Beauty from Ashes- A Redemption Story

This is a post that I wrote in 2016 after our house caught on fire. It is a beautiful thing to look back and see what God did through all of this horrible experience.

“Well… our house is on fire.”

Carter isn’t one for jokes and the statement seemed surprisingly calm. Too calm.

I heard him clearly, but still felt puzzled. Instinctively I replied,

“What? What did you say?”

 “Our house is on fire.”

Again calm, but a bit shakier. He didn’t have to explain. Somewhere in my gut I just knew… it was serious.

“Did you call 911?”

“Yes.” He stated.

“I’m coming.”

I was in my brother’s bathroom trying on some jeans at a rummage sale. It had been an uneventful day… until now. I ran outside and told my brother “I need you to drive me home. Now. Our house is on fire.”

It took me less than a minute to be on my way.  As we drove on the back country road I saw the fire trucks a couple of miles behind. It was then that I realized we would beat them to our house. I couldn’t help but wonder what I was going to see when I arrived.

My thoughts were interrupted by my brother’s statement,

“Oh shit.”

I looked up and saw it…

The smoke.

It was a lot of smoke.

I had seen this sight a hundred times before, a pillar of smoke in the distance. I can never help but wonder what is causing it. I didn’t wonder this time.

I knew.

This was my house.

This was the house that we bought only five months ago.

This was the house that I had spent every weekend and many weeknights of the past 20 weeks working on. This was the house that we had just painted… and trimmed… and replaced doors… countertops… fans… lighting… and flooring. I had finally chosen my curtains and bedding and was finalizing room décor. This was our fixer-upper… that we were almost done with.

As soon as I saw the smoke, I put my face in my hands and began to sob.

How can this be happening?

This can’t be happening.

But it was.

As we arrived at our home I saw my husband and three sweet babies in our front yard watching our house burn. The flames were pouring out of our children’s playroom.  

As my brother pulled into our front yard, I opened my door and had my foot on the ground before the truck had even stopped.

My babies. I needed to hold my babies.

I ran up to them, hugged them, and thanked God for their safety.

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The firefighters pulled in and we said a quick prayer for them as they began to work. We watched as they quickly got the flames under control and made sure the fire was extinguished. It all happened so fast and quickly it was over.

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The fire was out.

I had never been in a house that had been on fire before. From the outside, I thought the loss would be isolated to one room... but I was wrong. I have heard the term “smoke damage”, but could not have imagined the extent of destruction it caused so quickly.

Our house was destroyed.

As I walked through the house, I couldn’t even process what I saw. There is no way this could be my house. My house was filled with natural light, light-colored walls, and white trim.

It was like I had walked into a nightmare version of my home.

Our normally bright house was a pit of darkness. Even with a flashlight, I could hardly see. The air burned my throat and I had to leave after only a few minutes inside.

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We all stood around for a bit and talked about how thankful we were that everyone was safe and how we all knew everything would work out.

Then one by one everyone said their goodbyes and wished us the best.

Carter and I didn’t know what to do.

What are you supposed to do?

So we just sat in our front yard on a stump, baffled, at what had just happened.

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What had just happened?

This fire had just demolished the last five months of our lives. And we weren’t just starting over, we were starting farther back than ever before.  

How did we get here? We have never been those people that wanted a “fixer-upper”; in fact, because of our lack of skills we tried to avoid it. But after two years of looking, we decided this house had the greatest potential to give us what we dreamed of.

We bought our house hoping we could handle the adventure of a remodel. We had almost done it. It was far from perfect, but we were proud of it. We were proud of it because we had put so much time and effort into it. Of course we still had a ton of projects to do, but we had our final *big* project scheduled for the following week.

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We have never worked so hard on anything.

All of our hard work was wiped away in about 20 minutes. 

...

The next morning, I was lying in bed and a scripture I grew up hearing came to my mind.

“To give them beauty for ashes…”

I have always loved the sound of these words. Very poetic and they paint a beautiful picture of the redemptive process. It got me thinking… redemption is beautiful, but to be truthful, the process of bringing beauty out of ashes is not easy.

 I find myself today with a giant opportunity, I get to bring beauty from ashes… literally.

This process will not just happen. It will cost me. I have had, and will continue to have, many opportunities to not bring beauty from this situation.

I can choose not to make the most of it.

But I won’t.

I will not allow this situation to steal any more from me than it already has

I am headed to Redemption.

I do not worry about the destination, but the journey overwhelms me at times. I know how costly it is to go on this journey. It is not fun, but it is worth it. Even though I would not have chosen this. I can do this.

I will do this.

I will release my expectations.

I will stand on my faith.

I will hold on to my hope.

And I will choose to love.

And then I will wait. I will wait and watch it all unfold.

Beauty is coming.

Just wait and see.

Do you know of anyone who is also in an overwhelming time of their life? Forward this to them and let us make beauty together!

You Were Born to Feel Alive.

We had our first child, Epsie, in June of 2011. While stepping into motherhood was amazing in most ways, I wouldn’t describe it as the “easiest” experience. Our daughter was so sweet, cuddly, and perfect; however, she cried much of the evenings and wasn’t too keen on sleeping much at night.

I found myself awake through the night for months after she was born. She liked to be held while she slept. I mean, who can blame her?? But if I laid her down, she cried, and I was nervous to sleep while holding her. So, we “compromised”. I stayed awake and held her so she could sleep. Randomly, I remember watching all the seasons of Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives. When I look back on this time, it has a bit of a weird vibe. No sleep and lots of “girly tv”.

I was doing my best to get through, but I would not say I was thriving.

I remember when my daughter was a few weeks old, sitting by the pool, zoning out as I stared into the water. There were people all around me, but I felt like I could just go to sleep. I was thinking to myself in a slow, tired rhythm, “How can I keep going like this? How do people do this? Is this just my life now? Forever tired? Dreading the nighttime?”

Motherhood was blissful, for sure.

But I was most definitely in survival mode. 

By the time December rolled around we had pushed through on getting her to sleep and by January, I was ready to start a new beginning. I felt like a new woman now that I was sleeping again.

So, I did what many of us do and I used the new year to focus on the things I was going to change. And I did. 

I made many changes, some for my physical health and others for my spiritual health. I wanted to feel different when the next year rolled around. 

I got a plan and moved toward that plan of action.

Working out. Journaling. Prayer time. Goals for my family and my marriage. Fasting. I really held nothing back. I can be a real go-getter when I’m in the mood…

This was one of those years that I did what I set out to do, and it was the start of a new season of my life.

I grabbed ahold of the realization that my life was full of possibilities, but I also knew it was going to take work on my part.

