Tag: #NotPerfectButPresent

Break Free from Striving to Thriving

Posted on by Kris Valdez

Do you know the difference between thriving and striving? Even though they sound similar, they couldn’t be further in meaning from each other.

I strive.

I admit it.

Striving is my natural inclination. If something is not happening the way or in timing I think it should, then it’s up the superhero, “Fix it, Kris.” I’m not really a superhero, but I play one in my mind. I take on what I don’t need to for my dream to come to pass.

Yes, you guessed it, this normally comes to a miserable outcome.

When I say miserable, it isn’t world shattering apocalyptic level miserable, but it normally makes me grumpy and irritable because I’m doing my “To Do List” under my own power rather than trusting God’s guidance. This creates a wife, mom and friend who’s not much fun to be around. It’s a pretty picture I’m painting here, right?

The flip side is thriving. There is a sweet sound to this word. Reviewing my to do list at a God given pace. Doing things in His timing rather than mine. Going with His flow, if you will, How does this make my day look instead of rushing from one thing to another?

Please indulge me as I provide an example of when I’m striving in a typical day which goes something like this. I open my eyes to a sun-filled room. Realizing I slept through my alarm, thankfully only by 15 minutes. Instead of having time to workout and have a quiet time before work, I dash to my spot on the couch and ask God to calm my racing heart and fill up my empty places depleted from the grind of yesterday in an abbreviated fashion.

“Quickly, please, God,” I pray. “Make me whole so I can survive another day.”

Not exactly the embodiment of Psalms 46:10 which states, “He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

The rest of the day is more of the same. Meetings and projects feel rushed and half done, with half the effort because I’m racing off to the next office fire drill. I come home to see my family nicely dressed up as realization dawns that I’ve forgotten one of my kids has a performance at school.

It’s in that moment, I admit I haven’t communicated with God once today asking for peace, direction or discernment. My stressed out demeanor shows it. The only positive for the day was I obtained my 10,000 steps on my Fitbit from running around. Not exactly type of exercise I was looking for.

Compare this with the day of thriving. I wake up in my alarm goes off because I went to bed at a reasonable hour instead of deciding it was a good idea to watch one more episode on Netflix. My day starts off on the couch with my Bible study app open to get my direction for the day and then I spend 30 minutes journaling my thoughts to God and listening for His response to record in my prayer journal.

I then go for a run outside or do a workout video at home depending on my mood and the weather which lifts my spirit even higher. I head off to work, refreshed and relaxed asking God to show me the most important task of the day and to equip me to handle the inevitable crises that will arise.

I ask for patience in working with clients and to show me how to love on them rather than view them as an interruption to my day. I come home with plans for dinner and my awesome husband called to remind me of the schedule for the evening, even though I actually had it on the calendar already. God knew I needed a double reminder.

The second scenario is how I wish my days always go but many times, I get Door Number 1 because I’m not listening to God’s leading me to bed at a reasonable hour or showing me what project to do next.

The point is, God doesn’t want us striving after our dreams. He wants to see us thriving in a close relationship with Him where our dreams natural unfold His timing.

Do you spend more time striving or thriving? How? Share in the comments below to encourage others.

Financing Our Dreams

Posted on by Kris Valdez

Money. The word conjures up different things for people. People may view it as the answer to all their problems or they may view it as the problem itself.

I have a problem with money. I view it as a barrier to my dreams. A big barrier. I live in a very expensive sliver of the world. My home is located in the county that boasts the highest cost of housing and the highest cost of health insurance in the nation. These two items are pretty high on my critically important list for necessities. Having a roof over our head and being partially covered with health insurance for one of our inevitable ER visits, is kind of important to not wind up in the poorhouse. The poorhouse doesn’t have a roof or bed to sleep in.

But (there’s always a but) I have a tugging on my heart and soul to follow my dream. My dream is to write, coach, teach, and speak full time. Right now, I’m excited when I get someone new signing up for my email list, even if they don’t open single email from me or read another word I write.

There’s this almost driving force pushing me to go after this dream even though reality, and in the eyes of those around me, it isn’t fiscally going to happen. You can’t live in a place that houses multiple world class ski resorts and natural beauty which takes your breath away even after seeing it every day for ten years without having a secure, full-time job with health benefits.

Even with all the obstacles standing in my way shouting, “You can’t do this, you shouldn’t do this! This is impossible! Don’t even try!”, my heart and a still, small voice as I sit quietly insists, “Please try.”

