The Coach in the Day

Something has been nagging me.  To write this post.  So I am sitting down to do it.  Because there is always something getting in the way.  Something else that needs to get done.  But this post has been written in my head for quite a while now.  So I am doing it.  God clearly has something for me to put out there.  So lets see where this train takes us, shall we?

Are you coachable?

My family and I take taekwondo.  We all love it.  Sparring made me nervous though.  I was talking to some instructors one night after class.  In discussing my thoughts and fears, one of them said well it depends on if you are coachable.  Will you listen and try and get better?  That really resonated with me.  A lot.  I decided right then and there that I would be coachable.  Who wouldn't do that, right?!  Well it stuck with me.  I think about it a lot.  What would make this time of being coachable different?  Have I always been coachable?  Several things occurred to me.  I don't remember the last time I considered myself coachable.  Sure I would listen to you and what you had to say, but would I actually do anything different....nah probably not.  I knew what I was doing.  I knew me.  How could you possibly know what I really need?    (Oh that is good stuff right?!)  One of the 4, 567,932 things I love about my husband is that he does not want to be the smartest person in the room.  What? is what you are likely thinking.  But it is true.  He says there is always stuff he doesn't know and always something new to learn.

Hmmmm could this be true?  But surely I know a lot.  And BAM reality hit.  I don't take well to people telling me what to do.  Go figure.  But in the case of sparring, if I didn't listen I could get hurt or hurt someone else possibly.  So I need to do something different.  Yay.  I just love stepping out of my comfort zone. (that is dripping with sarcasm in case you missed it).  I try now and be more of a sponge and soak it all in.  Clearly these people teaching me have done this a few million times already.  They may in fact know something I dont.  More truthfully is that I know nothing and I need to learn.  But to learn I have to listen to the great and not so great, and well, down right ugly.  Again my husband and all his sage wisdom teaches me a lot as well.  Like when he calls all excited about how he got kicked in the head (we all wear protective gear so no one gets hurt) but he continues on about how he needed to block better and he blocked the next kick.  He is an extremely smart man.  Who doesn't  want to be kicked in the head.  Obviously.  Learn from people.  Listen to people.

Sitting in Bible Study this morning and just listening.  Lots of people had something they wanted/needed to share.  I kept wanting to jump in because I had something to say as well but the lesson was on Listening.  So I sat back and I listened.  We are studying Jeremiah by Melissa Spoelstra (it is a really wonderful and meaningful study so far).  She was talking about how if we sit down and tell someone things we want to get off our minds and then we walk away.  How does that help our relationship and what is accomplished?  My thoughts went back again to "Are you coachable?".  God wants us to listen to him.  To seek him and to hear him.  We can hear his word, we can pray certain prayers but are we listening to what he is telling us??  Are we letting him mold us into who He created us to be?  Are we coachable??

My journey in life and in my faith is exactly where it needs to be.  I am now much more coachable.  I am trying to listen more.  And not just listen but to hear and act accordingly from what I heard.  God is still here.  Still with us.  Still relevant.  But do you hear Him?  And when you do, will you listen?  Will you be coachable?  We may give up on God but God never gives up on us.

Dear Lord,
Help me to be coachable today.  To hear you and do your will.  I am not the smartest person today so let me learn from the Great Teacher.

In Jesus' name,
Amen

The Post in the Blog

Hey this is still here.  Thats awesome.  Clearly it has been a while.  A long long while since I have written anything.  On the blog of course.  I have written many pieces.  In my head.  Where they start and never seem to finish.  Today I thought I would try and reverse that trend.  So here it goes.

Last week was my birthday.  Yay.  Not a particularly great day for a lot of reasons but the biggest were that I had a sinus infection (yeah I can't even make it a month into the new year without one) and we had just gotten back from Disney.  So I was not in the best of moods anyway.  So yesterday we did more of a celebration for my birthday.  It was nice.  I was given a gift by a dear sweet thoughtful friend that was left on my porch.  It is a daily gratitude journal.  This meant so much to me because I had been thinking of how grateful I am.  Truly.  She gave me a place to sort of document it.  I had been thinking how I had not a great birthday but it was just a somewhat bad day.  Not a bad life.  We all have those sometimes.  Next a remember what happened 2 years ago thing popped up on Facebook.  It was about my mom and when she was in the hospital 3 years ago.  Again so grateful she is alive and healing each and every day.  I think of how grateful I am that our lives are so different from then and how hard that was.  On all of us.  She had so much go so wrong in such a short period of time.  I was and still am surrounded by the most amazing people in my life.  I have been asked how I made it through those difficult times.  The truth is I didn't.  God carried me through that 1000%.  I remember just collapsing in the shower so overcome with helplessness, thinking that I could not even stand up.  HE carried me.  I am so grateful and thankful and overwhelmed by that.  I think of how grateful I am for my life.  I mean that with every beat of my heart and breath I take.  10-12 years ago if you had told me where I would be and what I would be doing, I just would have laughed and wondered what was wrong with you. This life I have is wonderful and amazing and I would not trade it for anything.  I dont take it for granted because I remember what was before.  I know that it can also be gone at any moment.   I think of all the things that have changed.  I am grateful.  I know no of us are perfect but we are sure perfect for each other.  I am thankful for my friend who gave me such a wonderful gift and probably had no idea how it would touch me.  Now I have a beautifully bound book to write in.  Each day.  And remember that with each day I have something to be grateful for.  Even if it is a bad day.  It is not a bad life.  Someone may need to hear that today.  I am glad.  I am grateful.  And now I am out of time...