This morning I woke on fire, ready to get some stuff done around the house, for grad school, and prepare for the week ahead. I spent some time this morning sitting on my back deck with my cup of coffee dreaming of what my back yard might eventually be, and all of my to do list went out the window because I was caught up in my dream. My dream includes a lot of hard work, time, hard work, money, and hard work. By lunchtime, I had meticulously set out a plan of how I was going to make the grass green again, plant some new shrubs, and create a new environment of hosting. I sat down at my laptop and began searching and ordering all these items to help make my dream come true. I was so excited about what’s to come!
However, a little over an hour later, buyer’s remorse hit. I realized the reality of my situation. I just had the second phase of my breast surgery a little over a week ago, graduate school finishes this coming week, and in two weeks, I’ll be off for a month to speak at our coast’s discipleship camp. But isn’t that like life? We search Pinterest for how to create the best vision board, we dream up all these ideas of how we will be well educated, massively successful, never worry about money and live in a stunning house with a perfect family. I often hear it described as the “boss babe” culture for 30 year old women. We have all these “dreams” whether created by ourselves or our world standards and we put time and energy into writing them down, manifesting them, putting them out to the Universe, pinning them to a board, only to get busy with real life and forget all about them.
Why? Because life is full of hard work, investment of time, energy, and money, and ultimately grit. We live in a world that tells us that we can have whatever we want right now, which hate to burst your bubble, doesn’t happen like that. And then when we get tired of waiting or working, we give up. The same is true of our relationships as well. It takes time to develop, maintain, and grow relationships. We are willing to say ‘yes’ by ordering all the stuff online, but when it gets delivered, that’s another story. Are we willing to get our hands dirty and dig up the internal soil so that health can be planted? Are we willing to plant what is good and right like healthy relationships for the time and place that we live in? Are we willing to water and nurture in the waiting? Are we willing to do all these things so we can bask in the green leaves of health and growth? Or do we just hope for the best and eventually give up when it takes too much time, money, and effort?
Relationships take all these things and more. Here’s my encouragement to you, rather than just clicking ‘buy now’ take a moment to really think if you are willing to do the hard work to get the beauty. Where do you often give up along the way? What part of the planting process do you need to take some time to go back to you? I hope your backyard and relationships bloom this next season and I’m hopeful that with some extra elbow grease, we can all be healthier together.
Building Bridges 