Real Life, Real Faith, Real God
Life gets real—fast. Some days feel heavier than others, and sometimes it can seem like God isn’t concerned about our everyday lives. But He cares about every detail—and He’s speaking through our everyday moments.
Real Life, Real Faith, Real God with Tracy Glass brings 5 -10 minute devotional conversations where Scripture meets real life. In each short episode you can expect a scripture to help you hear God above the noise, a real-life reflection for hope and clarity, and a simple step to partner with God today.
Create a daily rhythm of meeting with God—begin your day in His presence, rest there, and trade your hurry for His peace. Build a short, rich, consistent quiet time that feeds your soul for the day. You’re not alone; God is with you in every detail.
Real Life, Real Faith, Real God
Restored & Ready Part 5:Steps to Heal, Grow, and Prepare Your Heart to Love Again
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You don’t have to stay stuck in heartbreak—you can heal, grow, and prepare your heart to love again.
In this final episode of Real Life Real Faith Real God, we walk through five powerful, faith-based stages that will help you move forward with clarity, confidence, and peace.
In this episode:
● The stages of emotional and spiritual healing
● How to open your heart again with wisdom
● What it looks like to trust God’s protection
● How to prepare for a healthy, aligned relationship
Whether you’re considering dating again or simply want to feel whole again, this episode will help you take your next step forward.
✨ Free Gift for You
Start your healing journey with my “Restored and Ready” guide:
👉 https://bit.ly/4cjjhYF
Life gets real fast. Some days feel heavier than others, and sometimes it can seem like God isn't concerned about our everyday lives. But He cares about every detail-and He's speaking through our everyday moments.
Real Life, Real Faith, Real God with Tracy Glass brings 5 -10 minute devotional conversations where Scripture meets real life. In each short episode, you can expect a scripture to help you hear God above the noise, a real-life reflection for hope and clarity, and a simple step to partner with God today.
Create a daily rhythm of meeting with God-begin your day in His presence, rest there, and trade your hurry for His peace. Build a short, rich, consistent quiet time that feeds your soul for the day. You're not alone; God is with you in every detail. Find out more about Tracy and plug into all her resources at TracyGlassCoaching.com.
Hey there, I'm Tracy. This is real life, real faith, real God. You're in the right place to get real. Real about life, real about your faith, and real with God. This is your moment to pause, take a deep breath, and stop pretending everything's fine if it isn't. Because God can handle your truth. He's not looking for perfect, he's looking for present. So whether you're feeling strong in your faith or struggling to hold on, you're not alone. Let's meet with him, just as we are right here, right now. Welcome back, everyone, to real life, real faith, real god. And I'm your host, Tracy Glass. And this is episode five of our series, Restored and Ready. And in this final episode, we're going to talk about the five stages I use to heal, grow, and to prepare my heart to love again. And so this episode is entitled Steps to Heal, Grow, and Prepare Your Heart to Love Again. And as a reminder, where have we gone on this journey? Well, in episode one, we talked about the pain of heartbreak. Episode two, we talked about questions of readiness to guard your heart. Episode three, we talked about the real process of healing. And episode four, we talked about not pretending that our brokenness never happened. And so today, again, I want to jump right into the five stages to guard and to grow your heart. And again, these are the stages that I use to heal, to grow, and to prepare my heart to love again. All right. So stage one, in the process of making a decision to date or even pursue a relationship, I call this the meet and greet or observation over infatuation phase. In this stage, you're more focused on meeting people and not about romance. It's more about awareness. It's learning to listen before leaping. And even before you open your heart, you're listening. You're listening to the person. You're listening to your emotions. And more importantly, you're listening to the Holy Spirit. James 1:19 reminds us to be quick to listen and slow to speak. In this phase, you want to listen more than you share. All right. So stage two of the process that I went through to guard my heart before dating again and to prepare my heart for dating again is the friendship stage. Friendship stage is connection before chemistry. Healthy love always begins with healthy friendships. Before sparks, there must be substance in a relationship. Ask yourself this question can we laugh and pray and serve together? Friendship reveals character more than romance ever will. Proverbs 1717 reminds us of friend loves at all times. At this phase, friendship reveals what feelings often hide. The third stage is exclusively dating. So there's clarity before commitment. So in this phase, you don't assume you're in an exclusive relationship until it's clearly discussed. A man should express his desires to date you exclusively. And he should be ready to guard your heart in the process. If you notice red flags or feel unsettled, pause. Don't ignore what you are sensing. Let the man lead this conversation. You can communicate your intentions and values, but remember what scripture says he who finds a wife finds a good thing. It's not our job as women to chase or define something God hasn't confirmed. When clarity comes, peace always follows. So be honest about your faith, your values, and the direction you're headed. Boundaries protect your peace. And honest communication builds trust. Remember, clarity equals peace. The fourth stage is courting and engagement, purpose before passion. In this stage, the focus shifts from feelings to foundation. You're beginning to dream about life together and talk about the future. This is where the deeper conversations happen, the real, honest ones about pet peeves, little irritations, and how you'll handle challenges together. Everything should be on the table. No secrets, no pretending. Invite mentors, friends into your journey, pray together and allow God to shape your vision as a couple. If he's not at the center, the foundation won't last. And Psalms 127:1 reminds us: unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. And the last phase when you're ready to love again and you're pursuing the process is marriage. And this is the covenant. So true love isn't just a story, it's a covenant. It's not about erasing the past, but redeeming it. And when God writes your love story, peace will confirm what emotions cannot. And Revelation 21:5 reminds us that He makes all things new. So those are the five stages that you would want to walk through before you make a decision to marry somebody, and you don't want to skip a stage. And I want to remind you of those stages. All right. The first stage is meet and greet. The second is friendship. The third is exclusively dating. The fourth is a courtship. And the fifth is marriage. And so in closing, there will always be the question what if I get hurt again? What if I open up and it doesn't work out? And the truth is, love will always carry a level of risks. But when your heart is anchored in God, you're not walking into love empty-handed. You're walking in covered, guarded, and guided. And if you do get hurt again, you won't fall apart because you're not the same woman that you once were. You're healed, you've grown, you've learned. And so I want to encourage everybody that you can love again without losing yourself. You can be the woman that God has designed you to be. You can love from a place of overflow and not emptiness. You can love again and not betray yourself. You can love again and still keep your identity, values, and other things intact. And so I just want to encourage you that if that is your desire, God is with you. And even if it's not your desire, maybe your desire is that I don't want to love again, but I just want to be healed. Totally 100% healed. And that's perfectly fine as well. God knows your heart and He knows what is best for you. And so I want to encourage you to continue to trust the Lord in this process. He is with you. Let's pray. God, thank you for walking us through our pain. Thank you for healing our wounds. Thank you for guarding our hearts and help us trust you as we open our hearts again. Help us walk with wisdom and peace. Prepare us, Lord, to love again. And whether that be through a new relationship or through the peace you give inside of us, Lord, we are open to whatever you see fit. God, heal our hearts. Let us be whole. Help our faith to be strong. And we want to remind you, Lord, that we trust you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Well, thank you for joining me on this journey. And remember that guarding your heart doesn't mean closing it off, it means just walking forward with God's wisdom and his love. I also want to remind you to head to the description of this episode to download the free guide restored and ready. God bless you and thank you so much for joining me today. Bye. Thanks for taking a few moments to meet with God today. I pray this moment reminded you that you're not alone, you're not forgotten, and you don't have to carry it on. Whatever real looks like for you right now, there is a real faith and a real God walking with you in. Until next time, keep showing up, keep being honest, and keep trusting the one who never lives.