Endurance.

It’s been a minute since I’ve written my last blog! Since moving and changing positions I had to take a step back and process a lot! I found myself a little anxious about what’s ahead in my journey. However, I sit here today and I’m kind of in awe of the goodness of God. He truly has been redeeming my story and this year really is proving to be the “better” year. I kind of want to pinch myself sometimes because life just seems like pure bliss right now. Praising God in this season of building upon confidence and trust he’s given me 🙂 

Have you ever heard yourself or someone else say “I’m not ready” when faced with a situation that looks like it would be hard to control the outcome? I have definitely been there more than once trying to embrace all facets of transitions life brings. I think the root of it is a control issue. I want to be able to plan things perfectly and have a slightly predictable life. However, over the past years, I’ve learned that you really can’t plan “life”. It can be frustrating at times thinking about all of our failed plans, but God truly wants us to live life forward. 

Some of you may be in seasons where you feel like your “stuck”. I’ve been there and in some areas of my life still feel that way today. I had a friend paint the picture for me that God’s promise to us is that he will never leave us and that he promises to bring us through. He will always see us through. I think this is where endurance and trust come into play. Some seasons we don’t get to pick….others we choose but it still seems to suck. Endurance however, can be worldly or godly when portrayed in certain circumstances. 

I heard a message at the beginning of the year from Christine Caine on the topic of endurance that I wanted to highlight some truths that I’ve been referring to this year. Endurance is defined as: the ability or strength to continue despite fatigue, stress, or adverse conditions; the capacity to bear up under difficult circumstances; not passive complacency; hopeful fortitude, actively resists weariness. I don’t know about you but endurance sounds like a whole new level of confidence to obtain in life. In life we will go through so many trials and stress and I think we get to choose what type of endurance we will execute. I think with endurance in these tests come with ambition. Christine painted that you can have actually two types of ambition too – godly ambition or selfish ambition. 

Godly ambition is: 

initiated by God, about advancing the kingdom, honors other, loyal, others focused, produces humility, content with anonymity, prefers others, longs to please God, is patient, prioritized obedience to Christ, is about reaching the lost, loves people, involves dying to self, thinks of the next generation, if fueled by love, is filled with grace, is faith full, is hope saturated, is bible based, is Christ-centered, is spirit empowered, is willing to lay down ones life, is willing to pick up ones cross, is willing to be a living sacrifice, lives for the glory of God alone. 

Selfish ambition is:

Driven by self, about building a personal empire, competes with others, opportunistic, self focused, prideful, wants the spotlight, uses others, pleases man, is impatient, will compromise to advance, is about growing my followers, leverages people, gratifies self, indulges this generation alone. 

I’ve been challenged this year on this subject and am still learning that it’s okay to not have “mastered” the right type of ambition or endurance in certain circumstances. He calls us to live forward with these truths in mind and they really do help us to figure out the roots of how some of our decisions are made. I’ll never forget my early college years where the truth was whispered “how you catch something is how you keep it”. Ambition and endurance play such a part for situations where you can’t control and aren’t ready for. Our twenties are filled with so much uncertainty and transition which I’m learning these two qualities play a huge part. Let’s all be encouraged that even in the waiting, we can build upon the right confidence today. Diamonds are built under pressure right? 

Till next time,

Xoxo 

Ruth C 🙂

Connection.

I think we all can agreed that being “connected” has its benefits. Growing up in church, I’ve heard the saying “Life is truly better together” said a lot, but never fully grasped the idea until I became an adult. The lesson I have learned in the valley is that we need authentic community to experience life with during not only good times but bad as well. I value that so much more today knowing that God has encouraged me to be very vulnerable in authenticity and reap the benefits of it in my connections. Also, as an adult, I’ve never been more encouraged by the community of people God has given me to do life with. The people that God has personally placed in my life has truly encouraged me and has helped me become the women I am today! God has used good community to help me reshape my confidence too so I knew I had to share this topic which has been apart of my journey. However, although community and connections are great, God has shown me an even better connection to have in life. 