As I write this, my whole family is asleep and I have a hearing tomorrow on television. Yep, my current job involves being on television. Trust me, it’s not as glamorous as it sounds.

Instead of getting some much-needed beauty sleep for my close-up on public access television, I write. And I keep writing.

I’m tired of feeling the defeat of not being able to finance my dream. The actual money and clients need to come from God. He must lead people to the site, however if only one person is changed by my writing, is that good enough for me? If financing my dream means keeping it afloat with funds for my day job to be obedient to God, am I okay with that?

People all over the Internet teach how to be successful and grow your online business to millions of followers in under 6 months. Become a millionaire in a few short months, they claim.

But, what if God wants my dream to be small? What if He wants to work on my heart first before He makes my work known?

Am I willing to trust God to finance my dream in His timing?

Are you?

I challenge us to see if God wants to witness our commitment first, to do the small things so He can trust us with the big things.

Share in the comments below what some of the small things God is asking you to do. Help encourage others in their path to financing their dream.

Keeping a Firm Foundation

Posted on by Kris Valdez

A foundation is the basis on which all our lives our based. There is some sort of foundation in our lives whether we are aware of it or not. It could be unstable and shaky, filled with fear, doubt feelings of unworthiness or overwhelm. Or it could be solid and stable, but still filled with fear, doubt, rejection, unworthiness and overwhelm.

The difference with the second scenario is that God is the solid foundation. In Matthew 7: 24-27 (NIV), it says, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

Just because we have a belief in God doesn’t mean we don’t struggle with all the things listed above. However, the advantage we have is knowing that God is working on us as we trust Him in the present moment. Our foundation could be shaky because we grew up with abuse or rejection. It doesn’t matter how our foundation started, but it can change because God is there with open arms welcoming all who trust in Him. He alone has the ability to rebuild the foundation we were born into and change it into something amazing filled with freedom and forgiveness.

There is nothing we can do that could separate us from the love God freely offers to rebuild our foundation. Romans 8:35-39 (NLT) states, “Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Even if we’ve done something we think is unforgivable, God can rebuild us and provide a new beginning with a fresh start. God wipes the slate clean when we humbly come before Him and ask to begin again.

In my life, this began in my first marriage. I married a non-believer during a time when I wasn’t honoring God with my life choices. I thought I knew better than God and could handle life on my own. Can you say, prideful, much? If I had been following God, it would have saved me years of heartache.

The beauty of God is that even though I abandoned Him during this time, He did not abandon me. He kept me on a firm foundation established in my childhood home. He was there with forgiveness at the ready, waiting for me. This isn’t to say I’m not suffering the consequences of my willful disobedience. However, God has shown up in my life in magnificent ways.

He broke me, well, mostly broke me, of being prideful because when you can’t feed your kids or pay rent or the credit card bill all at the same time, pride has to be dealt with or I wasn’t going to survive the onslaught of my new, unexpected life as a single mom.

God puts people in our lives to help and offers a community of believers which sometimes appear in person or it could be virtually. It’s this community that offer support when we feel our foundation begin to crumble and what kept me together during a dark time in my life.

Do you need support or is there a special way your offer support when someone’s foundation is collapsing around them? Share it in the comments below to encourage others.

Keep Present in Patience

Posted on by Kris Valdez

Patience is not one of my gifts. When God doled out the gifts of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22 (NLT), which says “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!”, I think He skipped me in the patience department. I remember a running joke in my former Bible Study group was to stop praying for patience because of the trials and growth it would take to get more patience.

Staying in the present when I’m lacking patience is a trial in itself for me. How do we stay present when we are trying to stay patient with God? I’m not sure about you, but my mind plays the “what if” and “if only” game quite a bit. I admit, I struggle with staying present and trusting God in patience.

The worry I feel, not only has to do with patience, but a lack of trust with God. Do I truly believe the One who created the universe has time for me? How could someone listen to the prayers of one person when there are billions in the world, most of whom are in a worse state than me? Instead of having an opportunity to pursue their dreams, they are struggling to put food on the table and a roof over their head.

Nowhere does God say this life will be easy. As a matter of fact, He even guarantees we will have trials.  In John 16:33 it says, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

However, He does promise us a Holy partnership with Him during the trials that test our patience. God is a God of abundance and hope. While sometimes we pray for just enough, God offers us a full, amazing life with Him.

