“THE TURTLE WINS”
by Cindy Bice
Aloha!
In the story,” The Tortoise and the Hare,” the turtle wins!
Do you ever feel like you’re going at a snail’s pace trying to reach a goal and it seems like it’s taking forever to get there? Remind yourself, the turtle wins! You can do it!
It’s ok to take baby steps. Slow and steady wins the race! In a marathon, you pace yourself. It’s not a flat-out run like in a sprint. Keep your eye on the goal and keep moving forward. You will get there one step at a time!
I’ve worked on many different projects and it seems like the preparation takes longer than the last step. There are usually challenges along the way that make it all take even longer.
There were some badly damaged kitchen cabinets that I knew could be beautiful. I filled in the bad places, sanded, then repeated until they were smooth. Cleaned off all the dust and primed both sides, and then painted the top coat with a high gloss oil twice. Oils take a long time to dry, but are well worth the wait! That was the doors. Then I taped, primed, and painted the cabinets. Once everything was very dry, I re-attached the doors and added new hardware and they were beautiful!
It took a goal or a vision looking beyond what I could see with my own eyes. I then calculated the cost and what I would need to complete the project. I went through the steps of refinishing the cabinets. The prep work is what it took to make the final coat of paint look great! The turtle wins!
If I would have skipped the prep work, the top coat would have looked terrible and you’d see all the damage in spite of the new paint.
Are you willing to do what it takes to reach goals in your life? Patiently persevere.
Don’t give up when you’ve hardly begun. Going into it, know there will be opposition and challenges, but don’t let that deter you from your goal. Start with small projects and it will encourage you, when you finish them, to go on to bigger ones. Build your confidence in the Lord and in yourself as you conquer projects.
God is patient and long-suffering with us. I’m so glad He doesn’t throw us away because we’re broken or damaged! He lovingly sets us on the potter’s wheel and patiently works on us a little at a time. The more we yield to Him and His will being done in our lives, the more we reflect Jesus!
Philippians 4:13 (NKJV) “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Isaiah 64:8 (NIV) “Yet you, LORD, are our Father, We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.”
Isaiah 28:10 “For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:”
SONG: Hope in Front of Me (By Danny Gokey) ~ Lyrics video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJkjcWUceLg
PICTURE: Heliconia in my garden
Mahalo,
“TIMES OF REFRESHING” Garden Bible Study in Hawaii
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