Hi everyone! It’s been a long time since I wrote on this blog. Momma has been so awesome and has allowed me to work on things that demanded my attention, but now it’s MY turn.
Blessing by Design has been up and running for about 3 months, and while that may not seem like a long time to you the customer, it can feel like AGES to the owner. Blessing by Design amazes me every single day, but sometimes I look to the future—the time when Blessing by Design is encouraging and ministering to thousands of people all over the world. What I’ve found is that very few people want to talk about the PROCESS—the process of starting a business, keeping it from plunging into the red, working your butt off to please the customers and always wondering if it’s enough to get a sale. It’s VERY difficult to stay encouraged and to plow through sometimes. Now don’t get me wrong, running a business is AMAZING and I absolutely love it. I love all the testimonies and the encouraging words from family members and random customers. But sometimes, like in everything, we get discouraged and sometimes we need someone to say things or to do things that keep us going. So that is what this post is for—to give YOU those words, those tools, to stay encouraged in ANY difficult situation.
Before I go off and tell you those ways, I’d like to update y’all on Blessing by Design’s progress. It’s been amazing, ABSOLUTELY amazing. I can’t believe how well it’s doing. We’ve had 15 orders and over 800 individual visitors! I’m flabbergasted. You might be thinking, “That doesn’t sound like much.” But it means the WORLD to me. I love watching the store as I do my work, watching the sessions number rise and rise. It’s so encouraging and I’m VERY thankful for every session and visitor. Thank you to everyone who has made an order. It means, as I said before, the WORLD to me. Thank you. Thank you for all your encouraging words and I’m glad to hear that you’re enjoying your products.
So anyway…on to those ways…
The Bible
The Bible is the BIGGEST source of encouragement that I have and it may not be for the reasons you’re thinking. I love reading Psalms. Why? Because I like to think of it as David’s journal, his personal diary. In Psalms, David records his frustrations and doubts as well as the times when God answered him quickly and when God saved him. Some of the time, David was going through the same frustrations that we do today and God’s answers for him can be answers for us too. For those of you with diaries…go and look at just a few of your entries. Do you see Psalms in your own diary or journal? I know that I do in mine.
A Journal
Those of you who keep journals, WHY do you journal? Now it may be different reasons for different people or a combination of reasons. One of the reasons that I keep a journal is to accurately record my progress mentally, emotionally and most of all spiritually. Now let’s go back to David and Psalms. In my journal, I have what I call “David moments” where I literally sound like a passage right out of Psalms. It sounds like doom and despair, like nothing’s working out, etc. Then, just like in Psalms, it’s almost like God answers me without saying a word and I immediately go into praise, in the MIDDLE of my journal entry. Here’s what I love about journals after weeks, months, YEARS after I write it, I can look back and read my praises and—in effect—answers from God and it encourages me to “keep on, keepin’ on.” It encourages me to keep going and to keep growing.
Family
Family is one of the top things that encourages me; mostly because they support me and all that good stuff. But maybe one of the most overlooked places of encouragement is not your flesh and blood family, but your family in Christ. I know I overlooked it at first. Some of the best encouragement, even better than my family, was from a brother or sister in Christ—especially ones who are going through the same things you are or they went through it sometime in the past. I’ve had many brothers and sisters alike who reached out to me with advice, encouragement and even orders. It’s a blessing to have siblings who are willing to help.
There are many other reasons for many different people, but these are the top 3 for me. These things and people keep me going and keep me encouraged to keep doing what I love and not worry about it. I hope that this post has been to you as what other siblings’ words have been to me, encouragement to keep going, to “keep on, keepin’ on.”
One more thing…I try to remember that my value doesn’t come from things that I do but on who I am. I created this shirt as a reminder that God loves me, always. Just be.
Thanks for reading my blog post today!
Rinne