You Got This, Mom

“You got this, Mom!” my sixteen-year-old son shouted.

My breathing was shallow. My stride was steady, but my lungs were beginning to burn as I continued my slow jog around the track.

What made you think you could do this? My inner narrative challenged the physical pressure I was putting on my body.

“Keep going, Mom,” came the next encouragement from my ten-year-old daughter.

I kicked back the doubt and pressed forward.

I had not run for exercise in twenty years, and here I was attempting it again. How did I get here?

My fourteen-year-old daughter had begun a journey to get in shape for a four-hundred-meter dash in a school competition. The rest of the family had been going to the track with her, and it had become my role to time her and call out encouraging words. In one week, she had made minimal progress, but we kept showing up at the park and trying.

One evening, after her second attempt, which lasted only two minutes, the youngest in our family said, “I want to try!”

I agreed to monitor her time, just as I had been doing for her sister.

That ten-year-old little one set off at a steady pace and ended up running for ten minutes without stopping.

I knew she was active, but I had never seen her sustain a running pace for that long.

When she finished, we cheered and celebrated her success.

Then our son decided he wanted to try. He blew our minds by running for fifteen minutes and thirty seconds without stopping. I watched as the idea “I could do better” surfaced in each of my children’s minds, and they accepted a silent, personal challenge to outrun the others.

After both of her siblings had surpassed her time, my daughter decided to try again.

This time, she ran longer than ever before, completing five continuous minutes.

A little friendly, sibling-based competition naturally emerged, prompting me to reflect on how we provoke one another to good works:

“Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works” (Hebrews 10:24, NLT).

But James takes it one step further:

“Just as the body is dead without breath, so also faith is dead without good works” (James 2:26, NLT).

Let us consider these scriptures.

My influence upon my children, my peers, and even my spouse is greater than I often realize. How can I model a right attitude—a genuine heart for God, a love for truth, and a commitment to serving and attending church—all of which are vital to my child’s mental and spiritual growth?

I soon realized that influence can also spark a challenge —and that matters—not only for our physical bodies, but also for how we train our children to honor, respect, and take care of the physical temple of God that He has given us.

I urge you to consider the concept of double reference: what is happening in the natural world is reflected in the supernatural world.

If I focus only on spiritual growth while neglecting mental and physical improvement, I lose a part of myself. Likewise, if I hyper-focus on physical improvement, I will inevitably neglect spiritual growth and mental wellness. The natural and the supernatural are meant to work in tandem, making us whole and helping us live in a way that pleases the Lord.

This concept is emphasized in James 2:26, where the writer compares a physical lack of breath to a spiritual lack of faith.

We do not want to be dead in our bodies, and we certainly do not want to be dead in our spirit.

Open your heart and carefully read the words of this Reflections issue, which focuses on tools and reminders to help us grow wholly, so that we may be pleasing to our Creator, who designed us.

So how did my personal run turn out?

Let me share.

Even as my kids joked, “That’s the best mom jog I’ve ever seen” and “I think you’re just walking fast, moving your arms faster, and calling it a jog,” they never failed to follow up with encouragement to keep going.

My son steadily called out my progress, hoping to keep me motivated. “You got this, Mom!”

When I could no longer endure the burning in my lungs, I finished my course. My son asked how long I thought I had run. I did some quick mental math based on the times he had called out, my breathing, and my racing heart, and estimated three minutes and fifteen seconds.

He grinned slyly and said, “You went four and a half minutes.”

I was shocked and pleasantly pleased.

It was a fresh reminder of how we truly do influence one another unto good works.

And it sparked a renewed desire to use my influence to encourage the whole creation of God: body, mind, and spirit.

“I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well” (Psalm 139:14, KJV).