Keep On Keeping On

In starting this blog I was challenged to make a goal.  I told myself that I wanted to post at least once a week for a year.  It was to be consistent, but also to keep my growth & healing an active process throughout the week.

Sometimes writing for the blog can be more of a challenge than I originally expected.  I mean, I have a lot of posts but they seem half done.

Despite what some people would say, I would never consider myself a perfectionist (again, a whole different issue for another blog post) but I sometimes want to make these profound insights to somehow solidify that not only is my time writing worth it, but that it is actually beneficial to myself and others.  Let’s take a second to be honest, there is nothing new under the sun so it couldn’t be all that groundbreaking.  But there is still that internal voice that says, “it’s not quite right so keep trying.”

In the last couple weeks it has been hard to sit down for solid chunks of time and write.  Part of that is because of a hectic school schedule with finals on the horizon and papers due; but the other part has been a battle with trying to stay consistent in the message of why I started writing in the first place.

The goal is Masterpiece living.  I want to live in and by the knowledge that each one of our lives was created intentionally, which includes our imperfections and idiosyncrasies.  This existence, despite what has happened in our past, is for a greater purpose by which God is graciously revealing to us as we seek daily mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual wholeness.

Real life: Masterpiece living is so hard.  As I wrestle through things in my own life or talk with friends & family and what they go through, I have found that the struggle is so real.

That despite all the things we do to grow there will always be challenges to achieving wholeness and it comes from all sides.  We have the internal assault from being our own worst critic; guerilla warfare from all angles of people who treat us as if we haven’t undergone change at all and still see us according to our past, not in who we are today or who we will become tomorrow. Finally, we have to battle with what comes up as we go about each day.  And can we just be honest that as our schedules get busier the easier it is to get run over by these attacks.

This makes the daily steps we make even more arduous than they sometimes already are.  But I’m committed.  Committed to not allowing people to define me, but standing firm in who God already says I am.  Committed to give grace to those who don’t know what I have walked through or how far I’ve come.  Relentless to try again when I fail miserably because it will happen.  Devoted to show love and care with every fiber of my being even when it isn’t received as such.  Steadfast to do the hard work of working through as the Spirit reorients my heart, mind, and soul to be in line with what God is doing.

Most of all, I’m dedicated to reminding myself that my past, what people have done or said, and regardless of how others see me, I am not defined by those things.  Sometimes going back to the basics propels us further than we know.  So my encouragement to myself and to you is that we would pull ourselves aside and remember who we are—we are masterpieces!  Grace and peace to you today my friend!

Until next time…Live as a Masterpiece!