YOUR Best Stuff

I'm reading a new book called "Say Goodbye to Survival Mode" by Crystal Paine.  You have probably heard of her.  She created the blog Money Saving Mom and I referred to her a TON when I first began the road to affordable grocery shopping when I lived in Charlotte.  It's kind of cool because she is writing about the time in life when I was actually reading her life fleshed out on her blog.  I remember the exact transitions she was going through that she refers to in this book.

OK, enough about that:)

The entire first part of the book is about prioritizing our lives.  We are getting specific here people.  4-5 top priorities that should be taking up our time and then subcategorizing what that entails.  Then weeding out the rest of the things that suck the time and energy right out of us (because let's face it, many times we feel drained and unmotivated because we are trying to do things that don't fit in these categories).

Today she challenged us to dig deep and think about the things that we are good at.
the things that energize us
the things that make us feel alive
the things that motivate us to get up in the morning

Not the things we WISH we could do.
or the things we see other moms/wives/women doing that we feel like we should be good at
or the things we used to be able to do before we had kids
or the things we could do if only we could have kids
or the things we want to do but just don't have the time for

I think so often we see everyone around us when we begin exercises like this.
I see my friend who takes beautiful photos of everything all around her.
I see another who knows everything medical under the sun.
Or the one who can work outside the home while gracefully juggling the rest of her life.
How about the ones who can sew or make food from scratch
Or have the patience and gift to homeschool their kids.
And then there is my designer friend who can design anything from NOTHING.  She makes bathrooms look like ballrooms, ya'll.  AMAZING talent!

Oh my goodness...if I stayed here long enough I would be a very depressed women, full of feelings of inadequacy and failure.

But when we do this we are making what I like to call Gift/Talent Stew.  We are grabbing everybody's best and putting it together thinking that somehow we are supposed to be able to do it ALL.

But here's the cool thing.  God made us all different.  (I know my husband is grateful for this.  The world can only handle one of me, ha!)  I can do things that YOU have a difficult time doing, or cannot do at all, or don't even care to do for that matter.  And so can YOU!

Arrogant?
Not in the least!

It reminds me of the passage in the Bible where it describes His Church as a body.  Everyone has their own purpose in the body and we work together to make it work.  I think this could apply here as well (although completely taken out of context:)

I am finally realizing the things that I am good at because of the way God made me.
I am an empathizer so encouraging other people brings life to me and speaks truth to them.
I love to write.  It helps me organize my thoughts.  It is a mental and emotional outlet for me.  I love to go back through and look at my kid's past through the words I've documented during certain times.
I love music.  Making music. Listening to music. Creating music. Worshiping through music.
I love my new jewelry shop. I love hammering out meaningful memories both for people I love and people I've never even met.
I love creating environments in my home and organizing and finding good deals, so finding ways to decorate my home on a dime is super fun for me.

I would encourage you to take time to do this for yourself.
Make it a practice to look at the things in your life through this lens.

Find YOUR best stuff and rock it!