Most of us have had seasons in our lives where we feel out of order, but the question is what did we do about it? If we want to take the Adventure God made for us, then it is going to take a lot of effort on our part. No matter what we believe about “fate” or “destiny” it is important that we all understand our decision to live out the purpose God created us for must be chosen by us. 

God does not force any of us to pay the price of our destiny.

And there most certainly is a price.

Experiencing the life God has for us means that we are willing to get out of our comfort zone and do things that we feel anxious doing. We must live a life of being comfortable with the experience of being uncomfortable. 

We must learn to push ourselves.

We must learn to listen to what God is saying, get a plan to take action toward it, and most importantly, take the action!

Here in a couple weeks, I am going to be offering an opportunity to join my 10 Day Kickstart into the new year. I am going to help you get a plan for the year and figure out what God wants you to do. I don’t want any of us to end the 2024 feeling disappointed with it.

Our life with God must be deliberate. And it certainly cannot be limited to reading the Bible or listening to good sermons. Yuck. That’s only the beginning. As Christians, we must all be discovering the grand Adventure of becoming who God created us to become and doing what He created us to do.

It is the greatest call in our life to discover the purpose we were put on this Earth for and become the person God created us to be. 

We were created to live with God and fully come alive while we are here.

Do you feel alive?

-Haley

Ps. Remember, the Earth is waiting for you to show up. 

Do You Feel Like Quitting?

When Carter and I were Juniors in high school, we had been dating for 2 years. We had a great relationship and had already begun planning a future together. But that winter something changed. I lost all feelings for him. It was the strangest thing because nothing had happened. We hadn’t been fighting and he hadn’t done anything wrong, but something changed for me. It just felt like I was no longer attracted to him or had feelings for him. This went on for a couple of weeks and I started seriously considering breaking up with him. I mean, why would I stay with someone I had no feelings for?

I’ll never forget, in January of 2003, sitting with him in his blue, Chevy truck at the Sonic, after a basketball game seriously contemplating ending our relationship. I mean, who wants to date someone they don’t feel attracted to? 

Carter, sensing that something seemed seriously wrong, asked me, “What’s wrong? You haven’t been acting normal. I know something is wrong. Please, just tell me.” 

I knew this was my chance. If I was going to do it, this was the perfect opportunity. But I thought about it again and I chose not to.

I didn’t break up with him for one reason and one reason only. I cared too much for him.

Sure, I didn’t feel “in love” with him, but we had spent 2 years together and I knew it would crush him. So, I made an agreement with myself, that I would give it another week. If I still wanted to break up with him next week, I would do it then. What was the rush? I thought to myself.  There wasn’t one, I decided. I could do it next week.

But guess what happened to my 17-year-old self the following week??? I was once again fully obsessed, attracted, and loving my hot, boyfriend. After this, I remember thinking how crazy real my emotions had felt the week before. How could I have been so close to ending something so important to me? Now, 20 years later, I have often remembered this very important lesson.

My feelings do not always line up with what I should do.

This has gone on to shape our relationship, and not just that, but many things I have done in life, including Redemption Unveiled. Over 7 years ago, I started the “Redemption Unveiled” blog. I felt confident that God was calling me to do it, so I did. I knew he had a message for me to share and I felt a deep knowing that I should step out and share it. I quickly ran into a pretty big problem though. 

Not only did I not know what I was doing, I didn’t know what Redemption Unveiled was really supposed to be.  I was confident that I had a message to share, but what was it?? 😄🙄😭

I cannot begin to tell you the roller coaster that I have taken when it comes to RU. Not only have I had hundreds of tag lines, mission statements, and plans to move forward, but I have also had countless hours of conversations with Carter and other people in my life trying to find the clarity of what I am called to share here.

This all changed this year. 

2023 I finally uncovered the mission that Redemption Unveiled was meant to bring into this world.

I am here to help you take the Adventure God has for you.

It has been such a breath of fresh air to finally have clarity to this thing that I thought would be so much easier to define when I began. Everything feels different now. I no longer feel like I am searching for something and working to make sense of what is within me. After 7 years of blogging, podcasting, talking, praying, planning, thinking, and trying, it finally feels like I know what Redemption Unveiled is.

So imagine my complete surprise when the past few months I have felt unmotivated and not that excited to launch it into the world. I always told myself, that if I only had clarity, I bust this thing out like no other. But here I am, clarity and all, and there has not been any “busting” to speak of. In fact, I have felt little motivation to dig in and do the work.

What in the world? After all this time, why am I not passionately, obsessed with this Adventure that I have worked so hard for??

I have felt very confused.

This week, I was talking to Carter about all of this, and I looked down, and suddenly had a major “aha” that I felt like God gave me. He reminded me of that time many years ago, back when Carter and I were in that Chevy truck at the Sonic.

I remember the feeling of “blah” that I felt. I remember how close I was to letting it all go, and then I was reminded of all the beauty that has come since.

And just like that, something was settled in me once again.

Redemption Unveiled will be an exciting adventure… just maybe not today.

Recently, RU has felt like a struggle. I am showing up and doing the work, but it hasn’t felt as passionate as expected. 

Turns out, no adventure is always fun and exciting. Marriage, parenting, careers, friendships, our calling, and even life itself, are all made up of many things. Sometimes they are exciting, sometimes difficult, and sometimes they just feel really boring.

This is a lesson we all must learn.

The Adventure that God calls us to are made up of highs and lows, but not just that. Sometimes, they are made of boring plateaus that can be even harder to stick through than the trials. I want to encourage you that if you want to experience all the Adventures that God has for you, you will have to push through the seasons of your life and choose the adventure, even when it doesn’t excite you.

Take it from me, you won’t always feel like you feel today and if you want God to give you the life you were born for, you will have to do a lot of things you don’t feel like doing.

Let’s do this.

Don’t forget, the Earth is waiting for you to show up. 🌎 -Haley

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Does your life feel boring? Do you struggle to see the Adventure you are on? I am excited to announce that I am bringing back GUEST to the podcast! Every other week, we will hear from someone about an adventure they took with God! I can’t wait to share these amazing stories with you!

Today’s podcast has one of the best stories I have ever heard!

Today, I have on my mom, Shelly, and she is sharing with you the story of when God called her to adopt… even though she already had 6 biological children! She faced a lot of problems along the way, it was NOT an easy Adventure for her to go on. But all along the way, God wrote himself into the story. This is one of the most inspiring stories I’ve ever heard, and it never gets old.

If you need to feel inspired this Holiday Season, listen to this podcast today!

