Skip to main content

when the good becomes the bad and the ugly

I have this trait that anybody who knows me is very familiar with:
I don't like to fail.

For the most part, this trait has served me well. It has kept me
pushing forward
striving for something better
working hard
accomplishing things I never thought possible

Lately, though, it seems this trait has developed a dark side...an evil twin, if you will.

See, I look at all the things that are unfinished right now:
~laundry
~dishes
~thread crochet I've been working on for my mom for somewhere around...3 years now
~multiple scarves
~a wedding present
~a story
~query letters
~oh yeah--homework...
(I took some pictures to put here, but for some reason blogger won't let me upload them...gonna have to try and update this when that will work...)

I see all those things and that evil twin starts saying, "Look at all the ways you're failing right now...there's not even one thing you're getting finished! You're in way over your head." That's usually followed by an evil villain laugh...hey, I may not feel like a writer most of the time, but those voices still float around in my head to remind me that they want me to write down their stories :0)

Here is where you would usually expect to find some words of wisdom explaining how I know that's not true, that things are "in progress" way longer that they are "finished."

The thing is, though, right now that evil twin is the one I'm hearing the loudest...
 

Comments

  1. The good news is that you get to be the boss of the voices! You can do it--whether it is to silence the evil voice or to decide that it is OK NOT to finish any one of those projects for whatever reason. You are so much harder on yourself than Jesus is on you, girl! Give yourself some grace. He loves you whether you complete those things or not:) Great post, Mandy!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thoughts? I would love to hear them!
~Mandy

Popular posts from this blog

a little bit of physics (don't be scared!)

"by faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible." hebrews 11:3 this is one of my favorite verses--i call it my physics verse because to me it is tying together my faith and subatomic particles. no, really--i mean it! when i first started working on a degree in physics and a minor in biology, somebody (i don't remember who anymore, but it seems like it was somebody on some kind of discussion board...) told me that i would forget about all that dumb "christianity" (<--spell checker doesn't like that. hmm...) stuff. once i had been educated, i would see that faith was superstition and a pointless waste of time, something for the ignorant, uneducated masses.  while i'm sure that is the conclusion some people come to, it sure wasn't for me.                          ...

one word for 2013

How many times growing up were you told to be a leader? Our society seems focused on being the leader, the one out in front all the time. We are taught to develop our leadership skills we pick team captains from childhood we strive for promotions we work hard to be at the front of the pack. I'm definitely no exception--I worked hard to become captain of my cheer squad from middle school on through my senior year, I studied to be at the head of my class and then get into the Honors Program at Tech when I started college (the first time around , anyways!), I developed the skills that would get me into grad school. I was taught to lead instead of just going along with the crowd. What if there's something else being asked of me, though? Hang with me here--if you're like me, this concept is a bit of a hard pill to swallow. What if, instead of being pushed to become a leader, I'm being asked to simply... Follow. That is my word for 2013. It found me unexpect...

God's blessing?

There's a verse in 1 Peter that I hadn't really noticed before. It's funny how that keeps happening to me...books and chapters I've read many times, on pages with underlining or notes, but all of a sudden I read a verse that I've somehow missed. This time it was while we were studying at church Sunday morning: "For the time for judgment has come, and it is beginning with the household of God. If it is starting with us, what will happen to those who have rejected God’s good news?" (1 Peter 4:17) I've been listening to Pastor Allen Jackson a lot lately. I highly recommend that you do the same, but I'll warn you first--he's probably going to step on your toes. One thing he has been pointing out a lot lately? We as professed Christians can't blame the decay in our nation on "them". Our nation is in free-fall because we--those who claim to be followers of Jesus--have failed. We have let a nation founded on biblical truth and biblical...