I can't tell you how often I start Monday feeling defeated. There is something about looking ahead at 6 more days full of schedules, responsibilities and to-do lists that can feel disheartening. It's like starting a run with many miles ahead of you, knowing there will be some discomfort and difficulty along the way.
But sometimes, it's not just Monday. Sometimes it's a season: many months of life, where the dominos fall one after another in succession and you can't seem to get your head above water. These seasons of defeat are all too familiar for me. It takes my baseline and brings it lower, so that when a bump comes in the road I am more easily overcome. And when I look around, it's like a waterfall of walls, "no's" and losses cascade around me.
It may start as a difficult few months financially, then you hit some walls with parenting and at your job. Relationships seem to be sprouting issues and that opportunity you've been waiting for comes back with a big fat NO on it. So when, on the same day, you forget to pay a bill and a friend lets you down, life spirals out of control. The otherwise easy-to-deal-with issues break the camel's back.
Defeat.
In these valleys, these moments and seasons of defeat, it is too easy to forget what victory feels like. But it is here, in these valleys, when we most need to remind ourselves the most of our wins. Of our triumphs. Of the times that life told us YES and the blessings abounded.
In these times I try to remember:
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| Seeing the Rocky Mountains for the first time. |
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| Becoming pregnant with Chica |
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| Having my first baby |
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| First smiles |
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| Roasting my first Thanksgiving turkey |
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| Raising sisters |
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| Learning how to grill pizza |
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| Chica's first (and only) ballet recital |
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| Preschool graduation |
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| Bug transitioning to a Big Girl bed |
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| Completing my first 5k |
These are snapshots of just a handful of my personal victories, big and small. Just browsing through them gives me a sense of accomplishment and a humble reminder that defeat is a choice. Every time I hit a wall in life, I have the choice to be BITTER or be BETTER. I can choose to be DEFEATED or to be MOTIVATED.
Friends, sometimes we just need to hear: Seasons always come to an end. Winters always melt into Spring. And after a long, dark night the sun always rises.
I choose better.
I choose motivated.
I choose victory.
What are YOUR Victories?
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