onions vs. avocados

Thomas and I went on a date this weekend (insert gasp with hand to chest gesture here). I know, shocking, right? It was the first time I left Nevan alone with a sitter, but it was Dani (Thomas' sister) and I trust her, so I knew Nevan was fine. It was my mama heart that hurt a little. But this isn't why the title of my post is onions vs. avocados.

Thomas and I went to the book launch for Scott Smiley's book Hope Unseen. I haven't read the book, but the company Thomas works for helped sponsor the event so we were given tickets. If you don't know Scott's story don't worry, I didn't either. Scott is from Pasco and Thomas knew him and his brother growing up. Scott went to Iraq to serve in the Army and while serving his country lost his eye sight in a suicide bombing. Scott was close to losing his life as he had schrapnel in both his eyes and in his frontal lobe. Through his recovery and his life being spared he questioned his purpose in life and because of his trial became closer to his Heavenly Father. After recovering he married his high school sweetheart and has two children, both of which he has never seen. He continued serving in the Army, because that's what he wanted to do after losing his sight, wrote a book, and became a motivational speaker. Talk about purpose, and talk about faith.

Still not the reason for my post...but here it is. One of the speakers was one of Scott's friend, a guy who served along side him in the Army, was there when the bomb exploded, and called Scott's wife when Scott was sent to the hospital. Pretty heavy stuff. And his talk was my favorite. He talked so highly of Scott. About how awesome of a guy Scott was. He compared onions to avocados to get his point across...and this is some serious paraphrasing as to what he said.

If you take an onion and peel it layer by layer eventually you get to a middle of nothing...just a bunch of onion peels. But when you peel an avocado eventually you get a the large core which is hard as a rock. Most people are like onions...they don't have a core belief or sense of who they are. They just conform to whoever they are around at the time. There are rarely avocados in the world. Rarely do you find that person that has a strong core. They know who they are and they don't try to change for others. They try to help others, they uplift others, they inspire others, they support others.

His talk hit close to my heart. Why? That's how I've been feeling...like an onion wishing I could be an avocado. Because avocados are pretty darn cool. Others remember avocados, others want to be like avocados. I'm working hard at being an avocado...I like avocados.

from me to you {enjoy}