does that for you?  Find someone who does or read my blog and let it challenge you!

I know not everyone is physically able to do a Spartan race but what is God calling you to do that may seem a little scary or uncomfortable?  Pray about it, train for it and then do it.  It will be so worth it!  

P.S. On a random funny note, every time I typed the word "burpees" my auto correct kept trying to change it to "slurpees".  Oh how I would have loved if we got slurpees instead of burpees for failing an obstacle! :)  

Apple Cinnamon Paleo Muffins

Today's post is just for fun because I am not a food blogger but I do LOVE to experiment with recipes and make them healthy! Now that my girls are in school I am always trying to come up with creative breakfast ideas that they can eat quickly, enjoy and have some great nutritional value. I made these muffins yesterday and all 3 of my kids approve!

Ingredients:

• 2 Cups Almond Meal (I buy mine at nuts.com)
• 4 T Ground flaxseed (this adds fiber and omegas!)
• 1 Cup unsweetened applesauce
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/3 cup Raw honey
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 T almond milk, coconut milk or water

Topping(optional)

• 2 T coconut oil, melted
• 2 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. 
• Line your muffin pan with liners OR coat with coconut oil
• Mix wet ingredients well.
• Slowly add in dry ingredients.
• Fill muffin pans 3/4 full each and bake for 20 minutes.
• Combine coconut oil and cinnamon and mix well(for the topping).
• Drizzle optional topping on the muffins immediately when removed from the oven.  

Even if you and your family don't eat Paleo these are a great muffin that taste amazing and have a lot of protein, healthy fats and fiber without a bunch of added sugar or flour.  Let me know how you like them!

My daughter, Olivia, enjoying one of the muffins on the way to school :)

P.S. In honor of Marriage Monday I want to let you know about an amazing series coming up called 31 Days to a Better Marriage that begins next week, October 1st.  You will hear from 30 different women and my topic will be "the top 4 needs of a man".  Be sure to follow along!

{Marriage Monday} How the Influential Wife Defeats Goliath

In the first few years of marriage my husband and I really struggled with healthy communication.  I hated confrontation of any kind.  So much that one night when we were having a "discussion" around midnight(because that's the best time to discuss things) I actually kicked my husband in the shins in attempt to run away from a conversation. We can now laugh about that story and I have since learned how to communicate without kicking. :) From that experience, and many others, God has shed much light to me about our influence and role as a wife. 

Whether we realize it or not, God has given us a significant amount of influence on our husbands.  We get to choose, on a daily basis, if we will use that influence for God's glory or our own personal gain. 

Genesis 3:1 says “now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden?”

From the beginning of time satan has come to the woman and had her question if what God said to her husband was true.  In Genesis 2:16 God told Adam to not eat from that tree even before Eve was created.

When we walked down the aisle and were joined together as one with our husband God anointed us and gave us influence over our husbands that no one else on this earth possesses. We must guard that influence like a treasure.

The Bible is full of examples of how women influenced for good or for evil. Some examples include Michal(who saved David's life), Abigail(saved Nabal's life), Queen Esther, Jezebel, Lot's wife and Delilah with Samson.

The Lord has anointed us as the wife to be influential to our husband.  A good wife is portrayed as a blessing, but a bad wife influences her husband for evil.

AS A WIFE WE HAVE 2 MAIN PLACES OF INFLUENCE:

1. THE FIELDS(poopy diapers, laundry)

Take at  look at 1 Samuel 16:10-12. 

David was tending his sheep when he was anointed as king and prepared for the battle to come. If David had tried to skip this phase he would have missed the call on his life.  Our “fields” look like changing poopy diapers, doing dishes, folding laundry while our husbands fields may look like work and career. The fields are where we are humbled and prepared for what is to come. Our attitude in the fields will determine our outcome in the battle.  

The fields are our place of prayer.

2. THE BATTLE

As we go through these seasons we have in life it’s important for us to remember that we are one with our husband. We don’t have our individual battles, his being work and ours being the kids, we battle together. 

That is a fundamental truth that we must ask God to help us truly embrace or we will always be fighting against each other rather than with each other.  Ephesians 6:12 reminds us that “we are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.”  We must decide to stop fighting each other and instead fight the enemy.  

