A Love That Doesn’t Wait

One of the greatest privileges of the season we are in right now is pastoring some pretty incredible young adult ladies. Over the past 2 years it has been my joy to sit and hear so many wonderful stories from different girls as we’ve walked a road together. But often, as someone who tends to live her life with rigid lists and time blocks, the temptation to only be available for the needs of others when it is convenient has often opened at 9am and shut tightly at 5pm. After all, this is a job and those are my office hours, right?

Absolutely not.

“When God’s people are in need, be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice hospitality” – Romans 12:13 NLT  

Jesus never had and still doesn’t operate on office hours – phew! I’m so thankful that I do not have to wait for my time slot in order to unravel before Him and curl up into His loving arms while I cry. He is always there for me, ready to embrace me and help me.

Now obviously I am not saying that we just never have time alone in our own homes with our spouse to just rest and have personal time, but I think as humans, more specifically as women, we have so much demanding our attention from so many different directions, that we very easily push away the gentle tugging of the Holy Spirit in moments that feel inconvenient. We realize that He is attempting to shine an awareness on someone that is desperate for some godly love and care, but our feelings often trump our obedience.

We get so busy with our lives that the lives of others seem insignificant and often just not worth our time. Let’s me be real; I don’t always feel like helping someone clean up their life, especially when deep down, I know mine is looking pretty messy.

But the above scripture doesn’t include time allocations and scheduling allowances. Instead, we are encouraged to “be ready to help” and “always eager” to “practice hospitality.” Why? Because a woman who feels like her life is falling apart doesn’t actually care if your hair is a mess and your kitchen has dishes in the sink – the fact that you made time to cook her breakfast in the midst of a hectic morning or make her a hot cup of tea while sitting at your kitchen counter, gently listening to her as she comes undone – shows more of God’s heart to her than anything else in that moment. In a single instant, your readiness to help and your joy to host her radiates just who Jesus is and models His very compassionate and tender character.

When we stand before God one day; our clean house, perfectly ironed clothes and color-coded planner for the year won’t be standing with us. The only thing we are taking with, are those people who we took the time to help grow in their walk with Jesus and are now living their lives serving Him.

This is always the goal. In all we do, we do it to please Him. This life is short – the dishes can wait, the laundry can wait, the dust bunnies behind the couch can wait. But our love, that perfect love on the inside of us from Jesus for others: that love can never wait.  

Defeating Goliath

We have all heard the story about David and Goliath right? Whether in a children’s book way back when or during a sermon in church, this story has done its rounds for sure! If you are unsure about the story, that’s okay! Let me fill you in: David was a young shepherd boy who loved the Lord. One day he went to the battle grounds to see his brothers, but instead of delivering the food he found himself standing in front of the most terrifying, foul GIANT. But don’t worry! He defeated him with stones, yes, stones. [I encourage you to go and read the story here].

What I love about God’s Word (among millions of other things) is that it is totally multi-faceted. I can read the same story multiple times, and get something different out of it every time I read it! You know, those “woah” moments.

Let’s think about the story and let’s think about little David as ourselves, standing in the midst if the battle. Then let’s think about Goliath as the name of every issue, trial or mountain that we are facing, towering over us and mocking everything we believe and stand for. Pretty personal picture right? For me, since about January, my faith has been on what feels like a non-stop assessment. Curve balls have been thrown and statements have been made – I have felt like I’ve walked through the fire, made it out, just to turn around and walk right back in again.

Tiring, stressful, unending.

At least that is how it felt in the moment. It really does not matter what the Goliath that you are having a showdown with is really about – the fact of the matter is that regardless of the root, any issue left to grow, will do just that – grow.

Think of a baby. A woman has been gifted the ability to feed the baby, nurture the baby and care for the baby. The right attention and that baby is growing stronger by the day. Let’s put our issue in the place of the baby: the more we feed it (with our thoughts), cradle it and nurture it – the more the issue grows and grows.

Goliath wasn’t always huge, he had to have been a baby at some point, right?

