I was laying out my clothes the night before, spurs on my boots, jeans, socks, and long sleeve shirt. Coffee was set for the 4 a.m. alarm, the trailer hooked and ready, horses in the pen. I pulled the covers up to my cheeks while my stomach churned within. I lay in anxious imaginations. Would I be good help? Would my horse buck me off? Would I get lost in the 20,000 acre pasture? Would I be behind in the drive….. or worse, be ahead and starring back at the crew in awkward embarrassment? My thoughts overwhelmed me as I try to force sleep hour after hour. The snores of my man, just a reminder of what I wish I was doing. Why didn’t he feel anxious? Why was he not tossing and turning? How does he do that? Not fair God!…Not fair! I want to not care….I want to wake up lookin’ like Doris Day, not like someone took a dump on my day!
This is what I felt the first time I went with my husband and boys to day work. If you’re human, you’ve probably felt this way at one point in your life. Fear is a helpful indicator of danger. It warns us when things aren’t quite right. It tells us that we shouldn’t drive through that deep water on the road. It warns us…… that dog bites! It tells us not to go day work with your husband and boys because instead of everyone looking for cattle, they will be looking for you. But it can also paralyze us from fulfilling our purpose. It tells us we aren’t good enough, it says you’ll never make it. It keeps us up at night, ruins our confidence, and makes us compare ourselves to others. It’s the voice that says, “Everyone will laugh!”…so why try?
But what if they do? Laugh I mean. Would that really be so bad if you at least tried. Would it be so bad to be ahead in the drive, if you noticed and quickly got outta the way. Would it be so bad that your stomach churn and you lose a little sleep, isn’t that better than sleeping your life away? If the…………….. “well, I’ve never done that before” The….tomorrows, or next week, or next year!” “The when I’s” and “If only’s”, “I’m too old, too young,” “ too whatever’s”……are keeping you from at least trying something, even something that someday you might kinda like, or love, or that you’re actually good at. What if something that really scared you became your life’s calling? And if you knew it before hand, wouldn’t you jump at the chance?
Here’s 4 Things That Can Stop Us From Fulfilling Our Purpose:
- We don’t want to be out of control. Let’s face it our imaginations our wild. They’re not only wild, but they can be wildly out of control. They have us laying in a ditch, divorced, and broke. They imagine the worst case scenario. While we’d like to think we are the only ones with wild imaginations, sometimes the guy next to us is thinking the same thing. But here’s the truth…we can’t control everything that will happen, but we can control those wild things that try to make camp in our minds.
- We don’t want to be embarrassed. Why do we hate embarrassment so much? Because embarrassment points out imperfections. Sure, nobody want to be the girl with toilet paper hanging out of her pants or the guy with the booger in his nose. Oh those moments….the moments we want to disappear, hide, change our name, our address, our hair color! But you know what embarrassment does to us every time? It humbles us. It reminds us that we slip up, get in a hurry, forget things, assumes things. The truth……….humility is the divine reminder that we are, nor will never be,…….. perfect.
- We don’t like ugly……ugly practice. Perfection is all around us. We long for it, we spend endless hours trying to achieve it. We even dream about it and spend lots of money on it. But what happens before perfection? Ugly practice! Yep! It’s bouncing in the saddle, lost my stirrup, lost my rope, don’t know what the heck I’m doing practice. It’s the stuff we’d rather not let anyone see. The truth…….. unless you were playing Beethoven at three, you and I have the work ahead of practice.
- New things scare us (unless it’s new shiny things). Rephrase…New things that make us want to pee our pants, scare us! Sometimes we are afraid of the unknown. The simple fact that we haven’t done something before can actually scare us out of doing it. The “unknown” of opening a new business, a move, or even a new position at work can cause us to stay in the familiar routine. The familiar routine is comfortable to us, so why be uncomfortable? The truth…….unless we step out and try new things, we will never know.
Fear, yeah, that’s normal. I hope it warns us when we need it but I pray it doesn’t stop us when it comes to fulfilling our God given purpose!
“The purposes of a person’s heart are deep waters, but one who has insight draws them out” (Proverbs 20:5).
Read more: http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/7-important-bible-verses-about-purpose/#ixzz40X9NjTcZ
What has stopped you from fulfilling your purpose? I love hearing from you……thecowboypastorswife
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