Christian content

TRUSTING GOD WHEN IT’S HARD

/ OrganizedWithJoy / Leave a comment

Okay friends, for this week’s Thoughtful Thursday post (which is going up on Friday this week!) I wanted to talk about trusting God when it’s hard. Or trusting God when our circumstances don’t make sense or are difficult. The first thing I am going to say about this is that it is not easy. I don’t have three neat steps to trust God when it’s hard. I think what makes trusting difficult usually has to do with timing. We think God should do something to change our circumstances on our timeline and so we feel discouraged.

From my experience, I have seen how God has used the in between, the waiting, to help me to grow. I needed the circumstances, which seemed so difficult or painful at the time, to help me to grow as a person. To help me to gain more self awareness, to help me grow in patience, to help me grow in perseverance. All of this is not easy. As humans, we naturally want things to be comfortable. We want things to go our way and in our time. But I think if all of that were true we would not grow and evolve. There is a quote I once heard by Robin Sharma, “Rough seas make stronger sailors. Tough times build greater people.”

I think it is important when we are in a period of waiting for God to answer our prayers or waiting for God to intervene in our difficult circumstances to shift our perspective. It is easy to feel sorry for ourselves and focus on how our circumstances aren’t fair. But what if instead of focusing on the negative, we asked ourselves “what lesson is there for me to learn in this difficult season.” I can almost guarantee you that when waters are rough, the sailor is learning a lot about sailing!

One perspective that I like to remind myself of when I am in a difficult season in life is that I cannot see the big picture. I am in one season of life, which may be short, relatively speaking compared to the rest of my life. God sees that big picture and knows what we need in each season of life. The difficulties today may be preparing us for our future. I recognize that this idea doesn’t resonate with everyone, but even if you don’t believe in God, there is a big picture happening and you are in one part of your timeline and can’t see the big picture.

I can assure you, because I have lived enough life, that the hard seasons we go through are not in vain. From my experience, it has been in those difficult seasons that I have grown, not just in general as a person but also in my faith! When I look back, I see what God was doing in those times when I felt impatient and frustrated with life. Because of this experience, it is easier for me to keep that positive attitude and keep trusting that God has a plan for my life. There are two comforting Bible verses when it comes to this topic. The first is Jeremiah 29:11, which says “‘For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope for the future.’” The second verse is Romans 8:28 which says, “All things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.”

I do want to say, I by no means want to minimize any difficult life circumstances you might be going through right now. I have chosen not to share publicly some of the things I have gone through in my life, but believe me I have gone through some pretty tough things. If you are going through a difficult time right now and need prayer, you can let me know down in the comments and I will pray for you. If you don’t feel comfortable sharing publicly, you can just ask for general prayer, or message me over on Instagram. I will pray for you!

This is the YouTube video I shared in conjunction with this blog post.

GOD IS THERE

/ OrganizedWithJoy / Leave a comment

Okay friends, if you have been around for a while and have heard my Thoughtful Thursday thoughts, you might know that I share a variety of things. Some weeks I’m thinking about decluttering or organizing, and other weeks I’m thinking about more serious or deeper things. I like to share it all!

If you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen that over last weekend I went on a women’s retreat with my church. Because of that, I have been really processing everything I learned over the weekend and wanted to share with you. Admittedly I hesitated to share this, because I know faith based content doesn’t resonate with everyone, but I was really feeling like I was supposed to share this. Even if it is to encourage one person. I don’t often share this vulnerably, so this is outside of my comfort zone, but I know that is good to do from time to time.

First I wanted to share that while on the retreat I felt a little frustrated or disappointed. I usually feel spiritually energized on women’s retreats. But this weekend was different. I was not “feeling it” so to speak. I was not feeling as emotional as I typically feel on a retreat. In hindsight I realized that I was really absorbing it all, because over the last few days I have really been processing and feeling very spiritually renewed! It’s funny that I would use that word renewed because that was the theme of the retreat! I think while I was there it was hard to really process everything because I wasn’t getting as much sleep as I usually do, I wasn’t eating as healthy as I usually do, and I wasn’t able to exercise.

In addition to that, I think my mind was distracted. Being on this trip made me realize how addicted I am to my phone. Although I don’t necessarily mindlessly scroll on social media apps a lot, I do mindlessly open social media apps to respond to comments, look for likes, and read chats I am a part of. After this weekend, I have decided to set up boundaries on social media. I used to not get on social media at all on Sundays as part of my day off, but somehow that crept back in as I wanted to keep up with chats. I decided to get back to no social media on Sundays. I have also been practicing just leaving my phone in another room so I’m not constantly inundating myself with media while I work.

The main thing that one of the speakers said that really resonated with me was the idea that it is okay if you feel like you are in a season of God being quiet. You may look around and feel like God is being so loud with other people – they seem to be experiencing Him emotionally, or they seem more passionate about their faith. But just because God is quiet, doesn’t mean He’s not working and it doesn’t mean He is not present. He IS still working and present in your circumstances. This really resonated with me since like I said, I was not feeling emotional on this retreat.