So here we stand like David, staring at what has become a giant in our life and all we have to grasp on to is a couple of feeble stones. This is where it really gets interesting. The Word of God / The Bible is the number 1 (last time I checked) selling book in the world YET STILL is the most mocked and overlooked manuscript. It has been reduced down to just ancient writing that is totally irrelevant to the world we live in today. Just like stones in the hand of David looked mockable, so does the Bible in the hands of a Christian.

But they don’t know what we know. They don’t know that this Word we hold in our hand and have imprinted on our heart is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow (Hebrews 4:12). The Word of God is not dead and gone, it is alive and powerful! David may have looked weak in the natural, but what they did not see was the armies of heaven backing him, ready to support his every move. The same happens when we speak and work the Word!

The Word of God is our weapon, Goliath cannot stand. I thank God that I stand here today, standing on a firm foundation holding in my hand the head of the Goliath that was in my life. David worked those stones as if they were gigantic grenades. Every battle ends in victory because we choose to use the Word of God. You paired with the literal, victorious and majestic words of our Father, the Creator of heaven and earth – are no match for whatever may be standing over you, glaring you in the eye. The question is, do you believe it?

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One Of Those Mornings

It was one of those mornings. You know, the ones where all of a sudden your clothes don’t fit like they should (so they find themselves sprawled all over the bed and floor basically being punished for what they have done to your self-image), your usually perfect eyeliner job is now a lopsided mess and your hair has a rebellious mind of its own. It was one of those mornings where you hear words and statements coming out of your mouth that you know full and well are so far from the truth; “I hate this,” “I hate myself today,” “I don’t even want to go to church anymore,” all while your helpless husband is staring at the hot mess before him and fumbling to try to assist in the wardrobe (but really life) malfunction.

It was one of those mornings that after sobbing the entire drive to church your husband agrees that you should go home and find something to wear that makes you happy (and by happy he meant that you need to take yourself home, TRY AGAIN and do not return until you have truly put yourself together).

It was one of those mornings, that only when I was alone in the car, just myself and the worship song that I had put on in an attempt to pull it together, that I realized I had completely outed the Holy Spirit from my morning.

I believe in Spirit-led living. Simply because that is what the Bible says. What does that mean you may be wondering? Well, the Holy Spirit is the part of the Godhead that lives on the inside of us. His job is to be our Comforter, our Teacher, our Guide and ultimately our very Best Friend. He is the One who reminds us what God’s Word says and how we need to apply it. He knows everything and He sees everything.

What we as women need to realize is that the Holy Spirit is NOT just for the “spiritual” things in life. Sometimes we compartmentalize so much that instead of giving Him full control – we shove Him into a box labeled “Anything to do with Christianity.” The problem with this is that our faith is not just for a Sunday – it involves and actually encapsulates every part of our life. It is who we are. With that being the case – He has the ability to assist us in EVERY part of our lives.

But back to the emotional and sad excuse of a presentable woman in the car:  

 It was only when I was in the quiet of the vehicle with nobody else around except the Holy Spirit that I realized how very present He was and how I had not even thought to consult Him throughout the entire morning episode. Want to know how much I believe the Holy Spirit desires to be involved in EVERY area of our lives? Well, when I finally quieted my restless heart, He began to minister to me right down to the very detail of what shirt I should grab to wear.

Ladies, I want to encourage you today that you have a Friend that wants the very BEST for you. Yes He is involved in the big things but He also cares about the details. This is not the first time He has done a job that I never knew He could do, in fact I have slowly learned to involve Him in everything – even decisions at the grocery store.  

We loose when we only allow Him to speak about things that we think have got to do with “church things.”  

Not to sound repetitive, but He sees, He knows and He cares. You are precious to Him and He desires to be involved in so much more than you think. We would save ourselves so much unnecessary drama if we just took a step back for a moment. If I had started my day off with, “Please give me wisdom in every decision I make today right down to my clothing choice,” maybe then I would not have had a morning fully proving the true craziness of an upset woman. Ha 😉

My prayer for you and I today is that we would allow the Holy Spirit freedom to rule in our hearts and our minds. To do what He needs to do, change what needs to be changed and ultimately shape us into the strong, stable and godly woman we were created to be. 

