“SIP & PAINT”

The “CAN DO” mindset is embedded in your DNA!

Apr 27, 2024

“You cannot do it until you do it only to discover that you CAN DO it!”~NuellaBlaq

I don drop quote! Lol

I have a question for you guys o and I need answers. You know how people meet you and ask are you a student or where do you work and when you want to fill a document, you either have to fill in as a student or employed. Right now I’m neither of those. I’m in what I call a transition phase. I’m not a student for now, neither am I still a fresh graduate nor am I gainfully employed, so guys what am I?

Not me asking this question like a riddle.

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I have been in a weird phase for a while now that seemed like I was in a endless loop and I wasn’t getting ahead with anything I had planned and it was eating me from the inside out.

But this week has been an eye opener. In so many ways reminding me of how much God is involved so I’m more than relaxed……… for now. Smiles. I have prayed and laid my burdens at Jesus’ feet and I hope not to pick it up again.

So this is not a complain post. It’s been an interesting week for the first time in a long while. I have had it smooth and seamless in comparison to my last two posts where all I did was complain and complain and complain.

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Guess what’s up guys.

I went on a sip and paint date with a friend. It was so fulfilling but stressful, y’all make it look so easy when it’s not.

Here’s how it went.

Been at a friend’s place for a while now and she kept whining and whining about how she needed to change her room color and how her current room color gives her anxiety and makes her feel “not at home” in her own home. Makes her space seem unorganized.

And I completely agree because the color is or was hideous, that’s what I thought to myself the first time I came visiting after we became friends.

So we got planning and decided to have it painted last week Friday but things didn’t work out as planned. So we did on Tuesday by ourselves. We painted a whole room. By OURSELVES. Not a canvas but a room. Painting her room ourselves was not our first option but it so happened that all the painters we reached out to were gold diggers. It’s okay to dig gold o, I mean my friends call me gold digger (as a joke please) but why will you be digging gold where there’s no gold, only ash. Until Jesus turns it to beauty.

I’m kidding, we were actually the gold diggers because I can’t even tell you the kind of budget we had. I know prices are rising higher than the yeast in the breads sold these days but nothing. Absolutely nothing prepared us for the least amount painters agreed on for their workmanship.

And it’s not completely about the price, we would have gladly paid for comfort and ease and expertise…… sorry I mean I would gladly pay for comfort and ease and expertise any time any day. But life has it that I’m unemployed for now and she’s employed but it’s not end of the month yet. But that’s alright. God is on the throne.

“Trust Adam at your own peril” is not a myth. It’s real.

Hey Adam, I see you, don’t you dare roll your eyes at me, hear me out first. Now how do you deal with men that do not keep to their words? Adam’s replica I know you keep your words but tell me how to deal with your brothers. I’m asking on behalf of all the curious and clueless women in the world. We honestly want to know.

Why tell me you’ll be here by 11:30 but it’s 2pm and you’re not here with the paint we plan to use and you’re not picking up or replying messages. At least just pick up and serenade me with all the plausible excuses you can wield.

But that’s not the main issue here, everyone who knows me knows noontime is not my best time to do physical labor of any sort, even mental labor is a struggle for me when the sun is at its highest. I’m not lazy, I’m just a selectively available laborer.

Early mornings and late evenings are my peak time to do anything productive. And the least thing you want in your space is an unproductive me when you are trying to be productive. You will be weary, irritated and discouraged.

And you will sleep.

Paint guy finally shows up so my friend gets to work while I help her push things around and out of her way before I lay down just watching and trying not to fall asleep.

She paints for a while before telling me to take over. And she doesn’t just tell me, she cajoles me, pacifies me, threatens me, begs me but refuses to bribe me before I eventually get up to do my turn.

Trust me to whine and whine first before I eventually became very serious at my job, painting like my life depends on it.

That’s the way I operate. It’s my natural work process. Or cycle.

First, I think about the work to be done, then I dread the work to be done, then I hover around the work to be done, then I think about the disadvantages of not getting it done, then I have to face it head on and whine and whine at the start, then I get with the program and do my job with dedication and diligence because now I’m anxious to see the result.

I know it’s a tedious and unhealthy process of getting things done but it gets the job done anyways so y’all will be fine. The end justifies the means.

At the end of the day I’m not even bad at my job because what I’m seeing here is too good to be true.

We sip and paint for 4 hours except that we do more painting than sipping and if we sipped on anything, it was most definitely our saliva when we got thirsty and parched.

But the satisfaction we get from the outcome is both gratifying and fulfilling so we forget in a hurry how dehydrated and starved we are and just stand, stare and look around admiring our work.

Your favorite painter cannot. Your favorite painter is shaking. Trembling infact.

“I’m proud of what we achieved today,” my friend says. Let’s call her PI.

“I know right even though I’d rather skip the stress. My leg feels heavy.” Trust me to insert my stressxperience into every single ordeal. Can’t help it at this point.

“So this is how God feels when we do right by him and make him proud,” she adds.

“Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Exactly how he feels. Must be nice.” I say trying to think on the few times I must have made God proud.

First I smile so hard at how much and how well I have curated godly friends after long years of disappointments, friendship heartbreaks, betrayals and worthlessness.

I feel proud that I have not just found a sister in church or just one random individual but close friends who don’t view life from a myopic standpoint or perspective but from a very significant point of view. The Christlike point of view. Which is the most significant and viable point of view. And if I probably haven’t hit any major goal or achievements yet, this godly association that I have now, stands as a medal of achievement. A badge of honor. And I know God is proud. The opposition of 1Cor25:33.

Let’s be reminded that PI and I have no experience with painting. Even the least sip and paint date, we have not been on. But this masterpiece before our eyes screams ten years working experience and expertise.

Flips my hair with flamboyant and over exaggerated pride and proceeds to add this work experience to my CV.

Now we can cancel any doubt we had when we first embarked on this journey.

I remember the conversation we had before we embarked on this project.

“We can paint this room ourselves,” PI says. She proceeds to watch tutorials on YouTube.

I don’t reply because I know what I’m about to enter.

“I just hope we won’t hate the outcome but it’s worth trying.” PI is that you or “temporarily unable to dispense cash” speaking, I look at her, with eyes full to the brim of skepticism.

Well I reply with, “it’s not rocket science so we can. Just leave me out of it, I should have gone out like I intended to.”

“You’re here now. Get up let’s start. We can do it.”

You see that “cannot do” mentality, detangle yourself from it. The sooner you do away with it the better your life and the greater your outcomes . Get rid of it as fast as possible. It kills, spreading faster than cancer cells to every other area of your life and oh what a sad but avoidable limitation.

This deadly cancer once it attaches itself to anything you set out to do, eliminates the chances of you trying and minimizes the possibility of success to the barest minimum till it’s extinct. It keeps you small, confined and limited.

I mean we are doing this thing called life for the first time and even though we have no experience and it seems we are not even navigating well enough, we are doing it anyway. Especially because we know who is backing us up. And even if we don’t have life all figured out, right here we are making mistakes, ruining things but still learning on the job.

Just as we are with life or just as mothers are with their newborns, we can choose to show up every day with a “can do” mindset. And even when you are not sure, even with your anxiety lying to you, even with the world around you screaming cannot do, you still show up to try whilst still learning on the job.

And even if you have to fake it, fake it till you become it.

Fake it till it becomes your reality.

Nobody has life all planned out but I have literally heard and witnessed people’s life change just because they showed up one day to just try and do. You sef try and do.

Using the word of God as a life guide that dictates what you can and cannot do. You “can do” according to Phil4:13, says so much of our capabilities especially when we sell ourselves short. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

So most times, your prerequisite to getting anything done is not solely in your qualifications or your years of training or your physical strength instead, it’s engraved in the supernatural strength that Christ possesses which is made available to you and is at work in you.

Your employer may say otherwise but the Bible begs to differ.

So the next time you experience a cannot do moment or when you feel unqualified, you remind yourself that;

To God, It’s your unqualification that qualifies you.
Just be unqualified and that’s all the qualification God needs to put you to good use.

It’s crazy right. And it makes no sense. Heaven math and earth math are so parallel. They can never meet and they can never make sense, highly incomprehensible to the human mind.

I mean look at Moses a stutterer and a murderer.

Have you seen Paul. Can you be worse than this. He may not have killed directly but he instigated and approved the killing and jailing of Christians.

Especially our Brother Paul who has such a tainted record of being a serial persecutor, yet this is all the qualification he needed. 1Tim1:12-17.

The next time you feel unworthy, useless, too damaged for God to use you, you remind yourself that while you were a sinner, Christ died for you without a second thought (Romans5:8). It is his blood that qualifies us. His love, grace and mercy qualifies us.

You have been cleansed of any dirt, any stench, any taint in your past, present and future. It has all been paid for, any dirt, stench, stain or debt you may have accumulated in your past or present and even acquire in the future. It’s paid in advance. This is what makes you qualified even with everything that seeks to disqualify you from the course.

So my dear friend, bask in your unworthiness and unqualification and you are good to go. As unqualified as you are right now, God will qualify you on the way to the plan and purpose he has for your life.

Do it scared, tired, unmotivated, unsure. More importantly, do it unqualified.

Just do it anyway because you can do!

Dear child and friend of God, there’s absolutely nothing you cannot do except the one that Christ has not strengthened you to do or sent you to do.

The “CAN DO” mentality is engraved in Christ and flows automatically through your vein as a result of your adoption.

The “CAN DO” mindset is embedded in your DNA. Utilize it today.

You cannot do it until you do it only to discover that you CAN DO it!

I honestly did not expect this conversation to spiral down towards this direction. I planned to come in from the angle of God being proud of us when we do right by him. But seeing as things have taken an unexpected turn and I’m here talking about the positive can do mentality, I’d be more than happy to have you share with me a few areas you plan to apply the “Can do” energy today.

Your Sister in Seasons

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