What does burning your finger 3 times, dropping glitter all over the floor, crinkled fused pockets, bulky embellishments, crooked photos, scrapbooking hissy fits, and breaking a bottle of glue have in common?
This layout.
Yep…this layout was fail after fail after fail. It honestly took me forever and felt like just one disaster after another. Honestly, I hate every single moment of making this layout. I burned my finger twice on my hot glue gun and once on my fuse tool. I fused a pocket badly and ended up with crinkles in the page protector. I place photos on cards crookedly. I broke apart a wood veneer word. Glitter clung to everything. And finally, the icing on the cake, I poured embossing glue all over my whole desk and outfit. Let’s just say this page was a royal mess.
But somewhere along the way I learned a very important life lesson…
The truth is that things don’t go as planned…things don’t work out. We all make mistakes, have frustrating, stressful days and moments. Life honestly sucks sometimes. Life is messy and a failure sometimes.
But, if we push through the stress, work through it and keep going, IT WILL WORK OUT. When we keep going and don’t give up we prove something to ourselves and those around us. We are stronger than our failures. We are bigger than the little moments that suck. And sometimes the mess is what makes life beautiful – because somewhere in the midst of mess, failure and disaster beauty can be born. And just like this layout that was so stressful to create, in the end when we keep pushing forward it will work together for good.
I once heard someone say, “what defines us is how we rise after we fall.” So it’s not the falling or the failure that defines us but what we do after we fall, what we do after we fail. Each time I fail, which is daily, I have a choice. I can either choose to get up, dust myself off and walk (or limp) away OR I can sit and cry that I fell and give up. Pushing forward and persevering when life sucks, is what defines us. James 1:4 says, “Perseverance must finish its work, so that you may be mature and complete and not lacking anything.” I want that – to be mature, complete and not lacking. But I guess that means I’m going to have to go through some crap to get there. Hmmm…not sure if I’m ready for that, but I sure want to try.
Want to check out the process video for the layout above?
Hope you have a lovely day. Be encourage.
xoxo Tori