Replacing His with theirs

We all know that words hurt. “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me” is high up on the list of untrue statements. Honestly, I think I would prefer a broken bone over a broken heart or spirit any day. The Bible talks many times about the power of words and just how they affect our lives both in the positive and in the negative. It’s one thing for words to hurt, and most times they will – but it’s another story when words begin to shape.

What do I mean by this? Well, people are always going to say things about us that either we don’t agree with or that are just ridiculously untrue. Those words once spoken (most times not even directly) are sent soaring towards us. Imagine an arrow that is shot out and is heading directly for you. It hits and it hurts. The pain of the stab most times will bring tears along with a throb of the wound.

But now we sit at a cross roads. Do we make up our minds to get the arrow removed and the wound healed? Or do we think, “No, I kind of like the look this sharp object gives protruding out of my body. I’ll just keep it situated.”

Sounds ridiculous right? Yes, but this is what we do with words that are sent our way. Once they’ve done some damage, instead of removing them (getting into the Word of God and seeing what He says about us) and getting the wound treated (praying, forgiving, seeking counsel from our pastor/leader) we allow the nastiness of the words to begin to shape our very being – who we are and what we believe about ourselves. This ultimately then begins to shape our world and our purpose.

When I look at it this way, it seems so silly! I want to be healed and whole – not scarred and broken. 

This only comes by the Word of God. When we replace what He says by what they say – we will never be confident, secure and steadfast. Just recently some statements were made about me that were completely untrue yet instead of running to God and diving into His book of Truth that spells out exactly who I am – I allowed these words to define me, they became who I felt I was when I first opened my eyes in the morning, how I approached life and how I viewed everything.

I used to envy my husband. People could say the most vile, atrocious things to him and he would not even bat an eyelid. He takes gossip and slander like water off a ducks back. HOW? What is his secret? I want to be like that (oh how I desire to be unaffected by the negative words of others!) Well, his secret is not really a secret: my husband knows exactly who His God is and what His Word says about everything. Therefore, when someone says something horrible about him, he takes it to the Word, measures it against it and walks away knowing that all that matters is what God says about him. After all, God knows the bigger picture, He knows His plan and purpose. People often speak from a mere circumstantial and often ignorant view.

Man! Why is this so easy to say but so difficult to walk out? Today is a great day to determine in our hearts that a change has to occur! My prayer for you and I today is that we would not replace His Words with their words, but that we would allow His Words to completely overshadow theirs. That His words of life, love and wholeness would shape our lives. After all,

“It is in Him [and in Him alone] that we live, move and have our being” – Acts 17:28 [Paraphrased]

To Choose Joy

Ever heard of a “winter season” in life? Think about winter in nature: it is the coldest season where animals hibernate, trees die and colors fade. In our personal lives,  we can explain it as a time and a season when things feel dark, lonely and sometimes even desolate. But the great thing about winter is that in just a little bit (regardless of how it feels), spring IS coming. We can lift our heads knowing that the flowers will bloom again and the sun will once again become warm.

Why blog about winter? Well, honestly lately the winter inside of me has felt just as real as the chilly winter outside of my door. Maybe you have gone through a winter season recently too? Maybe yours had to do with a relationship or finances or maybe even a family scenario. But for me, it all started a couple of weeks ago when I allowed other individuals to steal something so precious and important to me: my joy.

“This joy that I have, the world didn’t give it to me. This joy that I have – the world didn’t give it and the world can’t take it away” 

Ha, an oldie but a goodie! But what Biblical truth this song declares. According to the Word of God, JOY is a fruit that we possess due to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. It is a FRUIT that shows on the outside of our life – He who dwells on the INSIDE of our heart (Galatians 5:22-23). There is a difference between joy and happiness. Happiness is a temporal emotion that is based on circumstances and situations, whereas joy is found in the presence of God and is not based on what is going on around us. It is a supernatural fruit that enables us to overcome whatever we may face here on earth. Honestly, joy is kind of crazy: we feel it even though everything else around us says that we should not. (Feel free to let out an “Amen” right about now – God is SO GOOD!)

