by Kaari Ausenhus | Feb 9, 2021 | College, Life Advice
Note from Team LO: We are SO excited to bring you this month’s post from our LO sister member, Kari Ausenhus! If you want to be a part of this incredible community, you can join today and your your first week FREE! Find out more about this online sisterhood HERE. And for more info about what LO sister is all about, visit our Instagram Page!
Now, enjoy today’s post from Kari 🙂
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Maybe it’s just me, or maybe you’re in this boat with me, but most of my life, many people emphasized to me the importance of having a personal relationship with God. While I longed for it, I didn’t know what that meant or how to go about it. Going to college definitely pushed me further in that direction as I realized that I didn’t have my parents’ faith to rely on and had to make my faith my own. However, I still had no idea what I was doing, and sure I grew, but I desperately wanted more.
Then I went on a date this past semester. No, it was not some horror story date, and I really did have a good time. Although it wasn’t destined to be more than one date, our conversation caused me to realize that I didn’t fully understand what it really meant for someone to genuinely pursue my heart. I was processing through all of it with my sweet friend, Megs, one morning when she brought me her Bible and told me to read Psalm 139 in the Passion Translation, and since that day it has been a lifeline for me. It is genuinely one of my most favorite passages now as it beautifully illustrates the pursuit of the Father. I encourage you to read the whole passage (it’s INCREDIBLE), but I have included some of my favorite verses:
1 Lord, you know everything there is to know about me. 2 You perceive every movement of my heart and soul, and you understand my every thought before it even enters my mind. 3–4 You are so intimately aware of me, Lord. You read my heart like an open book 6 This is just too wonderful, deep, and incomprehensible! Your understanding of me brings me wonder and strength.
14 I thank you, God, for making me so mysteriously complex! Everything you do is marvelously breathtaking. It simply amazes me to think about it! How thoroughly you know me, Lord! 15 You even formed every bone in my body when you created me in the secret place, carefully, skillfully shaping me from nothing to something. 16 You saw who you created me to be before I became me! Before I’d ever seen the light of day, the number of days you planned for me were already recorded in your book. 17–18 Every single moment you are thinking of me! How precious and wonderful to consider that you cherish me constantly in your every thought!
O God, your desires toward me are more than the grains of sand on every shore!
23 God, I invite your searching gaze into my heart. Examine me through and through; find out everything that may be hidden within me. Put me to the test and sift through all my anxious cares. 24 See if there is any path of pain I’m walking on, and lead me back to your glorious, everlasting ways— the path that brings me back to you.
Psalm 139, I’m telling you – breathtaking, beautiful, and a genuine picture of pursuit and intimacy. Seriously please highlight, star, circle, underline, bookmark, everything about this passage, so you will never lose or forget it! Every time I read it, God reveals more of Himself and more of His love for me.
Anyway, after reading this passage, I decided I wanted to let the Father pursue my heart as I chased after His. The passage begins with “Lord, You know everything there is to know about me.” Wow! The Creator of the universe knows me – knows you. Take it another step further, the Creator of the world knows you better than you know you both the good and the bad, yet He sent His Son to die so you could enter into relationship with Him. For real, just take a second to truly let the magnitude of that sink in. Let’s talk about this personal relationship and what it really means.
I’m going to use an illustration to explain my point. We live in an Instagram and social media-saturated society where we follow people we have never even met and “know” every little detail about them. Like before you meet someone in person you already know where they went on vacation last summer, the sport their brother plays, the name of their golden retriever puppy, and what they ate for breakfast this morning, yet you have never actually spoken to them. Now imagine if the only way you knew people was by their Instagram feed and nothing else. That would be so awful because we crave relationships – real, let’s do life together relationships. God is the same way. He knows, like He actually knows, every single thing about you and your life and still longs to have a personal relationship with you. He wants to know you because you tell Him all about you the same way you would talk to another person (that’s intimacy)!
