The Value in Attempting

After the third lap around the living room and kitchen holding Hannah's hands as she took speedy and increasingly confident steps, she looked up at me and gave me a huge cheesy grin. You know the kind-- her eyes are just slits and all 7 1/2 teeth are visible. She was having the time of her life. . . and amid the aching back and monotony of nearly wearing a hole in the carpet, I was, too.

In that moment and others like it, I realized that my feeble attempts at being the best mother I can are paying off in some small way.

. . .

Right now, Hannah is raiding my purse and ripping my shopping list into itty-bitty pieces {fortunately, it's an old shopping list}. I have a choice. . . I can either focus on how I'm going to have to pick up each one of those pieces in another couple of minutes and how annoying it is that everything has to be elevated at least 4 feet in the air in order to be safe from reaching hands. . . or I can focus on how wonderful it is to have little reaching hands that keep me on my toes and how funny it is to watch her tear that poor piece of discarded paper into microscopic confetti and flick the pieces off her fingers that get stuck.

I know I've written about this a lot, but life is truly what you make of it. So, what do you attempt with your days? What's important to you?

The people who have straight A's in school haven't just had them handed to them. They worked for them. They made those grades with their own two hands.

The people with wonderful marriages didn't just get lucky. They worked for them. They earned that marriage and continue to earn it every day.

The people that love their job? Same story. What about the people with wonderful kids and quality family time? Yup. Them, too.

They all worked for what they have. They saw something that was important to them and they attempted to make it work.

They attempted. They didn't just sit by and wish and wait.

They tried.


{photo source}

{before moving on, I'd like to clarify something: I'm NOT saying that you if hate your job, you're not trying. I'm also NOT saying if you aren't married, you didn't try. The same goes for every other example Please don't misunderstand :D}
. . . .

When I get frustrated that Hannah is into something that she shouldn't be or turning into Haggatha, I try to do better at not getting so frustrated next time. When I don't like the dinner I made, I try something different next time. When I have a hard time focusing on what's important, I try better the next day.

The point is not how perfect I am at what I do-- it's that I take the time to try again when I fall short.

There is value in attempting something, even if you fail. If you don't even try because you're afraid of failing, now, that's a completely different story.

The devil, bless his little heart, would have you believe that you're only of worth if you accomplish something flawlessly. I know you're probably as familiar with the voice you hear when you're embarrassed about messing up as I am. I hear it pretty often. It tells me I'm not good enough. It tells me that I was a fool for trying. It tells me that I'd better never try again because I'm only going to fail.

It's wrong.

Oh, I've failed again. . . the voice wasn't really wrong about that. :) But it was wrong about saying I was a fool and no good because I wasn't perfect. I promise you that Heavenly Father loves us despite our slip ups. I promise, I promise, I promise. If I'm sure of anything, I'm sure of His love. He would never dream of demeaning us. . . ever. If you can bank on anything, it's that the stinky little voice is coming from Satan. Don't you listen to it.

You are good enough.

You are strong enough to try again.

You are able do whatever is important to you. 

No one worth listening to will tell you anything different.

But. . .  you have to believe it yourself or you'll never believe these words on this computer screen.

For every moment in every day, we're faced with choices. We can get mad; we can get sad. We can smile; we can pout. We can get frustrated or we can relax. We can try again or we can give up.

The choice, my friends, is completely up to you.