Pain

This morning at 5:55 a.m. my friends came and picked me up so we could go to the gym to lift weights.

1. I'm not a morning person. I hate waking up any earlier than is necessary; I usually end up waking up too late. So me waking up earlier than was necessary was weird.
2. I'm not huge on lifting weights. I lack the discipline needed to push myself with lifting weights.
3. Most of my workout clothes were dirty, so I had to wear my gigantic sweatpants. (I love these sweatpants, but they just aren't conducive to working out.)

But it ended up okay. My friends stayed together and did their man thing. I steered clear of lifting anything near them. I didn't feel like looking like a wimpy girl. But I would go over and check in with them when I was feeling lost or out of place or when I wanted to dance to a Justin Bieber song in front of them to mock them.

Lately I've been thinking a lot about pain. This semester has been a hard one for me for many reasons. It's been a big adjustment period for me. I'm working full-time. I'm going to school part-time. And I don't love, love, love my classes like I always have. And work can be tedious and disappointing. In many ways and with many things I've been disappointed with how everything has worked out.

But that's just how it goes sometimes.

Life can be disappointing. You just need to learn to roll with it. This weekend I listened to General Conference and one of the speakers talked about pain. It didn't really resonate with me until my dear roommate told me what he had said. He said something to the effect of "when you're feeling pain it means you're healing." That touched my heart. As all of us know, life goes in phases. There are harder times and there are more steady times. This just happens to be a harder one for me. And that's okay.

So today I've been so sore from lifting weights. From the resistance that I put myself through--to become stronger. My hamstrings and quads and those muscles under your armpits have ached. But it's been a reminder to me that the greater the resistance and the longer you put up with that resistance, the stronger you become. Right now, God's working on making me a stronger Laura. And I feel blessed by that. So I'll keep on lifting weights and waking up early so that I can be reminded that as I get physically stronger, I am also getting spiritually stronger.