Happy Tuesday! I’m so excited to introduce you to my friend, Becky Cooper. Becky has been working with high-risk kids in an after school program through IberoAmerican Ministries in Santiago, Chile for over three years. You can check out her blog and read more of her story here!
Becky and I really started getting to know each other after I wrote this blog post. You know, the one where I was all, “life is what you make it.” Which is so true, and yet, still so hard sometimes. I love how God brought Becky and I together while still being placed on completely different parts of the world. We both struggle with being content with where we are. Maybe you’ve been there? In my previous post I wrote, “…because for days upon days I dream about those trips and the person I would become if I could just see the world.” So many times I want to do this, or that and if given the opportunity, I still want more. It’s sad and ridiculous, really, but true nonetheless.
I love perspective. Becky is great about bringing perspective to the table, wrapped with a bowl full of encouragement. Thank you, Becky, for all you have done and have yet to do. Wherever God places you in life, keep shining His light! (I’ll remind myself of that, too) -ash
“Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.” Ephesians 3.20
“Over the past year I have realized that I have a serious problem: a problem with not being content with where I am in life.
I am not just talking about mundane circumstances – the normal everyday routines we all have. For example, I’m currently sitting in my non-heated apartment while it’s 39 degrees out. Do I wish things were different in this exact moment? Of course.
While that is a valid point, I find myself wishing things were different in a lot more areas of my life than just central heating.
Maybe you guys can relate. Surely I’m not the only one that does this, right?
“If I could just get through school…”
“If I could just get that job…”
“If I could just get that house…”
“If we could just leave the country now…”
“If we could just become a family already…”
No matter where we are in life, we all have something we’re looking forward to. The hard part is waiting to get there. We often find ourselves doubting. We find ourselves feeling lost. Rather than making the best of the journey, we find ourselves wishing things could be different. We try everything to hurry the process, because we just know that if things were different we’d finally be happy.
Having lived overseas for 3 years now, a lot of people back home ask me how I do it. Then they tell me how if they could just (fill in the blank), everything would be better.
I can now gently say that I’ve learned otherwise. I’ve achieved what I once thought was unachievable, and it hasn’t always made me happy. In fact, believe it or not, I’ve spent most of my time, you can probably guess, wishing things were different.
Our joy comes from something much bigger than us. Our circumstances are what we make them. We can choose to focus on what’s ahead of us, and miss everything in between… Or we can use everything on the way to help us enjoy our future.
We can pass our time wondering what it would be like if we had someone else’s life… Or we can pass our time learning how to make the best of our own unique stories.
For some people this comes naturally. Then there are people like me, where it doesn’t come so naturally…
So maybe you’ll have to fight for it, or maybe you won’t. But I hope that either way, your dreams won’t hold you back.
Sweet brothers and sisters, may we look bright-eyed towards the future, but never miss out on the life that’s happening around us.”
