Love. We all want to feel loved. We want that feeling of joy and acceptance when someone else chooses us and wants to spend time with us. We want the tingles and the goosebumps of new love. We want the steadiness and the consistency of old love.
We want love to be easy. We want to wake up in the morning and FEEL loved.
It is one thing to FEEL loved, but it is another thing to KNOW you are loved.
I KNOW, in my head, God loves me. I have been told it over and over and over since the day I was born.
But, sometimes, I don’t FEEL loved. Things happen in life that cause me to FEEL unloved and forgotten. Moments that make me think, “If I loved someone, I would never let this happen to them. So, why is God allowing this to happen to me?!?”
And, in those moments, I often begin to doubt God’s love.
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There is a cost to this life. A cost to relationships. A cost to connection. A cost to being human.
Vulnerability comes with risk. The risk of rejection. The risk of betrayal. The risk of disappointment.
There is a quote from one of Beth Moore’s studies that has always stuck with me. She was having a conversation with her daughter about God and her daughter said, “He knows it is hard to be us.”
That has always stuck with me. God knows it is hard to be us.
Jesus walked this earth as a man. He struggled. He was tempted. He knew pain. He knew what it was like to be betrayed by a close friend, to be denied by one of his best friends. He knew abuse. He knew what it was like to come from a blended family—to be raised by a man who was not his biological father. He knew what it was like to have family not believe in his calling and purpose. He knew exhaustion and pain. He knew heartbreak and loneliness. God knows it is hard to be us.
And yet, despite the risk, we are called to relationship. We are called to lay down our lives and open our hearts to those God places in our path.
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When God created you, He deposited within you many gifts and talents. Those gifts could be summarized in one word: potential. God has given you the potential to do great things, to serve Him fully, and to change the world for His glory.
God did not give us fully developed gifts. Instead, He deposited seeds within us, and it is our job to care for those seeds, so they grow and mature, reaching their full potential. Many people get discouraged along the way. Their gifts do not develop as quickly as they would like. They do not reach their goals as soon as they had expected to. Often people end up settling for less, instead of continuing to push forward and reaching their full potential.
I don’t want that to happen to you! Today, I want to encourage you to keep pressing on. I want to share with you three keys to reaching your full potential.
1. SEEK JESUS FIRST
Now, perhaps you have grown up in church, and you have heard this 1000 times. It can be tempting to not really hear it. To just go, “Yeah, yeah, I know. Seek Jesus first.” And then move on with our lives as if we had never been told the key to success.
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Growing up, I didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about my identity. I didn’t sit at home and ponder why I was the way I was. I didn’t spend much time contemplating my decisions or trying to be a certain way. I was just me. For the most part, I really liked who I was.
But as an adult, I began to process my identity more and more. Why did I act a certain way? Why did people say hurtful things about me? Why did that situation bother me so much? Why was I the way I was? What was my identity?
For as long as I can remember, I have been taught, as a Christian, my identity is in Christ. I am a daughter of the King. If I put my identity in anything else, it won’t last. But what does that really mean? How do I know if my identity is really in Christ?
Identity is an interesting concept. It is this crazy mix of what others believe about us and what we believe about ourselves. I might think I’m organized and strong-willed, but someone else might look at those same qualities and think I am controlling and bossy. Maybe you think you are peaceful and a good delegator, but someone else might look at those same qualities and think you don’t care or you are lazy. So what’s the truth?
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Almost every year since we moved to Texas in 2011, the North Dakota State University Bison football team has made it to the NCAA Division 1 championship game. This game is held at the Toyota Stadium in Frisco, TX. The great thing about this is that every time the Bison make it to the game, my relatives come down to Texas to watch. It’s like a special gift from God every time family comes to visit.
Several years ago, when my family was here for the football game, we went to their hotel to spend some time together. While we were talking, one of my aunts mentioned she flossed her teeth every day. I shouldn’t have been as surprised as I was, but to be honest, I thought flossing was something dentists told you to do, but no one ever really did.
That conversation lit a spark in my mind. I was going to start flossing. I was going to make it a habit. The next time I went to the dentist, I wasn’t going to have to lie! Ha! All it took was for someone I respected to share with me a habit they had, and I have flossed my teeth every day since.
I wish every habit was that easy to form.
The hard part about forming a habit isn’t the actual habit; it is changing your mindset. You see before I started flossing, I didn’t really believe it was that important. I didn’t see it was necessary. I don’t think I even thought it was possible to floss every day. But my aunt changed my mindset.
What habit are you wanting to start? Do you want to eat healthy? Read your Bible every day? Start exercising? Read a book? Learn a new skill?
I want to share with you Five Keys to Developing Healthy Habits:
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