I have this tiny little book that I got in the mail a few years back after donating to a ministry. It’s just a few pages long but its packed with all the right stuff… like this:

” I know sometimes it’s hard to keep it moving
if you can’t see your progress
When you’ve lost your perspective
When the pain has pushed you past your breaking point
But this is no time to tap out, this is no time to back down,
this is no time to turn around
Because the end of yourself is the beginning of Him
The end of your strength is the beginning of His
So fix your focus, WAKE YOUR COURAGE, stir your confidence,
AND DO IT AGAIN.”
Steven Furtick

I love reading these words out loud because it’s impossible to read them out loud and not feel FIRED UP!.. I dare you, try it.. it’s like all of a sudden you start reading with authority and you are ready to take back control over the places in your life that you are dissatisfied with.

By the way.. when are you going to take back the places of your life that disgust you?

Maybe you’re a stay at home mama who feels like she is JUST a stay at home mama who never took her shot.. if that is not fulfilling the calling on your heart, how long before you do things differently?

Maybe you’re on a fitness journey and you’ve reached some goals but have still come up short on the health goals you’ve been talking about for 10 + years.. how long before you’re sick enough of not having abs that you change what you’re putting into your body?

Maybe you backslid from where you worked so hard to be.. what is it going to take to get your fight back..how frustrated do you have to get before you stop letting fear shove you around and call the shots?

I think we have all found ourselves on the wrong side of our goals.. where not only are we not working on our goals but we are actually working against them.
I wish someone had told my anxious heart 20 years ago that not making a decision IS A DECISION.

So many of us think that we are playing it safe by not chasing those goals.. yet. So many of us think that we are safe from failure if we choose to start next Monday, next month or even next year, when in fact we have just set up camp in the middle of an indecision. I hear women every day make excuses (and trust me I am not judging because these excuses also frequent my thought life) we don’t call them excuses because we don’t want to sound “judgy” or insensitive but the truth is these are flat out lies that we have become comfortable telling ourselves and others to avoid further discomfort.

Lies like:

I use to be fit but then I had kids and now I just CAN’T lose this baby weight so I need to just learn to be fine with how I look.

I tried to start a home based business before and it didn’t work for me because I’m just not like “her.”

I can’t wake up early and workout because I tried before and never made it on time to the classes so I wasted my money and quit.

We don’t have enough money to go on family vacations but that’s okay we get by.

Hear my heart when I say:

Hating your body is NOT OKAY.

Being too scared to try something new when what you’re doing is not working is NOT OKAY.

Quitting on yourself, your goals and on your family is NOT OKAY.

Drowning in debt and taking your families dreams down with you is NOT OKAY!

A friend over 5 years ago said something to me that stopped me in my tracks and made me think thoughts I had NEVER had before. I came to her with this confession “I am overweight and nothing I’ve done has worked for me, I am terrified that I will never lose the weight and always fight this battle.”
Her response: “WHO said you couldn’t lose this weight? Who told you that you would always be overweight and who told you that life couldn’t be different?”

I sat in silence until I realized that while over the years people had made comments about my physique LITERALLY no one had ever said to me “You can’t lose the weight.”.. no one besides myself, every single day..out loud & in my thoughts.

This made me wake up and realize that the ONLY reason I couldn’t lose the weight was because I was too busy walking around mentally beating myself up to get up and do what needed to be done. Now I’m not trying to gloss over the fact that losing weight, starting something new and paying off debt are all HARD.

but waking up and hating how you look is HARD.

Checking your bank account before you buy groceries and making decisions about what you can and can’t put in your cart is HARD.

Telling your babies you can’t go see Cinderella’s castle is HARD.

YOU HAVE TO CHOOSE YOUR HARD.

The truth is not making a decision to workout, save money, take a risk, start a business, lose the weight, take the chance IS A DECISION because the time passes whether or not you do what you said you wanted to do.

If you’re reading this and feeling slightly attacked and moderately uncomfortable.. good.
That means that somewhere in you there is still a little fight. There’s a part of you begging to get back in the game and try again. So what if this is not your second rodeo but in fact you’re a seasoned veteran and it’s closer to the 20th time you have decided to change things. If I told you that it would take you 50 times of starting again but after that YOU WOULD FIND COMPLETE VICTORY would you try again?? I Hope so and if you’re answer was no then you better go back to the mountain you’re trying to move and remember WHY you want it moved so badly in the first place.

If you are desperately wanting to lose baby weight you better sit down and decide why you’re struggling and WHY you want to lose weight in the first place because as someone who has moved this mountain more than once I can promise you that a superficial desire may take you to a place that only passion can keep you.

You have to decide (whatever it is for you) that you want it more than you want the comfort you are currently living in. This has been true in my life in so many areas currently our “mountain” is infertility. I can promise you if you are just getting a glimpse into our story that we have not always been mountain movers.. there have been seasons of sitting at the bottom of the mountain sobbing that it exists in the first place. Seasons of trying to pretend we didn’t even care there was a mountain at all, in fact we couldn’t be bothered less. Seasons of absolute despair as we watched the mountain multiply. This season? We have laced up our hiking boots, we have decided to get to work, we have decided hearts.

after all mountains have been known to move.

“Jesus answered,”Because your faith is too small. I tell you the truth, if your faith is as big as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain move from here to there, and it will move. All things will be possible for you.”
Matthew 17:20

I think it’s absolutely necessary to mention that a mustard seed is roughly 1 to 2 MILLIMETERS big. That is like the speck of a speck. You can do this.. you can move this mountain you just need 1 millimeter of belief.

“BREATHE AGAIN.
HOPE AGAIN.
TRUST AGAIN.
GIVE AGAIN.
CHANGE AGAIN.
EXPECT AGAIN.
FIGHT AGAIN
RISE AGAIN
right here, right now
In the name of JESUS
I WILL LIVE AGAIN.”
-Steven Furtick
“Do it Again”

See ya next week Friends,
Cara