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Hey sweet friends! 💛 I’d love to know where you’re at in your walk with God right now so we can better support each other and grow together in The Tree.

Where do you feel you are in your faith journey this season?

🌱 Just getting started — I’m new and learning

🌿 Growing — building consistency and depth

🌳 Rooted — feeling strong, going deeper

🌼 Stuck — need encouragement and clarity

🍂 Struggling — in a hard season, but trying

Where are you in your faith right now?

Today’s blog post is a guest post from my friend Nadine Krill.

“But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.’” 1 Samuel 16:7 ESV

As I was painting my nails this morning, I thought about how truly terrible I am at it.  Really, it’s tragic.  I’ve tried just about everything – Kiss fake nails, OPI, Essie, dip, acrylic, gel, polygel.

When I make the effort to go to a nail salon that consistently does a good job, my nails always look incredible and I love the experience.  But then inevitably, I decide that I can’t spend the money or I don’t have the time.  I come up with all of these excuses.

Nothing measures up to the overall experience of an incredible salon.  That’s because the nail tech knows what she’s doing and she puts so much care into the short time I’m with her.  Their experience far outweighs anything I could know.  The total time of getting my nails done might take longer and be a little more expensive, but I always know it’s worth it.

And yet, I take the easy route and end up wasting a lot of my own time and money on shortcuts (this involves these gimmicky things from TikTok and Amazon that leave me feeling frustrated and defeated).  After failed attempts, I always end up going to the salon and feel satisfied for the next week or so.  But then I get lazy with it and try to talk myself out of going the next time.

It’s this pattern of doubt and wanting to stray from what I know works for me.

We can never do anything nearly as well as when we invite God into it.

I think sometimes we can treat God like this, too.  For one, I can never do anything nearly as well on my own as I can when I invite God into it.  When I am not consistent with my upkeep, I fall into excuses.

God is intentional.  God cares so deeply for us and He takes the time necessary to get it right.  His plan for me is always better than my own.  Kind of like when my nail tech always knows what will look best on me, God knows what’s best for me.  And the same goes for you.

He demands our discipline.  But discipline is not a bad word – it simply requires obedience and consistency with God over anything else, which is overall better for us in the long haul.

No matter how many times I try to figure something out on my own, I know it will be better for me to go to the One who knows it all.

God already HAS all of the solutions.  With Him, there are no gimmicks.  God requires no shortcuts.  With God, there is true satisfaction.

But we have to keep going back to Him.  Having a relationship with God has nothing to do with going to church on Sundays, scripture on my lock screen, or the highlighters I use with my Bible.  My relationship with God has everything to do with consistency and humility.  I know that God is always better, just like with my nail tech.  Ultimately, my nails always look better when I go to the salon because I have an expert who cares for me.

The same goes for God.  When we want our hearts to look as good (or better) than our outward appearance, we need to spend time with Him.  Forget manicures, God is the true expert on every single thing.  It doesn’t matter to God how polished our lives look on the outside, but how we take care of our souls.  Only one of those is eternal.

Sometimes spending time with God will cost you a little. Maybe you’ll need to say no to a nice dinner with friends or those twenty extra minutes in bed.  But consistency breeds the results.  You get to decide the outcome.  God is a God who gave us the free will to enter into His presence.  Just like we have the free will to take care of our outward appearance, we also have the choice to take care of our inward appearance.  And one of these is far more necessary.

So my question for you today is this, are you done making excuses and taking shortcuts?

Today’s blog post is a guest post from my friend Nadine Krill.

“But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.’” 1 Samuel 16:7 ESV

As I was painting my nails this morning, I thought about how truly terrible I am at it.  Really, it’s tragic.  I’ve tried just about everything – Kiss fake nails, OPI, Essie, dip, acrylic, gel, polygel.

When I make the effort to go to a nail salon that consistently does a good job, my nails always look incredible and I love the experience.  But then inevitably, I decide that I can’t spend the money or I don’t have the time.  I come up with all of these excuses.