So, if joy is so special and God gave it to me so vitally, how then am I so easily robbed of it when I allow others to intervene? Well – just that! See, nobody can steal my joy without my permission. Seriously, that is like leaving a million dollars on the front  porch of my  house and wondering why it was gone when I got back. I practically handed it to the thief by not protecting it. Someone has only stolen our joy because we have allowed them to. They had no right yet we handed it over with ease. Well, at least I did anyway.

Here’s the problem with that: it never just ends there. Joy is the ability to overcome earthly situations and circumstances. So when we allow someone to steal our joy, that then carries over to allowing them to steal our gifts and talents. With no joy, we feel defeated and lost. When we live in this type of mentality – we then will not operate in our gifting because we feel insecure, hurt and offended.

Think of the example of gossip:

We are moving along in life, doing great things for God – loving others, working hard and serving wherever we can. Then someone says something about us that is not true. That thing goes from one person to another (gossip is like a wrecking ball and tears apart the closest of friends – Proverbs 16:28; Proverbs 26:20) and eventually comes back to our ears. As women created with more emotion than men, this hurts us and we find ourselves at a cross roads. The choice is up to us as to how we are going to deal with it yet SO MANY of us fall prey to the harmful (and most times untrue) words. We then begin to allow them to shape our very lives right in front of our face. This hurt begins to slowly and then more forcefully tug at our joy. Once we let our joy go, the next in line are our gifts and talents. We loose the voice that God has given us to speak to our generation because we choose to value the words of  human beings as more important than the words of God. And just like that, we find ourselves in a winter where the mornings seem dark, the days seem long and the atmospheres of our lives feel freezing. Gossip is just one small example of the large list of things that we can give permission to, to steal out joy. As I said before, maybe for you its a relationship, finances or even family politics.

If you are reading this sweet woman and it resonates in your heart, my prayer for you is that you would hold on to your joy. Joy is our ability to overcome everything and anything that we face here on earth in these tumultuous times. We cannot trade it for anything. It is our strength and our endurance! It is the very presence of God inside of us and we are more than conquerors because of it (Nehemiah 8:10).

Looking inward, what have you allowed to steal your voice? Why are you not doing the things God has called you to do? Is it because of this very thing? If so – today can be a new day for you. God can turn around in an instant what man has taken weeks to destroy. Get outside and start planting some seeds – spring is coming and in no time, the beautiful flowers of your life will be blooming again 🙂

You Have Something To Share

I was terrified to open my blog page today. Not because there was anything bad, but because I haven’t written a thing since July. I don’t want to say that I didn’t want to write –  but I think in the last 3 months I have found myself caught in the business of building a ministry with my husband, pastoring, working on our marriage, serving our parents and the list really does go on. It was just last night that Chad turned to me just before he fell asleep and simply said, “You need to write on your blog again.” Literal fear (which we know is not from Jesus) washed over me as thoughts like, “I have nothing to write about, I haven’t done it in so long anyway, I’m too busy, I have nothing to share…” ran rampant through my mind.

I have something to share

…and so do you. Yet so often we don’t believe it. “What will they think? Who am I?” – we allow situations and circumstances to swallow our voice and to rob us of the gifts and talents that God so abundantly built within us.

Do you want to know what it comes down to? We’ve made it all about us. Our pride, our reputation, our comfort zone. When really, it is all about Him. He is the reason we do what we do, the reason we are obedient even when our knuckles are white from gripping our seats and inwardly pleading, “Please don’t make me do it…”

We all have a voice and if we know what the Word says, then we have the heartbeat of God on the inside.

We fumble when we have to join the two together.

What are you doing with the message on the inside of you? Are you sharing it with those who need it or are you hiding it deep on the inside waiting for “better days”?