One of the speakers shared the analogy of a tree in the winter. What we see when we look at that tree is bareness. It is stripped of its leaves and it almost looks dead. But did you know that it is in the winter season that a tree’s roots grow deeper? This is the season for the tree to grow deeper to find the water. We are the same way – it is in the season of bareness that we can grow deeper in our faith. Sometimes it’s in this season of bareness or season of difficulty when everything is being stripped away from us that we can more accurately see what unhealthy thing we are turning to in order to fill the void in our lives. Because of my faith, I believe that God is the place I should be turning to for comfort, peace, joy, contentment. So often we think other things – like social media, entertainment, food, alcohol, shopping, you name it – will give us those positive feelings, but those things always leave us wanting.

The other big takeaway from this weekend is this idea that God is there. He is present even amidst the trials I’m going through. I know I don’t share in detail some of the things I have been going through the last several years, but I really think boundaries online are important. Nevertheless, I have been going through some tough things. I didn’t realize just how much until one time I was talking to my therapist and listing everything that has happened in the last five years, and listing it all together I realized it was a lot. All through this time I had been praying – for the situations and the people involved in those situations. I prayed alone, and I prayed with friends. And I’ll be honest, I started to feel really discouraged, wondering if God could hear me anymore. Feeling like God was… quiet. BUT, over the past few months I have started to see movement. I have started to see the answering of longstanding prayers. Years of prayers! We often don’t see what God is doing until we are looking through the lens of hindsight.

As I was processing this weekend, I kept thinking about God’s timing. How His timing is better than my timing. How I had learned so much in the past several years – about myself, about relationships, about people. I have grown so much as a person, and I wouldn’t trade that for the comfortable life I thought I wanted. God IS present, even in the quietness, even in the trials. He is there.

Well friends, I know this was a heavy chat today. If you stuck with me through this, I just wanted to thank you for allowing me to process the experience I had this past weekend. As always, I love to hear your thoughts too. Let me know your thoughts in the comments on what I shared today, even if there is something you disagree with me on or something you’re questioning. I’m open to dialogue about it! I wanted to share a worship song that we sang over the weekend that was really meaningful to me. The title is Make Room. Today I’m making room for whatever God wants to do in my life and I trust that He can still work amidst the trials!

Check out the YouTube video I shared in conjunction with this blog post!

FOCUS ON YOUR HEART!

/ OrganizedWithJoy / Leave a comment

Okay friends, for today’s Thoughtful Thursday I wanted to share a quote that my friend Jo shared with me. Jo also has a YouTube channel, Minimal Zebra! This quote is from Mother Theresa and it says, 

“People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are honest, people may cheat you, be honest anyway. If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good. Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway. For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.”

It can be challenging to deal with people who are unreasonable and self-centered. Oftentimes this behavior is a result of internal struggles the person is going through. When we recognize that people who are unreasonable and self-centered are likely going through or have gone through really difficult things, it can make it easier to have compassion on them and forgive them.

One thing I have learned from having a presence on social media, well and really just in life in general, is that people may misunderstand you. This is something that is really difficult for me as a people pleaser. But I am learning to realize that all that really matters is what is in your heart. People will interpret your actions and words however they want, but they don’t know what is in your heart. All we can do is focus on being the best we can be – a kind, caring, compassionate, and loving person. Also recognizing that we will make mistakes and we won’t always be perfectly kind, caring, compassionate or loving. But all we can do is our best. I’m learning to focus on the internal more than the external, because behavior, if even seemingly good on the outside, doesn’t always reveal true heart motives.

People often misunderstand you when they don’t know you well. Either acquaintances in your real life, or people seeing your content online. They don’t know what your life is really like. They don’t know what you endure day in and day out, especially if you are going through things that you don’t share openly about on social media. You know your heart and your motives, so if those are right you have nothing to worry about!

Ultimately we are only responsible for ourselves. Our behavior, our motives, our thoughts. We can’t control what others do, say, or think. In my opinion, it is better to live in such a way that we do the best we can do each day. “Give the world the best we have” as Mother Theresa says. It might not be “enough” by the world’s standards, but when you know you gave it your all, then you can sleep well at night. When you live with integrity, you have nothing to be ashamed of and nothing to hide. And when you do make a mistake and don’t live in such a way that you are proud of, then you make a different choice tomorrow!

As someone who is a people pleaser, or like I like to call myself a recovering people pleaser,  it can be easy to get wrapped up in trying to convince people you are a good person. I’m realizing this is a complete waste of energy. We must put our energy into BEING a good person and let the chips fall where they may so to speak. As Mother Theresa so wisely pointed out: “it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.”

It is not always easy to do, but focusing on your own life, your own happiness, and your own goals without worrying about others’ opinion of you is the healthiest way to live!

This is the YouTube video I shared in conjunction with this blog post.