Nothing measures up to the overall experience of an incredible salon.  That’s because the nail tech knows what she’s doing and she puts so much care into the short time I’m with her.  Their experience far outweighs anything I could know.  The total time of getting my nails done might take longer and be a little more expensive, but I always know it’s worth it.

And yet, I take the easy route and end up wasting a lot of my own time and money on shortcuts (this involves these gimmicky things from TikTok and Amazon that leave me feeling frustrated and defeated).  After failed attempts, I always end up going to the salon and feel satisfied for the next week or so.  But then I get lazy with it and try to talk myself out of going the next time.

It’s this pattern of doubt and wanting to stray from what I know works for me.

We can never do anything nearly as well as when we invite God into it.

I think sometimes we can treat God like this, too.  For one, I can never do anything nearly as well on my own as I can when I invite God into it.  When I am not consistent with my upkeep, I fall into excuses.

God is intentional.  God cares so deeply for us and He takes the time necessary to get it right.  His plan for me is always better than my own.  Kind of like when my nail tech always knows what will look best on me, God knows what’s best for me.  And the same goes for you.

He demands our discipline.  But discipline is not a bad word – it simply requires obedience and consistency with God over anything else, which is overall better for us in the long haul.

No matter how many times I try to figure something out on my own, I know it will be better for me to go to the One who knows it all.

God already HAS all of the solutions.  With Him, there are no gimmicks.  God requires no shortcuts.  With God, there is true satisfaction.

But we have to keep going back to Him.  Having a relationship with God has nothing to do with going to church on Sundays, scripture on my lock screen, or the highlighters I use with my Bible.  My relationship with God has everything to do with consistency and humility.  I know that God is always better, just like with my nail tech.  Ultimately, my nails always look better when I go to the salon because I have an expert who cares for me.

God cares about the upkeep of our souls.

The same goes for God.  When we want our hearts to look as good (or better) than our outward appearance, we need to spend time with Him.  Forget manicures, God is the true expert on every single thing.  It doesn’t matter to God how polished our lives look on the outside, but how we take care of our souls.  Only one of those is eternal.

Sometimes spending time with God will cost you a little. Maybe you’ll need to say no to a nice dinner with friends or those twenty extra minutes in bed.  But consistency breeds the results.  You get to decide the outcome.  God is a God who gave us the free will to enter into His presence.  Just like we have the free will to take care of our outward appearance, we also have the choice to take care of our inward appearance.  And one of these is far more necessary.

So my question for you today is this, are you done making excuses and taking shortcuts?

Xoxo,

Nadine

Follow Along on Nadine’s Insta

Subscribe to Nadine’s YouTube

Be encouraged by Nadine’s TikTok


Polished

Yesterday, a huge wasp plopped down on my computer. It was just hanging out, listening to music from my iMac speakers. And this very same wasp taught me how to face my fears.

I had two options: to freak out, scream, and try to kill the dang thing, which would probably end in up me getting stung. OR, I could use a little bit of sense, and choose to patiently let the wasp hang out on my computer for a little while and slyly move my computer outside, no killing involved. So after listening to music with the bee for a couple minutes, I finally mustered up the courage to move my computer outside, where the wasp could be free.

FACING A WASP IS A LOT LIKE FACING YOUR FEARS

It made me think: facing a wasp is a lot like facing your fears.

These fears can come in many different forms. Through insecurity, circumstance, and even people.

Sometimes, God will expose things in our own lives that are maybe not full of sunshine and rainbows. He’ll show us our deepest insecurities and identity-issues that are not rooted in Him, where we will look at them just like we’ll look at a wasp, and think, I do not want that there.

Life circumstances can also evoke fear. Like a sudden breakup, or quarantine, or the end of college. We look at these things we are terrified of, and we think, I do not want to deal with this. I need to get this OUT of here.

Or maybe it’s a person that we just cannot stand. We get annoyed with everything they say, and we think, I just can’t have this person in our lives anymore. We do not vibe. Our enneagram numbers are not gelling correctly.