I love the song, “Simple Gospel,” by United Pursuit in which we sing,
“I want to know you, Lord
like I know a friend”
That is truly the desire of my heart: to know the Father intimately and personally like I know my best friend because I want Him to be my best friend. I also want Him to know me the same way, so I began my journey to intimacy with the Father because I want to pursue His heart and have a relationship with Him like I would with someone I do life with face-to-face. I pour out my words on the pages of my notebook and sing His praises as I talk with Him in prayer.
I’d love to challenge you no matter what season of life you are in – maybe you’re walking through singleness like me (and let me tell you this has been a perfect time to do this), or maybe you’re dating, engaged, or married – it’s never too late. Begin to pursue the Father like you would another person because here’s the beautiful thing, the Creator made us in His image, sees our imperfections, knows us inside and out, yet longs to have intimacy with us.
Not sure where to begin? Hey, I was in your shoes, so know that you are not alone. If you haven’t already read it or even if you have, I suggest starting by reading Psalm 139 in The Passion Translation. Some other ways I have pursued intimacy with the Father are through penning Him letters and conversations in my journal – some are prayers but some are just me pouring out my heart, thanking Him for the sweetest moments, being honest in my struggles and my need for Him, and asking Him to help me process through different seasons of my life. I also love praying out loud while I drive or run or when I’m in my room, and diving into His Word to discover more about who God is instead of just what He can do for me.
The good news is: He wants intimacy with you even more than you do, but I promise it will be the sweetest journey you’ve ever been on.
by Emma Gilmer | Feb 4, 2021 | Life Advice, Testimonies
Hey Friends!
I wish I could meet you in person and hear all about who you are, but let’s just pretend we are sitting together today!
I am SO happy you are in this place right now, I am a firm believer that wherever you are is where you are meant to be and God can do good in every circumstance, so just know you and I are here together for a perfect reason.
Well, a little bit about me:
I live in the currently frozen Minnesota, attending a 4-year University in the Midwest. I am a Senior with one semester left about to graduate and have n0 idea about what I am doing afterwards. The question I get most these days is just that, “What are you doing after you graduate?” …But I have so much confidence in who Jesus is, my provider and redeemer, that I have no fear around that question with no answer to follow. I am dating my 8th grade crush, Dylan, and it is such a beautiful experience.
Weddings are my FAVORITE.
1. Because I am a Wedding Photographer.
2. I get to be surrounded with the HAPPIEST people all the time.
3. The absolute miracle that happens on that day of two becoming one is something I have been able to see repeatedly for the past two years, and it has changed my mindset on weddings in the most beautiful way.
It is such a gift to be able to witness the miracle over and over again, but also being able to capture it. Wow. I am emotional thinking about it.
Annywayyyy if you are getting married, I would love to be there for you. Especially if you live in a warm state 😉
My story is one that I have a heart to share for years and years, and that is to free women from the cage of shameful sin and the hold it can have on your abundant life. While this blog is not specifically about that it can play a key role into those strongholds. I love sharing on the sins that women don’t share as much, bringing light to the dark corners is so important.
I am praying this blog impacts you and the Holy Spirit intercedes. You are so great and I am proud of you today.
Come say hey!
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Do you carelessly speak aloud without thinking sometimes? Most times?
I understand that feeling, but It’s time to change that.
Proverbs 18:21 reads, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.”
One thing that has been on my heart in the past month is the power of our words.
You have the power to give life to the words in your mind and heart.
We are always being fed lies from the devil but also truth from Jesus.
We have the free will to decide what we want to give life and power to.
I think we forget how important that is. When we speak, we are proclaiming those words over us and others who are listening.
Even the mundane choices of describing yourself…
“My hair looks so bad today”
“I can’t do that”
“I’ll never make it”
We give the devil more power than he deserves when we speak out the lies he feeds us. WE also can pour them into someone else’s mind if we speak those things around others enough times. I remember I used to never be insecure about my nose, up until I was around a friend who HATED her nose and she made everyone around her know that. Then one day I was looking at myself thinking “wait is something wrong with my nose too?” Since that day I now have an insecurity about my nose. This isn’t saying anything wrong with her and I pray she has overcome that insecurity in Jesus’ name!
