A Prayer for Perseverance

Tourists are flooding into New York to run the marathon on Sunday. May the skies be kind to them. Lucky it wasn’t last week, or they would have been dodging tree limbs and piles of snow.

Here at the Guideposts offices, we’ve got our own marathoner, photo editor Rebecca Sahn, and she’s kindly included us in her preparations by bringing in cookies regularly as a reward for her training. I see you scratching your head over that sentence. So am I. Why reward us when she’s doing all the hard work?

“One thing they told us when we signed up for the marathon,” she says, “was to tell everyone you know that you’ve decided to do it.” I can see the sense in that. If you’ve set a big goal for yourself, be it reading through the Bible, getting up early to pray every morning, going on a diet or running a marathon, it’s good to get some support. If you tell people you’re doing it, you’ll be more likely to stick with it.

But the cookies? That’s Rebecca’s own genius. Hard work deserves rewards, and what could be more rewarding than giving someone else some pleasure. She probably knows that by her generosity she’s got an office full of fans who will be rooting for her and praying for her on Sunday morning.

Go Rebecca. Go all runners. I pray for all the runners’ safety, good health and perseverance. And I pray for all those who have set goals for nutrition and health and spiritual growth. Tell us about them if you’d like. The more people you tell, sometimes, the more people you’ve got rooting for you and praying for you. Amen.