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EP 49 How Do I Break Down Strong Brick Walls? How Do I Move Mountains and Cast Them into the Sea? Joshua, Rahab, Jericho

EP 49 How Do I Break Down Strong Brick Walls How Do I Move Mountains and Cast Them into the Sea: Joshua, Rahab, Jericho

So what does a brick wall and Joshua and Rahab have to do with reaching your promise, reaching your goals every day? That's what we're going to talk about in today's episode!

Ladies.

I am so thankful that you guys are here today. We're going to talk about how do we bring down strong walls that are in front of us today? I was honored and privileged to be able to do a ride along with a couple of people in my community who are up and coming real estate investors, and one who is a very experienced real estate investor in our city. And he does these ride alongs. And so I was riding with one, two, three, four, five, five others, including myself. So six of us plus the very experienced person. And as we rolled through the city and he kind of gave us his take on real estate, investing in our city and talked about all of his trials and tribulations, everything that he's faced, everything that he's gone through and everything that he's triumphed in, everything he's learned, all the lessons learned as he's been investing in our city.

He ended the trip with a visit to a brick wall and his point was to talk us through we had already talked about our why and why do we want to invest? Why do we want to do this? And in anything in life that you do anything that's worth getting after there's a why behind that. And there's also work. There's also trials and tribulations. There's also sweat and tears and blood. There's also joy and laughter. There are all these things that come with accomplishing a goal, especially when it's hard. And as you know, I say, how you do anything is how you do everything. So I believe that you should put in a hundred, 10% effort in no matter what you're doing. But I also know that in the pineapple, it says when we are faced with our trials to trust in the Lord.

And I definitely believe that no matter what you're doing, you're going to come up against brick walls, right? So this metaphor, I guess, of looking at this brick wall, it was all the way around. And there was, you know, we were thinking about the fact that what if your promise is right on the other side or what if your, why is right on the other side? And all you had to do was figure out how to get over through, around, under under this brick wall, right? What would you do if your children were in there? And the only way you could get to your children was to figure out how to get through this wall. The fact is, is that most of us, if our backs were up against the wall and we had to get to our kids on the other side, we would figure out a way.

And I think that the important thing to this is that you have to understand why it is that you're doing what you're doing. When we face walls in our life. We just have to remember what are we doing this for in the first place? Because I will tell you, especially now, as I have transitioned into this current season where I'm not currently responsible for a big team of people, and I'm not on call 24 seven, and I don't have all of these key performance indicators that I know I have to meet, it has been a lot harder to be accountable to myself than it is for me to be accountable to my team, to the people that I am supervising or managing or the people I'm leading, or even the people that I am directly reporting to. It's so much easier to meet expectations and to push and to meet those goals, create those goals and go after those goals sometimes when you are doing those things for other people.

So the point was, is to think about your, why, why are you doing the things that you're doing? And when you come up against the wall to be able to push through that thing, just figure out a way to get through it. You know that in thinking about the word of God, it talks about being able to cast the mountain into the sea. Well, yes, we can talk to God about these days and yes, we can ask him to move it. But he has asked us and told us that we have the power of the holy spirit within us to be able to cast that mountain out into the seas. He left us with the same powers of the holy spirit within us that Jesus had. And we can pray and heal the sick we can you know, call out miracles. We can call out greatness in other people we can say to that mountain, be that removed and be cast into the sea.

We can say to these demons in our life, in the spiritual realm of, you know, I rebuke you and I tell you to flee seven different ways. We have power in our tongue now by no stretch of the imagination. Am I trying to say that we are cheeses or anything like that? So please don't misconstrue. We are all sinners. I am a sinner and I am not at all saying I'm Jesus. What I'm saying is that we all have the power within us and it's not our own strength. It's God's strength. It's the holy spirit strength to really trust in him and do what it is he's called us to do. So as we're standing here looking at this brick wall, and I'm thinking about all the reasons why I do the things that I do, I thought of Jericho. I thought of how the Joshua in Jericho, the kind of leader he was, he was very bold, very courageous and very upfront saying, you know, if God said, this is our promise land, why do you talk about how we can't conquer it?

He said, it was hours. He's said, it's a promised land. We are going to go there. And we are going to get what he said is ours. And so when they get there and wall is there, you know, many are probably looking at that wall. Like, man, yeah, no, historically nobody could get in and nobody could come out. So I don't see how this is gonna happen. And isn't that always the case that sometimes we have no clue how a wall is going to come down. But what we do know is that if we listen to the holy spirit and we listened to God and we follow what he's asking us to do, that he will help us get that wall down. He'll help us go through it around it, under it sideways. He'll help. He'll bring people to us that have ladders. He will bring other strong people around us that can help lift us and get us over that wall.

We are equipped to do whatever it is to do it. It is that we're called to do. And if it is steps that we're taking that are ordered by God, if we are taking steps that he's asked us to take, then he will provide a way he is the way maker. He is the promise keeper. And if our promise is on the other side of that wall, you best believe that he's got a way for us to get through it, to get over it, to get to our promise land. That's the promise. That's the word? That is the truth. So I want to talk about a little bit about Jericho and something else, which was crazy, right? Because at church the other day Colin pastor Colin was talking about rehab, the story of rehab. And as we sat in this right along and we approached this brick wall and he talked about, you know, you are the one who can make a choice here and make a difference.

You are the one that can set up generational wealth for your children and your children's children. But it depends on you taking a step. It depends on you making a choice. Well, the story of rehab, it was so crazy. I feel like that story that I just heard a couple of weeks ago, I, it was ringing in my ears as we sat here and looked at this wall because the story of rehab is that when Joshua, the son of nun sent out two men to spy secretly saying, go and view the land, especially Jericho. They came across this harlot named rehab and rehab new that they were here to take over the land. They asked her for a place to stay. She then hid them. Okay. She hit them. And when they came looking for the two men, the woman hit them, the woman being rehab.

And she said they didn't, she didn't know where they were. She hid them after the men that were looking for Joshua's men left, she said to them, listen, I know that you have come to take over the land and that everybody in the land is nervous. They're concerned. I'm just asking, asking you to spare me in my family because of what I have shown you, that what hospitality I have shown you. And I am paraphrasing guys. This is in Joshua two. And it took re Hab this one choice to help hide these two men that were Joshua's men. She could have chosen not to do that, but she chose to help them help hide them so that they were not captured. They were not seized. And that choice is what saved her and her family. And don't, you know, that in her bloodline comes David and then comes Jesus.

So imagine if Ray Hab had not been the one to stand up, stop and say, I will hide you. I will protect you if you will in return, protect me and my family. What if she had not done that? What if she had given them up and she was killed for being a trader and hiding them in her home, there are choices that we have to make every single day. And we may face walls. We may have to make really tough choices, but one choice, one step, one obedient act from what, whatever it is, God's giving you, whatever it is God's leading you to do could be the pivotal moment that changed, changes everything. So I'm thankful that pastor Colin had talked about this as we sat here and looked at this one, because the story of Jericho, you know, all of us pretty well, no, this is that they had to walk around the city, walk around the city and they had to keep doing and keep going and keep going.

And eventually the miraculous thing of the walls came crumbling down and they were able to enter the city. Now these were walls that were supposedly 10, the high double bricked, right? Nobody could come in or out. So the only one way that that could happen would be from an act of miraculous places which come from God, but it was their obedience and their willingness to step into the promise that God had for them. They could have turned around and said, forget it. We're not going to do all of this stuff. We're not going to believe we're not going to step. We're not gonna do the things that we are being directed by the man of God, which was Joshua. At that point, we're not going to do these things. They could have very well made those choices and very well could have never, ever seen the promised land, just like you and I, when we are in situations where we face a mountain or we're facing this wall.

And what if we don't know that the promise is on the other side? What if it's just a possibility wouldn't you rather know, not have to live with regret then to not take a step and just wonder if you were supposed to be rehab in that moment and make that choice that changes the entire future for your bloodline. I don't know about you, but when I think about my children and my children's children and their children and their children, I want to create a legacy. I want to be they're prayerful, faithful ancestor who prayed and believed and stepped in faith because I want to set things up for them as, as I can in, in how I'm being called to do it. Not because the power is within me or the strength is within me, but because God is calling me to do and be a certain person.

And after everything comes the impact after all of that, yes, off after all of that obedience, after all of the fights and blood and sweat and tears and the, just the obedience after all of that comes the impact that he has intended. He's calling each of us in our places at the timing is exactly what it should be in this season. It should be. You're surrounded by people that you should be surrounded with. He has placed you divinely in a spot where he needs you to best serve the purpose that he's called you to. I just thought that was really a regulatory moment for me, just to think through, you know, the steps that I take are so important, the obedience or lack thereof could mean everything or nothing to my children and their children and their children. And it goes on and on and on.

We all have such a powerful place in our lives to create what it is that will be the legacy for our children and their children and their children. So when you look at a wall, when you look at that, what looks to be an unsurmountable mountain, have faith in God, trust him that he would not place something in front of you. If you were not equipped to climb it, if you were not equipped to figure it out, he wouldn't, he wouldn't ask us to do those things. He has put the people in our lives that we need. He has put the partnerships in our lives that we need. We just have to be opened. Our heart needs to be open to him and to be a servant to him and to others around us. We need to be doing everything in love. We love other people.

And as we're walking that thing out, he will reveal to us what it is that he wants us to do relationships. He wants us to foster relationships. He wants us to say goodbye to there's a time and season for everything. And he knows exactly where you are and what you need. And it is our job to just say, yes, take a step and say, yes, again, take another step and say yes. Again with each step comes, that becomes or with each step comes that clarity with each step comes that clarity. And with each yes, comes the reward. Whether we see it immediately or not, we are not, you know, think about it. I'm not going to say, see my children's children's children's children's children's children, right? I'm going to be long gone by then. But the steps I take today and the yeses I give God today are creating a future for my family.

That I'll never even meet. Think about that, by the way, when you say yes, and you take those steps, you are impacting people right now on this earth that you don't have any clue that you're impacting. I remember one of the years for unbecoming, we talked about the butterfly effect and you know, why the flap of a butterfly's wing can, is strong enough to start a ripple effect that can cause a tsunami or a hurricane, something crazy like that. And it was crazy. Actually, when we, when I think about this there were, we released butterflies. And then very soon after that there were storms. I can't remember if it was hurricanes or something, but there were storms. And I was like, wow, that's interesting that we released a whole bunch of butterflies. And then there were these major storms anyway. I think everything in this world and in the spiritual world are connected.

So I am always looking for regulatory, things like that ways to connect to the holy spirit and just to listen to what messages he, he brings to me. And I hear weird messages. I think the other day, in an episode, I was talking about how tire tires being balanced and car alignments, that the holy spirit was using that to speak to me and confirm some things to me, that's just how he talks to me. I just hear things and get confirmations that way. Or he shows me those kinds of things in, in simple everyday things. But you know, that doesn't come without practice and without obedience, I purposefully seek out, what are you trying to tell me today? Holy spirit, what do you want me to do today? What do you want me to hear? What do you want me to feel? What do you want me to see am looking for those opportunities to make those connections?

