This "great cloud of witnesses" is composed of the people described in Chapter 11. Their faithfulness is constant encouragement to us. We don not struggle alone, and we are not the first to struggle with the problems we face. Others have run the race and won, and their witness stirs us to run and win also. What an inspiring heritage we have!
(v.1-4):
The Christian life involves hard work. It requires us to give up whatever endangers our relationship with God, to run patiently, and to struggle against sin with the power of the Holy Spirit. To live effectively, we must keep our eyes on Jesus. We will stumble if we look away from Him to stare at ourselves or at the circumstances surrounding us. We should be running for Christ, not ourselves, and we must always keep Him in sight.
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| from Me |
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| from Tim |
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| from Scot |
There's not a day that goes by where we don't think about and miss you. We were incredibly blessed to have all the years that we had with you and we will cherish those memories of you always. While family gatherings just aren't the same anymore with you not here we know you are loving being with Jesus and Nan and all of your loved ones that have gone on before you. Party hard with them all today and give them all hugs from us. We love you & wish you the Happiest of Birthdays in Heaven Popsie!
#gonebutnotforgotten #cherishingthememories #familyiseverything
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That's way better than most on my side of the family have done. It's definitely better than I did. I was really young when I had my first cavities. Back then because they were baby teeth they'd pull them and put in spacers until the adult tooth grew in. My parents didn't push us like I've pushed Tim to brush his teeth. we are doing things right with him so that he won't have the teeth problems that I've had all of my life. If my parents had done better with us kids my teeth would be in an all together better place than they've been. But my parents were dirt poor and they could scarcely put food on the table at times much less buy tooth brushes and toothpaste for all us kids to brush our teeth. Dental visits were free because we were getting government assistance. And Government assistance didn't give you free tooth brushes or tooth paste. just food stamps, free cheese, Peanut butter & powdered milk. That's just how it was with poor folks back when I was growing up.
I'm so thankful that Tim's not ever had to have those experiences and that we've been able to help him take great care of his teeth all these years. He will have much better teeth in his adult years than I have had. I'm ever so thankful that we've not had to raise him how I was raised. I'm thankful that we have had the funds to take proper care of Tim's teeth. Thank you Lord for your many blessings to us!
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| This is Athletic Labs Motto! |
2 years ago today Tim began his Elite Olympic Weightlifting journey @ Athletic Lab Weightlifting Club. He hasn't looked back at the TKD sparring world that he left behind except to see how his old teammates are doing in their competitions. Everything has been full steam ahead from day 1 of changing sports. He's the happiest we've seen ever him and that warms mine and his dads heart to no end. He has such an amazing relationship with his coach, Jarrod Nobbe, too. It's the best coach relationship he's ever had.
To this date since making the change to Olympic Weightlifting he's gotten 2 Youth Gold medals/1 Junior Gold medal/1 Open Gold Medal/1 Best Youth Male Athlete Plaque @ States (WSO Carolina's Championships), 2 Youth Gold medals @ Athletic Lab's local Meets, 1 Junior Gold Medal at Barbells-N-Sprinkles local Meet, 3 Youth Silver medals @ The Arnold/VWS1 meet. His Meet PR's to date are 90kg/198# in Snatch and 117kg/257# in Clean & Jerk. His has had a great two years in the sport so far and he's still loving it.
It's so wonderful that he gets to eat now but eating the right things is what he needs to be doing (he's been making up for lost time when he couldn't be a kid eating what he wanted to eat...LOL!!). Being able to eat and make gains has been huge for Tim. He's gained so much muscle mass in the two years he's been in this sport that he doesn't even look like the same kid that was doing TKD sparring. That's mostly because he's not having to cut weight all the time now and be so skinny just to be able to compete with competitors that are closer to his size in height.
What a huge difference two years makes when you make a switch that makes better sense for your kid and makes them happier than they've ever been😱😊😱😊. Of course it was totally Tim's decision to move on when we did and he was very ready for the change.
