Living the Body of Christ: Life with Depth

It is my pleasure to have Amy Ford on LBOC today. She is the co-founder of Embrace Grace, a non-profit ministry with the primary goal of empowering churches to be a safe and non-judging place for single girls to go when they find out they are pregnant. Discover more about her and her new book below.

Welcome Amy …

Sometimes I go a few weeks, and it happens WAY too fast, where I glance back and realize that I “coasted” those few weeks. I use that term when there is no acceleration or braking, really doing nothing … just going through life and seeing what happens or falls into my lap. I hate it when that happens! It’s so easy to do though. I never felt like I did something cool or out of the ordinary with investing into my husband or kids, or in general, never accomplished anything in life those few weeks.

I feel like life should be full of little accomplishments that are more than, “I made it through today.” I do realize that we go through seasons in life that are really hard, and maybe that’s all we can offer our world. But most of the time, there is so much more that we can give because the Holy Spirit lives inside of us!

I’m always so amazed at people that live life to the fullest every day, no matter what is happening in their life. There is an Embrace Grace girl that seems to be a “carpe diem” kind of girl, and somehow she also seems to have so much favor in her life too. She was texting me last night SO excited because she had just started her new job this week and had already invested time into a new co-worker she had just met, shared her testimony and how the Lord has impacted her life, and then asked the girl if she would like to ask Jesus into her heart and the girl said YES and so they prayed the prayer, right there at her lunch break. She doesn’t waste time. Every moment for her is an opportunity to impact her world.

For me, I think the hardest part is FINISHING. You know I always talk about the Strengthsfinder 2.0 book and how much I love it. Well one of my strengths is ACTIVATOR. It’s an awesome strength – and pair that up with me being a big dreamer and visionary and I can get things to happen … but the part I have MAJOR flaws with is FINISHING.

I can come up with ideas all the time. Sometimes I’ll even buy a cute “Idea” journal at Barnes and Noble so I can document all my dreams, goals and ideas … but then I lose it and it doesn’t happen. Or sometimes my “to-do” list seems so big and daunting, and I look at my day and somehow will just decide not to answer my phone all day and maybe just hide under my covers. And then I remember, it’s ONE step at a time. Just one. And then go to the next step. And don’t stop stepping. So then I have the bright idea of buying me a super cute “To-Do” list. I actually bought one yesterday! It’s on a cute clipboard with purple flowers. The only problem is, I lose it. I’m not sure why, it just happens. I have so many journals and to-do lists around my house that only have like 3 pages filled. It’s funny.

On Friday I got my final print copies of my book, A Bump in Life: True Stories of Hope & Courage during an Unplanned Pregnancy in the mail. The publisher sent me 4 boxes full and as I opened them, I was amazed and reminded, I CAN finish something. I remember thinking, I want to write a book and had all these dreams and ideas about it, but when it came to actually sitting down to write, it was hard. I could come up with a lot of excuses of why I didn’t have the time. But it really just came down to … one step at a time. The to-do list was huge. 55,000 words written is a GIANT task. It was easy for me to say, that’s too hard and takes too long, plus I lost my notes on it a few days ago … but I didn’t. I might have gotten 100 words in one day, but then another day 4,000 and never quitting writing, until one day I realize, I’m DONE! I did it!

God has equipped us with everything we need in order to carry out the dreams inside of us. He knows our strengths and he knows our flaws … but you can still accomplish something. It might not be a book, maybe it’s going back to school, or leading someone to the Lord like the EG girl did, or getting plugged into a ministry … or even starting your own. There will always be something else to do that might interfere. You just gotta make time, clear your schedule, even if that means staying up super late like I did, to impact your world and change your own life while doing it.

Life is too short to coast through it. Live a life of depth. Be purposeful about your days. Accomplish one of your goals, even if it feels like it will take forever, just don’t quit … one step at a time. You might discover a whole new world by hearing God’s voice, and obeying His words! We get one shot at this time on earth, make it count!

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Amy is passionate about helping girls that are walking this journey of being single, pregnant and alone, since that represents her own journey. She is equally passionate about introducing Jesus in a fresh way to a generation of girls that are daddy-less and suffer from low self-esteem, lacking in knowledge of their worth and value—and Who our identity comes from. She is the author of A Bump in Life: True Stories of Hope & Courage during an Unplanned Pregnancy that released October 1, 2013 with B&H Publishing. She has been a member of Gateway Church for 8 years. She is married to her sweet husband of 15 years, Ryan Ford and they have 4 children: Jess, Mackenzie, Landry & Judah Brave.