Be Encouraged & Reflect

So last week the kids & I spent most of the week going through their closets, drawers, papers & trinkety stuff they had stashed to save. It took a lot of time to get through 3 kids worth of stuff and sometimes its really hard to make the decision to get rid of special things that we think are dear to us.  I know I struggle with this sometimes but try to detach myself from the object if it isn't needed & I am trying to teach my kids the same thing.  The items that we place value on are usually more about the memories that we hold dear to us rather than the object itself.  The point is, I had to spend so much time in the bedrooms that not much else got done around the house, which made me feel out of control because so much was out of place which led to me feel discouraged.  And to top it off, my kids kept fighting with each other.  I posted about how frustrated I was & I want to thank everyone for the encouraging words.  What I realized was that sometimes we need to take a step back.  We need to take in as much encouragement as we can. Sometimes it comes from a great quote, reading the Bible or another good book, listening to those that have been through the same thing you are facing, or some other way.  Once we have that encouragement, we have a better chance of reflecting or evaluating the situation a little better.  We all have issues we deal with, your issue might not be dealing with kids that keep arguing & a house that is messy, it might have to do with a medical issue, or something you thought you had mastered only to have taken a step or two backwards...  I'll stop there because that list could go on for pages & pages. My point is, we are all a work in progress. We need to take time to reflect on what we have already accomplished and reevaluate things to see where we need to head.  Make a plan & head in that direction. There will be bumps along the way but we have to keep getting up, brushing ourselves off and moving toward the goal by following the plan that we have laid out.  If you want to get somewhere you need directions. If you want to build something great, you need blueprints, a plan...well reaching our goals in life happens in the same way.  You've got to make a plan.

What's your goal?  What's your plan to reach it?