I now keep two notebooks of ideas for my blogs. One is a traditional paper notebook that I carry in my backpack at all times. The other is a digital notebook that is on my laptop and phone. These two resources enable me to get ideas down in print the moment they come to me. I now have several dozen ideas that range from one-line titles to a paragraph description.
Each day I sit down and decide on which idea I want to write into a full post. I type in a title and then I start developing the concept. Recently I put my thought at the top of the page and began putting ideas underneath. Within a few minutes, my concept had taken a right turn into a new article that was much better.
In the end, my final product looked nothing like my original plan. Sure, it had the same title, but it was different from what I imagined. Can I say this humbly? I thought it was much better than my original thought.
One of the biggest lessons I have learned in writing a blog for the last five years is just to follow your ideas. Take a thought, start typing and see where it leads.
This concept is valid in life also.
Many of us started out life with all kinds of dreams and ambitions. Maybe we thought we were going to be this great star. Our name would be on the list of the best in the world for sports or music or writing or whatever. Possibly we dreamed of our financial success. Maybe we had simple dreams of this type of career in this town while married to that person.
Then somewhere along the way, things took a right turn. There was a job setback, a relationship change or some unforeseen obstacles that blocked us from achieving our dreams. Somehow life did not work out anything as we planned. In faith, we kept moving forward continually trusting in God.
My faith tells me that God will work everything out for the better. He will take my life and make something great out of it, failures and all. He will rewrite the mistakes into a new and beautiful masterpiece.
Your life may look nothing like the teenage dreams you thought were so perfect. Thank God for the path he has allowed you to walk instead. Even if you are still working on the rewrite and the end is unclear. Take hope; God has a better plan for your story than anything you initially thought.