Have you ever seen this video? If not, you should take a few minutes to watch it. It’s really good. But I’ll get back to that.
The other day, I was over at my parents’ house, going through a bunch of my old trinkets and books and things. (Yeah, I still haven’t moved everything out of their house. Procrastination 101.) I have this little chest that is filled to the brim with literally every birthday card, note, or letter I received, as well as every picture I doodled and story I wrote from my childhood. (Did I mention I’m a pack rat? Pack-Ratting 101.) It’s been pretty hilarious going through it all. Let’s just say I had quite the imagination. I’ll leave it at that. Anyhow, as I was going through that chest, I came across something that struck me in way I never expected.
It was a ziplock bag full of little strips of paper. I couldn’t have been older than 10 or 11 when I made them. But on the strips of paper I had printed a bunch of sayings, quotes, and Bible verses. Then I had decorated every single one with different colors and doodles. (Apparently using all kinds of crazy fonts wasn’t enough. I had to spice them up a bit. I know, I was a total dweeb.) They were probably just things that impacted my life at the time. Some of them I remembered, and laughed at. Some of them I had no idea what I was talking about. Some of them were totally things a pre-teen girl would say. For example:
“To love is to risk not being loved in return.”
“Sometimes… things happen that suck.”
“A friend is someone who knows everything about you and likes you anyway.”
Yes, I wrote those. I kid you not. And yes, I know. DWEEB. Those weren’t the ones that impacted me, though. Don’t worry. It was really one strip of paper that stopped me in my tracks. It was towards the bottom of the bag. As I took it out and unfolded the little strip, I read this:
“Failure is not losing; failure is giving up.”
It’s funny, the places encouragement can show up in life… I’ve been struggling with a few things lately. Nothing super serious. Just, wondering if I am headed down the right path and whether or not I’m following God’s will for my life. Because I definitely had some plans for where I would be right now, and they definitely aren’t playing out as well as I had hoped. For me, that feels like failure. I had a plan, and it failed. I mean, I’m not a control freak. I just like having a plan.
The thing is, my plan isn’t always God’s plan. I’m constantly reminded of this when I try to take the reigns. As hard as it might be to admit, I don’t always know what’s best for me. He does. And even though His plans might not unfold as fast as I’d like them to, as long as I am open, He continuously shows me where I should be headed.
Sure, when I made those strips of paper, I didn’t have a “Dear 23 year old me” moment. I wasn’t thinking When I’m 23 I’ll totally read this and be encouraged to keep fighting for me dreams! (That was the connection to the YouTube video, in case you missed it.) But I’m pretty sure God knew.
So, this post got way longer than I had anticipated when I started typing. But if you actually read through the entire thing, first, thank you for allowing me to share a little piece of my heart. And second, I hope that maybe it was an encouragement to some of you. After all, it’s funny the places encouragement can show up in life…
Along the lines of never giving up … the idea of being in charge of our own attitudes comes to mind. This is a quote that I’ve had hanging on my wall for years:
“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company… a church… a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past… we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you… we are in charge of our Attitudes.”
– Charles Swindoll
Thanks for that, David : )