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The Rooted Leader: Roots Before Reach · The Rooted Woman Podcast

• Courtney: Welcome to the Rooted Women Podcast, the place for Christian women who are ready to grow deeper in their faith, find freedom from the things keeping them stuck, and confidently walk in the calling God has placed on their lives. Here we're getting rooted in biblical truth, having honest conversations about real life, and learning what it looks like to actually live out our faith. I'm Courtney, your host, and I'm so glad you're here. Let's get rooted. my goodness, today is the day. What is the day? Are you asking? Some of you know, some of you may not, and that's okay. We're gonna go over it together. Number one, we're gonna start a new mini-series here, and I literally cannot wait. So stay tuned for that. We're gonna get started in just a minute. But before we do that, drum roll, please. Today is the day that the called to speak doors are open for registration. Okay. What is the call to speak summit, Courtney? I've heard you talk about it, but can you go into more details? You bet I can. Okay, so the Call to Speak Summit is an online conference for Christian women, not just Christian creators or Christian leaders, Christian women. Okay. If you are a daughter of the Most High King and you have read that you need to share with others your testimony, this is for you, okay? We're gonna go through five days of private podcast style content. with six other women, seven including myself. And you are going to learn and glean from these women. And I'm telling you, the nuggets that they share are pure gold. Okay. We're going to talk about how to share your message. If you have a testimony that you've been like, this part of my testimony I have been just burning to share. We're going to talk about that. We're going to talk about content creation. We're also going to talk about building behind the scenes and being okay with the season that you're in, but still stewarding that message well. So we are gonna have five days of content coming out plus a sixth day with a bonus episode. And then we're gonna go into a two-week challenge. Because if you resonate as a daughter of the Most High King, we don't just want information. We always want transformation. We want truth and application. We wanna go and do something with what we've been given. And that is why there is a challenge after. It is $47 two-day only. And then we'll be going up. To $67 for two days until doors close Sunday at 8 p.m. Central. Jump in, grab your seat. It's gonna be so good, and I cannot wait to see you on the inside. Now, you might be thinking, a new mini-series. Courtney, what are we doing? Well, let me tell you what we're gonna do. We are gonna be talking about the rooted leader. And I'm gonna tell you something right now. I am going to talk about verses that are for the leader who's already leading, and for the woman who is still in the healing process that feels like she wants to lead one day, but she knows she's not there yet, okay? Jeremiah 17, 7 through 8. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water that sends out its roots by the stream and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green and is not anxious in the year of drought. For it does not cease to bear fruit. This is very similar to my favorite verse, which is Psalm 13. He's like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither, and all that he does, he prospers. Now I want to follow these two verses up with Colossians two, six through seven. Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. I'm sharing these verses because these are for everybody as a believer. I am not only talking to women who are like, yep, in leadership already, really excited for this podcast and can't wait to get poured into so I can be a better leader. Love your heart, but also for the woman who's like, I would love to be a leader one day, but I know I'm not called upon right now and I don't feel equipped, and maybe I won't actually ever get there. These verses were not carved out for only certain people. The whole word of God was carved out for all of us to be able to learn from and glean from and grow from, right? So as we continue to plant ourselves in the word of God, we are also being prepared to lead in some capacity. Maybe leadership is in your home with your children. Maybe leadership is with a family member who's been lost and you guys are kind of doing this thing together, healing together. Maybe leadership looks like leading in a mom's ministry or women's ministry or stepping into a different calling. we all have a different story and circumstances, but we can all lean into this message and become a better leader if we have roots first. Okay. Roots overreach. Repeat it with me. Roots overreach, right? I want deep roots before I want wide reach. I would love to reach more people because more people saved and more people in the kingdom of heaven. Like, yes, let's make heaven crowded. I am for it. Okay, but if I am not rooted. Before I am ever excited about the outward reach and touching other people's lives or touching even one person's life, okay? I am fearful, absolutely fearful, as you should be too, of hearing away from me. I never knew you. That stings me more than the thought of not reaching enough people. So I want to be rooted. I don't just want to be a leader who's like, yep, okay, did you know my one verse and I'm moving on to the next thing and I'm gonna live the rest of my day out of my flesh and with fleshly responses. And I am not saying you have to be perfect, okay? There are many days that my Sunday morning does not look like my bathtime routine with the kids at Tuesday at 7 p.m. I am not perfect. I am not thinking that any leader is perfect