How to Become Who God Created Us to Be

Over the past few weeks on my podcast and blog, I have been discussing what it takes to live out the Adventure God has for us. Today, is the last week of the series and it is my favorite of all the things. This week’s focus is:

TRANSFORMATION

If you take the Adventure God has for you, one thing will be for certain, He will transform you. He will heal you and he will strengthen you.

If we take the Adventure God has for us, He will transform us into who He created us to be.

He will do this by calling us into places we have never been and asking us to do things we have never done, we will face problems of many kinds, and have to decide if we are willing to take the risk. 

Taking the Adventure God made us for is not easy. It will challenge us in many difficult ways; however, it is this exact challenge that we were made for.  

If you want to find freedom in your life, it is not enough to study the Bible. It is not even enough to do good things. The ultimate Adventure we were put on this Earth for is to experience the transformation of becoming who God created us to be and fully knowing His goodness.

I really do have a “crazy” belief that my Christianity should take me to freedom. When I read the things that Jesus says in the Bible, I interpret it that I should be finding healing, wholeness, and freedom in my faith. That’s what I believe.

This belief has driven much of what I have done in my life for the past 15 years.

No longer is my faith something that drives me only to do things, but it is my motivation to become something. I don’t want to become something great or something grand. To be honest, I don’t even know exactly what it is that I will become because I don’t even know exactly who I am, but that’s what I want.

I want to become the person God created me to be.

I want to live free. Unrestricted by the fear of failure and the shame of my mistakes. I want to be able to live out the Adventure God put me on this Earth for. I simply want to be able to do everything God asks me to do and fulfill every promise He has given me to experience. That’s it. No more, no less. 

I no longer want to do everything or be everything. I want to run my race. I want to be me.

And I want to help you run your race and be you.

I want you to know exactly how to take the Adventure God has for you and I want you to come into the fullness of who God created you to be. No more, no less.

I am rooting for you.

Don’t forget, the Earth is waiting for you to show up. 🌎 -Haley

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Want to go deeper? Listen to this week's podcast:

Why Does God Ask So Much from Us?

I had an experience recently where I felt God wanted me to do something that I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do or not. It seemed like it could be awkward and I could embarrass myself. Then, the perfect opportunity presented itself. Like the heavens opened (not really, lol) and it was clear to me that I needed to do the thing I felt like I was supposed to do. So, I did it. It surprisingly went very well; in fact, I felt very confident as I was doing it. And I was proud of myself for being obedient.

Until…

Two days later, everything changed.

Two days later, I became overwhelmed with panic about what I had done. I felt embarrassed and ashamed that I took the risk that I had taken. Why, Haley? Why do you have to do these things? Just stop. I felt haunted by thoughts of regret.

Have you ever had one of those times in life when you stress about something in every free moment that you have? When you can be busy, busy, busy, but the second things get silent the stress comes instantly pouring back into your mind. It takes no time to build up, it immediately feels intense and heavy.

This was one of those times.

I took a risk, did what I thought God wanted me to do, and ended up regretting it. I don’t enjoy these experiences. Actually, I hate them so much. I like the times of boldly obeying God and seeing his purpose and plan. But, the truth is, it doesn’t always go like that. 

Sometimes, we do the very thing that we think God is asking us to do and it doesn’t feel great. It feels stressful and horrible.

Taking Adventure with God is full of taking risks. Today, we are going to look at why:

If you walk with God, He will no doubt ask you to do things that scare you. He will ask you to do things you don’t want to do, things that stress you out, and sometimes the thing that feels like your greatest fear. It is not if but when.

God asks all his followers to take risks.

There are many reasons for him to do this and I am quite certain I don’t know what all of them are, but I do know a few reasons.

First and foremost, this is the sign of a true follower of God. God’s children are the people who are willing to follow him even when it is risky. If I only say “yes” to him when it is easy and it doesn’t cost me anything what does that really say about me? It is in these places that I get to decide who really rules my life… God or my fear?

Second, sometimes it is not about us. Unfortunately, I can make all things about me. How does it make me feel? Make me look? It is so easy for me to filter everything through myself. Which is a horrible quality but something I have discovered to be true. There are times when I am convinced that God asked me to do things that have nothing to do with me. In fact, I am certain and hope that this is the case quite often. I want God to use me for others, I don’t want to have a relationship with God that everything must benefit me.

I want my relationship with God to be bigger than that. 

And lastly, sometimes God asks us to do things that we aren’t comfortable doing because He knows us so well. He knows what we were created to do and what we are capable of doing. In fact, God knows things that He put inside of us that we have no idea are there. Not only that, He knows what struggles we have and what we still need to be healed of. 

As far as my experience, about 3 weeks later, I had an epiphany that surprised me. I told Carter, my husband, I still did believe that God asked me to do what I did. However, if I could go back and not do it, I would, even if it truly was God, because of all the stress I had felt. 

It was at this moment I realized; I still had a deep fear of being misunderstood by people. In fact, I discovered that in this case, I would choose to disobey God just so that I would not be misunderstood.

I don’t know all God’s purposes in this situation but when I heard myself admit this truth, I saw something in myself that I didn’t know was there.

God is so good to love me no matter what, but He also loves me enough not to let me stay stuck where I am. The last thing I want to do is live trapped by the opinions of others. God doesn’t want this either. This situation was such a wonderful gift to let me see the brokenness I still had within me and ask God to come in and heal it.

If we follow God, He will ask us to do things we don’t want to do. There are many reasons for this, sometimes it is to fulfill his plans and purposes and sometimes it is to heal us. No matter what the reason, I am here to encourage you to say “yes” when God asks you to do something no matter how much it scares you!

Don’t forget, the Earth is waiting for you to show up. 🌎 -Haley

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Want to go deeper? Listen to this week's podcast:

You Shouldn’t Just Wait for God to Open a Door

I’ve grown up hearing the phrase, “When God opens a door, walk through it.” I like the idea and honestly, lived by it for years in my life but this is a bit of an immature way of living.

First, I don’t believe that every opportunity is from God. I know for me, I had a season of my life (kind of an awkward season actually) where I had several open doors that were a great fit for my call yet, there was no peace to walk through them. I had months of people giving me opportunities and I said “no, thanks” because the timing didn’t feel right. So, I certainly don’t believe we should always say “yes” just because there is a great opportunity in front of us.

But more than that, I struggle with the idea that the things God wants us to do will always be presented in a beautiful “open door” presentation.

