31 Days of Victory

A Phone Call

I made a phone call.

That’s it. That’s my victory. It’s embarrassing to admit it, but that’s what I want to celebrate from day 6.

It might seem like a small thing to you, but it is not to me. I hate phone calls. I don’t even particularly like talking to my friends on the phone. If I have something to tell you, I would rather walk to your house and tell you than call you on the phone.

But this phone call was motivated by love. I had arranged a little get together for a friend’s birthday last night at a nearby restaurant (and that in itself I can celebrate because I am not an organizer of people). In the afternoon, it occurred to me that I should make a reservation. I argued with myself a little, trying to convince myself it was unnecessary, but in the end I decided that I wanted the night to go well for my friend, and that required a reservation.

So I made the call. Victory! Secondary victory: having the guts to admit that this is a significant victory to me. Double bounce!

What are you calling victory today?

Continue ReadingA Phone Call

It’s All Him

It’s hard to find a clear victory in a day when all you did was sit in a chair listening to a speaker for 8 hours. It might be my victory is that, despite less than 5 hours of sleep, I did not fall asleep. Ok, I only fell asleep for brief moments. But I did not fall off my chair. Victory!

So instead I was going to ride on our daughter’s coattails for the day, because while I was fighting off sleep she was not only scoring her first goal of the season, it was the winning goal for the first win of the season. Victory!

Erik said I can’t steal her victory, but I feel victorious so I still think it should count.  Just as I was sitting down to type though, our son peeked over my shoulder and said, “I like it when you do things like this.”

“Like what?”

“Like since you started writing about victories, you’re . . . . nicer. You seem happier. I wish you could be this way all the time!”

Oh boy.

Me too, kiddo. But who says I can’t? I feel like the places where I’ve seen victory this week have just been the times when I was cognizant enough to say, “Hey, God can give me what I need in this moment” and then I asked him for it.

So really, it’s all Him. It’s His victory in me. And that someone else can see it? Victory!

Where are you calling victory today?

Continue ReadingIt’s All Him

Writing

Friday mornings are one of my favorite times of the week because I get to spend 2 1/2 hours hanging out with several incredible women as we dig deeper into life and try to listen well and love each other where we are. It’s good stuff, I tell ya.

After “group” as we call it (which makes it sound like therapy, which it kind of is except free and more fun) I often have an hour and a half to kill before getting my son and his friend from school. Today, I determined that I would spend that time writing.

Apart from my blog, I have been starting to work on writing a book. I’ve had this idea in the back of my mind for a long time, but it’s amazing how I can find ways to not work on it. I try to schedule times to write it, and suddenly I am incredibly motivated to clean my house to within an inch of its life, or I find many things on the internet which I must read, or I have to organize my closets or run errands. Yesterday, I had planned to write all day but God decided to send me to the emergency room instead. I’m calling that not my fault.

So my victory today is that I said I would write, and I did. It’s that simple. I ignored the voices that called me to do something else, and I just wrote. It wasn’t hours, and maybe I’ll erase everything I wrote the next time I look at it, but I wrote. Victory!

What are you calling victory today?

Continue ReadingWriting

Perfect Peace

Did you know that if you say you’re having chest pains at the ER, you get in immediately? So you could say, “I broke my arm. And also, I’m having chest pains,” and you’d be at the front of the line. I will warn you, though, chest pains will result in lots of expensive testing. You need to decide how much money that time you just saved is worth to you. Your call.

I know this, because that’s what I did this morning. I’ll skip to the punch line and declare that my victory of the day is not dying from a heart attack at the age of 40!

Well, I could stop there, but the bigger victory for me is the way God led me to respond to this emergency. Around 7:30 this morning I started experiencing pain in the right side of my chest. Taking deep breaths hurt a lot, which caused, naturally, shortness of breath. My inhaler didn’t seem to do much so we sent the kids to school with someone else (shout out to my awesome friend Jenny for stepping in with 10 minutes to get ready!) and Erik took me to the ER.

As we were arranging all this, and googling, “heart attack symptoms women,” I started to be very fearful, panicked really. (FYI panicking when you are having trouble breathing is a poor choice). We climbed in the car and started driving, and I started to pray. That was when God reminded me of Isaiah 26:3-4, “You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, for he trusts in you. Trust in him at all times, O people, for the Lord, the Lord is the rock eternal.”

And right there was my victory, and it was all God. Because as I read those words over and over, I just felt held in his perfect peace. Whatever happened, I was in his hands.

So as we spent 4 hours in the emergency room getting my blood test, chest X-ray, and CT scan, I was at peace, because he kept me there. And you know what? It all turned out exactly the same way that it would have had I gone into it with fear. Except everyone had a much more enjoyable experience because Gina stressed is not a blessing to anyone.

They don’t know what happened. They suspect, and so do I, that it was something muscular that caused my chest, then back, then neck to tense up and constrict my breathing. This is wonderful justification for me to have regular massages to keep my muscles relaxed. I’d rather do them for $4 on the beach in Thailand with a lime drink in my hand, but I’ll take what I can get.

Where did you see victory today?

