Who do You think You are?

You think people will really care what you have to say? You’re not that funny. You’re not that interesting. You’re not that great with words. You aren’t an interior designer, heck you didn’t even finish the interior design program. You don’t know who you are or what you want. Writing a blog is not significant or going to change the world. Those are just a few things I tell myself when I think of writing a blog…

While fighting those negative thoughts, I also struggled to find a significant purpose for this blog, until, I was asked this simple question: How do you want your life to look in the end, what were your accomplishments?

So here it is: when I’m at that end of my life and I’m looking at what I did right, I want to see a woman who raised children to love God and people. I want to see that despite all the challenges, I chose to love my husband every single day. I want to see a woman who loved herself even with all her flaws. I want to see a woman who welcomed all walks of life into her home for meaningful fellowship. I want to see a woman who found joy in the mundane. I want to see a woman who didn’t focus on having all the pretty things but who found the joy and beauty in what she had available. I want to see a woman who created joy and beauty out of trashed and forgotten things. I want to see a woman who bloomed even after the harshest hail, wind and rain life brought. A woman who graciously embraced every season of life. A woman who reflected sunshine onto others who were in the dark. I want to see the fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. That’s it. Now everything I pursue, everything I do will be centered around these life goals. And if I’m doing something that is not moving me even an inch closer to the these achievements, I will know to stop and let it go. For example: thoughts like “This blog will be worthless and no one will care what I have to say…” I need to change those thoughts because it’s pulling me away from the goal of being a woman who reflected sunshine onto others or embraced every season of life, or who created joy and beauty out of trash or who loved herself even with her flaws… It’s that simple.

So, this blog is for us. It’s going to be eclectic, just like us. It will be a little bit of DIY, a little about who we are and hopefully a lot about how amazing God is. We are here for community, even if that community is just us. I want us to discover the joy in the mundane. I want this blog to show that we are flawed but striving for growth. I want us to be warm souls in this cold world. I want it to make us laugh, cry and question things. I want us to discover what true joy and beauty in life is. I want us to see redemption and the fruits of the spirit. I also want us to learn and teach each other more about God, His love, His plans, His grace. I want us to encourage one another to do the things we keep thinking about doing, but don’t. I want us to prove wrong the voices in our heads saying “Who do you think you are? You’re nothing, you’re not smart enough, strong enough, or capable.”

I strongly believe that creating something offers stillness in life (even though you are doing something) there’s something holy about taking time to stop and make something with your own bare hands. Not to mention getting the satisfaction from learning a new skill and being able to say “I made that!”. So, even if you bomb a project at least you walk away with new knowledge that may be able to be applied in your future projects. That brings me to my next point: if you bomb your first or even fourth DIY and decide you just aren’t good at it and give up, you’re missing the point. I can’t tell you how many times I messed up when I was learning a new job or how to cook a new recipe… Those failures didn’t keep me from showing up to work and cooking food for my family. No, it helped me get better and it forced me to choose to either grow or cut out the parts that weren’t helping with growth. I don’t want you to let failures kill the growth. But if you do, I’m here to encourage you and hopefully you can encourage me too. Because let me tell you, when you make something that YOU are proud of, it will offer lasting satisfaction in the joy of remembering: “Wait. I made that.”. That my friend is how I imagine God feels about his creations times a bazillion.

What will be your successes at the end of your life? Just remember, tomorrow is not promised, so we better start taking action on them ASAP as possible.