Sometimes as I sit down to write a blog post, I think, “I’ve written on this topic before.”
I start a sentence and then I stop it. I erase it. I begin again.
I end up back where I started.
I start to think, “Why do people read this blog? They’ve heard it all before. I just keep repeating myself.”
What I really think is happening though is that life comes in phases or cycles. We lather, we rinse, we repeat. Only the hope is that this time, when life causes us to repeat something, that we are a little more refined, a little more prepared, a little more mature. That we are a few steps further down the road then the last time we walked through this.
Recently some details with our home search were discouraging me. I started to feel the panic and worry and frustrations creep in and I took a deep breath and said to myself, “Ok, look. You’ve been here before. This is not new territory. God has saved you from countless unknowns in regards to housing. You can get uptight and stress out and ruin all your days while you wait for an answer, or you can choose differently this time. Choose to believe it will work out. Choose to rest in Him. Choose to keep putting one foot in front of the other. You know this territory, so what did you learn from the last time you were here?”
If you were to go through the last four years of the archives on my blog, I’m sure you would see the same issues surface. I’m sure the same topics of desire and following your heart and not being afraid and living your dreams and being real and living life to the full would show up again and again. My hope is that with each post, I’m a little further on the journey, so that when you look at the whole, what you actually see is someone making progress.
I feel good about progress, even if you have heard it all before.
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I remember hearing Joyce Meyer say once, “I know I’m not where I need or want to be yet, but thank God I’m not where I used to be”. Be assured, Mandy, we all need to hear what you have to say. It reminds us that we are all growing the same way as you; one day at a time, one challenge at a time, one victory at a time.
I have to share how funny God is. (Is it OK to call Him funny? He seriously cracks me up sometimes!) Anyway, I read this post Friday morning and was thinking how it was a nice post. Later that morning, I got a phone call asking me to conisder doing something that I had done before and pretty much decided was not for me and would never do again. I told the caller I would consider it, and in my pondering your post came to mind. This thing is not my comfort zone and preys on my insecurities and imperfections.
ha ha! So, rather than run from it, I should embrace it and see it as an opportunity to learn from the past. As you put so well: “You know this territory, so what did you learn from the last time you were here?” Thanks Mandy!
Love this post. We just met this year, and I have spent lots of time perusing the archives on this blog. Yes, there are posts where the topics seem familiar. But that’s because you are uniquely YOU and those are the things God has put on your heart.
With each year that passes, a little more of the Big Picture is revealed, and it’s been awesome to be your friend and say “See, remember when you wrote about this a couple years ago?? You are so many steps closer now…” It’s not so much that you are ‘repeating’ yourself as it is that life works in cycles. Even the seasons repeat, yet each Spring is uniquely orchestrated.
Keep writing. I’ll keep reading.
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