YOUR Dream Deferred

***Disclaimer*** I will be perfectly honest and admit this definitely applies to me as well!

It’s 2014. People you know are writing books, relocating, starting new jobs, building viable side business ventures, graduating and even going back to school … all in an effort to live out THEIR dream.  My question: what are YOU doing to live out YOUR dream?

You've prayed about your dream (and maybe even fasted about it), you've planned it all out in your head, and NOTHING has happened.

What if I told you YOU'RE the reason your dream has been deferred? What if I told you there has been no progress on your dream because YOU haven't made a move? That praying then failing to put in work is just as futile as putting in work without praying? 

The bottom line is you need both Young Nehemiah. Build (pray) with one hand and fight (work) with the other, but continue both... you can't afford to stop doing either! We often hear “write the vision and make it plain” … but we often leave out the succeeding text of “that he may run who reads it” … So, you’ve written the vision and you’ve read it … but have you RAN with it?

Yes, your dream seems too big & too daunting of a task at times but God is bigger and He'll complete that good work He began in you. Ask God to search your heart and show you what YOU’RE afraid of regarding that which you have been called to do. God has not given you, me, your cousin or your mama a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind … so let’s GEAUX! (Excuse my Louisiana jargon!)

This year I’m running with the vision God gave me … and I pray you do the same for the vision He’s given you ... Now get busy running!

I'm Gone!

Love you lots!

Allison

Cops & Robbers

When I was little I absolutely hated playing “Cops & Robbers” … for a couple of reasons: I didn’t think it was an appropriate message for kids our age … and oh yeah, the REAL reason: I could never catch my cousin (even when I took my shoes off, smh).

So who would have thought that I would still be playing “Cops & Robbers” 20 years later? ... Just a slightly different twist to it: Copping out of my shortcoming, failures, & sin and continuously ROBBING myself of the growth I so justly needed.  #Confession: I actually think 2013 may have been the year of “most excuses ever made” by me.  There’s my truth, so deal.

At the root of all the excuses and cop-outs was simply pride.  Admitting “hey, I screwed up… I dropped the ball … although I DID have good intentions, I didn’t follow through” meant facing that #PerfectPatty isn’t so “perfect” after all.  This is the thing: I didn’t mind NOT being perfect, I just had a problem ADMITTING I wasn’t perfect.  “Perfect Patty messed up.”

Pride made me keep everything I struggled with, battled and face bottled up, emotionally isolated in a crowd of people, and not open up to the people God’s blessed me with to be accountable with. Listen: I got a 4.0 last semester all while my hair was shedding like crazy because of stress and I almost had a mental breakdown.

Didn’t even tell anyone because I thought it showed “weakness”… then I was reminded that not only is God's strength made perfect in my weakness (2 Cor 12:9) but also that God has blessed me with people who help me carry me when I’m weak and they are strong (Rom 15:1; Gal 6:2) … as I often do for others.  WHY am I sharing all of this?

Couple reasons: (1) God’s challenging me to be more transparent so He can be glorified even more and (2) I want to encourage you to utilize the folks God’s given you to be authentic with so that you can grow WITHOUT the stress of secret pressures! NOT saying go out and run your business down to the first person you see (discretion is KEY!), but I’m speaking of those people who GOD has hooked you up with. (S/O to MY accountability partners!)

This would be a person who’s proven to be a trustworthy friend, someone who is willing to pray for/with you and respects the weight of your transparency.  Reach out to the people in your life who will call you out on your foolishness in private, correct you in a loving way, then pray for you to be built back up … and you do the same for them as "as iron sharpens iron" (Prov. 27:17).  It’s made a WORLD of difference over here!

Love y'all!

Allison

P.S. - Check out this video "Christians Frontin'" by @whatisjoedoing that actually convicted me about not writing this two weeks ago when I was supposed. (Y'all forgive me tho, right?)