Shocked and Inspired By My Own Words

In July of 2011 a post of mine was featured on (in)courage.

The topic was facing fear; in particular my fear of the white of a blank piece of watercolor paper that hid behind a door in my home. It was stretched and ready to go but it sat there hidden behind a door for a long time. Months.

I didn’t want to “waste” an expensive piece of watercolor paper by painting something that would turn out mediocre. I was afraid to mess it up. It was as if the blank paper was worth more than any efforts I could attempt to make. As if the blank sheet was perfect the way it was and any mark I might make on it would render it “ugly”.

Crazy huh?

The post published before I was informed and so I never was able to write a “teaser” post on my own blog ahead of time to send readers over to (in)courage to read it.

At the time it was published I was headed to Florida for a much needed vacation with my family. We stayed the night at the famous South Of the Border “resort”. We intended to stay there two nights, my husband wanting our kids to experience the junk shops and climbing the big sombrero that overlooks I-95, something he did as a kid with his parents.

While my husband and kids romped in the pool, I sat and checked my email.

It was flooded with “comments” to reply to. After a moment of confusion, I realized that my post had been published THAT MORNING.

I wanted to shout Hooray and Yikes at the same time! I was disappointed that I had not been able to post a “teaser” on my blog but I was thrilled at the response my article was receiving.

I sat down to respond to the comments and as I worked my way down the list I read this:

I have considered Holley to be a friend since meeting her at Relevant/Allume 2010, the very first one.

For that kind of response from a person whom I admire and respect in the blogging community… WOW.

However, the dark valley of 2011 and 2012 caused me to back off blogging and over time I forgot about Holley’s comment.

When Holley released You’re Made for a God-sized Dream,

bookcover

I was still in healing mode and sat on the sidelines as I watched and read about all the bloggers involved with launching the book and then writing about pursuing their God-sized dreams throughout 2013. I was slightly saddened (and slightly jealous) that I was not participating. Life just did not allow it at the time.

In the end of October 2013 I picked up You’re Made for a God-sized Dream at Allume. I come across a whole chapter related to facing fear and overcoming it.

chpter

I finally sat down to read it in the end of November. One morning while reading, I turned the page to see…

my name and words staring back at me off the page.

Yes. I admit it. I SCREAMED!

I was excited and shocked and overwhelmed all at the same time.

My words. Quoted and cited in a published book.

Not only had my words made an impact when they were published on (in)courage but it impacted Holley enough to choose to make them part of her book.

Although they were “my” words, reading them set in the commentary of another made me stop and read them afresh and gain a new perspective.

It caused me to stop and think about the fact that I had written those words.

Where did that Sharon go?

I realized that though I faced my fear by finishing a particular painting, I had not followed through with another painting. I had dropped the proverbial ball.

My “dream” had become a lot of talk and no action.

In 2014, the year of INSPIRE, I have set a goal to pursue my God-sized dream and paint a whole lot more.

An even bigger part of that dream is to make an income of some sort with my art {painting and photography} for two reasons:

1. to be able to give more to the Lord and

2. to be able to contribute to our household financially, looking toward the future of hopefully buying our own home one day.

Do you have any God-sized dreams?

Have you been pursuing them or have you let them gather dust behind a door, hidden away and forgotten?

And if your dream is lurking in the corners of your life… what might you do to start on the path of hiking toward seeing it come to fruition?

Share about it here in the comments below.

I’m linking up over at God-sizedDreams.com today. Come on over and read about others who are pursuing their God-sized dreams.

Linking up with Crystal for Behind the Scenes too!