Speak It
When I struggle, I want to keep it to myself. I want to do everything in my power to keep it hidden. As I hide my struggle, I begin to feel as though I’m the only person on this planet that has this struggle. This always leads me to feeling isolated. I even start to believe the whirlwind thoughts in my mind about my struggle. The mind is a crazy thing!
You, too?
The enemy thrives in the secret, dark places of our minds where we hide our struggles. I’ve learned that the best way to combat my struggles is to speak them. Speak them to people that love me and point me to Jesus.
Find Your People
I had the wonderful opportunity to be with four of my dearest college friends this past weekend, and it was life-giving to be with them. We know the good, the bad, and the ugly about each other. We know each other’s struggles. Grace abounds with these girls. They are always just a text or phone call away. It’s a true gift to have friends that show me Jesus and help me chase after Jesus too.
Lucky for me, my love language is quality time. It’s natural for me to seek out meaningful friendships. I have friends from many places that I know I could call or maybe just text since talking on the phone is weird these days. If you are a Millennial, I know that you just agreed with me!
Since we moved to Nashville five months ago, God has graciously placed more amazing women in my life. My neighbor and I were sharing some parenting struggles at the bus stop the other morning. She gave me a shoulder to cry on. Pajamas and all! I love that!
I pray that you have people like this in your life too. If not, I encourage you to be the type of friend that others can come to with their struggles. Before you know it, you’ll be surrounded by people that will stand in your corner when struggles come. Sometimes finding a good friend starts with us being a good friend.
Paul writes to the church in Galatia about sharing struggles. Galatians 6:2 (NIV) says, “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” I encourage you to read Galatians 6:1-10. There’s so much good stuff about relationships and how to speak to each other in those verses.
Don’t isolate yourself. Find a local church. Find a Bible study. Find someone to “speak it” to that listens and speaks truth back to you.
Speak It
I am humbled by the response to the launch of my website. I knew that my mom would read my blog, but I could never have imagined that so many of you would read it too. Thank you. It’s a privilege to serve you with words. I truly mean that. If you’re reading this and haven’t signed up to receive my blog posts and updates straight to your inbox, you can click here to do so.
After seeing the number of subscribers on the email list, I began to feel the weight and responsibility of it all. My first thought was that I should hide it and simply write an amazing blog post. No one would have to know how I was feeling. Since this blog post is about "speaking it" and sharing the very things that can keep us from living out what God has called us to do, I want to "speak it" (write it) to you so that it doesn’t have a stronghold over me.
Isn’t God amazing? I love that He continues to meet me every week exactly where I need Him.
It’s going to be a constant battle with perfection for me as I write. When you’re a writer, you don’t get a lot of feedback and opinions vary so vastly in this arena. What and how I write isn’t for everyone, and I have to be OK with that. Perfection and people pleasing could very easily stop me in my tracks.
Sending you valuable content is important to me, but it’s a delicate balance with following as God leads too. I want to be authentic with you in my struggles, but I’m also not going to stay there. My desire is to speak my struggles and allow God to continue to shape me for His glory through them.
Who are the people that you can speak your struggles to? How can you be a friend this week so that others can speak their struggles to you?