Have you ever felt like situations are "taunting" you and your family?  We have Modern day Goliaths in our lives and marriage. Those “Goliaths” taunt us asking “where is your God now?” 

3 LESSONS FROM DAVIDS BATTLE:

1. DAVID WAS COURAGEOUS

         

Something powerful happens when the holy spirit arises in us just as it did with David and says “are you going to stand by and let him/this mock your God?  Get up and fight, the battle has already been won.”

2. DAVID WAS CONFIDENT

Because he remembered the fields he was able to pick up the stones with confidence. Knowing that he had already been equipped for this battle. He remembered the battles the Lord gave him in the fields. We can win the battles with the 9 foot Goliath the exact same way we win the battles that happen in the fields where no one is watching…on our knees in prayer and with the word of God.

3. DAVID DECLARED that this battle belonged to the Lord

Let God fight your battles and receive the glory.Recognize your marriage is a spiritual union between spiritual beings. If this is true and you give your marriage to the Lord then it’s already won. If it’s not spiritual than why involve God?

We win our battles against the Goliaths in our lives just as David did...by picking up a stone.  God will show us which stone we need to pick up...the word of God, prayer, honor, biblical submission, love. Every stone he will ask us to use will be in the Word of God. Run to the word and you will find a stone to defeat the Goliaths in your marriage and family!

What Goliaths are taunting you and your family today?  The battle belongs to the Lord, let him knock out those Goliaths with a stone!

An InLinkz Link-up

{Marriage Monday} 6 Essential Marriage Resources

You found Mr. or Mrs. Right, had a fairytale wedding, said I do and began your happily ever after. But what happens when the wedding ends?  This is the part of the story that most of us aren't equipped to handle. We go into marriage thinking all our needs will finally be met only to find out it is just the beginning of God stripping us of ourselves so we can become more like him.  My husband and I ran into many speed bumps in the beginning years of marriage and we were blessed to have some amazing resources to help show us the way.  For this weeks Marriage Monday post I want to share some that have helped us over the years.

1. The Bible

There are SO many great marriage resources but the number one resource we have to equip us for marriage is the best selling book, the Bible.  No matter where you read in the Bible we can learn so many life principles and allow the word of God to come alive within us which empowers us to act in ways we could never do in our own power.  

2. Marriage Today
I can't say enough good things about the resources at Marriage Today.  You can visit their site and order books, cds, dvds and so much more.  We were blessed to be introduced to this ministry early on in our marriage.  I highly recommend becoming a rock solid partner for $25/month and you will receive a new cd/dvd teaching every month.  Not to mention I love supporting a great ministry that is on a mission to keep the family together.

3.Mountaintop of Marriage: A Vision Retreat Guidebook  
This is another Marriage Today resource that I highly recommend. We try to do this once a year to hear God for the direction of our family.

4.The Power of a Praying Wife 
When Matt & I got married I never really thought about praying for him rather than nagging him.  This book helped me to learn that prayer is the number one thing we can do to partner with God in our marriage and help our spouse become the man God created him to be. This book is great place to start in prayer. As I connected to the Lord in prayer He has been able to lead me to pray over things specific to my husband.

A few years ago God put it on my heart to get a few of my friends together to pray over our husbands for 30 days.  I started a group called The Power of a Praying Wife: 30 Day Challenge and much to my surprise thousands of women have joined this challenge.  I love the accountability and surrounding myself with other like minded christian women.  You can read more about the story of how it got started here.

5.The Power of a Praying Husband 
Truth be told my husband read this book and prayed over me before I began to pray over him.  There is power in prayer! :)

6.The Blessed Marriage  
I can not say enough good things about all of the resources written by Pastor Robert Morris and his wife Debbie of Gateway Church.  This book is based on sound doctrine while being simple and easy to apply.

Two more books by Robert & Debbie Morris that I highly recommend are:
The Blessed Woman: Learning About Grace from the Women of the Bible and The Blessed Life: The Simple Secret of Achieving Guaranteed Financial Results. The Blessed Woman dissects the stories of the women of the Bible and lessons we can learn from them.  The Blessed Life uses sound doctrine to teach us how to manage money God's way, which is crucial for every marriage.

A great marriage doesn't just happen, we must work for it!  Having great resources is just one more way to strengthen our marriage and live a blessed life!