I’m not naive…. so I definitely won’t sugarcoat here …. on the matter that some people don’t always have the best connections in life. Some connections people are born into. They didn’t have the choice if they wanted to be connected to certain people with certain lifestyle choices. Some people that even desire to be connected to us don’t always have the best “agendas” either. They may want to only form a connection up until they have received what they got out of a situation and then they drop the person in the dust. Others may even try to manipulate that there was ever a genuine “connection” to avoid confronting issues they don’t want to deal with. It’s a sad reality, however, I feel like there can be good learned out of both bad and good connections. I know for me personally the bad connections have taught me the most in life. However God has shown me a better posture in where to truly anchor my hope when it comes to connections…. bad or good. There has to be something deeper to encourage me because whatever the type of connection given, it can cause good or even bad results. My hope can’t be anchored in a connection or even how to try to get a certain connection because if something bad happens to those good or bad connections, what is still anchoring me.  I need to take time to consider the source….

In college, God showed me something so great in how I would see people go about trying to get things they really wanted. He showed me:

“How you catch something, is how you will keep it”

This may be my all time favorite quote! There is so much depth to it that can apply to many areas in life. I could sit here and tell you stories upon stories of people who stepped on other people to get a desired result. I also even witnessed people manipulate or even fabricate situations that would negatively impact others to receive their desired results. It was as if so much trust and confidence was banked on these connections that they viewed it as their “source” to “get ahead” or “get what they want”. Connections that were “so vital” to these people turned sour for some parts of their relationships, However, the lord encouraged me so much when he whispered this quote to my soul. I began to find peace in understanding of where to truly be connected in life. God wants us to trust him to provide. He wants us to trust him in all areas. I believe this is another character trait that he wants us to have an unwavering confidence in. If we have to force things to happen…..oh boy will he not only let us, but he will let us reap the repercussions of those type of choices as well. So I choose to believe in what he said….how you choose to catch something…is how you will keep it. 

Another great example of “sources” or “connections” in life, would be when someone achieves something that others try to take credit for because they helped get you there. They try to make you feel guilty if you don’t give them credit. Sometimes those exact same “cheerleaders” who once helped pave the path to your success, might even make statements like: “Without me or my support you would be nothing” or “Your not going to get far without my help”. Sounds bizarre and prideful right? Some may even go to lengths to say people who make those compliments are so confident. In my eyes, I see people who make those compliments as extremely insecure mainly because as a believer I now know that those people are NOT my source. Fear driven statements that are said are usually caused by people who want to make you feel like without their connection, you’ll never achieve your truest potential. I’ll go to another length by saying people who make those statements are probably just as fearful that you can become greater than the box they try to think about you in. Whether they get you to your goal or not, they are not your source of supply in life. They may have gotten you some place, but I believe the lord choose them as a vessel to get you that. This should provide freedom to those who feel like they need to manipulate, suck up, or fabricate things to get a desired result. The lord is our supply and he gives us everything we need for each day. 

My favorite passage in scripture digs deep to what a true “connection” in Christ looks like. John 15:1-17 says:

15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.

So friends, I would consider the source today! Ask yourselves are you truly considering God to be your source today? No need to fabricate or manipulate to catch desired results. When your connected to the real vine, you can have confidence he is going to give you everything you need to be fruitful in every season if you will trust in him.

Till next time…

Xoxo

Ruth C. 

Love.

Its 1:00am and I can’t sleep lol. However, I feel the writers bug has bit me out of my sleep. I have been wanting to post on this subject for a while… wrestled with the idea for sure.  I honestly wanted to write on this topic in the month of February, but for some odd reason I felt the need to sit on this topic for a little bit longer. I know a blog about love in the middle of March seems kind of odd, but I’m choosing to be confident that it’s been totally God inspired.

Many people have a variety of ways to express what exactly “true love”is. To me, I have learned over the course of last year to allow the Holy Spirit to help me redefine what exactly it is. Let’s just say that God has definitely helped me remix many ideas and thoughts this past year. For this topic I don’t think I’ve fully submitted to the idea of what he may be trying to show me because what he’s allowed me to walk through hasn’t been all that great. He reveals things in good times, but through hardship, I have definitely learned to pay close attention to what he wants me to learn.

Most women grow up with the idea that a good “love story” ends with this “Prince Charming/Cinderella” feel to it. We can all pretty much thank Disney for that. However, I’m learning that a chapter of embracing “true love” in all its capacity may require visions, dreams, and expectations to die for greater visions, dreams, and expectations to be born. I can’t help but think of Cinderella and the life she lived before her dad died. She probably had so many dreams even before her dad died that included him in them. Her vision for the future was corrupted through catastrophic events and she finds herself in unfavorable circumstances. I want to stop at this part in her story because I think society sometimes doesn’t give much justice to the parts of our stories that require us to go through “storms”. Storms can be just what is needed to give true love a better vision.

