I do believe God has a sense of humor....

Here's why.

I'll give you a little background before I move forward.

Last Thursday March 21, marked day 1 of a 40 day challenge within our church.  The challenge is called ReMARKable women and is designed to test you spiritually, mentally, physically, and relationally.  I am very excited to be a part of this challenge as I seem to have the physical and the mental side whipped...I'm focused and clear and know what I want and know how to set out to get it. But, I really need help with relationally and spiritually.  Those are not my forte and it's easy to push them to the side because of my strengths in the other two categories.

I'd compare it to double unders vs weightlifting.  I personally see no reason for double unders to exist...although they do, and I am required to do them...I'd rather put them on the back burner and muddle through them when the time comes then to actually take the time to learn that skill.  WHY?  Because it doesn't come easy to me. Instead, I should get the skill under wraps and become a well rounded CrossFitter. 

So, in an effort to better myself I have made this commitment along with many other women in our church but on a more personal level with 5 other girls from our gym.  Myra, Shelley, Robin, Traci, Steph and myself have embarked on a new journey to make ourselves better well rounded women.

SO,  fast forward to Monday and my blog post...at the end, I asked all of you to pray for clean and jerks in this weeks WOD announcement.  It was very hard for me to put that out there.  The whole prayer thing.  You see I used to think that people would look at me funny if the knew I prayed.  And I didn't want them to think I was a "Jesus Freak!" Always talking about God and praying.  I've never been bold in my religion...but this time I was like you know what, I love God and I pray and this is why I have embarked on this journey.  So, I started a prayer chain in regards to this weeks WOD release. 

I'm getting to the point I promise!

Monday night when I was tucking Brooke into bed (yes, I know she's almost 17 BUT she is my baby) I said to her, "Brooke could you add a little to your prayers tonight?" She said, I already prayed Mommy and I said, "Well just close your eyes and ask God for clean in jerks in my workout for Wednesday!"  We laughed but I know she prayed.  That night as we lay in bed, I said to Jim, "Hon!"  Yes Dear? "Have you said your prayers yet?" Yes Dear! "Well, could you add a little for me?" Yes Dear.  "Could you please ask for clean and jerks in the workout?"  Yes Dear.

There you have it. I was telling EVERYONE to help me out.  For heavens sake, Shelley even prayed for clean and jerks in the WOD, knowing that she would be sacrificing for me because she wouldn't be able to lift them.

So, last night WOD release is at 8:00 pm sharp.  We are all settled in watching my laptop and it's time for the WOD announcement.

This is where God gets funny.

The announcement is made and I am literally jumping up and down....because I heard CLEAN AND JERKS!!  I was SO excited...SO excited.  It worked.  God loves me, it worked.  My prayers have been answered.  Woohoo!  Celebrate!  Yes....Woohoo!!  Carole got her clean and jerks and I'm doing this funky little dance in the kitchen.

Well, God needing to take me down off my high horse for a moment...and let me know that he was still in charge....and added toes to bar to the WOD. He knows I struggle with toes to bar...so he said this to me, "Carole, I will give you your clean and jerks - because you love them, and you are good at them, but I will also give you something that makes you have to work hard and prove yourself!"

Wow, that hit me like a TON O BRICKS!!!

You see, you can't always go through life doing what your good at.  There are times of struggle and times that we have to work a little harder.  But, if we work each day to improve our weaknesses......our double unders, our toes to bar, my spirituality, my relations......pretty soon....you become a well rounded person.

God wasn't done with me yet.  This morning I received this weeks assignments for our ReMARKable women's group.  This assignment will run from now until next Thursday......I was reading along and all happy....and there were bible reading assignments, and one about doing push-ups, (yeah, got that nailed, hehehe), and one about forgiveness, and THEN I SAW IT....the next one up said NO CAFFEINE for the week, we were to drink WATER only.

I just laughed and literally said to God, "You got me, you funny guy!"

Every day is a test of our bold faith.  3,2,1 GO!!!