because if I am correct, the only perfect one is the Lord. So none of us need perfection to be able to move into what God is asking us to do. But we do need to be rooted. We need to be rooted. We need to be fully known by the Lord. We need to be repentant. We need to be repentant. And we need to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit leading and guiding and convicting. In our lives so that we can be constantly course corrected by the Lord and be a better leader because of it. If I'm like, my faith is really good, now I'm gonna step into leadership and just leave my faith stagnant at where it's at. No, we should always be growing as leaders, okay? So if you're in the place where you're like not qualified to lead yet, you probably are being prepared to lead because God calls on the not qualified, right? And he qualifies the people that he calls. And we hear that, and I know it sounds cliche, but it's in the Bible. Okay, read the stories and you will see it. He's not looking for perfect people. He's looking for surrendered people. He's looking for rooted people, people that want to grow closer to him, that believe in who he is and that he is who he says he is, right? And that his word is true. And that he sent his son to die for our sins so that we don't have to be perfect, but that we can continue to magnify his name because of what he's done. Because we are called once we recognize that, right? To live out a life on mission for him. I know it feels like I'm rambling, but I'm getting somewhere. I'm getting somewhere, okay. I want to really highlight one thing that I say to women all the time. All the time. This can be when I'm talking to women who want to start a business, when I'm talking to women who are just mothering at home and are struggling. when I talk to women who are in leadership, something that I always say is you lead out of who you are. You lead out of who you are. And it might sting a little bit. Because I know, I said, I'm not always perfect. And that stings me too, right? I would love to be able to be the best version of myself all the time. And that's just not the world that we live in. And that's okay. But I want to be there. And that's my heart is to be there. Not to be who I think that people want me to be. And not for you to be who you think that people want you to be. And not the highlight reel version of you. Okay. Who you are. when no one's around or when you're just with your kids or when your kids are finally asleep or when you get time alone, what do you do? Who are you? Because that will bleed into everything else that you do. Whatever is your or I should say whatever is in your root system is going to show up in the fruit that is grown. If your roots are drinking from approval, your leadership will also chase approval. If your roots are drinking from fear, you will lead out of a place of fear. Okay. You'll overthink every single thing that you do. You'll second guess every word that you speak, and you will quit the second that you feel like you cannot do it. If your roots are drinking from comparison, then you're gonna spend more time watching somebody else than doing the thing that God has called you to do in the lane that he has you in. I I'm passionate about this, can you tell? Okay. Think about the tree. The tree is blessed because its trust is in the Lord, not in its own ability, right? So if we trust in the Lord and we grow our roots deep there, what more can come out of the things that we do a as leaders in leadership in any capacity? Okay. And I'll be honest with you, there have been seasons where like I was showing up and on the outside look like I had it all together, but underneath I was pulling from my own strength and even my own need for validation are to be seen. And that came out in the way that I was leading or the way that I came home from leading and was short with my kids. and again, we we can lead and be in a place where we're not perfect. And I'm not asking every single area of anybody's lives to be perfect to be able to be a leader. But we should always be recognizing that. And I recognized it in myself. And I wanted better for myself. And I wanted to be who I said I was all the time. And I was working on it, but I was just still healing. And there's grace for that. There's grace for that. Okay. The question isn't am I good enough? The question is Who am I becoming when nobody is watching? Because if I was okay with being snappy with my kids or leaning into postpartum, you know, whatever feelings I had, then I'm not gonna grow from that, right? And I I'm gonna sit in that place and it might even get worse. But if I'm like, okay, when nobody's watching, I'm seeking the Lord because I wanna grow in this area and I wanna be better in this area and I know I can't do it on my own and I'm surrendering, that is what's going to show up, even if you're not Perfect because again, you won't be. And so people will see that as a leader, you are pursuing him and they will hear your testimony of how you messed up on Monday morning, right? And they will resonate with it. But then they will see your model and your example of how you turn back to him and it will encourage them to do the same thing. And that's what leadership really is all about, pointing people back to the foot of the cross. I also want to say hidden seasons are for root building. Okay. Some of you are in that right now. You feel like you are called to something, but you also feel like you're pulled back. And you're folding laundry and you wonder, like, did God forget about me? Am I where I'm supposed to be? How come I have this dream in my heart? I think about it all the time. There are no opportunities right now, or the opportunity that I was supposed to have didn't work out. And you ponder these