The Magnolia Story

Key Takeaways

Under Consideration — to be added.

Interconnections

Under Consideration — to be added.

Highlights

• Occasionally we’d find old bottles and farm equipment, and I always wondered why someone had just up and abandoned them there for all those years.
• The two of us would dream together all the time, just lying in bed at night, imagining where we could go in life, talking about things we always wanted to do or see or accomplish.
• But Chip did what Chip does and made all those facts, all that logic, seem irrelevant. He really did. He believed I could do it, and he was confident that what I didn’t know, I could learn.
• One thing I learned there on that beautiful front porch was if I wanted to be successful, if I wanted to do important work one day, I would have to increase my capacity. I had to learn to manage disappointment. I needed to learn how to make the most out of those “opportunities” Chip seemed to keep finding.
• Sometimes when something is meant to be, it’s meant to be. It had nothing to do with how I advertised, and it certainly didn’t have anything to do with my being some kind of an amazing designer or having a reputation, because I wasn’t any kind of a designer at all, and no one knew who I was. I just knew what I liked, and I trusted that other people might like it too. And I was where I was supposed to be. I’d listened to my own intuition and let God guide me toward the plans he’d had for me all along.
• having a tight budget doesn’t have to mean watering down the design. If anything, it forced me to get more creative, and there was so much joy in that for me.
• It is no easy thing to trust in God, to walk away from a career, to give it all up not knowing if you can ever get it back or even come close. But I did it. I heeded his voice, and somehow I found peace about it.
• Don’t get me wrong. Juggling that sort of entrepreneurial career with four little kids was not easy. It seemed that no matter how hard we worked, no matter how many extra jobs we picked up, we were still barely scraping by and living with huge amounts of debt. Chip never stopped pulling crazy stunts, and each time I’d get just as angry over them as I’d gotten when he left Drake home alone those two times in his first few months.
• They never said no or “quit asking.” They just said, “If you want that thing, here’s an idea as to how you can go earn it.”
• For my dad, achieving goals was basically a mathematical equation: “If you hit a hundred balls a day and you work out this many hours, this many times a week, then this is what happens and you win state championships.”
• Sometimes worrying about something is much worse than the actual thing you’re worrying about. So really, what’s the point in worrying?
• I’m teaching the kids to always say, “Yes, sir” and “No, sir,” and I don’t want them playing video games or sitting around doing nothing all day. I’m right there with him. If these kids want to play, I want them to use their minds and their hands and to go outside.
• I knew they were going to make millions of dollars on that deal. So as excited as I was to make hundreds of thousands, I promised myself that one day I’d be doing deals like theirs.
• “If all I’m doing is creating beautiful spaces, I’m failing. But if I’m creating beautiful spaces where families are thriving, then I’m really doing something.” Doing that became my new calling.
• I realized that my determination to make things perfect meant I was chasing an empty obsession all day long. Nothing was ever
• going to be perfect the way I had envisioned it in the past. Did I want to keep spending my energy on that effort, or did I want to step out of that obsession and to enjoy my kids, maybe allowing myself to get messy right along with them in the process?
• So I finally flipped the switch in my mind. I said, “I have to choose to thrive, even in the pain. Even when it’s tough.”
• If you can’t find happiness in the ugliness, you’re not going to find it in the beauty, either.
• Letting it all go is freeing. (And it’s cheaper too!) I am learning that getting our intentions right simplifies our decisions in life and changes our perspective. And in the end, what it’s all about is thankfulness and contentment.
• it’s up to us to choose contentment and thankfulness now—and to stop imagining that we have to have everything perfect before we’ll be happy.
• There’s something about doing things the way our ancestors used to do them that kind of puts your heart back into the rhythm of this thing called life.
• Go and find what it is that inspires you, go and find what it is that you love, and go do that until it hurts. Don’t quit, and don’t give up. The reward is just around the corner. And in times of doubt
• or times of joy, listen for that still, small voice. Know that God has been there from the beginning—and he will be there until … The End.