Have you ever had someone suggest you can’t do something you want to do?
I don’t mean you are a 4-year-old child and you want to touch the light socket and you can’t.
I don’t mean you’re 21 and you want to drink until you can’t see anymore because you are upset about a breakup and someone rightly tells you that you can’t.
I mean you wanted to be an art teacher and someone told you that you weren’t good enough or smart enough.
Or maybe you wanted to be a writer or a pastor or a church leader and someone told you – “Sorry. Not possible. You’re a mom/too young/too old/not Christian enough/not smart enough/not experienced enough. You can’t do that.”
I’ve been there.
I was told once that I should be happy and content to be a mother and only a mother. That was all I was meant to be. The idea I could be a professional photographer and a mother was ridiculous to this person. It turned out to be ridiculous to me as well since I had (have) no business sense and the business failed. That’s another matter for another day, though.
During that same conversation, I was told another friend of ours should also be content to be a mother and stop trying to find other jobs to do. Her identity was a mother. Period. That’s where God wanted her and me to be, this person said.
Oddly, though, this person was a mother and teaching art at a private school. Somehow, she could be two things in life but we were only allowed to be one. Not sure how that worked in her brain but . . it did.
I was very confused by that conversation. It never made sense to me. Maybe she thought she was encouraging us and I misunderstood the conversation.
What I do know is that we should do what we feel God has spoken over us, not what someone else says God has spoken over us.
The other person may be well-intentioned. They may very well feel God has told them something about you and they think it is the right thing to tell you.
My advice is to always check their suggestion with what you feel God has spoken over you.
Another friend recently told me she heard the words “put it down” when she thought about me. We both knew she was talking about how hard I’d been striving to grow my social media to promote my books. I felt that advice truly was an encouragement from God and took it is such. I started picking up a book more than my phone and began to feel less stress.
In his sermon this past Sunday, Pastor Steven Furtick of Elevation Church said, “What people say about you only has the power over you that you give it. If your father spoke something over you, it doesn’t matter what they say.”
This doesn’t mean that fellow Christians won’t confirm something to you that you feel God has been telling you. It also doesn’t mean that someone really did feel like God told them something about you and your life they think you should know. They may very well be right about that specific thing.
Double check it, though. Don’t just go with it because they said God told them.
Pastor Steven urged those listening to him to remember that it doesn’t matter what someone told you that you couldn’t be. It matters what God has always known you to be.
Furtick says he has to say often to himself, “Christ is in me. I am enough.”
That’s a hard one for me to say, but I’m going to try.
I don’t ever feel enough.
Even writing this blog post I have these constant thoughts running through my head:
“This is stupid.”
“This is going to offend someone.”
“I probably shouldn’t have brought up that story about the former friend. It makes her sound worse than she probably meant it even though it is something that still puzzles me.”
“I’m not good enough to write stuff like this.”
“Someone will probably read Steven Furtick’s name and tune me right out.”
We are never going to be perfect.
We are never going to get it all right all the time.
We are never going to please every person all of the time or even some of the time.
What we can do despite all of that is step into who God says we are – not who we or others say we are.
If we are taking a step that is wrong, God will correct us and turn us on the right path again.
In Jeremiah 1:5, God spoke to Jeremiah: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
This was a message for Jeremiah but it can also be a message for us. He knew before we were born what the purpose of our life was and what we are capable of.
Who are we to question what God has spoken over us?
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Pingback: Sweet Tea & Friend’s May 2025 Link Up | Grace Filled Moments
Happy May Lisa! Just popping back over to let you know I’ll be featuring your post at our Sweet Tea & Friend’s May Link Up.
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Lisa this is fantastic! So wonderfully spoken. I love this message. I get it and it makes sense to me. I love those “you too, I thought it was just me” moments. This isn’t offensive at all of. I feel there’s always someone out there who needs to hear our words. We may never know who they are and that’s okay, because God does.
Thanks bunches for sharing with Sweet Tea & Friends this month dear friend.
xo
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Interesting. I’ve really been thinking about matters of calling and such recently. My life has been turned upside-down over the last couple of years in particular, but one thing is the voice that seemed to constantly disapprove of everything I do is gone, and in that sense, a great burden has been lifted. But where to go from here? I started a conversation with the priest I’m seeing for Confession. It’s helpful. I don’t know if you have that sort of option where you are. A lot of it really entails courage. I hope yesterday’s post isn’t to muddled on that point, but it’s part of what’s been swirling in my head.
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Amen. Lisa, your witness speaks to many, one by one. Jesus calls us to His perfect light, where we can trust Him. Your pastor’s thoughts . . . Christ is in me. I am enough . . . stirs in my heart with its simplicity and faithfulness. The world around us sometimes can be suffocating with its endless voices. May you continue to find strength in the verse from Jeremiah.
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I am enough older than you to remember when there were only a few occupations open to women. The thing is I always knew I would be a teacher which was one of those occupations. The only question was when. Even then, for a time, men were the only ones considered for leadership roles. But, I also think women have been long considered “second class citizens” and are only truly made to be mothers and stay home. I was a stay at home mom for several years and loved most of those minutes (not going to say every single minute because I didn’t). Along with that conditioning to be a mother, I think there’s also a fair amount of conditioning to make us feel less than so that we remain in second class citizenry. I don’t mean this to sound political though it seems to be that way. I’m truly talking about the idea that women in power are that word that rhymes with witch while a man in power is just that…powerful. We have this weird dichotomy in our country where we say women are equal to men yet we take away the dignity of being a woman in a leadership role. I hope you understand what I’m trying to say here. I think it applies in the church as well. There was a Lutheran church in the county where I taught that forbade women from being voting members of the church. That meant, when they were talking about budgets, capital projects, calls to ministers, the women had no vote in the decision. Wow! I really went off on a tangent. I think, in a nutshell, what I’m trying to say is we sometimes are like crabs in a bucket. When one gets to the top, the others reach up and pull it back down. Unfortunately, I think that happens to women more than men. I don’t know what was in your friend’s heart, but I do find it weird that she was discouraging you from going outside the home. Perhaps, she was just projecting her desire onto you and your other friend. I try very hard to listen to God, but sometimes my hearing aids aren’t it (I don’t really wear any). And, then He has to shout so I hear what He’s saying.
I hope you can make some sense of this, Lisa! I hear you about the worrying about what you write in your blog because of the “what will they think” syndrome.
https://marshainthemiddle.com/
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Amen.
People will always have an opinion … based on their faulty outlook on situations. BUT Elohim already has the Plan for YOUR Life unfolding – and He didn’t ask for onlooker opinions 😉
Throughout my 67 years of life on this planet, words were spoken over me that never deviated (though spoken through different people, at different periods of my Life). And there was always someone stepping in and placing themselves in my way, muddying the waters. BUT …
And that’s the kicker: that {But …}; I held steady, never gave up, and September 23rd, 2023 that calling on my Life that has been spoken over me and confirmed many times over, finally came to pass 🙂
NEVER GIVE UP! Keep Elohim’s Word over you close to your heart, and always in your thoughts/prayers; hold the course; and watch what HE will DO for you in His timing 🙂
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Amen. This was a very timely post for me too. The verse from Jeremiah was crucial for me as a teenager, but along the way, there were lies spoken over me. I didn’t stop following God’s way for me, but I did tuck away hurtful thoughts about myself. Praise God for His truth that prevails!
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