So I think just remembering that too, is being intentional about what you look for and what you're seeking, what you focus on is what you will get. That is absolutely the truth. You can really only focus on one thing at the time. So if you're kind of in a negative space, I promise you you're going to receive negative. If you're in a positive space, then things are going to be more positive. Even if the circumstances aren't positive, you will be intentionally out the positives in that situation. Like it's a lesson learned instead of a failure, right? So you will be seeking out what you can learn and what the positives are for that situation. So what can we do to break down strong walls? When we feel like we are just coming up against brick walls and we feel like, man, if I could just get through this thing, if I could just figure out how to get through, what are some of those things that we can do.

So I think a couple of things that I would love for you to take away from this today would be to really think about, first of all, identifying the wall, what is the wall? What is it? What is it made of? Is it made of fear? Is it made of anger? Is it made of hatred, complacency? Is it made of illness and sickness? What about sin or what about self hate, low self-esteem prejudices? What is it the wall made up? Because if you can identify what kinds of bricks that wall was made of, then you will know what kind of tools you need to break it down. So identify what the wall is first. So acknowledge and identify the wall, understand that this is metaphorically, right? You don't have a brick wall standing in front of you necessarily. These might be walls within that are keeping you from getting to your promised land or to whatever it is on that other side. And the only way that you're gonna identify what those are, is to pray about it and ask God to reveal it to you, ask him to reveal it to you so that you see it.

The other thing is thinking about being okay with being different and separating yourself from the world. And when I think about rehab again, rehab was a prostitute. She found the redemption that she was looking for because she was able to separate herself from Jericho, right? She was in Jericho and she was separating herself from it. She could have very easily turned those guys in, but she didn't. She separated herself and she was able to redeem herself and her family in that action. So be willing to be a little different, be willing to do something different, be willing to do more than what your neighbor might be doing in order to get to promise.

The third thing I think would be to say, yes, be obedient, listen to what it is God's asking you to do and be obedient to that. Just say yes, and then just take one step at a time. That is all it takes one step at a time. That's it? You don't have to figure out how you're going to get to the top of the mountain today. You don't have to figure out how you're going to get the entire wall today down. You just need to say yes and work on that one. Brick. You need to say yes and take that one step. Just sit Mitch yourself to what it is God's calling you to do, and then speak victory over yourself in your life. Speak victory. We have to remember that the power of life and death is in our tongue. So speak victory over yourself. Repeat what it is. God said about the promise about what it is that he's promised us. Repeat that out loud. Call out the blessings that you are praying for. Call out blessings over others, pray for others in your life. Pray for those relationships. Pray for those divine connections and interactions. Pray for the people that you've never even met. Pray for general racial curses to be destroyed in the name of Jesus.

And then finally, the last step I think is to just thank him, thank him that he has given us the choice to follow him the choice to say yes, and the choice to take a step and the choice to receive the blessings he has for us. He gave us that choice. We are free to choose whatever it is, but I can guarantee you that your joy and your promises, that in your blessings will be so much more. If you choose to say yes to whatever it is that he's calling you to do, you are purposefully designed to say yes to what he's calling you to. And you just like rehab are able to change the trajectory of all of those people in your life now until forever in your future. If you simply say yes and thank you for the choice to say yes, all right, that is what I have for you today.

So God, I just want to thank you today for every woman listening. And even though God, I ramble a little bit and I get off track and I get sidetracked. I thank you God, for the holy spirit, that gives me revelation to be able to just sit here and share with other people. And I thank you, God, every heart listening today, God, every family that's represented by every person that's listening here today. I thank you for her. I thank you for the family. I pray that every generational curse is broken right now in the name of Jesus. I pray that you lay your hands on every situation. God, I pray that you lay your hands on it and we take our hands off of it so that you can do the work that you are able to do. Thank you, God, for the promises, you are a promise keeper.

You are a way maker. And I thank you for that revelation. I thank you for that truth. And I just thank you God, for the light that you shine upon us, the light that you shine upon our paths as we take each step. And that light follows us just a little bit ahead so that we can see just the, even a little bit ahead. We don't need to see the whole picture. God, because we trust you. And we thank you that you were just lighting that area where we need to take that one step. Thank you for keeping a light on that. And thank you for giving us clarity as we say yes. And as we take a step in the name of Jesus, we pray and we thank you. Amen. All right, sisters, I will see you inside the Facebook group. Guys. I would love for you guys to be super active in that group so that we could talk.

We could hang out. We could create this community. So make sure you hop over there and say hello and give us your opinions and your thoughts on whatever it is, the topic that's on your heart. Because I believe that it is not by accident, that we are all connected, that we are, you know, you're sitting on the other side, listening while I'm sitting here talking. And I don't believe that that's an accident. I believe it's divine. And even if, just for a moment or just for a season, I'm thankful for that ability to connect with you right here and right now, all right guys have a great weekend. Memorial day is coming up. So have a wonderful, safe holiday. And I will see you guys.

Hey, before you go, I'd love for you to hop over to my podcast and give me a review. And you know, I'd love five stars. That's how we can share this thing with other women, just like us, your five stars and written review really helps me get the word out. You can also take a screenshot of this episode and tag me in your Insta and Facebook stories. And I'll give you a shout out right back, leaving a review and sharing this episode is the best way you can show me some luck. Thanks so much. And I'll see him the next episode. And remember your smile is like a boomerang, throw one at somebody and it'll come right back.

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EP 48 How Do I Steward What God Has Placed in Front of Me Even When I Don't Feel Like It's My Calling? Making the Most of Every Time and Season for Working Moms

EP 48 How Do I Steward What God Has Placed in Front of Me Even When I Don't Feel Like It's My Calling? Making the Most of Every Time and Season for Working Moms

What's up ladies. Welcome back to this episode! Today I just want to talk a little bit about something that I am also dealing with, with myself and reminding myself about, and it is about how can I be a good steward of what God has put in front of me, even if I don't think that's the thing, or even if I don't know if that's the thing. I think that's a really important question to asks ourselves because God doesn't do anything by accident. He always wants us to steward wherever he's placed us steward the people steward, the finances, steward the resources, steward, the job that we've been given. He always wants us to steward whatever it is he's put in front of us in a way that that really reveals who he is. So I think sometimes when we're in a season where we're really not sure if this is the thing we're supposed to be doing, let's think about a job.

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Maybe, you know, sometimes we have this love, hate relationship with our job and we know it provides it's a source, right? It's not the I'm sorry, it's a resource. It's not the source because we know that source is God, but it is a resource by which we receive our paycheck and we go to work and we do the things that we're supposed to do, hopefully with excellence so that we can earn the paycheck. And hopefully we are the people that are going above and beyond, and we're doing more because we want to have that servant heart. We want to do what it is God's calling us to do. And we want to be our excellent cells and everything that we do. You know, that there's a saying how we do anything is how we do everything. So I believe that no matter what it is, we should be giving 110% and striving for excellence in everything that we do.

But sometimes it's that love, hate. Like, we don't feel like getting up in the morning and going to work or maybe we're stressed out or maybe we're overwhelmed or maybe we're just burnt, burnt out. Or maybe we just don't really feel it anymore. We're restless. We don't really enjoy what we're doing anymore. So I was challenged this morning, as I was thinking about something that I was doing and feeling a little disappointed in myself that I'm not getting the results that I want or that I think I should be getting or and feeling a little bit sad or bad about the fact that the people on the receiving end probably aren't receiving what I would say is excellence in what I, what it is I'm tasked to do. So I was kind of convicted as I was listening to a, a group coaching video that I'm part of it was a recording.

I had missed the meeting and there was this one thing that somebody said was, you always have to remember that no matter where you are in your journey, that God, whatever God's put in front of you, you have to become a good steward of that because you may not be able to move on, or it may not be revealed to you. Whatever that next step is until you show him that you are going to be a good steward of what he's putting in front of you. And for me, that was convicting. So it reminded me of a Bible story in Matthew 25, 14 through 30. And I'm just going to read through this quick story so that we can talk through this. So it's, or I'm going to kind of paraphrase it, but it is about three servants that were caught called forward. So it's about three servants that were given something and they were delegated responsibilities.

The master gave one servant $5,000 and he gave another servant 2000 and a third one. He gave 1000 depending upon their abilities, then the master left. So right off, the first servant went to work and he doubled his master's investment. The second one did the same, but the man with the single thousand dug a hole and carefully buried his master's money. So after a long accents, the master came back in those three servants came back to settle up with him. The one given $5,000 showed him how he had doubled his investment in his master, commended him and said, great work. You drank, you did a great job. You will be my partner. Then the second servant with 2000 showed how he also doubled his master's investment. His master again said, great job. You're you've done a great job and you're going to be my partner.

And then the servant, that was the third one that was given the 1000 that had buried his seed or buried that thousand dollars said, master. I know you have high standards in a hate, careless ways, and that you demand the best and make no allowances for error. I was afraid I might disappoint you. So I found a good hiding place and secured your money here. It is safe and sound down to the last cent. The master was furious. That's a terrible way to live it's criminal to live coffin sheet costage costs just li like that. If I knew I was after the best, why did you do less than the least, the least you could have done would have been to invest with the, some with bankers where at least I would have gotten a little interest, take a thousand and give it to one who risks the most and get rid of this, play it safe, who won't go out on a limb, throw him out into utter darkness.

So that was Matthew 25, 14 through 30. And that was the message version. And I think it's important because this scripture brings up to me how to steward whatever God's given me. And whether you're talking about money in this, in this instance, it was talking about investing and money and finances. But I also think about you know, I'm teaching students right now pediatric nursing students right now. And I think about them as my investment in am. I stewarding the opportunity I had to make contact, build relationship with them help them on their journey to become a nurse. Am I stewarding that opportunity in the way that God wants me to? And when I heard this comment today on this business podcast that I was listening to, that is what convicted me. I, this is the opportunity I've been given right now.

And one of the opportunities I've been given right now, and I need to ensure that each person that I come in contact with throughout this opportunity is dealt with as a child of God. And as a promise that God has given this world, and I have been given the luxury and the privilege to sit in front of and meet up with build relationship with impact these students. And so that is what, when I think about, are you stewarding? Am I stewarding what God's put in front of me? You know, regardless of the fact, if I think this is like my new career path or that kind of thing, I don't necessarily think that teaching students is going to be my next career path or career move, but for this time and place, God has perfect timing. He places these people in these opportunities in front of us at a specific time for a specific reason.