What are your favorite marriage resources?  Leave a comment or linkup here and share them with us!

An InLinkz Link-up

Marriage Monday

 I had just turned 21 two weeks before my husband and I got married.  All the stars had aligned and we knew God had brought us together. With stars in our eyes and an extra pep in our step we just knew we were about to live a life time of wedded bliss.  We had the most beautiful and peaceful wedding ceremony but it didn't take long for us to realize that the only things we had in common were our love for God, working out and cookies & cream ice cream.  Luckily for us we both loved God and that is the one thing that has held us together 9 years later.

By the grace of God we found Marriage Today ministries and started attending Gateway Church and God began to bring healing and restoration that only He can bring.  My heart hurts to think of where we might be if we hadn't asked God to intervene.  Because of our story we have a passion for marriages to not only survive but to thrive.  

In my years of learning how to be a wife God taught me to honor my husband with my words. I started doing this in private just to him then God put it on my heart to honor him publicly. A few months ago God gave me the idea to start a #marriagemonday on Facebook and much to my surprise several of my friends started doing it.  I have had several people send me private messages letting me know how much God is doing in their marriage simply by them honoring their spouse.  

God put it on my heart about a month ago to start a blog linkup for Marriage Monday but I have argued.  Some of my arguments were that no one will do it, we will appear to be "bragging" and I don't even know how to host a linkup!  While God didn't argue back he did make me increasingly more aware of how desperately our world needs to have Godly values put back into his original design for marriage.  My hearts desire is that marriage is looked at as something beautiful that God loves rather than something that looks like a prison cell.  

While I recognized the need for this to be something so much bigger than my Facebook friends I still wasn't convinced that I should be the one to start it(yes, me, the life outside the shell girl...I struggle too!).  BUT then I attend The Declare Conference and God spoke to me in a way that was so clear. I could write a book on everything God taught me at the conference but the main thing God spoke to me was "It is not about you. Get over yourself, step out in wild obedience and have a kingdom perspective."  Without a kingdom perspective we will NEVER do anything that puts us in a position of looking stupid or being vulnerable.  It is only when I rely completely on God that I can move forward without hesitating and be all he has called me to be.  

Marriage Monday is a way for us to honor our spouse and God by speaking life over our spouse rather than complaining about everything that is wrong.

How to participate in Marriage Monday:

1. Post a picture on instagram with #marriagemonday

No need to be a blogger for this one!  Put at least one word(or more) stating why you are thankful for your spouse.  Let's make #marriagemonday bigger than #mcm(man crush monday)! :)

2. Post a status update on Facebook honoring your spouse.

Again make sure you put #marriagemonday!

3. Share the #marriagemonday vision with your friends. 

My heart behind Marriage Monday is not to exclude the singles but instead to highlight the value of marriage. 

4. Honor your spouse in private.

Even if you don't participate in any of the social media outlets the effort of focusing at least one day a week on our spouses positive attributes will change our attitude in marriage.  

 5. Linkup to this post(and future Marriage Monday posts) with a blog post about your marriage story, a marriage resource you love, pictures of you and your spouse, or anything pertaining to marriage that will encourage others! If you are single feel free to linkup a post about what God is speaking to you in this season!

An InLinkz Link-up

When God Writes Your Story

A few months ago a ministry called Single Matters had posted they were looking for "how you met" stories from married couples.  I felt like I was supposed to share a bit of our story plus a glimpse into our first few years of marriage.  I sat down and wrote something very quickly, clicked submit and much to my surprise they asked if they could publish it.  

Here is a the first paragraph of  "When God writes your story: Matt & Rachael":

"Some would call my story a fairy tale. That’s how it looked on the outside.

I was 20 years old when I finally worked up the courage to end a very unhealthy relationship—one that I had known (for four years) was not where God wanted me. I remember the feeling of freedom I had when that relationship was truly over. I was in college and so excited about this new single life that awaited me. I couldn’t wait to see how God was going to use me, and what exotic places I would go with my job and/or ministry. I was even so bold as to tell God I wouldn't date for years."

If you would like to read the rest of the article it is the featured article on Single Matters today. You can find the article here.

This is just a glimpse into our marriage story.  Matt & I feel called to marriage ministry so please leave me a comment with any areas of our lives that you would for me to share/write about and what God has taught us.