Yeah, I like sand, but...

Friday, April 3rd, 2009 at 5:38 PM by Ruth Tynes

One of the topics that I've been wanting to blog about is expanding on a concept that I touched on over in the FAQ section. The question is often asked "Why is your target audience Tween / Pre-Teen, Teen, and Young Adult girls?" (you can read my answer by clicking here) One of my main points in answering this question, is that in whatever we do, we should "know" what we are doing.

Now, when I was originally writing this blog post a few months back, I ended up with a really long post that included what I AM NOT talking about... So, for right now, I am only going to discuss one angle of what I AM talking about. We'll go into the other angles later, so hang tight with me k? (smile)

I love sand! It is like one of my favorite things in the world! I like sand so much that I bought a little cute container and some nice clean sand from a craft store and put it in my room. Weird I know. But I stand representing all of the sand lovers out there. (smile)

So yeah, I also love living in the Phoenix, Arizona area! My heart truly belongs in this town and I never want to move full-time anywhere else. There are so many things that I love about living in The Valley, but, one of the things that I despise about this town (yes, that's right, I said despise...strong adjective I know, smile!) is the fact that there is no easy beach access. Ugh! Oh, how I would love to drive a few miles to the beach whenever my heart so desired and lay on what seems like an endless bed of sand... Sigh... (smile)

Soooo, you might now be thinking, 'Then you'd love to live in a beach house huh? ' Actually no. (smile) That whole thing in the Bible about 'the house built on sand ' really freaks me out. Lol ! No really. Plus all of the footage on the news whenever stuff happens to beach houses... So that is a no go. I will visit the beach, I will stay in a beach house on vacation, but put down permanent roots there, um no. Now, to those reading whose permanent domain is beachside, kudos dahling, kudos. Nothing against it, just not for me. (smile)

The Valley is always full of construction and often times at a stop light I'll see Construction Workers working with sand and my heart leaps! I think (and if someone is in the car with me, I'll verbalize), "Wow! That looks like so much fun! They get to play in sand all day! I want to do that! "

Now, the reality is, those Construction Workers are not 'playing in the sand ' they are working ! They are working on a larger project / goal and the use of sand is just a small ingredient used in their project.

But, if I wanted to be one-dimensional, I would go get a Construction Worker 'outfit ', a shovel, and go out and 'pretend ' to be a Construction Worker. Why? Well, isn't that 'all they do ' have fun and play in sand all day??? I like sand, 'I can do that ' right? And if I really wanted to pretend, I could go to the Library or surf the internet and learn / memorize some Construction Worker 'lingo ' so I could further try to fit in, right ? Then I'd get to play in sand all day, right ? Because I like sand and 'being a Construction Worker ' would allow me to 'work ' with sand, right ???

Depending on the nature of their current projects, I might even be able to 'get away with ' pretending to be a Construction Worker for a while and I may even get to play in the sand ! But sooner or later I'm going to get found out. Or the novelty of playing in sand is going to 'get old ' when the real work kicks in and I'm going to easily give up my new 'day job ' and quit. Why? Because my heart really wasn't into being a Construction Worker in the first place anyway. Plus, there's more than one way to get to play in the sand... So, why should I 'spend my time ' doing something that I really don't want to do almost 24/7 anyway! See where I'm going with this... (raises eyebrow)

Something that Music Industry Professionals coach wannabe Recording Artists on is, "Just because you like a song, doesn't mean that you should sing it. Just because you like a certain genre of music, doesn't mean that your voice fits that genre. That doesn't mean that the song is bad or that the genre of music is bad and that you shouldn't enjoy it. It just means that it's not for you. You need to KNOW who YOU are as an Recording Artist."

So often we as people aren't willing to look at ourselves through clear glasses. We aren't willing to separate our ego, from reality.

In 'Christian circles' often times people misinterpret Scripture and use the catch phrase "I'm just walking / stepping out on faith." But, the LORD is very clear in His Word / the Bible, that there is a HUGE DIFFERENCE between walking / stepping out on faith and seriously not having a literal clue what you are doing in life. It is the 'foolish builder ' (see Matthew 7:24-27) who does not 'count the cost ' (see Luke 14:25-35) and takes a foolish blind jump into something simply on the fact that 'I like it ' or 'that looks fun ' or 'there's a real need for it ' or 'I can do that '.

Like I said at the top of this blog post, this is a very detailed subject and I will continue to expand on my thoughts in later blog posts. For now, I encourage you to ponder the points that I have addressed.

"Then the devil took Him to the holy city and had Him stand on the highest point of the temple. "If You are the Son of God," he said, "throw Yourself down. For it is written: " 'He will command His angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.' "
Jesus answered him, "It is also written: 'Do not put the LORD your God to the test.' " "
(Matthew 4:5-7, NIV)