I am using this example to show how much power you have when you speak. My friend was just talking out loud what was in her mind, but she did it in a way where she wasn’t asking for help to combat those lies. She just spoke what she felt not knowing the devil used that as a leverage to make me insecure. I need to be clear here when I say, you confessing to a friend that you need help combatting a lie the devil has placed over you is DIFFERENT than speaking lies over yourself every day with no desire to have others help you.
Those lies above have 100% been what I have spoken over myself before but now I am trying combat those with these:
“My hair is crazy, but I am made in the image of God”
“I can do ALL things through and with Christ”
“I am going to try this and even if I fail, I am still worthy and accepted in Jesus’ name”
See the switch of power?
I am choosing to let Jesus take the throne in my mind and speak out on the truth He brings and not the lies the devil TRIES to make me believe.
The bible is here to help…
“Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouth, but only such as it is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who listen” (Ephesians 4:29).
This verse tells us a couple things about the power of your words:
1. Your words give grace to others. As I spoke on before, when you speak lies, others can start to believe those about themselves, same with the truth. If you chose to speak on the grace given to you, the Holy Spirit brings that to those around you.
2. You can speak constructive words over yourself and others as long as it’s “GOOD for building up, as fits the occasion.”
“There is a time and a place for everything” (Ecclesiastes 3:1).
If you feel the Holy Spirit calling you to speak something that may be hard to hear but will help your friend in Christ, then it’s worth sharing in love and grace.
3. Our words have the power to build up and take down.
This could be building up the lies they have in their mind already and taking down their confidence in Christ.
OR.
This could be building up a friend in their confidence in Christ and taking down their lies from the devil.
Matt 17:34 reads, “For the abundance of heart the mouth speaks.” We want to be on earth to help others grow closer to Jesus, and we can start with our words.
It can be scary knowing we have so much control over our words, but this is why Jesus reaches his hand out and tells us to let him give us guidance and protect us. Let us encourage one another and keep Jesus on the throne of our hearts and minds.
Follow Emma Stender on Instagram @emma.stender
by Elisabeth Hasselbeck | Feb 2, 2021 | Healing, Life Advice, Testimonies
At 23 years old – Making it to the final four of CBS’ Survivor the Australian Outback was something I never expected. Thirty-nine days in the wilderness brought me to a place of weakness, and ultimately made me answer the question: “Do I trust God in the dark?”
In a place where crocodiles came out at night, nine out of the ten deadliest snakes in the world resided, and spiders were just about everywhere—Do I trust God in the dark?
In the uncertain terrain, amidst uncertain tasks, with uncertain tangible provisions, and surrounded by an uncertain and ever-changing environment—Do I really trust that God in the dark?
In the dark… is where God builds trust.
Sometimes the dark has been a long Australian night, with wet socks and a cold hard ground. Sometimes the dark has been the waiting through the first four years of our marriage for our first baby to be born. Other times, the dark has been a knock at the door, when the producer of The View and an ABC executive informed me that they were not renewing my contract. That my decade long job was no longer… mine.
A moment – being fired- that felt dark enough that even the bright lights of my office made it hard to see and find my inhaler. A moment that enveloped me with shock, asthma, and betrayal all stealing my wind, and my ability to see what could be next.
Yet even in the dark- God allowed some light.
“I’m really thankful for all the years here.”
Gratitude. Like a flashlight in the dark.
I remember feeling thankful. Then confusion. “Why? What could I have done? Was there something I could have done differently? Can I do something differently now? If you would just tell me, I would work on that—and make it better.”
I would have done just about anything to get my job back.
I sat alone in my office for about an hour and a half sobbing, just sobbing. Feeling a dose of betrayal and a whopper of confusion, I felt like the walls of the building were folding in on me. More dark. Why would God let me be here just to fail?? Or just to work so hard to have it taken away?
Perhaps what hit me hardest was this truth: It is almost always impossible to get back what is not yours to begin with.
The day I heard that The View would not renew my contract, my career world fell apart, and it fell apart because it was mine. That was the problem. It was not all mine, but it certainly was not all His yet. That would require surrender. And surrender was not something I knew how to do yet.
