From Nichole’s Heart 🩷

I somehow turned 37 today, although I'm not sure how that happened, because I still feel like I just graduated high school. Running out those doors with big plans and no idea what God was going to do with my life. If I could go back and tell my teenage self one thing, it would be this: the best is yet to come.

God interrupted the plans I thought were going to be so great with something so much bigger, and so much more impactful to my heart, than I ever could have dreamed up. Since that first step 13 years ago, when I knew God was calling me to start Dear Heart, it has required so much courage. So many doubting days. So many hard decisions where I'd catch myself asking, "What's the worst that could happen?" That was always a rabbit hole I never wanted to go down… we all know where it leads. So I'd stop myself, tell God I was trusting Him, and say yes. To the scary things.

Over the years, my question has shifted from fear to expectancy.

Of course the fear isn't gone. It still creeps in and tries to take hold when I step back and look at the enormity of what Dear Heart has become- 70 employees, a big warehouse, a storefront. I wasn't educated to run this. I wasn't trained for it. It's all been built on hope and a new question:

What's the best that could happen?

And God has been faithful with every step I take, even when I have no idea what's coming next. Every time we hit a wall in this business, I hand Him that question immediately.

We need more space.

He provides for it.

We need a person to fill a role.

He provides the perfect person.

We need a miracle for an employee.

He provides the miracle.

We need a solution for keeping up.

He provides the perfect pathway.

His plans ARE the best that could happen.

So for my birthday, I want to ask you for one thing: shift your gaze. Start trusting Him to do what He says He will do.

And my current "What's the best that could happen"?

That somehow this letter makes you bold in your faith. Bold enough to take the step that brings someone to know Jesus. Whether that's simply wearing a shirt that starts the conversation, or striking one up on your own.

Because how can the lost hear if they are not told? How can they know Him if we do not share? (Romans 10:14)

So that's it. That's all I'm hoping for this year- that you'd start asking the better question, and then watch what He does with it.

Thirteen years in, and I haven’t been able to out-dream Him. And I know, and am so grateful, that I never will.