On Monday I lost something very important to me. Without going into detail, it was a piece that I’d been working on {a piece of writing to be exact} that was longer than usual for me.
I’d printed it out and had been editing it by hand
{it’s how I edit best}
for weeks now.
It represented many, many hours of lost sleep, neglected laundry and un-done dishes. It represented a mosaic of thoughts and deeply woven words, a few new ideas and some old ones that I’d rebirthed. It represented all of the I-can’t-read-to-you-right-now-honey and just-a-few-more-minutes-sweetheart moments of the past several weeks.
And now the two folders that I had been working on and tucking safely away are gone.
So I’ve come to a crossroads. And it’s the same crossroads that we each come to every day of our lives.
Do I continue when it gets hard {because the end result is worth it} or do I scrap it all and stop?
In essence, do I print out my hard copy again {because, thankfully, I do have that} and start to recreate the edits that I’d been working on for so many weeks? Or do I take it as a sign that
none of this
is worth it?
Before I lost the thing the end of it was in sight. I was nearing the culmination of what I was trying to accomplish, but now it is all gone.
Do I push through the hard parts or do I quit?
Do I begin again {even though I can’t believe I have to begin again} or do I just give up because that is so much easier?
Do I do the easy because it’s easy or do I do the hard because it’s worth it?
Today I need the strength to continue what I’ve begun and to recommit to the end of it. Do you?
Let’s use the comment section today to do to things: Share the thing that we are tempted to give up on and then to encourage one another in finishing that thing that we’ve begun but is so hard to finish.
“Age wrinkles the body. Quitting wrinkles the soul.” — Douglas MacArthur
Update: I found it. In a place I’d already looked. Heart be stilled, but I did. And I’m still not giving up.
Praise the Lord Sarah! See how the Lord used it though to encourage yourself like David did during his times of sorrow and depression. I pray God blesses your efforts and teaches you through it. Love you.
thank you Tiffany!
Recently I got the up and famous IPhone4G and I have never been so happy. I can be ANYWHERE and get Sarah’s blog. Five years ago my Son put in my blog; for four years I never missed my blog every day! when FB came on, I quite writing and no matter if I just had one comment, I enjoyed writing my blog. I don’t study now and a lot of negatives came in. You are the only blog I read and cannot ever miss. YOU are the best in the world because we all relate to you and you are a mind reader and it’s always EXACTLY what I go through. You are famous to my husband and me. You are brilliant and so loving!! We appreciate you for ALL your talents.
wow, carol. thank you so much!!
I have been training for a 5k that’s also packed with obstacle courses and it’s been so tough and everyday I’ve wanted to quit! So, reading your post today really touched me. I am so an in the moment type of person. I have a really hard time seeing the final picture. This was a great reminder to me so thank you! And I hope the editing process goes a bit faster for you this time!
keep running sarah!! keep running!! you can do it!! =)
I have come to path that I would much rather have avoided, but the Lord knows I need to be freedom. I have believed for so long the lies of inadequacy and unworthiness, that it has become of how I view myself. I have a choice today to find the root of my insecurities and fight tooth and nail to not allow them power over me, or I can quit trying to find the and believe the lies. Thank you for your prayers, and your perfectly timed encouragement that has given me the strength to keep fighting.
Casey
keep fighting casey. you are NOT inadequate and you are very important. don’t quit!
Very glad you found your folder. Many times, I loose my passion and vision for writing and ministry. It is hard to press on when nothing is there, to sit and force my fingers to type when that emotion and inspiration isn’t there!
Thanks for the encouragement to press on and not give up.
you can do it Jody!! keep those fingers typing!! =)
to be honest…blogging…I have been doing this for less than a year…each week I entertain thoughts that I think I might be done…but with encouragement from my hubby and I think the Lord continued prodding…I hit publish…one post at a time…Part of my prayer I pray almost daily is…to be courageous in thoughts and actions(i am not a risk taker)…this is my courageous right now.
And at my age…I love…love the quote…I will take that with me.
so happy you found your work….blessings as you continue to press forward.
thank you roseann! don’t give up! you have wisdom and experience to share. keep at it =)
I’ve been on a quest, lately, to finish half done projects. I finished a quilt that I’d been working on for about 2 years! It got hard, so I put it away and ignored it (in my defense, I gave birth to a child during this time period, ha!). Just the same, I don’t like having lots of half-done projects around the house.
It seems to be innate, that, when things get hard and overwhelming we often ignore them. We don’t want to have to go to the hard work of finishing what we started.
Thanks for the transparent words this morning. It’s definitely got me thinking
i’m so glad meg!! you can do it, one project at a time. =)
I gave up on my house. I was sick of doing everything by myself (i am a working mom and feel we should share the load). I was pregnant then had a new baby… so I gave up. I didn’t care about what piled up on the table, or if dishes sat in the sink for an entire week. STUFF was everywhere. We couldn’t find things when we needed them… but I didn’t care.