God used that time after The View released me to instruct me in not alliance (reliance on others) and in not me-liance (reliance on myself) but in total reliance on Him. Even in the dark.
“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).
All circumstances? I asked myself. Yes, that is what God was instructing. So I gave it a try. I prayed—deeply. I prayed thanks, thanking God for the chance to work at The View, thanking Him for His provision, thanking Him in advance for the next job He would have for me, praying again that I could keep going into work as long as He wanted me in that building, and asking Him to help me stay joyful even in the midst of a storm.
He was my portion. The idea of daily bread became impressed upon my heart. God, give me just enough to get through this day. But not so much that I don’t need You.
He did just that. Because He is my enough.
When I walked through the halls of ABC with my head down, God lifted it up and held it high. Psalm 3:3 became so real to me: “But you, Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, the One who lifts my head high.”
But at home, our kids saw a mommy who was sad, confused, disappointed, and rejected.
But they did not see me dejected.
What is clear to me now is that in those moments of weakness, my kids were able to see resilience in me and to realize that things don’t always go your way. In the weeks that followed, they witnessed me choose to trust that God was working for me, even when I had no work. Even when it felt dim. And when the answer to prayer seemed like a “no”. They saw Mommy choose to see things through a thankful lens when I could, and they saw how that got me through this time. And over time, they saw me move from being fired to being inspired. We learned together that leaving well requires an attitude of gratitude. That gratitude brought into sight the “good” in goodbye.
The lesson of recovering well from losing my seat on The View was valuable not only for me, but also for our kids. They got a front row seat to see how we can respond when difficult times come. After all, if we as adults are trying to trust God in the dark, certainly the kids in this world are, too.
After some time, it became clear to me that our family needed a place to let out our worries hopes and fears—in an adventure of hope! A sweet young friend named Caroline, asked me one day if I wanted to see her wall. We climbed some steps up to her family prayer wall – and through her courage to show me her wall- I made one in our home! For our family we began using flashlights to go back to our thoughts and hopes and prayers and names on the wall and shine our “flashlight on” where we see God working, and click our “flashlight off” where we don’t see God working, but trust Him in the waiting. Saying this out loud reaffirms that we do not always get to see- but we always can trust because God is always there!
Whether you are a mom or dad or aunt or uncle or big sister or brother or cousin or friend to a little one, those kids are growing up, and their eyes are on us. They’re watching to see how we handle the dark. How real we can be with God.
Flashlight Night: An Adventure in Trusting God invites kids to join in the fun of sharing all that is on their hearts—on a wall or on the inside cover of this book—an adventure that lets us be honest with God and say-
“Sometimes we see God’s yes, and other times we don’t, but just because it has not happened doesn’t mean it won’t.”
What if the best way we can love the little ones in our lives who carry big worries is to give them a place to be real with God.
What if this adventure in trusting God opened the door for real conversations and allowed us to see what is on their little hearts? And what if they saw us waiting and trusting in the dark, too?
Our prayer is that Flashlight Night will be a story your special little ones absolutely love and that it will offer a way of giving their worries up to God even when it feels dark—trusting that He is there, even in the waiting.
We hope that Flashlight Night makes hope fun and teaches that trust and adventure are worth taking for the hearts of the little ones you love!
Elisabeth Hasselbeck is a Daytime Emmy Award winner and former cohost with The View and Fox & Friends. She is the author of the New York Times bestseller The G-Free Diet, the gluten-free cookbook Deliciously G-Free, and Point of View: A Fresh Look at Work, Faith, and Freedom, as well as the creator of NoGii all-natural, gluten-free protein bars. She and her husband, ESPN/NFL correspondent and former NFL quarterback Tim Hasselbeck, live in Nashville, Tennessee, with their three children, Grace, Taylor, and Isaiah.
Flashlight Night reminds children and parents that we don’t have to hope alone. Our kids don’t have to keep their worries inside and carry them around all day. It’s ok to be honest with God about where we don’t see Him working – but trust that He is.
