You Can't See the Dirt If You Don't Open the Blinds.

By nature I love things nice and organized. I thrive when everything has a place, and is neatly in its place. Order, rules, structure those are things that are important to me. 

Confession; I like things to be clean but I don't actually love to clean. 

Yup, you hear it here first. There are some days I walk around my house wishing the "cleaning fairy" would show up already. Sometimes I even avoid folding laundry and cleaning to the last possible second. 

If I ever had the money to do so I'd hire a cleaning person and a driver (story for another day) in a heartbeat! And since the cleaning fairy never shows up, I guess I get to do it. 

Some days if I'm honest I do a "speed" cleaning. You know the ones where you just wipe down the surface and don't move anything off the counters? Or when you just sweep the floor and don't mop or move any of the furniture? 

Don't lie, you know you've been there. 

Now when I really get after it I'll move the furniture. We have a dog that sheds like crazy and I feel like I'm constantly sweeping up dog hair with the cheerios that fall on the floor. When I open the blinds and move the furniture to clean all that is revealed in all its glory. 

I was thinking about this idea the other day and God so sweetly reminded me;

"You can't see the dirt if you don't open the blinds."

If I don't ever open the blinds and let the light in you can't see the dog hair, you can't see it unless you're on the floor eye level with it. If I keep those blinds closed and just clean the surface everything looks fine.

God reminded me how true this is in our own lives when it comes to our relationship with him. Sometimes we do this on purpose. We don't spend time with God because we don't want God to point out things in our lives. Things he wants to grow us in, or things He may want to teach us that maybe we don't think we're ready for.

So we keep things hidden. We keep our relationship with Him at arms length instead of having it open handed to him at all times.

But God in his grace wants us to know how much he loves us and longs to be with us. Sure, there may be moments where God really wants to reveal himself to us and teach us something. And there may be other moments where we just need to sit in his presence and not be afraid. Just be still. Just hear from him.

But all this starts with our willing heart and opening the blinds.

Opening his words Opening our mouths in prayer and worship to him. 

God is justly, and a loving God all at the same time. I invite you today to not only seek him but be willing to expose even the most deepest parts of yourself to him. He already knows them because he created you. However there's a significance in surrender, in us coming to Him. 

This is how we grow in Him and how he gives us strength. What are some areas of your life today that you're keeping hidden from God? What are some areas where you'd like to grow in with God's help?

I invite you today to spend some time in His word, in prayer today over these things and allow him to reveal himself to you. 

That Friend You Have, She Can't Be Your Everything.

That friend you have she wasn't made to be your everything. She can't replace your relationship with Jesus and she can't fill a void only Jesus can. 

I know you want her to be able to walk through every season with you. 

I know you want to spend every moment of free time you have together. 

I know you want to have meaningful conversations and break through the small talk. 

One of the biggest mistakes I've made in friendship is thinking that all friends are created equal and just just aren't. Just as all people are not the same, they don't have the same response or likes as everyone. 

Because God made us all different. 

Maybe that friend you have is only going to walk through a season with you.

Maybe she's only going to call you on the weekends.

Maybe she's not going to call at all and needs a little extra nudge from you. 

I've wanted deep relationships with people who just didn't have the ability to go there.

I've wanted them to care about me the way I care about them, and they just didn't. 

One of the biggest lessons God has taught me is that that friend I have or that friendship I am trying hard to build she can't be my everything. 

She can't replace my relationship with Him. 

I've gotten into trouble, I've been hurt and offended trying to make this friend be something she can't be, give something she can't give.

Instead the Lord is teaching me, while friendship is valuable, building community is His heart, you can't put your everything into one person.

I have friendships that I go really deep with and we talk about everything, we share our sorrows and our dreams with each other.

I have other friendships that are fun and silly, they aren't deep but they fill a different friendship need and that's ok.

What I am learning is to be thankful for the friendships he has placed in my life. I'm learning to be present where he has me and who he has me with. 

I'm learning to lay down the areas of friendship to him and not put so much pressure on this person to fulfill needs only Jesus can. 