“For God’s gifts and his call can never be withdrawn” (Romans 11:29 NLT)

Regardless of what we think, God has given us gifts, talents and abilities and He will never take them away. It is up to us – do we use them to lift Him up or do we allow them to remain dormant on the inside of us? I know that I am asking many questions today and maybe they are just to challenge myself personally, but if in any way they are challenging you, I pray that you would take up the challenge. You are purposed for greatness! Do not allow fear, anxiety and feelings of incredible inadequacy to cause you to shrink back.

“You were born to stand out” – a statement we so often pass off as corny. But the truth of the matter is that we WERE BORN TO STAND OUT. Each of us differently but each of us so beautifully uniquely.

So, what is your message? I guarantee you do not have to dig too deep to find out…but maybe it will require some dusting off of the weeks, months or even years of cobwebs. I am so thankful my husband sees my potential and pushes me to open my mouth (or my keypad in this case)… Do you have someone in your life who is gently pushing you? If not, may I have the honor of being that person today? YOU have something to share – are you brave enough to make a difference in someone else’s life today? I pray I just did…and man, does it feel good! 🙂

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Guard Your Heart

I stood in worship, looking around at everyone else. I don’t even remember the song, that’s how much I wasn’t paying attention. Thoughts flooded my mind as I looked around at different people, judging how she was dressed, how she was worshipping, who does she even think she is? Judgement, comparison, insecurity.

“And when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts…” (Mark 3:5 NKJV)

Let me put this into context – Jesus was going around and doing ministry. This particular day was the Sabbath, which in Jewish custom was to be revered and no work was to be done. It was a day of rest. Yet Jesus, came across a man with a withered hand and of course He healed him. This was much to the Pharisees (the religious leaders of the day) disgust. They stood there, watching compassion in action with hard, ugly, stubborn hearts. The Bible says that this state of their heart GRIEVED Jesus.

Grieved = caused sorrow // Sorrow = a feeling of deep distress, disappointment

When I read this account I want to walk up to them and shake them and yell, “He has a withered hand people, A WITHERED HAND!” Like, hello, who are you to judge what Jesus is doing? What if you had a withered hand?

And that’s when I felt like I’d been punched in the stomach.

There I was, standing among family in God’s house, supposedly honoring Him with my praise and my worship, and instead I stood with judgement, viewing the compassion of Jesus around me with a hard, ugly and stubborn heart. Somebody needed to shake me.

But you know what, it happens. Thankfully, we serve a Lord that loves us and is quick to forgive. I may have grieved His heart in that moment but I know that my realization and desire to change is what makes Him proud. We always have a choice. Many times our thoughts of judgement come from the roots of insecurity. We look at others and compare ourselves. When what they have going for them seems better than what we have, we are quick to judge because that seems to justify and empower our low self-image.

Had the Pharisees made the decision to focus on Jesus and His compassion, maybe one of them too would have been healed of a lifetime of struggle. We don’t have to be like them. We don’t need to compare and contrast. He made us great and His focus is on us just as much as it is on our Christian sister. In the midst of incredible worship, maybe Jesus is healing her, touching her, speaking to her.

May we not harden our hearts. A soft heart is what we can see grabs Jesus’ attention and miracle working power. 

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6 Months

My amazing hubby and I have been married for half a year as of a week ago. As I reflect back on the past 6 months, I see how much can happen, how much can change and how much God can do in just a matter of time. It’s nice to sort of take yourself out of the situation for a second and look at all that has taken place from an outside, almost upward perspective.

When I look back, I remember that we never had the “honeymoon phase” as so many people call it. I mean, we could have – but amongst the packing up our lives in one country, saying goodbye to my family, moving across the ocean to another country, dealing with immigration pressure, buying a house, buying a car, starting a young adults ministry and somewhere in between there, settling down – it was a rollercoaster few months! There were many tears, many frustrations, and MANY surrenders to God.

