Every single one of us has incredible gifts. We are born with purpose, talent, and inherent goodness that God wants us to put out into the world. However sometimes we let that potential get road blocked by our insecurity at what others might think or say about us when we succeed. If you need a little encouragement to take your gifts out of hiding and proudly display them for God to use, tune into this week’s episode where we tackle the topic of walking boldly in our purpose.

We're going to be the hardest workers we can be. We're going to, we're going to say yes to the opportunities God has handed us.

We're going to take the gifts he's given us and we are going to use them like, we're going to come out of the gate and we're going to get in the game and we're going to do our best and we're not going to let other people make us feel terrible about it.

Welcome to the Collide Podcast. We're a growing community of everyday chicks colliding with Jesus in our mess, our pain, our joy, and our stories.

We value showing up as we truly are, so that's what you'll find here. Walls and masks being torn down so that we can allow Jesus to meet us where we truly are and hear about other women doing the same.

We can't wait to collide with you.

Welcome to the Collide Podcast. I'm Willow Weston, the founder and director of Collide and I'm so glad that you tuned in today.

I don't know where you're tuning in from, but here where I'm at in Bellingham, Washington, we're in the upper left part of the United States near the Canadian border and the place is covered in snow. And it's unusual this time of year that we have as much snow as we have. And I'm cracking up because schools canceled.

People are just like parking their cars on the side of the road and ditching out because they're freaked out about driving in the snow. People are getting out their 20 year old cross country skis.

The newscasters, the weather forecasters are, you know, on TV right now and they're measuring snow with rulers. And it's so funny because it seems like we're all just looking for an excuse to do nothing, right?

To binge watch on Netflix and drink hot chocolate and go sledding with our kids and say, I can't make it into work.

I know I've been driving around the last few days and as soon as you get onto a main road, the roads are fine, but everybody just wants to chill and have fun and play in this white stuff and put off work and responsibility. And I totally get that.

But I was thinking about this and all this snow and I was remembering growing up as a kid and I grew up in eastern Washington and there was a ton of snow every winter and we lived in it and we, we, it was our life. My mom and I used to have to get up in the night and go down with blow dryers and blow dry our pipes so that they wouldn't freeze.

And one winter we went to Indonesia and came back and our entire deck had fallen off of the house because there was so much snow. And it was super common for our cars as a kid to be covered in snow. And you just walk everywhere in this little town.

And so I grew up, you know, so used to snow, learned how to drive in the snow.

And when my mom and I went to get Christmas trees as a kid, we would literally cross country ski out in a forest, chop down a tree, tie it to a rope, tie that rope around our waist and cross country ski and pull that tree out of there. So snow to me is something I'm used to.

But I was thinking this past week, as I've had time to frolic in the snow and have everything kind of stop, that there used to be this game that I would play as a kid called King of the Mountain.

And the game was basically because in eastern Washington, in my little town of Rosslyn, because we had so much snow, the snowplows would come through and you know, on a daily, weekly basis, the snow piles would just get ginormous on the side of the roads. And we would play a game where all the kids would try to be king of the mountain.

And king of the mountain was the kid on the top of the mountain who pushed everybody else down who tried to get to the top. And it turned into this crazy, reckless wrestling match with lots of smack talk. And you know, I loved playing king of the mountain.

I loved being king of the mountain, right? You get your moon boots out and your, your snow pants and you just go for it.

And then you reign at the top and you have bragging rights and you're like, I'm king of the mountain, who wants to take me? And people try to take you and you push them down and you know, that's all fun and games when you're a kid.

But this past year, both of my kids had an experience where they were, they were experiencing some success in an area of their life, both of them at the same time. And they were both having something happen that, that was interesting. My son was experiencing, experiencing success.

And he had this older classman who kept whispering in his ear, trying to tear him down and tell him that the success that Aiden was experiencing was his experience and that Aiden sucked and that Aiden wouldn't make it and that this kid was going to get his spot. And this kept happening day in and day out for Weeks in and weeks out, and he was opening up about it.

At the same time, Bella was experiencing success and was invited into another level in her sport.

And someone who wasn't invited to move up in another level in that sport had a very hard time and kind of created this scenario with other girls and created drama around Bella's success. And I found myself navigating this as a parent and walking through this experience with both of them.

And finally one day, I have to tell you that I just decided to go off. Like, I. It was, like, time to preach a sermon. And I sat both kids down and I said, enough is enough.

Like, we're gonna have a conversation about how to deal with ourselves here.

Because I could see both of my kids doing what I think we often do, which is they were almost trying to dim down their success, or Aiden was almost giving in and gonna let this older classman take his spot because he didn't want to deal with this person tearing him down. And Bella was starting to do the same thing and almost become ashamed of what she was good at. And I think we often do that as adults.

I think when we have experienced success or we've gotten a promotion or we've landed the job, or we got the internship or got accepted into the school, or we got asked out by the boy that all the girls wanted to date, whatever it is. I think when we experience success, so often other people can't handle it.

They don't want to celebrate with us, and so they might begin to tear us down, or they might begin to gossip about us because they're envious or make our life difficult at work. And so often we then retreat. We almost become ashamed or we hide what we're good at. And so I sat down with my kids and talked to them about this.

And I said, first of all, you need to take captive every opportunity you've been given. And the same thing is true for you.

Whatever opportunity God puts in your path, whatever gift he's given you, whatever talent you've been made to use, don't let another person take that away from you. You were made to experience those opportunities. You were made to use those gifts. You were made to use those talents to bless and impact the world.

And the last thing you should do is retreat from that because someone else wishes that they had what you do. And then I said, and a lot of you won't like this, but it's true.

