Once Upon a Time

Last year I started reading Cinderella to my sweet 2 year old granddaughter yesterday and as soon as I said those words she said, “they live happy after” (which of course means “and they lived happily ever after!”.

I love that. She heard the beginning of the story and skipped right to the happy ending. She knew what ending she wanted and just said it out loud!

Wouldn’t it be great if we could do that? If we could be at the beginning of our story and just skip all of the hard parts.. all of the trials, the villains, the years of being oppressed by a wicked step mother? Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just have the prince charming, and the castle, and the sparkly dress without having to go through the BIG ASS pumpkin and mice (eeeww).

But the fact is that we don’t get to do that. We all have a story, it has a beginning, middle, and an ending. Each chapter has those components too.

I have been spending some time thinking about Life Stories. They have twists and turns, beauty and downright ugliness. But the best thing is that the more aware we are about our story, and the more intentional we are about understanding it, the more exciting our life can be.

I have been excited to get to share with you, my sweet Lady Tribe, two things I have discovered about our stories…

You are the Co-Author… it’s not a one person show!

So many memes out there tell you that “you are the Author of your story” and “you get to choose the ending” and some of that is absolutely true.

However, I want to acknowledge that there is another Co-Author to your story and her name is “LIFE”. Life can come in and write a tragedy in the middle of your otherwise beautiful story… Life can also write beauty in where there is pain and insecurity. Although Life gets to write part of the story, it cannot write the main characters response (BTW… you are the main character!!).

Did you get that? Life can make twists and turns to the story line, but YOU get to choose how the main character reacts and responds to each event.

Sometimes even our responses feel out of our control…. Is that true for you or is it just me? But the fact of the matter is that we DO have the ability to write our responses.

We also have the ability to change the way we are responding to any given situation right smack dab in the middle of the story… we can change our thinking, our language, our actions, even our emotions. We can create a twist in the story any moment we want. When our day, week, month, or year (like this crazy year!!) is going so bad that all we want to do is sit on the kitchen floor with a tub of ice cream, we can change the way we are thinking about the situation. We have the power… we are an author… we have just as much say in the story line.

Knowing, Owning, and Using our Story Brings Healing

Finding your purpose in life comes through really looking at your life story and coming to a place where you know it, and own it… all of it…the beautiful and the ugly… the exciting and the boring… ALL OF IT!  

The truth is that most people have at least one chapter in their life that they would like to pretend was not there. I believe that the trick to a happy, and even successful life is not only owning your story but USING your story….the ugly story… the hard, painful parts. Acknowledging, owning, and using your pain always brings healing. It is how we redeem suffering.

Please hear me, this is not only how we redeem the BIG suffering in our life… but also how we redeem the SMALL suffering too.

Just sharing with people the reality of your everyday life … good and bad… can help you know you are not alone, it can help you feel normal, and useful, and blessed, and just better.

Share yourself a little more this month with your tribe…share with us… share with your neighbor, or family. Knowing, owning, and using your story will change your life, and may even change other people’s life’s too!!

Here’s the Challenge:

My challenge to you this month is to learn your story a little better… really look at it. I have a worksheet bundle called The Story of My Life. You can download it for free right here. Take time to go through these worksheets. Look at each chapter in your life.  Please don’t try to do this all in one sitting… you need time to think and process through this. Take the week… maybe even the month… See what you learn about yourself and your life story… maybe even a theme. I would love for you to share with us as you go through this process. Share on FB or in a text!

You are loved my sweet friends.