Baby Steps

Does anyone remember the 1991 movie, "What About Bob?" Richard Dreyfuss is a psychiatrist, who writes a book, and helps his patient, Bill Murry, through a process called, "Baby Steps." The idea is simple. Focus on one small thing at a time to achieve small goals which will build to achieving larger goals. It seems simple enough right but it's much harder to actually do. Recently I was considering this whole idea in reverse. When we have goals or habits we do not just one day fall away from them 100%. We make small choices little by little that then leave us far from our desired point. Take gaining weight for example. You do not wake up one morning suddenly 50 lbs overweight. Small choices across a broad period of time have left you far from your desired goal. Now let's consider this with regard to spiritual habits. We can be Christian and not hear the voice of God and feel very far away from His presence.

When God began, in Genesis with Adam and Eve He walked and talked with them in a close personal way. After sin entered the world Baby Step by Baby Step this close personal intimacy with God eroded. In Abraham's time, God still appeared and talked to him. By the time we get to Exodus, we see the presence of God becoming a feared distant unknown. He leads the Israelites by a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire. Gone were the days of walking and talking with God in the cool of the Garden of Eden. As more time went on the personal distance between God and man increased. Note God had not gone anywhere but the relationship was no longer personal. Only designated prophets and judges had the privilege of the presence of God. Finally, God is rejected, a king is demanded, and a substitute is preferred over the real thing. Baby Step by Baby Step the relationship breaks down till is it relegated to impersonal laws and traditions. God's desire for a close personal relationship never changed we stepped further and further away.

“...a substitute is preferred over the real thing.”

If you have been a follower of Christ for any length of time you will recognize that this same process can take place in our lives. Prayer, Bible reading, and daily devotions can become a habit instead of a relationship. You used to jump out of bed, get up early, and spend time with the Lord and now you find it gets brushed off by the duties of life. You want to hear God speak, but the interruptions of children and the distractions of phone notifications constantly bombard you.

Life happens! Baby Step by Baby Step you get pulled from the most important life-giving relationship. The only way you can get back what you desire is by taking Baby Steps. Don't let the guilt of who you used to be stop you from moving forward today. Don't let comparison of what your time with God used to look like hinder you from having it today in the midst of doing life.

Find moments and make them matter!

God's can show up and meet you with his presence anywhere...

....While nursing a little one - whisper to God your heart

....While waiting at sports practice - put down the phone and read His Word

...While cleaning the house - put on worship music and dance like David

...While Commuting to Work, Working out, Taking a walk, Making Dinner

Take Baby Steps back into His presence. Take Baby Steps toward your goals.

Sown NOT Thrown

Mark 4:30-32

Then He said, “To what shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or with what parable shall we picture it? It is like a mustard seed which, when it is sown on the ground, is smaller than all the seeds on earth; but when it is sown, it grows up and becomes greater than all herbs, and shoots out large branches, so that the birds of the air may nest under its shade.”

This passage is giving us a picture of the kingdom of God, but today I would like to compare it to the Motherhood. Motherhood is an aspect of the kingdom of God. We all start in life as a little mustard seed.

In the first season of life, we are young and single, these are days of independence, adventure, and freedom. Doing whatever we want whenever we want. For some these days are filled with great happiness and others with great sadness. However, good or bad we grow. Can I implore you to make these days count. Let every opportunity and year add value to your life. Make good decisions, invest in your life, serve others, build a foundation that will last.

As we age and enter the second seasons, we experience the process of “being thrown to the ground.” The early days of motherhood from pregnancy forward can feel like a time when you get thrown to the ground. Life as you know it changes. Your body is no longer your own, you have to share. Your schedule, bedtime, bathroom time and meal times all have intrusions and demands. Your career has to share or take sacrifices you never anticipated. I remember most days as a young mom I felt like I had been thrown to the ground. These days are days of humility. We can willing yield to this beautiful process and kneel at the throne of grace or fight in our own strength. I say, yield to pouring our lives out for someone else in ways we never imaged. Learning to serve selflessly. Learning to choose carefully how we spend our time and what we value most. Being sown on the ground is a necessary step to flourishing. It is an inescapable step of growth. There is no shortcut or way around it. It is here that you die to yourself, you let your dreams go, you become desperate for God and God alone. His presence becomes the only thing that will sustain you. It is a place of brokenness where you realize your strength comes from the Lord. Anything you are going to do or become in the world you can not do apart from Him and His grace.

One day you look up from the diapers, the stretched out clothing of nursing, the gooey hands and left standing there is a woman God can use. The world does not acknowledge her beauty. There are a few extra rolls in the midsection, stretch marks, and crows feet. There is a career that has died or survived on a shoestring. An education that has become obsolete, unfinished or unused. And yes you are a hot mess but a hot mess God can use. You are not one of the women that the world idolizes. One who is airbrushed, spandex up, sucked, nipped and tucked. You are a beautiful seed. You have been sown on the ground of life and are for ready and capable of growth beyond your wildest dreams.