As I write this, I’m in the midst of a difficult time with my ex-husband and sharing custody of our kids. I have two choices in these circumstances, trust God that He has this in hand and have the patience to wait on Him in His perfect timing or lose sleep, wringing my hands or write out the pros and cons of taking my ex back to court – again.

I wish I could say the first option is my go to choice, my first choice and my last choice, my only choice actually. But if you could see the bags I’m packing under my eyes and the pain I feel in my stomach, you would quickly realize I’m working from option number two. Not really a shining example of keeping present in patience with God.

Here’s the beautiful part. God knows I’m a work in progress and some days I’m more of a mess than others. But rest assured, this girl has some level of mess of a daily basis, it remains to be seen how bad the mess is, but my answer should be to let go and trust God with all my problems.

I believe He will show me what to let go of or show me a way to handle it. As a work in progress, I know God is gentle with me and my lack of patience. He can also be gentle with you, if you allow Him to.

How do you stay present with patience? Share it in the comments below to encourage others.   

Growing in Authenticity

Posted on by Kris Valdez

Does authenticity matter when it comes to achieving our dreams? In a short answer, yes. We must know ourselves before we can even hope to achieve our dreams. Being honest and authentic, not only with ourselves, but with those around us, along with prayer considerations with God, are the only way to achieving our dreams.

Without truly knowing what God created us for, hence the prayerful considerations caveat, we won’t be able to define our dreams, let alone achieve them. God places a specific dream in our hearts in order for us to bring more honor and glory to Him. It’s about pointing people to Him without us getting in the way. We have been placed  on the earth for a purpose, but it’s between us and God to figure out what that is.

We can do anything when we have teamed up with God. He wants us to succeed. He is always in our corner, but we won’t know what He wants us to do unless we live authentically, full out with Him and for Him.

Is there a situation where you haven’t been completely honest with yourself and with God?

It’s this situation which is preventing us from being authentic. It allows the enemy a foothold into our life because when we hid something, it creates a division between us and God.

Guess what? God already knows it anyway. We can’t truly hid from God, but we can hide from ourselves. When we hide, it doesn’t allow God to shine His light into our lives. It shows a lack of trust that He can take care of us.

There is nothing God won’t do for us. Nothing! He gave up His one and only Son so we might have an abundant life. In John 10:10 (NKJV) it states, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”

We listen to the lies of the enemy and sell ourselves short when we don’t live authentically. To accomplish what God has truly put in our hearts we must grow in authenticity.

There is nothing holding us back from our dreams except limiting beliefs. The enemy doesn’t want us succeeding and will whisper any lie to get us to settle for less than what God has promised us.

I joke with my business coach that I keep going around the same mountain over and over again because the enemy knows where I’m weakest. He knows exactly the right spot to attack when I’m not being authentic with God. This could be with my fear, my anger, my hurt, or my hopes. When I’m completely honest and authentic with God, He can be my defender, my warrior, my refuge and my redeemer. It’s when I hold back from being authentic in my life that problems arise.

Are there areas in your life where you need to grow in authenticity? Share it in the comments below to encourage others.   

Present Relationships

Posted on by Kris Valdez

Lack of time. Lack of opportunity. Lack of money. These are all excuses I have used to not stay present in relationships. All of these statements come from a place of lack rather than a place of abundance or even from a place of being enough.

God wants us to come from a place of presence and trust, even in our earthly relationships. This is hard to do because when we open ourselves up to others, there is a high probability of getting hurt or disappointed. On the flip-side, there is also the possibility of discovery something amazing in the other person that completes you.

This doesn’t have to be a romantic relationship either. I’ve learned strength and tenacity from my girlfriends because I’ve watched them go through events which gave me the courage to do things in my life I believe God wanted me to do but I didn’t think were possible.

My first marriage was not healthy and without getting into specifics, I heard from multiple girlfriends it was time to get out and if I wouldn’t do it for me, then I need to do it for my kids. I wanted to be present and committed to my first marriage but I learned the other person must be present too.

After consulting not only my pastor, but a pastor from other church who didn’t know me or my circumstances, weekly counseling sessions for a year and discussions with an amazing lawyer, I decided it was time to let the relationship go. Please know, I didn’t make this decision lightly. It was the result of many hours of prayer and petitioning on my knees to God asking for the circumstances in my marriage to change.

