“The two most important days in your life are the day you’re born & the day you find out why.”

-Mark Twain

Deciding to embrace that truth takes guts because it calls you to a higher way of living. It calls you to live the life you were born to live. Not just a day to day survival, but a movement ONWARD into your DESTINY. Choosing to acknowledge WHO you are, WHY you are here on earth, right here, right now & then moving ahead with your journey is scary, heart pounding big, full of emotion & it is RIGHT. Sure, there are twists & turns in the road of life, & sometimes we may pick the “not so good” option, but ultimately, if we are moving forward, it means we aren’t stepping backward or shying away from the greatness ahead of us. We were born for a reason & realizing that reason is necessary to live a fulfilled life. Who doesn’t want a life full of joy, success, deepening, growing, thriving & vibrancy?! I know I do! That is why when I wake up in the morning, I make it my mission to live my absolute BEST for that day. Oh don’t get me wrong, I fail miserably sometimes at it, but ultimately making the decision to TRY is always worth it. On days I fail, I go to bed at night with lessons learned, tips that will help my roots deepen & give me a better chance of “BEST” tomorrow. On days that I succeed, it feels great knowing that I truly lived my life to the fullest for those past hours. It all counts guys, it all counts.

“Any area that you don’t have hope is an area that is under the influence of a lie.”

-Bill Johnson

Without hope, choosing to live the best life we have to live will not be easy. Hope is an anchor for the soul! No hope equals no true happiness for tomorrow. There have been times in my life where I have CHOSEN not to live with hope. To bury my joy, turn off the light of hope flickering in my soul, all because of bitterness & festering from hardship in life. When I did that, I felt like I literally just floated on the winds of life, with no anchor to anything good. It was a numb, cold, sad existence & I couldn’t survive living my life like that for long. It took me realizing how selfish I was, how badly I really did want to live with hope, that I gave in. I forgave others, I forgave myself & I chose to move ON. ONWARD into my destiny again. It felt good. It felt like I came alive again. It was a process for sure, but slowly the world filled with color, like a watercolor washed with rain, I embraced my emotions, both good & bad, because it was SO good to FEEL again & I took a step forward. It was scary to live again! But it was LIVING.

Looking back on that season of my life, it taught me so much. It taught me that I was living under the influence of a lie, a lie that I was perpetuating. I was CHOOSING a lie! It sounds so ridiculous, because it was. I was robbing myself. Once I chose to destroy that lie, I had to fill it with life. So I intentionally started speaking life over myself, EVERY SINGLE DAY. It was refreshing. It was new. It was quenching my thirsty soul. Choosing to HOPE again, choosing to embrace my destiny, the REASON I was born, was one of the best days of my life. I haven’t looked back since. I don’t want to ever live under a lie, hopeless, not embracing the reason I was created, ever again. It was SO NOT WORTH IT.

So I encourage you, take a step back. Look at the life you are leading. Is it full of PURPOSE? Is it fulfilling you? Do you KNOW why you were born? I don’t care how old you are. Sometimes it takes decades to figure it out. Why are you here? Right here, right now? Do you have hope? Are you LIVING or are you just surviving? Take some time to reflect on your life up until this point. Find the color. Why is it there? Are you living in color right now? I hope so. But if not, you can change that RIGHT NOW! Today. Look into your heart & figure it out. It will be so worth the giant leap you need to take if you aren’t living & walking in your purpose towards your destiny.

I’ll cheer you on! I have some of the best cheerleaders in my life. My mom, specifically. I have lived for 28 years under her RELENTLESS encouragement. Sometimes it drives me crazy, but without it I know I wouldn’t be walking in my purpose for life, full of HOPE. (Thanks Mudder. 🙂 ) Find people full of hope & ask them to become your cheerleaders. We need people to buoy us up & remind us from time to time why we choose hope & what our destiny is. I definitely do. I married the best man for that. Noah & I daily try to remind each other what a gift our life is & evaluate if we are doing our best at living full of joy & hope. If we aren’t doing so hot, we help each other out! It’s a partnership. We definitely fail, we aren’t perfect, but we get a new shot at it every single day. How rad is that?!

So go, friends. Look at your life. Evaluate. Shift. Change. Breathe. Dream. Re-evaluate. It’s an ongoing process. I’ll leave you with this verse from Psalms, out of the Message version:

“God, the one & only – I’ll wait as long as he says. Everything I hope for comes from Him, so why not? He’s solid rock under my feet, breathing room for my soul, An impregnable castle: I’m set for life.”

-Psalms 62:5-6

We’re set for life guys! And that, feels good.

Cheers,

Katie.