Follow Elisabeth on Instagram @elisabethhasselbeck
by Tay Ruth Welgoss | Jan 28, 2021 | Healing, Life Advice, Testimonies
Hey, my name is Tay Ruth. I am from the metro Washington DC area. I’m married to my high school sweetheart who is about to be an ICU Nurse, beginning in March.
Let me paint you a picture since we can’t meet in person: I am a 5’2, curly-haired, messy, joy-filled, goofy girl with a whole lot of love for her cat (My pride and joy: Roy G. Biv). I’ve started to gain a reputation for my “15 second skits” on my Instagram stories. I dress up as characters like Gru from Despicable Me, Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Carribean, and Lucy from I Love Lucy. This is a PASSION of mine. I’m convinced I am Gru when I make these Instagram stories. Had I chosen another career, I would’ve been an Oscar-winning actress for silent films.
While there is so much about my life that is fun, beautiful, hilarious, and happy…I’m also someone who has been marked by suffering, grief, PTSD, anxiety and depression.
I was in a car accident several years ago, with my now husband, because of someone who we believe was texting and driving. I was physically injured that day and I’ve gone through several years of therapy, long doctor appointments, and battling my thoughts.
One of my favorite ways to process, and something that has been my avenue to healing, has been writing to the Lord. Writing has been a sacred place for me to hold both this joy and pain together.
Due to the events in our life, we entered into a legal case. It’s been over for a full year but the case took several years to be settled. This process only added to my already injured heart, mind and body. However, it also taught me greater lessons than I ever thought I’d gain at the young age of twenty-four. I want to share one of those lessons with you.
During the legal case, the attorney asked for any of my journal entries from around the date of the accident and I accidentally airdropped my entire journal that I kept on my phone. My sacred writing, meant for only the Lord and myself. At this point it was in the hands of the attorneys and used as evidence for my case. As you could probably imagine if your private journals were printed for people to read…I was mortified, embarrassed and felt stripped bare in front of not only my own attorney, but my family and the other side’s three attorneys. My words were not only used as a witness, but they were also used against me. The words I wrote in the privacy of my own prayers were flipped through, highlighted and marked up to be questioned for this case.
My one love, and favorite avenue to healing my wounds from this accident, was now taken from me.
I had not asked God for anything during this season, except for my healing. I didn’t pray in detail. I didn’t even know how to read the word of God without somehow reading it out of context and through the prism of what I was going through. My prayers were full of my desires of personal healing and less about understanding who God is: the Healer and the Father. I sought after prayers that would bring more understanding of my own heart, than the heart of God.
It wasn’t until “my book” (the name the attorneys gave my airdropped journals) was printed out in the hands of these three Goliaths that I realized the power of the word of God. Recognizing what it felt like to be stripped bare, accused, questioned on what is true, and more. I am thankful that in that moment God gave me the tiniest view of what it was like for Jesus in the court before he carried the cross. That’s a lesson to share and dive into at another time.
After that I went through a season where I needed to rebuild my prayers. My prayers weren’t bad. They weren’t falling on closed ears to be ignored by God, and they also weren’t necessarily wrong. But I remember going to speak to a Pastor at my church. I cried and told him my journals were read by the attorneys and how desperate I wanted this case to end. He listened to me and then responded, “Sounds like David is your guy. Maybe you should read Psalms again to see how David orders his prayers since so many of us have read his journals.” It clicked for me. David, the author of Psalms, felt like a close friend who I could relate to a little bit.
It was at this time that I went and read the entirety of Psalms to understand this man, whose journal has been read by far more people than I could fathom. David’s words to the Lord were now the very guide I needed.
David wrote:
“Give ears to my words, O Lord; consider my groaning.” (Psalm 5)
“How long, O Lord?,” (Psalm 13)
“I love you, O Lord, my strength,” (Psalm 18)
“My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” (Psalm 22)
“Have mercy upon me.” (Psalm 86)
“Hear my prayer, O LORD, let my cry come to you!” (Psalm 102)
“Praise the Lord! Praise the name of the Lord,” (Psalm 135)
I started to write letters to God and burn them so that it would be sacred between us. I was left with silent prayers that only could be heard in my mind, but not recorded for my memory. I wrote prayers of righteous anger, “God, are you as angry as I am that our privacy is infringed upon? Heal and restore my passion and love for writing to you.” And I lit it on fire. I wanted it to be held between the two of us.
