I was driving around town this weekend just running errands with my crew and we drove by a place of business that's sort of known around Big Rapids to post wise words or short inspirational quotes on their message board. This weekend's words of the wise were "choose love over fear". Honestly, the words struck me like a bolt of lightning. Fear, it's amazing what fear makes us miss out on, or allows for us to make excuses not to do or try. Fear is ultimately what holds us back. The ironic part for me is that I preach this, literally preach this to my kids so often. My kids are very cautious, play it safe kinda boys, which I do appreciate, because I am not sure that I would be able to handle little dare devils. They don't love to try anything new though and if it looks different, sounds different or is just different than anything else that they are familiar with, they won't do it. We've had to be the parents that push them beyond their limits in order for them to discover the things that they love. Rowan, for example HATED skating. He screamed and cried and fought us every single time we took him to the rink. We kept pushing him though, full of guilt, because we knew him and we knew that once he got comfortable with it, he would be OK. Well now he lives and breathes hockey. He thinks of plays in his sleep and makes the plans with his teammates at school. He knows the scores from every NHL game played each night and loves more than anything to score goals, he'll do what it takes to make it happen too. We still have to remind both of them probably daily, to not choose fear. Anything as simple as trying a new food or joining a camp or club without any of their friends. I can imagine as five and seven year old boys, how difficult saying "no" to fear is. I have to convince myself daily to not choose fear and in fact is something that I have been combating a lot with lately. Those of you who know me, know that this blog is my baby, but along with this blog comes an Instagram account that is full of pride swallowing outfit of the day pics and stories centered on my life (and JB's). This is so far beyond my comfort zone and is something I have to convince myself to participate in daily. I keep telling myself to just push through, much like we did with Rowan and hockey. Just continue the mission, learn to have fun with it and swallow your dang pride. I faced my greatest challenge on "the gram" this weekend, my first "try on" session in my stories. For those of you who aren't familiar with Instagram fashion bloggers, this is what matters, this is what people are most interested in as far as clothes and advice on where and how to shop. I made some purchases recently for my Spring and Summer wardrobe so I was obligated to share my finds with the people who have chosen to join us on this journey. I definitely put it off all weekend, kind of dreaded it and made excuses. Then I drove by that message board and read those words "choose love over fear" and I realized that dang it, I was being a total hypocrite with my kiddos and I was letting fear hold me back. So I did it, I tried on all the clothes, tried to pair them with what looked good, make a lot of mistakes, but got so much positive feedback and thank yous from my girls who were ready to shop for the season. I ended the weekend, after having conquered that fear feeling the love and all sorts of validation and unfortunately for Nick, ready to shop some more just so I can try it all on! :) When you really stop and think about the times in your life when you changed or grew, it's more often than not, that those times were when you were pushed beyond your limits. I really feel that in order to change and grow we have to make ourselves uncomfortable and feeling hesitant. We have to push through those fear driven feelings and see what this life and this world have to offer for us. MOST of the times when we push past the fear we find something on the other side that we fall in love with and hopefully we fall in love with ourselves a little more having won the battle. ![]() So here I am combating that fear one imperfect selfie at a time.
2 Comments
Jessica Octernaud
4/29/2019 03:37:54 pm
Love it!
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Michelle Godfrey
4/29/2019 05:03:32 pm
I look forward to new quotes by that business on my way to a from the gym! Loved this one! ❤️
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LUCKY LADY!
Melissa here! While I'm all about sharing trends, deals, and outfit ideas with you, I have a true passion for writing. I love sharing thoughts on life the most and am excited to share those thoughts with all of you right here! Archives
January 2021
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