Life Builds You

There are thousands of books and millions of articles to be found on the internet that will teach you how to build a life.

You'll find everything from, "Build The Life You Want In Five Easy Steps" to "Building A Life, Not A Resume".

There are books that will teach you how to build your marriage, how to build your family, and how to build your home.

And while each one of these are extremely helpful to anyone seeking knowledge on the subjects, I have to say the most important tool in learning how to build a life is the word of God.

I'm not against any self-help book at all, nor any piece of information that will aid in having the life you want, but I can say that without God's word, you will find something missing.

So if you choose to use these resources that are available, please do so in conjuction with the scriptures that God has provided for us. The Bible is the owner's manual of life.

Having said all that, I want to say this.

Each of us has a plan for our lives. I don't care who you are, you have some kind of plan. Ask anyone and they will tell you that they have put together some type of outlne they wish to complete in their lives by age thirty, age forty, age sixty and so on. Most will mention marriage by a certain age, family by a certain age, career, and then finally retirement. We all do our best to build our lives exactly how we want them.

What's the first thing you do when you want to build a home? You connect with a contractor, tell him what you want, he then gets a floor plan drawn up. If it's to your liking, plans to build your home go forward.

It's the same with life. You first have the idea of what you what (usually that happens when you are in your teens years), you get a plan together and then you start toward building your life the way you'd like it.

You spend your twenties going to school and/or working, raising a family throughout your thirties, grandkids in your late forties and early fifties and then look forward to retirement in your late sixties and early seventies. In the end, if you're lucky, you can look back and say that you built the life you wanted, or got as close to that life as you possibly could.

We also know there are things that happen in life that change our plans and we have to roll with it or get swallowed up in it all. You have to make one of two choices when unforseen circumstances come knocking on your door. You deal with it, or you give in and give up. I've seen the latter happen to people who can't deal with problems. They give up and find other ways of coping, be it drugs, alcohol, or even suicide. None of these are the answer, however.

But if you're resilient and you survive all that life throws at you, which most do, you'll look back and see a huge chunk of time that you spent building the life you now have.

But there's one thing you'll realize in all of that. You'll realize that while you built your life, your life also built you.

It made you who you are at this very moment. The events that were brought to you over time, whether they were good or bad, devastating or euphoric, were the very things that built you. The joyous occasions such as marriage and having children were the ones that showed you life could be great and sweet at times. The sad occasions where you lost someone dear to you, or you lost your job or home, were the ones that showed you where your strength lies and how to call on it when needed. Your promotions, your raises, your home and new cars, watching your kids at their games or recitials, family vacations, and hard times all work together to form who you are in that lifetime that you look back on. You'll find that each one of those events helped to shape you into the person you are now. They helped define you as a human being. Your good decisions and bad ones built your life. Your friends, your jobs, your home, and your family all play a part in building you.

While writing this blog, I am reminded of a country song by Miranda Lambert, (while I'm not a fan of country, this is a pretty little song) where she talks about her childhood home and how it built her. I'll put the link below and you can listen.

Take a moment today to think about how not only are you building your life, but your life is building you. It's forming and shaping you into who you are and who will be in the end. I know for myself, EVERY event that has taken place in my life, good and bad, has built me to be the Christy Adams I am today. I look back at the almost five decades that have passed and, although I had a lot of heartache and pain, I also had a lot of joy and I can say that I like who my life has built me to be. I'm happy with myself. Finally.

Don't just look at the life you built, but look at who your life built.

Remember to work hard and Dream Big!!

Much love,

Christy