It is my job to help you take the Adventure God has for you and if I am going to do that then I must equip you for what that will look like. There will be times when God calls you to do something, and you will have a beautiful “open door” before you. However, that is only one experience. Sometimes, the door isn’t so clear. In fact, sometimes, God isn’t calling you to a door, but He is calling you to the wilderness to carve a new path that isn’t cleared yet. Sometimes, we are called to a closed door that isn’t opening, but it is our job to knock at this door until it opens like in the parable Jesus shared in the Gospels.

One of the greatest misconceptions about walking with God is that if we follow Him then things will be easy.

In my experience, walking with God sometimes feels like floating peacefully down a river, and then sometimes it is more like trying to get upstream against the rapids. It isn’t all “open doors” and glowing paths. Sometimes, it is more like walking through mud, in the dark, just trying to survive each step.

As Christians, we must start accepting that suffering is part of walking with God. In fact, we were born to persevere through hardship. God calls us into problems because we were created to bring solutions to them. It is in these times of struggle that we get to choose if we will do what God wants us to do even though it is hard. It is in these difficult seasons that we get to decide if we will keep persevering even though we don’t see the end.

It is in these moments that we become very aware of the weaknesses inside of us.

It is through these experiences that we get to trust God not only to guide us but to heal us and strengthen us.

Open doors are great to walk through when God gives us them, but this is only one way to say “yes” to the Adventure God has for us. Sometimes, obedience isn’t about walking through the door, but not walking through it. Sometimes, there is no “door” or even a clear path, but we follow God’s whisper as He guides us, trusting He will take us somewhere good.

If we want to take the Adventure God has for us, we must be aware that difficulty, confusion, and struggle will be part of it. Which is okay because that is all part of you becoming the amazing, strong, free person He created you to be.

The struggle you face is not here to harm you but an opportunity for God to heal you. 

Don’t get stuck in a life that only looks for open doors. Learn to listen to what God is asking you to do and do it whether there is an opportunity already waiting or if you must take a leap of faith into a place unknown.

Don’t forget, the Earth is waiting for you to show up. 🌎 -Haley

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Want to go deeper? Listen to this week's podcast:

Would you like to clarify where God wants you to go in your life? Would you like to start by defining the greatest calls that God has put inside of you? If so, you should take the free, mini training. 

What role does anxiety play in your life?

Anxiety is a hot topic these days. There are many tips, tricks, remedies, medications, meditations, advice, and other therapies to help alleviate anxiety, which is great because anxiety really sucks!

I truly hate feeling anxious and if I had my way, I would remove it from my life altogether. However…

My job is to help you take the adventure God has for you, so we need to talk about the connection between anxiety and adventure.

Over the past several weeks, I have been telling you what you will need to do in order to experience a great adventure with God. You can read the first two things you need here: step 1 and step 2

The third thing you will need to do if you want to experience adventure with God is to be willing to go to unfamiliar places.

If you want to take the Adventure God made you for you will have to be willing to do things that make you feel uncomfortable and dare, I even say, anxious. 

Unfortunately, for us, anxiety has gotten a bad rap. For many of us, we name it like a bad personality trait that we can’t control, and even worse, we name it as a perfectly good reason that we can’t do something.

“I was going to, but I just felt too anxious about it.”

“I could never do that, I have too much anxiety.”

“I would but my anxiety is too bad.”

 For many of us, we have come to the wrong conclusion that feeling anxious is a reason not to do things. When in fact, anxiety is often a sign that we are doing something new, something challenging, or something bold.

I want to help you take this adventure you were made for, and I need to help prepare you for what it will entail. One of the things God will definitely do is ask you to do things you don’t want to do. It’s not if, it’s when. And these things He asks you to do will sometimes scare you. In fact, there will be times that you would rather do ANYTHING but the thing He wants you to do.

And it will be in these moments of spiraling that we determine if we will or will not find the Adventure we were made for.

In many ways, I wish this wasn’t the case. I wish I could tell you that taking this journey will be a fun, exhilarating experience with only butterflies and rainbows but I can’t tell you that because it isn’t true. 

You see, when God put you on this Earth, He knew exactly what you were capable of accomplishing. He knows you better than you know yourself. Yet, you and I have quickly found our ability to keep ourselves from harm. We love comfort and want to stay where we feel safe. The idea of putting ourselves out there and being rejected, failing, or embarrassing ourselves is not something any of us want to do.

Of course, when we feel anxious, it doesn’t guarantee that we are on the right track, but it certainly doesn’t mean that we are on the wrong one.

Our anxiety should not be able to keep us from doing what God wants us to do. And we must learn that if we say “yes” to God we will have times of feeling extremely anxious. All of this is part of our Adventure but more than that, it is part of learning who God created us to be, discovering our potential, and learning we can trust our God to guide us in this life. 

Your anxiety sucks. I get it. But your Adventure is worth pushing through and finding out what is on the other side of it. You can do this. Please, try. We need you!

Don’t forget, the Earth is waiting for you to show up. 🌎 -Haley

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Want to go deeper? Listen to this week's podcast:

Would you like to clarify where God wants you to go in your life? Would you like to start by defining the greatest calls that God has put inside of you? If so, you should take the free, mini training.

What does God want me to do?

It’s an age ol’ question. What does God want us to do? Whether it be in how to handle a relationship conflict, a new job opportunity, or any number of other questions that life brings at us, “What does God want us to do?” The question can plague us.

How do we know what God wants?

Easy.

Haha, just kidding. It’s not easy. Although, I wish it was. Finding God’s will for your life isn’t easy; in fact, it is in God’s very nature to send us into challenging circumstances even when we are living out the life He created us for. So, a life with God is anything but easy.

A life living out God’s purposes is not easy; however, it is clear.

There are 3 things to do to make sure you are finding the Adventure that God put you on this Earth for.

1.Know God’s word.

I decided to start with the most obvious. We must know what God says in his word. Learning it helps us understand his nature, his direction, and his beliefs. Year after year, as we read and study his word new things are revealed to us, new understanding becomes clear, and it helps us through new life situations that we might find ourselves in. Knowing God’s word is key to discovering the life He has for us.

2. We must be willing to take action.

Knowing God’s word isn’t enough. As we learn what God teaches us in his word, we must put it into action. There are so many amazing principles and guidelines that offer a different way of thinking and a different life to live. We must be willing to challenge ourselves and make decisions that we don’t want to make to discover the life God is inviting us to.

Knowing the Bible isn’t enough. We also must be willing to follow the dreams and ideas that God gives us. This one is a huge passion of mine because the church focuses heavily on knowing God’s word but not as many people have discovered the excitement of listening and obeying as the Holy Spirit guides us through the calling and passions within us.

Knowing God’s word is a great start, but we will never discover God’s will if we are unwilling to do what God tells us to do. Knowing isn’t enough. All the real power of this faith is in the doing.