So we take certain measures to get rid of what we don’t like. For example, we will feel the uncomfortable emotion of sadness, but we busy ourselves so we don’t feel it. Or we get our hearts broken, and to keep our hearts safe from anymore hurt, we put up walls and vow to never love again. Maybe we are scared of the unknown of the coronavirus and this season, so we try to numb ourselves with excessive shopping and binge-watching.

But what if instead of acting on our fears, we sat with them? What if we instead of getting rid of them quickly, we let them teach us something, let them grow us? What if we let God work in our hearts through the thing we don’t like, ultimately shaping us in His image?

IT’S TIME WE STARTED LEARNING FROM WHAT WE DISLIKE.

We can’t just get rid of emotions that we don’t like, because then that emotion might come back to sting us in a different way. We can’t just run away from something we are terrified of, because that’s not how you heal.

You heal by looking at your fears/insecurities/yuckiness, learning from them, and letting God teach you His grace in those messy spaces.

We have to let the fear come in, we have to let it teach us something, we have to look at what we can take from it in order to grow.

It reminds me of Rumi’s poem, The Guest House:

meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.

because each has been sentas a guide from beyond.

— Jellaludin Rumi, translation by Coleman Barks

It’s time we stopped swatting at our fears, and decided to work with them.

Quarantine you just can’t escape from. Instead, let this time teach you patience. Let it expose things in your heart that God wants to free you from.

Eating disorders you can’t just get rid of overnight. Let God show you the lies you’ve been believing about yourself, and let yourself grow closer to how God sees you.

Heartbreak you can’t just run away from. Whatever grief you’re walking through, do the craziest thing and let yourself feel the pain of losing something or someone you love. Let the pain move through you, bringing you closer to God and even closer to wholeness.

There’s a big difference between completely killing something and letting it go, and it’s all in the intention. Getting rid of something is with the intention of getting something out of our lives that is unwanted. But letting something go means acknowledging its power over your life, and allowing yourself to finally walk in freedom.

While the wasp was hanging out on my computer, instead of freaking out, I decided to sit with it. I acknowledged it’s presence. I let it hang out for a while. A huge fear of mine and I could sit in the same room and stare at each other. Then, after a little while, I eventually moved it out onto the roof and let it go.

Let’s approach our own fears the same way. Whether it’s an insecurity, emotion, circumstance, or person – let’s acknowledge its presence. Let’s hang out with it for a while. Let’s see what we have to learn. And after we’ve grown and we’ve learned and we’ve experienced God’s grace in it, we can finally let it go.

Just as we can free an ugly wasp into the Spring air, we can let go of the fears we were once enslaved to. We can walk as daughters of God, letting go of what once was, and making room for the beauty that is to come.

Yesterday, a huge wasp plopped down on my computer. It was just hanging out, listening to music from my iMac speakers. And this very same wasp taught me how to face my fears.

I had two options: to freak out, scream, and try to kill the dang thing, which would probably end in up me getting stung. OR, I could use a little bit of sense, and choose to patiently let the wasp hang out on my computer for a little while and slyly move my computer outside, no killing involved. So after listening to music with the bee for a couple minutes, I finally mustered up the courage to move my computer outside, where the wasp could be free.

FACING A WASP IS A LOT LIKE FACING YOUR FEARS

It made me think: facing a wasp is a lot like facing your fears.
These fears can come in many different forms. Through insecurity, circumstance, and even people.

Sometimes, God will expose things in our own lives that are maybe not full of sunshine and rainbows. He’ll show us our deepest insecurities and identity-issues that are not rooted in Him, where we will look at them just like we’ll look at a wasp, and think, I do not want that there.

Life circumstances can also evoke fear. Like a sudden breakup, or quarantine, or the end of college. We look at these things we are terrified of, and we think, I do not want to deal with this. I need to get this OUT of here.

Or maybe it’s a person that we just cannot stand. We get annoyed with everything they say, and we think, I just can’t have this person in our lives anymore. We do not vibe. Our enneagram numbers are not gelling correctly.

So we take certain measures to get rid of what we don’t like. For example, we will feel the uncomfortable emotion of sadness, but we busy ourselves so we don’t feel it. Or we get our hearts broken, and to keep our hearts safe from anymore hurt, we put up walls and vow to never love again. Maybe we are scared of the unknown of the coronavirus and this season, so we try to numb ourselves with excessive shopping and binge-watching.

