nadinewouldsay

Around my blog, things are simple. Things aren't complicated. I try to be as authentic as possible, stretching myself to be vulnerable, generous, wise, and funny.  

EVERYBODY at influence told me that I'm funny. Sometimes when I wasn't trying to be funny. I also got called a dork a lot. Welcome to Nadine.


I'm the girl who sits on her bed at night and asks God to explain what a gospel approach to having a crush on a boy looks like. If you don't believe me, you should have been a fly on my wall last Monday.

That's me.

I'm the girl who had a friend over a couple weeks ago for the first time in a while (the friend, not having somebody over - that's all the time) and she laughed at me because of how much of a verbal processor I am.

More or less she said this to me: So basically you've run this thing you're thinking through through like a thousand people. And we've all said the same thing.

My answer was akin to, not a thousand, just like six.

But that's me. Constantly running my ideas by a thousand or so people, just to be sure that I'm not an idiot. One thing I learned at influence is that maybe it's time to learn how to make some of my own decisions.


So when you pop by this space, expect that girl.

Don't show up expecting perfection or a thousand tips to better your life. I love writing and love sharing, and hope to inspire and encourage, but more so I hope to point out that it's a whole lot easier resting at the feet of Jesus than it is attempting to carry my own burdens.

My most important rule that I have for my blog is grace.

Grace to make mistakes, to miss days, grace to write about the good and bad. Grace to share pretty pictures and the pictures that are a bit messy.

Because that makes life a whole lot easier, and blogging a whole lot more fun.

Pop back tomorrow to hear a little bit about the influence conference, and to hear something that might surprise you. That is, unless I wimp out and change my mind.

If you want to take a look at my weekend in Indianapolis, pop over to my instagram to see approximately a zillion photos from the weekend.

{a walk through} psalm 78

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It's okay to be all over the place.

I wrote these words a season ago. Some days they're relevant to me and some days they are not. Maybe they'll be relevant to you today.

Sometimes you sit down at your computer, after a long day. It wasn't a bad day by any stretch of the matter, but it was a long one.

You determine in yourself to finally sit down to write the post that is on your heart.

You sit down. You log in. You start typing.

You're a paragraph in and you realize you haven't shared the story you meant to share.

You hit the delete button and start again.

You write some eloquent pretty words but yet again find yourself tapping the delete button numerous times.

This pattern continues, and your typing seems to match the emotions you've been experiencing in your non screen time life.

You find yourself sharing a happy tale, one where things are bright and cheery.
You find yourself sharing a dark tale, where the words are heavy and the tone is bleak.
You find yourself sharing a realistic tale, the kind where the optimist and pessimist reach a happy medium of a cup that is not full or empty, but is simply shifting.

You let yourself take a break from the stories and just lie on your back on your floor, letting tears flow.

You let yourself take a break from the stories and tell the kind of joke that leaves your own side in stitches.

You realize that all of the things aren't matching up.

But you hit the publish button anyway, because maybe somebody needs to know that it's okay to be kind of all over the place.

{a walk through} psalm 77

It's girl behind the blog day! I love this day. Mostly because I love talking, so videos are fun for me. awkward.

Anyway, this month we're linking up with Ashley and Megan to talk about comfort zones. So click on over to their blogs to link up, and be sure to let me know my most awkward moment in the video.

My the last time I stepped out of my comfort zone was on Sunday.  Just in case you were wondering.

 

Are you linking up as well? I hope so! This take was take one thousand. Well, not quite that high but pretty close. I had one other good take but it cut out midway. Awesome.

You should link up. It's a super fun way to get to know some more bloggers. I'm like 80% sure that I might have met Megan through this linkup.

worry is not our call

This post was initially shared back in February of this year. These words serve as a good reminder to me - I don't need to worry.

In a nice evening conversation with a sweet friend recently, she mentioned a specific moment in her life when a certain worry had begun. It's no longer an issue in her life but it put an thought in my head, and now defines how I consider worry.

Worry is planted.

But it doesn't have to grow.

Similar to the farmer sowing the seeds, shared in the Gospel and speaking of how everyone reacts differently to hearing the Truth of the Gospel, I now see worry as that.

The difference being, I never want to let it grow. I want the seed of worry, when it pops into my mind and thoughts, words and actions, to immediately die and to not even touch the dirt of the ground.

Scripture speaks of the fruit of the Spirit. Last summer, God clarified some things to me. I was being asked to fulfill things I couldn't and He comforted me with the truth that there are specific fruits we are meant to see in ministry.  

love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control

Those are them. Those are what we're meant to see in our ministry. Worry is not a fruit of the Spirit, which means it's not something we're meant to seek to have. We need to destroy it when it comes up and drop those worries at the feet of Jesus.

Based on conversation with any girl I've ever met, I'm pretty sure that we all like to over analyze and fret. We love to think things through, and I really truly believe that is not our call. It's okay to think about things, and to analyze things, to work hard, and to plan well, but there is a reason God told Martha to stop working and praised Mary for seeking Him.

Martha said "what does Jesus need? ME."
Mary said "what do I need? JESUS."

We need Jesus, not more things to do.

God doesn't even make us hoist up our worries to the hands of Jesus. We get to drop them at His feet, at the bottom of the cross. Wow. That is amazing to me.

We're called to many things as followers of Jesus, but worrying is not a call on our lives.