3. You must be willing to change.

Finding the purpose for your life will depend heavily on your willingness to learn not only what God wants you to do but to become the person God created you to be. Without a doubt, this is the most misunderstood concept in the Christian Culture.

God put you on this earth to do AND to become.

It is both. 

You are created to take action and bring things to this earth, but you are also created to find freedom and become the Child God created you to be. In fact, becoming who God made you will be one of the greatest, most rewarding things you do in this life.

Imagine, discovering a life that brings you closer to God no matter what difficulties come.

Imagine, decade after decade not becoming more bitter like many people do but becoming freer. 

Imagine, looking back on your life at the end and knowing that you took many risks that scared you but on the other side of it these scary times you became the person you know you were born to become.

Imagine. Now stop imagining and start taking this Adventure today.

Don’t forget, the Earth is waiting for you to show up! 🌎 -Haley

Want more encouragement? Listen to this week’s podcast here: …

Would you like to clarify where God wants you to go in your life? Would you like to start by defining the greatest calls that God has put inside of you? If so, you should take the free, mini training.

Do You Feel Too Ordinary for God to Use?

Do you ever look around and see the amazing people in the world and feel like you are just too ordinary to do amazing things like them? Do you want to live an extraordinary life but feel like you don’t have what it takes?

Well, if that sounds like you then I have great news for you!

Redemption Unveiled is here to help you take the Adventure God has for you, but there is one thing you must understand if you are going to do this. 

You must start seeing yourself as able and start believing that you can do the amazing things that God has called you to do.

Most of us struggle to see ourselves as anything too wonderful. We are very aware of our weaknesses and limitations and can live blind to our natural strengths. We can live haunted by our failures and consumed with our shortcomings. This seems to be a pretty common human condition. We can see other people's great attributes and even their potential, but we struggle to recognize our own.

Do you want to hear a pretty cool discovery that I made?

There was a literary professor and author, Joseph Campbell, who taught people how to write great adventure stories. He taught there are 6 things that every great adventure story needs. The first thing an Adventure needs is a hero. If you are going to write a great adventure story, then you must have a hero… but that’s not all! 

This hero doesn’t start out as a hero, they start out as an ordinary person and become extraordinary along the journey.

This is good news for me and good news for you because most of us don’t view ourselves as anything too extraordinary. We are just doing our best to live our life and be a good person. This doesn’t usually look too remarkable, BUT here is the connection I have found:

Saying yes to the Adventure God has for you is the exact thing you need to become the extraordinary person you were created to be. 

Too many of us are living small and staying small, not because we were born to be small, but because we haven’t chosen to say “yes” to the things God has asked us to do. 

God often asks us to do things that feel scary, that we can’t do on our own and He knows this. He knows we are not qualified to do the things He asks us to do and that’s the whole point. We must rely on him to do them. We must trust him even when feels super scary. We must choose to obey him even when we don’t understand.

My job is to help you take the Adventure God has for you. In doing this, I must equip you for what it takes. Step one, you must stop thinking you must be a “qualified superhero” before you begin. That’s not correct thinking. You don’t need to be qualified, you don’t need to be extraordinary, you don’t need even need to be prepared. All you need to be is willing. You need to be willing to take action toward what God has asked you to do, be willing to persevere through the problems, and be willing to let him heal you from your discouragements along the way. That’s it. 

Your adventure will not come from how amazing you are. Your Adventure is born from how amazing your God is. He loves you enough to invite you on this Adventure, it is not determined by how perfect you are, but by how obedient you are. 

This adventure will have many ups and downs, but along the way, you will discover not only how amazing your God is, but you will also become the amazing person God created you to be.

And don’t forget, the Earth is waiting for you to show up.- Haley

Listen to the podcast for more below…

Why doesn’t your life feel adventurous?

I have always had a desire to live an adventurous life. Ever since I was little, I can remember feeling this sense that my life was meant to be lived to the fullest and I didn’t want to die with regrets. I still feel that way now, I feel this deep desire to live a life that is adventurous; however, as I have gotten older, I realize how hard that truly is. 

One of the reasons it can be hard to live an adventurous life is because we don’t understand what it takes to experience adventure.

For starters, let’s look at the definition of adventure. Merriam-Webster defines adventure as the following:

Adventure-

1 a: an undertaking usually involving danger and unknown risks

2: an exciting or remarkable experience

3: an enterprise involving financial risk

Now, if you had asked me what adventure entails when I was younger, I probably would’ve described it as doing something exciting but that’s not the full picture of adventure. Adventure isn’t just about doing something exciting, it is about taking risks, experiencing something new, and not being sure how it will turn out.

As I’ve gotten older, it has become apparent to me that it is hard to live an adventurous life because adventure comes with many unknowns, challenges, problems, and obstacles. The whole point of the adventure is taking a quest into places unknown. It is following the invitation to do new and remarkable things while living with knowing it might not turn out how we expected.

If you are like me and you want to live an amazing adventure in this life then I have a few tips for you.

1. You must be willing to follow the ideas you have.

You don’t have to follow every idea that you have, but you better be willing to follow and act on some of them. God will give you ideas and opportunities, it is your job to act on them! (At least some of them!)

1. You must be willing to fail.

The challenge of living adventurously is that you don’t know how it will turn out. You could take that financial risk and it blow up in your face. You might do something you feel God has asked you to do and feel embarrassed after. You might act on something and feel disappointed with how everything turns out.

Adventure doesn’t just feel risky, if you are doing it right, it is risky.

3. You must be willing to stick with it.

Not every idea we have is worth holding onto, but a life of adventure is worth fighting for. And not just that, some ideas are worth holding onto way past what seems logical. As long as God invites us to keep going, we should.

I always wanted to live an adventurous life, but to be honest I wasn’t really prepared for what that would look like. It looks like taking action. It looks like disappointment. It looks like perseverance. It looks like risking it all. All of this leads to sometimes being super proud and sometimes being super embarrassed. 

I now see that an adventurous life doesn’t feel natural to choose; in fact, it goes against my instincts to avoid difficulty. But I know that God has created me for an adventurous life and I know he has created you for an adventurous life. 

If you don’t feel like your life has been an adventure, think about these three things and determine where you stopped saying yes to God.

1. Do you take action when you feel God has asked you to do something or he has given you an idea?

2. Are you willing to take the risk and stay on the course even when it scares you?

3. Do you stick with it when you feel disappointed and discouraged?

You were created to take an Adventure with God, don’t miss it.

