Nip It In the Bud

Never give up; you never know until you try.

You notice a slight weight gain. Nip it in the bud. Weeds pop up in your garden. Nip them in the bud. You and your mate (parent, child, family member, coworker, friend, neighbor) experience a conflict . . . you get the idea. It's easier to halt something early on than to stop it once it has gained momentum. That's true of positive things and of negative things.

I've written before about "good things" versus "God things," and I still hold to the opinion that just because something is good doesn't mean I should be engaged in it. Even if it's a "good thing," if it isn't a "God thing," meaning I know God wants me to participate, then I shouldn't be involved. It may be hard, but I need to nip it in the bud. Of course, it goes without saying that a bad thing should be promptly stopped. Fat cells only get bigger if I don't actively work to shrink them. Weeds take over the garden if not treated with herbicide and/or physical removal. Relationships deteriorate if I don't address issues head-on.

So, what do you need to nip in the bud? I urge you to do it now, before the job gets even harder!

Unpredictability

Never give up; you never know until you try.

Tuesday, August 23, brought several surprises to me. A stranger at my door asked me a question completely out of left field, and I experienced the earthquake that literally rocked the east coast for miles.

I’ve heard of tornado damage being eerie in its unpredictability, and I’ve seen some incredible pictures—the wind levels one house and seems to jump over the next-door neighbor; it drives a piece of straw into a tree as a carpenter drives a nail into a piece of lumber; it gently deposits a baby, still in its car seat, safely into a tree, as if laying him into his mother’s arms.

I experienced the same type of thing in the aftermath of the quake. In my home office, I discovered that a couple small tables had moved across the floor from their original positions, yet porcelain and glass collectibles hadn’t budged.

We plan and go about our lives, acting as if we’re in control, but the control is an illusion. We don’t know what will happen to us in the next minute—we may not even be breathing the next minute. We may experience a severe natural event and come through unscathed, or we may lose everything.

I was reminded Tuesday that only God knows what will happen, whether 5 minutes or 5 years from now. That’s comforting when I feel “down” about something, be it financial uncertainty or unwanted singlehood. Tomorrow could be the day that everything turns around. Many unwanted events have caught me off guard, and many things which I’ll always cherish have done so, as well. You just never know.

Formula for Success

Never give up; you never know until you try.

Legendary professional athlete Babe Didrikson Zaharias is quoted as saying, “The formula for success is simple: practice and concentration then more practice and more concentration.”

Any thoughts, anyone?

We Have To See the Value for Ourselves

Never give up; you never know until you try.

I’m happy to report that after looking under every rock around, I’ve found a job. Unfortunately, it’s another part-time endeavor, but at least I’m moving in a positive direction again. I’m even doing something I enjoy! I’m tutoring students who never finished high school and are working toward their GED’s. I’m still in the training program, “shadowing” in various classrooms, but I should be out of training soon.

I’ve already concluded a few things. One thing is that students must see the value of obtaining a GED, or they won’t stick with the program. It can be tough, as anyone who has attended high school will attest. Add to the tough curriculum the fact that many GED hopefuls haven’t been in a classroom in a long time, and you start to understand how brave someone is to undertake such a challenge.

Of course, I would argue that it’s even more challenging finding a decent job without at least a high school diploma or equivalent. That’s one of the biggest reasons students find themselves in GED classes—being sick of years of low-paying jobs.

The youngest students haven’t lived through years and years of bad jobs, and I think maybe that’s why some of them seem to be so indifferent about the whole thing. With the bravado of youth, some seem to think they have plenty of time, that they’ll be the exception to the rule and actually land a great job without a high school education.

That might be the hardest part for me—dealing with that type of student. Of course I’ll try to encourage those who seem to not care, but I’ll have to remind myself that they’ve got to see the value for themselves, to want it for themselves.

After all, everything in life is that way. We have to want something for ourselves or we won’t stick with the process of attaining it. Losing weight, getting more education, whatever—it has to be something we want. We won’t stick with it if our parents, our children, our “significant others” talk us into it.

I’ve been thinking of how many times friends or family have stood by, waiting patiently while all of us have slooowly come to the place of seeing value in something they knew all along we needed to be doing. How many times has God stood by, waiting patiently while we slooowly came to the place of seeing value in spending time with Him, learning about Him?

And so, I’ve made a New Year’s Resolution of sorts. It is, after all, a new school year; right? My resolution is to examine myself and to ask God to reveal to me anything (or anyone) I have undervalued and to help me see the true value.

Repeat After Me: I Refuse to . . .

Never give up; you never know until you try.

I’ve covered what I’m about to say before, but recent conversations I’ve had and conversations I’ve overheard have convinced me that it bears repeating.

Be yourself. Don’t try to be someone else, or even who (or what) you think someone else wants you to be.

Refuse to compromise your self.

Refuse to give up your self.

Refuse to give up on yourself.

Ask anyone who has done any of the 3 aforementioned things, and she will tell you in no uncertain terms that doing so was the biggest mistake she ever made, and she will beg you to avoid making the same mistake.

How Far You've Come

Never give up; you never know until you try.

I read the same message twice today, from 2 different sources, so I'm passing it on to you. It may not resonate with you as it has with me, but I hope you'll think about it, because it may help you cut yourself some slack, especially if you're a perfectionist or if you're working on a big--or time-consuming project.

Drum roll, please. To boil it down, the message is:

Try to avoid looking at how much you still have to do and the distance you still have to travel. Look instead at how much you have done and how far you've come, and concentrate on the grace that has gotten you this far. Rest in that grace and remember that God will help you get the rest of the way.

To that bit of advice, I add my own advice to avoid looking at how long it has taken you to do what you have done and get as far as you have. The next leg of the journey may not be as long. Or, and I'm sorry to rain on your parade here, it may take longer. The whole point is to not worry about how far or how long to go but instead to celebrate the ground won so far. Admittedly, that's easier said than done, but life isn't easy. It can be painful and it can be messy; but with God in your corner, it will be okay.

Not Truth, But Faith

Never give up; you never know until you try.

The title for today’s post comes from a quote by poet Edna St. Vincent Millay: “Not Truth, but Faith it is that keeps the world alive.” I ran across it as I was thumbing through one of the jillion books on my bookcase, and I think it struck me because I had just been reading through some old issues of writing magazines and found an article pooh-poohing the use of such Yoda-like backward phrasing. I agree with the advice to forego convoluted phrasing, unless done very sparingly and for a specific reason, and I agree with Edna, or “Vincent,” which her friends called her, according to Poets.org, because I think she had a reason for her phrasing.

Truth can be good, but for many, the everyday truth of their lives is a study in deprivation, degradation, violation, isolation—the list goes on and on. If not for faith that tomorrow will be better than today, they would succumb to complete despair and wither as surely as an autumn leaf. Yes, I could add that God’s Truth—the truth of His love and promises, etcetera, keeps us going, but if we don’t have faith in that Truth, we lose hope and wither.

Many of us have been there. We’ve found ourselves in circumstances we hated with every molecule of our DNA and that hurt like an old-fashioned operation with dirty instruments and no anesthesia. Bad marriages. Bad jobs, or no jobs. Death of loved ones. If living meant living as we were, we honestly wanted to die. Maybe only faith that things would get better was what kept us from ending our lives.

And so my challenge today is much like one I’ve issued before. I’ve encouraged readers to be “nice” to people, and today I encourage everyone to do what you can to foster faith, in yourself and in others, that tomorrow will be better than today. At the very least, even if circumstances remain the same, you’ve had more practice in coping with them.