Happy #SuperBlenders Thursday! We're feeling a little bittersweet today: bummed to submit the final Super Blenders post, but SO excited to present to you one of the best.

Emily Mills, co-CEO of ministry Jesus Said Love, took the time to chat with us this morning, and we are blown away! Emily channels her passion and heavenly gifting into a ministry, marriage, family, and leading worship. It is clear after reading her answers to these questions that her heart is so simply to love Jesus and the people around her with depth and genuineness. We are honored that she would share with us today, and can't wait for you to glean from what she has learned! 

What does blending your life mean to you?

Blending my life sounds like a smoothie that not many people would want to drink...but I'm in love with it and it tastes so good to me. Mornings are my fresh and cohesive thinking time. Afternoons are meetings and errands and then picking up kids (I do my best to pick them up everyday because they are at their chattiest). Evenings. Oh my gosh. The homework, dinner, bedtime routine - that's where I start to melt...because that's also when everyone is getting off work and decides to start blowing up my phone. We have had to learn to "Talk More Tech Less" as my friend Dawn Wible has encouraged us...it's essential to put down the phones and computers for a bit in order to truly connect at the end of the day.

As a mom of three in really different life stages, founder and co-CEO of a ministry with my husband, worship leader/songwriter and dabbling in small business enterprises - balance had a connotation that made me want to throw up. I heard this "Super Blender" Christina Crenshaw talk about blending over balancing but I needed to dig into this idea for myself.

Turns out, I've had balance all wrong. Rather than trying to make different elements become equal (kids vs. work, marriage time vs. me time, dreaming vs. doing) I simply needed to have different elements in the correct proportions. "Blending" or balancing in the way God intended looks like Matthew 6:33: "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things (the things the Father totally knows we NEED!...see previous verses) will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself." Easy to say, hard to live...unless my mind is set on heaven.

What has been hard about blending?

So here's what's hard: I want to experience it all. I want to be at everything, especially for my family. Last year, I missed my youngest son’s end of the year play in preschool because I was asked to go on my oldest daughter’s class trip as a chaperone. How do you choose??

I have had to miss tournaments here and there and my husband and I have had to divide up dance recitals. When it's really tight we call in the grandparents for reinforcement or even our cheering squad staff to bring flowers to the school and celebrate the kiddos. It is a team effort for sure with lots of LOVE! The hardest thing is, hands down, knowing what to put first. This takes deep down centeredness and resolve. But it also takes listening to the hearts of our kids. I listen, watch and pray ... like, "Jesus you gotta show me" prayers. He reveals. My kids reveal. It's unfair to place my passion and pace onto others, including my kids. They didn't choose me, but I did choose to have them. So I am responsible for stewarding and shepherding them. So what's hard is listening close and putting down unnecessary things so that WHEN they decide to talk - I am all ears.

[caption id="attachment_5393" align="aligncenter" width="672"] Emily and her husband, Brett[/caption]

What are some of the biggest things you’ve learned in this process?

So, I am learning:

1. "Ruthlessly prioritize" ("Lean In" by Sheryl Sandberg has a great word on this) but I see this truth first in Matthew. The model of prioritizing ruthlessly means that if it's not Kingdom driven, if it's not what God has asked me to say "yes" to, then I pull back. Good is the enemy of great. I want the best OUT of life, not just the best things IN this life...but the best things in the one to come. This means risking failure and enduring criticism...I don't give those two things a lot of thought. The older I get, the more I get to know God and His love for me, the less hold fear has. If I look over my life I can look at it in terms of R.O.I.- I have had better returns on my investments in the Kingdom than ANY other endeavor. I have have horrible to zero returns on the investments I made into fear of failure or fear of criticism. They crush creativity, and we are made in the image of creator God.

2. Rely on God's capacity and not your own. It's CRAZY what God can do with a surrendered life. Brett and I have been the worst at downplaying our gifts. We would continually say, "we don't know what we're doing, we're JUST musicians who started living out the Gospel in strip clubs!" And while this sounds minimal, it also minimizes a GREAT God who knows EXACTLY what He's doing with the gifts, strengths, and talents He forged in us throughout our life experiences. If we truly understood the limitlessness of God, and that He is infinite… then we wouldn't doubt His ability to strengthen us where and when we are weak. I am overwhelmed at what God is doing in and around me; I love being in over my head!

3. Self Care - When we rely on His limitlessness, it gets REALLY easy to let go and take care of ourselves! Most of the time, we get these two ideas backwards. The lie is "because God is limitless, then I am too. I don't need any breaks, I have to hold this whole thing together."  The truth is "because God is limitless, then I am only limitless when abiding in Him. I can take a break, take a breath, and watch GOD hold this all together."

What would you say to others that are learning to blend their lives?

1.To any moms working - dig deep with your kids, be present over perfect, be vulnerable with them, with what you are struggling with (appropriately so). Ask them their opinions, wade through the murky waters of unknowns. Their depth is astounding, their humor contagious and their resiliency ... astounding! Invite them into your calling.
2. Looking upward IS looking inward. What God desires to show you is not external, but internal. Christ in you is stunning and displayed differently through you than any other person on earth! Take time to know Christ in you, gratifying is an understatement. Your blend is different than your sisters’, and it's time for us to get comfortable with that.

Check out Emily and Brett's website HERE to see more of what Jesus Said Love is up to and about! We're assured that you will leave stirred for what God is doing here and how you can be a part!