by Sadie Robertson Huff | Mar 2, 2018 | Testimonies |
One of my favorite people in the Bible is David. I think he was actually convinced that God was with him. That’s huge. Did it keep David from making mistakes? Nope. Despite David’s sins, he was called a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22). And I think he was one of the most willing people in the whole Bible—willing to follow God, to worship with all his heart, to lead a nation, to humbly repent when he sinned, to receive God’s forgiveness and go on. He was willing in so many ways.
When Samuel the prophet went to the town of Bethlehem to anoint David as the future king of Israel, he didn’t know yet exactly who would be king. So he went to the home of Jesse because God told him that He had chosen one of Jesse’s sons for the job (1 Samuel 16:1). When Samuel asked Jesse to let him see his sons, Jesse did everything he could do to avoid mentioning David. David was just the shepherd boy, so maybe Jesse thought there was no way he could ever be king.
Pause right here and think about this: before David was King David, before he was warrior David, before he was champion David, before he was musician and psalmist David, he was shepherd-boy David. Before that, he was David, son of Jesse, living in Bethlehem. All his life, from its very ordinary beginnings, David let God lead, and he walked forward with no agenda. That’s why God was able to do through him what only God can do.
Life wasn’t always easy for David. I’ll write about his encounter with the giant, Goliath, in another chapter, but here let me just say that he had to fight a lot of enemies. He did this, of course, as Israel’s king, but he also did it on a personal level when Saul (the previous king) wanted to kill him (1 Samuel 19). In 2 Samuel 22, toward the end of David’s life, he wrote a song to the Lord as he remembered how God delivered him from “all his enemies and from the hand of Saul” (v. 1). He said, “The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation” (vv. 2–3). See how personal these words are? They are the words of someone who really knows God and has a deep, personal relationship with Him.
Later in this chapter, David writes, “He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters” (v. 17). You know what that tells us, in the con- text of the rest of his story? Two things: (1) David could depend on God to deliver him because he was coming from a place of already being delivered. The reason he had already been delivered was that he had already fallen in love with who God is. Whenhe cried to God, it was inthe context of a relationship, not merely to save his life. And (2) you can takethis as a promise: God willpull you from the depths ofthe ocean, whatever your ocean is. If it’s feeling left out, not knowing what your future will bring, struggling with some kind of temptation, or something else, God is able to reach down and bring you out. He will bring you back to the top.
This is an excerpt from Sadie’s new book, Live Fearless! It releases on Tuesday, February 6, 2018. Pre-order here
by Sadie Robertson Huff | Feb 14, 2018 | Relationships, Testimonies |
I wrote a letter of great value to someone I deeply care about. It was to a guy whose character really caught my eye. This letter was full of the beauty I saw in him. It was rich with depth. It was written throughout months of prayer, and crafted to convey all of the characteristics of Jesus I saw in his character. It was the most vulnerable thing I had ever written to anyone. I was sharing my heart with him. Showing him what I saw in him before he even thought twice about me. I decided to give it to him, to encourage and strengthen him no matter what the outcome was. Because if anything, it would be an encouragement. It would be a reminder to him of who he is, and what someone saw in him. It was laced in love. I sent this letter straight to a heart.
After he received the letter, I began to see a change in the way he acted towards me. There was a shift in our typically very open, easy relationship. He began to hold things in.
As I continued to share more of my heart with him, it felt as though he was placing his in hiding. Our conversations could not get to a place of depth. I could sense him struggling when we were together. He was acting confident and cool, like things were good, but something was making him nervous to fully be himself.
Why was he hiding the man I knew he was, and the man that I have seen since I knew him…the one I wrote about? After he knew how I felt about him and what I saw in him, shouldn’t he be more open to me now, let his guard down and feel even more free around me? Did he read the letter? Had he not seen that I have always been here?
I sat quiet to hear God speak into this, because I could not figure out what had gone wrong. In the silence, after asking God what was distancing him, the Lord enlightened my eyes to recognize and understand something that I had known deeply all along. I had felt it within myself before, that sense of not feeling worthy of being fully known and fully loved. That desire to hide from those who love us the most.
After a lot of confusion, which lead to a frank discussion, He shared with me that if I knew of his past and what he was coming from, then I would not look at him the same. I might not love him the same. He was afraid that he would fail me. My words were too kind, too good. He would surely let me down.