“I have a mustard seed and I am not afraid to use it.”

Please note that the word used in the scripture is sown not thrown. You are not throwing away your life just because you get thrown up on multiple times a day. You are not throwing away your career or education because the last book you read was the “Little Engine that Could.” You are sowing not throwing. You are building layer upon layer into the little lives you care for. I have had moments of deep revelation over children books and movies. God sees right where you are and can meet you and speak to you through any medium. Yes, even Veggie Tales! He is El Elon the God who sees. Hagar was a young desperate mother and God saw her pain, isolation, and struggle. He met her right where she was at.

Before kids, I had great daily spiritual discipline. I read my bible daily, prayed for an hour and fasted somewhat regularly. Its been 13 years and I am just now started to figure out a new normal. I had to give in and count reading the “Preschool Bible,” with my son, while teaching him to read, as my daily bible reading. Or memorizing AWANA scripture with my kids as my memory disciple. I used what I had and the spirit of God was faithful to show up. I remember crying while reading the Velveting Rabbit with my boys as a revelation of “becoming” became very real for me. I received one of the strongest Rhema words for the next major season of my life while helping my daughter prepare a presentation for her class. It's in these moments that God takes our humble hearts and breaths his grace and fulfillment on our life.

The third season in this passage is when the seed has grown. It becomes greater than all the herbs and provides for others around it. I'll be honest, I am not sure I have achieved this status in my life. But I have witnessed and been mentored by women who have reached this place. It's a place of maturity. We are no longer surviving all that life throws at us we are thriving. Our lives become a haven for others. Our age, life experiences and perspectives keep us from being shaken. We are steadfast and strong.

I applaud the women in the workplace and women who pioneer opportunities for all of us. But today I applaud the women in the trenches with the little ones. What you do is unseen, unlovely, unrewarded and the unpopular. I would argue that what you do is the most important job in the world. It is not just for them, the kids, it's for you. The boot camp of motherhood produces strong, resourceful and insightful women. 

Meaning in the Mundane

Are you an Average person who wants to live an Extraordinary Life? Find Meaning in the Mundane. I know that doesn’t sound exciting but Meaning in the Mundane is where you will find some of the most extraordinary moments of life. Mundane by definition is characterized as practical, ordinary, or commonplace. Tasks that are mundane never seem extraordinary at the time you are doing them. Seasons that are mundane never seem to be extraordinary when you are walking through them. How does mundane become extraordinary? Let me explain.

Let’s look at a financial example to explain this principle. When you save money and you start early in life you enjoy the benefits of compounding interest. Compounding interest rewards your minuscule monthly savings with a massive payout in the end. Compounding interest does the hard work to get you the gains you need. Once you have made the deposit it continues to grow,. If done correctly the payout at retirement is larger than any amount you could have saved for in a lump sum. The mundane task of saving means you have an enjoyable retirement

How about a mom example. You have a baby. They are cute, cuddly and poop a lot. For years, day and night you change their diapers, wipe their too-shies and get peed on as a reward. It's a dirty mundane task but someone has to do it. Then one day it’s time to potty train. You read the potty training book. You purchase stickers, treats, and fancy “big kid” underwear as incentives. You read books to your kids about pooping in the potty! All of this is mundane. Last time I checked there are no awards for moms potty training their children. Yet it is an incredibly important skill. Without it, the world would be a stinky mess! The day arrives and you start the process of training. There is poop, pee, laundry, tears and laughter. Asking every 2 min, “Do you have to go potty?” Sitting on the potty with no results? Finally, it happens your kid goes poop in the potty. Your mundane process has yield a result that every mother agrees is one of the hardest earned rewards. Mundane become extraordinary. During the mundane process of potty training my kids it was not fun. It was downright gross! But now I look back and laugh, those moments are priceless. I am glad I was present for them.

Moments such as these fill my memories. I can say that early motherhood was a joyful time and my children had a happy childhood.

“When I fulfill the daily will of God I will not miss the specific will of God.”

What tasks in your life are mundane. What do you have to do every day? Make a list! Take a moment to reflect on how those mundane tasks lead to significant forward progress. Those commonplace tasks might be laying the foundation for something extraordinary. In the future when my kids are walking in the greatest moment of their destiny, I am going to remind them that I potty trained them. Without me, they would still be in diapers!

