Living with Purpose on Purpose

 Watching Gabby Douglas, the 16-year-old, Olympian win a gold medal in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, not once but twice, made me happy but sad (for a moment).  It made me happy to see a young African American teen realize her dreams by taking the necessary steps to ensure her dreams would become a reality.  At the age of 14 Gabby made the decision to move to Iowa to train with Liang Chow, the coach who trained another gold medalist.  Could you imagine being 14, leaving your home and everything familiar to you, to move in with strangers in order to become the person you were meant to be?  Can you imagine what emotions may have washed over Gabby as she packed her belongings, said goodbye to her mom and boarded a plane to her destiny; fear, excitement, anticipation, fear.  Who knows what the friends she’s known most of her life said after she told them of her dreams and plans were they supportive or jealous?  Did it matter?

I was happy because a mom did the hard thing and made the tough decision to help her daughter do what was necessary to become the person God has obviously created her to be.  Gabby is affectionately called the “flying squirrel”, I would imagine because of her short stature and the fact that she began her gymnastic career at the age of 3; she was born to do what she does so well, flying through the air with grace and precision. Can you imagine being the parent of a teenager, who has a dream that would require such a drastic move, what you would say or do?  Gabby’s mom was in that position and thankfully, both she and Gabby made the right decisions to ensure Gabby’s future.

Then Sad

Gabby’s success in winning the gold in the individual all-around competition and team competition also made me sad, because it made me think of all the times I made the wrong decision, it made me think of all the times I didn’t persevere and gave up because things were a little “hard”.  And, it made me think of what I see almost everywhere I go; people who have given up on their dreams, blaming whatever or whoever is convenient; adults blame the economy and lack of jobs, even though I’ve heard it said that this is the best time to start your own business or reinvent yourself, but that would take work and the hard decisions, wouldn’t it?   Young adults blame society and instead of displaying ingenuity, initiative, creativity and perseverance to create the life they want, they rebel and instead flaunt attitude and settle in for a life of defeat.  And, our youth just follow suit and some of them never excel in class doing only enough to just get by or nothing at all being content with a report card of failures and the cycle continues until no one is doing anything other than settling into hopelessness, despair and giving up.

At one point during her training, I’m sure Gabby wanted to give up.   While researching for this post, I read that she was training for the Olympics; Gabby was worried about her dad who was serving in Afghanistan with The Air Force.  That along with other concerns affected her performance while training and she didn’t do as well, but she didn’t give up, she persevered to become a two time Gold Medalist. 

Go For The Gold

What about you? 

What hard decisions do you NEED to make in order to realize your dreams?   

• Do you need to change the places you go?
• Do you need to change some of the people you spend time with?
• Do you need to put in more hours honing your gifts, skills, and talents and less time complaining?
• Do you need to get more education?
• Do you need to believe in YOU?

 Can you imagine what life would be like if you went for the Gold!

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Grace and Peace