I am not giving up this time!
I am starting to begin again. Getting things organized and cleaning up the clutter. Changing my frame of mind to bear the brunt of the workload (even if I don’t think its fair). I don’t want to give up again. I don’t want to live in a clutter filled, messy, can’t find anything, dirty house. So I must do something about it. And I must not quit (again) when the going gets tough. I must set the example for my children. (and instill in my sons that they must HELP their wives when they get older, even if they don’t like the house or the neighborhood or the fact that they live in a flood zone and have to pay a million and one dollars for flood insurance…they still must HELP their wives) Sorry that was a bit of a rant
don’t give up jimmie lee. praying that you can get the help you need from friends, etc and that you will feel organized again. it’s so hard!! Don’t give up!! =)
Thank you for this reminder today… as God is constantly reminding me to NEVER GIVE UP!!
I will Never Give Up on my marriage restoration… even though the circumstances look impossible today. God is the God of impossible!
I will Never Give Up on my healed family… even though my three teenagers have been hurt and are experiencing anger and bitterness; even though they have lost hope in their God… I know God has a plan to lead their journeys back to Him!
I will Never Give Up on believing for complete healing for my 1 year old baby boy… For God is the Ultimate Physician… By HIS stripes, my sweet Isaac is healed!
I will Never Give Up on believing my financial situation will be turned around… as God is the Giver and has unlimited resources. He can make anything out of nothing!
I will Never Give Up trusting God for some things I believe He is working on in my life right now… many prayers are being said, doors are opening… God can make a way!
I will Never Give Up believing that God has a purpose for all that I have been through over the last 3 years… and really for the last 40 years of my life. I have been in the wilderness but believe God has been preparing me for a promised land… His ways are not my ways… His timing is not my timing… but He is faithful and I will trust Him completely!!
Thank you again for this reminder… I will NEVER GIVE UP!!!
oooh, i love this! you should print this out (your personal NOT GIVING UP manifesto) and put it somewhere important. i love it!! =)
Wow!
I pray that God honors your faith Tara!
He will honor you faith!
Don’t give up
What an awesome post!! Thank you Jimmie Lee. So funny — as I was reading your post, I thought, “WOW!! I’m going to print this out. It’s so beautiful.” Then I read Sarah Markley’s comment and I giggled.
What if we all wrote our own personalized manifestos to God like you just did?? Amazing things would come from it, I’m sure. I appreciate your inspiration today, and seeing your deep faith in the Lord. 
I SO get this. Thanks for the encouragement.
And Thank you for posting this even though you found it.
ha! yes. thank you laura. =)
First off what a relief you found it! Secondly, I have so been there before on more than occasion. Thirdly, I’m not gonna give up-and with that I give you my new blog-and inspirational one. And it would be fantastic if you would check it out-the lone post this far.
http://www.alittlesparklealotofgrace.com
i did danielle! thank you! i loved it. =)
Halfway through i thought to myself “perhaps the losing it is so you can realize that the truly important things have been neglected, that God is sending a message and you’ll find it again”.
So glad that you found it. I know for myself things breaking or being lost send me over the edge faster than anything else.
thank you Jess! =)
Sarah~~Without having read any of the other comments, Here’s my thought: there are two ways to look at it, 1. It got lost because the Lord really doesn’t want you to do anything else with it. 2. It got lost because it’s really good and will help others and Satan doesn’t want it out there. or maybe there’s a third? 3. The Lord wants you to think about it and do it over again because it really is worth all the time and effort. I don’t know, just my 2 cents.
Have a blessed day.
thanks Robin. =)
Thanks for this post. I have been building a non profit for two years now. Taking a vision God planted deep in my heart and making it come to life. And it has been HARD. Really HARD. This week I have wanted to GIVE UP. I have found myself “whining”…don’t you see how much “I” gave up to build “YOUR” vision. I quit my job, I made my family sacrifice, I gave up comforts of life, “I” “I” “I” …. I built this and then YOU gave me hardship. WOW really. I am typing this and feeling almost embarrassed of myself. Reality check.
I lost nothing.
I still have my foundation…family, marriage, food, clothes, etc. Losing some things on the battlefield really doesn’t equate to realizing that my vision, HIS vision remains the same. It never changed.
This probably doesn’t even make sense to you…but it was good for my soul to type it out. LOL
Thanks Sarah and blessings.
*sigh*
How did I (the one who goes deep on e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g) miss the depth of this post in my first read (and even my first comment?)
I read your blog from a writer’s stand point. Yeah, I still “get” it. But something, Someone pulled me back to read again. I took off my writer’s hat and this time read it–as a wife.