I am not saying this for a “woe is me” moment – in fact, I would say that we are in even more of a honeymoon stage NOW than when we got married. It honestly gets better every day! What I am saying is that between me and you, I can understand why people quit.

Now when I say that I understand, I don’t mean that I accept. But we live in a generation and society where quitting and throwing in the towel is easy. We have become so afraid of hard work, that at the first signs of something breaking – our first reaction is to open trash can and insert object. We don’t want to deal with the headache of handiwork – we are not interested in a “fixer upper”. The problem with this mentality is that it doesn’t just stay within the lines of objects – but has begun to leak into our views of relationships with people. I am not even just talking marriage – how easy is it to completely cut a friend off when her situation has gotten messier and messier and has begun to invade our personal space?

What if Jesus looked at me this way? What if He gave up on me because I had a stinky attitude, a bad day or an emotional meltdown? What if He decided that it was just too hard and quite frankly, I wasn’t worth it? Wow, this thought has humbled me.

I want to be like Jesus.

He is not in the business of throwing away, and neither should we be. It is easy to despise effort when we are pretty much handed whatever we want, whenever we want. Disney unfortunately teaches us as young women to stand with our hands open, hosting an expectation list that could roll out for miles. (Disclaimer: I am not trashing Disney, in fact if you were hosting a Disney marathon, I would be there with popcorn and candy in hand). But that’s not reality. Real life is work, real life is getting our hands dirty and making something beautiful out of what sometimes is messy (with His help of course).

I am not speaking out of a place of knowing everything – oh goodness, if I know even a drop in the bucket it’s a lot. But I am learning that people are worth it, our relationships are worth it. I may still be a rookie at this marriage thing – but I know that if I want our union to bring glory to God and be effective for His kingdom – I actually have to take off the heels, take off the make-up, move past the Instagram perfect life our generation tries to portray and get on my knees, stick my hands in the dirt and do some work. He is worth it, I am worth it and most importantly – the will of God for our lives is worth it.

To echo the brilliant sermon that my father-in-law preached at church yesterday – we plant seeds today but we need to understand we will not have a harvest tomorrow. The “lack”of a harvest doesn’t mean it is not coming – we just have to continually take care of the ground – watering, exposing the seed to sunshine, and then one day, our hard work and the mud under our fingernails will be worth it – when that green head emerges from the ground, and a few days later buds into the most beautiful flower – bringing joy and hope to all who look at it. Imagine if after a few days, we allowed our emotions to get to us, kicked the ground with frustration and destroyed what could be.

Just because something isn’t always easy, does not mean that it isn’t of God. Also, just because something isn’t easy does not mean that we have failed – as much as society might try to dictate. Failure would be falling down and NOT choosing to get up again. If we are unhappy with our situation, it is up to us to change it, whatever it may be – it is worth it!

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I’m not Happy

“I’m not happy”

A phrase I have used multiple times throughout my life when things have not gone my way. The problem: happiness is merely an emotion. It is something that is based entirely on temporal circumstances and comes as quickly as it goes.

God created us as women to FEEL – we have emotions for a reason. Life would be bland if we went through it without being emotionally involved. However we were never created to go on daily emotional roller coasters starting out happy moving to a little irritated and ending in utter devastation.

“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!” (Galatians 5:22-23 NLT)

Right now at Awaken Young Adults we are doing a series called “Growing Pains” which is focusing on the 9 Fruits of the Spirit found in Galatians 5:22-23. What exactly are the Fruits of the Spirit you may be wondering? Well just like the fruit of a tree gives evidence of what kind of tree it is, so the character in our lives give evidence of Whose we are. When we have these fruits (characteristics) evident in our lives, people know that we belong to God and are part of His family. The Holy Spirit on the inside us empowers us to love, empowers us to be patient etc. Just like any farmer knows, these fruits have to be cultivated (worked on) continually. Sadly no, we will not wake up tomorrow and instantly have the heart of Mother Teresa. It’s a process.

