Let me get something off my chest: I’m not a celebrity. I have never written a New York Times bestseller, I don’t have my own reality TV show, and I’m not a diet spokesmodel. I have never built a multi-million-dollar business, no one asked me to star in their luxury car commercial, and I don’t own a trendy restaurant. I’m just your basic, run-of-the-mill, ordinary mom and wife.
Which is probably what you and I have in common. I’m guessing you don’t introduce yourself as a great woman or tremendous influencer or leader of many. Because, quite frankly, most of us don’t consider ourselves great. Stuck in an endless routine of cleaning, cooking, and caring for family members, we struggle to find meaning and worth in our daily lives. Exhausted at the end of another busy, chaotic day, we wonder if we have made any measurable progress, if it even matters, if our work even counts.
At least that’s how I feel. My friends say they do, too. And I’m pretty sure you, new friend, agree. We don’t have fancy titles or thousands of followers. We aren’t CEOs or wildly successful entrepreneurs or mayors or beauty queens.
We’re ordinary housewives, mothers, friends, church members, and citizens of a community. We drive minivans and shop at Target and wear jeans almost every day. We’re feeling pretty insignificant, powerless, tired, under-caffeinated, under-appreciated, and even discouraged most of the time.
But that’s not the whole truth. We are much more than that.
You and I have probably never met, though I hope someday we do. I hope if you run into me at Starbucks, you grab me to tell me about how you are using your life to make an extraordinary difference — that you are rocking the ordinary.
But unless you are a friend of mine here in Texas, we probably haven’t met yet. If you are a local friend and I’ve already forgotten your name because I have inherited my mother’s early-onset slowly-losing-my-mind, reintroduce yourself to me, and I’ll be thrilled to know you all over again. But even though we haven’t yet shared coffee, I believe in you. I believe you are amazing and talented and capable and living a life of tremendous influence.
You are. Do you believe it?
Maybe not yet. And that’s ok. It is hard to believe that the omnipotent God, Creator of all the universe, wants to use everyday, ordinary women — your typical suburban housewives and mothers and working-hard-just-to-scarf-down-supper gals who are too tired to stand up straight without two pots of coffee, three chocolate bars, and insole support.
But that is, indeed, who He uses.
I only recently came to understand that. I’m still learning it, actually. Which is why I am writing this book. I need something, someone to explain to me what really matters, what the work and the laundry and the frustration and the late nights and the bills are all for, why I should keep caring and dreaming and loving. I need to know this all matters.
Read the rest in Rocking Ordinary.
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