More of What Matters

When you tell other people what you have a decided heart for, you are less likely to have failure find you in that area of life.    You will seek to find solutions in the challenge and you can give permission to those people who you told to help keep you accountable.    With any successful outcome, it will always be preceded by a decision first.   When we decide…   When we have a decided heart vs...

In our humanity  In our very existence  We crave validation - we want to be known and loved When we move in our calling to impact the lives around us, we will use a source of energy to continue to fuel our desire and that’s based on the energy and validation we get back. I don’t know a single soul who wouldn’t desire this. The challenge then becomes how do we continue to choose to be a person, an...

So my question for you today is  Can you dream bigger?  Should you dream bigger? Where are you dreaming small? What lies are you believing and can you make them obedient to what God says of you instead of what you believe of you or what you believe the world believes of you. Don't just pray for the fruit.  Pray for the capacity to hold what you receive.  Pray for the courage and boldness to make b...

  Our thoughts of worry can become feelings that leave us unsettled and uncertain. So how do we merge thoughts of hope with thoughts of worry? First we have to ask ourselves: What can we be certain of?  The bible says that God will never leave us or forsake us.  So no matter how bleak it may seem, the truth is we belong to Him and he has us in the palm of his hands. And while circumstances may not...

Take a moment to consider the trught that God will exceed anything we can ask or imagine.    I often repeat this back to myself and it lights up my heart every single time. Paul's words in Ephesians encourage me to come to prayer with a bigger outlook about what is possible. I dare you to consider bigger. I dare you to consider bolder in pursuing what is possible with God. 

I want to encourage you. Your life goal should not be to arrive at the end safe. We were never called to live safe lives. We are called to hard… good… earth shattering.. hard things and we are promised to be held in every aspect.    The end result of our willingness to do uncomfortable awkward unsuspecting things is a satisfaction that our heavenly father desires to give us. Our character grows th...

I have heard so many stories about people who experience peace when they say no to hard things in life.  Let me tell you, it is ABSOLUTELY peaceful to not be doing meaningful things - especially the things that God has laid in front of us to do. Its not your calling that burdens you, its your resistance to it that is causing you the pain.  Your calling will crush you, press you down and you will b...

One last thought on the idea of grand gestures. Sometimes we are on the giving end and sometimes we are on the receiving end. And we base how we receive on the level of our worthiness.  When someone acts grand in our lives, we will internalize that gesture and see ourselves as worthy to receive or not worthy.   Our lives are not on our merit. They are on the merit of God. We would not be here if i...

So how do we navigate the stormy seas that happen 50% of the time? 1. Acknowledge that storms are a given and will happen - be prepared for that    It doesn’t mean we won’t take on waves or water, it means that how we respond to the wind and waves does.   What we expose ourselves to can hinder or help our ability to keep our ship headed in the most healthy direction possible.   When the sun is shi...

What if these were to simply think about making a choice to not let what doesn’t weigh in the balance for all of eternity to not bother them.   Its statistically and humanly possible to always be in agreement with everyone about every thing in life.   Even more so, those statistics get really small in the confines of our very close relationships.   Typically when we are in conflict its because we...

Our waiting  Our financial challenges  Our health Our conflict at work Difficult seasons in life   They happen  They are for a purpose    Sometimes these less than ideal things happen as a result of a poor choice on our part   Sometimes its a poor choice on someone else’s part   Ultimately its not lost on God what’s happening     

The bible says that we are not to plan on what we will do on this day or that.  I pray and ask God for things according to His will and his plan for my life. I will never be attached to any outcome that he may allow whether I ask big for something and it happens or whether I don’t.   I could do nothing or I could do something. Something opens up space for BIG somethings and BIG somethings are oppo...

Assume success because God is absolutely for you.  He is for your in your marriage He is for you in your career He is for you in your family He is for you in your ministry He is for you with your health   Your ability to do - solely rests upon lining up your heart belief with your mind belief and making your thoughts obedient to what Gods word says of you. He is for you. 

We - you and I - have the opportunity for God to use us in ways we may not even ask for or imagine, but he does desire to use us.   When we surrender to Him and acknowledge who He is and that no matter what we have or we don’t, that we desire to be His hands and feet so that others can KNOW who He is. He is caring for others and many times he is doing that through us We don’t have to worry and oth...

Jesus PURSUED people who were awkward Jesus pursued people who most people would not pursue   If our lives are looking more and more like His, our life will have conflict and we have a choice of how we see that conflict   Its who we CHOOSE to see Its who we choose to be   So be offended and see if that moves you in a path of more purpose, more peace and more confidence for the days ahead    Or cho...

Check on your friends, they may not be ok How are you? Are you ok? Ask questions. And be honest with others if you are not ok.   We are living in different times This current state of affairs in our world  we are in has opened up space for a lot of confusion, a lot of fear a lot of lack of clarity for what is true and what is false   We are sifting and sorting sifting and sorting through all this...

Our brains are wired to keep us safe Our brains are also wired to keep us so that we are right about our thoughts. So if our thought is, we aren’t a good parent our brain will look for answers that make that a true thought.   If our thought is we could never get that promotion - our brain will look for ways for that to be right   If our thought is, we couldn’t ever achieve a healthier weight, our...

Most of us go along in life and as we travel we pick up things that we end up not always fully dealing with. We pack them in a backpack on our lives. We hang onto them and overtime those things we pack in and don’t deal with, get heavy.    Encountering God in this way - allows you to empty the back pack and gives you tools about how not to repack

How is it that the list of good that we do in this world still can leave us feeling sad? Could I or should I choose something else to do?  Perhaps something less meaningful and less selfless?  But I always talk myself back to watering the grass I am on and being content with where God has me. I pick up my boot straps and I get back at it.   I've always known that this life is not about me. I have...

Have you ever found yourself lacking confidence? Have you ever found yourself deflecting compliments? Have you ever found yourself with low expectations in life? 7 scriptures to boost your belief and confidence https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QFTGVwUvf3bMMwfLyFhpiz9NF_ovpKB31wmz-dG1YsY/edit

We were never designed to compare It was never intended for us to have a spirit of competition or to feel less than  Sometimes we struggle to see the opportunity and the beauty in the present because we are too busy looking left and right, and allowing the enemy to steal our joy and even worse, we look back far too often in comparison to better days or days that we regret.   I want you to give you...

Who wins when we choose to go it solo?  We are up against an enemy. God’s adversary. The father of lies who opposes our prince of peace.   Being in community is something God desires  and we GET to do it   Choosing to admit we need each other opens up space Space is freedom   We have choices in this process We get to choose to trust the One who made us this way We  get to allow others to bridge th...

Don’t be a part of the broken system  BE the solution....  My social media is something I choose. I choose my friends. I choose when and what I choose to say. But never will you catch me making fun of a profession that puts food on the table for a family.  There are a lot of things out there that we can choose to share and participate in whether its social media or even in our belly to belly relat...

When we are without hope, we are without future. Does that sound like God’s plan for your life? The number one argument in marriage/relationship is about money. Does this resonate with you? The Bible talks about money in regards to the love of it and how we are to steward it. But what I think ends up being the demise of so many families is there is no plan or agreement about how it is to be spent....

The truth is, The stronger our understanding of our identity in Christ becomes, the more our self-worth grows”. We have times where we can be insecure, we can feel as though we aren’t good enough or we’re not able to take on big challenges. We feel like maybe we are just a wife or just a mom or just a dad or husband.  You may have asked yourself hard questions like, “God can I really do this? I me...