What are you looking at?

One of the many beautiful things about doing life with people that you look up too is the constant inspiration and wisdom that you receive.

My friend Britany Lester is one of those people that literally everyone loves to be around. Doesn’t matter your interests or personality type, Brittany makes everyone instantly comfortable and she is so easy to connect with on a real level, quickly. That’s one of the many reasons I appreciate this wonderful person.

She recently spoke at Slate Church’s Creative team night  about a lesson she learned from her Driver’s Ed teacher, and it was so powerful.

He told her something like this— "You will go where you’re looking. If you’re looking to the left, you’ll go left, if you’re looking to the right, you’’ll go right, and if you’re looking straight ahead, you’ll go straight ahead.”

In the context of life. WOW.

Where are you looking? In life, what we focus on, is where we will end up “going”. If we are looking at the negative, that’s where we will find ourselves in life. If we are constantly dwelling on what we don’t have in life, we will get stuck there.

We have to shift our focus to LOOK at what we want in life. Focus on these things, surround yourself with these situations, and people… Then that’s where you’ll go.

Philippians 4:8 says this: Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Whatever it is you desire, whatever you want your life to look like, your day to look like— focus on that, dwell on that in faith, speak that in faith, take action in that direction, and watch it all come in place.

XOXO - Ash

All things for good.

One of my favorite promises that God gives us in His word is that when we trust in Him, He will take everything that happens in our lives and work it together for good. EVERYTHING.

“And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.” - Romans 8:28

Even the difficult things in life, God works together for our good.

A book I'm currently reading talks about the purpose of pain, or difficulty in life.

For example, if you were to put your hand on a hot stove, you would immediately retract your hand. What was it that made you REVERSE your action, and actually do something different? Instead of keeping your hand there, you take it away because of the PAIN that you felt.

Pain in all forms is our body’s most effective means of spurring to action. It’s a sign to nudge you in the direction of beneficial change.

Pain is what teaches us to pay attention when something is wrong, so we can do something about it. It’s our brain telling us that there’s a problem that’s unaddressed or unresolved. In other words, negative emotions are a call to action.

Positive emotions on the other hand are rewards that we are taking the proper action. When we feel them— enjoy it :)

Maybe a difficult situation or emotion that you are facing is spurring you to action in a new direction. Take an inventory. And most importantly know that God is working all things together for your good.

Ash XOXO

Order (not a pizza)

Most of us get great satisfaction about cleaning up, or organizing a space. We may not all enjoy the process, but once it’s completed, we feel a sense of accomplishment. We feel accomplished when things are in order.

One thing I was noticing the last time I was cleaning was the fact that I always clean the sink first, and then end up throwing things in there after wards, making it messy again, and then having to clean it again.

Or sometimes I’ll clean the floor and then end up walking over it before it’s dry. I thought, if I could just figure out the right order in cleaning the house, it would save me time, effort and frustration.

All of a sudden house cleaning was turning into a blog idea: The importance of order in life and the efficiencies and value order brings. When we do things in order, we get things accomplished with efficiency and little frustration. But when we go about life out of order, it often slows us down from reaching our goals. When we do things out of order, we end up accomplishing less, often experiencing frustration, finding that shortcuts and cut corners often mean even more effort is required in the end.

Sometimes it seems like doing things out of order may be easier or more satisfying in the moment, but in the end, sticking to the right order wins.

Take making your bed first thing in the morning.

They say making your bed first in the morning sets the tone of productivity for the rest of the day. Not making your bed, because you think you can do it later, can actually affect the way you think for the rest of the day. You may find yourself procrastinating in other areas and trying to take other short cuts.

What time are you setting your alarm? They say that waking up the exact same time every single morning, adding order to your routine can actually improve your energy and productivity throughout the entire week!

There is value in order.

Often times allowing things to play out in the right order in life, takes patience. We are a generation that wants everything yesterday. We are the microwave generation. Give it to me INSTANTLY. Skip steps so I can have it faster. But consider this analogy.

There was an aspiring photographer that was wanting to rush the development of their photos in their dark room in order to showcase them at a party where the who’s who were going to be in attendance. Developing photos in a dark room requires complete darkness and a certain amount of time. If you take those photos out into the light prematurely, they are ruined. They aren’t fully developed, they have not yet reached their potential.  Rushed to make the party and showcase their work, they rushed the development of the photos, and they were ruined.  His first impressions on those at the showcase tainted his reputation for years.

I think of this in a career sense. Wherever you are right now in your professional pursuits, look to learn as much as you can in the season and position that you are in. Develop yourself as you prepare for that next opportunity— when it comes in the right time, you can be ready to step into that increased responsibility with strength and confidence. Don’t rush things out of order. Put in the work, put in the time. .