When I let go of this relationship, it allowed God to restore me, my children and eventually open up my life to an amazing man who wanted to be present in our relationship and with our children. The sacrifices my husband has made in the last seven years of our marriage can’t even touch to the limited sacrifices my exhusband made in 12 years of togetherness. My point isn’t to compare my two marriages, but to demonstrate how God shows us His love even through difficult times. God wants us to have amazing, fulfilling relationships here on earth because it’s a glimpse into what is awaiting with an eternal relationship with Him.

However, we are human and make mistakes that hurt other people but these mistakes, especially the unintentional ones, can be prevented by being more present and a little less perfect. This is really saying, we need to be authentic and gentle with one another to nurture our relationships.

Authentic is a buzz word right now, but it seems people can use it to be hurtful rather than embracing true authenticity. People throw emotional arrows at another person’s heart with the claim of it being done in authenticity. In our relationships, being present and authentic has nothing to do with the other person and everything to do with us and God.

We can only be present in relationships when we are present with God. Hear me out on this. God is the ultimate example of being present. He’s always ready, willing and able to listen to our prayer requests. He might not answer them the way we like, but He is always present with us.

Can I say the same about my relationships? Absolutely not. In the loud, noisy world, it’s hard to concentrate and stay connected with one person, let alone a group of my girlfriends. When I have an opportunity to be with another person, my voice of authenticity is asking me to listen to their dreams, hurts and struggles to make a difference in their lives. This is my commitment to being present in our relationship.

Do you have a way of being present in relationships? Share it in the comments below to encourage others.

Worshipping Willpower

Posted on by Kris Valdez

When you read this title, let’s be honest, you might have thought this is about how to do things under our own willpower or even how we could do more if we had even greater willpower. Nothing could be further from the point of this post.

Worshipping willpower is about using our willpower for worshipping and seeing what God does with it. It seems counter intuitive in our more, more, more and go, go, go world, but when we use our time to worship the Creator of time, we actually have the energy to get more done.

However, this isn’t about productivity. This is about partnering with God through worship. What does worship look like? It looks like using our gifts and talents how God wants us to. If you feel your heart come alive when you sing, than that is a form of worship to God. If you feel moved when deciphering the US tax code, as unusual as this may be, this is a form of worship. If your greatest excitement comes from helping someone find what they are meant to do, than that is your form of worship.

See, God created each of us with something that sets us apart from the person sitting next to us, even if we’re related. There is one thing God wants you to do with Him and for Him. The key is discovering what our form of worship is, so God can provide us the willpower to get it done. Discovering what you are meant to do could come from taking a personality assessment or visiting a career counselor.

At one time, before I moved to my small town in Colorado, I attended a mega church in the city that employed career counselors who taught classes on finding our God given passions. This class showed me I was in the wrong profession and provided me steps to move forward into something different. Hence, my business was born in 2003.

While the nature of my business has changed slightly in response to ex husband getting a portion of the business in our divorce, I had the opportunity to rebuild it in the way I believed God wanted me to do. It meant expanding some areas while eliminating others. I obtained my accredited coaching certificate, even though I had already won an award for my coaching from the Small Business Development Center. A publisher approached me during this time frame and asked if they could publish my Master’s Degree thesis with a few modifications. I, of course, said “yes!” Then the publisher who originally bought my book on marketing a home based business went out of business (the irony there was not lost on me) the month before my book launch. I waited the 18 months for their rights to the book expired, hired my own editor to review it and laid it out the way I wanted. Remember Me?How to Market Your Home Based Business was born.

While, I still work a full time job and haven’t built the business back up to what it was in 2003 to 2008, I’m feeling the nudge of God to begin again, in a different way. This feels far scarier because it’s about being authentic and showing my vulnerability in this process. I want my life, my struggles, and my victories to be an open book, encouraging others to follow the dreams in their hearts and maybe learn a little something from my mistakes along the way.

Is there a dream God has put in your heart to pursue? What does your worshipping willpower look like? Share it in the comments below to encourage others. 

 

Creating Fireworks

Posted on by Kris Valdez

God is a firework. There is a popular song that says you’re a firework. While this can be true, to create a pop of explosion in your life, imagine teaming  up with the original fireworks Creator. As we enjoy this Fourth of July holiday, inviting family and friends over to watch the fireworks, have we invited God into our show?

The show I’m talking about is the dream God has put on our lives. Yes, God is our Protector, our Redeemer, and our Warrior, but He won’t be any of those things without an invitation from us.  

