Hey! Who put that there?
Do you ever feel like that? How did I get to this place in my life? How did we end up in this situation? How did that huge flame tattoo end up as a permanent part of my body?
I have been scratching my head for a couple of years at how I came to be in this place in my life. How did I end up the mother of 5 children? How have we survived all of these years on one income and especially the last couple of years? And now more than ever It feels like it all just happened to me–that I was not an active participant. But that’s not true. It has all been a series of choices and reactions to choices and thoughts about reactions to choices. I recently read the book The Traveler’s Gift by Andy Andrews and he has many good things to say about how we end up where we end up and what we can do from this point if we want to be successful.
“By disclaiming responsibility for our present, we crush the prospect of an incredible future that might have been ours.” The Traveler’s Gift
I highly recommend the book!
Crazy things do happen to us. Marriages fall apart, people get sick and die. There is very little in this life that we have control over. But we get to choose how we react to the crazy circumstances and we have control over ourselves.
How does all of this fit with a picture of my big flaming tattoo? I’m not sure exactly. Somehow in my mind–it does.
To me, my super sized tattoo represents walking through trials–walking through the flames and not being burned. My husband and I walked through these same fiery trials 6 years ago. I thought we both made it out unscathed. My mom, who tried desperately to thwart my efforts to get inked, calls this my battle scar. These are the verses that inspired my tat.
When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze..–Isaiah 43:2
It also represents growing in those trials. If I had my druthers, I’d really rather not do all of this growing.
“These trials are only to test your faith,
to show that it is strong and pure. It
is being tested as fire tests and purifies
gold, and your faith is far more precious to
God than mere gold. So if your faith remains
strong after being tried by fiery trials,
it will bring you much praise and glory and
honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed
to the whole world.” I Peter 1:7
Anybody want to go bike shopping?
But it also doubles nicely as a biker momma tattoo if I ever take up riding!
We are POWERFUL women taking this life one day at a time, fiery trials and all. We have made choices to get to this point in our lives and there are always choices available to us at any given moment. I choose to learn from people who have already been down this road. I choose to live a full life as long as there is breath in my lungs. I will survive in the words of Gloria Gayner.
Do you have any battle scars? What is the meaning behind your tattoos if you have them? If you don’t have one, but if you were going to get one, what would it be? Come over to facebook and tell me about it.