Continue ReadingPerfect Peace

Choosing My Attitude

Day 2 could have gone the way of the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. I only managed to fall asleep at 2 am with the help of Z Quil (which, by the way, is really just Benadryl) which made me wake up at 6:55 feeling like I was walking through molasses. Being the introvert I am, I truly need at least an hour upon waking during which I am not required to interact with anyone. Two hours is a safer bet. Otherwise, my reserves are low and I grumble through the day feeling like I’m playing catch up. Basically, I was like a bear who was yanked out of hibernation and asked to mother immediately.

It got even better. The dog threw up on the carpet. There was a giant cockroach in our living room. The kitchen hadn’t been cleaned properly for two days. The laundry was reaching climbable heights. And me, looking at all of it from empty.

That’s when I decided that this would be my victory today – I would not be the mama who waves the white flag just because the day doesn’t start out on her side. It’s tempting to feel like it’s such a small thing – basically, I chose a good attitude. But that small choice set the course for the whole day. At lunch Ethan stopped and said, “You know, I’m having a good day,” and I thought, “if I had chosen differently, he might not have said that.”

I’m calling that my victory.

What are you calling victory today?

Continue ReadingChoosing My Attitude

Talking to Myself

Ok, here goes. I can tell already that this is going to be a good challenge for me, if for no other reason than that it makes me think about it all day. This detracts from me thinking about other, less important things, like where I could find some chocolate or whether or not my hair is behaving.

I also have the feeling though that the things I will be led to call victories will require a higher degree of transparency than I might typically want to display on a regular basis. Yikes!

Take today, for example. This morning, my husband and I were asked to share for a few minutes at the day of prayer about faith. I’d been thinking about what to say for a few days and felt confident of what I should say. In the few minutes before we were going to speak, though, I started getting nervous.

So I asked myself why I would be anxious, and the answer is: this was one of the first times I was speaking to these people. I wanted them to like me. No, if I’m honest it’s more than that – I wanted them to think well of me and be impacted by what I said. I wanted them to be impressed, to find me valuable.

When I realize things like that, I can get discouraged. I don’t like that I care so much about what others think, about the image I portray. But I’m learning to take those desires at face value and say, “I get why you feel that way, but Gina, it doesn’t matter what people think. What matters is that you say what God has put on your heart. He has already established your value. This changes nothing.”

So I had that little internal pep talk with myself, right there in the second row, took a deep breath, and relaxed. And right there, that’s what I’m calling victory.

What can you call victory today?

Continue ReadingTalking to Myself

31 Days of Victory – a writing challenge

My post from last week about calling victories keeps lingering in my mind, so when I saw this challenge to write every day for 31 days about one topic, I knew this was it.

For the month of October, I want to take time each day to call the victories. I thought about finding a picture that looked victorious, maybe one of me crossing a finish line. Then I remembered that I only have one picture of me finishing a race that my friend Tammy took, and I intentionally gave her my best, “Is it over yet? I’m dying!” look. Definitely not a look of victory.

But what I’m looking for aren’t the obvious victories, because let’s be honest – those don’t come every day. No, I want to look harder. I want to celebrate the little things, which really aren’t little at all. I can be so focused on wanting to do great things that I miss the greatness of little things. Those are the victories.

So I chose this picture because I think this is what victory looks like – light breaking through dark places. I’m curious to see what I will find this month. I’m excited to see what victories come, and which ones have been there all along.

I’m getting my “V for Victory” fingers ready. I hope you’ll join me and call your own victories.

Continue Reading31 Days of Victory – a writing challenge

Call It Victory

I am injury prone when it comes to exercise. Last year I got tendinitis in my wrist from push ups. Before that, it was sore heels from running. (I was told I have not been blessed with enough fatty tissue in my heels to run properly. I suggested a transfer from elsewhere in my body, but apparently it doesn’t work that way).  Prior to that it was bursitis in my left elbow from P90X. I couldn’t bend it for a week. Try going to the bathroom without bending one of your arms. Seriously, try it.

This time, it was a pulled muscle in my hip from running. God might be trying to tell me something like “Slow down” with all these injuries, but let’s ignore that obvious fact to get to the point of this post, which is what the doctor said to me today.

I was hoping and praying that this visit to an orthopedic surgeon wouldn’t require the weeks of OT warranted by the previous injury. The doctor did give me a cortisone shot, after assuring me that it wouldn’t make me cry and curse like last time (because hips have more cushioning than wrists). He told me I needed to rest it a week, and stretch it. As he got up to leave he asked, “Do you want to do a follow up visit, or should we just call this a victory?”

Call it a victory? That sounded like a great option, so I agreed, “Let’s call it a victory.”

It was a simple phrase, but it’s had me thinking since then. Do I call victories, even in the little things? Managing to get healthy meals on the table in the midst of a busy week? Victory. Writing that note to someone? Victory. Taking initiative to move forward on a project? Victory. Praying over something instead of fretting? Victory.

I think we’re so inclined to see what we’re not doing, what we could be doing, that we forget to see what we are doing, what is happening, and call it victory.

I never expected to walk away from today’s appointment feeling victorious, but I did, just because someone told me it was. I want to remember to recognize the victories and call them, to celebrate where things are going well. They’re all around us, really, we just need to see them.

Where are you experiencing victory today?

Continue ReadingCall It Victory

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