A bible verse that I held on through all throughout college and even post college is:

” And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” – Romans 8:28

I used to read this verse so wrong when it came to God’s love story for my life. I thought because I am a child of God he is going to create so much good in my path that I will know that I’ve been called to such purposes in life. Life had a way recently of showing me different. Things he allowed me to walk through seemed painful. There were many dreams, visions, and expectations that died completely and I had to trust in not only who he says that I am, but in his faithful character. I think it can be hard to believe the first part of that verse that he can work all things for our greater good. He’s also showed me that the “all things” part can actually be the true love story. I hate that truth today, but he’s caused me to learn it for myself. The parts of our stories that go wrong and don’t fulfill our vision are monumental in describing his true love for us. The fact that things didn’t go our way or by our vision may be the very staple needed in our lives to declare he loves us.

We are constantly being woven into a bigger story of redemption, purpose, and calling. It all makes sense looking backwards in our lives.  It’s frustrating and can seem like how could a love story be birth out of what I’m seeing in my life today? The closed doors and failures in our vision today is the epitome of true love! He loves us so much and thats what we can be thankful for. So when you think of true love and the vision you have, be encouraged that what your seeing in life may not always line up. The beautiful part is learning to accept what is and to be confident that God can work the good or bad for our good. Cherish the hard parts in your “Cinderella” life ” Love Story”. If Cinderella would have looked back and chased her shoe she lost, she would have never became a princess. That shoe changed the whole trajectory of her life. So today, let your true love story unfold…hard parts all and have confidence that the God who called you is faithful to complete what he starts. He’s also has a really good track record of finishing well! Just look at the redemptive story of the cross…

 

till next time,

xoxo

Ruth C.

 

Gold.

I don’t know if it’s just because I recently have turned 24 this year but, I’ve had this strange attraction to all things gold. I promise you I used to be a silver girl when it came down to accessories. The color rose gold I’m even heavily attracted to too. Another part of me is challlenged to believe that my attraction to gold has been God-given for sure. It’s almost as if any facets of my life correlate to the strenuous process of gold being created.

When I think of gold and the process it goes through to be produced, I like to think of the following verse in scripture:

“But he knows where I am going. And when he tests me, I will come out as pure as gold” – Job 23:10

Job is a bible character who seemed to have the perfect life. He was blessed with a prosperous business, family, good health, friends, and wealth. I’m sure if he was living in our day and age he would be considered a thriving millionaire…. maybe like Mark Zuckerberg. He loved God and life started to look like he had it all. Then all of the sudden his life started to spin. He lost a huge amount of cattle, his kids, and his health started to crumble. I can’t imagine the struggle bus that man had to walk through day-by-day. I think it takes faith to endure suffering. I would even go to bigger lengths to say I think it takes faith to suffer and to continue to have your anchor of hope in the love of Christ and not just confidence in his hand. 

For Job, I’m sure it took confidence in Christ and all the strength within him to pen those words. The production of gold isn’t an easy process at all. In fact Gold is known to be one of the heaviest metals on EARTH. Crazy right? The good news about it is that after it endures the process of becoming pure, not only is it an attractive metal, but its usefulness increases. It becomes a good conductor of heat and electricity. Before the purification process, Gold has to be extracted from earth. During this extraction process, a lot of unwanted elements attached to it have to be pushed to the wayside for it to be made pure. The process sounds a lot like the process we go through to let God have our best versions of ourselves. One of the most common methods Gold is refined is through fire. This process is mentioned a lot in the Bible when it comes to Gold of high quantities. History says that Gold would have to refined in over 1000 degrees Celsius!!! Now that is heat! Another method used widely today is refining Gold with chemicals. Strong acids like nitric acid and hydrochloride acid are applied to golden structures to help dissolve the impurities of gold. The substances become super muddy and then passed through heat to make the gold useable. I don’t know about you but it doesn’t surprise me that one of the most valuable metals that Egyptians used to call “The breath of God” would have to be expose to two powerful acids and heat to be made pure.

