( Today I watched Ethne. She loves Edamame (frozen soybeans you cook and then pop out of the pod). She spread a tablecloth out on the carpet so she could eat her beans in the same room where I was working on the computer.

Today I went to the gym early, so early that I didn’t really wake up until half way through my workout. I’m very laid back and don’t see much need to push myself, so on the elliptical trainer I usually set the resistance level at 2 or 3. Today I choose a pre-set cross-country program and quickly realized it was not my normal routine. The resistance level varied from a low of about 6 to a high of 16. I did the same distance as usual but I worked a lot harder.

I thought about how faith is like that, at times walking by faith doesn’t seem to take much effort. But life isn’t constant, it changes and each new challenge requires us to exercise our faith a bit more. Climbing those hills seems impossible but somehow we manage it even if we go slow and sweat a lot in the process. Faith is actually strengthen when times demand a lot of us, and we often learn we are stronger than we realized, or at least, able to endure more. By the end of my workout the resistance level of 6 seemed easy to me. Funny I had never even tried to go past 3 before, never even been tempted, but now I know that 3 is really too easy for me and 6 has got to be my new easy level.

I really do want to grow in faith and mature as a Christian, but I don’t often plan a course of action that will force me to gain strength, don’t often put myself into demanding situations. I’m at the point of considering one now. Tomorrow I am going to training to be a ‘Marriage Educator’ a person trained to teach The Six Building Blocks of A Healthy Marriage to couples in our community. It’s a big stretch for me, a harder climb. It’s reaching beyond my comfort zone. I’m just praying that the Lord will enable me to be stronger than I think I am and that marriages will be enriched through this program.