By Hi friends! The Christmas season is among us, and boy how time does fly! I honestly feel like we just had Thanksgiving and already, Christmas in one week away! How crazy!
Christmas is a time of family and festivities and the joys that come along with it. With Christmas time also comes the great celebration of the birth of our Savior, Jesus! Like they say, it’s the most wonderful time of the year!
Christmas also means that the year is almost over. It brings a time of reflection of the events of the year (especially 2020 amiright??). We look back on the adventures, the hardships, the failed attempts, and the victories of the past year. To see how far we’ve come and where the year has brought us.
That last one on there can definitely strike a cord, especially for those of you who had your year planned out and none of it went how you imagined or planned for it to go due to covid.
In my own life, I’m always one who likes to get stuff done and to progress towards my goal. This year, I can tell you with certainty that I did not make as much progress as I would have liked.
In the past, I might have beaten myself up about it. Now? Not so much.
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The other day I was painting my office at the church. Now, I’m not one for painting walls… in fact I don’t like to paint walls at all. But, it needed to be done. So I spent half that day painting, and all I had to show for it was two of the four walls outlined with primer. I’m a person who likes to see results, and for the time I spent on the room I definitely was not seeing the results I wanted. It looked like I barely got anything done compared to what I had left, so I was feeling somewhat discouraged.
The pastor’s son came in as I was finishing cutting out the two walls and went, “WOW! You’ve gotten a LOT done.” In that moment, I kinda laughed at his reaction and told him that I really didn’t think I had done that much, especially compared to the whole room. His response got me: “It’s more than what was done earlier. I think you still got a lot done.”
Faith like a child.
Even though I had a long way to go, I still had come a long way. It might not have been as far as I had wanted to be, it was still farther that I had been that morning.
And I think that’s what really matters. We as humans are intent on reaching our goal, and that in essence isn’t bad. However, when we discount how far we’ve come because we see how far we have to go, that’s when we are missing the whole point.
Yes, we should strive to reach our goals. But by the same token, we need to enjoy the journey and appreciate how far we’ve come. If we are always hounding ourselves because we aren’t where we think we should be, we will miss what God is doing in our lives at that moment.
2020 definitely threw some curveballs and maybe you aren’t quite where you want to be either. However, I want to challenge you to allow yourself some grace. You may not be where you want to be, but look at how far you’ve come. If you have to, write it all down in a journal! That’s what I do and it definitely helps. When I begin to think that I haven’t gone anywhere, I can open that book up and just see how far I really have come. For fitness goals, take progress photos!
Whatever will best help you see the progress, do it! It will help you to remember that you aren’t where you used to be… you have made progress! And let it encourage you to keep moving forward.
Remember the wise words from the pastor’s son, “It’s more than what was done earlier.”
Merry Christmas everyone!!
Caleigh
An adventurer and coffee enthusiast at heart, Caleigh Ball has a passion for reaching out to others to inspire them to live with intention and purpose. As an ordained minister, she spends her time ministering as a youth pastor and is actively involved in Arise Ministries as the vice president and bookkeeper as well as one of the ministers. She enjoys life with her husband, Emmanuel, and their cat, Alaska, in their home state, Almost Heaven West Virginia.
Find Caleigh on Instagram at @caleigh.ball
by leaps and bounds 