The Heaviest Weight I Lift
The heaviest weight I will ever lift is the weight of my calling. When I was a kid I used to avoid things that were physically challenging. My parents definitely made me try new things but I feel like I had way too many skinned knees as a kid for someone who didn’t learn how to ride a bike until she was 12. I was never athletically inclined. I was not super strong or fast and it wasn’t for lack of trying! The only things I was ever good at were dance and playing catch with my dad.
When I was a teenager I thought I wanted to be an elementary school teacher. I had the ability to be a part of a classroom thanks to the program they had in my high school. Everything was going great, until I encountered my very first child that came from a troubled home. Then it became even harder after I connected with a child who had tried to commit suicide at 11. I couldn’t handle it. After that I avoided things that were emotionally challenging too.
The calling to be a Personal Trainer and Nutrition Coach was not something that I ever saw coming, but God had other plans. I’ve been training in a gym for 5 years and it’s still weird that now I really enjoy things that are physically challenging.
What at first seemed like it would be easy came with so much more than picking things up and putting them down. The weight of my calling is heavy because being a coach is physically and emotionally challenging. Two of the things that I personally struggled with all of my life.
My clients trust me with so much. They trust me with their body - the very thing keeping them alive, that they use everyday for multiple things. They trust me with their history - all of their ups and downs, family trauma, their relationship with food, and even their relationships with other people. My clients trust me with their pain. They trust me to help them manage the pain in their minds, their hearts, their body, their ailments, and they even trust me to put them through a certain type of “pain” when we train.
In the two years that I have been running my business I have seen disordered eating, body dysmorphia, marital stress, divorce, physical abuse, emotional abuse, depression, anxiety, single mom struggles, men and women wrestling with parenthood, chronic pain, and internal struggles of worthiness.
It has been heavy on my heart some days.
BUT, I have also seen minds renewed about food and how all food is GOOD food, faith restored in their abilities and what they CAN do, physical changes, emotional changes, mental barriers overcome, positive self talk, freedom from abuse, relief from pain, relief from stress, a good night's sleep, and the ability to self love again.
These are the things that keep me going even when the weight is heavy.
Without taking that first step to workout, I would have never overcome the fear of injury and found my passion. If I would have run from how emotional coaching was, I would not have been able to help people change their lives in the way that I have been in such a short amount of time.
The weight of my calling is heavy, but I will gladly lift it every single time knowing that I am helping to make another person’s burden just a little lighter. God knew what he was doing and isn’t it just like him to take someone who was so unqualified for the job to do it.