But what if instead of acting on our fears, we sat with them? What if we instead of getting rid of them quickly, we let them teach us something, let them grow us? What if we let God work in our hearts through the thing we don’t like, ultimately shaping us in His image?

IT’S TIME WE STARTED LEARNING FROM WHAT WE DISLIKE.
We can’t just get rid of emotions that we don’t like, because then that emotion might come back to sting us in a different way. We can’t just run away from something we are terrified of, because that’s not how you heal.

You heal by looking at your fears/insecurities/yuckiness, learning from them, and letting God teach you His grace in those messy spaces.

We have to let the fear come in, we have to let it teach us something, we have to look at what we can take from it in order to grow.

THE GUEST HOUSE POEM

It reminds me of Rumi’s poem, The Guest House:
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.
Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sentas a guide from beyond.
— Jellaludin Rumi, translation by Coleman Barks

It’s time we stopped swatting at our fears, and decided to work with them.

Quarantine you just can’t escape from. Instead, let this time teach you patience. Let it expose things in your heart that God wants to free you from.

Eating disorders you can’t just get rid of overnight. Let God show you the lies you’ve been believing about yourself, and let yourself grow closer to how God sees you.

Heartbreak you can’t just run away from. Whatever grief you’re walking through, do the craziest thing and let yourself feel the pain of losing something or someone you love. Let the pain move through you, bringing you closer to God and even closer to wholeness.

SIT WITH IT, THEN LET IT GO

There’s a big difference between completely killing something and letting it go, and it’s all in the intention. Getting rid of something is with the intention of getting something out of our lives that is unwanted. But letting something go means acknowledging its power over your life, and allowing yourself to finally walk in freedom.

While the wasp was hanging out on my computer, instead of freaking out, I decided to sit with it. I acknowledged it’s presence. I let it hang out for a while. A huge fear of mine and I could sit in the same room and stare at each other. Then, after a little while, I eventually moved it out onto the roof and let it go.

Let’s approach our own fears the same way. Whether it’s an insecurity, emotion, circumstance, or person – let’s acknowledge its presence. Let’s hang out with it for a while. Let’s see what we have to learn. And after we’ve grown and we’ve learned and we’ve experienced God’s grace in it, we can finally let it go.

Just as we can free an ugly wasp into the Spring air, we can let go of the fears we were once enslaved to. We can walk as daughters of God, letting go of what once was, and making room for the beauty that is to come.


How To Face Our Fears

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Welcome to Ashley Hetherington’s Community

A downloadable recipe guide with 60+ yummy and healthy meals that are quick and easy, give you energy, and will help you nourish your body as a temple of the Holy Spirit.

8 weeks to heal from your hurt and hope for your future.

GET EQUIPPED THROUGH SCRIPTURE, TEACHING, HELPFUL JOURNALING PROMPTS, AND WEEKLY ACTION STEPS

BUILD CONFIDENCE IN YOUR FAITH AND FIND PURPOSE IN HOW GOD MADE YOU

FIGHT THE LIES YOU'VE BEEN BELIEVING WITH THE TRUTH OF GOD'S WORD

Beauty For Ashes Journal: 30 Day Scripture & Guided Prayer Journal includes Scripture verses and journaling prompts to guide your walk with God and strengthen your faith. The Beauty For Ashes journal is for the girl who wants to find hope, freedom, and healing in the Lord. You'll find a journal prompt for each day of the month to process your thoughts with God and space to reflect. If you want to find freedom, healing, and hope in the Lord over the next 30 days, this journal is for you. Verses and prompts surround: Strength Through Faith • Identity in Christ • Healing in God • God’s Love • Adversity & Trials • Fear • Trusting God • Hope in Jesus • Grace & Forgiveness

A 4-day challenge to dive into the book of Ruth. See how God can make beauty out of ashes.

This is the perfect season to dig into your faith. Download this FREE ebook to dig deeper in your faith today!