Let's Get Real

“The heart is hopelessly dark and deceitful,
    a puzzle that no one can figure out.
But I, God, search the heart
    and examine the mind.
I get to the heart of the human.
    I get to the root of things.
I treat them as they really are,
    not as they pretend to be.”

~ Jeremiah 17:9-10 MSG

The key to managing your emotions is to acknowledge your real emotions ~ Julia Mateer, Life-Giving Leadership, A Toolbox for Leading Women

I like this quote by Julia Mateer, because we sometimes get so caught up in what we should or shouldn’t be doing or feeling regarding others that we never deal with our real emotions. A couple of months ago I was sharing some frustrations with a friend and mentor and said, “I’m trying to give grace and not make waves…” And that’s where she stopped me and said, “But it bothers you a lot when it happens.” When I said yes, she said, “Then say that. Say, ‘It bothers me’ or ‘My feelings are hurt when…’” She said if I never confessed and dealt with my real feelings, I wasn’t doing myself or the other person any favors.

God’s been dealing with me a lot this year, beginning very boldly on January 1, by telling me this would be a year of digging out any impurities in my heart. He went on to say that in order for me to receive the blessings and favor He would rain down, my heart had to be ready. What I’ve learned is that things that I thought were OK, even synonymous with being a redhead, are not any part of God’s design for me. Even though it’s been hard to hear at times, the one thing I can depend upon with God is that He’ll be “real” with me. And He wants me to be “real” with Him.

If you’ve been hurt by someone, you aren’t offering grace by side-stepping the issue.  Grace isn’t ignoring what happened; it’s not burying it under the rug or stuffing hurt feelings. Grace, mercy, love, and forgiveness enable you to say, “Those actions hurt me. But just as God has forgiven me, I choose to forgive you, relinquishing my right to punish you.” The pain might not go away overnight, and that’s ok. The first step toward freedom is acknowledging your real emotions and asking God to guide you the rest of the way.

©Heather Potts 2016

Blow Out "I Can't"

The LORD your God in your midst,
The Mighty One, will save;
He will rejoice over you with gladness,
He will quiet you with His love,
He will rejoice over you with singing.

~ Zephaniah 3:17 NKJV

The other day, I woke up with the song “I Need You More” in my head. It wasn’t until my almost 4-year-old yelled from her bedroom, “Mommy, I peed on my bed and got poopy on the door,” that I heard the song in context. Savannah is a very strong-willed child but she has her very sweet moments of complete obedience for us, as well as others. Throughout the day, we had times of calm and fun, but also times of struggle and testing.

That night, I went running before dinner. During my run, God said, “It’s time to blow-out the ‘I-cants’. It’s time to take on ‘I can’ as your crown of victory.” The things I can’t do have been mounting: I can’t get her to listen to me. I can’t get her potty-trained. I can’t, I can’t, I can’t… And truly, I can’t make her do anything. But I can sit her in my lap, giving her my full attention, and teach her God’s Word. I can encourage her to deposit His Word in her heart. I can pray that God’s Word will minister to her, grooming her for greatness. I can believe what scripture says, “As we teach our children about Father God and His Word, it will stimulate, penetrate, teach and be impressed diligently upon their hearts and minds. Our girls will put their confidence in God and not forget His words, but keep His commands…they won’t be stubborn nor will they be a generation whose hearts are not loyal or faithful to God. They will be an example and set a pattern for the believers in speech, conduct, love, faith and moral purity,” (Deuteronomy 6:7, Psalm 78:6-8, 1 Timothy 4:12).

Running, opened me up to my Father, allowing Him to quiet me with His love. If you’re struggling with what you can't in your life, it’s time to blow them out and put on your crown of victory, remembering we can through Christ!

©Heather Potts 2016

Sparkle

And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness ~ Exodus 34:6 NIV

After perusing her options, Kelly selected the perfect outfit: a simple skirt and peach blouse.  She complemented the outfit with sandals and her favorite necklace.  After braiding her hair, she came out of her room.  When her mother saw her, she asked Kelly suspiciously, “Where are you off to?”  “Church,” Kelly smiled.  When she walked through the familiar doors of her church, she saw all her friends waiting for her.  They were dressed in their usual casual attire.  A few of them poked at her and asked if she had a hot date.  Kelly only smiled and thought to herself, “Yes and His name is Jesus.”

