I was in a yoga class last week, and as we finished up the final resting pose, the instructor walked around and rubbed a little bit of lavender oil on the back of our necks and talked about going into the rest of the day with a mantra or affirmation to repeat to ourselves. She shared two or three, but the one that resonated with me was “I am enough.” I think the reason that resonated with me so well is that sometimes we feel like we aren’t enough.
What does it mean to be “enough”….I looked it up on Dictionary.com:
enough
1. Adjective: Adequate for the want or need; sufficient for the purpose or to satisfy desire.
2. Pronoun: An adequate quantity or number; sufficiency
3. Adverb: In a quantity or degree that answers a purpose or satisfies a need or desire, sufficiently.
Sometimes, we feel like we haven’t found our calling or our passion and so we “aren’t enough” when we compare ourselves to those that have. It is tempting to look at what we do for a living and think, “It’s not important work, so I’m not really making a big difference.” I met a lady at a networking event on Wednesday. When I asked her what she did, she said, “I go around and scoop poop out of people’s yards. It’s nothing really, just a business I started, it’s nothing important like what you do.” The sad thing to me is that she really believed that SHE wasn’t important because the work she was doing wasn’t “important.” I challenged her on that because I saw a different perspective. I didn’t see someone who “just scoops poop” every day. I saw a strong woman who had the courage to step away from a job that required her to work long hours and miss Christmas with her family. She walked away from a job that wasn’t in alignment with what she valued – being a mother to her two children and an aunt to her sister’s five children. She took a side business that had started as a service – scooping poop – and turned it into a flexible, income-producing service and full time business that enhances quality of life for her customers and their pets, improves the environment, allows her to enjoy time outside working outdoors and also be available for her most important job – mother to her children and aunt to her nieces and nephews. When I shared with her how I see what she does, her whole face lit up. She realized that when she changed how she thought about it, it made a difference in how she felt. Same job, same woman, different perspective.
Other times, maybe we have found a “calling” but feel like we aren’t equipped to carry it out because it is so much bigger than we are. Sometimes this is my own struggle – am I really enough to carry out this mission that I feel like God has given me? What happens if someone finds out I’m not perfect? What happens if someone reads my book and realizes I don’t have all the answers? What happens if my group fitness class members realize I like to eat ice cream on the weekends and I don’t eat healthy all the time? Am I enough to be able to help people realize they can make better choices about their life? It would be so much easier to say “I can’t do it” and relieve myself of the pressure I feel. We are masters at creating excuses in life because we feel like if we cannot do something, then we aren’t responsible for failure.
“A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.” ~ John C. Maxwell
Let me say it clearly – You are enough. I am enough. I am enough to carry out the task God has given me because if I wasn’t ready or if I wasn’t “enough” then He wouldn’t have given it to me. God challenges us to accept the responsibility for our life but He does not challenge us beyond what we can handle. I am enough. But, I’m not perfect and I never will be. We all face struggles and challenges in life – mine are almost certainly different than yours and yours are different than someone you know. Overcoming those challenges is what makes us stronger and more prepared for a bigger challenge down the road. Accept the responsibility, acknowledge the fact that it won’t be easy and you may not always get it right, and be willing to learn from your mistakes.