I think of Job and the horrific season he had to undergo. I know the tests he was put through probably directly correlated to how gold is refined. He was exposed to so many trials and tests. The good news was that he pasted the tests! They were painful, yet he submitted to the process of his life being put through the flames. The beautiful part is at the end of Jobs season of being refined through the flame, God gave him grace and blessed him with DOUBLE for his TROUBLE. In fact, Job was able to pen these famous words:

“I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted ” – Job 42:2

Job leaves us speechless in his confidence in Christ. After being put through the flames of life, God restored his fortunes and blessed him abundantly. I don’t know about you but even struggles are hard and frustrating. It’s hard to see what God is doing. However, he still keeps his promises. He is faithful to complete what he starts. He’s a God who wants to restore our hearts to his. He wants us to be like Gold. He wants us to give our very best here on earth all for his glory. We encounter  beautiful parts of his nature through suffering. Life isn’t always perfect especially when we have to go through the refining process, however, I believe he gave us Jobs story to encourage and strengthen the believer or non believer. He uses everything…..even our processes! The parts of our stories that bring us shame or hurt…. I believe he can use that too! Thankful we can have confidence like Job during the process! 
Till next time,
Xoxo 

Ruth 🙂

Rejection.

Earlier this week, hearts across the globe professed their love for soulmates, friends, family, and other loved ones on Valentines Day. The beautiful part about expressing love is the passion behind the emotion that can be communicated in numerous ways. I think most people would say that love should be expressed everyday and not just on Valentines Day. However, I also think that probably on the same day that love is being expressed, rejection is also being felt as well around the globe. The saddest part is there are just as many ways rejection can be communicated.  What’s a heart supposed to do when their path of love flows down a spirally tunnel of redirection? 

The past three years I feel like I’ve had a taste of redirection in many areas. The feeling is so familiar. Rejection occurs and it seems like the same gray cloud appears to hover over your whole emotional state. Dread is experienced and the worst part of it all is when it reoccurs in many areas of your life. You feel like your at a stand still and you start to feel like your floating. An ocean of pain instead of a cloud of love or belonging consume you. This is rejection. However, perspective changes everything. What if God allows rejection or pain to flow and surround you because he knows your enemies can’t swim that far? Rejection as protection or reassurance of his goodness?? Another thought I have is what if rejection is actually a way to redirect you on a path that is greater?? 

I’m choosing to believe that rejection is actually a form of redirection. I believe it is a divine sense of guidance. I haven’t always believed this. In fact, I’m still learning to embrace and allow trust to flow no matter what God allows to walk in my life. There still are times when anxiety creeps up on me…but somehow through grace, God allows me to park my mind on his truth. In the midst of so much pain, he’s allowed me to trust in his character and to believe in who he says I am. I’m starting to believe that rejection actually can help us redirect our thoughts. It can help us consider our source too. Things of this earth will fail us for sure. There is no doubt about that. (Side note…It’s actually kind of funny because my ex used to tell me that all the time …how ironic LOL). In the midst of believing the best, there are some truths that I’ve come across that have helped keep my soul anchored when experiencing redirection from rejection:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” – Matthew 11:28-30

“Have I not commanded the you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; Do not be discouraged, for the lord your God will be with you wherever you go” – Joshua 1:9

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” – Romans 8:28

“For God has said “I will never fail you.” I will never abandon you. So we can say with confidence the Lord is my helper so that I will not fear. What can mere people do to me? – Hebrew 13:5b-6

“The lord will fight for you; you need only to be still” – Exodus 14:14

I hope all who read this are just as encouraged as I am.
Till next time xoxo,
Ruth 🙂 

Trust.

I would say trust is one of the highest forms of confidence a person can posses. I remember vividly so many moments growing up as a child where I trusted everything so freely and easy. It was never hard to love as a child or to give so freely of time and energy to activities or people. Little did I know that as an adult, trust would soon become a confidence so worth fighting for and throughly examining in every season.

Everyone I know has gone through disappointments or even a scraped knee at times, but for me, nothing has been harder than trying to rebuild trust in a certain area of life after it’s been broken. You find yourself wondering at times – “How did all these pieces of my life end up this way?”. This is where I believe grace is cruicial to have in the broken places in our lives. Grace for ourselves, others, and the not so comfortable circumstances we soon find ourselves in.

One of my favorite verses in the Bible that I lean on when it becomes hard to trust is in Proverbs 3:5-6 which says:

 “Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding. In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths” (amp). 

