You remember being a kid, rushing through the count to 10 just to say these words… You didn’t want to be at a disadvantage; you never gave the “hiders” a chance to get ready before shouting “HERE I COME!” That’s how you got out of the “seekers” chair, by throwing someone else off their game, by beating them to the punch, by taking away their chance to prepare!

Life has a funny way of working; it throws you challenges and cheat codes, God gives favor, life seems unfair, there is sometimes mercy in the most merciless(seeming) situations. In life, we dangle somewhere between failure or success, so society says. Besides God, there are no constants. Life may count to ten sometimes, it may even count to 100, but it may also stop at 1. Either way you look at it, for anyone reading this, no matter what it seemed, life has continued working, ready or not.

I am always planning ahead for something – birthdays, vacations, graduation(s), occupation(s), events, a hopeful wedding… most of us are. As we post a dream house on pinterest, save for celebrations with friends, and plan our moves from parents’ home to apartment to condo to townhouse to single family… There’s always something to plan for! It get’s stressful. There are too many unanswered questions on how to make it perfect, and there never seems like enough time, ever. Earth dwellers have lived in a 24 hour time zone for…well…ever… but we’re praying for more time in a day, to be “great.” The best part though, life isn’t stopping, whether we are ready or not! My birthday will be on September 19th every year, whether I’ve planned a celebration or not. It’s easy to accept that one, but we can’t accept it when it’s the things we want, you know, the ones that aren’t etched between Genesis & Revelation or written in 4th grade U.S. History books.

“What screws us up most in life is the picture in our head of how it’s supposed to be.” – Socrates

It’s very rare, if ever, that we are incapable of accomplishing something. It’s usually not who we are that holds us back, but who we think we are not. People in every state aren’t reading this post, but it’s here, and they could. Believing that I wasn’t a “real” writer, stopped me from doing this every day. I wasn’t smart enough to take a licensure exam so I planned for it procrastinated for 6 months, putting very little additional effort to be any “smarter.” I wasn’t ready to get a new job, but the District of Columbia decided my old one could no longer exist.

The point is: Life will continue, ready or not. Dare I say it’s E A S Y to talk about the superficial things we prepare for ( or don’t ) … but what about the substance, the things that matter? You know, the “I wasn’t ready to forgive you, so I pretended to, but I still wish you never existed” or the “I wasn’t ready to have sex, and now I’m confused and ashamed” or the “I wasn’t ready to marry you, and now I’m either angry or depressed every day”…to name a few. There are millions of pieces that don’t fit this subject in one puzzle…

What’s ready anyway? Can you even be ready for everything that confronts you as you travel day by day? What if you think you’re ready? What if you thought you were ready? What if you don’t want to get ready? What if ready never finds its way?

I wasn’t ready to stop being a silent Christian, but here I stand. Well, write.

I NEED YOUR HELP… This is a broad topic, and I’d like to talk about it; I need to! So, PLEASE help me to choose four topics of readiness to cover the next four Thursdays!…even on Thanksgiving. 🙂 I’m thinking temptation, marriage/relationships, career, leaving the parent(s)’ nest… salvation. I am fully open to suggestions, I want you to be as much a part of this as me.  I’d even like to endorse some guest writers! But most of all, I’d LOVE for us to dialogue; to speak, listen, learn, love, and grow… TOGETHER!

I love you,

Sammie ❤