Obstacles – Page 2

“No matter how steep the mountain – the Lord is going to climb it with you.”

~Helen Steiner Rice

I am not a stranger to struggle. I have been knocked down time and time again and even when I get back up sometimes I get knocked right back down within seconds, but I just keep on getting right back up. 2011 inparticular was a really bad year for me, quite possibly the worst I’ve had, but yet I find myself optimistic for the coming year of 2012. I heard someone earlier say that this year doesn’t feel any different than the last year but I disagree. For some reason, to me, this year feels like it will be the beginning of bigger and better things that are to come for me. Maybe it’s just the optimist in me. Maybe it’s just sheer faith in God and in the person that he created me to be.

Every time I go through something my mom constantly asks me how I can be so calm and nonchalant and not be worried about whatever it is. I tell her that I just have faith that God has got my back and that I’m not walking this journey alone as long as I am doing what he asks of me. In reality what I want to say is that I am worried (terrified really) when things start going wrong and that I am not really calm about it, deep inside I am panicking. However, I realize more and more that I have a lot more faith than even I thought I had. Of course I worry but I don’t think that I am nearly as terrified about things going wrong as I probably should be.

It’s because I have so much faith. Not only do I have an enormous amount of faith in God, but I have faith that he knows where I will end up (it is his plan after all) and just the trials and tribulations that I need to go through to get me there. Everything I come up against challenges me but it also strengthens me and obstacle by obstacle I realize that I am stronger than I ever thought I could be.

For anyone who knows me, they know that I am not the religious type, per say. I don’t go to church (although deep down I feel I probably should) but I am a very spiritual person. I don’t always get why certain struggles have to be placed on my shoulders and I admit that I get frustrated because I am that person who likes to know that everything is going be alright and hopefully that it will have a happy ending. However, because I can’t fully see what God’s plan for me is and I don’t know what will be the end result of his journey for me, I have no other choice but to walk the path that he has laid out with faith. God has already brought me through so much already, so I have to have faith that he will bring me through the rest.

My message today is for you to have faith. Even in times of struggle. Even if there is nothing that is going the way you want it to. Even if nothing that is happening to you makes sense. Even if you feel like you can’t get back up and you want to just quit. Even when you can no longer see the bigger picture for yourself. You have to have faith. We are human and we will worry but in the end you should know that God will never let you down. Until tomorrow…Have faith that you are stronger than your greatest obstacles!

Jimmetta Carpenter

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“Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.”

~Mahatma Gandhi

I am reminded every morning when I go to the gym to workout that I am a lot stronger than I think I am. Each day when I do something else that I never thought that I could do or that I said that I would never even try, it reminds me that I sometimes don’t give myself enough credit. A lot of us tend to do that in general during the course of our everyday lives. We get it in our heads that we are only as good as the limits that we set for ourselves, not realizing that we often set the bar too low and don’t give ourselves nearly as much credit as we deserve.

If we think about it, each time we reach an obstacle and find ourselves saying that we can’t handle anything else, not only do we surpass that obstacle but it builds us up stronger for the one that is sure to come after that. They say that which doesn’t kill you can only make you stronger, and while sometimes I find myself wanting to throw a certain finger up at whoever started that phrase, I find it to be very true. My struggles have not only made me stronger but made me more ambitious and determined. I feel that with each road block I face during the course of my journey I am made to be hungrier and more driven to reach my destination.

Someone at the gym told me that I have been coming to the gym lately with a new drive and as if I was on a mission for the year 2012. I am on a mission. I plan on setting that bar increasingly higher for myself and raising my own expectations right along with it. I am strong enough to achieve anything I desire despite the struggles I have to face along the way. I am going to stop counting myself out before I even make it to the starting line and start giving myself the credit that I deserve. Until tomorrow…Ask yourself if you are giving yourself enough credit?