35. Have You Lost Hope

Potato Chips. Today, we are talking potato chips. How we can sit down, eat nearly a whole bag of potato trips and the only reason we stop eating them isn't because we are full, but because maybe we've had too much salt. In fact, we aren't full at all.All jokes aside, potato chips are actually a pretty good representation of the harvest we will or will not produce if we don't persevere, retain, mature and grow. 

For this series, we have been talking a lot about focus. How important it is to stay focused on what God is calling us to do. Today, listen in to dive in deep on the element of distraction. There are so many distractions in our life each day, that they themselves can be hard to recognize. So what can distraction look like? What impacts can it have on the life God has called us to live? What impacts can these distractions have on our harvest?Are you digging in, or are you going through the motions?

To understand when we are or are not producing a harvest from the gifts God gives to us, we have to take a look at our personal strengths and weaknesses. Our weaknesses can keep us from having a fruitful harvest. In today's episode, I talk about my own areas of weakness and strengths and exactly how those have played in a role in my harvest.

Oh the distraction of trying to read other people's minds. What do they think of me? Did I just say that? I should've done better with this? I forgot to say hi....you know what I'm talking about.Living our life to seek other's approval of us can be a huge distraction from who we are called to be. The truth is, if you are listening to God and what He is asking you to do, not everyone is going to get it AND not everyone is going to approve of it. Receiving approval isn't the end goal. Following God's call on your life is.

Last week, we talked about distractions. This week, we are discussing fear. Not only fear itself, but how fear can be one of our biggest distractions from living the life God has called us to live.Ask yourself, how much does fear affect you in your everyday life?

I feel like we are living in a time where we are loaded with distractions. Social media, our phones, games, streaming services, etc. At any moment, we can find a way to "entertain," or distract ourselves from our problems and our life. If we are distracted from what God is doing in our lives, our harvest will not produce grain. We will choke the seeds. So let's get focused...

Without hope, we won't produce a harvest. I would categorize a lack of hope as the rocks in the soil, as mentioned in the parable. We can choose hope. When things are hard, when things didn't go as expected, when something didn't work out, we can still choose hope.

"I see a girl that didn't understand what it was going to be like to build meaningful things. I see a girl who didn't understand that having five kids, which ended up being six kids, would happen over years, not months. I also see someone who at times didn't consider the struggle that her partner was going through when I was so determined for my goal, that I didn't take into account that it was really hard for him."

What happens when we allow our feelings to be our guide? In this episode, we are talking about the importance of clearing the noise of our feelings. They can confuse us and should not be followed on a whim. We should learn to understand them, to acknowledge them AND say no to them when we need to.

Let's talk about your core beliefs, priorities and gaining wisdom.I would like to invite you to take a moment and do some digging into what your core beliefs are. The true foundation of your beliefs. Today, we are covering how our priorities and wisdom can help us stay on track with our core beliefs and have good soil to produce a harvest from them.