We got something BRAND NEW at our house this Christmas, and actually it didn’t arrive until last week. We are the new owners of a tiny little fluff-bucket named Coco. He is a Labradoodle mix with a white and brown coat of the softest fur.
With this NEW thing, there is something that is already getting OLD, crate training at night! (Well, and potty training but at least the boys are helping with that.)
Everyone wants to love on a puppy and they are SO STINKIN’ CUTE. But, when they whimper and yelp ALL NIGHT LONG, and you have to go outside at 3am, in your boxers, when it’s 30 degrees out, it’s not all that ADORABLE.
This is getting old VERY fast.
And what about you?
Your new year’s resolution feeling the same kind of grind? Your personal growth starting to rub blisters on your heart and will? The grandiose plan getting smudged by the grimy hands of reality? And the picture-perfect pipe dream slowly becoming a nightmare? Or maybe even your spiritual transformation starting to feel like a long winter’s night?
I want you to know, that it’s OKAY! This is natural. And it won’t last. The problem or solution, rather, is per usual, in our mindset.
Instead of thinking about it from the standpoint of that lofty goal or the peak of the mountain or the blissful perfection of the original idea, rewrite your mentality to this: BECOMING! Puppies are GREAT, but we KNOW they are work so we must not forget that and count that as part of the CUTENESS!
Check this out: In 2 Corinthians 5:17, Paul writes that “if anyone is IN Christ he is a NEW CREATION; the old has gone and the new has come!” The language here use for new creation refers to this: the act of founding, establishing, building; the act of creating, creation. This gives the impression of simply a NEW BEGINNING and something GRAND but is certainly NOT finished and requires a learning curve.
The old being gone and something new being here is a NEW REALITY. It has the same kind of allure as a new puppy. But in this reality, we must realize that although it is everything we have hoped for, it’s still going to have its moments of bad puppy breath, sleepless nights, and crap on the carpet!
If I am going to embrace the idea of the new puppy, I must embrace the reality of ALL things that come with it and NOT act like they aren’t there.
It is in this newness, we find ourselves in a PROCESS, not unlike learning life with a puppy.
Maybe you’ve tried before but found it to be more work than you thought or more painful than you’d like or harder than you imagined. It’s a matter of mindset knowing things HAVE changed, life IS new, and you are living CHANGED; but the needs remains to learn, grow, and discover all that it means to walk this road as it NOW is.
You got it. Keep going. Embrace the puppy and know that there are great things to come despite the frustrations, flaws, and failures.
#NewGetsOld
#ProblemWithPoop
#RestoringWholenessOfLife
Brett
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