This is a continuation of a series I started a few weeks
back – tips for bloggers, writers, and business ladies. You can find them here.
Truth be told, this is much, much more than a writing,
blogging or business principle for me. It’s a life principle. A spiritual one,
even. I find the kind of people I relate to the best – the kinds I want to
learn from the most are the ones who aren’t scared to look back and say, “That
didn’t go well, huh?”
In life, I’ve learned that I’m seriously missing out on
growth, on learning, on living out God’s lavish grace if I can’t look backward
and simply know – I made a mistake. On the other hand, if I’m so utterly
cautious that I refuse to try things that I might not do a good job at, I will
miss out on all kinds of adventures. Even failed adventures are adventures, you
know?
In writing – sometimes you gotta just write. Tell the story.
Try and explain the deep thoughts even if you think know one will follow them.
Describe the setting. Maybe it’s not long enough and maybe it’s too long. Maybe
everyone reads it and maybe no one does. You might spell all the words wrong or
never get to the point or lose your readers in the first paragraph. But you did
it and then you can look back and say – “here’s what. I should have done
_______________ instead.”
In business and ministry – if you’re not making mistakes,
you’re not trying enough things. If you keep your area of expertise so small
that you always stay an expert at it – good job, you’ve limited yourself to
what YOU can do and possibly missed out on the vast opportunities of what God
could have done through you. In His power and ability, instead of yours.
Let’s don’t be ladies who are so tidy and buttoned up that
we don’t let God’s grace get it’s full story told. Love hard. Mess up.
Apologize. If you have a pit in your stomach about something you said or did a
month ago or a day ago that you’re explaining away with “it was a
miscommunication” or “I guess I could have done that differently”, run from
that. Call it what it was. A mistake. Learn from it. Grow from it. Say you’re
sorry and walk in grace.
For me, this looks like pulling a kid aside after a rough
day and saying, “I took my frustration out on you. I’m sorry. Will you forgive
me?” It looks like quitting doing blog design even though it’s fun and
financially profitable. Even emailing my clients and apologizing for not
handling their business well. It looks like writing an eBook in 4 days in the
midst of my first trimester nausea and instead of walking away from it,
refusing to write anything else substantial till I go back and edit it and make
those words count.
If you’re sitting safely inside your own human boundaries,
break out.
Try. Fail. Redeem. Live. Write. Love. Try.
1 comment:
A much needed post today, friend! It reminds me of a saying my Dad would always use: "never can, never could". In other words, you don't know what you're capable of until you try. I'm praying for the courage to step out and try...
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