I am sorry that I have not been posting like I should but our life has been put on hold by the words GYMNASTICS! It has took control for the next month and it is squeezing us hard. I know I have talked about Eve being involved in competitive gymnastics before but I have never really elaborated about it. She has done team for about 3 years now. At first it was so much fun. The more skilled she gets, the higher the level she moves up. Harder skills, more practice and more worries for me. She started off this season doing great. Remember me asking you to pray for her to have confidence in herself? Well, she was doing so well. Around the 4th meet she started having some trouble. She was doing her skills fine but you could tell that her head just wasn't in the game. By the 5th meet (this meet was a HARD MEET) you could tell that she just wasn't controlling her actions.We had a talk with her and asked her if she was still enjoying the sport. If she still wanted to do team. I explained to her that she not only agreed to do her best for herself she agreed to do her best for the team. She admitted that she could have tried so much harder. She was very upset with herself. We always put Bible verses in her gym bag so if she is feeling uncertain of herself or just afraid, she knows that she can pull them out and read them. We have always taught her to pray for God to help her and let Him have all the glory. I asked her if she had been doing this lately and she looked down with disappointment and shook her head no. We reminded her to do this and never try to do anything on her own. We went to the meet this weekend, she looked so much better than the week before but she still was not doing 100% of her best. She still scored low and by the 2nd event you could tell that she was noticing the scores were not going her way. Saturday her and I were practicing her routines. She is a very hard worker and she was working away. I was amazed at how well she was nailing her routines!! Then the bottom fell out you can say. The devil stuck his evil little head into our home and started destroying things for us. Before we knew it we were arguing and she was discouraged and it just wasn't good. Then... flick the light came on... That devil had been using gymnastics this year to get into our home and life! He knew how much time, effort, dedication we all put into it and he knew that if he could just rattle our minds little by little it would eventually come crashing down. Gymnastics is not a cheap sport, we have to do what we can do to get sponsors every year to help pay for her sport, we are even cleaning the gym to help pay for her. We have had meets on Sunday this year, we have had so many out of town meets this year, we have had expense after expense and Jason and I were praying that if God was wanting her to quit doing it for Him to show us. All of this happened this year (with so much more) so we thought, maybe God is trying to show us that He doesn't want her doing it anymore. Then Saturday we realized it wasn't that at all. It was just the devil taking control of the situation and using it against us. God set up her last meet just right for her. He was laying it all out for her to do her best. He has helped us all along this year. He gave us sponsors this year, he allowed us to clean the gym. Now with her last few meets... she was letting that devil get in her head and take the joy out of the sport for her. He was feeding her with half work ethnics, and "you can't" attitudes and she wasn't seeking higher help. I was praying for God to show me what was best for Eve and our family but I wasn't praying for the evil that was controlling my little girls mind. I wasn't praying for the God to help Eve know the difference in evil help and Gods help. I am reading a book now about praying for your children. In that book it talks about how you need to pray for your child and for their mind. You need to pray that they will not be controlled by the leading of the wrong hand because he will come in and take all that joy that was once there and strip it away in a second. He thrives on misleading families and confusing their paths. This whole time we thought that God was wanting us to quit doing gymnastics bc it was consuming so much of our time when it wasn't that at all. He was just wanting us to trust Him fully and teach us a lesson through it. She has State in about 2 weeks. We have been praying hard that her meet will NOT be on a Sunday and that it will not be on a Friday either (neither one of us really want to ask off again). Also, please help us cover Eve in prayer that she will have a praying heart and a comforted mind as she does what she loves. That she will only listen to the one true voice that will give her strength and determination in all that she does.She can't fight this battle alone! God doesn't want to take away something that she loves so much, He wants to help her accomplish her fears, and strive for her excellence. What about that? We went and watched the Georgia Gym Dogs perform last night. After the meet Eve got to meet one of her idols, Grace Taylor. She is a gymnast from Aiken SC. She is a senior and has accomplished so much through this sport. She helps in the community through a program called "SHINE" which is through her church. When Eve saw her after the meet Eve's eyes lit up. As Grace was signing Eve's poster Eve just stood there staring at her with admiration. Grace handed her the poster and they posed for a picture. As she walked off Eve looked at me and with pride and said "look mom, she wrote a Bible verse". As I looked at that signed posted I saw "Matthew 6:33. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Not a doubt in my mind that God set that up to happen. I want Eve to be able to use gymnastics to portray God through it not the other way around. God gave her this talent and love for this sport and my heart is so full knowing that He is in control!
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