And don’t forget, the Earth is waiting for you to show up. -Haley

The Fight That Christians Need to Start Choosing

I am constantly hearing and reading about things Christians need to start being more vocal about or things they need to start standing up for, some of which I agree with and others I don’t. But I do have a fight that I firmly believe more Christians need to start taking on. Let’s get into it…

The past few weeks, I have been struggling. I have felt overwhelmed with worry about some things that I have recently experienced. There have been times that I have felt short of breath and flushed as I recall the things that have occurred.

I have felt attacked in my mind. 

I have become obsessed with thinking about things that make me feel embarrassed and ashamed. 

Now, if you know me, I am a huge advocate of reaching out to people that I walk with and sharing my struggles. I believe that this helps bring clarity and healing. However, I did that and I still felt the pull to entertain the thoughts and feelings that came.

The best way I can describe the experience is that it felt like a magnet. It felt like a magnet that was pulling me in. Not that I couldn’t fight it, but that if I wasn’t fighting the pull, I would be sucked in by it.

I would find myself in a moment of living life and before I knew it, I was fully engaged by the thoughts that had been drawing me in for days.

Sometimes, I wouldn’t realize I had been sucked in by it until I already felt like I was drowning.

I would have to work back through my truths and sometimes reach out again for support. It has been exhausting. Even now, I am having waves of these moments. Although, I do think they have improved, thankfully!

I want to share this experience because since this started a couple of weeks ago, I have had multiple conversations with people who have described similar situations. Not necessarily about the same topic but feeling drawn into a thought or behavior that they know isn’t true or good. They don’t want to do it and they don’t want to think it… but… they feel compelled to do it.

After talking to them about it and after the last few weeks that I have had, I realized that this is more common than even I had realized. Not just in these big stressful experiences, but in the small moments in our life too. 

Every single day, it is so easy to get sucked into thought patterns that are not what God has called us to.

For instance, in the last few weeks, I have felt…

• Obsessed with feeling ashamed and embarrassed for doing something even though I felt confident that God had asked me to do it.

• Stressed that there “wasn’t enough time” even though, I firmly believe there is enough time to do the things God wants me to do.

• Angry with my husband basically because we were busy, and I made some stuff up in my head.

• Annoyed with someone in my life because they are choosing to live differently than I think they should even though I believe each of us should have the right to create the life we choose.

• Rejected even though I am very blessed with friends and family and I know that I am loved and wanted.

You see, my feelings and my mind can take me places very quickly. I can quickly become pulled in by these thoughts, fears, and beliefs. 

I must fight the thoughts that want to pull me in and distract me from God’s truth.

This is a fight I must pick, and this is a fight every Christian should be picking as well. 

Our thoughts and our feelings should not always be trusted. This is why we must know God’s truth and know his call on our life. We should have a mind of peace, a life of love so that we can constantly be renewed in our minds and find the freedom He has for us!

If you want to listen to more, listen to this week’s podcast!

It’s Time to Get Excited About Your Life!

How often do you wake up excited about your day? How many days a week do you go to bed completely fulfilled with your life? How confident are you that you are living the life God created you to live? I believe the answers to these questions are of the utmost importance. 

Call me crazy, but I believe that each Christian should have a deep knowing that they are living the very life God put them on this Earth to live.

I can remember a time when I really felt like I was missing something in my faith. I would pendulum back and forth between feeling “confident” and a gut-wrenching “emptiness”. I say “gut-wrenching” because it really bothered me. I mean, here I was living a Christian life that promises healing, freedom, and wholeness, and I would still have times of deeply suspecting that I was missing something important.

But what was it?

I can tell you now that I was missing something. I was missing a lot of somethings… I had almost entirely dedicated my faith to what I felt God was calling me to do but I was missing much of the purpose of my faith and relationship with God. I wasn’t doing what I should be doing in my relationships and hadn’t discovered how to become the person God created me to be. 

 A lot of my faith was focused on outward circumstances and accomplishments, and not nearly enough focus on who I was becoming along the way. 

I was putting way too much faith in my plans and my abilities and didn’t truly understand the life I was called to. I was missing it. I was missing so much of my life's purpose because it was easy to focus on everything I needed to do. Even when I was spending my time doing good, “Christian” type things, it still wasn’t enough to fulfill the longing I had inside of me.

About 15 years ago, I began to take a good, hard look at my life. I began to look at the differences between the life that Jesus talks about in the gospels and mine. It was blatantly obvious to me that I hadn’t fully discovered the fullness of my purpose here.

So, this began my journey of discovering the Adventure I was created for.

It took so much trial and error to unlearn all the things I had mistakenly believed, but in time, I realized that the life I was longing for was real and was able to be discovered with certain changes.

Now, I have become completely obsessed with not only living this Adventure but helping other people live it too.

I want to help you organize your life, so you can see the big picture and know what you should be doing in this season. I want to help you see how important your gifts and callings are, your goals, your relationships, and your mindset through it all. 

Join the FREE, Live Training

Live Training Information

• Details

  • Monday October 23rd at Noon 

  • 1 Hour Live Zoom Training

  • Completely Free

  • Must Sign Up to Join (if you cannot attend the live, you will receive access to the recording for 72 hours after, but it is recommended you attend the live session if possible)

• How to Sign Up

  • Click Here

• How to Prepare

  • I will send you about 6 sheets to print off prior to the training

God, What Do You Want Me To Do?

If there is one thing I hate in life, it is feeling like I am not connected to what God wants me to do. I hate seasons that feel disconnected and without purpose. Call me crazy, but I would rather be in a difficult season than a season without purpose!

Have you ever felt completely scattered in life?

Not just in the things you need to get done, but in your LIFE! Like your mind, your priorities, your relationships all feel overwhelming, and clarity isn’t there? Have you ever felt like you were missing the connection to how all the pieces of your life fit together?

I have had times when I felt so overwhelmed like, what on earth am I doing here? What am I accomplishing? How does everything fit together and what should I be doing today? 

Over the years, I have discovered that there are certain things I need to feel fulfilled in my faith and in my life. I want to share those things with you!

You and I were both created for a purpose.

We were both destined to be here on this Earth for such a time as this. We were not put here for a life that comes easy, but we are put here for a life that feels fulfilling.

Our life should be deeply fulfilling with a knowing that we are doing the things that God put us on this Earth. We need to know we aren’t missing it. We need to know we are fulfilling the call on our lives one day at a time.

This is exactly why I am so excited about my new “Adventure Training” that will be available soon.

On Monday, October 23, I will be doing a FREE, live training on Zoom for anyone who wants to join!

Join by signing up here: Take the Adventure

(remember, it’s free!)