things, right? And you think about it. And sometimes it makes you feel like you have missed the mark or you are missing out on what God is doing. But he did not forget you. He is building roots in you. And here's what's wild about most trees. Most of the growth that happens is underground, right? You cannot see it. And the roots go down before the branches go up or out. And the deeper the roots, the more the tree can handle when the heat comes, when the storm comes. And we've talked about that here before because this is so important to me. My goodness, it's so important to me. And our personal walks as leaders. And I needed to start here because again, we are all, if we are in that season where we want to be. Deeply rooted, we can all be being built up as leaders, right? Jeremiah says the rooted tree does not fear when the heat comes and is not anxious in the year of drought. It doesn't say that the heat will not come, right? Heat will come in your life. Hard times will come in your life. Your poor responses will pop out. The old version of you will sometimes come to the forefront and how you respond or react about something. But hidden seasons are for continuing to work these things out to build the roots and then to go and do what's next. And some of you may have been leaders for a while before and are being pulled back right now. God is just strengthening your roots. He's tending to the root system. He's caring for the tree that is you. And when he releases you to go back out, the fruit is gonna be so good. Think about David. He was anointed king and then sent right back to the sheep field. Years in the field, years of writing songs that nobody heard, fighting lions that nobody saw. But this is the coolest part to me. Is that this is where he was learning to really put his trust in God and to put his eyes on God. So that when Goliath showed up, he already knew who he was standing on. He was standing on the solid rock, on the Lord, right? And he was given the strength that he needed. And he didn't have to second guess that because he was being built up behind the scenes. Your hidden season will not be wasted. The quiet prayers that you have while you're folding laundry or washing dishes will not be wasted. The faithfulness, God sees your faithfulness and the small things, it will not be wasted. The way that you show up for your family when nobody is cheering you on or seeing it or validating you, that will not be wasted. That is root work. Okay, don't rush out of the season that is making you into, I guess, the person to be able to carry what is coming in the future. then we're gonna talk about one more thing. Fruit is the byproduct of roots and not something that we need to strive for. I have tried before to strive my way out of healing or out of growing or out of being built up and it just doesn't work. It it just doesn't work. Have you ever seen like an apple tree that they've got like the wire around it and the there's like the pole so that so it doesn't lean over, right? Okay. Because it's struggling, baby, to like get rooted in the source and to have that soil and the roots deeply built there and it is like leaning to the side and we want to save it and we wanna help it because we want that tree to grow good fruit. That tree can still go on to be a great tree to produce great apples. It just needed a little bit of help as it was in its growing season. And I think that we need to recognize that and see that the Lord does the work. The Lord does the work. He is our helpmate, Holy Spirit is our helpmate. Just like that tree needed a little bit of help. You need to lean on the Lord. And when we are leaning on the Lord, the good fruit will come because we have put in the work with him and not on our own. If a tree that is leaning over didn't have the wire and didn't have the pole, it would keep growing, leaned over, its root system wouldn't be stable and steady. And when the wind came and you know a big stor storm comes through, guess what's gonna happen? That tree's gonna be toppled over and toppled over in no time. Jesus talks about in John 15, 5, I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I am him. in him he is it that bears much fruit for apart from me you can do nothing so much of what we chase as women who want to make an impact right we all want to make an impact we want to make an impact on our family we want to impact people that we serve in our community we want to make an impact on our children want to impact our friends we want to be good people we want to do good things we want to achieve right that's just something that we have inside of us but none of these things are bad. I'm gonna say that. But when we chase the fruit, we become so exhausted. We become so exhausted. And this is the heart behind everything that I'm building right now on any part of social media, that we don't want to just like strive, strive, strive so that we're in survival mode, or strive, strive, strive so that we reach what, a finish line of being a leader? Like there's no finish line. There's no race. There's no comparison. When God is building you up and when he's sending you out to lead, It there is no comparison. Your gift set and your talents that you carry are going to impact the people that God has set out for you to impact. And there are people that don't even know you yet, that haven't even heard you speak, that don't know your testimony, that are gonna be so grateful when they meet you because they've been praying to hear something like what you've gone through. And when they hear you and and hear your message, they're gonna have renewed hope that they've been longing for. God has a purpose for every single one of us. And when we lean into him and we don't strive, we can walk in that purpose with so much fruit and