God’s grass is greener

I’ll preface it to say I can’t take credit for this title and lesson but it was one that a friend reminded me of. 

It is so much easier to tell yourself to trust God with His plans and His timing in your life when you are 25 or 27. It’s a heck of a lot harder to remind yourself to trust Him when you get older. Your dreams that are bigger feel more out of reach, your body is getting older, you have more responsibilities in life and you feel like a small person trapped in a sand timer watching the grains of time quickly dropping down like raindrops. 

In enters, spiralling. I’m a failure. I’m not good enough to succeed. I will never be where so and so is at in life. I’m getting old and ugly. I don’t know where I’m headed because I have so many things I want to do and other people do because they can just settle on one dream….and the thoughts keep coming and you’re left in despair singing, “It’s me, hi, I’m the problem it’s me.”

 I was reminded recently though by a friend of something that I used to remind others of a couple years ago but had found as of lately, a lot harder to keep in mind. Again, it’s so much easier to pass on the reminder that everyone is on their own timeline when you’re in your 20’s. It’s a lot harder to tell yourself this when you’re approaching 30 or a little bit past it. However, the message remains the same. It is never too late to change something in your life. Never too late. Whether that’s starting a new hobby, changing a pattern in your life, starting a new healthy habit, or uprooting locations. 

It’s also ok if your current pace of life doesn’t look the same as everyone else’s. It’s ok. There isn’t a defined roadmap that you have to follow. God has a roadmap for everyone and each person’s is unique. Each lesson, pain, joy, challenge and gift-is carefully crafted and given to every individual person for their ultimate good and His glory. Not one is the same. And that is ok. 

There’s nearly a beauty to it if you stop and think about it. I took a pottery class back in the Fall for 2 months. And while I had visions of effortlessly creating perfectly shaped bowls, plates and mugs for family and friends. The outcome of my creations were far from it. Needless to say, my respect for potters is extremely higher than maybe it was initially. 

See, there’s a whole process to it. You have to put pressure on the clay in different ways if you want a bowl than if you want a plate. Different pressures create  different shapes. In the same way, God puts different pressures on us to shape us that will make us into who He individually created us to be. Sometimes it’s a good pressure like opportunities, blessings, talents and gifts. Other times, it’s a more uncomfortable pressure. Pressures of loss, pain, change and trials to work through. Yet He uses both to uniquely shape us into who He made us to be as individuals. 

So maybe you aren’t where you thought you’d be by now, maybe you think it’s too late to try something new or change something in your life you want to change or maybe you have dreams and passions but don’t really see a straight career path you want to follow. It’s never too late and you don’t have to follow the same path as someone else. Keep your eyes on God, embrace and make the most of what you can and take the steps you want to no matter how small. Open your eyes to how He’s shaping you through the things in your life He allows, let Him. His grass is much greener than ours or anyone else’s. We don’t need to compare. His plans are best. 

I’m going to close with a verse I like to keep on a post-it by my bed to remind myself of where I should fix my eyes in life. I find it especially helpful when I’m going through times of feeling like I have to have it all figured out. I hope you can find it to be an encouragement as well! :) 

“You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.”

-Isaiah 26:3

Have a great week!

Amy