David wrote in great detail, his heart to the Lord. He didn’t write and burn it in fear we would read it. He didn’t withhold his prayers. He would address God and praise God, he would ask God and thank God.
After reading through how David ordered his prayers I knew it was time to rebuild mine.
I started off with going to the Lord on my knees and humbling myself before Him and saying, “Lord have mercy and grace upon my heart.” I went through a time of worship saying there’s nothing else I want, but to be in His presence and to know who He is.
Today when I pray, I rebuild my prayer’s like David’s. I want to come to Jesus with a humbled heart. I want to ask God for His will to be done, but I also want to partner with Him in faith and action. I am in deep gratitude to the Lord for giving me tiny glimpses of who He is and who He has always been. Allowing myself to present my weakness, sin, pain, gratitude, joy, and healing all to the One who created me and to whom I say, “I love you, O Lord, my strength.”
Live Original asked me a week ago to write on the subject “rebuild.” I had no idea that this week of January 11th as I’m writing this…somehow my entire blog, full of my writings that I’ve worked on for the last three years, would be terminated / deleted. I spoke with several professionals with my hosting site, and they assured me it was gone forever. And here I am again with deep pain associated with my writings to the Lord. But when I went back to see the subject for this blog, I saw “rebuild” and I already know that this was an answer to a past prayer I wrote to the Lord that I ended up burning in my hands to keep sacred. He heard my words. I am rebuilding and healing my pain from writing.
And after 3 days, on January 14th my entire blog and website was restored with all of my writing that was “terminated.” God knew that the prayer I wrote and burned three years ago would be answered by stripping my writing for 3 days, and instead of that breaking me or taking offense, I was thankful. How will you rebuild your prayers?
Tay Ruth’s family moved to the DC area one week before 9/11. Her family planted a church in Arlington, VA through the mission to serve Jesus and serve our Nations leaders. Tay Ruth married her high school sweetheart, Luke, in April of 2019. He will be starting a job as an ICU nurse soon. Luke & Tay have a passion and desire to serve and love those who are grieving and suffering. Tay’s dream is to finish writing her book that she can gift to friends filled full of letters of encouragement to those who are grieving. Oh and one more thing- Luke and Tay have a Scottish Fold cat named Roy G Biv. 
Follow Tay Ruth on Instagram @tayruths
by Madison Hogue | Jan 26, 2021 | Life Advice, Sisterhood
Note from Team LO: We are so excited to have one of our LO sister ambassadors on the blog today, Madison Hogue! Today she’s sharing about this month’s theme on the LO sister app, “rebuild.” If you’re searching for godly community and daily encouragement, LO sister is the place for you. Now, enjoy Madison’s blog. We hope you are just as blessed by her words as we were!
Sin is inevitable. The brokenness that results from sin is inevitable. Looking back, or for some even in the present – we’ve felt a shattered spirit through various trials and struggles. Brokenness from sin has made its debut more times than necessary in all of our lives, no matter the extent. The feeling of having our life collapsed is unfortunately inevitable, when we live our lives driven by the ways of our human desires.
We feel the comparison, we feel the temptation, the bitterness, we feel the pressure to perform or look a certain way, you name it; we’ve faced our struggles no matter the degree. I’m here to remind you of something that must be held tightly from today, to tomorrow, to the rest of your life: the brokenness that ties in with sin can either cause you to keep sinking deeper into it, or God can use that very sin to rebuild your life on a stronger, more durable foundation. My prayer for you is that you believe He wants the second option for you and that you will fully trust in Him to take hold of your heart so He can begin piecing it back together, to live out your God given purpose. He calls us to build a foundation on His sturdy rock, not the world’s quicksand.