I said this because I got so worked up, because I could see my kids and they were giving in, and they Were going to no longer try to be good at the things they're good at because other people wanted to tear them down and make them feel terrible about it. And I said, no, you're going to kick ass and take names. And what I mean is, like, we're going to be the hardest workers we can be. We're going to.

We're going to say yes to the opportunities God has handed us. We're gonna take the gifts he's given us, and we are going to use them.

Like, we're gonna come out of the gate and we're gonna get in the game and we're gonna do our best, and we're not gonna let other people make us feel terrible about it. But at the same time, I said, we have got to be people who are humble. Jesus should be inviting us to the best seat.

You don't walk around, and I told my kids this, and I'll tell you this, but we don't walk around and brag about our gifts, brag about our successes, brag about our talents.

We don't walk around and boast and make other people feel terrible if they don't have those same opportunities or have success currently, or maybe they don't know what their gifts are. We. We don't boast about those things. We're called to be humble.

And I sat and told my kids about the story where Jesus talks about getting invited to the table. And Jesus says, you don't sit at the best seat at the table next to the host. No, you sit at the lowest seat.

And when the host calls you up to sit next to him, there's nothing better. But you know what is terrible? When the host asks you to go sit at the lowest seat.

And so I encourage my kids, and I want to encourage us today that any success that we have, that any opportunity we get given, we should be humble about those things, not boasting or bragging. Scripture talks about that all the time, that we should carry ourselves in a humble manner.

So when people are tearing us down, it doesn't mean that we brag about ourselves. We still will sit at the lowest table.

But if a coach or a boss or someone with power, the host, invites us to sit at a higher seat, Jesus talks about how blessed are we, but we do it with humility. We say yes to our opportunities and successes with humility. And we carry ourselves. I told them, carry yourself with strength and grace.

The strength pieces is stand up for yourself, defend your reputation, defend your honor, have dignity, advocate on your behalf. If someone's trying to tear you down and take the spot that is yours.

Have the strength to not let them tear you down and steal that which is yours, that which you've worked for. But at the same time, have grace see past these people's behavior. We talked a lot about that. Aiden and I had a conversation about that.

And we talked about this kid and his home life and the terrible grief that he suffered and the pain that he's gone through in the last few years. And we recognize we have to see past people's behavior and know the why. This kid is just longing to be seen as important on the team.

This kid wants to know he matters. He wants to know that he's coming out for the sport and that he belongs. And I encourage my kids. You have to look at this as a wounded collision.

When someone else has a hard time celebrating your gifts and your successes and your talents and your opportunities, it's because they are insecure that they won't have those same things. This is a wounded collision.

You have someone who's struggling to believe in their own self worth and they're colliding with you at just this perfect time where you've been given an opportunity or success so you can carry strength and grace at the same time when someone's trying to take from you what is yours. But I encourage my kids in this and I'll encourage us. Success doesn't come from knocking other people down.

Success comes from building other people up.

In real life, we're not supposed to be gaining power and title and status and opportunities and success from playing king of the mountain and pushing other people off the mountain, disadvantaging others so we can advantage ourselves. No, real success does not come from knocking people down. Real success comes from building other people up.

You know you're truly successful when you're humble and your success and confidence are founded in God and the opportunities that he's given you. And you've been faithful to those opportunities, but you're not intimidated nor threatened by other people's success. In fact, you want it.

When we're all successful, when we all have been given opportunities, when we're all using our gifts and talents, the world is a better place.

So how can we begin to operate in our life where we don't think that success means that we have to knock other people down, but we start to look at our own success and define it by how much we're building other people up.

So my encouragement to Aiden and Bella is the same as my encouragement is to us, which is how can I every single day show up on the field, show up to work, show up to home, show up in my friendships and build other people up? That's our important work. Because this is real life. I told the kids. It's not just when you're a teenager on a sports team.

It's not just in high school. The truth is, is we have a really hard time celebrating when other people are celebrating. Right?

And I talked about this recently in the podcast with Kristin Madalo when she talked about envy and how hard it is to celebrate with those who celebrate and when you're mourning. And yet scripture says celebrate with those who celebrate and mourn with those who mourn. And we're called to do both together.

Our seasons won't always be in sync. And so we've got to figure out, how do I celebrate for you when I'm mourning for me? Or how do I mourn for you while I celebrate for me?

So my encouragement today is that you wouldn't shy away from what you're good at. That you wouldn't hide your talents.

That you wouldn't be afraid to admit that you've been given opportunity or you're experiencing success or you got the promotion or your sales have gone through the roof. Don't shy away from being able to celebrate what is going well in your life because other people feel intimidated by that.

Take captive every opportunity, but be humble about it. Wait to be invited to the most important seat. Don't be the guy or the girl that put yourself there. Carry yourself with strength and grace, friends.

Strength.

Where you advocate for yourself, where you defend yourself, where you won't be pushed around, but also where you have grace for those who are trying to take what is yours. And know again that success does not come from knocking other people down, but by building other people up.

I hope this word of encouragement meets you where you're at today. Whether you are in the sunny beaches of Florida, you're covered in snow in Alaska, or there's slush and rain all around you.

Again in the position Northwest. My hope is that we would all know that God wants to use us in this world to do amazing things. He's given each one of us gifts and talents.

He doesn't lack in opportunities and plans for us. No, he has a plan and a hope and a future for each one of us. And he's unique. Uniquely made you to do something awesome here on Earth.

So don't shy back. Don't let anyone hold you back. But when you're cresting that mountain. Bring others with you.

I hope you have a good week and we'll catch you next week. If you want to keep up with us, you can check us out on Instagram at We Collide and Facebook as We Collide in our website is wecollide.net and if you know that this podcast will encourage someone else, feel free to pass it on. We'll catch you next week.