impact and reach. And again, who wouldn't want to reach more people? Who wouldn't want to have bigger impact? I want to make a giant splash for the kingdom. But if it means my roots wither and eventually I hear away from you, I never knew you, I don't just want good works on the outside. I want good fruit because of the good root system that I have with the Father. So just think about that. Think about that because we're going to go into practical steps to grow as a leader as we continue through the five series or five episodes of the mini-series. So I just want to give this to you because this is a great foundation to think about. And again, we've talked about this in a non-leadership way. So I wanted to bring this back and talk about it as leaders. Because again, even if you're not in leadership or if you've been pulled back, the same things we've talked about from getting out of survival mode can be the very same things that we look at to grow as leaders. Because why would God Want us to stay in survival mode? He wouldn't. He's gonna help us out of it. And when we get out of it, why would God want us to be stagnant and not lead and impact people? He wouldn't. He would want us to share our testimony, right? So name what roots you are drawing from. Okay. I want to ask a couple of questions. When you feel empty, what do you reach for? Is it the Lord, your Bible, your phone, prayer, worship, somebody else's approval, phone call to a friend? What do you reach for? And then how do you measure your worth? Is it by how much you lead, how busy your schedule is? What does that look like for you? Write it down. And do you feel like you are striving right now in in the season that you are in? And why are you striving? Like what is the end goal of what you're working towards? Okay, then from those three questions, you'll be able to say, right now, my roots are drawing from blank. now don't stay there. I want you to write down the vision of even by the end of a little mini series on a podcast, what type of person do you want to become? So right now my roots are drawing from blank. And then even right under that, by the end of this series, my roots will draw from blank. We always want to look forward at who we are becoming. Catch the vision that the Lord is giving you. Pray into it and then go after it. All right, let's wrap it up. So you lead out of who you are. Hidden seasons are root-building seasons, and we do not want to call them wasted seasons because they aren't and they won't be. And fruit is a byproduct of your roots and not something that you have to strive for. Now remember, I told you today is a very big day. If you heard this and you're like, I do have a message and I don't know how to share it, I want you to check out the Call to Speak Summit. Like I said, the doors are officially open. This is for Christian women who know that God has put something on your heart. A message in your life, a story, a calling, and you are ready to start using your voice in some capacity. even if it's building behind the scenes. As a reminder, for 24 hours only, it is $47. After that, it's going to go up to $67 and doors close on Sunday. So if something in today's episode stirred you up, if you felt that tug of I'm being rooted for something, this is the next step. I'm going to leave the link in the show notes. Grab your seat. and if now is not your season, that's okay too. Go and follow your action steps. Look at that statement that you you wrote out and look at. what you want change to become who God is calling you to become. If it's putting your phone down more, go and set up limits on your phone right now. Why would we say that we want it, but we don't actually put action to it? Go and set limits on your phone. Do whatever you need to do to take action today to become who God is calling you to become. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I just thank you for these women who are listening and I thank you, God, for the leaders who are rising up, Lord. man, God, you are just preparing the way and it is so evident. I see it all over. I hear it from others who are sharing their stories and who are are eager to get started, Lord. And I know that there are women who are listening thinking, Me, there's just absolutely no way. I'm not ready. I'm still healing. Lord, I think you have a different story for her. So I just pray, God, that you remove the lies of the enemy, that you remove the blinders that he's trying to put on her from being able to see the full vision of where you're bringing her into. And I just ask God that she can see exactly what you are doing. Lord, we don't have to see every single step. But God, when you give us the vision, it gives us renewed hope. God, and you tell us to look at the vision, right? To cast that vision. God, let her pray into it. Let her get excited about it. I just pray, Lord, that she can look at the things that she's reaching for, the way that she's coping, the way that maybe she's striving in this season, and release that at the foot of the cross today, Father, and begin putting action to the things that you are asking her to. The areas where she maybe feels convicted in. God, and that you will just help her to walk in her calling as the woman that you are calling her and growing her to be. Father, I just pray that we do not despise the humble beginnings, that we can celebrate where we're at right now. And we can also trust that we don't have to be perfect to lead and be led by a perfect God. We just thank you for who you are, for what you do, Lord. And we just give you all the praise and all the glory and all the honor in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. As always, thank you for tuning in. I will see you back here next week for this second episode in this mini series.