Jesus so evidently speaks this to us in Matthew 7:24-27 by saying, “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.”
Man. Jesus is saying to us that if we try to build our lives upon the world’s standard, oftentimes the ‘easier’ standard, we will collapse. I’ve built my foundation onto sand more times than I’m proud to admit. The outcome was always the same though, I fell. I sunk. I was defeated. I was never fully satisfied. But the good news is that if we build our life upon His foundation, His bedrock, we truly begin living a fruitful life.
The first step is so important to allow Him to perform His work: surrendering.
Surrender the very thing that’s causing you to sink. The cost of surrendering in order to rebuild means that our flesh must die; we must be willing to let go of our old to walk into the new. This is sometimes easier said than done, but thankfully we have a God who calls us worthy and beloved and is constantly at work within us, ready to walk the path together into freedom. No, walking alongside Him will not always come easy and this doesn’t mean that all of your battles will suddenly disappear, but I can assure you on this: Walking with Him means that we won’t have to face them alone. God doesn’t make us storm-free people. He transforms us into storm-proof people built firmly on the foundation that is in Christ. He’s stretching His arms out ready for us to come home.
Surrendering feels out of our comfort zone, most times it means releasing from something we might have rooted our identity in + relied on rather than turning to God. That’s the beauty of giving it to Him though, to make that leap of faith into who He’s calling you to be. This verse below helped me in an unsteady walk of life I was living to finally grasp the whole idea of what it means to let go.
“If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it.” Mark 8:35
During a time in my life, I was walking in a trap of comparison, which spiraled into a whole journey of forgetting where my worth was found. Body image was creeping at it’s all time high, and it was the enemy’s plot to distract me away from my redeemer. I was walking in brokenness, emerging into a false identity that was being rooted in the world. I sunk in the sand. I’m sharing this because it was a time in my life that led to complete brokenness, which resulted in me sinking so deep, having to come face to face to the wake up call of Whose I truly am, which then led to surrender. I laid my heart at the throne of God for Him to take and make new. I rested in the truth He was the only one that could save me. I had to give up my life in order to actually live it. For Him to save it. You see, hanging onto that thing we think our identity is found only leads to a sinking foundation, if it’s not drawing you closer to Christ. Giving up the thing that’s weighing you down leads to life. A life lived in full. I can attest to this.
He can take what’s shattered, messy and what we feel like is too big of a wound to restore and completely redirect our steps to rebuild the very foundation we thought was destroyed for good. He can rebuild the relationship between you and Him that was once ripped apart by sin, then replant and revive our heart, so that our foundation can be built on sturdy bedrock. Stronger and mended back together because we’re walking with Him. That’s the life I want for you, friend. That’s the life our God wants for us. It’s you and Him on this foundation walking together, so I’ll leave you with this. What broken piece in your heart is causing your foundation to sink that you need to let go of to begin a durable life built on His sturdy foundation? I promise you the surrender is worth it. You do not have to keep sinking, friend.
Madison currently lives in Arkansas where she spends her time painting, playing ukulele, loving on her crazy fun family and walking her trusty golden retriever, Beau. (Even though he mostly walks her.)
Follow Madison on Instagram @madisonjhogue
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by Sadie Robertson Huff | Jan 21, 2021 | Life Advice, Sisterhood
Hey hey fam! Sadie speaking 🙂 Today on the blog I am so excited to get to share with y’all a chapter from my latest book, LIVE! This particular chapter highlights the dangers of comparison and the power it can give the enemy if we’re not careful.
If you want to join along in reading the rest of my book with me and the fam over on the LO sister app now’s the perfect time! We just launched our LIVE book club where we are doing a deep dive into the book!
Tonight is our LIVE book club kickoff hang where we’ll be chatting and soaking up God’s special gift of community! So I invite you to join LO sister today and lets get this party started!!
Click HERE to get started!
Now, enjoy this chapter from my book!
In 1 Thessalonians 5:11, Paul wrote to the believers, “Encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.” Do you see what he is saying? Keep building each other up, “just as in fact you are doing.” These words convict me. Paul wrote them so boldly, as if the Thessalonian Christians were already doing it. He didn’t tell them to begin building each other up; he told them to keep doing it.
