What are your shortcomings?

We all have our shortcomings.  After all, that's what keeps us from being perfect until we enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  We can look at our shortcomings as failures and give up, or we can use them for self improvement.

I choose the latter.

I'm full of shortcomings.  So many, in fact, that if I were to ponder on all of them in one sitting, I'd think twice about choosing the latter.

A while back, I created a personal notebook and named it "A Better Me".  I categorized each and every area of my life I wanted to improve in.  Or so I thought.  I didn't realize each category would need subcategories.  I couldn't keep up with the notebook because I was working on too many areas at one time.  Rome wasn't built in a day and neither would it take a day to become "a better me".  In fact, all it did was give me just another thing to keep up with.  Funny thing is it had a "time management" category.

Can you say "One step forward, two steps back"?  "Spinning your wheels"?  That kind of thing.

I've decided to blog about it instead.  I can type faster than I write anyway.

How many days does it take to create a new good habit?  21? We will go with a month.  Since my life isn't going to be long enough to fix bad habits one month at a time, I'll work on two per month.  I still won't be perfect, but I'll be improved.

To shorten this post, I'll create a new one with my first area of improvement.  Each week of the month I'll post about my progress.

Bear with me as I strive for perfection.

What are your shortcomings?  Do you give up or do you use those as opportunities to improve yourself?

Ephesians 4:22-24

English Standard Version (ESV)

²² to put off your old self,^[a] which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, ²³ and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, ²⁴ and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Giving thanks

It's all over Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and every other social network out there.  It has been all month long.  Everyone listing daily what they are thankful for.  I didn't participate.  Not on the networks anyway. Not that there's anything wrong with it.  Sometimes listing these things will open your eyes to all you do have.  I've even struggled before when I have participated in previous years. 

It's nice to see what everyone is thankful for.  Their kids, spouse, job, family, friends, the list goes on and on.  Though, I wonder if we are really thankful for these things we list.  Do we sit and ponder as we update our social network status and think, "Oh that's a good one.  I'll post that!" Are we really thankful for those blessings or do we really have an ulterior motive behind it?  To keep our list flowing?  Just because? To impress?  To make others jealous?  (one would surely hope not) To make ourselves look better than we view ourselves?  To convince ourselves?  My mind wonders if we have thanked the One who made all these blessings possible?  We take the time to type them out, post on every social network we are signed up for and spend the time checking to see if anyone has "liked" or commented on those daily statuses.  Have we taken just that one moment it takes to thank God for them all?  It's a reality check, really.  Self to blame.

This year for Thanksgiving, we will be going to each mother's home.  Clayton comes home early Thanksgiving morning.  I'll be driving to Houston to get him from the airport, coming home to get ready to leave to go to his mother's house 30 miles from us, visit with them, then drive up to Shreveport to my mother's home.  We will have Thanksgiving with her a day late.  That's a lot of turkey and Clayton is in charge of frying it for both families.  I can almost taste it now.  It won't be long.

This year for my side of the family, we are starting a new Thanksgiving tradition.  We will have a notebook and each family member will have one page to write everything they are thankful for.  We will keep the same notebook throughout the years as we go back to the previous years and see what we were thankful for back then.  Maybe the women of the family will be more prone to accept the challenge than the men, but it will be fun.

I'm finished with my page.  I just finished.  Here it is in all it's natural glory:

Just when I was almost finished, I put Thanksgiving at the bottom.  Then I noticed I had left the "S" out of the word.  I laughed at it but thought I'd have to start all over.  Why though?  It's just not that big a deal, right?  So, I just marked out my mistake with a big thick black marker and put on the side with an arrow pointing to it.  "and even mess ups."  It's so true that mess ups teach us and help us grow.  If we are willing.  So yes, I'm thankful for even my mess ups.  With this one, maybe it will even stir a few chuckles.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

In a nutshell

The beginning of a new era.  New beginnings.  New hopes, old dreams.  That's the place where we are.

My husband.  My kids.  My family.  Me.

Every little girl dreams of the perfect life.  The perfect wedding.  The perfect marriage.  The perfect kids.  The perfect home.

Does it ever turn out that way?  Sure.  Ok, maybe not perfect in the eyes of others, but perfect for the dreamer.

Sometimes it doesn't.  Probably more often than not.

I was that dreamer as a little girl.  I remember my sister and I having to not only share a bedroom, but a full size bed as well.  Even covers.  If we weren't fighting (I still have battle scars), we were dreaming into the future.  Oh the dreams we had!  Our husbands were the perfect business men all dressed in William Fioravanti suits.  We, as the perfect stay-at-home moms, drove a van and would shop on a daily basis for toys for our children, filling the vans to the brim.

I never gave it any thought why the husband in my dreams would wear a top of the line suit while I was driving a van.  That's just not right at all now is it?  Anyway, moving along...

Needless to say, those particular dreams didn't quite pan out the way we had planned.  From divorce to blended families, crabby new husbands and ungrateful kids, we both, my sister and I, have had to make due with what life dealt us.  Until now.

I will only speak from my own experiences.

I'm not going to elaborate on where I stood in the happiness department for the past 2 decades, but I will share this...

I was happy.  I was miserable.  Sometimes ecstatic.  Sometimes I had hit rock bottom emotionally.  I couldn't ever get on the same page my husband was on no matter how hard I tried.   I would want a change when he saw nothing wrong and vice versa.  Almost 20 years of this, give or take, and we had both hit rock bottom.  That's when the light finally started shining for us both to see.

We had finally gotten on the same page!!!  It was wonderful!  Like falling in love all over again and everything being as perfect as they should be.  The way we both wanted thing to be.

Our family has been through the ringer over the years but from what I know to be true, the only way to make it work is through prayer, perseverance, hope, faith, and of course, love.  If you have those things, anything is possible.  Perhaps even the William Fioravanti suit.  Though probably less likely the daily loading of brand new toys in your van.  ;).

Come along with us as we live our lives renewed.