So there's some job, there's some thing I have to do in this timing with these people and this opportunity. So I just wanted to, you know, a lot of times when people get up to preach or people get up to worship or people get up to teach a leadership class or I sit and do my podcast, we are preaching to ourselves and teaching ourselves just as much as we're hoping that the content will impact you positively. So I'm in that place where, you know, man, I need to, I need to be more thankful. So thinking about what are some ways that we can actually make sure that we're stewarding what God's given us, the very first thing that comes to my mind is to be thankful, to be grateful. You've got to be thankful for the opportunities. And instead of saying, I have to do this thing, or, you know, I've got to go to work to earn a paycheck.

You say to yourself, I'm thankful for this resource you have given me. I'm thankful for the people you've put in my path to learn from and to teach to impact. And I get to do this thing. I get to go to work and spend time with these people that I care about, or these people that maybe you have designed me to be a lighthouse to in this dark time, I get to do these things. So having that gratefulness and thankfulness and that perspective of you get to impact people right now in this time, in this way. Okay. so having that thankful heart, the second thing that comes to mind is trust that God will continue to put you on the path that he wants you on. The other thing is that trusting that God will help us correct errors in decisions that we've made.

If we've walked on a path or are walking on a path that is not designed by God, then we can trust that our father will always come after us and always help us course, correct. He will give us holy spirit guidance. He will intervene in ways that we may like or not like, but there will be things that as we are needing that course correction, that he will be that feedback. He will be that provider. He will be that loving father that even though his kids are making those errors are not walking the path that he would like for us to walk, he will still love us. I think about my own children every single time that they make a decision that I do not agree with, or I know does not serve them in the way that they should be served in the way that will impact their lives and fulfill them every time they make a decision that is not going to fulfill them are not going to serve them.

Well, I still love them unconditionally. I still want the best for them. I still will be there to help guide them and help them course correct, or to listen or to, you know, give them a hug or without that whole condemning and shame and guilt. And that whole blaming I told you. So, so that's how I think about our father. Sometimes the way that we think about God hinders what we think he can do for us. So if we think that he's there to say, I told you, so I told you not to take that and give us a spanking or make it condemn us and make us feel guilty. That is not the God, the father, that's not who he is. He is there to give us that unconditional love and love us anyway, give us that, that gentle correctness, you know, he, that that's that that thing cuts going in, but it heals coming out, right?

He gives us that hard feedback sometimes, but he loves us and heals us as he gives us that feedback. So that's what makes me think about that. Second thing. That third thing that I think about is to no matter what season you're in no matter whether or not you have this hate relationship going on with what you're doing or what's being presented to you right now is to still find the joy in it. Still find the joy, pay attention to the two, whether or not you are feeling fulfilled and feeling that joy. If you're not feeling that joy, then going back to the word and finding that fruit that God's already given us within us. He's giving us the fruit of joy. He is everlasting joy. And so we find joy in him. And we thank him for the opportunities that he's given us. So being and remaining joyful.

The last thing I think about is too, and there are many more, I think when you talk about stewardship, it, it is to give of yourself in excellence, give your time, give your talent. Sometimes it's give your finances, but it is give of yourself in ways that, you know, you're being called to give, you know, how you do anything is how you do everything. So if you are not giving what the opportunity deserves, what that person that's in your path deserves, they deserve your light. They deserve your love. They deserve your joy. They deserve your consistency. They deserve your excellence. They deserve your effort and your attention and your empathy. They deserve all those things. So that's what I think of in love and your, and your love. So give of those things to others, and remember also to give of those things to yourself, give yourself, and the other person, grace, in that relationship, steward that relationship.

Well understand that sometimes interactions always going to go the way they, they were intended, not how you intended them to be or not how the other party intended them to be. And so giving them enough grace and giving yourself grace, when things don't, aren't working out, as you would hope, and then continuing to just give, give, be a servant, be a servant heart, and love people in front of you. And again, just be mindful that there is a time and a season for everything, and just be mindful that God has placed you in this place on purpose. And I apologize, guys, my, my old dog is out there barking. She wants to come inside. But I just think that giving yourself an excellence is always a part of stewarding that well. So guys, that is the information I wanted to talk to you guys about. I'd love to hear what you guys think about this and and whether or not you feel like you've been able to be in a place of great stewardship right now with what is presented to you right now get over in that Facebook group and let us know what you think about this. And we can all talk about it and live in community together. Thank you guys. Have an awesome day and I'll see you guys on the next episode.

Hey, before you go, I'd love for you to hop over to my podcast and give me a review. And you know, I'd love five stars. That's how we can share this thing with other women, just like us, your five stars and written review really helps me get the word out. You can also take a screenshot of this episode and tag me in your Insta and Facebook stories. And I'll give you a shout out right back, leaving a review and sharing this episode is the best way you can show me some luck. Thanks so much. And I'll see him the next episode. And remember your smile is like a boomerang, throw one at somebody and it'll come right back.

 

EP 47 BONUS EPISODE FREE GIFT FOR YOU! 26 Page Big IIDEAA Framework Journal- Walk through steps of Identity, Identify, Define, Embrace., Activate, & Assess: Guided Journal Prompts to Balance your Life

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EP 46 How do I Know What God is Telling Me What to Do next- What should I do while I wait on the Lord for Busy Working Moms

EP 46 How do I Know What God is Telling Me What to Do next- What should I do while I wait on the Lord for Busy Working Moms

I am so sorry that I am late posting this episode. We actually had a family member that passed away of COVID. And so yesterday on Friday, we're all of the proceedings and things for that. So I spent the day with family took the day off other than a couple of nursing teaching things that I had to do early in the morning. And I just was not able to get this thing ready to post. So I wanna apologize for the delay, but I'm sure you guys will forgive me and love me through it. So today I wanted to talk about how to take steps when you don't know quite what to do or quite what's next. And I know that some of you guys have probably been been in that season, or maybe that's where you are now is that you're trying to do what God called you to do, but you really just don't know what to do next.

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I am so sorry that I am late posting this episode. We actually had a family member that passed away of COVID. And so yesterday on Friday, we're all of the proceedings and things for that. So I spent the day with family took the day off other than a couple of nursing teaching things that I had to do early in the morning. And I just was not able to get this thing ready to post. So I wanna apologize for the delay, but I'm sure you guys will forgive me and love me through it. So today I wanted to talk about how to take steps when you don't know quite what to do or quite what's next. And I know that some of you guys have probably been been in that season, or maybe that's where you are now is that you're trying to do what God called you to do, but you really just don't know what to do next.

Or maybe you are just feeling like you're not hearing from God. If you're not hearing from God, then hop back over to some of those other episodes. I think the last episode too, there's been a couple of episodes. We've talked about how we can hear from God and ask God what's next and that kind of thing. But sometimes we're just in a season where we know that we're being called to do something new, but we just don't know what's next. He, he hasn't shown you the next step. So maybe it is a situation in which your season that you're in was forced upon you. Maybe you lost your job or maybe a plan's unexpectedly changed. And you just don't know what to do. Maybe you feel like you've been stuck in the same situation for awhile which by the way, if you're in that season right there where you're feeling stuck, ladies, that is what I'm here for.

I'm here to help you get unstuck. So make sure you hop over to my website at www dot Angie, Tony rogers.com and hop over to the coaching menu and select one of those options. And we can walk through all of those things, all of those reasons why you feel like you're stuck and then get you to a place where we are getting beyond that together. Okay. So regardless of the, cause we tend to fall into these situations and we just sometimes don't know what to do next. We don't know where we're headed. We don't know what we're being asked to do. We don't, it just seems like we just don't know where to go next. We don't know the directions to take, we don't know the actions today. So the very first thing I want you to think about is have you already done the last thing that God told you to do?

Have you already done that? Because I think sometimes God gives us a direction or the holy spirit kind of leads us and nudges us to take a specific step or action. And sometimes we are afraid or fearful to take those next steps because we don't know when we step, are we gonna step on water and be held up? Are we going to step on solid ground? You know, what is coming next? And so sometimes we don't actually take the steps that God's told us to take already. And what I can guarantee you is that with every step comes more clarity and comes more, a clear vision of what's next. You know, as you take a step each time you step your perspective, your perspective changes, you're able to see a little further than you did before with each step, you're able to see a little bit to the peripheral, to the sides.

You can see a different perspective as you take that step. So the first thing to really think about is have you done what the last thing is that God told you to do, perhaps, you know, or maybe he's already told you to do something and you haven't done that yet. So if that's the case, then take the step because sometimes there is a new vision or a new perspective that's needed, but you can't get there until you actually take that step or do that thing that you've already been asked to do. And if you're not sure if you've correctly heard, then sometimes you can find confirmation and reading his word. Sometimes you can just pray about it. Sometimes you can seek out guidance from a friend who has that spiritual guidance that you're looking for, you know be careful about who you go to about those things.

Because, you know, just because God's saying something to you doesn't mean he's always saying something to a friend or a husband or a neighbor or whoever you go to. So just ask for that wisdom and discernment and strength to make those decisions, but really assess and figure out have you done the last thing that God's told you to do? If you have then keep doing that thing until the next step is revealed, he is trustful. He is faithful. He is worthy of the weight. So part of that weight sometimes is that trust that faith, that believing that he is going to do what he says he is going to do, he is the one guiding you. And if he has told you to take a step and he hasn't given you that next step yet, then just keep doing the thing that he's told you to do.

The other thing is that if you've taken that step and you haven't gotten the next yet, so really just be wise and be purposefully looking for confirmations that he's looking for. You know, what we focus on tends to be what we see, what we're received, what we perceive. And so that focus and that prayer full ask on what it is that he wants to reveal to us. Just ask him. The other thing is ask him if anything is in the way, God, if there's anything inside of me, that's preventing me to see the vision. You need me to see, to see the next step, remove it from me. You know, maybe it's that we haven't quite gotten the clarity because we haven't finished the action. He's asking us to take, we are still, we have still have a place to learn in this current season that we're in.

Maybe we're still being prepared. So really seek out God, pluck those things out of me. If those things are in the way, right? That's your prayer, that's your ask. And you know, he does always give us that wisdom when we ask for it. And when we seek that out and when we focus on, if I'm missing something, God, if there's something in my way, something I'm doing something that's not right in my spirit, then reveal it to me so that I can know and just be ready for him to reveal it to you, be ready for him to plus that thing out, you know, his, his word and his spirit and his guidance is, you know, sometimes sharp going in, but it heals coming out. So just be ready for him to actually reveal those things. So the next thing is is that if you're doing that and you're praying, then sometimes it's just about resting.

Sometimes it's about waiting patiently and waiting in a place of peace. Just again, in that knowledge that if he's called you to do it, then he's got a plan. He already has. It worked out. And it's just the season that you're in continuing trying to be restful and encouraging during that time. You know, man, I mean, when I think about the ruthless elimination of hurry by John mark, Homer, that book that I've read recently, there is so much conviction in that weight, that ability to rest, that ability to seek out peace and that ability to rest in the season that you're in and the ability to be able to take some of that time to not be so busy. I mean sometimes busy and hurriedness and always having to go, go go is actually prohibiting you from actually seeing what it is that he wants you to do next.