All you have to do is print off a few pages for the training and show up on Zoom and I will walk you through the rest!

I want to help you go from feeling scattered to seeing the big picture.

I want to help you see where God is moving in your life, not just now, but in the big picture as well. 

After the hour, you will be able to look at your life to see what you should be focused on right now! 

If you are interested in hearing more, you need to listen to this podcast! It will answer all your questions! (I think!) 

If you are ready to sign up, click here: Take the Adventure

Your Relationships May Be the Key to Everything

Christians should be the absolute best people at relationships. There should be no doubt about it, no ability to argue, no if’s, and’s, or but’s about it.

But…

From where I see it, we don’t live much differently than anyone else regarding relationships. We pretty much go by how we feel. We build boundaries against those that hurt us, cut out those that disappoint us, and talk badly about anyone we have opinions about. (Whoops.)

Do you agree? Or no?

This past week, on the podcast, I shared the third thing we need to do to take The Adventure God has for us! (If you want to read the first two steps click here and here.) And the third and final thing we need to do is master our relationships. We absolutely must master how to live connected with God’s people.

It is our privilege and duty to not only be the church but to build the church. This “church” isn’t something we attend; it is relationships we build. This should absolutely be one of our greatest calls on this Earth, yet many of us don’t understand how much we are really missing it.

Our people are everything.

In our lives, we should have 3 types of connections.

First, we should have close relationships. These are the people who know everything. These are the people who walk with us through our darkest days and cheer us on in our greatest victories. We should all have a few close relationships. As Woody says in Toy Story, “If you don’t have one, GET ONE!” (He was talking about a moving buddy, but applies to close relationships as well!)

Second, we should have communities that we live among. In our communities, we may have the goal to serve, to bless, or to simply ENJOY! There are even seasons when God calls us to communities where the goal is to learn to endure. Our communities might be a local Christian church group or a workplace that God has called us to. Or, for many of us, our family is a community that we live in. They are people that we might spend a lot of time with but don’t walk deeply with us.

Communities are vital to find the Adventure God has for us!

Lastly, the final type of relationships you SHOULD be having in your life are difficult ones! (Yes, you read that right!) Every single one of us should have people in our life that are difficult to live with. These relationships are a gift. They allow us to exercise our ability to give grace, our willingness to forgive, our capability to love. They give us the opportunity to use our voice and have difficult conversations when needed. These people are valuable and should never be viewed as worthless just because they are hard to live with.

You see, God knows us. He knows how easily we could live life alone, cutting out people who betray us, and building boundaries against those who disappoint us, which is why I am convinced Jesus spent so much time teaching us how to live amongst people who were difficult.

Each of us should have many relationships that don’t just last years, but endure and ultimately thrive through the decades.

I love Jesus and I love his teaching and how he lived his life, but it isn’t a very natural way of living. In fact, from my experience, it often feels a whole lot like pain. It feels like rejection. It feels like being misunderstood. It feels like losing.

Living the life that Christ taught isn’t easy, but I am convinced the relationship piece is not an option. It should not be an afterthought, and it should not be an oversight.

How we handle our relationships absolutely should set us apart from the world.

We are forgiving endlessly, not counting the wrongs of those in our life, and believing the best in those that we walk life with. (Gulp.)

This is hard, yes. But this is the life you are not only called to but designed for.

Want to go deeper? Listen here…

What Is God Calling You to Do?

“Calling” is a big word.

Maybe you didn’t grow up in the Christian culture like I did, but for a girl who did, “Calling” is a word I heard a lot. “What is God calling you to do?” “What is your Calling?” “You must do the things that God has called you to do!”

So, “Calling,” what is it?

Your Calling is your unique purpose and destiny that God has put on your life. It is the dreams & hopes that He put in you that are your job to fulfill as you walk out your time on this Earth. It is a blend of several things. It is a combination of who you are, the things you will accomplish, and the overall impact/culture that you create while you are here.

Your Calling is filled with risks and unknowns. I wish I could tell you that the calling that God has on your life is filled with ease and joy. I wish that it could be described as skipping through a field of wildflowers to the end of a rainbow… that would be nice. I wish that your Calling was as simple as creating a goal and making it happen… but it’s not.

Your Calling is a blend of faith, hope, perseverance, determination, heartache, failure, embarrassment, a dash of success, and a whole lot of fulfillment.

Your Calling is quite dependent on your willingness to believe what God has told you more than the experiences that are proving otherwise. It is directly tied to your willingness to live out a combination of risk-taking in faith and disappointment-releasing through surrender.

The Call that God put inside of you is unique to you. There is no one else on this Earth that has the list of things to do that you have. You have a unique history, a unique set of gifts, talents, strengths, and unique dreams within you.

You are the only you, and that is why your responsibility to fulfill your Call is of the utmost importance.

Let’s break down your Calling into a bit more detail…

First, what are you good at? What brings you joy? What makes you excited? What lights you up? You need to think of several things, and you need to own them. I am not talking about simply things that you enjoy doing, what are the activities that you do on this earth that make you feel alive? These things are a vital part of your Call.

Second, what dreams do you have within you? Do you have a dream of starting a business? Running for government? Writing a book? Building a family? Experiencing an amazing marriage? Teaching? Building a house? Starting a non-profit? What are the things you would like to build? Create? Experience? These are all part of the Call of God on your life. He puts dreams within us & it is our job to take the risks to bring them to this Earth.

Lastly, what is the overall big picture you want your life to be about? What culture do you want to create? Who do you want to be? What kind of life do you want to live? Do you want to have a wildly adventurous life or perhaps, a steady & safe life? Do you want to live boldly or live wisely? How do you want to describe your life when you look back at it? This is part of your Call.

All three of these things are vital things that you need to clarify and understand about your life. You need to know what your strengths are, you need to know what you are building, and you need to know what Culture you are creating.

You need to move toward the Call that God has put inside of you.

This shouldn’t be an afterthought; in fact, you should wake up every day knowing exactly what you are doing in this season of your life and know exactly where you are headed. You should be going to bed very fulfilled and confident that you are living the life you were born for. You should be a person who responds to the whispers that God has put within you. This is the key to building your faith and ultimately becoming the person God created you to be.

Don’t wait, start today.

And don’t forget, the Earth is waiting for you to show up.

Want to go deeper? Listen to this podcast episode!

Get A Vision for Your Life

It has become obvious to me that if we want to take the Adventure God has for us then we need to have some sort of idea where we are headed.

You need a vision for your life.

ASAP.

There truly is no need to wait any longer. You need to identify where you are going and what you are doing with the time you have on this Earth.

