Practice makes....

Practice makes....well...I guess it depends on what you're practicing.

I can hear a couple of you now...get down to the mess of it Kristen...where's this train-a-headed?

Well, lately everywhere I turn this is a recurrent theme. I'm not sure if it is because it's something I recently dealt with and I'm just seeing how it affected my choices or if I didn't quite learn what I needed to and we're coming back around the bend for seconds...I guess I'll eventually find out.

Do you ever find yourself planning for life like this is the dress rehearsal? You know...I'll do that when I get this done or how can I help them when I'm such a mess, I'll help when I get myself together, or they couldn't possibly have a use for me like this, or the all famous....well, when I get the house in order....YA'LL, THAT AIN'T HAPPENING!!

For years I have been beating myself up for what I felt I couldn't do...if my house wasn't perfect, if I couldn't do everything everybody needed me to do perfectly...I forgot He was interested in what I COULD do. I had to quit waiting to be perfect and live.

So, when we were trying to decide when to turn in our paperwork-even though clearly we knew this was supposed to be part of our lives-no procrastination necessary- initially we decided that we would set a financial goal as a marker and if we had hit that amount by a certain date then we would turn our paperwork in by the next day. (Yes, Stacy...I hear you laughing and telling me to quit stressing and just do it) Over the course of the next weeks, we worked so hard to make sure it would happen. Then I had a dream we should turn it in early...like the next day early. Brent thought I had lost my mind! He said...what happens if we don't make our goal by that date? I told him I didn't think God was using our calendar!

And...leap of faith we took..(a little Yoda for you)..turned in our paperwork...or rather online...yep, in the time of our plan they had changed the format and all our paperwork had to be entered into a digital form, and kept on trucking. An imperfect, not our plan plan...hmmm. Over the days we got busy and forgot about the goal date. It just wasn't important like we thought. We had an appointment scheduled with our agency to look forward to completing. That week....the day before the appointment we received two checks that equaled the total we needed to make our goal...to the penny...on what would have been our goal date. We didn't realize that the appointment fell on the date that would have been our turn in date for paperwork....except now it was an appointment date...not just paperwork. Let's review....our plan...let's just go ahead and nix that....His plan....well, I think the above speaks for itself.

I (include me because I still fight the disease) see so many people fighting their shoulder taps/heart squeezes/nudges He gives to do amazing things in light of what they see as deficiencies, second guessing how He could have picked us for the job at hand.

There is no dress rehearsal, no practice round, no go-backsies. We get one shot at this amazing life...and lovelies...you're living it right now. You can't go back and undo, no point in shame. You don't know if you get tomorrow. He holds that. So no worries necessary. Today. We get today. He really made it quite simple. No more, no less.

He meets you exactly where you are RIGHT NOW! The gift is that you're awesome...chock full of it...now go love Him and your neighbor and be ninja level awesome! I've even left you a link for a little inspiration to get you moving :)

Go be awesome!

kk