LARA CASEY ("My Messy Story")

LARA CASEY (Author, CEO of CultivateWhatMatters.com) shares her personal life story with Pastor Tom. ---------------------------------------    MORE FROM LARA: Lara's Website Lara's Books can be found on her website! Lara's Podcast   MORE FROM PASTOR TOM:  24Today.org TomWhitesel.com 24TODAY Facebook 24TODAY PODCAST     EPISODE SPONSOR: Kendra Dahlstrom Website Kendra's Special Offer PROMO CODE: MYGIFT ---------------------------------- SHOW NOTES: (All quotes from Lara Casey, unless otherwise noted).   “We think… I’ve messed up so much in my life, there’s no way the Lord could use me for something good.”   “God can take all those broken pieces and make them into something marvelous.”    [we feel] we have to rise to some standard that somebody made up (which is usually us)… [these standards] wrap up into who we are SUPPOSED to be…"   “What if you made a list of dreams as a kid… and had to stick to to that list no matter what? You weren’t allowed to switch course of change your paths… in that case… I’d be a very unhappy archaeologist right now… and I wouldn’t have met Ari. I’m so glad that my path did not follow a linear path… it was more of a zigzag.”   “… And I said to God… why can’t I be perfect? Why can’t I have my emotions in check all the time? And He says back to me, 'cause you wouldn’t need me. If you were perfect you would not need me.’”   “…Sometimes you have to shut one door before another one even opens…”   [speaking of her Grandpa Cecil… Lara says]… “He was someone that did not have big accomplishments to speak of. I mean, he had nothing on paper. If you were to ask him of his proudest accomplishment in life… he without a doubt would say being married to his wife Celeste. There was something about [Grandpa] Cecil that left an impression on all of us. And it was in that moment of realizing… wow, I want that. Where did that humility come from? And that really pushed me to think about the big picture of my life. Am I going in that direction? Is this career really leading me in that way? And the answer was no. Sometimes when you have a jarring experience… a tipping point… IT GIVES YOU AN OPPORTUNITY TO PIVOT.”   “You can have weeds in your garden and still have flowers.”   [Pastor Tom] - “Whatever it is that you are going through, that you can’t stand, that you don’t think you can face this one more day… just know that someday, you will be through it.”   “My work became my worth… “I had to prove to everybody that I was enough. I felt like I had created this new identify for myself, and I’m worth it. And I had to maintain that in my head.”   [speaking about women] - "The thing that matters most to us (in the big picture) typically circles around relationships.”   “When we focus so much on what didn’t go well, we miss what did go well. When we are focused on the imperfection of our lives or in our hearts or in our character, we miss the Author and Perfecter of our faith."   “I have struggled more in writing this paragraph than any in this book. This isn’t pretty to type or remember. But it happened. My marriage crumbled. It happened so fast. Like the hurricane that tore through our town. We lacked the firm foundation that only God could solidity. I remember the day that I sat in the courthouse to finalize our divorce. Less than a year after our wedding and my dad telling me how disappointed he was and my mom crying… … In sharing my failure and what followed, I hope it will help you know what I know now… Your past and your mistakes… they do not define you.”   “Feel the FEAR and do it anyway,” (Michael DeMaria - therapist)   “What we fear as humans [is that] even in the privacy of our closet, as we are there just exposed and vulnerable with the Lord… that that will mean we are weak. And we equate weakness with a lack of worth. And I know that’s not true now, but that’s what I felt. I felt like if I feel broken, that must be I AM BROKEN. If I feel WEAK or sad, that must mean that I am weak… We know that’s not true. We can feel a lot of things. But our feelings don’t define us.”     MORE of Lara’s Quotes: “You get to change your mind if you want to.”   “It’s ok to grow slow. In fact it’s good.”   “When we only focus on the finish line (or on perfect outcomes), we miss all the life that happens along the way. We miss potentially better outcomes.”   “Little by little progress adds up, and in the wait, we are ripened and readied.”   “Trust that what you want to cultivate matters enough to allow it to grow over time. It matters enough to fall down seven times and get up eight.”   ”Your mess can become your message.”