So maybe it is just chilling out and spending time with your family and doing the things that are bringing you joy. Maybe that is the season he wants you to be in versus always having to know that next. I mean, I am a recovering perfectionist as I've talked about and a recovering control freak. And so sometimes it is just that he wants me to chill out and stop trying to control everything that's coming next. And just, just be just enjoy. So maybe you're in a situation where you were in between jobs or you are trying to figure out what to do with your job. You know, there's always this fine line and this balance between sitting on your couch and not really doing much and just say, oh Lord, I'm waiting on you to provide for me, you are to Jehovah-jireh. You are going to provide for me, but you're not really doing anything.

So there's always this fine line. Like recently I had applied for a position and you know, if I don't get a call back and I have emailed the HR person and I have, you know, emailed a reference and said, Hey, would you be a reference for me? And I've done those things, then God will then show you which doors he wants you to continue to try to pursue and walk through, or he will eliminate those things. And so you just have to trust that you're doing what it is he's called you to do, be prayerful, be mindful and, you know, rest when he's calling you to rest or rest when there's not a lot of opportunities presenting themselves to you. Well, maybe that's because it's the season where you're not supposed to be being active in, in applying for those jobs. If you're not finding those jobs that you need to apply for, that you feel led to apply for, then maybe it's not the season to be applying.

So on the other hand, if you are seeing an opportunity pop up that you think, God, do you want me to do this, then apply for it. And if it's not the opportunity it'll weed itself out because God will divinely set everything up to work out as it should, as long as you are being prayerful. And you're focusing on what it is asking him for that and discernment and making these decisions. So you can do that balance where you're not just sitting on the couch saying, Hey, God provide for me during the, the season of unknown, but you're taking steps and you're being prayerful about it, but you're not always like pressing and running and being busy and just doing things just for the purpose to try to make yourself feel better, better, because you're busy. You know, hopefully that makes sense. And in the season, a lot of the times it is so easy to get anxious and almost fearful sometimes definitely getting worried about what's coming next.

Especially if you have financial issues tied to this season of not knowing what's next. I can tell you that that absolutely has been one of my continuous prayers to God is I know that you're a provider. I know that you'd called me out of this one thing and you had a plan and there are certain seasons. And like I've always said before, you know, when I stepped out of my chief nursing officer Rowe, it's been about six months ago. I said, I don't know if it's going to be forever. Maybe it's just the season where I'm taking this time. And I know for a fact that a lot of this season has been time for me to reconnect with family, be available for my children and help, you know, with some homeschooling issues that were going on, which have thank you, God turned around. But I just I know that family and that reconnection with family has been one of the purposes of the season, but that doesn't mean that, you know, in a few months from now that I might go back into doing something similar or not, it just means that I am being mindful of the season and that she's putting me in.

I'm listening to all of the cues that he's, it's giving me about the season. And he wants me to learn in, he, I'm asking him to reveal what it is that needs to be fixed within me. You know, to become a better wife. Remember my word for this year was becoming and or to become, and so becoming a better wife, becoming a better leader, becoming a better servant, becoming a better friend, becoming a better mother. So all of those things that, you know, reveal those things to me, what, during this timeframe in this season of uncertainty, do you want me to focus on? And so the other big thing is that when there are financial things attached to this season of not knowing that sometimes anxiety and fear can come up. And for me, the two things that part of me walking away from that position, that I was very comfortable in financially and very comfortable in as far as my confidence in my competence was giving up that control and giving up that financial security that I had and trusting him with all of it.

So as I approach seasons throughout these time periods where things are getting tight, or I'm like, man, I don't know exactly where it's coming from. He comes through every single time just today. Another thing came through for me and he will put people in your right path. He will put people in things. I mean, I was talking to a woman of God today and she talked about how in her season, she had a similar situation where she had walked away from some things and she walked up to her mailbox and there was checks in the mail. I mean, you hear this proverbially and you hear this, you know, in a narrative, in a story, but it happens. God will direct people and circumstances in your life. If you are allowing him to do that. Now again, I haven't been sitting on the couch for the past six months.

I have been working and, and making connections and going to meetings and doing all of these different things that I've been working on. And so you are doing the same thing too. You are taking those actions. You just got to take those actions that he's calling too. If he, if he introduces a new person in a new opportunity, in a new relationship to you ask him, God, what is this relationship for? What do you want me to do with this? You know, if you see a job pop up in your email and you think, should I apply for this, pray about it and do it, but whatever you do, just remember that anxiety and fear and worry are, are tools of the enemy. They are not meant from God. And so when those things start to creep up, just a reminder to yourself that God, you are the provider, you said you would give me and fulfill all of the things that you have for me.

You will fulfill the promises that you have for me. I believe that I received that and I'm just going to keep walking on faith and he will show up. He will show up as long as you trust him and you take the action as you and you do our part, you know, faith without works is dead. So it doesn't come without your works, your actions. So just make sure that you are taking those actions. And I found a prayer actually on let's see, I think it's prayer for anxiety.com. So I wanted to read this prayer to you guys because I think it is just sometimes we just need a tool. Sometimes we need to remember what we can say. So if you're having trouble coming up with that, that word, those word warriors those prayers to be a prayer warrior for yourself, then I want you to think about this prayer.

It's on prayer for anxiety.com, dear heaven, heavenly got I faced situations and decisions. It's complicated. I feel confused and lost. Can you help me? Can you show me the light? Can you reveal to me what it is you want me to do? First of all, Lord, calm my heart. Let me know that my peace depends upon you. Not the circumstances, not the situations, but it depends on you. No matter how things turn out, you are at the center of my life. I'm keeping you at the center of my life. I will stand. I will survive. Made your spirit, keep me balanced. God, show me your will show me and reveal to me what it is you want me to do. Give me that strength and wisdom and discernment to make decisions and act and take those steps in the way that you want. Let my mind and heart be open to what best serves truth and life.

Let me be aligned with truth. Let me defeat those things that come into my mind that are not of you. Let me be reminded of the truth in the word. Give me courage to do what's right. Show me your word. Reveal it to my heart. Show me with what's within me. That is prohibiting me from taking those steps and seeing what it is. You want me to see God, let me and get, get my heart, right? Let me get my heart right. Let me get my mind. Right? Help reveal to me whatever needs to be, shake him. Whatever needs to be changed. Show it to me. God, make my conviction strong. Send me the evidence that you want me to see. Send me those confirmations that you want me to see. Let, when I hear that song that is confirming something I've already felt in my spirit.

Let me look for that. And let me acknowledge that. When I go to you, God, show me your will. And the blessing is guaranteed. It is not easy, God, and it might take some time, God, but I trust and stand on the truth and I trust and stand in. Faith. Love to you. Thank you God, in Jesus name. Amen. So that is the prayer that I wanted to read to you related to anxiety. And I just want to pray for you. Pray that over you today. If you're in a season where you just don't really know what to do, I encourage you to continue to walk, continue to step, continue to pray, continue to ask, ask, and you will receive knock and the door will open. It's there. He just, maybe I'm not ready to reveal it to you, or maybe you are just not taking the step that he's already asked you to take, just do an assessment of it and really ask him to show you and really make sure that you're taking the steps.

And you've already done what he's asked you to do. He can't trust you in the next, if you haven't done what you've asked, he's asked you to do already. Okay? So I encourage you. Take the steps, keep going. You are exactly where you need to be. You are in the season. He wants you in, just know that he is with you. He is guiding you and just be intentional about looking for those confirmations. Be intentional attentional about aligning yourself with the word and the truth and be intentional about doing everything he is calling you to do. Okay. Faith without works is dead. Take those actions and with each action comes more clarity. Okay? Sisters, thank you so much. Have a fantastic weekend. And I hope to see you inside the Facebook group. And again, ladies, if you're looking for someone to help you get unstuck in anything that we ever talk about anywhere on this podcast, that is what I'm here to do.

That is my passion project. You ladies, if you are here and you've listened more than, you know, two to three times, then you are my people. You are my passion project. I want to connect with you. If nothing else, I just want to get to know you. I want to know who you are, man. It's such a weird thing in this podcast. You're talking to your computer or your phone and you're creating these podcasts and you see that people are downloading it, which means that they're listening. But sometimes I don't know my sisters who are listening. I don't know if I'm walking by you on the street or not. So jump over to my website and connect with me. I just want to get to know you. I just want to say hello. And if you're close in Louisville where I am, man, let's get together.

Let's hang out. Let's do a dinner date. Let's do a girls, a girls get together lunch. Let's hang out and live life together. Okay. All right, ladies, I love you guys so much. Thank you for listening. And remember if, if this has helped you and you have a sister that you know, could use this kind of encouragement that this podcast episode would help her with forward it to her, share it with her. Love her enough to give her some encouragement today too. And actually I want to give a shout out to one lady that I know is sharing my podcasts with her friends. Thank you, Vanessa. Carol, you are an absolute joy. You are an absolute lighthouse. I love you so much. Thank you for always sharing the episodes. I see you tagging me. And I just wanted to let you know that I see you. I love you. And I just thank you for the impact that you create in your life. You are such a lighthouse. I don't know if you guys have heard that episode about being a lighthouse, but she is a lighthouse. She is a wonder woman. I appreciate all that. She does. She impacts her circle so strongly. We've been friends for years and years and years. So I just want to thank you for what you do and how you impact your circle. Okay? All right, ladies, love you so much. See you on the next episode.

Hey, before you go, I'd love for you to hop over to my podcast and give me a review. And you know, I'd love five stars. That's how we can share this thing with other women. Just like us. You're five stars and written review really helps me get the word out. You can also take a screenshot of this episode and tag me in your Insta and Facebook stories. And I'll give you a shout out right back, leaving a review and sharing this episode is the best way you can show me some left. Thanks so much. And I'll see you in the next episode. And remember your smile is like a boomerang, throw one at somebody and it'll come right back.

EP 45 Follow These 7 Steps to Find More Balance in Your Wholly Made Life for Busy Working Moms: Decrease the Burn-Out, Stress, Overwhelm in your Marriage, Parenting, Job

EP 45 Follow These 7 Steps to Find More Balance in Your Wholly Made Life for Busy Working Moms: Decrease the Burn-Out, Stress, Overwhelm in your Marriage, Parenting, Job

What's up ladies, welcome back to this episode of Wholly Made Life. So today I want to talk to you about signs and symptoms of feeling unbalanced or being unbalanced. And we're going to get into this whole word of balance because I think it's really important. You know, we hear all of these things and I talk a lot about this as well, is that we want to restore that balance in all areas of our lives. But what does that really mean?

