The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. – Amelia Earhart
Lives are like glo-sticks. They don’t really glow until they’ve been busted up a little bit. – Glennon Melton
Unconditional love is not “Christianity lite”. It’s Christianity lived out, and it’s hard.” – Rachel Held Evans
When I was growing up, my church made me feel like I had to have all the right answers and have a solid debate in place before I was ready to attempt to evangelize.
So I didn’t.
I just knew there would be some question thrown at me that I didn’t have an answer for.
I didn’t feel qualified.
Now that I’m an adult, I realize I’m never going to have all the right answers. And I’m ok with that. I like the freedom from the pressure of having to know everything!
But you know what I am qualified for? Loving others! That’s the main thing we are called to do! And I’m convinced that if I make a point to enter more into the lives of others and love and accept them and really get to know them, “evangelism” will be a piece of cake. Spiritual conversations will flow more naturally. And one person at a time, people will easily be able to see a loving Jesus through me.
Love > being right and having all of the answers!
Sometimes there are big choices to make in life. Like when one of your kids is taking a nap with you and you have to pee really bad.
Do you lay in bed in pain not moving just so you don’t take the chance of waking the child up? Nap time is precious! Never wake a sleeping child! You know if they wake up, there is no chance of them going back to sleep. No siree.
Or do you throw all caution to the wind and get up to use the bathroom? Do you risk waking up the child to make yourself feel better?
You lay in bed contemplating your choices. Laying out the pros and cons. Weighing your options.
Eventually you have to go so bad you’re like “the heck with it!” and get up. At the sound of the tiniest bit of sound from the ruffle of the covers as you try to sneak out of bed…
The child is up and nap time is over.
The end.
First of all, I took my 3 kids to my oldest’s basketball game by myself because my husband had a church deal this morning. I took pictures of the games with the 2 two years olds climbing all over me while having to text people to answer questions about building HVAC info for work. That right there was hustle!!
Then today I have done a ton if laundry.
Oh, and I sold a crib mattress. Woohoo!!
My husband went to the store this evening so I went ahead and fed the kids dinner. When he came home, he made me a wonderful surprise dinner of steak, salad, edamame and bread. It was awesome!
Hustle on, friends!
I have so many favorite people!
I find myself thinking all the time that someone is my favorite! But a few seconds later, I think someone else is my favorite! And on and on! I’m so glad that I have so many favorite people in my life! There are so many great people out there!
When I started noticing myself doing this, I had to take a step back to think about it.
Everyone can’t be a favorite, right?
And you know what I decided? Yes! Yes they can! I can have as many favorites as I want!
I think it’s the coolest thing that I have so many favorites! I’m a blessed girl! So many people to love, to enjoy and to be friends with!
And I’m enjoying playing favorites!
After work today, I probably should have done more. Gotten some stuff done.
But I had a few hours to myself, so I did this:
I laid on the couch under my favorite blanket, read a book and slept for a short time.
It was just what I needed! I don’t get a lot of time to myself. Sometimes the best use of this time is to get things done, run errands, etc. when no one is around. And sometimes the best thing I can do is to chill, relax and decompress.
I needed just that today, and it hit the spot!
Today’s assignment was to cut your goal for the month in half. My goal was to make a book each for my twins. I guess I could have just made one book for them to share, but I wanted them to have their own. And I couldn’t hardly make one for one kid and make the other wait. Well, I guess I could, but then I’d feel bad.
I finished both books tonight and have sent them off to be printed!
I feel so good that this goal is done! In less than 10 days!
Now I’ll start brainstorming ideas for more books and working on other things I wanted to do this year.
Hustle, hustle!
Hustle today consisted of work, cooking dinner, cleaning up, then a meeting at church. There will be days that are so full it’s hard to fit in any extra, and today was one of those.
Today’s assignment is to think about your vision. My vision is for my kids to read the books I write and enjoy them.
I’ll have to hustle a little extra tomorrow!
I was already going to write a quick post on this, and then I saw this quote from a church I follow on Facebook:
“We think that fearing failure will help us avoid failure, but fear of failure doesn’t prevent us from failing; it robs us of the joy of living.”
I have spent pretty much all of my life not really being me. So much so that I didn’t know who I was. I spent a lot of time trying to figure others out and learn what I could do to make them like me. So there wasn’t any time for just being me…whatever that was.
All of my life, I have tried to fit in, make people like me, look smart, look like I have my act together…the list goes on! I’m a people pleaser, and I’ve tried so hard trying to make others happy that I didn’t have a fat clue who I really was. It’s taken going through lots of really hard things to wake me up. But you know what finally woke me up in the end? I realized how much I am loved and accepted by God.
That did it!
God is stinkin’ in love with me. And that takes the pressure off! He’s the only one that I really want to impress, and He already thinks I’m perfect just the way He made me!
And you know what I want to do now? I want to have a whole heck of a lot of fun. I want to live! I’ve robbed myself of a lot of fun, connections with people, etc. because I’ve been so worried about everything! But now that I feel free to be me, I feel like I’m constantly looking for fun.
Who can I talk to? What can I create? What can I do? Where can I go? What can I do to make things fun for others? How do I find fun in every situation?
I haven’t had as much fun as I should have been having up to now because I couldn’t get past myself.
The fun is in moving past yourself and moving deeper into the lives of those around us.
And that’s what I plan to do!
After work today, I ran an errand with all 3 kids. Let me tell you! That takes hustle!
Then we came home, got Caleb to do homework, made homemade chili, and fed everyone. All while doing that, I was putting together my new picture boards that I wanted to hang on our freshly painted hall. So, I got them ready and then hung them up on the wall after dinner. I love them!
Then I made a bracelet with Caleb, got the kids to bed and started working on the books for the kids some more. I’m not done, but I’m tired.
Today’s assignment is to stay WHO you are going to have help keep you accountable during these 30 days. I have many friends who are reading this blog who are asking me about my hustle, so you are the ones I pick! It’s fun keeping track on the blog what goes on during this time period. I won’t do this everyday this year obviously, but it will be fun at the end of this month to look back and see what all I got done and remember along the way!
Hustle!
Stephanie Carroll 