It has taken me a while to get to this place, a while to realize the mistakes and pressures I was putting on myself and others.

If you're struggling with friendships today, I encourage you to consider this today; 

Consider asking Jesus to show you the areas of friendship your struggling with. The people you are struggling with. 

Asking yourself; do they encourage my relationship with Christ? Do they make me want to be better? 

Do they point me towards the cross? Do I have an unhealthy relationship with them and an unhealthy expectation of them?

I know that friendships at times can seem lonely and hard at times, but may we consider in those seasons to draw closer to the Lord and remember that he can heal and he can bring restoration to even the most difficult relationships.

"Greater love has no one that this, they he lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13

Jesus did this for us. He was the ultimate friend. 

God has taught me to focus on the quality and not the quantity. I am thankful today for a handful of really great friends God has placed in my life. But here's the truth and I hope you catch this; they are all so different. Not one of them the same. I have different relationships with each of them, but they all mean something to me in my life. They all make up different parts of my life and God uses them in different was in my life. 

And that is ok. That is good. That is God's faithfulness to me in friendships. 

HOPE For the Father Less on Father's Day

I know in your heart and mind you probably hate this day. You probably cringe when you see it creeping up on the calendar. Maybe you panic a little inside because you don't know how this day is going to make you feel year after year. 

Maybe you cry a little inside when you see images of fathers and daughters all over your social media or hear that fluffy sermon at church that you feel that you just can't relate to. 

Maybe you just forget this day is happening and just stay inside all day. 

Maybe your father left when you were young. 

Maybe your parents divorced and you haven't seen him in years.

Maybe he broke your trust. 

Maybe he just plain wasn't there for you and your relationship has been strained for years. 

Maybe he died and you miss him so much it hurts and this day is just a reminder he isn't with you.

I know you. I see you, because I've been there. I've felt all those emotions you're feeling. But, more than any of those feelings here's what I know;

I know there is a God that loves me and YOU! I know there is a God who cares about you so much he created you and knows every hair on your head. (Matt. 10:30)

I believe God's word when he says that He's a Father to the Fatherless. (Psalm 68:5)

I know this to be true in my own life.

I know that Jesus came and he died for you and for me to bring us hope beyond all this. To give us the ability to forgive in situations when we need to and bring complete healing when we need it.

You might be reading this and feel that all that I've said is nieve or silly. God has shown me over the years that this perspective is his protection and covering over me. God wants to offer us so much more than what the world wants to tell us about how this day can make us feel or should feel. 

In God there is hope through Jesus. 

For most of my life my birth father was not in my life. He was not a man I knew well, or trusted. He caused hurt, pain and confusion during seasons of my life. I came to know the Lord early on in my life and I know that it was the Lord's protection and provision that he gave me a Godly perspective to come back to time and time again when I felt lost, hurt and afraid. 

That didn't always make life easy, that didn't mean those feelings magically went away but what it did give me what Hope.

Hope that I didn't have to be defined by my father's actions. 

Hope that I didn't have to live a life of depression, or rejection.

Hope that I didn't have to feel sorry for myself.

Hope from bitterness and confusion.

Hope that I could celebrate others and be involved in life events and not feel bad that I didn't have the same as my friends, neighbors, co-workes, etc. 

Hope that even though I did not have a biological father in my life, God gave me and blessed me with amazing step-father's, a great Grandfather to be a Godly example, awesome Uncles who loved me as their own. 

God offered me his love. 

So, when this day rolls around year after year I know that I am not Fatherless. I know that I have a God and Savior who loves me and cares for me so much that he died for me. (John 3:16)

I want to encourage you today to rest on that. To pray on that. If you don't already know that I invite you to call on his name and His Holy Spirit will meet your right where you are today. 

On Speaking Things Out Loud

I'm a planner by nature. Most all my life I've had a certain idea of how I was going to do things. There were things in my life that I planned the time line of events and exactly in my mind how they would play out. I'm a dreamer too. 