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So ladies, before we get into today's episode, a quick word about a special coaching package that I have for you. If you have been feeling unbalanced in some areas of your life, and you've been feeling like you're just stuck and you can't seem to get out of this funk, that's exactly what my coaching package will help you with. We will go through the big idea framework together, and we will come up with an action plan that will allow you to do some small things that equal big results. So jump over into my email actually, instead of my email, jump over to my website. It's at Angie, Tony rogers.com and you can access my coaching menu there. All right. So let's get into today's episode. Okay. We're going to talk about this almost dreaded thing called because I think sometimes it just seems so unattainable. So let's first talk about some signs and symptoms that you might be in a place where you feel unbalanced in some areas of your life.

So it can look like burnout or feel like burnout. It can feel like you are constantly busy and you are not really having time to breathe or to do things that you feel like you need to do. It could be that you get to the end of the day. And you're like, what in the world did I even do today? What did I even accomplish? It can be feeling like you're constantly tired and you just can't get a break or you can't get rested. You can't get to a place where you're feeling any peace at all. It could result in physical manifestations like headaches or upset stomach. A lot of times when we're stressed out or when things are going in a way that we're not really able to take care of ourselves because we are just in such an unbalanced place. In some area of our life, we start to have a lot of gastro issues which would be belly or you know, either nausea or vomiting or sometimes diarrhea or constipation.

A lot of times our physical manifestations of stress show up as headaches or stomach issues. So bowel problems fatigue, energy loss, those are all things that could be happening. Just a sense of overwhelm, a sense of just feeling stress could be that you're having trouble remembering what it was that you needed to do on your to-do list. Maybe your to-do list is like a mountain that you can not see the top of, or that you can never even get to the bottom of. And so you're just standing in the middle of this mountain, hanging on for dear life, wishing or hoping that you could either start over and get to the bottom or, and go home or get to the top and finally breathe in the air and look at the view. But it's just that you're stuck.

Okay. So those are some of the symptoms. So let's talk about my seven steps that we are going to go through to find a sense of balance. Okay. So the first one, well here's what, whatever we're going to do, we're going to spell out the word balance and I have a word and an action for each of those letters. So B well, let's start with balance. So the number one, one thing that we're going to do is you have to define it. There are so many people that say, Oh, I'm just not balanced, or I don't feel right. Or things are not going well, or I'm not meeting all my expectations. I'm never accomplishing anything. But when you talk to them, they're like not, they're not even in a place where they can even define, well, what would it look like to be balanced? What does it feel like?

So think about each of our areas of our life pie, which we're talking about, physical, financial, professional, relational, et cetera, and think about, okay, if you felt like you were spending enough energy and time there and feeling accomplished in those areas, what would it feel like? What does it look like? You've got to know what the goal is in order to know that you're meeting the expectations or meeting that balance. So it's so super important to define what balance looks like to you. I hate to break it to you, sisters, but balance is not like a perfect circle where everything is. Even in fact, if you take the Holy made life short assessment, which can be accessed on my website, Andy, to nanny rogers.com, you will see that there are going to be areas in our life pie, where we are scoring lower than other areas.

And that's okay for the season that we, or you may be in. In fact, let me read you a scripture. It is Ecclesiastes three, one eight for everything. There's a season and a time for every matter, under heaven at time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant in a time to pluck up. What's planted a time to kill and a time to heal a time to break down a time, to build up a time, to weep a time, to laugh, a time to mourn a time to dance, a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together at a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing. So this scripture reminds me that there are seasons for everything. So you have to understand that even if your scores are uneven or unbalanced, quote unquote, I'm doing air quotes, then you still might be in a season where that might be okay.

You just have to give yourself permission to be okay with that. And to still give yourself credit for meeting the expectations. Here's a great example. Let's say you've got a big project at work that you're working on. Well, maybe you have to work those 10 or 12 or 14 hours a day during the season where this project is, maybe that portion of your life pie needs more time for you right now. So, so the key is to be intentional about the other areas of your life, you know, with your relationships, making sure you communicate, Hey family, this is a project that I'm going to be working on during this season. And this is what it's going to require of me. And here's what I need from you to support me in this. Here's what I need for you to remind me when I'm falling short of certain things.

Maybe I'm not getting enough sleep well, you've got to balance some of that. You can't go, you know, every single night for three weeks with zero hours of sleep. So you've got to have somebody there that's going to help hold you accountable to that as well as yourself, but also having that intentional conversation about, Hey, it's gonna be more energy and time and focus in my professional piece of the pie right now during this season. And then once that season's over, we will refocus and reallocate some time to maybe the relationship piece of a pie. Okay? So that's an example of how we are in seasons. We are always looking to be in balance based on the season and the needs that we have for that particular time. The other thing about balance and making sure that you add this to the definition is that it is on going, it's ongoing.

You have to make peace with the fact that you are going to have pieces of your life pie that require more time than others at different times in your life. And you have to know that being balanced and creating that balance is based on a definition that you can actually maintain and meet expectations from. And you're always working on it. You're always assessing it. You're always trying to create that balance. You're being intentional about that. So it's ongoing. You have to know where you feel and find joy. The fruits of the spirit include joy. So you have to make sure that you are finding joy somewhere, because the more places that even if they're small, that you can identify that you find joy from that will help keep the levels of burnout and stress and overwhelm down because you're still able to find that joy.

All right. So we talked about it flexing. That means that it's, it's gonna be, it's going to wax and wane, you know, with your seasons. Okay. So that's B that's balanced. The second one is a, and we're going to assess and acknowledge. So what this means is that you've in order for you to kinda know what's going on, you've got to pinpoint the feelings and emotions and, and mindset that you have around what's going on right now in your life with your life pine, with all of these different pieces of your pie. You've got to assess what that looks like. You've got to make sure that the definitions that you, you created up and be in the balance, the definition still makes sense for today because today's definition of what balance looks like might be different than yesterday or three months ago or three years ago, or before you had kids, or before you had your fourth kid, or before you took this new job before you quit your job before your kid went to college, whatever.

Okay. So you've got to have that assessment, and then you've got to acknowledge those places that you are identifying that need a little bit of work and then be intentional about creating that plan to do a little bit more in that area. Okay. The third is L which is left. There are so many, especially when you're in a place of unbalanced, there's so many, or when you perceive you're unbalanced, I guess there are so many times I talk to ladies and they say, I don't remember the last time that I actually laughed. And this goes into kind of restoring that joy again as well, but laugh, loosen up. Don't hold yourself to such a standard that a perfectionist couldn't even meet the standard. It's okay. A false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but just adjust. Wait is in his delight. That's Proverbs 11 one.

So loosen up a little bit and understand that it's okay to laugh. It's okay to have fun. It's okay to purposefully schedule something in your day that, you know, you're going to find that fun and that joy and that laughter in you know, there's a lot of studies that say, laughter in of itself, adds years to your life because it reduces stress. It releases endorphins. There's a physiological response to smiling and laughing. I remember one of it was Bryson my youngest, where when he would get hurt, I would say, laugh it out, laugh it out because it actually physiologically releases endorphins and your body kind of switches to dealing with those pain feelings that are happening to the endorphins that are a more powerful hormone that gets released. So definitely adding laughter to your day is something that can help overall.

Okay. The fourth step is going to be a, and that is going to be a line. Now I found this very interesting and I don't know why I got on this tangent, but I started thinking about tires being balanced and alignment for your car. And I thought, okay, which one comes before or after the other? And I just started looking it up and I just found it pretty interesting. So first of all, let's define a line. So online means to get a person place or thing to put into a straight line, or it means to commit yourself to being either for, or against something. It means to bring into alignment, you know you remember your third grade teacher telling you, you can't use the word in the definition. Well, when you read definitions online or wherever you're reading from Wikipedia or wherever, it always has the word in the definition somewhere let's see.

It means to put into the exact correct place often in relation to something else or to arrange an Alliance or to be parallel. Okay. So I think about that in two ways, one alignment with the word of truth in the Bible. Number two, again, I just started thinking about how a car needs their tires balanced and needs the alignment done routinely in order to keep it safe. It's self safe, it keep it from being destroyed on the road. So let's talk a little bit about this because I found some parallel, no Palm words information. So you know, drive, meaning where's the way at your car and it's not just, you know, on paint chips and scratches and that kind of thing. It can where the entire inner system of your car to where your entire car stops running or is so damaged that you can't drive it.

Well, I think of that as life, life wears away at us, right? If we're the car life, where's the way it is sometimes, especially if we're not being intentional about creating this quote unquote balance that is only yours, okay? It's not mine, it's yours and yours is not mine your balance. If we don't get intentional about this, we start to wear away and we start to friction starts to tear at us and we start to get worn and we start to get shaky and we start to vibrate and on different levels. And, and we're just not we're not balanced. We're not able to meet our tires on the road in a way that helps us be suspended correctly. The tires themselves help to blunt the worst part of the impact when you go over potholes bumps and other things in the road. But these impacts jar the suspension components. If your wheels are out of alignment, which then starts to damage all the underpinnings of the car. Now I am by no means on mechanic, but I just found this somewhat parallel to what it taught

It, what, what

I'm talking about today. It just reminded me of this. So I thought it might be helpful just to kind of share through that.

Okay.

So it's recommended to rotate your tires regularly so that they keep even where I thought that was very intuitive. We have to continually SS, as I talked about what our definition of balances and whether or not we are in with the truth, with the definition and with our activities, with our intention ality, because otherwise we start to wear unevenly, our relationships get worse, or we start performing poorly on our job. If we are not regularly rotating our tires or balancing our tires, okay. Balancing our life, coming up with that definition, assessing that on an ongoing basis, then we start to experience uneven wear and tear in our lives. Okay. I thought that that was kind of a parallel. And it's not just what we see. It's the inside stuff that starts to stuff that we can't see that starts to make the car shake excessively or have poor vibrations to the point where again, the car is not able to run as it should. So sometimes our lack of focus on what expectations we're holding for ourselves or what definition we're using and constantly beating ourselves up that we're not meeting it. Sometimes those things go unnoticed until we start to fall apart or still until pieces of our pie start to fall away or start to fall apart. So it's important to regularly on an ongoing basis, assess what needs to happen in our lives to help us feel and create and meet these definitions of those.

Yeah.

Okay. Another thing with alignment was that it can help the tires, the things that meet the road, the, when the rubber hits the road, it helps them perform properly longer. It helps them with stand those potholes and all of the impact of the hard stuff, hitting it longer. So when you keep the tires aligned, it helps them perform better monger. It helps maintain the entire vehicle handling so that the vehicle doesn't pull, despite the fact that you're trying to go straight, if your wheels become unaligned or, or unbalanced, you are starting to pull to the right or pull to the left, despite the fact that you are trying to keep the steering wheel straight, that is like life again, if we're not being intentional about creating that balance and all of our areas of our life, or we're not acknowledging that, Hey, my professional piece of my pie is going to have to need more time and energy right now.

