Reset

baby steps

In her recent blog entry Ann Voskamp speaks on doing a reset in the month of June. I like much of what she says here and believe it will be useful information for me right now. Anyone out there who has read the last several blog entries here will know that I have some goals I have set for myself. Though I have not felt it necessary to share these goals in detail at this time I will say over the last several months it seems they have been divided into two distinct areas of my life. In area number 1 I have done poorly and am not currently reigning over this in my life. I have a long way to go, perhaps even a longer journey ahead of me than I had when I began. It's disappointing and discouraging and even troubling. On the upside in area number 2 I have seen great success, it has been exhausting and progress is slow, but the progress is obvious and though there is still a long way to go, I am encouraged and feel I will have a successful rule over this area. 

"June is the Second January."

Today is June the 1st and I am doing a reset today. One of the first things is to read again some things that have encouraged and instructed me over the last several months. 

 Ann Voskamp puts it this way -"hard things keep calling you because you're meant to answer to higher and better things". 

Ann also mentions the "pain of discipline vs. the pain of disappointment". 

Endurance not indulgence. 
Hebrews 10:32 says, "For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised". 

My favorite quote from her is: "Understood this way, each thing we don’t feel like doing, great or small, becomes an invitation from God to follow in the faithful footsteps of his Son, “who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2)."

“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us

.”

"Yeah, yeah, I’m a slow learner in a life going by fast — Every day, every moment, you only have one decision to make: what will you do with time.

It’s strange: You can want nothing more than time, and use nothing worst than time.

You can watch life.  Or actually play life. And only one way wins.

God gives us everything we need for space — but we will have to make space.

God gives us all the ingredients for time — but we will have to make time.

God gives us everything we need to live — but we will have to make a life.

No one just gets space. 

No one just gets time."

"God gives you the raw materials — but you will have to make your life."

I have to remember to just show up, just do the work, one day, one moment at a time. 

"To love your life, do nothing with rush or resentment, but do everything as if you love it.""He makes the most of his work — who makes most of the gift of getting to do his work.

Because this makes the most of the grace of God."

"Successful people are the ones who choose to let the joy and satisfaction of simply getting to show up be their payment."

"Keep practicing the presence of being aware of His presence. Keep going and never, ever give up.

"When you work faithfully, creativity comes faithfully. Keep showing up — because this is how you never, ever give up. It’s never, ever too late to begin again."

"June can be about new beginnings. Change your habits and you can change anything into a possibility." life-giving habits. 

"Our habits unclothe us — they expose our wounds, our insecurities, our idols, our addictions — or our hopes, our dreams, our prayers. Our habits are us. The patterns of our lives reveal the form of our souls."

"A pail with a pinhole loses as much as the pail pushed right over.  A whole life can be lost in minutes wasted… in the small moments missed."

A pail with a pinhole loses as much as the pail pushed right over.  A whole life can be lost in minutes wasted… in the small moments missed.

"Make gratitude your attitude of habit — there’s no other way to make joy your life."

"Every little day just has to be just a little bit better: Small things done consistently, consistently make the biggest change."

Small things done consistently...Small things. 

"And you get to do hard & holy things, you can do hard and holy things —for the joy, for the love. Because whatever you do for joy, you can do forever."

Did you catch that...it's not that we have to...it's that we get to...we have the joyful opportunity to create change.

"Habits matter because: Habits are the spine of our self-control."

"You change your life when you change what you do everyday.  Habits are small gears that leverage your life — and the habit of hope can resuscitate anything."

"Even what looks like it has a snowball’s chance in hades of happening or changing… 

The snowball tree releases petals in the wind, a habit of letting go and hoping better things….

And all these small seeds keep across the field grow —

like this growing trust that the smallness of A Seed Life, of faithfully stewarding seed moments, is what grows a habit of astonishing abundance."

“We are all going to botch it some days. We all sometimes get the notes wrong. But the song only goes wrong when we keep thinking back to the wrong notes.”

“When a piece starts to fall apart — fall forward. Fall forward into the next bar. Moving forward is what makes music.”

"Failing? What feels likes failing is really gaining experience. Keep moving Forward!"

"Falling apart? Fall forward into His arms — falling forward is the only way you make music. Keep moving Forward!"

                             FORWARD!