It has been a while since I last shared lessons and concepts I’ve been learning in my life. I think personal growth–and recognizing that growth–is important. When I learn something I try to write it down, practice it, and want to share it. The lessons I learn may not be new to you, but I figured I’d share anyways!

Things I’m learning

1. Act like the person you want to be.
We are all growing, learning, and changing every day. I’m not who I was a year ago, and I will continue to change. I know the person I want to be, and I’m continually working on being that person. I want to be someone who is faithful to God, mentally strong, loving, selfless, and balanced. Am I that person every day? Nope. Not at all. On the hard days, where I feel like I make every mistake in the book, I’m learning to act like the person I want to be. It’s like the “fake it till you make it” concept.

I have learned that trying things–whether it’s becoming a better person, learning a new hobby, etc.–is about consistency, not perfection. We’re never going to be perfect or do things perfectly, but we can consistently try, and that’s what counts. We all have rough days, but keeping the big picture in mind is what it’s all about. If we’re trying our best, one mistake or bad day isn’t the end of the world, it’s simply a learning experience.

2. Write your plans in pencil and give God the eraser.
I suppose this is something that I have learned before, but I continually learn it in different ways. I’m someone who like to have well-laid plans. For the day, week, month, year, etc. It feels comforting to have an idea of what’s happening in my life, what I’d like to do, and know that it’s all written down in my trusty little planner.

For example, just a week ago, I mentioned in this post that Jimmy and I knew in 2016 that we’d be working, getting a puppy, and staying involved with our church. Guess what? We’re not getting a puppy. Unfortunately, some circumstances happened that were out of our control and led us to have to make a decision about whether or not we should get the puppy we’ve been planning on taking into our home for a few months. After prayer and thinking the circumstances through, we decided that God has other plans.

We wrote something down in pencil and God erased it. I don’t know why, but I trust Him. Sometimes time will tell, sometimes things just don’t work out and we won’t know why on this side of heaven. We never know what God has in store for the future, but we can trust that it’s going to be much better than anything we could have planned ourselves!

What have you been learning lately?