Cambodia, July
Ministry: Feed My Lambs – a daycare and nightcare for babies and toddlers of women who would have aborted and sex workers.
Helping Daniel learn to walk. He walked on his own the last week!
It's not as hard as you think.
It's just not.
We like to make life complicated. We like to think it's hard. Whether it's fundraising, changing your life trajectory, working out, relationships with family or friends, whatever, fill in the blank.
We psych ourselves out, we restrict ourselves, we think we only know how to function in one way and not another. We imposes limits on ourselves constantly because we think doing the thing we really want or should do is too hard.
But it's not. It's almost never as hard as we think.
This month in Cambodia I learned this with kids. As an only child, I've never been around kids a lot, especially young ones. When we learned we would be working in a daycare for the month with babies and toddlers, I was nervous. I was excited to conquer my fear of young kids and grow, but also afraid because I had no idea what I was doing.
The first day was a little awkward and I was unsure of what I was allowed to do with them and what was ok. But I jumped in anyway. And even by the end of the first hour, it felt so natural. It was not as scary or alien as had thought.
We had 6 infants and 6 toddlers each day. This ministry is a daycare for kids who would have been aborted; expectant mothers are found and informed about the option of free childcare and these are the babies that mothers chose to keep.
The kids are adorable. I enjoyed hanging out with them more and more each day. And by the end of the month, I was really sad to leave these awesome little babes who I had connected with so much.
Although sometimes the days were tiring, loving those kids just wasn't as hard as I thought.
This has also been true with the Race overall. Many of us thought it would be terribly difficult; many of the people we meet along the way assume the same. And although there have been some hard months and moments, doing this has not been nearly as hard as I and many others assumed it would be. Our minds expected challenges beyond the reality; really, the Race is just normal life and ministry in another place.
It's not as hard as we thought.
This is one of the biggest lies that hold us back: that things are too hard for us to tackle. This is the root of settling, procrastination, quitting, and stagnating. We've got to recognize this for the lie it is. It's not that hard; it's not that overwhelming. With most things, taking the first step is hardest and momentum takes over after that. Instead of thinking of all the reasons you can't, decide on the first step and do it. Just do it.
It's not as hard as you think.
What in your life have you made out to be harder than it is? What seems daunting to you?
Remember, it doesn't need to be. It's not as hard as you think.