The hardest part of this verse for most and myself would definitely be the part about not relying on our own insight or understanding. Can I be honest? For me, I think my mind immediately runs to making sense out of things or how to put the pieces together when disappointments or things occur that are so hard to trust that the outcome would be praiseworthy. I think we all can agree that sometimes we need the outcomes to be praiseworthy to restore our trust…but then it suddenly hit me. Before we even allow our hearts and minds to run those races to figuring things out, God instructs us with 10 words and 3 basic instructions:

“Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord”

He wants us to lean on him, trust in him, and have confidence in who he is. This should be our first response. He wants us to be able to trust that he can carry us through anything. He can redeem. He can restore. He can increase. He can provide. He can comfort. He can. He is. He ALWAYS will. Sometimes believing comes before seeing. I have been walking through so many different scenarios the past three years where life has required me to trust in God before seeing my breakthrough. It’s taken faith y’all. Faith to rise above and not snap at the person who has done me wrong. Faith to allow certain people to be stripped from my life. Faith to allow pain in imperfections. Faith to even step into another day.

The miracle for me has been just releasing control that I don’t have all the answers and trusting that he will provide answers in his timing in his will come to pass. This is our God. He cares about our responses and casting our cares before him. I’m so grateful for many of the trials that have occurred in the past three years of my life. They have not only required me to exercise these three instructions, but have pushed me to not being so guarded. If you live long enough, life can sometimes do that to people…especially to adults like myself. I’ve gone through so much pain you would have thought an electric fence was surrounding my mind, my will, and my emotions. It is for the grace of God that I can stand before you today and say that actually through brokenness, some of these fences have been taken down in my life.  Through brokenness, I’ve had had to allow people to walk really closely with me in my pain. God has invited some of the best people to lean in with me, trust in God with me, and to encourage confidence in him all throughout the struggle. Trust is a beautiful thing. I now know that even if trust is broken down, he has a plan to raise it back up. It’s a choice to believe that for my life and I’m praying you will get to see that too!

 

Till next time…..

xoxo,

-Ruth

2017 is here.

Personally, I love starting a new year…mainly because it provides an opportunity to start FRESH and NEW. It provides time for reflection to look back, but also provides a platform of excitement for the future. If you were to ask me, I think that this holiday we recently celebrated on Sunday provides the best of both worlds. It’s all about perspective. After finishing the first week of the new year, I’ve had some time to think and look on what worked and didn’t work last year. Oh boy, I have tasted failure and had lunch with defeat too many times. One could even state that doubt and fear were in my passenger seat often in 2016. The one area that I felt like was shakened in the many life lessons that life forced me to learn.

Life can sometimes have a way of teaching us lessons we are not ready to learn, but also lessons that if you don’t take time to learn them soon, you’ll be forced to learn. It’s almost like that feeling you had as a high school student when you kept showing up late for a class and eventually the teacher switches your seat assignment to the very front row to instill fear of you arriving late again. You can’t even sneak in the back of the class anymore before roll call. Like that’s not enough punishment, then the teacher proceeds to add you on the list for after school detention for one week. To make sure shame has the final say, all week long, the teacher puts you in the hot seat constantly by asking you questions about Monday night’s reading assignment. Knowing most of the class didn’t read it, the teacher would have gotten awkward guess responses anyways, BUT continues to make an example of your tardiness to make sure the class (most importantly you) understands how important being on time is. Those lessons were brutal back in the day lol. #Growth

Looking back, I will say hard lessons force you to grow in ways that the easy path could never grow you in. For example, if teachers never took time to teach the hard lessons students need (like being on time) then they would never learn. I have learned that sometimes doing the hard work first allows you to not have to go back and correct things if you were going to take the easy road first. No one likes to have to “double work”. I have learned to be thankful for the hard places and the areas in life that don’t immediately look like what I would have planned. You can still have progress….forward progress that is as you grow. I have learned that I can have confidence that God will help me keep growing and keep trusting him in all circumstances. Our confidence should never be anchored in our circumstances anyways. Having my confidence rooted in different areas was a HUGE learning experiences for me. One by one, God literally ripped the rug from under me in each area of my life in 2016. There were many moments that I felt like I was floating and didn’t know what my next step was since so many things were out of my control. Lesson learned….your confidence should be rooted in CHRIST and ONLY in CHRIST. Your confidence should not be rooted 100% in a job, relationship, materials you possesss, and even your only abilities. We were created to be dependent on God and God alone. In him, we find our true sense of worth, belonging, and contentment. This is why I aim to place my confidence in him alone. I haven’t completely mastered what this looks like for me…but I am surely on my way. I guess you could call it forward progress. I invite you to continue on this journey with me as I take steps to understanding what confidence flowing from God looks like in everyday life. This is the start of a beautiful adventure!!

Till next time…

xoxo,

-Ruth