Don't Settle

I think this can be a misleading saying because it can so easily cause us to become consumed with this mentality that we are the orchestrators of our own lives.

Don’t Settle.

In many ways this saying rings true. Don’t settle for a friendship that is negatively impacting your life. Don’t settle for a guy who isn’t pursuing you. Don’t settle for your life to be mediocre.

This is something I struggle with. I see the people around me, the pictures they are posting on Instagram, and the friends they post pictures with and so easily I can be consumed with thoughts, questioning how my life adds up next to theirs. It can become really easy to see your life as boring and bland when everyone else’s seems to be colorful and flourishing. I can get in a slump where I just become consumed with how ‘less than’ my life is.

The thing is a picture only shows a snapshot, when life is a moving picture. So you can’t compare your rolling film to someones photo. They won’t add up because they aren’t the same thing.

Have you ever felt this way?

I can settle for this mentality that my life just doesn’t add up to everyone else. The problem with settling is in turn we end up missing out on something really great.

I can be so consumed with stressing about the future that I forget to live in the now. I settle for worry over resting in God’s grace and plan for my life.

I can stress about guys and get consumed with searching for the perfect match, rather than trusting God to bring the right person into my life in perfect time. I can settle for less than what God has in store for me because I want control.

The thing about settling is it prevents us from fully experiencing God’s plan for our life.

I encourage you to find what you’re settling on in your life. Trust God. It is the hardest thing to do sometimes. Trust me when you choose to trust God, He can open your eyes to show you just how alive your life is where you are now.

Don’t settle for a life that you can control.

Trust God and hold tight to his plans for your life and He will be your guide. Your life won’t always look picture perfect, but when His plans unfold none of that stuff matters.

Just like a painting to create dimension you have to start with a darker base and build up to lighter colors. If you start with light and then try to build with darker colors, it will envelop whatever is underneath. In life we came into this world with a dark base, we have a selective pallet to choose from. The hardest part in life is to hand the paintbrush over to God and let Him paint the picture of your life. It may begin with struggles and darkness but soon light will touch it and the beauty will be evident.

Don’t settle for a boring painting. Hand the brush over and let God make something beautiful.