And this is how I'm going to intentionally set up my during this time. If we don't do that, then we start to shake and we start to pull off in one direction and leave the other one on behind. And it starts to damage those, those areas. Okay. Okay. So that was my comparison to a tire alignment and balance in what we're talking about. Okay. So let's get to number five, which is the N okay. I really wanted another B in here because I wanted to say that boundaries, but I'm going to say no, no, no, no. You know that song by Destiny's child? Something about no, no, no. That's okay. I can't remember the song and I certainly am not going to sing it, but you have to create boundaries. You have to say no. Okay. Ladies let's count on the count of three.

Let's all say no one, two, three, no. Okay. So I hope that you said that with me now, my question is, did you die? Did anybody throw stones at you? Did you know, is your life over? No, no, no, no, no. It's not because there are times ladies that we have to say, no, we have, you have to be able to prioritize. Especially if you've taken the time to define what that balance is, define what piece of the pie you're going to have to spend more energy in and what you're going to do to protect the other pieces during that season, you're going to have to prioritize. And sometimes you're going to have to say, no, you're going to have to put boundaries in place and say no, sometimes. So we'll leave that one there. I know that one's hard, but you know, I encourage you to try it, try saying no.

Sometimes if it means that you're going to add something to your life, just if you're already feeling busy and you're already feeling like you can't sleep and you're already feeling like you don't have a time to breathe in your day and your schedule is managing you, instead of you managing your schedule, then saying yes to something else is probably not the right choice for you. All that's going to do is not serve you, your family. So practicing now, okay. The next letter, and this is number six, and this is, is claim it have courage and care. Okay. That's overboard. It's three CS. It's three things. But I just want you to think about once you've set, those knows once you set those boundaries, claim it and stick to it. Okay. And then, you know, have that courage to continue to make decisions that serve you and your family and your friends and your areas of your life pie in a positive way.

Make sure that what you are saying yes, to what you are defining as your balance, as your seasons for your certain pieces of your pie, make sure that that's serving you and it is serving whatever it is God is calling you to do. Because part of that balance too, in that definition is that spiritual, which is what is God telling you to do? What is the Holy spirit guiding you to do? And are you being intentional about making the time to do that and to spend time in that piece of your pie? Okay. And then care. I added care in there because care is something that I think for us, it's just really hard. It's hard because we don't take time to care for ourselves. We got to care for ourselves spiritually. We got to care for ourselves. Physically. We got to care for ourselves financially.

We got to care for others, but you've got to make sure that you are doing something to take care of yourself. It's the same thing. Like when you're on an airplane and it says, put your oxygen mask on yourself first, before you help your child, same thing. You cannot help others if you are not helping yourself. So you've got to work that in. Okay, ladies, the last step, the seventh step, the E is empower. The word empower means to give someone the authority to do something, to allow authorized commission. Well, I am allowing you. I'm authorizing you. I'm commissioning you to walk in bold courageous action to be exactly who it is. God called you to be and give yourself grace, give yourself mercy, give yourself forgiveness, allow yourself to be imperfect because that's how God's created you and allow yourself to have an ongoing assessment of what you're doing in your daily action.

What you're doing in your weekly action, your monthly action, what you're doing to achieve your goals, acknowledge what you're doing to achieve those things. You are enough. You are meeting all of the expectations that you need to because you're creating that intention reality around. I don't even know if that's word, you're creating that intention to be purposeful about what you're doing. None of us are perfect. So don't hold yourself to that. You are exactly who God's called you to be. You're equipped with exactly what God has given you to be successful in all the areas of your life. Whatever's going on in your season. That's placed there. You're equipped for it. Okay. I've got a couple of other scriptures that I wanted to mention throughout this. Of course, you know, I got long-winded and I got sidetracked and I didn't mention it. But we, we talked about Ecclesiastes three, one through eight, about the seasons.

I want to talk about Philippians four, eight. I think it is. So finally whatever's true. Whatever's honorable. Whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely. Whatever is commendable. If there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things, fine. Those things. When you are in that alignment stage, when you are aligning yourself to the truth and to the word of God, make sure that you have that focus on those things that are true and honorable and just, and pure and lovely pay attention to those things and work those things in to your plans. Something else that I thought of was the story of Mary and Martha in Luke, Luke 10 38 through 42. Now, as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching.

But Martha was distracted with much serving and she went up to him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve you alone? Tell her then to help me. But the Lord answered her. Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her. Oh, that one is convicting, especially for a person like me. And probably a lot of you ladies listening, we are always trying to be everything to everybody wearing all the hats and we net, we want to juggle all the balls and we never want to stop juggling. We never want to take off any hats. And the reality is we were not created for that. There's a time and a place and we cannot forget what it is we're called to do.

We're called the praise. We're called to worship. We're called to pray. We're called to nurture our spiritual piece of our pie. We've got to make sure that we put time in our day to do that, to go to the one who makes us strong, where we are weak, when we're feeling that overwhelm and that stress, we ask the Holy spirit to guide us so that we know where do we put our intentions during this difficult season? Or where do I find the joy and the love and the peace again, when I'm feeling anxious or when I'm feeling troubled or when I'm feeling like I can't find that joy anymore, go to the Holy spirit, go to God, go to Jesus and ask him for his guidance because we cannot do it alone. And we weren't meant to do it alone. Also, another thing that it reminded me of is, is call a sister, call a friend, email me, get on, get on my website and, and hit one of those contact me buttons.

And I'll get on the phone with you, reach out to somebody that is like-minded ethic, and that can help you create that plan that you might need help with. Don't suffer in silence. None of us are going through this, that another sister can't help with. I mean, I think it's very purposeful that when I'm going through something, my sister, friend is not. So my sister friends ready and equipped to be there in my circle, in my life for that time and that timing. And I think that you're that rock for somebody else. In other ways, all of us ebbs and flows. All of us are not in crisis at once. And I think that's purposeful. God knows exactly who we need and when we need them. So don't forget to use your community when you are in a place where you're feeling a little unbalanced, you might just need a little bit of that help the other great thing.

And my pastor mentioned this during a Bible study a few weeks ago, this is so interesting. And I think it plays right into us as women and, and this whole notion that we have to be perfectly balanced and we have to wear all the hats and do all the things for everyone. And we are busy, busy, busy all the time. Well in the Bible, God is always calling men to him to go. He's telling men to go, go to the mountain, go, go, go, go get your pickup, your nets, and come or drop your nets and come. He's always telling them to go. But when he goes, when he is talking to women, he goes to where the woman is. He goes to the woman at the well, he goes to Mary and Martha's house. So when Jesus comes to us, he's coming to us.

Why? Because we are women. We are doers. We are juggling. We are being everything to everyone. And he knows that he designed us. He knows how we're wired. He knows how we're built, but I just wanted to, that was such a revelation to me where, you know, he's always telling the men to come to him, but he's always coming to us. So he's right there. And he will come to you where you are doing what you do. So I wanted to point that out because I thought that was awesome. I think there was one more step a scripture. Okay. Yeah, it was prowess, Proverbs 16, 11 adjust balance and scales are the Lords. All the weights in the bag are his work. So it, again, it's just a reminder that we are not supposed to be perfectly balanced without God. We have weaknesses that are made strong in him.

Guess what? We can't be made strong if we don't have the weaknesses. If we don't have those areas that need his help, we need him for that. So don't be afraid to ask for that. All right. Let's review because I've gone a little bit longer than I wanted to go, but I hopefully it made sense and hopefully it wasn't too rambly, but let's go through the seven steps again. We're going to balance, we're going to defend it defined it. Excuse me. We're going to assess on an ongoing basis, we're going to laugh and loosen up and give ourselves some grace. We're going to align ourselves to the truth and make sure that our actions are in alignment with the definitions that we've created. And we're not holding ourselves to a, a false or higher standard than is necessary for the season. We are going to say, no, we're going to claim it.

We're going to walk in courageous action and we're going to care for ourselves. And finally, we're going to be empowered to do what it is God's calling us to do and empowered to make these adjustments on an ongoing basis so that we can create that intentional balance in our lives. All right, sister, friends, thank you so much for listening. And if this helped you, or if you have a sister friend that you think this might help, please do me a solid and share it with them. Just click it and send it to them on a text or post it in your Instagram or Facebook stories. That is what helps us get the podcast showing up for more people when they are searching for content that might, they might find in this podcast. I love you sisters. I will see you on the inside of the Facebook group! 

EP 44 How Do I Hear from God When I Don't Know His Voice? 4 Steps to Hearing from God Every Day: PRAY: Position, Relationship, Apply/Act, Yes/Yearn

EP 44 How Do I Hear from God When I Don't Know His Voice? 4 Steps to Hearing from God Every Day: PRAY: Position, Relationship, Apply/Act, Yes/Yearn

Hey ladies, welcome back to this episode of Wholly Made Life™. We are in episode 44 today, and today we're going to talk about something that I think people think about and wonder about sometimes, especially when our circumstances aren't always satisfactory or something that we would wish upon ourselves when those circumstances get hard situations, get hard. Sometimes I think this question comes up and that is how do I know that I'm hearing from God? Or how do I hear from God? And today we're going to talk about a acronym that spells out pray P R A Y, and how you can quickly remember how it is that you can get ready and be willing to hear from God. So let's get into today's episode.

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Hey mama. Welcome to Wholly Made Life™ where I believe that you are not created to do just one thing in your life. Well, you are not just your job, your title or your salary. You're not just a mom or a white versus sister. You are fearfully and wonderfully made to lead in all areas of your whole life. Your life is like a pie that's made up of different pieces that create a complete circle and girl, you deserve to enjoy the whole pie. Hi, I'm Angie Tinetti Rogers and mama. I know you are really good at what you do in your profession or business, but if you're ready to stop ignoring different pieces of your pie and reclaim your whole life, then you are in the right place. Girl, let's tap into the whole life. God has for you and experience that God sized fulfilled life together. We're going to walk through some boundaries, leadership mindset and restoration in different areas of your life that may need to change. It's going to be some tough work up in here, girl, but we're going to walk this thing out together, uncovering some bull courageous actions that we can take to experience, not just a good life, but your whole life. Are you ready to live your whole life, Holy made? Let's do it.

Hey, what's up successful mama. Listen, I know you are a success driven woman, so I know you're successful in your job or your career, your business, but I also know that there's something going on in your heart or your mind where you're feeling a little unbalanced or a little off as a mom or as a wife, or maybe in another area of your life. Are you unsure of what this thing is? You've been feeling, but you know, there's something missing. You're wanting something more. Do you wish there was a way for you to feel balanced in all areas of your life? Says, what if you could go from feeling restless or burnt out overwhelmed or stressed out all the time to actually restoring the joy and feeling balanced in all areas of your life? Well, let me tell you, I have felt this way. We've all felt this way sometimes where we've just been off or felt unbalanced, but it's when you're stuck and you can't really get past it when you might need to reach out for some help.