I write down dreams, ideas and things that I know God is speaking to me. I think there are seasons where we need to patiently seek the Lord for his wisdom, for his plans and not out own. Those seasons where you just sit and wait. Seasons where you take it all in because you know God is doing something in you and you want to be ready. 

There's a time and place for all that. But I don't think that God has called us to just sit on those things he's speaking to you on. He wants you to actively seek him. Put forth action to the things he's called you to. 

I think there is much to be said about putting action to our faith. Stepping out in faith when things are scary and speaking things out loud that the Lord is telling us. Speaking them out loud with out fear of rejection or that someone would give us the stink eye look and tell us we're crazy. 

Because here's the thing, sometimes God wants you to speak things out loud in order to confirm what he's already telling you. 

A couple weeks ago I finally blurted out to a close friend all that God has been speaking to me these last few months. Telling her some big time plans the Lord was doing in my family. And you know what she said to me after I told her everything?!?

"Of coarse you are, that's such a natural fit for you and your family."

Just like that. She wasn't surprised by what I was telling her. In fact she was confirming all that God has been telling me, all that God has been doing in my heart. To my friend for me to tell her this transition my family was about to embark upon what the most natural God called thing that we could be doing. 

We can't be afraid to speak things out loud that God is calling us to. We want to hold it all in because it's scary or can be overwhelming. Or sometimes we don't want to speak it out loud because we're afraid what if "it isn't God." I think God stirs in us the things that we need to speak out loud on, the things we need to step out in faith on and let him do the rest. 

Speaking things out loud also makes you accountable to what God's telling you. It also allows the people that are close to you, the people God's placed in your life to agree with you in prayer about. 

So ponder those things in your heart that God has laid there, but also be brave and speak them out loud and let God confirm or deny. He hasn't forgotten about your dreams, he cares about them more than you could ever know. 

Papia Family Adoption Fundraiser

Today is a very special blog post, I get to introduce you to a family that is near to my family's heart. Jessie is a friend of mine from college, who just happened to meet and fall in love with one of my Husband's really good friends. You know that moment when two people you love start dating each other, it's like the most perfect thing and you're just excited that you all get to be friends forever. This is one of those stories. I love their story, and I love how God has used them and how he's called them. 

Jessie is one of my oldest friends. She was in my wedding, and my husband and I were in theirs. We were pregnant together with our first babies, and have promised them in marriage to one another...... I kid. Sorta.

She has walked through some of the toughest times in life with me, and I am proud and very lucky to call her friend. 

Jimmy and my husband went through a discipleship program together called Master's Commission, they were also college roommates. This friendship runs deep. 

I invite you to watch this quick video, and hear their hearts. 

They are called to adopt from the country of Haiti and have been in the adoption process since early last year. When Jessie first told me of their adoption plans, I was thrilled for them. Admittedly at the time I really didn't know that much about the adoption process, but their family  has taken all of us on a journey with them. I found myself cheering for my friend as I would with any other life event. Praying for them, and asking the Lord how I could help. God is so clear in his word about taking care of widows and orphans. 

I know adoption is huge calling, one maybe everyone won't have. However just because you aren't called to go through the adoption process and bring a child into your home doesn't mean we aren't called to care for orphans. Because I love the Lord and my desire is to further his Kingdom, I am called to care for orphans and help those who do. God revealed this to me one day during my prayer time. 

Over the last few months I've been praying and asking God for a way to help. Here's what he put on my heart; to use my social influence and my blogging connections for an auction. So that's what I ran with. 

I've put together an auction with 20+ amazing shop owners, 100% of the proceeds with go to the Papia family.

This auction will take place February 25th at noon (mountain time) and run through Friday noon. On my Instagram account, follow me at @andreamworley if you aren't already. You will have a chance to bid on many items during that time frame. Winners will be announced and invoiced. 

I would love for you to share this with your friends, family, co-workers and anyone you wish. Help me spread the word about this wonderful family and this auction to help them. If you are a shop and are interested in donating please email me by Feb. 22nd andreaworley@live.com