When Your Heart Feels Off: A Mom’s Guide to Rerooting Your Gratitude

Have you ever woken up and felt… off?
Not thankful. Not grounded. Not yourself.

In this episode of Real Moms, Real Faith, we’re talking about what’s really happening when a mom’s heart loses its peace — and how God lovingly invites us to reroot ourselves in Him again.

Using the surprising example of the walking palm tree—a tree that literally grows new roots to move toward sunlight—we’ll explore how your heart can move too.
You don’t have to stay rooted in comparison, overwhelm, resentment, fear, or burnout. God gives you the ability to shift your roots toward what nourishes your soul.

Together we’ll look at Colossians 2:6–8 and unpack how being rooted in Christ leads to a life that is:

• Grounded
• Strengthened
• Built up
• And overflowing with thankfulness

If your gratitude feels low, your peace feels shaken, or your heart feels “off,” this episode will help you recognize the signs — and gently guide you back to the One who restores your joy and anchors your days.

Because Mama, where you root your heart today will shape how you live, love, and lead tomorrow.

Transcript

Welcome And Today’s Big Question

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This is Jenna Marie Masters with the Real Mom's Real Faith Podcast. I am so glad you're here so you can be encouraged to trust God with all the things one day at a time. Hey, welcome back to the podcast. Today we're going to be diving into something that has been just stirring in my heart in this season. And honestly, it's changed the way I've been looking at my everyday attitude.

Rooted In Christ And Thankfulness

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Colossians 2, 6 through 8 says, So then just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught and overflowing with thankfulness. And that word overflowing really caught me because some days, I just gotta be honest, I'm not overflowing with much of anything except maybe irritation or exhaustion, especially in the holiday season. I love that God reveals to us a clear indicator if we are rooted in Jesus. And that's if we're overflowing with thankfulness. This word rooted only pops up twice in the Bible. Now the word root is found often, but this word rooted only two times. It means to strengthen, it means to render firm, to fix, to establish, to cause a person or thing to be thoroughly grounded. So why does God choose this imagery of being rooted in him? I think there's a couple of really beautiful

Roots As Anchors And Strongholds Fall

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reasons. Number one, roots work as an anchor, a spiritual anchoring. Some roots go so deep, like there's this wild fig tree that can grow deeper than 390 feet. And we've all seen images after storms where houses are washed away. The trees who have really deep and wide roots are still standing. Roots are strong, they are determined. There are stories of roots that break through walls, causing ancient strongholds to come crumbling down. And when you think about this, if you've known someone before and after they have accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior, have you seen as they grow deeper in their relationship with Jesus, things that used to keep them from walking in the light or walking with Christ or walking in love? Those things start to crumble, don't they? Because roots can actually split through rocks if anything tries to get in their way. And yes, this takes time. It's a process. And if you feel like you're still hitting up a rock in your spiritual life, don't worry. It takes time. Be patient in your relationship with the Lord. There are things in my life that I never thought were going to break away. Even with how much I love Jesus, even with how much I try to get into the Word and try to live a life for Him, there are strongholds that have been over my life that I was shocked when they finally came crumbling down. But the longer I've been a believer and the longer I walk with Jesus and the deeper I go my relationship with him, the more strongholds and walls I see break apart and disassemble. And I'm in awe. And this all comes from choosing to be rooted in

Discernment And Toxic Root Systems

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him. The second reason I believe the Bible uses the imagery of root systems, roots can sense their environment. They know if they were living in depleted soil. Roots can feel if they're not being nourished. So why is this important? Because I believe that God has given us spiritual discernment. He lets us know if something is not right in our spiritual life. And I believe most moms here listening to this know if something feels off in their spirits. And we may not be aware of it right away. It might be we're going through the day and all of a sudden we're really short with our children, or we're just feeling heavy and we don't know why. That's because we have a root system from the Lord that can sense if we're rooted in something that is not good for us. I also find Deuteronomy 29, 18 really fascinating. It says this it says, make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the Lord or God to go and worship the gods of those nations. Make sure there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison. You know what this tells me? This tells me that we can even discern if there is a person in our life that is causing us to turn away from the Lord. If we are choosing to root ourselves next to another root that does not love Jesus, that's going to affect our spiritual life. And that's going to affect our hearts and our spirits and our words and our actions. Discernment. It's a gift. And the third thing about roots is what I find most interesting, and I think is what's going to be most impactful and helpful today to think