And that's where I'm here for you. Listen, I believe you're not created to do just one thing. Well in your life, you're not just your job or your title or your salary. You're not just a mom, a wife or a sister. You are fearfully and wonderfully made and you're made to lead in all areas of your whole life. God has a specific intention for you in all areas of your life. You deserve to have joy and feel completely balanced in all parts of your life. You can actually feel successful as a mom and a wife and a friend and at work. So are you ready to reclaim your whole life and happen to God-sized fulfillment and all areas of your life? Well, friend, I have something for you. I can help you find that balance again and help you rediscover. God's big idea for you and your life.

We're going to go through an hour session where we are going to get you balanced. We're going to fix the foundation of your Wholly Made Life. And we're going to go through my framework of idea, which is identity, identify, define, embrace, and activate. We're going to go through that entire framework to get you back to where you feel equipped to lead a balanced life in all areas of your life. Okay, we are going to do this thing together. So I encourage you today to get over to my website at www.angietoninirogers.com so that we can talk about scheduling a coaching session for you, where I can help you find that balance again. Okay. All right, guys, I will see you on the inside of the episode. Let's go. Okay, ladies, welcome back to this episode. And first and foremost, I want to thank you so much for being here.

And I would love if you have not already to hear from you in a written review with hopefully five stars. And so if you haven't left a review, would you do us all a favor and hop over there on the iTunes, in a click, write a review, put whatever it is that is on your heart to put in there and click those five stars. That is the best way that Apple shows this podcast to other women just like us when they're on here searching for a podcast that might be good for them. So thank you very much for doing that. Now, today, we're going to talk about how to hear from God and I wanted to use the word pray P R a, just so that we could walk through how to hear from God. So the first letter is peep and that is position.

So one of the things that I find very interesting is that we have to be in the right position. Our heart position has to be in the right space. Our mind position has to be in the right space, our mood, our emotions, all of those things have to be positioned to be able to hear from God. So I think it's important when you are positioning yourself to hear from God, to really think about why you're needing to hear from God. And when it is that you desire to hear from him, most, I have made a daily practice throughout the day to talk to God and to ask him, Hey, what do you want me to learn from this? Or what do you want me to do today? Or what are you trying to tell me through this interaction that I have all these emotions coming up from, or if there's a circumstance going on that feels kind of yucky for lack of a better word.

What is it that you're trying to show me through this? So positioning yourself for a consistent listening in on what God has for us. I feel like that's number one. You don't want to get into a place where you're seeking out to hear from God only in circumstances that are hard or circumstances in which you need something from him. You know, God's not magic, he's not a genie. He is a friend. He is a father. He is a wonderful counselor. He is our provider, but this is a relationship. So that brings me to the second letter, which is R which is relationship. If you think about relationships that you guys have, and that I have, I think about friends that I've had in my past, that I haven't talked to in years. Well, it's going to be pretty impossible for me to hear from them if I don't do something to nurture or rekindle that relationship.

So I think about some high school friends, for example, that I haven't talked to in years, well, I'm not going to hear from them because they are not reaching out and being purposeful and I am not reaching out to be purposeful. So the difference with God is, is that he yearns for us to always be in relationship with him. So he's not going to let us go void. He's not going to let us go without him or without him reminding us who he is and our lives, but we have to be willing to be looking for those reminders. You know, if one of my friends from high school picks up the phone and calls me, I have to be available to answer the phone, right. Or I miss that opportunity to catch up with, or that be back in relationship with that friend. So that's what it, I think about when I think about being in relationship with God being in relationship.

You just think about a friendship. Those friendships that you have that are thriving are people that you are in relationship with living life, with those of the best friends that you have typically, because those are who you are in daily or weekly or monthly relationship with. Now. I also have friends that I haven't talked to in awhile and maybe we meet up quarterly or something like that. And we pick up to where we left off. So those are different kinds of relationships in which we can maintain, but there's not a lot happening in the, in between. God doesn't want that kind of relationship with us either. He wants to be in our lives daily. He wants to be in relationship with us every day, which means we have to be available for when he calls us. You know, I think about metaphorically, the phone ringing.

I don't get to hear the person on the other line and be in relationship with that person unless I pick up that phone. So he wants to be in that daily relationship. So I have to be positioned to hear from him. And I have to be in relationship with him in a place where I am able to pick up that phone call. I'm able to recognize when he's trying to reach out, to talk with me or to urge me or to nudge me with something, okay, this the a is going to be to apply or act. Now, this one I think is very important because sometimes when God talks to us, it is something that is a difficult thing for us to hear because God is he, his word and his conversation with us is, can be sometimes convicted ding, but it's without condemnation.

So sometimes we hear things from him that are hard. And if we don't apply what we're hearing from him, or we don't act on what he is nudging us or urging us to do, then it's very likely that we're going to stop hearing from him. Or we're not going to hear from him as much because he can't trust us with what it is he's directing us to do. So I think that's important to remember that we have to apply or act. Another place I want to think about right here is distinguishing the voices that we hear in our thoughts in our mind from each other. So, you know, I think a lot of times God talks to us in our thoughts, in our mind, in the things that we come across, I think he uses circumstances and people and books and music and all of those things to confirm what it is he's trying to say, or maybe if we've missed his phone call, he sends us a word through a sermon at church, or he sends us a word through a friend that, that we do pick up the phone for, or if sends us a word through a worship song.

I think that he tries to use all these different ways to communicate with us. And part of us hearing that is being in position to hear it and be intentional about seeking out that friendship and relationship with him. But I think because things come in our mind and our thoughts, it takes practice to distinguish, is it his word, or is it the word of the enemy or is it my own fleshly thoughts and, and, and emotions. So if it's you, if it's your thoughts, typically the, our own thoughts come to us with some sort of logic or a analysis it's analytical. It it's similar to what we would say to ourselves, or we would say to other people. So it's, it's logical a lot of times when it's our own thoughts. The second thing is if it's of the enemy, if it's of Satan, then it is going to be more condemning or negative or a revengeful accusing blame guilty guilt written and shameful.

So it definitely not aligned with the truth. So I think if you are having those thoughts and you're asking yourself, is this a loving thought, or is this a condemning thought, is this a negative? Is this destructive? Does this destroy kill or steal from the livelihood of myself or my family or others? Does this push blame on someone else? Because none of those things are aligned with the truth and aligned with God. So I think also it's really important to distinguish your own thoughts, which should be logical and analytical and, you know, similar to what you would say with Satan's the thoughts of the enemy, because the, the enemy will use our thoughts and make us think that that's truth. And so when we're having all that negative self-talk, that is from the enemy. So that is not even us, we're even confusing our own thoughts with what the enemy is trying to make us believe.

So God's words, God's conversation with us is aligned with the word it's aligned with the truth. It's kind, it's loving, it's full of grace and mercy and forgiveness. It's encouraging. It has wisdom that is aligned with the truth. It's convicting without condemning us because he wants us to, he loves us the way they we are and who we are, but he doesn't want us to stay in that place. He wants us always growing and learning and becoming who it is he's calling us to be. And he can only do that through a loving conviction, convicting our heart, polling our heart in our thoughts and our mind and our emotions to know that we are being pulled to something that's a little more uncomfortable or we're being convicted to repent, which means turnaround and change. We're being convicted too, do something different without makeup us feel guilty and shameful.

So if the guilt and shame comes with it, then that's from the enemy. But the conviction may be there. If we allow it to go into guilt and shame or anger or resentment than we are, we may be hearing God's word, but we are allowing the enemy to take that word in, twist it. And it inhibits us from doing, applying, acting in the ways that we're being called to do. And then finally his word is healing, you know, and, and kind of like the conviction without condemnation. When he sends a word to us, sometimes it cuts going in, but it heals coming out because that's the nature of our God. So I think it's important to distinguish and always ask those questions about what is it that I'm hearing and is it me? Is it of the enemy or is it of God? And then finally the why is yes.

And, and also yearning. I think, I think we have to yearn to have a relationship with God. And I think we have to be able to say, yes, yes, God, I want a relationship with you. Yes, God, I want to hear you. Yes, God, I will follow what it is you're guiding me to do. I mean, sometimes God asks us to do things that are hard, like, you know, six months ago when I left my position that I had worked for, for all of my career that required a yes from me. And it required a relationship with God that I had been intentionally building with him over the past many, many years, but he didn't ask me to do that in a place. I wasn't ready to do it. He asked me to do it. And I, in relationship with him, questioned him and threw some tantrums and argued with him and looked for other confirmations about, am I here?

Is this you guys? Or is this me? What is this? Who is this coming from? So I did that, the work to make sure that what I was hearing was from him. So I think that there's such a value positioning your heart, making sure that the reason you're wanting to you hear from God is a reason that is to be in relationship with him, hear from him, to love him, to just be living life with him at your side. But having that, that relationship that is an ongoing relationship. Yeah. Applying and acting in a way that is consistent with, so what he's actually asking you to do, and then giving him your yes, and then also yearning for more yearning to become more to please him. And again, we don't have to work to please him. He loves us where we are and who we are.

But I do think that he calls us to grow and cause us to become, because there are so much potential in each one of us and all of that potential is necessary to impact those people that he's going to place in our lives to be in relationship with us all for the glory of his kingdom here on earth. You know, I find, I found it interesting before I close out here. I was in a service recently and I was thinking about this episode and my pastor started talking about Samuel on how he was sleeping in the same room as the, the arc of the covenant, the same room with the spirit of God yet. He had never heard God's voice. So it is possible that if we are not positioned and we're not in relationship, and we're not showing God that we will apply what he's asking us to do and saying that yes, it is possible that we could be in the same room with him and not ever hear from him.

So there's gotta be intentionality on our part to hear from him. Finally, he heard from God after three or three times, I think is when Samuel was being called by God. And he didn't know God, even though he was in the same room with the Ark of the covenant covenant. So again, I think it's so important for us to just be intentional. If you want to hear from God, then you got to be intentional about creating that space, creating that stillness, creating that relationship with him, where, when he speaks, we're open, we're ready. We have our phone on, we have it on, on, we don't have it on silent. We have it on sound. And we're going to pick up that phone call when he calls us. And then we're going to be able to recognize that it's him instead of somebody else like Satan or yourself trying to disguise yourself.

So ladies, that is what I wanted to talk with you about today. And just so remember, prey position really apply or act and say yes and yearn for more. That's how I think we can start practicing from here or to hear from our daddy. God, thank you God, for this time with these ladies, God, I thank you for every single lady that's represented here. Every single woman that is here represents a family. And I thank you, God, that you are moving in her life so that she is able to impact those, that she is around those in relationship with her. I pray God that the voice of Satan is distinguished so that we know when the enemy is coming to destroy and kill and steal what it is you have for each of us. God reveal that to us, reveal yourself in your word to us.

