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I have been prepping since December to hike the Rim to Rim trail in the Grand Canyon. A 24 mile, 6,000 ft elevation change hike in one day. It has been such a fun experience training with my brothers and their spouses as we prepare for the hike and encourage each other as we watch each other progress.

I was inspired by an amazing woman, Abi Ayres, to do this hike. So much so that I interviewed her on my podcast. When I was listening to her tell her story of the hike I clearly heard the Spirit tell me I had to do this hike. Then, as I was questioning the Spirit why I needed to do such a thing, the Spirit told me this was not a physical goal, this is a spiritual goal. Being that this is a spiritual blog, I thought I would document my journey with what the Spirit is teaching me along the way. I already shared the first three spiritual lessons I have learned in a previous blogpost so now I want to share lesson four through six with you.

4. When someone is doing better than you, it does not discount your efforts.

This may seem like a "no duh" lesson for you, but stick with me. This is one I am still working on. Every two weeks I have been trying to increase my mileage on my long walks by a minimum of two miles. These two miles have been a stretch for me but I have also been super excited about my progress and what I have been able to do.

There are two things that happen each time I progress that have frustrated me and made me think that my progress isn’t enough and it wasn’t even really progress at all. The first one is that my husband who is training with me is not even phased by the walk and will often go for a 6-7 mile run the next day or do something physical right after we get home from the walk. 

I, on the other hand, am beat and it usually takes me a day of serious recovery to get back on my feet. I am definitely doing better as I train, but when I see him not even phased by it, it is frustrating to me. Even more so when I see him push himself harder right after. The natural man in me starts beating me up and telling me how my effort actually isn’t good enough.

Then the second thing that happens is when I text my brothers with our hike progress. Which I do love doing as I feel a comradery, but the difficult part is when I see my younger brother's progress. Inevitably his hikes are usually way faster and way more intense in nature. 

For example, when we walked 14 miles my brother sent us his 14 mile hike he had just finished too. At first glance I saw that we actually went about the same speed. I was encouraged by that! However, upon further investigation I realized they actually climbed an extra 2000 feet in elevation gain AND hiked in 2 feet of snow. I was immediately deflated and bummed that my effort for which I was so proud of was now something small and insignificant

For clarification, NO ONE else was making me feel this way. These were my own thoughts, or the thoughts of my natural man rather, making me feel this way. What I have been working on to combat those thoughts is reminding myself that my body is different and where I am at for myself is okay. Someone else's progress or strengths has nothing to do with the efforts I put in. As I remind myself of that, I can feel joy in my efforts AND celebrate their accomplishments too. This isn’t one or the other. 

Can you think of a situation where you are comparing your growth with someone else's strength and it’s causing you to not want to continue? Download this worksheet and you can write down your own situation  and something you can do so that you can be happy for the other person AND celebrate where you are at in your journey. This is a lesson I am in the midst of working but the more that I recognize it in the moment the more motivated I am to continue on.

5. The hard that you are facing today, will be the easy of yesterday.

Let me say that again, the hard that you are facing today, will be the easy of yesterday. I would bet you have something you can relate with this as well.

When I did my first really long hike it was 10 miles long. At about mile 8 my feet were on fire and I had massive blisters. I was crying and I didn’t know if I could go on.

I wanted to stop and just lay down but my husband kept encouraging me to continue and finish. Well I ended up getting infections in my feet from those blisters and was on crutches for a few days to let them recover. I was sure that I would never be able to do more than 10 miles. 

As the weeks went on I slowly progressed to walking more and more miles each week. Then one week I hit 10 miles without stopping and I even said to myself, "I feel great!" 

As I slowly progressed and got more strength and endurance those miles I thought would be impossible are actually miles I do now with ease. I can’t believe that I now walk 10 miles and it feels like a breeze compared to before. My hard of today became my easy of yesterday.

Are there things in your life right now that seem so hard and nearly impossible to accomplish? Write those things down on the worksheet. You will be able to work your way through them.  Then as you encounter this situation you will slowly build strength and endurance.

6. You can’t take oil from other people and reap the benefits in the end.

Again, this may seem like another "no duh" moment but when you actually experience a situation that you’ve heard about for your whole life, it takes on a new meaning. Almost every hike we have went on about halfway through, I tell my husband that he should just run ahead and get the truck and come back and get me. Every time he declines and encourages me to keep go going.

He knows that if I don’t do the work now I won't be prepared. I won't have the necessary strength and endurance to complete the hike. He also knows that when we are in the Grand Canyon, he won't be able to go get the truck and pick me up at the bottom.

So ask yourself. What in your life are you not building up sufficient "lamp oil" for?  What are you not preparing for? Is there something you are relying on others for or refusing to strengthen yourself in because you will do it later? How can you take small steps towards building that strength now so you can use use it later? 

The preparation for the Rim to Rim Hike has truly taught me so much already. The lessons I am learning are preparing me for not only the hike, but I'm sure for so many other experiences I will have in the future. Learning to not compare myself, to do the hard things, and to make sure that I am taking the necessary steps to keep my lamp full will undoubtedly help me far beyond the hike itself. 

I want you to be able to apply these lessons to your experiences as well so I have created a worksheet to help you do that. This will include 3 additional lessons I’ve learned and a question for you to explore on how you can apply these lessons to your life. 

Being that God created you He knows exactly what efforts you are making, the hardships you are facing, and what steps you need to be taking to improve yourself. Let Him guide you in the right direction. I can help you create a simple routine that will give you opportunities to connect with Him daily. Start connecting today with my FREE Masterclass: Creating a Consistent Spiritual Routine.