The fruit of focus this week has been JOY. What an interesting subject. We are living in a day and age where let’s be honest, there’s not MUCH to be joyful about. ISIS is provoking fear in multiple countries of the world, the family structure has been so broken down that fathers are absent and mothers are falling apart. Basically just scrolling down Facebook can leave you feeling negative, miserable and hopeless about life in general.

I have been a sucker to this for too long and I have decided to draw a line in the sand. I do not have to live like this. You see, JOY is a supernatural fruit that gives us the ABILITY TO OVERCOME. How and why? Well simply – JOY is harvested by our FAITH that has been cultivated by our PRAISE. When we praise God, we are expressing admiration – we are calling out how good He is, how faithful He is and how strong He is to act on our behalf. This builds our FAITH. Romans 10:17 says that faith comes when we hear the Word of God. The more we hear about the goodness of God and how much He already did by reading the stories in the Bible – the more we believe it. Supernatural (i.e doesn’t make sense to the natural mind) JOY occurs because we KNOW who our God is, we know WHAT He is capable of so that we can rest fully assured that He has our today and our future taken care of.

The battle is not ours when we allow Him to intervene. We already have the victory!

So now I can laugh and smile – even when the world is literally falling apart around me – because I know my God and I walk with Him. It takes something or Someone bigger on the inside of us to enable us to laugh when the situation or circumstance is contrary.

We don’t have to be dictated to by our emotions. They do not have to control us.

So today, I want to encourage you to begin by praising Him. Even if it goes against everything that is happening around you. When you begin to praise Him, you put Him in the driver’s seat of your life and your faith begins to rise. You are now standing in a place of full assurance that God will fight for you. Let the JOY of the Lord be your strength! (Nehemiah 8:10)

“She is clothed with strength and dignity, and she laughs without fear of the future.” (Proverbs 31:25 NLT)

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Buff my Heart

Do you know what I love and hate at the same time? A pedicure. Seriously – I love walking in, knowing that I’m about to get pampered…making the difficult choice between cherry red or pretty purple…settling into the comfy chair, just moments away from a back massage. Then what I despise comes into play: my feet being touched. I know it’s the most ironic situation but I can’t help it! I do not respond well to fingers connecting with my feet. BUT for the sake of sandals, I persevere. The worst part of the experience (but most necessary after a winter of socks and boots) is getting the gross callouses of my heels buffed. As agonizing as having someone rub a rough sponge on my heels while gripping my feet is, I do it because I like to slip my feet between my husbands for warmth at night, and let me tell you, they better be as soft as a baby’s bottom.

Anyway… moving on…

“And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart” (Ezekiel 36:26 NLT)

The Bible talks about our heart as being the source of our entire life (Proverbs 4:23) and especially as women we know this is true. When we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, He took out the heart of stone (the heart that was hard and bitter towards the things of God) and He replaced it with a heart of flesh (a heart that is soft and responsive to Him and the voice of the Holy Spirit).

Our goal is to guard this soft heart so that nothing can harden it.

This is a tough thing. Especially as women, because we are so much softer when it comes to hurts, pains and rejections. When others hurt, we hurt. When other hurt us, we hurt even more.

So let’s bring this back to the joy of pedicures. Just like our feet, I am learning that we have to buff our hearts. See things happen; some that we can control and some that we can’t, some come out of nowhere and some are disappointments due to unfulfilled expectations. Regardless of the situation, we have to work extra hard to keep our hearts soft, because over time they can become full of hard, rigid and stubborn callouses.

So what do we do? We grab our hearts and we buff away immediately when something threatens to harden it. Our sponge is the truth of God’s Word and the sweet ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Really, we need to be more focused on the callouses of our hearts then the callouses of our heels. Just like scary looking feet ruin the cutest pair of summer shoes – a hurt and offended heart ruins the sweet, nurturing character of a woman.

We can do it, we can guard our hearts by taking everything to God in prayer, bringing it into line with the Word and honestly, crying out and asking the Holy Spirit desperately for His help – which never fails to arrive. We need only to listen.

“Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life” (Proverbs 4:23 NLT)

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