20/07/2022
This weekend my daughters Rachael and Brianna flew with me to Arizona to help my other daughter, Jessica, move into her new apartment. Even though it was excruciatingly hot,🥵 (Those of you who have been in an Arizona summer know that kind of hot!), we girls handled the entire move! From picking up the U-Haul, loading up all Jessica’s things, and then making several trips to move it all. My girls… never gave up! They didn’t let the enormous mattress or her extremely heavy chest of drawers stop them either. I suggested calling a friend of ours who lived nearby and having him come and help, but they would NOT hear of it!😂 All three looked at me and said, “Are you kidding Mom, we’ve got this!” Rachael and Brianna banded together in a kind of “ Bev Francis meets Tia-Clair Toomey" kind of way, and Jes turned into Andrea Shaw and asked me to step aside! With sweat pouring down their bodies and faces, they pulled and lifted all her things up those stairs! I was beaming with pride watching them, and immensely grateful I was only asked to lift things like pillows, bedding and the smaller boxes!😂 Sweat can be inspiring🤣….but the best part was how they showed their love toward each other. The strength and fortitude they displayed to keep going no matter how challenging warmed my heart.
In comparison, our country, and by extension the whole world, has gone through a challenging passage. We have powered through a pandemic, natural disasters, and financial upheaval, all followed by a feeling of general hopelessness. It would be easy to simply give up and “sit by the side of the wagon and let the wolves eat us.” But like my daughters and their example, we have not, nor will we, give up. The moving experience wasn’t the hardest thing my kids will do, but what it showed me was their instinct. Instead of handing it off, they took it head on. So when trials come, what if we continue this mantra of “Just don’t give up?” And what if we didn’t let hopelessness gain a footing in our lives? I believe we would all be happier for one, but even more than that, we would finish the book, write the music, or even invent the piece to life’s puzzle we have all been waiting for! What does Nike say? Just do it…I believe incredible finishers are also remarkable starters!!
Robert Louis Stevenson was just such a man. For most of his short life, he had tremendous physical problems. He moved to several different climates trying to find relief, but nothing helped the pain he was in. However, he decided to work anyway. In a letter to a friend, he said, "I have written in bed, and written out of it, written in hemorrhages, written in sickness, written torn by coughing, written when my head swam for weakness.” He could easily have just given up, but he refused to stop when things were hard. While writing “A Child's Garden of Verses,” he had a stroke which affected his entire right side, so the right-handed Stevenson learned to write left-handed. When he could no longer write, he dictated. When he could not speak, he used sign language to convey his thoughts to his daughter-in-law, who wrote them down. Obstacles will always appear, but as I mentioned earlier, books are written, music is composed, and inventions are made by those who refuse to give up. Dr. Bob Jones, Sr. said, "The test of your character is what it takes to stop you.’”
Giving up is just not an option! Even if it is something as big as a dream or as small as, say…ice cream! I will never give that up, especially if it’s vanilla bean ice cream.😂 I mean, after all, dieting or not - today is 😉(see how I fit that into my Sunday message😂👍)
I don’t want to end this post without saying I know from where all good things come, and we don’t do anything on our own….because… “But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26. That promise is beautiful. With God, all things are possible!!!
Here’s one of my favorite scriptures for today (Psalms 28:7). Check it out!🥰