He is also a polite God. While there’s no place in the Bible that defines His name this way, He shows us through stories that He doesn’t push His way into our lives. He gently invites us into the story He has created for each of our lives, but it’s up to us if we want to participate in the story. 

For many years, I pushed away my story. Literally and figuratively. I moved in the opposite direction of choosing a creative career. I’ve had characters running around in my daydreams for years, decades even, who are dying to get out on paper. However, I’ve also bought into the lies from the enemy that I’m not enough, there isn’t enough time in the day to work on my dreams or even if my dreams of being a full time writer, blogger, coach and speaker come to pass, there won’t be enough to pay the bills, especially health insurance. So, I told the characters in my head to be quiet and I sat on the sidelines of my dreams for years before I felt a tug so strong it could no longer be ignored.

I went to God in prayer and asked Him to take the torment of my dream. I didn’t want it anymore. It was too painful to not see it fulfilled year after year. It was like scraping a wound open on my soul every time I heard a story hit the market similar to mine or worse, I went to the library and saw a book published with the same title I had in my head for years.

I stared at the bookshelf unable to move either away from the book or pick it up. I eventually picked it up and flipped through it. While it was a different story altogether than the one I’m writing, it strengthened my prayer for God to take away my dream. Why? Because I saw all the letters after the author’s name and the awards already received which qualified this person more than me to share their writing talent with the world.

The old lie was being whispered to my heart, what do you have to offer? What does your story have that could be better than this one already sitting on the shelf?

In that moment, I didn’t have an answer. But, then, in the blink of an eye, instead of God taking away my dream, He made my desire to see it happen even stronger. In Ephesians 6:10, (NIV) it says, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.” I grabbed onto His strength to start working on my dream. 

After this reawakening, God also did amazing things. He opened up unexpected chunks of time for me to write. For example, as I write this, I’m sitting in a campsite in Moab, Utah. The rest of my family is sound asleep after an early morning hike to the Delicate Arch. I took a short nap and feel fully refreshed, writing to my heart’s content as I listen to the gentle snores of my four other family members.

These are the times when I feel the fireworks of God. I released this dream to Him, to the point of asking Him to take it away. Instead, He created a burst of energy and opportunity to build on what I’ve already defined as my dream from Him. These are the fireworks of God. The lies of the enemy try to extinguish them, but God shows up even bigger when we invite Him into the building of the fireworks show.

Is there something you need to team up with God to create your own fireworks show? Share it in the comments below so we can pray for you.

 

Keeping the Clarity in Our Calling

Posted on by Kris Valdez

Clarity, wisdom, discernment. These are all things I strive for. There are days when I wander around looking for answers which never seem to arrive. I’m forcing the time frame or become demanding with God or accusing Him of holding out on me.

I’m the type of person who wants the road clearly marked before I set out on my journey. I have to admit, this has changed a little bit over the years. When I was younger, I flew by the seat of my pants and figured something would turn out as it should. The problem is that when I was younger I threw caution as well as everything else to the wind to see where it landed.

As I get older, the responsibility of sometimes being the sole breadwinner for my kids and having difficulty of putting food on the table forced me to put forth a more cautious step forward. Gone are my days of letting God figure it out. I wanted clarity right now and I wasn’t taking another step forward until God stopped holding out on me.

This is not how God works. He wants us to step out in faith and then He meets us along our journey. God provides clarity when we trust Him with our path. This doesn’t mean we jump off the cliff and hope God helps us build the wings on the way down. Jumping off a cliff is stupid unless you have a parachute firmly attached to your back. We need to do things in His timing and not impose our will on Him.

God wants to provide us clarity. The author of confusion is the enemy. The enemy wants to create a fog around us so we cannot see the way to our God given dreams and keep us in place so we feel as if we can’t move forward until our path is clear.

This hits my heart close to home. I want to get back to being the carefree girl who threw caution to the wind and figured it out on my own path. This time around there is a difference though. The person I’m throwing caution to is God. He’s the one ultimately providing clarity for my calling and the path to my dreams.

God didn’t put the dream in my heart to snatch it away while saying “Just kidding!” or never to see it come to fruition. He is generous God who gives us dreams even bigger than we can imagine. We may only see the first piece of it and it’s up to us to step out in faith. However, there are steps we can take to gain clarity before we even take the first step on our journey.

Take out a sheet of paper. Yes, paper. As I stated in a previous post, we do some of our best clarity work by putting pen to paper. Write out what’s not working in your life and the lies you’re hearing from the enemy.

