Daily Challenge: One Thing I Love About Myself

Today is day two of the daily challenge of writing about one thing I love about myself. One thing I love about myself is my ability to empathize with others. Empathy isn't to be confused with sympathy. Sympathy is when you feel pity for someone. Empathy means I feel for other people who have walked similar paths to me.

I empathize with people who have had multiple hospital stays.
I empathize with people with disabilities.
I empathize with people in wheelchairs.
I empathize with people who deal with depression and anxiety.
I empathize with people and families who have gone through divorce.

 My heart goes out to them because I've been there. I know the struggle. Because of that, I try to offer encouragement and just listen.

Too many people talk these days. They talk and talk, telling everything they know. People rarely take the time to listen. And even more rare, people hardly ever listen to understand.

I want to listen to understand so I can grow as a person. I don't want to live life in a bubble.

What's one thing you love about yourself?

Daily Challenge: One Thing I Love About Myself

I'm finishing up the Live Original devotional book by Sadie Robertson. The one I read today said, "How are you going to love who God made you to be this week?'

I'm going to find one thing I love about myself each day. I think I will write about it here each day for a week.

One thing I love about myself is my determination. Some people even say I have a gift of determination. One thing is for sure. I don't know where I'd be if I wasn't determined.

I know I would still be bedbound and sick. Without determination, I wouldn't have graduated high school, let alone college.

Without determination, I wouldn't have overcome my many surgeries and seasons of physical therapy. Wthout determination, I'd be lost. I would have no motivation to try and work harder. Without determination, I would have settled for status quo living, never challeging myself or the limitations others tried to put on me.

I have gone through many trials with an unflinching determination. The things that were meant to break me only made me stronger. I have been through the fire, but instead of letting it consume me, it has purified me. It has given me clearer vision and a desire to help others. The fire has shaped my story. It has molded me into the person I am today.

My determination to not quit has only intensified the more I've endured. Like one of my surgeons said, "Most people who have gone through what you have would have already given up."

I'm not most people. What's one thing you love about yourself today?

Anchored

Take me back to the place of awe and wonder
Take me back to the place where I wasn't jaded
I wasn't cynical about places or people

Take me back to the place where I was free
Take me back to the time when all was right in the world

I am not looking for an anchor in a specific place
I am searching for the anchor within myself

Take me back to the time I was rooted and grounded
Where I wasn't swayed by every whisper or gesture

Take me back to a place of confidence
Take me into myself

Let me behold my true self
Let me see a reflection of purity

Not a mucky, blurry reality
Take me within

Help me block out the noise
Help me quiet my mind
And still my soul

And the echoes
Let the only echo I hear be one of truth

Take me back for a moment in time
Move me forward
Launch me forth as I regain myself

As I find my footing
And celebrate my voice

A website talked about the deeper meaning of an anchor which says, "It is a symbol demonstrating that a person is in tune with themselves and hold on to the values they believe in.

The Strength Within

When all the outside forces are pulling you in a million directions
Testing your patience and causing frustration

Day after day the pain lingers like an unwelcome visitor
I start to feel like a stranger in my own skin

But somewhere deep inside
I summon the strength within

The strength that says I won't stop
The strength that says I have too much too give
Don't silence me
Don't quit

Don't give into the voices that say "This is just the way it is. This is your reality now deal."

There's a fire deep in my bones
A knowing that this isn't how the story ends
I control the narrative

Not my body
Not my emotions

They flucuate like a rollercoaster
I get mad
I get tired

Sometimes I can barely move

Still I rise
Moment after moment
I refuse to let pain control me

I've seen God's hand in my life many times before
He's raised me up before and He's doing it again

Things may be really hard right now
But that just means the victory will be so much sweeter

Tendons pulling in
I pull back

I square my shoulders and dig my heels in
Because I control the narrative
Using the strength within

Self-Reflection

Today has been a day of self-reflection. After listening to some leadership teaching, I've given a lot of thought to what Dr. Myles Munroe said. He has a way of making you think. He has a way of speaking to not only who you are right now, but who you COULD be.

He gave the illustration of a fruit tree. We all know every tree starts out as a seed. He said, "Your seed is the idea or ideas that just won't go away."

I've had two seeds burning in me for many years. Writing a book about my life and taking my magazine I developed in college and turning it into a business.

Some questions I've asked myself today are:

What kind of fruit am I offering to others right now?
What kind of fruit COULD I be offering?

You see I don't want to die with potential left inside me. I don't want my gifts to go unused. I don't want to work just to have something to do. I know I was made for more.

My biggest competition isn't with other people or even their ideas. My biggest competition is myself. I have got to start believing in me and who God created me to be.

A few weeks ago, I was feeling very awkward because no one sat at my table AGAIN. This has happened throughout my life. I don't know why. Someone once told me I was like a magnet: I either draw people to me or I repel them.

These people didn't know me and yet they still stayed away. I didn't understand. I cried about it some until God asked me one question. He said, "Why try to fit in when you were born to stand out?"

Okay, okay! I get it. I'm going to be me regardless if I'm surrounded by throngs of people or none at all.

Others have told my mom, "There's so much in Madison." Maybe I don't see it. I've always had a yearning for something deeper.

Maybe I'm not bearing the "fruit" people need because I'm afraid of failing. I've had a fear that I wouldn't be able to reproduce my magazine as good as I did the first time. I had tried before and no one was interested in being featured, but maybe now is the time. Maybe this is MY season. I'll never know until I take that first step. I told God tonight April 30, 2019 that I am not praying for success. I am praying for the grace to be obedient.

Where Are You?

What happened to the girl who hung upside down on the monkey bars while wearing AFOs?
What happened to the girl who laughed every time she fell down?

I know that girl is in there somewhere
She may have been buried by pain
As she faced setback after setback
And too many changes to count

But today is a new season
I am not there anymore

Where is that firecracker?
Where is that sassy girl?

Don't hide anymore.
I need you.
I need my whole self, not just pieces.

_______________________________________________

Lately, I've had to fight to keep my joy

As I was walking, my body felt like it was being pulled in a million directions
Every step, left right. Left right.

The only way I can describe it is I felt like a puppet on a string
Each time I took a step, I had to fight my body to get it to go where I wanted it to go

SLOW PROGRESS IS PROGRESS, MADISON!

I'm writing this to remember today. I'm reminding myself, "Tough times don't last. Tough people do."

You Can't Define Me

“You’re going to be the next Joyce Meyer.”

“You remind me of Kathryn Kuhlman.”

“You need to be a teacher.”

“I see you painting.”

These are all things I’ve heard throughout my life.  If you notice, all of these statements have one thing in common: They are what other people see for my life. Everyone has an opinion on what they think you should be doing.

The problem with this is NONE of these are what God says about me. We’ve been talking about identity at Rejuvenate Church and who we are in Jesus. 

I had a conversation with God a few days ago. In the Bible, Ishamel was born before Isaac, the child God had promised Moses. Ishmael was born because Moses’ wife got tired of waiting for the child God promised she would have. I refuse to settle for a counterfeit dream! This is a dream that someone else has for me.

I refuse to fit in a box that someone else thinks I should be in. Very few times has anyone said, “I see Madison. Be you! That is enough.”

I’m not meant to be the next great anyone. God has a purpose for me. I’m meant to be the greatest version of MYSELF, and you are, too!