This was fear was holding back his vulnerability. This letter that was sent to a heart, got stuck in the doubt of a human mind. The heart is what we humans consider the center of a person’s thoughts and emotions, especially that of love and compassion. The heart is the wholeness of a human, it is not just emotions. The heart is the center of man’s character. When I wrote this letter to the guy, I did not write it on his appearance, his accomplishments or his past. It was not meant for the head. I wrote it about his character and how I see Jesus inside of him, the things that dwell and overflow from his heart that had spoken to mine. I wrote it as a highlight of who he truly is. I wrote it about the things that make him who he was called to be. I wrote to his purpose. I wrote it through the lens of love, which must and can only be received with an open, fearless heart.
“To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. To be known and not loved is our greatest fear. But to be fully known and truly loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God. It is what we need more than anything. It liberates us from pretense, humbles us out of our self-righteousness, and fortifies us for any difficulty life can throw at us.” – Timothy Keller
So many of us settle for being loved instead of known, but there is so much that we are missing out on when we stay in our head rather than open up our heart.
A similar situation happened to me once.
A letter was written to my heart. A letter I received that was of the highest value, from someone who cared about me deeply. It was from someone who saw me fully and knew me for my innermost being. It was full of the beauty that He saw in me and that was inside of me.
It was written and rooted as He was crafting me. It was the most vulnerable thing I have ever read or received. He gave me a piece of His heart and gifts that I couldn’t even comprehend. Telling me what he thought about me, before I even thought twice about Him. It was full of encouragement and things to strengthen me, to make me fearless and free. It was written as a reminder of who I am and what someone sees in me. It was laced in love. He sent it straight to my heart.
As a child, I loved the letter. I read the letter every day and I honored the letter. But as soon as I slipped up, I began reading the letter with the doubt of a human mind, rather than my heart. I replaced the letter with words crafted by the wounds I heard from the world, and the voices I allowed in. I felt so unworthy of the letter, so I ran. I hid. I locked the door to vulnerability.
Brene Brown says, ““Vulnerability is the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, courage, empathy, and creativity. It is the source of hope, empathy, accountability and authenticity. If we want greater clarity in our purpose or deeper and more meaningful spiritual lives, vulnerability is the path.”
When we hide, we run into shame, unworthiness and fear. While I was in hiding, I did not share my emotions with people. I wore a mask. I held my tears in. If anyone knew what I was running from, they would not see me the same. I would let them down. That was what I thought, what was in my head.
During my days of running, I happened to run right into the arms of someone that changed my whole way of thinking. I broke. Not only did I tell her I was running, I told her what I was running from, and she looked at me and said these words, “I see a pure heart.” In that moment, I realized so much. I realized these three things about the letter I had crafted, from the voices of the world that had been swirling around in my head.
What you did is not who you are, nor who you were called to be.
What they said about you was never who you were.
How they made you feel was never what you were meant to carry.
I went back and read the original letter I was given. The letter was from Abba Father. It was a letter to his beloved daughter. Written before I was even born, while he was crafting me and planning every detail of me. I read it with my heart, and I was slain by the understanding of His unconditional love for me, His boundless grace that was offered. I read it once again fearlessly and with a humble heart, and received the love and the gift that was freely given. While knowing every single part of me, every mistake, every failure, every triumph and everything I would overcome. What I found this time was:
A peace that surpasses all understanding.
A grace that is sufficient for me.
Mercy that is new every day.
Identity that is unshakable.
A sound of freedom.
A path to destiny.
Compassion that does not fail.
A love that never ceases.
Undeserved. Unearned. Yet given through a letter to my heart, that I pray I never again allow to get stuck in my head.
I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory. For this reason, I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God
Ephesians 4:13-19
by Sadie Robertson Huff | Jan 19, 2018 | Life Advice, Testimonies |
“What’s wrong with you? This is the coolest thing ever, and you’re saying you don’t want to do it?” He never even mentioned his own dream of appearing on the show. He simply listened to me, spoke truth to me, loved me unconditionally, and showed the most beautiful display of selfless generosity I think I’ve ever seen. That’s why I dedicated this book to him.
By the time I left Mary Kate’s house, I felt much better. Their affirmation and support had taken me from being almost torn apart by fear to a place of decision. I ultimately decided to go for it and appear on Dancing with the Stars.
Even after the show started, with every practice and every performance, I had to face my fear. Sometimes I felt like arrows of fear were flying at me from all different directions (just like in Ephesians 6:16)—fear of not getting my steps right, fear that something awkward might hap- pen with my wardrobe, fear of letting my partner down, fear of so many new experiences in such a short time. Day after day, rehearsal after rehearsal, televised show after televised show, I gradually found myself no longer dodging arrows but surrounded by a shield of faith that knocked them to the ground. I was still aware of them, but much better able to hold up my shield of faith so they would ricochet off of it, powerless.
