I was having a difficult time a couple of days ago when I originally wrote this piece.  I was not sure if where I am currently in life is where I saw myself a decade ago and was unhappy at the prospect of what came next.  Maybe you have had the same thoughts from time to time, I hope I am not alone in loving what you are doing, yet yearning for even more.  I have altered this a little…at least the ending is a bit more positive.  Maybe you can see yourselves in it, and if not, hopefully you can lend me some grace for feeling this way and finding my way back out.  May your day be blessed!!

Where does untapped potential go?  Does is sit and collect dust like a junk room full of “useful items” awaiting their time and purpose?  Does it disappear like that one sock from the dryer, never to be found again?  Or does it sit and grate on your soul from the inside like a mental piece of sandpaper that wears your resolve down until there is nothing left but a few small pieces and memories of what used to be?  I wonder sometimes what happens to all that untapped potential that each of us carry with us throughout our lives.  Why do some people seem to fulfill so much more of their potential than the rest of us, what are they doing so differently?  Is it that the mundane tasking of everyday life take over priority and those thoughts and ideas are forgotten and packed away to be accomplished later?  Only we find that later either never comes, or it comes and quickly passes us by and we missed the opportunity.

I want to hope that my potential will someday have a purpose that is fulfilled.  I want to impact my community in a positive way, but I still have priorities that seem to trump the extra things that I want to do.  I love what I do; being a mom, a daughter, sister, wife, friend, but I want to do and be more…is that selfish?  How can I increase my impact zone, my community when it leaving my house seems to require an act of Congress to accomplish?  I want to continue to be the educator for my children, a loving mother and wife to my family, a friend who can be counted on, a helper in my church home.  I feel I have a mission to accomplish, how do I do that?

(This is where the ending changed!)  I was feeling hopeless, that there was no way to impact others without sacrifice to all the other duties that I hold dear to my heart, but there is.  I decided to start this blog.  There is hope that my (and our) potential can still be met, that I (we) can be forces in my (our) home(s), my (our) church(es) and my (our) community(ies) by doing exactly what it is I (we) do.  I am impacting more people than I was a year ago and the year before that.  I hope God will continue to bless me and open new doors to unleash this potential and passion He has placed within me.  God bless!