Stretching Roots Toward Nourishment

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about. In Jeremiah 17, 7 through 9, it says this: But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes. Its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit. That word sends out, it's a verb. And it literally means to stretch out and reach out. Roots are not stuck. They don't just sit in the dirt and hope for the best. They actually move toward nourishment. They reach toward water. They stretch toward sunlight. They lean into what gives them life. That means we get to choose that too. We get to choose where our roots are going to go and stretch and reach. There's even a tree called the walking palm, and it literally grows new roots so it can move itself into better light. It refuses to stay rooted in soil that won't sustain it. So think about this with me for a second. Roots can actually sense whether they're in the right environment. So can we. And what is one of the biggest indicators? Thankfulness. Colossian tells us that when we're rooted in Christ, our lives begin to overflow with thankfulness. So when the gratitude isn't flowing, when it feels forced or absent, it's actually a gentle red flag. It's like this little holy nudge, a signal that something in our root system needs attention. Now listen, you can be rooted in your salvation, fully believing you're forgiven and redeemed and held and forever because of the work of the cross. And I praise God for that. You can be rooted in your internal destination and confident that heaven is your home. But what are you being rooted in for your everyday disposition? We always talk about how Jesus secures our tomorrows, but what are you rooted in today in this morning's attitude, in this moment's reaction, in this season's mindset? Because just like roots can move towards what nourishes them, they can also grow away from what harms them. They can shift, they can relocate, they can seek out better soil, or they can move away from the root that is next to them that is not the good influence. Sometimes our roots slide almost without noticing into things like bitterness or into fear or into resentment, into complacency, into comparison. And this is not condemnation. This is an invitation, an invitation to ask God, Lord, help me shift towards the light, help me anchor myself and into places that nourish gratitude

A Mom’s Reset From Fear To Faith

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again. A couple weeks ago it came to my attention that one of my children is struggling in a subject at school. The next couple days, I was just in a really rotten mood. And I was taking it out on everybody around me. And of course, I'm working on this message. I had to stop myself and realize, like, something's off in me. Something's wrong. Why, why am I reacting this way? Why do I feel this heaviness? And just like roots, I had to stop and sense, I am rooted in something that is not nourishing me right now. And I had to ask God, like, what is it? What's going on with me? And he showed me I've been waking up every morning thinking about how my child was struggling in this subject at school. And I was rooting my day in the fear that they were not going to overcome it. And it was ruling everything. And I wasn't feeling thankful and I wasn't feeling joy and I wasn't feeling hope. But I should feel all of those things because I love Jesus and I follow Jesus. All it takes is one little root to dip its little toe into fear or resentment or worry for everything to come sliding down. So I had to reset, pick up that root out of the icky stuff, and plant it back into what nourished it, which was God's word, in prayer, in worship music, and spending time with him and making lists of what I'm thankful for. And my biggest takeaway from that is I really needed to reset how I started my day. Choose to dig into God's promises, go a little deeper, stretch a little further. Like I said, this is not condemnation. It's an invitation to live a richer, fuller, more thankful life. And we get to choose that. That's what's so cool about it. God made us this way. God made us beings that can constantly be restored and constantly be redeemed and constantly be molded into something more beautiful and bear more fruit. We're not stagnant. We don't just stay where we are. We're meant to grow. We're meant to change. We're meant to reach and stretch. Thank God, he says, be rooted in me. And the beautiful thing about our God is he doesn't shame us for needing to move. He knows we're works in progress and he allows for redirection and he loves redemption. He actually guides us towards himself.

Weekly Challenges And Key Takeaways

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So here's my challenge for you this week after we're coming off of an awesome week of Thanksgiving. Just take a moment and ask God, say, where do you want me to reroot? Where am I putting down roots in soil that can't sustain me, especially in this season that we all know is full of all the things? And ask the Lord, help me to move toward your light. Help me to move towards your nourishment. Because gratitude grows wherever God is. And that's where we want to be. So if you're not feeling thankful, if you're feeling hopeless, anything like that this holiday season, you're not stuck. You have a choice. And it's a gift. And the second challenge I have for you this week is to think about your kids. Ask God to show you where your kids may be slipping in their root system a bit. Because you don't want to just come up to your child and say, hey, you're rooted in the wrong things, because they're not going to get that if they're young. If they're older, you can have this conversation, but if they're young, they're not going to get that. But I do believe it's our job to ask God, give me discernment, Lord. Open my eyes to show me where my kid is struggling and help me reroot them. Help me guide them towards the light. Help me take them to soil that nourishes them. And we all know that there's easy ways to do that. You open up the Bible in the morning, you read them in encouraging Bible verse. You blast that worship music when you're cooking breakfast in the morning. You ask them if they have any questions for God this week and see where their heart and their minds are leaning. That's our job as moms, to guide them to the only one that can really nourish them until they learn how to get there themselves. Here's a quick recap and some key takeaways. First one is your gratitude is a clue to your root system. The second one is roots move, and so can you. The third one is you can choose where you plant your mindset each day. The fourth one, healthy roots sense what nourishes them. So can your spirit. You are a work in progress, and that's a gift, not a flaw. And the last one is gratitude isn't forced, it's grown. I'm so thankful if you listen this week. Please share this with a friend if it encouraged you at all. Hop onto Apple Podcasts if you could and give me a rating and review. It helps other moms find the podcast. And I just really praying that you all can soak in this holiday season and that somehow your mind can slow down and remember all of the sweet moments you're having with your kids right now. Because it is a gift. Don't forget to follow. Save and share and subscribe. You're awesome. Give it up for our mommy! Love it.