My school does a huge Art Day in the Spring and it’s amazing! This year we had painters, a potter, a whole cafeteria of activities for the kids, even a bagpiper and Vincent Van Gogh showed up! What was really amazing though was how one drawing could remind me of a very important lesson I learned in The Journey Training.
One of the artists was a caricaturist. If you’ve never seen a caricature, it’s a cartoon-like drawing that magnifies the most obvious features of the person or subject. I had one done years ago and was excited to have another. The teacher was the subject and the students got to watch. Despite my eagerness, I knew what the artist would pick up on because I remembered it being distinct from my last one. I knew when he finished, I would see a very large forehead and striking jaw. I’m self-conscious about this, but wanted to participate anyway. To involve my kids more, I had them tell the artist what I liked. One said coffee and another said football.
Then came the unveiling. Sure enough, he did a great job! I had a coffee cup and yes – a large forehead and jaw.
As I said, I predicted it, so it was an easier pill to swallow. I struggle with self-image issues, but my experiences with The Journey Training continue to teach me I don’t have to live there. We all have parts of us that are striking. It may be a jaw or large thighs. It may be a tall height or type of hair. It may be a bad temper or the tendency to hide behind happiness.
Those characteristics don’t define us. They just reveal aspects of ourselves that we are giving off. People may notice my chin, but that doesn’t make me ugly. People may see that I’m trying to be happy even when things aren’t good. It’s not bad, it’s just an experience.
The Journey Training gave me the freedom to receive and embrace feedback. It’s like a caricature, but this one can draw you into a better life!
Do you find it hard to trust people? Or maybe you even find it hard to trust yourself. Trust comes with practice – and it is a choice. Many people I’ve asked have told me, “I don’t trust someone unless I know them. It must be earned.” Is that the truth?
We trust every day of our lives. We trust people we don’t even know to stay on the opposite side of that double-yellow line separating traffic. We trust the food handlers in a restaurant when we order a meal. We trust a chair when we sit in it. And we trust a pilot to fly us in an airplane.
The following is a definition of trust from dictionary.com:
TRUST | confident expectation of something; hope.
Let’s explore this further.
A benefit of trust is relationship.
Without it, we miss out on one of the most fruitful things in life – relationships. Friendship, dating, marriage, and family all begin with trust. And if you choose not to trust someone, you can never experience the pleasure of these relationships to a deeper extent.
Another benefit of trust is freedom.
Do you try to do everything yourself? You may be missing out on opportunities by spending all of your time doing what you could trust others to do for you. Hey – this is biblical! In Exodus 18:13-27, Moses was trying to hear all of the disputes of the people himself. His father-in-law told him, “This is not good! You’re going to wear yourself out, and the people, too. This job is too heavy a burden for you to handle by yourself.” He told Moses to find elders who he could trust to settle the minor disputes among the people, leaving only the larger disputes for him. Do you need some freedom by appointing some of your too-heavy workload to some others? Yea, I know – it takes trust!
Possibly the biggest benefit of trust is realizing your dreams.
The Bible says “Hope deferred makes a heart grow weak.” When you lose your hope, your dreams become too far away to achieve. The first person you must trust when it comes to your dreams is you. You stand on a threshold. Behind you is the past, the threshold is where you are, and beyond the threshold is where you want to be – your hopes and dreams. The first step to achieving them is taking a leap of faith – on you.
One thing we teach at The Journey Training is that your hopes, goals, and dreams are possible. The first thing it takes is trust – trusting in others, and trusting in yourself. Can you get hurt? Of course you can. But you can also travel farther with trust than by going it alone. Can you fail? Yes. But with each failure you gain the wisdom and confidence to fail better next time – and you will eventually succeed.
Begin to trust and relationship, goals, and dreams will be a little closer to you. And who knows? You just might get exactly what you want!