The root word for abounding means to take care, to value highly and to nourish, so that it will grow and become great.  Because of the Father’s great love for us—the love that He pours on us, that He uses to wash away the falsehoods we’ve been taught about love, that He bathes us in covering us with His deep, passionate, never-ending and never-failing love—we can begin to feel loved, feel free, feel beautiful, and then desire to express those feelings outwardly.

And like Kelly, we will act differently, stand out from the crowd a bit, and desire to show our appreciation and love to Jesus.  When you’re encapsulated by the love of Jesus, you begin to sparkle. On this Mother’s Day, regardless of your relationship with your mother, remember your Father in heaven abounds in love for you and He places high value upon you!

©Heather Potts 2016

His Deep-Seated Love

The Lord is full of compassion and is merciful. ~ James 5:11 AMP

After Brad’s heart surgery, my friend Nichole would come up to the hospital.  Everybody else came to see Brad.  She came just to check on me.  Since they kept the hospital just above freezing, we would sit outside in the October heat, just to thaw.  Once outside, I would ramble and she would listen.  She and I have just as many things in common as not.  And over the years, it’s proven to be the perfect combination that cements our friendship.

Mercy and compassion cause one to be inclined toward another in sympathy, but also compels action.  Instead of Nichole saying, “I feel badly for them,” her compassion toward us caused her to come to the hospital and sit quietly with me until I felt better, or at least until I thawed.  And that’s how the Lord works in the hearts of His people.  He lays His deep-seated love for us in the hearts of others to compel them to call, show up, make a meal, or any number of things just to remind us how much He loves us and to show us that we are not alone.

The compassion that God has for us is part of His unconditional love.  It won’t go away, because He’ll never stop pursuing us.  He loves us too much.

Thank you, Father, that You never stop pursuing us.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

©Heather Potts 2016

No Strings Attached

The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and abounding in mercy and loving-kindness. ~ Psalm 145:8 AMP

Conditional, covered-in-strings love reminds me of the “Bye Bye Bye” music video by *NSYNC.  Throughout, a girl controls their every move, as if they are marionette puppets, attached to her by strings.  We laugh at the overture, but for too many, it’s reality. But why do they expose themselves to that kind of reality, where love is tied to a string that the puppeteer can yank at any time?  Most often, it’s because the recipient doesn’t think they are worthy of unconditional love.

But that’s not what God wants for His kids.  He sacrificed so much so that we could know and experience just how much He loves us.  When you come face to face with God’s loving-kindness and then compare it to the ball of intertwined yarn that’s been the reality of the love you’ve been shown, it’s a stark, harsh reality.  It’s heartbreakingly devastating.  But God says you are worthy of being loved.  He loves you with an unfailing, never-ending, no-strings-attached kind of love.  God chose you and said you are worthy.

If you’ve only ever known love tied on with strings, it’s time to break free and run into Father’s embrace.  He longs to open your eyes to a new kind of love, one that won’t go away and will never end, because it’s attached by Blood and not by strings.

 ©Heather Potts 2016

Dream Job

Children are a gift from the LORD; they are a reward from him. ~ Psalm 127:3 NLT

The other day I was struggling. Both girls were having constant meltdowns all day. I remember how drained I felt at the end of the day. And the next morning, as I was praying over the day, God reminded me not to go into the day with frustration and low expectations, but to remember that I was living someone’s dream job: mine.

When I became pregnant with Savannah, Brad and I talked about our plans, and how I would be the one staying home and everything would be perfect. Well, not only was it not perfect, it wasn’t how we imagined. For moral and ethical reasons, Brad had left his job and was without work when Savannah was born, so he stayed home and I remained working. It was awful! We were both frustrated and wanted what the other had. I mortified to hear that instead of holding our precious love every second of every day, he’d found a way to prop up her bottle so she could feed herself. Instead of being at home with my little love, I was stuck at work with a bunch of adults who acted like children, only worsening how I felt. God had a lot of work to do in both of our hearts—and praise God, He did! When Elizabeth was born, I was able to come home because Brad had a good job. And honestly, it wasn’t too long before I was trying to figure out how to prop up Elizabeth’s bottle so I could eat or go to the bathroom. I suddenly realized that my husband was a genius!

We’re so funny. We look at people—what they have and what we want—and think, “My life would be better if…” Sometimes God opens those doors and allows us our hearts’ desires. But when the going gets tough, it’s easy to slip into a “My life would be better if” mentality. That’s when we need to buckle down, pray for grace for the moment, thank Him for the blessing and that He’s allowed us to walk through this door.

©Heather Potts 2016