What Girls Get Wrong

"...Who among us doesn't have sin or discouragement? Who among us doesn't fail? There are a million things we don't want to let anybody know about us, but He knows them all. And He is not discouraged about us..." ~ K.P. Yohannan, founder, Gospel for Asia Confession time: I am an overachiever. And while there are a lot of good things that can be said for having that kind of drive, it can also be a very dangerous thing. Being an overachiever means that, if I fail at something, or if I don't get something done on my to-do-list, I feel like I've failed for that day. It doesn't matter if I got five other things done which were really important. I'm unhappy with myself for not getting that one little thing done. For almost the whole month of July, dipping into August, I've been struggling with some health issues, and looking back on it, I feel like this area of my life is what God was trying to teach me about. There have been so many days these...

I love the week between Christmas and New Year's. I mean, absolutely, positively, LOVE it. It's a week I usually spend cleaning (yeah, I love cleaning, it's weird, you can say it), getting a last few things done, and of course spending time with my family and friends. It's a time of dreaming, planning new goals for the year ahead, and just taking time to realize how far I've come over the past twelve months. Basically, I love the new start. All the times I failed over the past year are about to be shoved behind me as a brand new year breaks forth. A new year to go places, meet new people, to set new goals and reach them, a chance to try again on the goals I missed the year before. A new year to grow in my relationship with Jesus Christ. To become more like Him. To know Him better, to learn to trust Him more as He works in my life to bring me to where He wants me to be. You may have heard about a book in the Bible called Lamentations. It's not preached from...

Some people just have all the luck. They get up every morning, raring to go, and get straight to work on their long list of things-to-do (yeah, they're so awesomely dedicated they have an actual, written list, not one that's merely floating through brain matter). Then they go to work or school, put in the time there, quickly getting everything done (those people, you know, the ones doing their homework during lunch while you're hanging with the posse, or who work through their lunch so they don't have to stay late and finish that account). Afterwards, they come back home, and barely shed their backpack or briefcase before they're back to work on their to-do list from this morning, barely taking time out for dinner. By 8 pm, they've finished everything on that list, but instead of enjoying a quiet evening, reveling in the knowledge of their awesomeness, they start on tomorrow's list. Only to go to bed in about an hour and start the cycle all over again, nev...