Wouldn’t it be lovely if things always worked out EXACTLY the way we planned them? We are told to dream big and so we do just that; but rarely do we get told that with dreaming big comes sacrifice, perseverance, maybe a tear or two, perhaps some life challenges along the way.
I don’t know about you but I hate tough times, however, I have noticed throughout the little time I have been on this planet that it’s the tough times that have helped me grow spiritually, mentally and creatively. I spent so many years working on my book, reading through it, changing it and rewriting it, then I got stuck – I couldn’t seem to finish it.
I would turn my laptop on to type and nothing would come.
People would ask me ‘Sips, how’s the book doing?’ And I would reply with so much embarrassment ‘it’s going okay’, but the reality was that at times it wasn’t going okay.
Year after year passed, and for whatever reason, I couldn’t seem to finish it. Life was busy (be it with work, or other activities I was involved in) and the book gradually took a back seat.
The beginning of this year was by far one of the hardest times of my life. I found myself in a storm of life’s challenges, but within those challenges, I found my writer’s block reversed. For the first time in months, in the midst of a really tough season, I continued writing my book. The day that I completed it had actually been a difficult day, but that was the same day that I got home and felt God say get your laptop out and start writing. I typed away, until late into the early hours of the morning and finished it. Closing my laptop, I couldn’t believe that I had finally finished my craft. The moment I had waited so long for had finally arrived. It hadn’t arrived through the most amazing stress free season of my life – this beautiful event had happened whilst I was in a storm.
This was a defining moment for me. I realised then, on an even deeper level, that we can wait for the right circumstances, the right opportunities or the right jobs before we step out to fulfil the purpose for which we were created, but the reality is that life moves on and doesn’t wait for those circumstances to be right.
Sometimes we just have to step out regardless of whether the circumstances are right. Stepping out for one person might mean something entirely different for another.
For one person it might mean doing whatever you know you need to do in the midst of the fear that is holding you back. Perhaps, once you step out you will see that fear step aside for you to get to the other side.
For another person it might be applying for a job that you don’t believe you will get, because you were told that you would never amount to anything; which, by the way, is a LIE.
I believe that there is a right time for everything, but I also believe that the decisions we make today will affect what life looks like tomorrow. In some ways, I am not the same girl that began writing Saving Scarlett all those years ago; I needed to grow as a person so that I could handle what was ahead of me; but I am still the same girl that had a dream to have a book published that would bring hope and encouragement to everyone that read it.
Those baby steps taken daily will one day become giant steps which will see you doing things you never dreamed you could do.
On that note I leave you with this quote from a friend of mine:
“Your strength is not what you are good at, but what makes you come alive when you do it”
Sips xoxo
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