I’ll write more about Dancing with the Stars in a later chapter, but right now Iwant to make this point:it’s not that things aren’tscary. They are, andthey will continue tobe. But each of us has tocome to a deep, personalrealization that Godhas already conqueredfear—and by the powerof His Spirit, we can live completely free from fear. There’s so much more to this life, so much we can experience and give to others if we can break free from fear. If we can learn to let God lead us instead of letting fear control us. Sometimes I felt like arrows of fear were flying at me from all different directions (just like in Ephesians 6:16).
YEP, I DID IT—AND IT TURNED OUT OKAY
You may know the rest of the story. My Dancing with the Stars partner, Mark, and I won second place for season nineteen. I ended up meeting the most amazing people, making friends I hope I’ll have for life, and having a blast. Being on Dancing with the Stars was the biggest thing I’d ever done—and the most fear producing. But it didn’t stay that way.
This is an excerpt from Sadie’s new book, Live Fearless! It releases on Tuesday, February 6, 2018. Pre-order here
by Sadie Robertson Huff | Jan 3, 2018 | Life Advice |
5 simple things my 5-year-old friends have taught me
It’s nice to have a 5-year-old friend.
They keep it real.
They keep you real.
They keep perspective real.
They keep life real.
They are just real.
Those are not the 5 things I have learned, but those are 5 things I appreciate about my five-year-old friends. The word “real”, is a word that unfortunately, many of us grow into doubting as we become older—especially in today’s time of social media, filters, edits, captions, make up, and just your old fashioned two-faced friend. How do you know what is real and what is not? There is this hunger and craving for authenticity, but also a massive fear of being authentic, of showing our true selves.
Recently, I have been able to be home a little more which has given me more time to hang with my 5-year-old friends. They have purified my perspective and taken me back to the simplicity of being a friend, and the value of just being real. So, I came up with 5 little sayings and lessons that they have me soaking on lately. I hope these take you back to when you were young and ready to conquer the world. These things alone may not conquer the world, but I do believe getting back to these 5 simple ways of looking at life could in fact make the world a much better place.
1. Never stop a moment to snap a picture, because you might just make the moment stop by trying to capture it in a shot.
The other day, we were all at the house, and these two cuties asked me to play with them. We started to pretend that we were worship leaders. Both of their parents are worship leaders, so that is a pretty common little game we play. It is just so stinking cute! Of course, the first thing you want to do is pull out your phone and take a video…but as soon as someone pulled out a phone, my little buddy said these words that actually convicted me, “No, we are not supposed to take pictures we are just supposed to sing.” WE. ARE. JUST. SUPPOSED. TO. SING.
There is so much freedom in living in the moment. Why do we have to stop moments to snap a picture? Sometimes by doing that, we actually miss the essence of the moment, and we forget to sing. There are some friends I have more pictures with than memories. These 5-year-old kids and I have hundreds of memories together, and only one picture—that happened to be captured in a single moment of them both running into my arms for a big group hug. I love this picture because it wasn’t planned, staged, stopped or filtered, because the moment could not have gotten any better. It was a priceless moment captured in action. These kids don’t need a picture to capture the moment they just live in it.
I love taking pictures, and come from a family of photographers, so I’m not hating on pictures. This is just a reminder to not let the picture taking rob you of life’s precious moments. Nowadays, we tend to take a picture just for show, instead of taking picture to cherish a memory. Let’s remember that what we are really supposed to do is just sing.
2. Surround yourself with laughter and the people you love, and your day will be a good one.
We had a sleep-over the other day, and it was one of the most priceless nights. We had two beds in the room. I was in one of the beds, and these 2 munchkins were in the other. At 12:45 a.m., one of them popped her head up with wide eyes and sweetly said, “Sadie, will you come sleep in the middle of us?” How could I say no to those eyes?!? I crawled in the middle of the two cuties and went to sleep. Two hours later, I was awoken by giggles of pure excitement. They couldn’t contain their joy that we were snuggling in bed together. They dozed off eventually, but two hours later they woke up again and said, “Sadie, why is the night taking so long to be over? I’m ready to play.” I held them off till 3:45a.m., but their excitement was real. So, I woke up long before the sun came up and snuggled and watched a movie, and it was one of the best mornings ever at 3:45 am. To be honest, I had a bad day before and was pretty upset over some things, and had planned to just sleep the day away. But here’s the thing, sleeping the day away will not make your bad day good—but waking up, surrounding yourself with good people, being expectant of a good day, and just simply giggling at the pure joy of being alive, may in fact make your bad day turn good.
