There’s this poem I remember reading as a kid.
(Just in case you’re wondering, it’s called Melinda Mae, by Shel Silverstein.)
Anyways, this poem was about a girl, named Melinda, and she was determined to do something crazy. Melinda had her mind set on eating a whale, all the way from its head to its tail.
How delicious, right?
The poem doesn’t mention how many times the poor girl gagged on whale meat, but it does mention that despite those around her telling her it was impossible, Melinda did succeed at her goal.
It took Melinda eighty-nine years to eat a whale.
Imagine how happy she felt when she finished but also imagine how difficult it was for her to continually hear others say she wasn’t going to be able to succeed. See, our lives are very much live Melinda’s.
We set goals, but only time will tell what will happen to those goals. Will we follow through and complete what we start, or halfway through will we give up? What is worth fighting for in our lives?
What is something you want to accomplish in your life? Do you want to become a private investigator, journey to Alaska, or write a memoir about your cat’s lives? All of these things can be great goals, but none of them are going to come easily.
A private investigator needs education and schooling, a traveler needs money and plans to go to Alaska, and in order to write a book on cats, you need to first have cats and then secondly, draft a novel, a process that could take months if not years!
I’m sure you’ve heard it said, “Good things take time,” and it’s definitely true. We tend to appreciate things more when we’ve had to work for them. All that to say, like Melinda, we’re going to encounter hardships while we journey through this life, but we can’t let them stop us. We need to keep taking the next step whenever we encounter obstacles.
In Proverbs, (14:23), it says “All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.” Being diligent will bring about something good, but in the meantime, we have to keep making choices that lead us closer to our goal.
So, take ‘one bite’ at a time. You’re almost there.
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