Thought For The Day:
“But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes, we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5

Question For The Day:
Are you giving up too soon?

I’m not going to take too much of your time today. Tomorrow is Easter Sunday and I’m busy prepping for my Easter dinner and preparing to do my daughter’s hair. For those raising little Black girls, you know how serious doing their hair for Easter Sunday can be. Therefore, I’m going to go ahead and get this post out of the way cause there’s going to be hair grease and rubber bands everywhere in a minute. Anyway, for those who may have noticed, I have taken a bit of a hiatus from writing this week because to be honest, I was feeling discouraged. I have received a lot of good feedback regarding this blog, but it still hasn’t gained the traction I thought it would have by now. Granted, it’s only been about six weeks, but when you feel the Lord has led you to do something, it’s natural to expect quick results. I’m not sure why I expect this because history has proven to me time and time again that God is not on my time schedule. When I start a project, if the fruits of my labor do not manifest soon, I promptly lose enthusiasm, my momentum lags, and before long, I’ve shelved the idea and am looking for the next project on which to stake my hopes. This has been my story forever and has been my trend when starting anything new from diet and exercise plans to my writing. I can’t even tell you how many “first chapters” of my first novel I’ve written. When I become discouraged, I even doubt that the original calling was legitimate to begin with. I will often assume that the delay of fruition means that the plan, project, mission, calling, or assignment was simply not meant to be and I will often save myself the heartache and abort the mission prematurely even when my heart of hearts knows better.

Why am I spilling my guts about all of this? Well, I was praying a lot about this today because I didn’t want to carry this discouragement with me to church tomorrow. I don’t want to be praising God for the gift of salvation while secretly feeling defeated inside. Well God did speak to me and He gave me a metaphor that I’ll share with you. He reminded me that He is the conductor of my life’s train, and all I have to do is ride it and not get off until I reach my destination. Though the journey seems long and unsure, I can always trust that I will get to the exact right place at the exact right time because he’s doing the driving and I am precious cargo. Many of the detours I’ve taken so far in my life are because I didn’t trust the direction of the train and decided to get off too soon. What ends up happening is that I wind up wandering around in my own personal desert, lamenting over how lost I am and praying that the train comes back to pick me up again. And of course because He loves me, God always comes back for me. I get back on the train and ride comfortably for awhile until once again I get concerned that the journey is taking too long and I assume I’ve once again missed my stop and get off in search of what I think has passed me by. Well, not this time. The Lord put this blog in my heart. He has called me to speak to women who are lost, probably because I’ve spent so much time lost myself. Getliftedgirl is not just a blog that serves my own purposes. Instead it is a movement that will help women like myself fall back in love with this journey called life. I have decided to ride this train until the wheels fall off. Anybody with me?

Whatever personal struggle whoever reading this post may be dealing with, please know that God is in control. You may feel defeated and discouraged, but He is in the driver’s seat and will get you safely to your destination if you can just hold on and trust that he knows the way. When Jesus Christ hung on Calvary’s cross, He too felt as if God had forsaken Him. Yet, He was determined to endure the pain and trust that God knew what he was doing. When all was said and done, our Savior declared “It is finished.” What the world called a death, was actually the hope of life everlasting and for that, I am forever grateful. I am declaring today that I will not let fear or discouragement keep me from reaching my destination. I will not stop until my work is finished and today that includes my daughter’s hair, my Easter meal, and my work through getliftedgirl.org. Thanks be to God, life will never end for me because He didn’t get off of the cross prematurely and did not give in until His work was finished. Neither will I give up on this assignment too soon. Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read anything I’ve written, call me or text me about this site. It helps me to know that even one person is blessed by it. Let’s keep it moving until it’s finished! Happy Resurrection Sunday everyone!