Find your power over difficult circumstances.
I would ask how many of us feel like we can’t keep up in life but I’m pretty sure we all feel that sometimes and those who say they don’t are lying. We all have times when we just feel like “we just can’t even”. Our history and current circumstances conspire to bring us down. I’ve had my cry fests, hissy fits and desire to just quit but the thing is, we are due for a paradigm shift.
“…we’ve been carrying excess baggage from the past around with us without even realizing it. In fact, we’ve carried it around with us for so long we think it’s part of us. Some days are so hard we feel like giving up and getting out of the race. But I have good news. God wants to take that burden from you so you will never have to carry it again. Whether it’s something that happened as long ago as your early childhood or as recently as yesterday, the past can keep you from moving into all God has for you. He wants to set you free from it… One of the greatest mysteries of the Lord is how He can take the horrible, the tragic, the painful, the devastating, the embarrassing, and the ruinous experiences and memories of our lives and not only heal them but use them for good.” ~Stormie Omartian, The Power of a Praying Woman
When your past is no longer the burden you lug with you, it can become the greatest tools you have for success. I have been super obsessed with and totally in love with reading Rachel Hollis’ book, Girl Wash Your Face. Rachel explains that life happens, nothing you can do about it. You either think life is happening to you (why does this always happen to me?) or you see it happening for you. So, I sat down and made a list of all the things that could be seen as burdens in my life; my parent’s divorce, my dad abandoning us, my learning disability, my anxiety, my miscarriages, my mom’s death from a brain tumor, chronic migraines etc. Seriously who couldn’t make a page a mile long?
Sister, I don’t look at that list and see anything that has kept me from being the best possible me I can be. None of that is keeping me from thriving. I gave it up to God and he gave me the power to fly! All that junk that happen to me has made me a better person, friend, wife, mom, counselor, teacher, chaplain, woman. I can show up in people’s lives fiercely and with complete confidence. I can bring peace to the table because I have been there. I know pain. I can hold a friend in a panic attack because I have had panic attacks. I can see a cancer ridden body and jump in to administer comfort because I have done it. This isn’t some pat on my back. You are completely capable to rock this. Sister, allow God to take your past and your circumstances and turn them into the greatest tools you have. Let them be the Excalibur you wield against the crap in the world. Your life isn’t happening to you, it is for you to make you the best version of you that you can be; fierce, strong, beautiful.