The 3 Circles: How this Could Change Everything in your Life

2024-01-08T01:12:38+00:00Identity, Relationships|

We’ve covered a lot of ground over the previous three blog posts regarding The 3 Circles. Obviously, we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. But the big question is, what have we learned? Here’s a quick breakdown … “When we accept what Jesus did for us on the cross, He gives us our identity as a person. We can now have a relationship with God, which He desires from us! And when we do that, we can live out our purpose in life.”   God’s heart is for His creation, His people, to have a heart that is free to live. He wants us to live free. [...]

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The 3 Circles: Relationship and Purpose

2024-01-08T01:12:38+00:00Identity, Relationships, Uncategorized|

To continue our conversation about The Father’s Heart this week, we will dive into the next two circles — Experience His Presence (Relationship) and Release His Kingdom (Purpose). Quick Recap of The Father's Heart!   The 3 Circles represent The Father’s Heart, which helps us understand who we are, who God is, and what we were created to do. As we’ve discussed over the previous two posts, there is a very specific way we should proceed through these circles. The gospel message, and God’s Heart for each of us, starts with “Receiving His Grace” - Identity, and moves us to “Experience His Presence” -Relationship, and we “Release His Kingdom” -Purpose in [...]

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The 3 Circles: Receive His Grace — Identity

2024-01-08T01:12:39+00:00Identity, Relationships|

Last week, we introduced The 3 Circles, an understanding of the gospel and God’s desire for us helps us understand who we are, who God is, and what we were created to do. And just like anything else, we must find the right starting point to make it all work. But that’s just the thing … where do we start? If you look at the image below, there are three intersecting rings (Receive His Grace, Experience His Presence, and Release His Kingdom). It’s not like we’re opening a book to Page 1, right? Any one of them can be the starting point. So should we just start with our purpose, [...]

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The 3 Circles: Who I Am, Who God Is, and What I’m Created to Do

2024-01-08T01:12:39+00:00Identity, Relationships|

“What’s my purpose in life?” “What am I here for?” “Who am I?” Have you heard these questions from someone before or even asked them yourself? I think we all reflect on these sometimes.  We will answer these using The Three Circles. My church uses an illustration called The Father’s Heart that helps us gain a better understanding of who we are, who God is, and what we were created to do. And at the risk of sounding partial, it’s really awesome! Susan and I believe it clearly portrays our true identity, but at the same time, the reality of how too often we incorrectly think about ourselves and view [...]

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Understanding The Father’s Heart

2024-01-08T01:13:07+00:00Identity, Relationships|

Following up on our blog from last week on prayer, Susan and I wanted to share a powerful lesson from Valley Creek Church called The Father’s Heart. So many times, couples forget who they are and get caught up in what they have TO DO and what God wants them TO DO that they begin to lose sight of their identity and purpose. In other words, who they are, and who they have been created to be. This visual below and the script that goes with it are a great way of reminding us that we shouldn’t be thinking in terms of “earning” our way into God’s presence or in [...]

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How the best “me” still makes the best “us.”

2024-01-08T01:13:49+00:00Identity|

There’s this misconception among couples where one or both think they must give up their individuality (i.e. differentiation) to be together. Even if they don’t believe that to be true, they struggle with the idea that two beings becoming one can still remain two. “It’s not about me,” they think. “It’s about the relationship. How do I not lose myself and still be good to my partner and make the relationship good?” You can be you but still be y’all. In fact, being the best me makes the best us. Giving up your individuality to be together is as defeating in the long run as giving up your relationship to [...]

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Is my Self-Focus Hurting my Marriage?

2024-01-08T01:15:02+00:00Identity|

There’s so much focus today on meeting our own needs and wants that it’s easy to get wrapped up in making sure that I’m taken care of.  Most people I know wouldn’t tell me they are self-centered, but it creeps into my life and self-centeredness can get out of balance in a hurry.  It’s a struggle to keep stability between self and self-centered.  Just what are differences and similarities of my “self?” Self-Centered We can all struggle with making everything about “me” and how it effects “my” life. So, let’s look at some of the characteristics of being self-centered. I talk about myself all the time and exaggerate about how [...]

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Pathways to Emotional Denial or Emotional Health

2024-01-08T01:15:06+00:00Emotion, Identity|

Just the other day, I was wondering how I go from “something happening” to “getting mad”, at warp speed.  Do you ever feel this way?  Made me want to explore this lightening speed emotional roller coaster so maybe I could prevent saying or doing things that I regret later. So, I went to my immediate expert – Mike Dawson to talk about how this happens in our human brains and how, perhaps, understanding the process might help keep my foot out of my mouth… Mike explained the way the brain process works this way.  First you have an event, something that happens, then you think about how you’ll react to [...]

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9 Key Characteristics to Good Mental Health

2024-01-08T01:16:51+00:00Identity, Mental Health|

We often get asked questions like, “Is there a checklist for good mental health?” or “How do I know if I’m more on the mentally healthy side or if I’m a little crazy?” These questions are usually asked during a high-stress time in someone’s life; when things feel out of control, and they aren’t feeling confident about the way they are viewing the stuff going on around them. Maybe you’re in the middle of a separation or divorce Perhaps a close friend or relative moved to another state or country and you miss them You may be relocating all your belongings (home or office) from one place to another which [...]

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Could Changing the Way You Talk about Fear, Change Your Belief about Who you ARE?

2024-01-08T01:16:57+00:00Fear, Identity|

“I have fear.” There’s a common mistranslation that causes us trouble. We say, “I am afraid,” as if the fear IS us, forever. We don’t say, “I am a fever” or “I am a sore foot.” NO, in those cases, we acknowledge that it’s a temporary condition, something we have, at least for now, but won’t have forever. “Right now, I have fear about launching this project,” is quite different from, “I’m afraid.” The blog above, by Author and Blogger Seth Godin [Read Blog] caused me to really think about how I talk about myself. I find it compelling because I have used or heard these phrases used many times [...]

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