Recently, I’ve challenged myself with 40 days of living better.  40 days of being purposeful of my decisions. 40 days of being incredibly thankful of where God has me at this time.

I’m still not 100% sure of why I’m doing this.  It may be because I look around and hear people complain about where they are, what they are doing and why their plans aren’t what they had imagined them to be. It may be because there are many who just live, day-to-day and seem to be living for nothing, just going through the motions. It may because it’s easy to be ungrateful of all we have, and only looking at what we don’t have.

The reason may be because all too much I can see myself being the people I just explained. Not too long ago I was stuck in this perspective of life, not knowing how to get out, how to be different. To live a life as this is not living at all. It’s letting the “World” shape you and mold you and put you at a level of growth, where there is no growth, which keeps you inferior.  The “World” likes to keep the majority of people focused on their own problems so they can’t challenge those around them because they are too focused on their own “challenges in life.”

Maybe I want to choose to live better because of the few people around me who have chosen to live better, who are joyful in everything, who are exciting to be around, the few that love!  To those I Thank for being an amazing example to follow!

I came across this quote, by Tony Gaskin, and loved the challenge it suggests.

“if you don’t build your dreams, someone will hire you help build theirs.”

I’ve spent too long being that person. Allowing the “World” to shape and mold me instead of allowing my Creator to shape and mold me and know without a doubt that where I am is for a purpose!  It’s for HIS purpose!  Some of you may not believe in the God that Created us but I hope you come to believe in Him in time because without a higher purpose I don’t see why we would want to choose to live a better life. A life that allows us to not only focus on ourselves but to be able to see past and see a World that deserves our love, and needs us to stop focusing on ourselves. Because everything we learn, everything around us is screaming for us to focus on ourselves, don’t worry about others and follow YOUR dreams! But what they forget to mention is the truth that loving others is the greatest of Happiness.

I just turned 25 and it’s easy to say my life is not going as I planned it to go. In my book I would have been married after college and at 25 on my way to starting a family. I always said I didn’t want to be an “old mom.” As if I thought after 25 was “old.” (Now, I definitely don’t think it’s old.) I saw myself marrying someone and choosing to live our life together for the first couple years, serving others, loving others  and then after time starting a family of our own. I always thought of my strengths being best as a wife and mother. As I love to Cook, Clean, Organize, Encourage, Be a Positive light, do the Laundry, yes I like to do laundry, and did I say cook?! I know there is much more to being a wife and mom, but that’s what I’ve always dreamed I wanted. When asked what would be your dream job, I always answered, a Home Maker. I know those asking the question thought I was crazy, for a common response was, “that doesn’t make much money”, as if money is the reason we live.

I have had to learn to look at life in a new perspective. A Perspective that no matter where life leads me I am excited and anxious to watch it unfold. At 25, I am single and don’t see marriage happening anytime soon, so the thought of being a wife and mom are far from happening, at this time (know I do stay hopeful of that time to come). But today, I look at my life and am blessed to see where God has taken me.  Being three years out of undergrad, come May, I have started my own design business (which I never thought possible).  I am following His Plan, a plan I have welcomed as a new dream. A dream that I know is not complete, for I only see piece by piece as I know God wants to keep me dependent on Him, as I can’t see the end result to this dream, to His Plan.  Which makes it addicting to keep living as I can’t wait to look  back and see it all unfold, and see His great Doing, to know that in no way was it my own doing, my own dream.

Plans definitely don’t go as we plan. But, when I want to have a God as great as He is, I’ve come to realize I need to welcome His plans as not being as I hope or wish them to be but as He wishes them to be. It’s hard, very hard, but also I know it’s the only way I’d like the outcome to be, for living His plan is far more ADVENTUROUS than I could have planned for myself.

So, 40 days on focusing on God’s plan and not my own time table. Deciding to rejoice in everything, the Good and the Bad, and trusting Him with my whole heart. Finding a new perspective, even better than the one I’m currently fixated on. Choosing to live as He desires of me, being empty, but oh so full.

Choosing to Abide in Him as it says in 1 John 1:6

“If we claim to have fellowship with Him yet live in the darkness, we lie and we do not live in the truth”

He demands the Real Thing, for us to step out of the darkness and to be real. To love as He loves us. To walk in His Light.

“But, if we walk in the Light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His son, cleanses us from all sin.”  – 1 John 1:7

I want to choose to be the light of Christ shining through me. Who am I in this world if I do not shine for Him. He calls us to love so that is what I will devote myself to do. For loving others is the greatest of Happiness, it’s definitely not easy but what in life is easy.

“Darkness can’t drive out Darkness; only Light can do that. Hate cannot drive out Hate; only Love can do that.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

1 John 3:11 tells us to Love One Another.

Why?

“Because love – the kind of love that Christ lives and teaches – is life-giving.
Because withholding love is withholding the life that only love can give.
Because when we allow negative feelings to grow into hatred, we are essentially standing opposed to another’s well-being, to their very life.
Because hatred is murder in the heart.”  (- Amanda Williams – She Reads Truth)

Why should we take the easy route and be like all the others helping the darkness grow.  I challenge you to join me and let’s be the light that shines through and breaks the darkness!

My new plan for my life is to have a life of Love.  A life that does not focus on myself, the plans I wish could be mine and my own struggles, but a life that lives to be a light for my friends, my family, my enemies and those I don’t yet know. As I am grateful for my friends and family who have loved me, who have encouraged me to step out and build my dream, to allow God to lead and work in my life beyond what I could have ever imagined.  I will forever be grateful for those who continue to encourage me and keep me accountable to continue to grow and dream.

I choose to be that love to those around me.
I choose to be the love that drives out Hate.