As parents (hindsight is 20/20), we see our failure in keeping him in a sport (TKD sparring) longer than he should have been. It's a tall persons sport and Tim at 17 is only 5'4" and to be competitive in that particular sport he would have had to stay in the 51kg weight division for like forever (which in the long run he wouldn't have been able to do) and that just wasn't what was best for his health so cutting the sport loose and moving on was the right call. I just wish we had done it way earlier. He was ready for a change a long time prior to us actually doing it.
Now though, we are all so happy that we made the switch to Olympic Weightlifting when we did because he's been 5'4" for two years now. He's in the 65kg weight division in this sport and as he gains more muscle mass doing Olympic Weightlifting he will continue to move up weight divisions. It's just how this sport works. It's a wonderful sport and everyone is so supportive of one another + they genuinely want to see one another doing their best. At the end of the day they all understand and get that as a collective group we want our best athletes representing America on the International stage because we want to bring home wins for our country. I can't say enough about how great this sport is and seeing Tim this happy is just so freaking awesome! He's right where he wants to be and that makes all the difference in the world.
Commitment in sports can sometimes,
Take you where you don't want to go,
Keep you longer than you want to stay,
Cost you more than you want to pay!
(Be sure that it's a sport that #1 - you love and #2 - that you have the capability/body type for rising to the level you want to be a success at. Being the right fit for what you are wanting to do/accomplish matters.)
HAPPY 2 YEARS TIM!!!
Tim has a new barbell because the one we bought almost 2 years ago started rusting. We contacted Rogue about the quality issue we were having and they were so quick with their response to send out a replacement that I didn't have a chance to ask them could we upgrade it. I got in contact with them quickly and they called back what they had set up to send out and allowed us to pay the difference and upgrade the bar. We just wanted to be certain that the issue we had with the old bar wouldn't happened with the new bar so we paid the higher price for an all stainless Steel bar. Tim is loving it too. Rogues customer service was, bar none, the best customer service that I have ever experienced! They were amazingly Patient with me through the whole process and so incredibly helpful as well.
As more time goes by and the memories of what was fades into what is now I am more thankful than ever that Tim switched sports when he did. it was the absolute best change for Tim. The results from his physical this past Friday prove that. just check out the comparisons from last year and this year below. What you will see is that he's not gained in height but he's gained in mass because of how much muscle he's been gaining in weightlifting. He would have never been able to fight and win and the level he needed to with the giants in the land. his competitors would tower over him. we are so so glad that Tim changed sports. best change ever!!!
This quote I'm about to share with you is one that we encourage our son to do all the time because it's what his dad and I already do.
Tim is doing some 11th grade and all of his 12th grade subjects this school year. He has been given a schedule that he will have to keep for this school year in order to graduate on time in May 2026.
Aug. 1st 4 years ago was release day from the hospital for Tim after which he had had a really close call from a super huge loss of salt in his body. His numbers were so low that he spent close to 30 hours in an extremely altered state in PICU. Life threatening events definitely bring things into perspective in a big way. As a family we all know how much we mean to one another. #godplusfamilyiseverything is our Motto. We know what is important and we value every single moment that we are given.
Footnote From the NIV Life Application Bible:
"We tend to think that doing wrong is sin. But James tells us that sin is also not doing right. (These two kinds of sin are sometimes called sins of commission and sins of omission.) It is a sin to lie; it can also be a sin to know the truth and not tell it. It is a sin to speak evil of someone; it is also a sin to avoid him or her when you know he or she needs your friendship. We should be willing to help as the Holy Spirit guides us. If God has directed you to do a kind act, to render a service, or to restore a relationship, do it. You will experience a renewed and refreshed vitality to your Christian faith."
I wanted to share this here because this hits home with my husband and I as parents and our son who is an elite athlete. We've seen both sides of this and this guy is hitting the nail right on the head with all that he shares here.