I think as Christians we struggle with living a broad approach to life. We are taught what our morals should be and then we just live. However, I would like to challenge this approach. I think we can do better. I think we should do better.

I wish that every single Christian could realize the vital importance of identifying where they believe God is calling them in this life and live very intentionally to get there. Not rushing ahead of God but being very aware of the great responsibility we have to take our time seriously.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not here to tell you to cause you to panic about your Christianity. That’s not my job.

My job is to encourage you to show up for the grand Adventure God created you for so that you don’t go to bed feeling like something is missing. I want to help you organize your life so that you don’t end up disappointed with your time on this earth.

So, first things first. Get a vision.

I want you for a second to think about being 90 years old. Perhaps you know that your life is nearing its end. What would it take for you to feel like you succeeded with the time you had?

What do you want to accomplish?

Who do you want to become?

What do you want your life with God to look like?

Now write the answers to your questions down. Write it anywhere you want, but then put it somewhere for you to look at… often!

We are all busy & it is easy to get distracted by the busyness of life and end up forgetting about our priorities. The answers that you have to these questions should be of the utmost importance for you to accomplish. When you look at your week right now, do you feel like you are sticking consistently with the priorities you have defined?

As humans, we have this bizarre way of thinking about our future selves as someone we will one day magically become or perhaps I should say, we think of our future life as something that will magically happen… but that’s not how it works.

You must build the life you are called to build. It isn’t going to just happen. It is you who must partner with God on this Earth to respond to the call He has put within you. It will take time. It will take sacrifice. It will take obedience. It will take failure. It will take persistence.

Creating the life you were born to create will without a doubt be the hardest thing you do… and it will be the one thing that is most worth doing.

God created you for a purpose. He put a plan in place for your life. This plan will not be forced upon you. It will be your job to fight to understand it, work to uncover it, and put the time into creating it.

Step 1. Create clarity by getting a vision of where you want to end up.

If you don’t have clarity, now is the time.

And don’t forget, the Earth is waiting for you to show up.

Want to go deeper? Listen to the podcast episode here:

How Well Do You Let Things Go?

Letting go and surrendering doesn’t always feel natural

You know when God asks you to do something and you follow His plan, but then, out of nowhere it seems, He asks you to shift to a new direction? Sometimes it can feel like, “WAIT, I wasn’t done with what you originally asked me to do!” It can also feel confusing and out of control. It most likely doesn’t look like what we thought it would.

How quick can you shift and let go of your expectations

We have talked about our expectations a lot here at Redemption Unveiled. We know that living the life God created for us often doesn’t look like what we expected.

For me, I know that I used to really love the feeling of having control. I based my decisions around gaining that feeling. Will this help me feel in control? Then I’m on board.

As I have grown, I have learned that this false security I was getting from feeling like I was in control often led to disappointment from my expectations not getting met. It sure wasn’t helping me live a life of surrendering to God’s plan.

The art of letting go is a skill we all need

Not only do I believe that we can grow our skill of letting go, but I also believe it is absolutely necessary if we are going to live this life with God. We can grow the ability to move on, shift and release our expectations.

Let’s Surrender…

Our timing

Our expectations

Our plans

Others choices

How well do you surrender?

Are You Moving Forward?

You Do Not Have to Move Forward

You might have noticed that last week, I didn’t post a new episode. This was the first week in over a year that I haven’t posted one. It wasn’t because I forgot or chose not to, it’s because God is taking me on a journey that I am working on.

It’s interesting to me how sometimes God asks us to show up, but He almost seems silent in a way. We are confused, we aren’t sure how to go about things or where to start and God just wants us to jump into the unknown.

We don’t have to jump. We can stay right where we are…all nice and comfortable. But I am choosing to follow His plan and I hope you do too.

How Do I Show Up?

As I have been working on this new idea God has given me, I have learned that we don’t always know how to show up.

What do I actually need to do to show up?

All I know is to put in action. It will be messy. We will get discouraged. But we must move forward with the call He has placed on our lives.

Let’s fight through the confusion, through the mess and through our discomfort to live out the life He created just for us!

Be a fighter!

How Well Do You Fail?

Failing is Part of Getting Good at Something

This week, I was having a conversation with one of my kids. They were feeling disappointed and discouraged because they felt like they had made some mistakes and things didn’t turn out as they would have hoped.

As I am encouraging my child, and telling them that mistakes are part of the process, that we don’t have to be perfect and that they are being so hard on themselves….I kind of started to feel like I needed to listen to my own advice.

We Hold on So Tightly to Our Expectations

We put this pressure on ourselves to never make mistakes. That we need to be perfect. We need to know how to do things the “right” way. We could keep going here.

We hold on to these expectations of how things will go if we just do things correctly or perfectly. We almost set ourselves up for disappointment to achieve these unrealistic expectations. The truth is, we put this pressure on ourselves a lot. We work so hard to measure up to our own harsh standards that we begin to stop taking risks or we become hard and bitter.

Do You Take it Too Serious?

I think we can take life too seriously sometimes.

We feel this invitation from God to do something, we try to do it perfect (setting ourselves up for disappointment). What if God just wanted us to share this fun and exciting experience with Him? What if we are missing out on the entire experience because we are so disappointed that we made mistakes along the way.

Let’s be ok with not being perfect

I don’t need to be more.

I don’t need to be better.

I don’t need to be perfect.

I just need to be willing and real.

Are You Tired of Waiting on God?

There are lows in our walk with god

Waiting…

Waiting can be one of the hardest parts of following God’s adventure for us. We can have this expectation that if God is asking us to do something, it should happen right now. Let’s get this done and celebrate how obedient we were, but we all know it rarely works out that way. It can even feel at times like God is making it as hard as possible on us.

When I have a task that needs to be done in my every day life, I just want to get it done so I don’t have to think about it anymore, but this isn’t how it works when God is asking us to do something.

Are you listening to god’s voice or your own?

When we find ourselves in the waiting game, we start to question things. Did I fail? Did I not do it right? Is now not the right time? Was God playing a game with me?

Ask yourself, “Do I Trust my God?” If so, let go of the untruths you are speaking to yourself and remember that you believe whole-heartedly that God is a good God. He is leading us to our purpose and He has and will continue to equip us for this journey.

Waiting is not inactive

The waiting portions that we experience in our walk with God are just as important as the moving moments in our walk.

We can feel like waiting on God is inactive, disconnected and weak on our part.

More accurately, waiting on God is an engaged part of our walk with Him where we pursue Him and feel the ache of our journey to our purpose. Waiting is an important action that leads to growth, healing and self-discovery.

Do you trust your god?