“Sometimes in life you have to play in pain.”
~Joel Osteen 
I’ve learned (the hard way) that you can’t stop pressing forward for every scrape, every bruise, every hurt ankle. Yes you may slow down a bit but you have to keep moving or you will never get to where it is you are going. I hadn’t realized until recently that last year when I just stopped moving and gave up it was as if I was saying that I don’t want to play the game anymore and made myself a bench warmer.
I let all the pain I was feeling and the emotional heaviness stop me cold in my tracks. At the time I would’ve never admitted to myself that I was doing that but now I am ready to get back in there. I am ready to play this game whether I am hurt or not, whether I go along limping or skipping, whether I have to cry through the process or smile through it. One thing is for sure, I am not a bench warmer. I don’t enjoy watching as things happen right in front of me and even more so I hate when something is happening that I know I am supposed to be a part of and I’m not.
Even when you have those moments where you need to take a five minute rest and collect your thoughts, prepare your next move in your head first, you still have to have the mindset that this is just a break and not a complete stand still. Watching other people accomplish the things that you want to achieve is what happens when you take too long of a break in your journey. You have to keep moving, you have to press on and get off of the bench.
Don’t get me wrong, bench warmers are important. There is always a need for the second string players and they have their purpose but if you know that you are not one, if you know that you belong in that starting position, then don’t sit on that bench and watch while someone else takes the spot that is yours. Trust me, you will hate every second of seeing someone else live the life that should be yours. So if you are over there sitting on that bench and you know you are supposed to be starting, then now (not tomorrow, and not a week from now) is the time to take your position back. It was your position all along, claim it!
Jimmetta Carpenter
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Great inspiration!