a healed girl summer

Summer is right around the corner, and it is one of my favorite times of the year! Summer is a time to kick back and relax - a time for vacations, longer days, and even longer nights. Summer just screams bright colors, cookouts, good fun, good friends, and good photos! I look forward to the fun of summer every year!

But Summer also seems to be the time of the year where we tend to ourselves and our hearts the least. I heard this message yesterday about how easy it is for us to check out throughout the summer - how when we disconnect from the world, we sometimes have a tendency of also disconnecting from God. (I mean, nothing screams “fun” like processing big emotions at a cookout, right?)

I believe there's a lie that the enemy uses that continuously keeps us bound, and that is that our emotions are our enemies. They're inconvenient, they take up too much space, and they require more capacity than we have to give to them. We have grown to almost fear confronting the things that hurt so we just suppress our emotions. 

But I believe that the Lord is calling us away from the fears of our emotions. I believe that He wants to expand our capacity for them, and teach us how to address them [with Him] without letting them ruin us (or our day). Our negative emotions are not our enemy. They are simply an indicator that something needs to be healed within us.

Proverbs 4:23 (in The Passion Translation) says, “So above all, guard the affections of your heart, for they affect all that you are. Pay attention to the welfare of your innermost being, for from there flows the wellspring of life.”

In this verse, the word “heart” refers to your thoughts, emotions, and will. Gill’s Commentary says, “great diligence need be used in keeping [your heart], since it is naturally so deceitful and treacherous; a strict eye is to be kept upon it; all the avenues to it to be watched, that nothing hurtful enters, or evil comes out; it is to be kept by all manner of means that can be thought of, by prayer, hearing, reading, meditation; and, above all, by applying to Christ for his grace and Spirit to sanctify, preserve, and keep it.” 

It would seem, that outside of our relationship with God, our hearts are the most important things about us. 

So, then, why are we so afraid to confront what's in our own hearts? 

Psalm 139 says, ‘‘Lord, you know everything there is to know about me.

You perceive every movement of my heart and soul,

and you understand my every thought before it even enters my mind.’’ (The Passion Translation)

I LOVE this translation because it is saying that the Lord knows everything about me and you, and He immediately knows when something shifts in us. He is even aware enough to understand how that shift is going to affect how we think [and subsequently, act].

Maybe we're afraid to go down the rabbit hole because we're not quite ready to address what's there, but what if we did it with God? What if we really believed that He is patient with us, and will go at the pace we need to go? What if we believed that His grace really is sufficient and He's not rushing us along saying, “Hurry up! We keep addressing this SAME THING!”? What is we believed that He really is a safe place to be undone, and He's not going to share our business?

Well, He is all those things and more… if we allow Him to be. 

So, that’s where we’re going this summer. We can have a [holy] Hot Girl Summer AND we can have a Healed Girl Summer. Let’s have summers that are fun, and relaxing, and full of good fun, good friends, vacations, and celebrations! But let us also become women who are not afraid of our emotions, and have summers that are full of healthy, soft hearts.

Something to ponder… 

Each week, I will leave a question or two for you to ponder on with the Holy Spirit. You don’t have to strive, and you don’t have to make it hard. You don’t even have to figure it out by yourself. Ask the Holy Spirit for help. He’s a really great Helper.

 1. Holy Spirit, are there any lies that I believe about you or any of the Godhead that need correcting? Will you give me the courage and capacity to do the work of correcting the lies?

2. Holy Spirit, are there any lies that I believe about myself or my emotions that are holding me back from all that you have for me? Will you give me the courage and capacity to do the work of correcting the lies?

Something to worship to…

Something to save and savor…

Below are some core truths that I have posted in my home. I received this list from a retreat I went to a year ago, and I made a summer-themed graphic just for this!

Take time to print (or screenshot) these truths and be intentional about coming back to them. Speak and declare these things over yourself until they become the things you believe about God and about yourself.