The perfectionist in me procrastinated about this blog for over a year. I couldn’t start a blog if I couldn’t decide on a sustainable niche. I couldn’t start a blog until I was sure that I was ready to be (a little) vulnerable. I couldn’t start a blog until I came up with the perfect name. I wouldn’t start a blog until I had mastered WordPress. I am the ultimate planner: I think of the best scenario, the worse scenario, and everything in between. However, there came a point when I had to realize that no amount of planning was going to protect me from the bumps in the road I would encounter along this journey.

As with any new endeavor, a certain level of planning, researching, and preparing is certainly wise, but there are some obstacles that you just can’t foresee. Eventually, you just have to start taking steps in what you perceive to be the direction that God is leading you in. To walk by faith and not by sight suggests that the right path may not look obvious, and therefore, our sight may deceive us. Alternatively, I think this could also mean that faith allows us to pivot even when our current path looks right in our own eyes.

I think I’m most afraid of wasting time. Life is short, so I don’t want to invest time in choices that will lead to a dead end. I also don’t want to start something that I can’t finish or that I can’t do well.

Both of these fears are based on the outcome, but I’ve come to realize that no one knows how to recycle better than our God.

He redeems the years that we thought the enemy stole from us. God uses each and every moment along our journey to teach us the lessons that we will need in the future. And sometimes, when things don’t work out immediately, they have simply been delayed, not deferred.

I want to learn to approach life with child-like faith. To a child, all things are new and equally exiting. Children will try many things, and eventually they will gravitate to the things that peak their natural interest or bring them the most joy. I want to be brave enough to try new things that the Holy Spirit places on my heart, even scary things, knowing that God will do the finetuning. When I question whether it was the Spirit or my desire, I simply need to lay it on the altar. God’s refining fire will consume anything that is not of Him and purify that which is.