3. Let someone know how happy you are to see them. You may just make their day!
They laugh, dance, sing, draw, create and play. They give the biggest hugs. They welcome you with excitement, which always makes you feel so loved and appreciated. One of my favorite moments in life, that literally makes me smile just typing this, is when my little cousin Judson or my little friend Cruce sees me and screams, “Sadieeeee!” and runs, arms wide open, to give me the biggest hug. They appreciate the moments in life we sometimes forget to appreciate as we grow older. The little moments are the ones to enjoy, but sometimes we are too stressed trying to get to the big moments in life that we let things slip by—like seeing someone that you love, that you haven’t seen in a while, pass right on by without much fanfare. They actually bring joy into the moments just by their little positive spirits, big smiles and random giggles. They give big hugs just because big hugs are fun, and they make you feel good. Maybe its time we all just start shouting each other’s names and going in for the hug, because we are excited to see someone we love and want them to know it.
4. See people for who they are, because we are all just humans.
When I am with my little 5-year-old buddies, whether we’re at home or out and about, I try to be really engaged with them. I want them to know much I love them and want to build a relationship with them. So, if you ever see me in public with them, you may see me doing an epic handshake with this little dude after a touchdown on his favorite football game on my phone, or role-playing with this little beauty, because she likes to play “Sadie”, so she can use my lip gloss. Or, I may be in the process of wiping the numerous boogers off of me (they think is the funniest thing in the world to put them on me!)
Often times when we are out, and sometimes in the middle of our game or silly little conversations, someone will interrupt to come ask to take a photo with me. The look they get on their little faces every time someone asks to take a picture has always stuck out to me. It is pure confusion. They do not understand why people would do this. They literally ask, “Why are they taking a picture with Sadie?” Their little minds are on our game. Our conversations. They wonder, “What happened to the booger I just wiped on her?” They just see me as me, so why would someone who doesn’t know me come take a picture with me? Sometimes, I feel like in a world of celebrities and Instagram followers, people look at people with wider eyes the more followers they have. They treat you a little differently, and look at you a whole lot differently when in reality, as my friend Jordan Dooley says, “We all fart,” ha! We are all human. That is something I appreciate about my 5-year-old friends–they see all people as human, and determine their friendship with them based off of who is willing to play a game. If you’re nice and are cool with boogers, then you are a friend. If you are mean and do not know how to laugh at yourself, you’re probably not going to be their friend. It’s a good little criteria. We are all just human. Be nice, be willing to play, and if you get boogers on your sweater, just laugh and wipe them off.
5. Surround yourself with cheerleaders, for they will cheer you on to be the best version of yourself.
Studies have shown that by 5 years old, much of who you are is already programmed in you. This makes a lot of sense to me. When I was five, I got up on a table and started preaching to my parents. There is a video of it on Youtube, because during my preaching as a 5-year-old little girl living in the woods of Calhoun, Louisiana, I said something very strange. I said, “Even if I am famous one day, I will not think about myself, but I am giving it to God.” Then I continued on to sing a little jingle I had made up entitled, “Let’s Give it up for God,” followed by “Woohoo,” and an epic toe-touch. I preached the truth I knew, unafraid and unashamed. I was just simply in love with who God was and I spoke a simple truth.
Of course, as you all know my story when Duck Dynasty started, I began being asked to speak, and fear gripped me. I said no to most offers. I put so much stress on myself trying to come up with a message. I feared what people thought. I wondered if I would have enough material to fill twenty minutes, if I was even qualified to be on a stage speaking. Somewhere along the way, I welcomed in other voices, because when I was 5 I had confidently climbed up our coffee table (my stage), and spoke loudly and boldly about the truth I knew and the love I had for God. At that time, if they had given me a 10-minute timer, someone would have had to carry me off the stage. When I was with my little buddies the other day, we were playing worship leaders and they were singing at the top of their lungs about their love for God, I just stopped for a minute to pray that sense of freedom in worship never ends for them. That fear would have no authority over their lives to take away their worship. That words of shame would never be spoken over them to silence their voice—but if words of the world are spoken, they would have their shield of faith up to defend any arrow thrown their way. That they would protect their ears to the voices they allow in. That their worship would silence their enemies.
I believe when we are five, the reason we are often times and weirdly our best and most fun self, is partly because of our childlike manner. But, I also think our confidence and freedom comes from the voices around us, and our parent’s protection over who is allowed to speak into our lives. We have voices of encouragement, voices of truth—voices telling us we are enough, voices tell us that we are beautiful just as we are, voices tell us how loved we are, voices telling us how to be strong when we feel weak or hurt, voices bringing out our originality, and voices disciplining us out of love.
