The Summer Olympics

DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW EXCITED I AM?!?!?!?! AHHHHHHHH I LOVE THE OLYMPICS!!!!! Let's get something straight, for the next 2 weeks of my life I will probably sit in front of my tv watching NBC every second of the day becuase the Olympics are just too good and for many reasons that I am called to highlight.

1. Countries. These athletes go there to represent their countries and their love for their countries. That's just amazing, like as much as they want a gold medal for themselves they also want to give credit to their countries.
2. Odds. Some athletes have every odd against them, do they care? NO! They go anyway!! They don't give up in the middle of training, they don't give up in the middle of a race, they keep going and they finish the race. They don't look at the odds, they look past that, they see the slight light of triumph and they hold on to that hope. You think winning makes an olympian? I think fighting makes an olympian. They fight the odds, sometimes they win and sometimes they loose but they stay to fight them anyways. That's how I want to be, I want to fight all the odds against me because I know I have God and he doesn't care about odds, he cares about me.
3. Training. Now some people don't see why the Olympics are so great and they don't think it's big deal and take it as any other competition but it's not like that. Athletes train every day for 4 years to compete for 2 weeks. Is that crazy or what?! How many of us are THAT committed to anything?? They finish one Olympics and start training for the next and it's hard. The training that each person does is different but they all have one thing in common, it's challenging. These people strive to get stronger and better and faster and in order to do that they have to challenge themselves. They know what they are getting themselves into, they know it's going to hurt and it's going to be exhausting but they do it anyways because to them this is worth it, it is a life dream. It reminds me of being a christian. The bible tells us that yes, we will face persecution and yes, it will be hard to be a christian sometimes but we know it's worth it. We know Christ is that gold medal we want so eagerly. Should we give up in our training? Should we tell God to not send us hardship? That doesn't make us stronger! It enables us, if an athlete is not ready to be in the Olympics he or she gets cut off, if you are not ready to face your life situations you will not be able to know how to deal with it. Don't feel sorry for yourself and your situation, embrace it. It's meant to strengthen you, not weaken you.
4. Events. I LOVE watching the athletes compete!! Love it love it love it! It's just so exciting and nerve wracking sometimes. haha. But seriously, I get to sit here and enjoy it, those athletes and enjoying it but for them it means a dream, a goal, a lifetime determination. My two favorite events would have to be Women's gymnastics and Swimming (both men and women) because I think to myself "I could NEVER do that". Honestly, with all the training in the world I could never be as determined as the athletes. These events remind me that in life you have different people and these people were made to face different trials and God knows exactly what person was made for what. In gymnastics you have 4 events: high beam, floor, bars and vault. All girls compete every event but a good coach will know which girl is the one that will excel at a certain event, which girl will win bars or floor or whatever. God is just like that, he knows what person can carry what load, he doesn't expect everyone to be able to handle the same things because he knows how different we are.
5. The athletes. Wow, if you don't have a hint of admiration for these people there is something wrong with you, seriously. These people train an entire lifetime. They work hard and they make sacrifices because they want to win a gold medal, they want to be successful in this and they want to compete. I don't care how nice or not nice they are, these people are hardcore and they deserve respect. Some of them are more inspiring than others, Mary Lou Retton, Lindsay Vaughn (winter olympian, I know I know, still great though), Apolo Ohno (winter), Nadia (classic), Nastia Liukin, Usain Bolt, all big names of people that if you hear their testimonies you'll be pretty inspired. For some kids these are their heroes, these are the people they strive to be like because they want that drive, that determination that they had because they too want a gold medal. I would love to make a christian connection to this but I want to leave it at that because I want you to really appreciate these people. 

Yeah that sums up pretty much everything. I love the Olympics because of these reasons :) Well and also because they happen every four years, I HAVE to enjoy them while I can! As I wrote this post I was watching men's cycling, not that easy. Please turn on your tv and watch the Olympics, who knows what kind of inspiration you'll get from there :)