For example, the one I hear, is you’re too old to be starting a business again. You lost the business you created in your 20’s so what makes you think you can make a go of it in your 40’s when you have even less time and more responsibilities? This lie cuts my heart because I put everything I had into my consulting business when I was in my late 20’s and early 30’s. By all accounts, I was successful. I had a steady, small client base and won awards for my coaching work before coaching was even a mainstream thing.

Then I went through a divorce and the business name went to my exhusband per our separation agreement. I couldn’t imagine building another business while reeling from my divorce, being a newly single mom to my two small children and having a brand new job which provided excellent health insurance but didn’t make ends meet.

The lie whispered to my heart was that I would never own a business, coach, write, teach or speak again. It was out of the realm of possibilities. Stay safe in your job. Do not step out of your comfort zone. You need to stay right where you are at.

I believed this lie for 10 years. While, I’m still at the same job, my heart for rebuilding a business has changed. I have found clarity in my calling by finishing this exercise. So, now that I’ve identified my lie and written it down on paper, I shine the light of God’s truth on it.

In my example, the Bible verse, Jeremiah 29:11-13 (NIV) is the truth I cling to, which says, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

This means God has plans for me to prosper if I seek Him through prayer. My prosperity might not be monetarily or with a higher position, but it will be God’s plan which is better than anything I can come up with on my own.

Clarity comes from writing out our fears and facing them with God’s truth.

How do you keep clarity in your calling? Share it in the comments below to encourage others.

Building Creative Space

Posted on by Kris Valdez

Do you believe you’re creative? Think on the question a bit. Let it roll around in your head until it reaches your heart. Many people believe the lie that since they do not hold a delicate paint brush, tell stories, or have a Pinterest worthy home, they are not creative. I say we are not creative because we have lost our heart.

In Proverbs 4:23, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”

We are to guard our hearts because they are the wellspring of life. According to www.merriam-webster.com, wellspring is defined “as a source of continual supply.” God is the source of our heart and our continual supply.

When I haven’t guarded my heart, my creativity has grown quiet. I stare at a blank computer screen or an empty page of my journal and nothing comes to mind on what to put down for my next blog post or the next chapter of my book.

I feel the door of my creativity slamming shut and I’m pulling on the door handle with all my strength to get it open again. When I force the door back open, I find the walls of my mental creative space closing in on me again because I haven’t taken the time to guard my heart or in other words protect my heart from the lies of the enemy.

What if I took my creativity crisis to God instead of forcing it into a preconceived mold?  There  in the space of being quiet and still with God, creativity is refueled and re-birthed. I believe we are all, at our hearts, creative, however, we need to connect with God, the inventor of creativity.

Are you wondering yet how many times I could get the word “created” or “creative” into this blog post? Yeah, me too! Forgive me, as I use it a few more times.

God is so creative He has made each one of us with our own unique gifts, talents and abilities. No one is exactly like anyone else! God is so masterful, even each snowflake is different a snowflake! How much more important to God are you than the snowflake that melts in the sun?

If we have lost our creativity, the spark of life which generates our ideas, no matter if it’s for painting, writing music, developing a spreadsheet to show profit and losses, or even finding a better way to organize our homes, God is the author of the idea.  He builds our creative space  and capacity. What do we need to build this creative space with God? Here are three ideas:

  1. Go for a walk. This doesn’t mean putting your headphones on and ignoring the stuff going on around you. No, I’m talking about going for a walk with God. Stroll around your neighborhood or get on a trail and listen to what God is trying to tell you. He has a message unique for you. Just listen. It could be communicating love in the warmth of the sun, the singing of the birds or the colors of the vegetation as you walk. See, we can’t be creative without being filled with the love of God. He’s always showing us and pouring His love into us. We only have to listen.
  2. Write it down. Pull out a pen and paper. There is something amazing about putting pen to paper as opposed to fingertips to a keyboard. Pick up a journal or spiral bound notebook  for this exercise to keep what you hear all in one place. Trust me, you’ll want to do this exercise more than once. Write down how God made you feel loved. How did He show you that you are cherished and blessed? If you didn’t feel it on the walk, sit quietly for a few minutes and ask God to fill the creative spaces by filling the hollow places in our soul.
  3. Repeat. Just like with the shampoo bottle, we need to rinse and repeat. We need to walk, write, and repeat to ensure we have our creative space filled with His love so we can create what we were born to do.

How do you nurture your creative space? Share it in the comments below to generate ideas for others?