Parents protect our ears, by guarding the voices that speak into our lives when we are five…but there comes a point in life where we have to begin to do this for ourselves. We have to learn to guard our hearts, guard our ears, guard our eyes, and you can’t let the world take away the things that really make you, you. Because what makes you, you, is what makes you real.
We have a lot to learn from 5-year-olds. I hope these 5 simple truths make your day a little brighter, make you think a little bit, and maybe even take you back to a time when life was simpler.
“Jesus called a little child to him and placed the child among them and he said, ‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.’” Matthew 18:2-4
by Sadie Robertson Huff | Dec 29, 2017 | Testimonies |
As we are about to step into a new year, I wanted to write you all and say thank you so much for allowing me and my absolutely incredible friends to join in on your 2017 year.
Back at the beginning of summer, my friend Juli called me and said the Lord put it on her heart to ask me about starting a blog with different writers on my Live Original website, and I have to be honest in saying I was slightly hesitant at first. It had already been such a busy year, and in my little brain I could not even think of starting one more thing. In fact, the night she called I had just gotten back from winter jam of 3 months of touring. I was actually still in the thick of even trying to get the live original website up, because it had not launched yet. There was also a time crunch on that, because we had to get the ticket links and info out about the tour on some site somewhere fast, because we were announcing dates for the tour in just 2 weeks. It was the stressful month of tour planning because everything has to be locked in to make it public. I was also in the middle of writing my new book. I was at the start of a new project that y’all will know about soon (seriously can not wait to announce), and I had just gotten a call that I would need to be in Mexico to film a hallmark movie with just a 2 day notice in the middle of it all, so with all of this a going on I would be flying in and out of Mexico. It was a bit of a crazy time. I thought, if I do this…how in the world would I keep it up? What if no one wants to write and it’s all on me? Will words through a screen really make a difference? I told her that was a good idea, but she is just going to have to let me think about it for a minute, and to be honest, the time just did not seem right.
After getting off the phone with her, I went back to the first thing she said to me that I kind of overlooked at first. She said, “the Lord kept putting it on my heart to call you and ask you to do this. I know you are busy. I know this does not make sense, but I would be disobedient to Him if I didn’t mention it to you.” Immediately, I felt a sense of conviction that this blog idea had nothing to do with me or my timing, but it was something that a generation of young men and women have been crying out for, and the Lord was asking me if I would just say yes. It was not just a random offer or just one more thing, it was something the Lord was asking and something that was so far beyond my team or me. Two days later after prayer, and asking the Lord to silence my thoughts and enlighten my eyes to see His vision for this, I called her back and said, “let’s do it.”
People have always said to me, “if He calls you to something, He will equip you. All He needs is a yes.” I had never seen that more than this moment in my life. Sometimes, you have to expect miracles and posture yourself in a radical way to see God do the miraculous things. It’s called faith. That day I text some friends to ask if they would share their story, and every single person not only said yes, but they got vulnerable and shared their heart. Blog after blog that they sent in seemed to be an answer to someone’s prayer around the world, or just the encouragement someone else needed. I was completely blown away. Not only was I blown away by the yes, the faithfulness, and the vulnerability from this side of the screen, but also, I was completely undone by the response of the other side. The testimonies people sent in of their perspectives, every email we received of how each blog changed someone’s life…it was an answer to someone’s prayer, and it was a way the Lord spoke to so many individual people all around the world—by hearing encouragement or truth from someone writing their story. It really has been so unique to see such a diverse group of people writing and bringing so much unity to those who are reading. Through starting this blog, I have fallen so much more in love with God and have fallen into the saying, “love should run further than fear and faster than doubt.” I have learned to trust Him first, and loving Him fully makes that easy. I have seen His faithfulness in new ways. I have learned the power of a yes. I have learned and been challenged myself, and even moved to tears on so many of the post from my extraordinary friends. I have seen the power of unity. I have seen that there is something to learn from everyone. I have treasured every response.
And I have learned that when something seems to be impossible—whether it’s bad timing, or crazy random, if God has called you to something… fasten your seat belt and get ready, get expected, get excited, and scream YES. It has been an amazing journey with all of you starting this blog this year. Thank you for being a part of it all.
Cheers to many more adventures, stories and God moments walking into 2018 together! May we forever be in unity through faith, hope, love, testimonies and our life adventures. I love every single one of you, and I have prayed over every eye that reads the words to encounter His presence and feel a touch of His love. Never would I of ever imaged that their would be 1.2 million of you reading in 195 countries, but I know His love extends far beyond what we could imagine.
You are so loved my friends.
From your friend and sista,
Sadie Rob <3
