Keep on Keeping On

"Don't Stop Believing"

Sometimes, you just have to keep pushing.  There are going to be days where you feel like you can't do anything right; like you haven't accomplished much of anything, and haven't made any sort of progress. 

I was practicing my clarinet this week when I was suddenly slammed with this overwhelming feeling that I still sounded like a 6th grader in "baby band".  I was still missing notes, misreading rhythms, and having the same personal-habit struggles I did when I first started playing this instrument.  It's the same feeling a person gets when they don't make the free-throw shot, again.  Or perhaps when you look back on a to-do list and realize you hadn't accomplished much of anything.  

In short, it sucks. 

But instead of letting myself throw the fit I wanted to throw, consisting of stomping and being way too rough with my instrument then would be wise, I stuck it out.  I played through another piece, played a few scales, and ended up practicing more than I planned on.  I still walked out feeling like a terrible musician.  But I didn't give up, I stuck with my original plan, and although I didn't feel like I had accomplished anything that day, I did later.  

This whole experience, and that little phrase reminded me of another phrase:

P.U.S.H. 

Pray Until Something Happens.

We are going to have days where prayer seems completely ineffective; like no one is listening.  On days like that, you have to keep on praying.  P.U.S.H. yourself to do even more than you were before.  Instead of just going to adoration, go to benediction too.  Even that day you aren't feeling the rosary, P.U.S.H. yourself to do more.  

Recall Matthew 6:26:

 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

You are. 

Totus tuus, 

LeAnn