How do I pick up where I left off? That has been my question for the last few months. I thought it should be easy, at least easier to capture all the feelings and thoughts of my experiences in endurance to be a helping hand and of cheerful countenance, to feed words of encouragement to others and begin again; to lift you up, to lift myself up but the words became hollow for me. The world was drowning in grief and sorrow and I was drowning in it, too. Just treading water while trying to stay afloat, long enough to reach the shore.
The shore was supposed to help you feel normal ~ though we did drift slowly back to shore it was unrecognizable and no one was the same. The trenches without dirt were filled with exhaustion, tears, aches and pains, along with heartaches and sometimes to much anger. And all you could do was keep moving and encourage others to do the same. Move. Just move and breathe, eventually, all this would end.
Trusting God was easy in my heart but not ON my heart nor in my mind. No one heard the bells that tolled the way I did, and I shed to many tears.
Being lifted by a Savior who is a more forgiving friend and who is still there for me, life is real again, full of hope with new steppingstones to be bring me back on my way.
To Lift Up really starts with you. You need to lift yourself first before you can lift anybody else, not your friends or family and not even the world. You do need strength – there is no doubt about it – and you can’t really get it from others. There are light posts. Some are beacons of goodness; some are distress signals and unless you have been fortified inside you may not know which it is – too often they are one in the same.
So yes – please look inward – seek your internal self-reliance plan and you will be ready to seek and find, search and rescue as you are inspired by him in your steps. There will be a lot of steps, a lot of stairs and hills and mountains. And you will need to be ready to go up and down them a million times knowing everyone is watching you. And as they watch, they will be counting on you.
Strength is both internal and external and you must work on both. Complacency is the sickness that will hold you back and keep you stagnant ~ even fearful. There can be none of that. Don’t be bitten. Don’t be bitten with fear. That is what will kill you. Remember faith is it’s opposite and if you are prepared you need not fear. The Savior – he is a real person, and he is your internal fortification. It is time to fortify ourselves through him and with him. Nothing else will matter.
Picking up where you left off!
- Lift Yourself First
- Find Your Strength
- Look For Light Posts
- Seek your Internal Self-Reliance Plan
- Let Go of Complacency and Fear
- Get Prepared and Fortify Yourself with the Savior