As a baby you crawl before you walk because you are building up the muscle and balance necessary to carry out the responsibility of walking. And if you fall from crawling there’s a lot less impact than if you stand prematurely and really hurt yourself when you fall. Again, value in respecting the proper order.

I wonder where we can all add a little more order to our lives or daily routine. Or where might we be trying to skip steps, take short cuts and cut corners, when we really should be patiently doing things in the right order. Then, when we reach our goals, in the right time, in the due time, our character will have grown, and we will feel the true satisfaction of achievement having followed the right order.

A few thoughts about Order. Now Imma go ORDER a pizza. And wash the sink.

Ash

I will hurry without delay

You know you’re wrong, but to do right would make it too obvious that you were wrong.

Is this a conundrum that only I struggle with? (Read it the above line over a few times to really get what I'm saying)

So you know those moments in life when you realize you are wrong, or you’re in the wrong, or you aren’t acting the way you should, or you aren’t being who you were meant to be in a situation. You have that moment of realization, and then you think… well if I change now, it’s just going to drastically point to the contrast of how incorrect I was before. And I don’t want to be associated with that incorrectness, so maybe if I just stay even keel, no one will really realize how incorrect I was, and in a few weeks, I’ll really change my tune.

Okay example.

I remember being like 12 and something didn’t go my way, and I’d get all cranky about it. I can remember thinking in my mind, “oh no, now I have to be cranky pretty much all morning.” So it’s like I knew I was going to waste a morning in order to not openly admit I was in the wrong, and stand my ground trying to justify in some way that I could be right.

 I think it’s a bit of stubbornness? I swear I wasn’t a bad child LOL. It wasn’t only stubbornness, it was actually my complete distaste for messing up- that almost caused me to stay in that attitude. It was almost like I hoped that if I stood my ground long enough maybe I could figure out how to justify it and not be wrong. And changing my tune and acting rightly would mean completely recognizing I was previously in the wrong. And more than anything I don’t like acting wrongly. There’s a distinction I want to make here, it’s not so much the distaste in being wrong, like I have an incorrect fact or something like that, but acting wrongly, having the wrong approach or attitude, or treatment of people.  

There’s a verse in the Bible that is so challenging, but true:

I will hurry without delay to keep your commands – psalm 119:60

Wake up call to me.

It’s time to get over ourselves, at all times, and be quick to do what is right, even if it means having to recognize something was wrong.

Be quick to right our wrongs, be quick to take accountability, be quick to do good. We end up being the best version of ourselves, being happy, everything about the result is positive.

Wow. I will hurry without delay to do the right thing, to be the person I am called to be, to treat others the way they should eb treated, to take accountability, to listen, to apologize, to encourage, to give. And the list goes on.

I want you to scroll up and have another look at the image I related with this post. They are track runners. Imagine suiting up to compete in a track race with all that zeal and intention to do good, to live right, to always do the right thing. Like Racing to it. Kind of a funny visual. But I found impacting. Let’s be track runners, training, preparing, and racing, without delay, with zeal and desire to always do the right thing. Like “Oh me, me! I want to do the right thing!”

I will hurry, without delay.

Will you join me?

The Guardrail

Last weekend I was walking along a piece of wood maybe 50 inches wide thousands of feet in the air across a canyon with tree’s as high as the sky surrounding me. I could see the water rushing at the bottom, the crisp breeze against my face and the loud realization hit me that I was thousands of feet in the air on a very small walkway of wood.

Now, one thing that is missing from this depiction is that there were guardrails on either side of the wooden plank, held up by a very sturdy structure designed to hold 100 plus people at a time.

As I was walking I was thinking, it’s amazing the difference that these guardrails make. Without them, you’d never have thousands of tourists walking through. But with them, everyone is at ease, enjoying a walk above a canyon.

I would never in a million years walk that wooden plank  without the guardrails- nor would anyone unless you were Hudini. You’d simply never do it, it would be looked at as crazy. Something you probably would not survive. But with them, it’s something we are okay to do.

Immediately following that thought came this one.

In life, I feel like God is that guardrail. His spirit and protection allows us to do things we otherwise would never attempt.

Think of how crazy it would be to walk thousands of feet in the air on a piece of wood 50 inches wide.

Now think of a dream that you have that may seem equally as crazy. You have the guardrail, you have God. You can do it. Just like you would not walk the wooden plank without the guard rail, but you easily would with it – the same goes for that wild crazy dream that you have.

You have that dream for a reason—now go get it.

God's not done!

God’s not done yet.

