Tag: discouragement

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Focus Friday: Let’s Focus on Seeing the End

When I swim on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, the coaches write a workout on the board. After weeks of ignoring it (doing my own thing as I got back into swimming), lately I’ve been trying to follow it.

One day last week it seemed doable:

I think I can do this! So I swam hard, marking off my laps with a waterproof playing card every time I finished 50 yards. (My old brain can’t just keep track in my head.)

The coaches were talking off to the side while I ticked off more and more yards.

I can’t believe I’m going to finish a full workout this time!

And then Coach Cassie stood up and wrote the rest of the workout on the board.

And just like that my confidence was shattered.

Of course that wasn’t the whole thing. I should’ve known I couldn’t do it.

But I kept swimming. I didn’t complete the entire list, but I did swim 1800 yards within the hour I was there. That’s the most I’ve done since I started in January!

When I could see the end, I pushed toward it.

But how can we push forward when we can’t see the end?

When we don’t know how long our relationship problems will last.

When we don’t know how the struggle with cancer will turn out.

When we don’t know if we can ride out the ups and downs of depression.

We push through because we have faith. Even though we can’t see the finish line and we don’t know how things will end, we can keep going as we trust that God will get us through every single step.

I don’t know if I’ll ever win a race in swimming, but I know that if I press on in life, someday I’ll win an even better prize.

“I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:14 NIV)

Is it hard to press on when you can’t see the end? How can focusing on God help you keep going?

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Focus Friday: Let’s Focus on Saving Up Encouragement

It’s safe to say that everyone experiences highs and lows in life. There’s an ebb and flow that’s inevitable. We can count on it just like the waves that shape the shorelines of the world’s oceans and big lakes.

If you’re like me, you may be one of the many people who struggle to find hope when the lows come. The tide goes out and you feel dragged from the familiar to the uncertain.

When times like that come, it might help to have some encouragement saved up. In my own life, there are some things I cling to when I’m tempted to give up.

There’s the hug and the simple “You’re so brave” a friend said when she saw me after my bout with major depression. That gives me the will to try when things seem hopeless.

I remember an established author writing “You’re an excellent writer!” in the margin of a project I sent her to look at. That keeps me going when I’m tempted to quit writing.

I see the look of love and concern on my husband’s face when I start talking about whether life is really worth it. I borrow some of his hope and muster up the will to find my purpose again.

These are all things in my head, but I’m wondering if it might be good to write them down and put them somewhere close. I could save them in a pretty box, a file folder, or a special file on my computer. That could be the place I run to when the dark times come. Reading over reminders of people’s words of encouragement could get me through the hard days.

I could sprinkle in special verses to remind me of God’s love and care, too:

Deuteronomy 31:6, Psalm 27:12, Proverbs 3:5–6, Isaiah 40:31, Isaiah 41:10, Lamentations 3:22–23, John 4:18, Romans 8:38–39, Romans 15:13, Philippians 4:13.

Saving up encouragement for the hard times just might be the thing that keeps me from drowning when the undertow of life threatens to drag me under.

I hope you’ll find a way to save up encouragement, too. Here’s one to get you started:

Life is hard sometimes, but you can do this! Don’t give up. You are loved!

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:16–18)

Do you have a special place where you can save up encouragement? How can focusing on God help you to hang on during the hard times?