I’m back, y’all!!! After a little break to dream/pray about the direction I want to take the blog, I’m back! <3 I missed being on here so, so much, but I knew I needed a short season to be intentional about taking time to create a vision for what this blog could be. Writing/communicating are my outlets and I love being able to hopefully just encourage one person through my posts. (And to all the people who sent me the sweetest texts & DMs about missing my posts and hoping to read from me soon, I love you guys! Those messages meant the world to me.)
Now, today is January 27th… a lil’ over three weeks since January 1st & allllll the motivation to start the new year strong. So often I get to January 1st, am so excited to for all my new goals and then a few weeks pass and I feel like I need an extra push of motivation to keep on going. Today, I hope I can bring you that extra encouragement I, too, need! It’s 2020 & time is flying by & I don’t know about you, but I wanna soak up each and every moment of this year and make it the best one yet. Let’s do this thing!
Regardless of any goals or resolutions you may have set this year, I want you to remember that what you do does not define you. You are loved & chosen & worthy just as you are, regardless of how often you follow through with what you set out to do in the new year.
Now, I do believe that we as human beings are made with innate gifts & strengths that we can use to bring light & good to this world. I can be grateful where I am & recognize my worth comes from nothing but God (still need to remind myself of this daily) & still choose to strive for more in my life, whether that be better grades or better health or growing my blog or being a better friend/sister/daughter, etc. Complacency with where I am, if I’m being honest, makes me sad & tired. In my goal-setting and prayers about how God can use me this year, I find hope & excitement for what is to come.
This semester, I want to encourage you to dream big. I know so often we hear that, but truly, I want to encourage you to step fully into who you were made to be. Your dreams don’t have to look like mine or hers or his or anyone else’s; your dreams are yours and whatever dreaming big looks like to you is what I want to encourage you to do. Dreaming big could look like wanting to write a book or deciding you want to start taking art classes or deciding on a career path or maybe just deciding that this is the semester you are going to love your body. You were made with so much purpose & your big dreams are needed in this world!
This semester, let’s work to ELIMINATE fear. I intentionally made that word big because I have to remind myself to choose the brave & bold path every.single.day. Fear might look like the voice in your head that says “but what if they don’t like me?” or the voice that says “what if something goes wrong?”. When I started taking inventory of the voices of fear in my head, I noticed something they almost all shared in common: the “what if”. When I became aware of this, I was able to stop myself in my tracks and say “okay, yes, this could go wrong… but what if it goes RIGHT?!” What if it goes right, friends?! How amazing that could be! And even if it does go wrong, we get to learn & grow from it. Do not be afraid of what could go wrong when there is so much that could go right (preaching to myself here)!
And finally, this semester I want to encourage you to love yourself fully. Take time to take care of yourself. Rest, play, laugh, smile, dance. Journal & reflect on how far you’ve come and how strong you are. Find something you love about yourself every time you look in the mirror and acknowledge it. Has anyone ever told you how BEAUTIFUL you are?! Ultimately, life is to be lived & how sweet it would be if we could live fully this semester.
I’m cheering you on <3
Always,
Elle