Finishing is Possible

God finishes things, and so can I. If you're like me, you always have a to-do list. I've used the Reminder app on my phone. I've used apps such as Evernote and Asana, and in the end, I seem to go back to an old pen and paper format. Keeping a list nearby is a must and adding to it as I remember what I need to do. Each week, I regroup. I move items forward onto a new clean list, and some items I've been moving forward for almost a year. I get satisfaction from crossing items off my list. For every item I cross off, I swear five more new ones hit the list.

I'm always driven to try and finish this list. I've finally realized it just ain't going to happen. One day when I was overwhelmed, God spoke to me and said, "Paige, I finish things. Why can't you?" Boom! It hit me. I began to meditate on this idea. God finished creation. At some point in the process, over the course of six days of creation, he said, "This'll do. I'm done." I don't know, maybe he had more he wanted to create. Different creatures, different plants, but he was done. He stopped, and he rested. God doesn't ask me to do anything he hasn't shown me how to do. God's not asking me to work endlessly and tirelessly without resting.

“Finished Last” will always be better than...
”Did Not Finish” which always trumps...
”Did Not Start”

God wants me to enjoy the satisfaction of completion. He wants us to experience fulfillment in finishing. Yes, there are many processes in life that will never end. In my house, it's going to be laundry. Well, unless we join a nudist colony. Things like meal planning, shopping, and prep, they're going to be ongoing in life, but seasons come and go. Seasons have starts and finishes. Think about the natural seasons. Trees are not in a constant state of blooming, nor are they in a constant season of bearing fruit. There's a season of rest. There's a season of restoration. 

We fail to achieve and complete what God has called us to because we keep adding. Things are never good enough. We keep pursuing perfection, not completion. For God, completion and perfection are the same thing. Think about raising kids. Technically in the eyes of the law, at the age of 18, my job as a mom is finished. I'll still have things that I need to do to help my adult kids.  However, my job of raising my kids will be complete and a new season will begin. It certainly won't be perfect, but it will be complete. I will have to stop and rest in the fact that I did the very best job I could.

After you start a new task, a new calling or a new passion for God, there will come a time when it's done. It may not be perfect, it may not have been everything you wanted it to be. You may or may not have accomplished all that you desired to do, but when a season of completion comes, it's time for us to stop and to rest. Maybe someone else is going to come after you, pick up the unfinished task and take it to the next level. You can reach completion. You can reach a point where you can rest and say, "God, I did my best. I did all that you asked me to do." You can enter into rest knowing that his grace is sufficient.

An Average Person with an Extraordinary Life

Average. Average. It’s not even a fun word to say. It’s bland, lacks luster, and well, average. No one wants to grow up and be average. No one hangs their hopes and dreams on average. No one wants to hear that they are average. To describe something as average implies that there is nothing special, unique, or creative about it. In fact, if you say it enough times, average, average, average, I just might depress you. You might put this down and walk away to something more exciting, less average. 

Average is actually a mathematical term used as an equation to calculated “central” value. Statically average is a good thing. It is a measurement by which we can know where were stand in comparison and ideally show us how we can grow. If you can run a mile in an average of 6:45 minutes, that is a good average. Now if you are trying to beat a 1600 meter Olympic runner your average is not so great and you have a lot of work ahead of you. If you use the word "average" as an adjective, a word that describes a noun, it no longer carries that same feeling that it does when it is just a statistic. No one likes to hear they are an average employee or have average looks. When was the last time someone complimented you by saying, “Hey, you look average today!” 

““Doing Average Well in the Small Things is the Process to Becoming Extraordinary.””

We live in a society where being average is not honored! The dad who gets up every day works hard, brings home a paycheck, it present for his wife and kids, and has the average “dad bod” is no one special. He goes unnoticed and uncelebrated. Honestly, when was the last time you read a biography about an average person. Let's face it we celebrate those who stand out, those with extra special talents that shine and sparkle. Deep inside we all long for the attention and the affirmation that we matter and that we make a difference in this world. The conundrum of this dilemma is that by mathematical calculation the majority of the population must be average. Does this relegate us to a boring insignificant life? I say not at all!

All my life I have been an average person! I am not being harsh on myself or trying to garner compliments, it's just the truth. If I am honest with my self I am an average Joe. In Jr High and High School athletics, I worked hard at practice, attended special training clinics, went to camps and worked extra on the side at home. Most of the time I was on the JV team or sat on the bench. In academics, I studied twice as hard as most and did average. I graduated high school with a 3.5, and graduated college with a 3.0 - all average! Even per the Body Mass Index calculator, I am average in height and weight. However, inside this average human being is a desire to live an extraordinary life, filled with adventure, excitement, and significance. Average skills, average pay, average looks, and average intelligence does not decide the kind of a life you will have. The only average that can hold you back is an average mindset. Join me as we explore how you can be average yet live an EXTRAORDINARY LIFE.