You Can Do Hard Things
These past couple of months have been so hard, with a lot of big changes happening all at once. I definitely wouldn't have made it if I wouldn't have had my family and friends support and encouragement. I hate to admit it but I literally called my mom and Jessica every day for the first month bawling, ready to come home begging them to let me. They have played a huge part in encouraging me to keep going. You know how everyone just has that one saying that they live by well Jessica has told me hers every single day for the past three months “You can do hard things” and honestly every time she said it all I could think was this lady is crazy for thinking I am going to survive this. Well, I'm here to say she was right and I'm still alive. Sometimes in life, we hit bumps and curves and it seems as if we will never make it past the hurt but the truth is you can do hard things. You are capable of overcoming everything that life throws at you. If God brings you to it, He will bring you through it. We have to be rooted in Him and have a firm foundation built so that when the storms do come we cannot be shaken. God's not glorified when we limit ourselves to the easy things in life just like He is not glorified when we back down to hard things. The same God who told us in Matthew 16:24 “If anyone would come after me let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me,” also told us in Matthew 11:30, “for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” The calling to fully surrender to God and live a life that glorifies Him is not easy, it takes work and it brings a lot of hard things with it. In the bible, some of the greatest leaders were also the people who gave the most of themselves, they followed God with everything they had and did not back down when things got hard. They did the right thing which is usually never the most comfortable route but they weren't searching for comfort. God's plan is not always comfortable but it's good and it's worth trusting. God says in James 1:2-4 “Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.” So embrace the suck, our greatest satisfaction in life comes from joyfully embracing and overcoming the hard things, not avoiding them. Jesus is a living example of a life spent doing hard things for the glory of God. God gives us what we need to do what we need to do. The Holy Spirit is our primary power for the work we have been called to do. You can do far more with the power of God than you can do on your own. When you realize what power you truly hold with the Holy Spirit living in you it changes the way you think and act. God has called us to take up our cross now, this is your best life, not your easiest life, so as Jessica says, you can do hard things.
Good Talk,
Rylie With The Messy Life :)