You wrote:
“So I’ve come to a crossroads. And it’s the same crossroads that we each come to every day of our lives.
Do I continue when it gets hard {because the end result is worth it} or do I scrap it all and stop?”
I’m going to continue…even though it’s hard. Believing the result will be worth it.
{tears}
Thanks Sarah.
yes. keep going laura. the end is worth it. thank you for this.
Every time I lost a big project (it happened frequently when we didnt have all the back-up options we do nowadays, didnt it?) I learned that I needed to start fresh, and the final product often ended up quite different. It is frustrating, and I feel for ya, but I am sure there was a reason for it to happen! All the best!
thank you julie! =)
Hey Sarah!
I’m not giving up on a brother friend today! God is teaching me how to pray for him, on his behalf, better today. It’s been a long haul but I know God wants my friend back! Thanks for sharing girl! ~ Blessings, Amy Alves
don’t give up, amy. thank you for sharing this and for being willing to stand for a friend. =)
What an encouragement this is, and no coincidence that I clicked over in my reader just now! I am on day #3 of a 90-day committment to eat healthier and exercise daily…and as good for me as this is, the problem lies in the fact that I HATE exercise and I love to eat
It’s only day #3 and I already want to quit. In fact, I’m procrastinating right now from starting my Jillina-Michaels-tortue workout. But I WILL NOT give up, I am purposing to press through. Thank you for you words and sharing you life with us here. May your week be blessed! I’m off for a little circuit-training torture 
I’m so excited that God brought your manuscript back so I don’t have to beg you to redo all that work. Your words bless me. Thank you.
I loved seeing how God allowed you to misplace your work so you could unquestionably know that it is worth it to Him for you to do the hard work. I’m also grateful because it allowed you to write this post to encourage me & many others. For me, I’m encouraged by this post to keep writing. I’ve been fumbling through the process of writing through blogging & finally taking the steps God has ordered for me to write an eBook. Each time I ask God if He’s sure this is what He wants me to do, He gives me a sign of confirmation. Today it was your post. Thank you for encouraging a girl who fights being intimidated in this big blogging/writing world to stay focused on my purpose!
I read almost all of the comments so far and I must say that I am in awe of all of these women.
Today I commit to not giving up on being a wife and mama. I’m in a situation right now where I’m being asked to give up the idea of having my own babies (and it isn’t God doing the asking). I believe God has placed a mama’s heart in me for a reason. I just can’t imagine not being a mama!
That being said, I’m going to have to do the hard thing because I’m believing God that the end result will be better than where I am now! I’m believing God will keep the promises He has made. I’ll hold (loosely) to them.
I am so glad you found it! That is one of the worst feelings. I was laid off two years ago and need to continue some education. It is daunting at times having been out of university for so many years and I don’t know for sure it will get me a new job. I love your blog and do not stop writing.
Sarah, I’m so glad that you found it!
Just last week I lost a flash drive that had my latest chapter — one that had just undergone several hours of editing. I’m grateful that I still have the original chapter backed up on my home computer, but I know the pain that comes from losing precious words (and the precious hours that it took to create those words!)
Your post felt especially timely — thanks!
oh i am so glad you found it! like, thrilled, even though i don’t know you and this is the first time i’ve read your blog!
partly because i just blogged last week about losing whole journals full of months of writing to the rain washing the pages clean… not something i can recover… and i haven’t been able to journal on paper since… maybe i’m using my blog as a journal now, cause i know it’ll stay out there in the worldwide web 
jamie
http://rustyartist.blogspot.com/2012/04/little-perspective.html
i’m SOOOO glad you found it! there seems to be a reoccurring theme in my life of losing the things that I absolutely value the most. otherwise i NEVER lose things, but twice now, I have lost what was most precious (materially) or what i thought was most precious at least. one just happened. i’m a writer. and a photographer. and a missionary. and i just returned from one of the most unbelievable journey’s of my life in Peru. hours before i left the country i had my 2 cameras, my journal, every picture from our hike to machu picchu, my passport, id, credit cards and money stolen. pretty much the camera, ipod and journal are those three things that define me, that i would take to a deserted island if i could take one bag. all i left peru with were my clothes and an iphone in my pocket that had pictures from the trail and a renewed sense of what i really value most. you can read the story on my blog
(www.b-b-g.blogspot.com) if you want but i ended up fighting my way out of the country and paying off an immigration agent to come back to the states… that helped put things in perspective.
all of this to say, i’m really glad you found what you lost. and i’m sure in your loss you encouraged more than just me to keep pushing on.
THANK YOU!
and… you should know that your blog has spurred on connections beyond your own story. thank you for writing and using your loss to connect others. reading the comment above my own prodded me to pour out my own story of loss to a complete stranger that she might find comfort in the same. here’s to allowing God to use our stories
http://bit.ly/KJ5KpH