Victory Over Defeats

Goals. We all have them. I, personally, have several goals and have had several goals that are on and off again. I have a problem with sticking to my goals. When the going gets tough, I stop going. (Guess I'm not tough. ;P )

Recently, though, I have been encouraged to "crush my goals". As of yesterday, I have kept to my goal of drinking at least 9 cups of water for 9 days now! But this hasn't come easy. I gave up my coffee Sunday morning for a 3 cup bottle of water. Yesterday, I didn't manage to finish my first 3 cups until about 4 pm. Not a big deal, but that meant I had to drink 6 cups of water between I got home at 5:30 pm and when I went to sleep. It was one of those days that I would have thrown in the towel in the past. I wouldn't have seen a good way to get all the water in, and I would have given up before I even finished the first 3 cups.

This has happened to me a lot. If I miss a day of something, I tend to get discouraged and throw in the towel. I know I should get back on the wagon or the horse or whatever, but I get so down on myself that I just give up.

I let defeat defeat me.

I realized today, that I can have victory over defeat. Instead of letting myself be defeated by missing whatever goal I set for myself, I can get back up, start again, and claim my victory.

I have been so encouraged by a group of people who have decided to crush their goals and encourage others as they strive to do the same. I am grateful for them and their support. I encourage you to find someone or a group of people to do the same for you.

When you miss your goal, stand back up and know that you can reclaim your victory. Defeat doesn't have to defeat you. Even if you miss several days.

It's never too late to get back up and claim your victory over defeat.

Flood Adventures

If you don't already know, Lafayette, Louisiana and surrounding areas were hit with a major storm this past weekend. The news channel was calling it historical and the city was in a state of emergency. The rain started Thursday night and didn't stop until Saturday afternoon, but only for a moment. At our home, it drizzled and sprinkled on and off the rest of the day and Sunday was clear. Flooding started mid-morning on Friday and hasn't stopped. Though there hasn't been any rain in Lafayette, the draining from areas are flooding other areas because there is so much water.

Tanner and I are heartbroken for those whose homes are flooded and those whom are stuck in their homes. We are also very grateful that we only had a very close scare.

Saturday morning, just before 6 am, we were awoken by our alarm. We have a flood sensor in our garage so we would have a warning before water got in the house. We shut the alarm off and started assessing. I found that the flood insurance we bought when we bought our home, expired when our mortgage company changed to Wells Fargo. I started looking to see if we could even get insurance that would cover that day or the next and Tanner tried to relax and sleep a few more minutes on the couch next to me. (By the way, if you get flood insurance, it's not good until a month after purchasing.)

A little while later, the downstairs toilet gurgled and Tanner became wide awake. He was in go mode to prep the house and make sure everything we could get off the floor was up. I, however, broke down as I was sure the house was going to flood and started blaming myself for not checking to make sure we had flood insurance a long time ago. (Tanner is the one who is great in chaos. I am so grateful for that. He becomes me rock when the sobs commence.) He convinced me to start helping, giving me smaller tasks at first until I calmed down.

We got most everything up on canned food and moved the things in the bottom shelves of the bookcase we didn't care if it got destroyed to higher shelves. The other bookcase had all the books removed from it's shelves and moved upstairs and then when on cans as well. The downstairs toilet's water got turned off, and plans were made to put the couch on top of the table behind it and our kitchen table to be put on cans should water start entering the house.

As water continued to rise, we watched the news, TV shows, and outside the windows. Tanner made a "wall" of bricks encircling the step from the porch into our house to try and keep water from getting in due to any wakes that might be made from someone driving by. He also thought to put the back of my car up on jack stands to keep water from getting into it as well.
   

When the rain slowed to a drizzle and the water started to recede, we made a run out to find sandbags and get some milk and cereal and water bottles in case the reports of wave two decided to try and flood us again. When we got home the water was completely off our porch.

  

Thankfully, the waters have receded and there the ditches were only full when I left for work this morning. (Route to work only had a few puddles.) However, many people we know had their houses completely flood. Some up to 3 feet of water in their homes. There is still much flooding and some of our friends still can't get to their houses to asses the damage.

We are so grateful to all those who prayed for us and those in the surrounding areas. Please continue to pray for the surrounding areas and pray that though there is rain in the forecast, it will stay away. God is amazing and gracious. The support we have seen all weekend and continue to see today is amazing and I am so thankful that there are people so willing to help out there. Many individuals were out on their own boats helping rescue people from their flooded homes. It warms my heart to see the serving heart of so many people.

Currently, Bayou Church is collecting items to help those in need and our home congregation, Riverside Church of Christ, will have a truck there from Disaster Relief in Nashville, Tennessee at 8 am tomorrow (8/16/16) filled with clothes, food, cleaning supplies, and more.

Please join me in keeping Southern Louisiana in our prayers. To those here, continue to be safe and diligent. It's still a wild world out here.