Boot Camp - On the Track and At Home

So this week I began my SECOND month of boot camp.  Let me start with two important facts.  I hate mornings.  I hate exercise.  This is terrible I realize but it is reality.  However, for some bizarre reason, last month I committed to a boot camp near my house that begins at 5 am.  I've lost nine pounds.  AND........I actually ran the 3 reps of 400 meters w/sit ups and wall balls for our Monday work out that we benchmark against at the end of the month.  That is huge.  At the beginning of October I could only do the 200 meter reps.  But one of the trainers said something that stuck, and really pushed me to this new threshold - pain is temporary, quitting is forever. 

So I've decided to apply that slogan to the boot camp at home too.  And in fact, any woman of faith could apply that to her marriage when the going gets tough.  I have been madly in love with my husband for almost seven years and married nearly five.  But if a year of triplets doesn't provide stressors on a marriage, I don't know what would.  And while this has been an amazing year filled with daily delight at seeing the new things unfolding before our children's eyes as they learn and develop, it has also been a hard one as our marriage has to mature to a new level.  And during the fights, and the fall out, I think it's important to remember that pain is temporary, quitting is forever. 

God is a big fan of marriage (healthy marriages - none of this applies if you are being abused).  And He's a big fan of them surviving.  AND THRIVING.  These marriages He designs for us are not marriages on life support.  Jesus' first miracle was at a wedding - He wanted to be part of this precious celebration!  (John 2)  God tells us in Genesis "it is not good for man to be alone," and in I Corinthians that, "For as the woman originates from the man, so also the man has his birth through the woman; and all things originate from God."   Plus He repeatedly uses marriage as a metaphor for His relationship with us.  (Isaiah, Hosea, and more...) He wouldn't draw that picture for us if He hadn't designed marriage as a perfect union.  Lucky for me. 
Mark 10: 6-9: Jesus says “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

Pain is temporary; quitting is forever.