I wonder: If Paul wrote a letter to the church today, would he phrase it that way? Could he say that we are already building each other up? Or would he say, “You all really should start building each other up and encouraging each other. You are not each other’s enemy. You have an Enemy. Don’t take each other out. Keep each other going strong.”
This is such an important message for our generation of Christians. We need each other. We need to start building up each other and keep doing it.
As I thought about this verse after reading it one day, I asked myself what would keep us from building up one another. What is it that causes us to tear each other down?
There may be more than one answer to those questions, but I know this: if we want to build each other up, comparison has to go. If we compare ourselves with others, we are looking at each other and sizing each other up, saying, “Who’s better at this? Who’s not good at this?” When this happens, we are not looking at each other with the lens of Jesus.
Instead, we need to have confidence in who we are and in what God’s doing in our lives so we can cheer on our sisters and brothers. If she is doing an amazing thing and he is doing an amazing thing, it doesn’t make what I am doing any less amazing. It makes us all winning for the kingdom of God.
Let me encourage you to restructure your mind to think that you, your sister, and your brother are all running the same race. That’s a kingdom mind-set, which is the path to truly living. When Jesus taught us how to pray, He said these words: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). A kingdom mind-set is one that strives for God’s will to be done right here, right now, on earth. It’s not about waiting until we’re all in heaven and made perfect and the pain has gone away. It is the mind-set that we have a job to do right here to advance God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. If you can have a kingdom mindset, you won’t be so disappointed when your worldly status doesn’t seem as impressive as that of the person beside you. In fact, you won’t even think about comparing yourself to other people because you will be so busy cheering them on.
The first book I wrote is called Live Original. The word original means much more to me now than it did when I wrote that book, and it has become a part of almost everything I do—my website, our tour, everything I speak about. With so many people all searching for identity, we need to be reminded that we are all created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). We are His original masterpieces. I really want you to understand what the word original means and how it applies to comparison.
O·RIG·I·NAL / ‘RIJ NL / adjective
1. Present or existing from the beginning; first or earliest.
2. Created personally by a particular artist; not a copy.22
Do you see the end of the second definition? It says, “Not a copy.” So let me ask you this: What is it that drives us to compare ourselves with others? Yep, it’s usually the desire to copy or imitate someone— someone we think is prettier, smarter, more athletic, more popular, or more together. If each of us existed on our own little planet, with no one else to look at, there would be no comparison. We’d also be very lonely, but that’s not what I want to address here. My point is that we are created to live in community with other people. They are intended to bless us, as we are meant to bless them, but we can end up cursing each other because we are busy comparing instead of celebrating the good in one another. That’s not God’s plan.
So what is God’s plan? We can begin to see it when we think about Him as the Creator and about ourselves as His creations. He is the original Creator. There was not one before Him. He’s existed from before the beginning, and He is not a copy or an imitation.
God was the first to create. He made all of creation and designed and crafted each of us with amazing individuality. God saw no need to compare one of us with another one. He was only focused on making us unique. If you don’t believe me, just put this book down for a minute and look around you. Do you look exactly like anything or anyone you see? Even if you’re an identical twin, there are still differences!
In addition, we know that everything God made is good (1 Timothy 4:4). So you and I, God’s creations, are good, and we are made just as He wanted and chose to make us. This leaves no room for the complete lie of comparison. Comparison was not a part of God’s creative process, so it should not be a part of what was created. It’s an offense to what God created and calls “good.”
If we read Genesis 1 carefully, we notice that after God made every single part of creation, the Bible says, “It was good.” But the man, Adam, was not good all by himself. Only when God created a woman, Eve, did the two of them become good together. The man needed someone who was different than he was in order to enter into goodness.
God’s intention in creating Eve was not for Adam to compare himself to her or to compete with her. His divine design was for the two of them to come together for something good. This teaches us that comparison has no place in the life or thinking of anyone God has made. Everything God created was good—one thing wasn’t better than anything else.
