Cultivate Relationships

Cultivate Relationships We exist to encourage and equip people to live relationally healed, whole, and discipled in Jesus.

Why spend years dreaming about and caring for something if there is so much risk involved?Why even try?Fear has that abi...
08/28/2026

Why spend years dreaming about and caring for something if there is so much risk involved?

Why even try?

Fear has that ability.

It steals hope.

It steals creativity.

It steals dreams.

And it paralyzes us with the question, “Why am I even attempting this?”

In the end, I decided that if I wanted roses, I would have to make peace with the risk.

And if the worst happened…

I could always plant another rose.

I couldn’t let fear become the driver of my dreams.

Fear assumes a non-redemptive future.

To put it simply, everything we fear is a projection of the future that leaves Christ out of the story.

-Lacey

From: Lessons from the Garden: Plant the Roses

https://cultivaterelationships.com/2-minute-blog/20260727/

One thing I’m learning through recovery is that bringing something into the light doesn’t mean you immediately understan...
08/25/2026

One thing I’m learning through recovery is that bringing something into the light doesn’t mean you immediately understand everything that was underneath it.

Over the past six months, I’ve had to face things about myself, my choices, and the damage I caused that I either didn’t recognize before or wasn’t willing to honestly acknowledge. And even after everything initially came out, the uncovering didn’t stop.

It has felt more like a domino effect.

One realization exposes another. One difficult conversation reveals something else that needs attention. And sometimes what I thought was the problem turns out to be connected to something much deeper.

That process isn’t comfortable… at all.

But I’m learning that we can’t experience freedom from something we’re unwilling (or afraid) to honestly face and see.

-Nathan

From: God Couldn't Heal What I Was Hiding

https://cultivaterelationships.com/2-minute-blog/20260824/

Until this year, I felt guilty dedicating large portions of my garden to flowers.They didn’t seem practical.Like I wasn’...
08/21/2026

Until this year, I felt guilty dedicating large portions of my garden to flowers.

They didn’t seem practical.

Like I wasn’t allowed to grow something for the sheer purpose of beauty.

What is that?

How did I arrive at that conclusion? That my time in the garden and the resources I spent on it had to produce something practical. Maybe it’s my German heritage.

Or maybe it was simply the familiar lie of performance rearing its head once again. Somewhere along the way, I started believing that the Lord would only be pleased with me if my time and effort always produced something useful.

Yet wasn’t He the One who created flowers simply to be enjoyed?

Because I belong to Him, I don’t have to earn flowers.

Neither do you.

Your life and your value are not measured by what you can produce.

That work has already been finished.

-Lacey

From: Permission to Plant the Flowers

https://cultivaterelationships.com/2-minute-blog/20260720/

Years ago, I had much more to say than I do these days. My voice has been seemingly hushed by the majestic as well as th...
08/18/2026

Years ago, I had much more to say than I do these days. My voice has been seemingly hushed by the majestic as well as the horrific.

My teenage scribbled thoughts and overly dramatic prose are still part of my legacy. But the passionate fire that fueled me in high school has burned itself up, and with it, all the chaff that it contained.

What's left is just me.

And I think I'm trying to decide if I still have something to say.

I don't know yet if I do. But lately, I've started wondering if that's the wrong question.

Maybe writing was never supposed to begin with knowing what I had to say. Maybe it began with paying attention.

And maybe that's what I'm learning to do again.

-Lacey

From: I Used to Have More to Say

https://cultivaterelationships.com/2-minute-blog/20260817/

Nothing around me had changed.I had.Or more specifically, my lenses had.I think we all walk through life wearing lenses....
08/14/2026

Nothing around me had changed.

I had.

Or more specifically, my lenses had.

I think we all walk through life wearing lenses. Some were formed in childhood. Some came through rejection, loss, betrayal, or disappointment. Others came from moments we barely remember.

And without realizing it, we begin interpreting everything through them.

Someone leaves, and the lens says: Everyone leaves.

Someone rejects us, and the lens says: There must be something wrong with me.

Someone we trusted hurts us, and the lens says: People aren’t safe.

-Lacey

From: What If the Way You See It Isn’t the Truth?

https://cultivaterelationships.com/2-minute-blog/20260810/

No one enjoys preparing for the cold seasons of life.Yet my winter garden book assures me that beauty can be found there...
08/08/2026

No one enjoys preparing for the cold seasons of life.

Yet my winter garden book assures me that beauty can be found there.

In the stillness and the pause of winter, life is still present.

My own winter season has been taking place internally for quite a while now.

Yet the structure I have built into my own winter garden provides relief.

A safe place to wait while the darkness lingers.

For me, the evergreens look like this:

• Prayer
• Worship
• Journaling
• Rest
• Grieving
• Honest conversations with close friends
• Making time for things that bring me joy

These are the evergreens that uphold my winter garden. They slow everything down to the rhythm of winter. They help me accept the reality of the season instead of pretending it isn’t here.

-Lacey
From: Planting Evergreens for Winter
https://cultivaterelationships.com/2-minute-blog/20260713/

But I do know that we, as humans, hate to fail. Especially when we feel like we have done everything we knew to do. When...
08/06/2026

But I do know that we, as humans, hate to fail. Especially when we feel like we have done everything we knew to do. When we have given it our all and still come up empty. That kind of experience doesn’t just make us question our decisions; it makes us question our identity and our value.

These failures whisper to us, "You are not enough."

Sometimes our passion and our love turn out not to be enough.

And that is devastating.

But maybe the greater truth is this: We were never meant to be enough. We were never meant to possess all the wisdom we would need.

But in that moment, when we discover that we are indeed lacking, the question we have to ask is this:

Is that a judgment... or is it relief?

- Lacey

From: Why I Stopped Buying Purple Roses
https://cultivaterelationships.com/2-minute-blog/20260706/

08/04/2026

I Thought I Was Free... I Was Wrong

What if freedom isn't just about stopping a behavior? Nathan shares how one conversation completely changed his understanding of recovery, honesty, and what it really means to be free.

Watch the full conversation:
https://cultivaterelationships.com/shoot-the-breeze/stb163/

Address

Burnet, TX

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Cultivate Relationships posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category