Monday, October 15, 2018

Moving Past Good Intentions


We can dream and we can plan and we can hope for the best. 
But everyone knows what road is paved with good intentions.

Business books and self-help books are my favorites (well, cheesy mysteries run a close second.)  I’ve read so many that I can recognize which authors read each other and which ones are just repackaging last year’s top hits.  With each book, I just knew it would be the way forward—the key to opening that last door to real success.  Each time I would write notes in my bullet journal and plan and think about how to apply whatever the new insight was.  And then I would get a new book and do the same.  And again.  And again.

Some might have helped.  Some might have been a waste of time.  And some might have been actually harmful, but I’ll never know.  I wasn’t ready to lead with my heart.  And I wasn’t ready to let go of my fear. 

Fear of failure.  Fear of success.  Those are two sides of the same coin.  What if I fail and everyone sees?  Or worse, what if I succeed?  What will people think?  What will I do then?  Will I be the same person?  Better to keep my head down and stay in my lane.


Except this: 
“For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” 

My witness to the world is to show what is possible… through Christ.  I know what I need to do.  I just need to do it.  

Prayerfully.  Joyfully.  Completely. 

What is that one place for you, friend?  That place that feels empty and undone.  The one that you think about, but stuff back into the corners of your consciousness, until it pops up again.  That’s the one, the one you should consider.   What will it take to feel success in that place?  You know you’ve thought about it.  You know you’ve planned for it, prayed about it, and then ignored it. 

Start today.  Figure out that first step.  Make it easy.  Make it doable.  And then do the second step.  And the third.  So many times when we finally get something done, we discover we have spent more time planning and dreading the thing than it would have EVER taken to just do it. 

Take hold of your thoughts and make them work for you.  
You’re ready.  
You can do this thing.  
Go make your world a more a beautiful place.

Sunday, October 7, 2018

Dreamcatcher


I had a birthday last week.  Not a big birthday.  Not one of those that end in a zero and feel like a step into a new stage of life. But this day, like most birthdays, made me pause and remember the year past. 

Did we dream audacious and outrageous dreams together?

Did we make the space for each other to travel toward those places that seemed so out of reach?

That’s my job as a mama and a wife.  To be the dream catcher.  To catch the bad dreams and watch them disappear in the light of day.  To keep the good dreams and help them become real.  To believe in a bigger reality.  To believe in hope.

This year we have added new ventures, moved on to new places, stopped doing old things and started doing new ones.  All of us.  We have helped each other grow and cheered each other on.  We’ve held hands during disappointment and listened to each other while we worked through some tough decisions. 

This is what family does.  This is what I dreamed of when our family grew.  To be a launching pad for new adventures and a soft place to land.  In this world that can be so hard and unforgiving, I want our home to be a refuge.  I want it to be a place to be honest and raw, but to know we are always loved.  Always. 


Our faith in our heavenly Father; our hope in all that is possible; our love for each other, for others, for Him.  These are the things that made the past year a success.  These are the things that make me look forward to another year.  "And now these three remain:  faith, hope and love.  But the greatest of these is love."