I want to get in the habit of sharing some of the most recent lessons I am learning, experiencing and processing. Please don’t mistake these posts as self-help manuals, life-hacks or lessons that I have mastered. These are just realities and truths that I am on a slow journey with… Things I am in the process of learning (often through pain and error), reflecting on and living through. I hope they stir up some encouraging thoughts in you!
Hi :) Welcome to my journey, friend…
1. Be confident in who God made you.
Who you are matters — don’t diminish that. This cannot be understated. Too often we are so worried about being prideful and self-centered that we rush to the other extreme and end up damaging ourselves in ways we aren’t aware of. Confidence is not pride. Contentment in your gifting, your wiring, your personality is not self-centeredness. God made you unique on purpose. The quicker you can become aware not only of how you are wired but how that is intended to bless others and the world, the sooner you will feel joy, freedom and rest increase in your life. It’s okay to be you and to enjoy that. The world will be better because of it. Lean in, not away, from who you are.
2. Play the long game.
It’s easy to want results fast. To rush the process. To be impatient and discouraged when things aren’t seeming to change. But experience has painfully taught me that real fruit takes time to grow and mature. Instead of settling for quick fixes and instant results, I am trying to look beyond the here and now to how my choices, my investment of time, my heart posture and attitude will shape the months and years to come. Why do I say this? Because oftentimes there is a lag between heart change, sowing good seeds, and reaping the harvest. The worst thing to do is get discouraged in this gap. The best thing to do is to trust the process, look ahead for what is to come and keep your head down being faithful. I can settle for a bright flash that will just as quickly disappear as a wisp of smoke in the wind, or I can water the soil, tend to the garden and believe that there will be lasting fruit to come one day (at the right time). I want to keep choosing the latter and believing that my decisions now are setting me and others up for a flourishing future. Don’t settle, friend. Look down the road and let that steer your small choices today.
I would love to hear your own reflections on these ideas. Drop some of your own thoughts in the comments and let me know what you are thinking and experiencing…
Great thoughts! Thank you for sharing!
I have focused over the last few years on trying to remember keep the two great commandments every single day. I do this through my scripture study, prayer life, and in my daily interactions.
The final part of the two great commandments says to “love your neighbor as yourself.” I have come to realize that it’s hard to love our neighbors that way if we don’t actually love ourselves! We need self-compassion. It can sometimes seem easier to love our neighbors than to love ourselves, but we will do so much better if we love ourselves.
Of course, this all comes secondary (but like unto) to the first great commandment. I like how you say to play the long game. In my mind, that’s a process, and one hinted at in the first great commandment. We must love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. For me, this seems like a process of going inward out, and a way to see ourselves playing “the long game.” Starting in the heart is merely to desire to love God more. That will change our spirits, which will change our minds, which will influence our actions.