You are Enough

Hey y'all!

I haven't been around much lately in the blogging world because it's our busy season at work and I've been studying for exams again. I've been out of town for work, a wedding, and we've had guests multiple weekends for a concert and to hang out, a couple of birthdays to celebrate, and a trip to Orlando for us (blog post coming soon). So if you've been wondering where the heck I've been, that's where!

I've been attending Church on the Move for a few months now and while many of the sermons have been wonderful, one from a couple weeks ago really got to me and I think it would hit home with pretty much anyone. I'll post a link to the sermon at the end of this, so I won't dig into the actual sermon too much, but I want to share what I got out of it.

Pastor Ethan asked us "Who has access to your story, your struggle and your secrets?" Your story is your past. Your significant other hopefully knows your story, but what about a close friend? Sometimes it is good to have someone outside of your marriage to be there to talk to (because let's be honest, men just don't get women and women don't get men on a lot of things). Do you have someone you trust who knows about your story? 

Your struggle is what you are going through now. Every single day we go through things. Sometimes they are amazing, uplifting things, but sometimes there are days that quite frankly suck. Do you have someone you can share those times with? If you don't share those things, why? There are four main reasons that Paster Ethan broke down for us. Here's what I thought about each one/comments from the sermon.

1. I can handle it on my own - Oh hey, yeah I think that ALL the time. "I've got this, I don't need anyone else." Being independent is great, but you know what is better? Having someone who you can tell what is going on. They don't have to fix it or even offer advice, but sharing how you feel can really make any situation better. Or if too much is on your plate at work, speak up (I'm working on this one). Someone else might have a really light load and be able to help.

2. I've been hurt  - Y'all, it's hard when you've been burned to put yourself out there again. I'm not just talking romantic relationships, I'm talking any kind of relationship (friendship, coworkers). If you've tried to talk to a friend before about something that's bothering you and they blew you off saying to get over it, yeah, it's going to be hard to open up again. If you worked your butt off for a boss of yours and they weren't thrilled with the outcome, it's really easy to feel like you're never going to be good enough. But guess what? YOU ARE ENOUGH! Keeping people out is only hurting you, it might be hard and really suck, but you never know what amazing things you are missing out on because you are scared of being hurt again.

3. I don't want to burden anyone - How many times has that gone through my head? I often think, "I don't want to bring this up because I don't want to be a pain to my friend, they have enough going on without me spilling how I'm feeling to them." Pastor Ethan made an AWESOME comment on this exact thought - what makes it right for me to decide what a friend wants to know? By saying "I'm fine" or "It's whatever" I'm shutting out someone who really cares. Let them make that decision for themselves! I promise you, if you're my friend, I would much rather know what is going on in your life and to lend an ear than for you to hole up inside your head and make a situation worse.

4. I'm afraid of the consequences - What if something you did causes consequences in your life? If you hold on to it forever, it may make things worse for you in the long run than to share now. One thing Pastor Ethan shared was, "what if you're unhappy with your work and you voice it?". Let me start by saying, I love my job, so this particular situation doesn't apply to me, but are you hating your job and scared to say anything? Are you scared to say anything because you worry that you could get fired or looked down on for voicing that?

I am not sitting here saying that you should broadcast to Facebook how you feel every second of every day, just saying to have someone that you trust to talk to. If you want that person to be me, just shoot me a text that says "Can we talk?". I would love to be there for you. I am extremely blessed to have my "people" that know my story and are there when I need to talk about my struggles and secrets.

If you need something to listen to on your way to/from work this week, download the podcast here or watch at www.churchonthemove.com.

Anyway, this may be the deepest and longest blog post I've ever written, but I just had to share.

I hope you have a great week!