Stick to your roots.

When I was a kid, my life revolved around my family, sports, music, and faith.

I had an awesome childhood, I’d say.

I got to be involved in all of these things each day:

• Family: I was homeschooled, so I spent tons of time with my mom and my sisters.
• Sports: I was in baseball, basketball, golf, and a bunch of athletic activities that I loved
• Music: I listened to the radio and CD’s to my heart’s content in the confines of my own home and my whole family loved to jam to some tunes.
• Faith: My parents introduced me to church and God when I was young, and it was a part of my life that I enjoyed. Church, prayer, worship; it was very enjoyable and fulfilling.

When my parents got divorced around 6th or 7th grade, I moved into town with my mom and went to public school in 8th grade.

As I got accustomed to public school and many new things (good and bad), I started to change my priorities:

• Golf: I loved it and was starting to get good enough at it to be competitive.
• Girls: I started getting the butterflies and the school crushes that made my mind race!
• Choir: I had an opportunity to sing and I loved it.

Once I rooted myself in these areas, I went through high school with these things at the forefront.

High school was a very fun time! I was succeeding at golf and choir while being able to appeal myself to girls and get to go on dates and hang out with them.

When these things were plentiful, everything was awesome!

After I graduated high school, I found myself in a bad spot.

These 3 priorities took a turn for the worst:

• Golf: I started to have major anxiety and panic problems when competing. I was putting a ton of pressure on myself and it was too much for me to handle. I started to hate golf and wasn’t having fun.
• Choir: I didn’t join a choir in college so I couldn’t showcase my voice to anyone in the platform I used to use. I still loved to sing, but I was fearful that I wasn’t good enough at it.
• Girls: I was trying really hard to find girls to hang out with and go on dates with, but none were coming my way. I started to believe that I wasn’t good enough, I was ugly, I was unwanted.

After these priorities were becoming terrible areas, I was lost.

I didn’t know anything else to chase and I didn’t know what else could make me happy.

I knew how happy these things made me, and I was losing all of them.

After much time considering what could be the problem, being sick of depression and anxiety, I thought about where I came from.

As a child, my roots made me happy and fulfilled me:

• Family: I spent so much time with family as a child, that once I spent none in high school, it was 100 to 0 way too quickly. My family cares much for me and I care much for them. I needed to get back to spending time with them.
• Sports: Just watching sports and being involved in fun athletic opportunity without the competitive pressure was wonderful. As a kid, there was no pressure. There is still no pressure, I am just creating myself. I needed to get back to having fun with sports. After all, it’s all just a game!
• Music: I didn’t have to be in a choir to enjoy my music. I just needed to soak in the tunes and sing to my heart’s content. I don’t have to worry about my voice being good enough for anyone: Music is good enough for me and I want to sing it out.
• Faith: This was the biggest gap. As a kid, I didn’t realize how central my faith and spiritual time was. I was spending near to no time in my faith and it’s not that I didn’t care about it: I just didn’t do it. I needed to find my spiritual mind again and seek God and His love, grace, mercy, joy, and peace.

After going back to my roots, I have started to find an internal peace that I have not had for a long time.

Some of that may be due to the comfort of knowing these things have fulfilled me before, some may be due to the fact that it just comes naturally.

However, I abandoned these things and I had to remind myself of how important these things are because I somehow forgot.

• God is showing me so many things in my walk now that I’m back focusing on my faith, and I love it.
• My golf game is getting back to a good spot and I am enjoying my time on the golf course: Good or bad rounds.
• I continuously love to sing and I am humming, whistling, and singing my way through the day.
• I am spending more time with my family, and although sometimes we argue or disagree, I enjoy the time we spend and I love the relationships we are all building together.

Wherever you are in life, you know where you came from.

Wherever you came from, that place made you who you are today.

I encourage you to think about all of those areas that built the person you are now and to incorporate pieces of those things in your life.

Even though these things may be way in the past, they still mean a lot to you.

More than you may ever know.

I know that for me, going back to my roots has helped me realize why I care about the things I care about and the person I want to be going forward.

I love God, I love my family, I love golf/sports, and I love music/singing.

I’m taking these roots and standing firmly on this ground.

It’s good, solid ground.

Going forward on good, solid ground is a good feeling.

Stand firmly on whatever this good, solid ground is for you and I promise that you will find more joy and peace than you ever could imagine.

Stay rooted.

^“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.” – Colossians 2:6-7