Friday, January 12, 2018

Capital Gaines: Trusting God

Goodness, I'm so glad I titled the blog as I did! Reading books like I have, am, and will, does such wonders for my heart and soul. Tool-belt, boot-wearing Chip sheds a lot of astute wisdom in this book and warms my soul like a steaming latte on a icy Missouri winter's day, i.e. TODAY (. (Too much simile? Yeah, I thought so too. So let's just say it's awesome.)
Look! My Magnolia mug bought from THE Magnolia Market. 

One element of this book that so clear is that Chip and Jo's trust in God is paramount.

Whether it was the challenges of opening and closing their shop, financial insecurity, getting the call to start Fixer Upper, or the success of their business, they attribute all of their forward progress to God showing up at the right time. They've depended on him and He's blessed them for it.

Chip says "winning and losing isn't an event; it's a mindset." How can a person see failures and obstacles as opportunities, unless they have hope that it will all work out in the end? Or that setbacks are just setbacks, especially when you still have what is most important to you (like faith and family)?

They--Chip and Jo and Magnolia--are self-proclaimed "scrappy," and these "types will do whatever it takes when we're going head-to-head with challenges. When other bail for one reason or another, we're just getting warmed up." You don't fight that hard unless you believe in your soul that battle is making an eternal difference.

They didn't set out to alter the landscape of an entire city, or shape the decor of millions of homes across the country, or be New York Times Bestsellers. But, "small things can have a massive impact." How does one couple reach to the height that they have without a little divine intervention?

God is the God of the impossible. When humans have limitations, God shows up, unlimited. Chip and Jo believe that if they can dream it, God can make it happen. They don't dwell on "what won't work, [so] we've found that nothing is impossible."

"Find something to fight for. Something to live for." Chip's encouraging nature rings true in the last chapter of this book. He challenges readers, all people, no matter their age or stage, to combine "bold bravery with a calling you're passionate about" becoming a "force to be reckoned with." Each of us are given a time on this Earth and I don't think it was to sit and do nothing. Let's leave a legacy! Let's build bridges! Let's dream big! Let's "live a life worthy of being written down" so that future generations not only benefit from our actions and hard work, but from our story as well. 

Chip ends this book with a challenge to write down what inspires you, what you're passionate about. That's a tough one, sometimes hard to define in just the right words. I'm passionate about making the world a better place, more specifically, making people better people. I'm passionate about leaving a mark and being a symbol of goodness in the world. I teach, and I hope that I carry out those things in my profession every single day.

(P.S. They are ending the show. Perhaps forever, perhaps not, but at least for now. I'm sure that's got a lot of people upset. And I probably won't turn on HGTV at all anymore, because theirs was the only show I watched. But I totally get it. They've done it because as Chip says, "It's not that we can't juggle more than two things at a time...We just don't do it well. Something's eventually got to give." Family, Business, and TV Show. One has to go, isn't the choice obvious? They trust God with their family and their future, so while saying goodbye to something seems like a huge step, really, it's just being obedient to the call of God on their lives and prioritizing what really matters.)

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