Plodding!

       Can I just add a little addendum to yesterday's post?
       Just this morning I read these words by one of my favorite writers, Robert Morgan: "It's easier to plot than to plod, but both are necessary."
       Meaning--yes, we need to plot and plan, but life is primarily composed of lots of plodding...of putting one foot in front of the other and doing the work that needs to be done.  Even when you don't feel like it.
       Kind of like today--definitely a plodding kind of day where there's work to be done, but the old energy and motivation is flagging.  Like one of my mom's pillows used to read: "My get up and go...got up and went!"
       The word plod apparently comes from an Old English word meaning "puddle."  (Which would make it Bingley's favorite word since he loves, loves, loves a puddle...but I digress.)  Thus, someone who is a good plodder "is willing to get his feet wet and wade through the mud and mire to arrive at his destination."  Oftentimes that's what it takes, doesn't it?  Simply persevering and doing what God's called you to do at the time, even when the going gets tough or uncertain or frustrating or unrewarding.  
      One more quote from Rob Morgan: "Success is doing our work one task at at a time, one step at a time, one moment at a time, relishing the smallness of it while trusting God for its power to change the world through chain reactions of blessings we'll recognize only in heaven.  So we must practice the power of plodding and despise not the day of small things."
      "Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and He will establish your plans." (Prov.16:3)  And "let us us also lay aside every weight [for me, right now: the weight of laziness,  lack of desire and energy] and sin which clings so closely [Amen!], and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the Founder and Perfecter of our faith" (Heb.12:1-2).
       So here's to plodding!...while keeping my eyes focused on Jesus (and that makes all the difference).
      But I also have to add that sometimes a visual aid helps us in the midst of the plodding.  My visual aid came in the form of my new favorite picture our daughter texted us this morning from Chapel Hill.  Her caption reads "My favorite place to do work"--

       Gotta love the toes.  And the view of the Planetarium.  And the Carolina blue sky.  And just generally the whole idea of reading and studying on the KD front porch in one of God's best places on the planet.
       So yeah,  as I'm plodding, I've decided to imagine that I'm doing my work right there on that porch... shoes off, sunglasses on, book in lap.  I may be plodding on the outside...but it's "Carolina in my mind" on the inside!  And Jesus just up ahead.  Thank You, Lord.
       To God be the glory.