Candidly Christian

Real Women. Real Life. Real Faith.

Heather Hart

About Heather Hart

Heather Hart is an internationally best-selling and award-winning author with an unquenchable passion for Jesus. Life with four fun-filled teens doesn’t always provide the quiet atmosphere her introverted personality and chronic migraines crave, but she loves them all like crazy and the gospel is a balm for her soul. Heather’s hope is that, while she is struggling through this thing called life, she is pointing others towards Jesus along the way.

Summer Stress

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This summer I have been pretty short fused when it comes to my children. I work from home, so during the school year I have eight hours a day all to myself. That’s eight hours of quiet time. Eight hours where I decide how to spend my time.

Queue the end of the school year and all that comes to a screeching halt. My husband still leaves for work at the same time every day, but instead of leaving a short while later to take the kids to school, they are already up and rearing to go.

I don’t know about your kids, but my kids are full of questions. Like millions of them. Often times it’s the same questions over and over again because they either forgot what I said, or they didn’t like my original answer.

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New Eyes & Excessive Worry

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I was born with retinoblastoma.

So was my son.

It’s a rare type of cancer where tumors grow on the retina of your eye. If it’s left untreated, the tumors can travel down the optic nerve into the brain, causing death. Thus, we both lost our right eyes before our first birthdays and have prosthetics.

Growing up with a prosthetic eye was a little awkward. Okay, it’s still awkward to have one eye. I may or may not walk into doors on occasion. But what was really awkward was getting a new prosthetic.

Yes, I have a new eye. (No, I can’t see any better.)

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Living in Light of the Gospel

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We walk by faith, not by sight.

2 Corinthians 5:7 (ESV)

If you’re anything like me, when you read the words, “Living In Light of the Gospel” you think about sharing your faith. You think about all the lost people of the world who need to know Jesus, but I’m coming to find that it means so much more than that. Yes, sharing our faith is part of it, but it’s not the whole.

Years ago, I was introduced to the idea that the gospel wasn’t just for the unsaved… it wasn’t a onetime thing, but an everyday thing. That realization was life-changing. The love and forgiveness of Christ isn’t something that we ever stop needing.

Tethered to Jesus

When I think about living a holy life, the gospel is where I start. It’s there for when I fail. It’s there for when I’m feeling down.

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Whitewashed Christianity

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I walked into church Easter morning feeling more like a whitewashed tomb than a temple of the Living God.

Have you ever felt like that?

Pretty on the outside, but just full of junk on the inside?

It seems like the older I get, the less I enjoy holidays. Going to church on Sunday is just what we do. It felt pretty normal. Sure, we ate breakfast with our church family, and the kids had an egg hunt. Our pastor preached about the resurrection. But all in all, it felt like a pretty normal day.

Which made me feel even worse on the inside.

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Hope For When You Feel Like Giving Up On Life

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I was ready to give up. My head hurts so bad. I started counting the cost. Not just the cost, but the worth.

I begged the hospital staff to let me go because my family needed me. But then I got home and my head hurt so bad I couldn’t get out of bed. I was useless. Sure, they loved me and were happy to see me, but I wasn’t needed. And it’s a good thing I wasn’t.

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How to Trust in Jesus When Everything is Falling Apart

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Have you ever wondered how to trust in Jesus when everything is falling apart? Sometimes we cling to Him when the going gets tough, and sometimes we wonder how things got so far out of control. That’s where this week found me. I’ve been trying to memorize Psalm 62:2 for the past couple of days, and I think Satan took it as a challenge. It says, “{God} alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress, I shall not be greatly shaken” (ESV).

Let me back up a little bit for you though.

Last week I attended a women’s conference that stirred something deep within me. A longing to know Jesus more. Not to just live for Him, but to walk with Him. So, when I came home, I stumbled across Psalm 62:2 in my morning quiet time and clung to it. Everything was going great… until today.

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Faith, Fat, & Fitness

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Disclosure: This post contains sponsored and affiliate links

I have gained seventy pounds since my 30th birthday.

Seventy. Pounds.

That doubled my pants size.

Literally.

After the first thirty or forty pounds, my doctor assured me it was normal for women in their thirties. Not that that made me feel any better.

In fact, the more weight I have gained, the more discontent I have become.

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Point to Jesus

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A new year is upon us. It’s full of new possibilities and new life. The old is gone and the new has come. It’s a new day.

The past few years have been full of new challenges for our family, but one thing has been abundantly clear: God can use any situation, no matter how painful or unexpected, for His glory and our blessing.

God can use any situation, no matter how painful or unexpected, for His glory and our blessing. #ThankYouJesus Click To Tweet

I am not one to dwell on the past, but that’s one life lesson I want to take with me into the new year.

I never want to forget how God blessed our socks off when I was in the hospital. Or how our church family stepped up time and again to fill needs, sometimes before we even realized they were there. Through all the pain and waiting and everything else we went through, we never doubted God’s goodness. Not even for a moment.

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It’s Okay To Be Mary In A World Full Of Martha’s

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Housekeeping is not my forte.

It never has been.

I have friends who are household rock stars. They are the perfect embodiment of the Proverbs 31 woman. But I am not that woman.

Back when I was a single mom with just one child, I could keep up pretty good… most of the time.

Let’s face it, there wasn’t much to keep up with.

However, I still remember the time we went to my mom’s for the weekend and I forgot to take the trash out before we left. That wasn’t pleasant.

But now I am married and the mother of four. I could clean 24 hours a day and probably still not keep up. I tried for a while. And then I gave up.

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Hope For When You Feel Emotionally Alone

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Do you ever feel like you have no one to talk to? Like no one could possibly understand what you are going through or how you are feeling? That’s where I’ve been this week.

There are things going on that I simply can’t discuss on the internet. Not because I don’t want to be candid, trust me I do, but because it really isn’t my information to share. Yet the feelings it leaves me with are very real.

Have you ever been there?

Have you ever wanted more than anything to talk to someone who could understand where you are at, yet not known who that was?

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