accomplishment

okay so today i was looking through my Argentina pictures...and for those of u that don't know let me give u some bio on why i even went to argentina...i went last summer with my grandparents church to three different parts of argentina to 1. help remodel a youth camp (hard labor)2. run a vacation bible school .... i had the best time there and God truly used us in a great way! but to finish where i was going in my blog...today i was looking at my pictures and see i'm not a hard labor kind of girl so when i was asked to build a sidewalk i almost throw up...haha....u mean u want me and the other girls to break the side walk with a pick and than dig it out and dig two in. deep and than make cement the old fashion way and pour it down?!?!u must be crazy! but i did it and we made the best darn side walk in all of history and the best part was we were girls! The boys would make jokes about how we would never finish and we would give up but we showed them...when they were to tired to finish work we kept going into the night all because we wanted to finish we wanted to say i built that sidewalk i made that i did it i had an investment in it...i actually started something and finished! As hard as it was there were times i was tired...i complained...i hated the boys for making fun of us and wished at times argentina had the tools we had to make life easier but looking at those pictures i realized i didn't give up...and now the boys dormatory has amazing sidewalk to walk on when it rains...a small impact in the kingdom of God....so this started to make me think of accomplishments. How many times have we started something and not finished? Or let someone else laughter keep us from finishing? i know i'm guilty of it. Just like when i was building the sidewalk i get tired, i complain, and i wish it could be easier and try to take shortcuts...But doesn't it feel so good when you start something and u finish no matter how hard it is for u...its like a sense of holy crap i did it! i put my mind or strength to it and i did it....well i mean obviously with Gods help....but you did it! I mean that's how i felt when i got my undergrad in college....i couldn't believe i did it..i actually graduated soemthing that most people never do i did! there such a sense of accomplishment that i did something so hard! and it felt good and i'm a better person because of it....but than why is it so hard for us to finish the race sometimes...why is it so hard for us to finish school or a task or something God ask us to do....if accomplishment is so great and all that and a bag of potatoe chips...than why do we lose hope sometimes and quit or give up or just lose interest? Is it that we lose focus on the end? Or that we get frustrated because it's taking to long God? Do fear or even doubt keep us from finishing? Or is it other's that discourage us from finishing? i know i have been guilty of those feelings....but why? I mean i can do all things through Christ who strengthen me....but sometimes its not enough for me i know that promise but...sometimes i get tired and i don't want to finish...God brought me to those pictures to help me realize this today...see the sense of accomplishment u get from achievement is amazing but far more than that! God has promised to help us...and that if we don't turn in the towel he will help push us forward....and than God pointed me to these verses in Philippians...."Forgetting the past and straining toward what is ahead, I KEEP TRYING to reach the goal and get the prize for which God called me through Christ the life above. " You know the verse i mean don't we always read this about the christian faith but what if for a minute we applied this to our goals the things that we have started and haven't yet finished. God has called us to forget the past (which can mean other failures) and move forward....and keep trying...never giving up! So that we can reach our goal and get the prize for which God has called us... he doesn't call us to these goals for just fun there is a purpose in all he calls us...even my dumb sidewalk expereience...he has purpose in our accomplishments...when we accomplish our goals we are investing in his plan...in his big pciture that he is painting for our lives....Does that make u want to finish? because i know i do! i want to keep going no matter how hard it gets i want to see the result of my accomplishment...and it's going to feel good! So school maybe boring and hard and annoying but in one year i will be done...and i will be a therapist an actual therapist! Those people u see on TV yup i'm going to be one...and i'm going to help people and have an impact on there lives and there families...i just to have to endure the hard stuff yes it feels sometimes that i will never be therapist but i got to focus on the end and how my accomplishment with fit into God's gigantic plan!