By This week’s blog has been very difficult to produce. I have prayed and listened patiently (or maybe not so patiently when I passed my deadline to turn it in to my editor) but nothing was really laid on my heart to write about. I became frustrated and opened up and spoke to my husband that I was going to miss posting a blog this week and how upset I was. I then began to pour out my heart to him about how the enemy has attacked me so hard this week and has used my own insecurities against myself.
My husband then suggested that maybe the blog this week should be about not being able to write a blog. The idea was crazy enough that it made sense because I have struggled with self-esteem for most of my life. When negative things were said, I gave up or didn’t follow through with an idea, job application, career change or a number of other things.
When God calls you to do something you must have some stick-to-it-ness so that when the enemy attacks, you don’t give up. I really don’t like stepping out of my comfort zone but I promised God that He can use me how he wants and I will obey. Saying it is one thing but doing it is not always easy and that is when you need to pull your stick-to-it-ness out of your back pocket (that’s where you keep those nuggets) to follow through.
Maybe some of you have been like me where you are minding your own business and your brain starts replaying that wrong answer you blurted out in history class in fifth grade and how everyone laughed at you and you were embarrassed in front of the whole class?
I have been fighting these thoughts and others like them for the last week! When I started this blog, I had one person ask me if I really thought that I could write a blog every single week. The enemy has taken that thought that has been laying around in the back of my brain and thrown it in my face saying, “You know you couldn’t do it; you should not have even tried!”
After I wrote a few blogs, another person asked me what was going to happen when I ran out of personal stories to share… he threw that arrow at me as well. All week I felt as if the devil had constantly been attacking me and I began to feel like Swiss cheese after all those arrows.
This calling seems kind of minuscule compared to what God has called others to do. They had to overcome huge obstacles, kings, pharaohs, life and death and would have rather suffered from having writer’s block! I’m sure Elijah was kind of nervous facing off against the prophets of Baal and calling down fire from Heaven to set the bull on fire and Moses went face to face and toe to toe against pharaoh and demanded his people to be set free… or else. If that was me, I would probably be throwing up before, during, and after those encounters.
In 1 Peter 5:6-9 we are reminded of the following:
Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of suffering.
So, I am taking all of these arrows the enemy is throwing, stacking them in a box, duct taping it shut and handing them over to God. I am viewing this as a test, no matter what man says, or the enemy says, I won’t quit. God has put me in this position for a purpose even if the purpose is never completely revealed to me. So by faith I am going to say, “Next week, God is going to do something amazing.”
Tammy Bassett is a speaker and the author of the Mopping Up Your Blessings blog. She was born and raised a country girl who’s roots run deep in the mountains of Appalachia. She has worked a wide variety of jobs ranging from radio to insurance agent. She is now a stay-at-home mom, who along with her husband, are raising five daughters (ages 10 to 25), seven cats and one dog. She uses her accounting and business administration degree to help run her busy household.
She loves spending time with her family and homeschooling her two youngest children. She spends a lot of her day trying to conquer the obstacles in her home. With four of her children still living at home the laundry pile (nicknamed Mt. Wash-more) is her nemesis. Some days she wins and some days she doesn’t, but she always gets up the next day and tries again.
She also loves camping with her family as long as there is a camper with air conditioning, a comfy bed, and indoor plumbing. Her downfall is her obsession with iced coffee. Thankfully the closest Starbucks is an hour from her home, or she would be broke. She also loves reading and learning new skills such as homesteading, being more self-sustainable, gardening and foraging.
She relates the most to her favorite animal, the alpaca. They are both kind of weird and look like they are two months past due on a haircut. Much like alpacas she makes a gentle humming noise when happy and if irritated she often stamps the ground with her feet. Her husband has refused to buy her an alpaca much to her disappointment.
But more than anything, she loves the Lord and is growing more in her faith each day and hopes to inspire others to do the same. She wants everyone to understand that God’s grace is truly amazing and has changed her from the inside out and he can do the same for you.
by leaps and bounds 