I’m so glad that this declaration interrupted my thoughts this week. It’s so easy sometimes to think that we have to just accept some situations as they are, and be satisfied with that. It’s easy to convince ourselves that, “well… this is good enough.”  

No!

Whatever your situation is, maybe it’s the one you are on the verge of accepting as is, or giving up on totally--- God is not done. He is still working! Do not give up now.

Get up! Believe! Sprint ahead with passion and zeal knowing God is by your side accomplishing that which you can’t. God is fighting battles on our behalf, most of which we can’t even see.

That’s an interesting thought hey. At the end of our lives, I think we all will be able to see what God was doing behind the scenes our whole life long, protecting us, providing for us. He is so good. Better than we can even imagine.

God’s not done with you, with your life, with your situation.

You’re acceptance of “this is good enough” may even be the road block to “the best is yet to come” – which will you choose?

Think of 3 situations in your life where you are desperate to see God do something. Write them down. Over the next month, I want you to declare of these situations everyday—God’s not done. When you doubt, say “God’s not done” when you want to run the other way, say no,  “God’s not done.”

I wonder how much we actually miss out on when we try to “get out early” – it’s when we persevere even when we face pressure from all sides that we are actually formed, we grow in character and strength, and we get to see the mighty acts of God, doing only what He can do. If we just use the get out of jail free card every time something is hard or is less than perfect, trying to just keep everything in our own strength – we will never see God do the miraculous if we’re never in situations where we need the miraculous. The miraculous is needed in situations when we can’t, when we see no way, when we can’t do it on our own – and that’s when we see GOD MOVE. We see God be GOD! We see Him do what He does best! The MIRACULOUS, the impossible to man – our faith grows and builds and so does the faith of others in the situation!

Trust! Hang out!

God’s not DONE!

Just START!

“People only got where they are from STARTING where they WERE.”
- Luke Boettger

You ever meet people and think, HOW did they get where they are, HOW did they accomplish so much. And then your next thought is, “I WANT THAT TOO.”

Well I can guarantee one thing. They only got where they are with what they have, by simply STARTING where they WERE with whatever they HAD. There was a day in time when they were probably right where you are thinking just what your thinking— but they STARTED. And that’s what propelled them to where they are today.

What is the dream, project, initiative, goal, character growth, that you’re after? Simply start. But how? Well, try making a list of practical tasks that would get you closer to the goal. And knock them off one by one!

Before a painter paints, he needs to buy the brushes, clear a space, ensure there’s good lighting, maybe do a few rough drafts— you know the drill.

I’d love to hear about what you’re going to #START today!

One day, or day one — you decide.

Ash

Principals

If you’re like me at all, you probably find yourself writing out goals, intentions, to-do lists etc… on the regular. All of which I think are good things, but have you noticed how often they eb and flow and change?

Recently, I’ve been reading a book on knowing your principals... it’s called PRINCIPALS by Ray Dalio. He speaks of principals as values or beliefs by which you live by despite the situation season or circumstance, they remain constant— acting like as solid foundation.

Here were two statements within that book that I have found very thought provoking.

1) Don’t confuse what you wish were true with what is really true.

I think this statement really challenges the optimist. While I think optimism is amazing and I encourage it, it’s also important to hold in balance what is actually reality. If we try and work ourselves into thinking things are one way, when they aren’t, when those situations start failing to meet our expectations, we set ourselves up for disappointment and can sometimes end up in a situation we never really wanted, but we chose because we convinced ourselves it was something it wasn’t. (I hope that’s not too hard to follow.) At least when we can recognize things for what they are, we can then work to see change, or perhaps sometimes realize we may need to choose something else before we invest so much into an “orange” that’s never going to be an “apple”.

2) Don’t overweight first order consequences relative to second and third order ones.

This is another challenging one. We often see, especially in our millennial generation, the first order consequence of our decisions and choices. And these first order consequences either encourage us to make the decision or to NOT make the decision.

Should I work out?
1st order consequence: I have to expend a lot of energy and I will be sore.
3rd order consequence: Feel better about oneself, and increase health mentally and physically.

Because of the 1st order consequence, what we REALLY want (which is the 3rd order consequence) is derailed by the distraction of the first. It’s important as we evaluate our decisions that our desires won’t always line up with our goals, but sometimes might even distract from our goals.

Should I order this sweater online because it’s so cute even though I have 200?

1st order consequence: I’ll have a new sweater to wear to Thanksgiving dinner!
3rd order consequence: Darn, I should have used that money somewhere else and now I have no room for anything anymore and feel disorganized.

I am taking on the challenge to weigh out 1st, 2nd, and 3rd order consequences in my decision making, and I encourage you to try it too.

Anyhow, some things I’m learning along the way. Thought I’d share :)

- Ash