As we work to distinguish what it is we're being asked to do and what it is we're experiencing and what's happening around us, God reveal yourself to us so that we may see you for who you are, which is hope and light and provision. And, and I just thank you, God, that you are here with each one of us today. And I thank you for the strength and the wisdom and discernment that you're giving each woman that is here listening today in the name of almighty Jesus. Amen. All right, ladies, I will see you guys on the next episode and make sure you hop over to the Facebook group to join us in community and remember to leave that review so that we can share this thing with other women have a great day guys.

Hey, before you go, I'd love for you to hop over to my podcast and give me a review. And you know, I'd love five stars. That's how we can share this thing with other women, just like us, your five stars and written review really helps me get the word out. You can also take a screenshot of this episode and tag me in your Insta and Facebook stories. And I'll give you a shout out right back, leaving a review and sharing this episode is the best way you can show me some luck. Thanks so much. And I'll see him the next episode. And remember your smile is like a boomerang, throw one at somebody and it'll come right back.

EP 43 Am I Too Flawed, Cracked, Weak to Serve My Purpose? Am I Equipped to Do What God Has Called me To Do? What if I Feel Inadequate, What if I am not enough?

EP 43 Am I Too Flawed, Cracked, Weak to Serve My Purpose? Am I Equipped to Do What God Has Called me To Do? What if I Feel Inadequate, What if I am not enough?

Hey ladies, welcome back to this episode of Wholly Made Life™. Today. I'm going to tell you a little story that I actually heard several years ago in a leadership training. And recently over the past couple of weeks, I've heard it again by a lady named Vonnie Lopez, who is a pastor preacher, and also my pastor, Stephanie Harrison. And I just thought it would be a great story to share with you ladies, because I think it reminds us how God can use us, despite our circumstances, despite our history, despite all that we've walked through that we think disqualifies us from doing his work for his glory in his kingdom. So today I want to talk about a story about a cracked pot. All right. So it is a story about a lady who needed to get water from a well daily. And back in the day, whenever it was that this story occurred, she had to walk through the city up and down Hills and make a Trek every day to get water.

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So she had a contraption that she put on her back. It was a stick that went across her back and on both sides were a bucket or a pot. And the, she walked and as she got water, one bucket would stay full and work really hard to keep all the water inside the bucket and the other bucket or the other pot had a crack or a series of cracks. So despite how hard this little clay pot or this little bucket try, he was not able, or she was, was not able, we'll say to keep the water inside herself. And so as the lady walked from the well back to home, she would lose water all the way home. Yeah. Now I first want to talk about the, well, this is something that was quite a revelation that I got in a Bible study again with my pastor, Stephanie Harrison.

And she talked about the well and how in the Bible we talk about things that happen at the well, well, one thing to know about the well, number one, and this is kind of an aside from the story, but one thing we want to know about a well is that it is a community spot. It's a place where all the village or all the people go to get their water. So you go into a community into a village setting where there's a community well, where everyone is getting water from the well that's important because it shows you that no matter what happens when you are in a community, that there is water present, there's water. There. There's always someone there to help you get what you need from that. Well, whether you have a bucket or not, whether you have a pot or not to dip into that, well, to get the water that you need to sustain you, there's always somebody there that will give you or help you with getting that water.

You come, and you don't have the bucket that you need. You can get being guaranteed that in community, there will be a sister there that will be there to support you and be able to help you draw water from that. Well, so that was a regulatory thing that I just I thought that was so powerful because so many times we try to do this thing by ourselves. So many times we try to solve all the problems. Number one, we don't go to God. First, number two, we don't reach out to our sisters who are there in our community to support us. Now, if you don't have sisters to support you, then hop over to the Facebook group of Holy made life. Because there are a lot of sisters there that can, we can commune together and we can work to support each other. There is no pride in keeping what you need and what your struggles are to yourself.

He did not design us to be alone and be individual. He didn't design us to get help that way. He, yes, we need to go to him first. But he also, if you think about how people were, were going to the well and these communities, I think as pastor Stephanie said, that is a purposeful, meaningful thing that he wants us to go to community, to get what we need from the community. Just as in him. Now, again, he is always number first. That's what the Bible says, correct? Order is, is God, your spouse, then your children, and then everyone else. Okay. So you got to keep things in order. But the point is, is that we have to commune with each other and where, where I am weak, someone else, one of my sisters is strong. And the same thing when you, Oh, this is so powerful.

When you are struggling with something, there's a sister in your community. That's not struggling with that thing right then. So she can be your strength and your your place where you can go to get that encouragement and support to say, listen, SIS, you can do this. The word of God says you are fearfully and wonderfully made and you are strengthened in him. So and when two or three are gathered together, he's in the midst of us. So, you know, there's a reason why all of us don't struggle with something at the same time, because we're here to support each other and help each other. When I'm down my sister's up. When my sister's down, I'm up. And that's how it's designed, it's designed so that we can support each other. Okay? So this lady walking to the well, every day, one pot works really hard to stay full.

The second pot has several series of cracks and no matter how hard this pot tries, water trickles out. So the time by the time she gets home, the pot is almost empty or half full, half empty. However, you want to look at that. Okay. So one day the as the, as the woman is walking, the pots are talking to each other. And the one that is full, both about how she can keep her pot full and she doesn't spill, not a drop. And so she is able to provide for that woman once she gets in her home. Okay? So she, this pot is boasting about this. And this other part that has a series of cracks is saddened and burdened and feels not adequate. And not enough. This cracked pot feels like she's not serving her purpose. And so she feels condemned and guilty and shameful that she can't do quote, unquote, her job that she was designed to do, which is to carry water back to the home.

So she thought, so isn't that like, God, that sometimes he has a plan for us. That's different than what we think our purpose and our plan is keep that pin that right there, because we're going to get back to that. Okay? So as these parts are conversing and the cracked pot is getting more and more frustrated, finally, the crackpot, as they're getting ready to go on their journey to the, well, again, this morning, the crackpot builds up some strength and some courage and decides to speak to its owner, to her owner. And the crackpot says to the owner, just let me go, just put me down. I cannot serve you. How you need me to serve you. I have cracks. I can't carry the water. Like you need me to, I can't serve you in your home. Like you need me to, I am not worthy.

Don't carry me anymore. I am a burden to you. All it is is just a burden. And so the owner says, Hey, little pot, as we walk to. And from the, well, I want you to pay attention to the surrounding rather than working so hard to keep all the water inside of you. Once I get this water, I want you to look out and look forward and look around and pay to your surroundings. And I want you to tell me what you see. So as they're walking back after the owner has filled up both pots, the full pot is snickering and laughing that she is keeping her pot full and not a drop is falling out. She's working really hard to stay full. The other part though follows her owners directives, and she starts to look out and look around. And as she starts to look at the path on her side of where her owner carries her, she sees a whole array of colors.

There's a whole array of colors and it is beautiful and it is vast. And it's so life-giving. And so she said yes to the owner owner, why is my side full of color? And my sister side is, is empty and barren. And the owner says, I knew you had it cracks all along. I purposed you because I knew the cracks that you had would pour out water onto the side onto the ground. And so, in preparation for you, I put seeds in the ground, knowing that you would sustain life. As I walked with you, as the water fell through the cracks. So you all along have been purposed and use to create a harvest, to feed the ground with your water. Your water has fed the ground so that these flowers could grow. So you have shared your worth with the world. It's one thing, ladies, to be who it is your call to be in your home.

And that's 100% important. It's an additional thing to not only be who it is, you're call to be in purpose for in your home, but also to spread that beyond the walls of your home, to spread that purpose out into the world so that others are impacted by your purpose. In the other thing, is that those cracks would you thought made you not adequate and not worthy are the very thing that makes you purposed makes you exactly who God's called you to be at this very moment. Those cracks history, that thing that happened to you, all of that is on purpose. As far as being used. It's, you know, God doesn't want bad things to happen to us, but he doesn't waste things that have happened to us. He wishes that we don't have the cracks. Yes, of course we do. And he does too.

However, what he's not to do is waste those cracks. He's going to learn, he's going not learn. We're going to learn how it is that he has designed us to be and how he wants us to use the stuff that's happened to us. Use the cracks that we have to water the people around us with his life, with his glory. So I was just very impacted by that. Again, I just felt it and received it differently than I did years ago when I first heard this in a leadership training. And I just think it's so relevant. There are so many things going on right now. And there are so many reasons why we tell ourselves that we're not good enough. We're not adequate. We have too many flaws. We have too many cracks. You know, we can't do what we think that we should be doing when all along those very cracks.

Those very flaws are exactly what purposes us to make the impact that God has designed us to make. So today, God, I just want to thank you for each lady. That's listening to us today. Each of us have cracks and flaws and God, we thank you today for purposing us to use our flaws, to use our story, to do it anyway, do the things that are hard, do the things that are scary because you've called us to walk and step in authority. Despite our cracks, despite our history, despite our upgrading upbringing, despite who our mama was, despite who our daddy was do, despite all the things that we think disqualifies us, those are the very things, God that you have said, that's what qualifies you. Let me tell you, I am thankful that God has called us and equipped us with what we need for right now in this very moment.

And each of you are equipped. You have exactly what you need right now inside of you. God, I thank you for opening up our hearts. I thank you for opening up our eyes to see ourselves as you see us. And I ask that you, that you reveal the purpose that you have for each one of us so that we can walk in the authority that you have already given us. God, I ask you to reveal it to us now so that we know what it is you're calling us to do. I ask you to open up our hearts, open up our spirit so that we can receive what it is that you've called us to do. Thank you God, for the cracks. Thank you for the flaws. God, thank you. Because in our inadequacy, in our, not enough in our weakness, you said you make us strong.

You make us strong in our weakness, in our cracks and our flaws. You fill in those gaps. And we thank you for that in the name of Jesus. Amen. All right, ladies, that is today's episode. Thank you for listening in and as always guys, if you need any assistance, if you need any help, if you want to reach out I'm available. Angietoninirogers@gmail.com, by the way, I just launched my website. Finally, it's been under construction for so long and it's finally up. So you can find all of my coaching menus and information. You can find your new podcast episodes. You can find my favorite things and any other resources that I've ever talked about on the podcast, on my website. And that is https://www.angietoninirogers.com So hop on over there and you know, leave me a message so that I know what it is that you, you are looking for. I would love to hear from you so that I know, Hey, what are the things that you want me to talk to you about? What are the things that you want to commune about? Because sisters, that's what we're here for to support each other and help each other. Walk this thing out. All right. Okay, ladies. See, on the next episode…

 

 

EP 42 What is the Symbolism of a Lighthouse? Stand Strong, Mama, You're Not Too Busy to Be the Light, Hope, Peace, & Joy

EP 42 What is the Symbolism of a Lighthouse? Stand Strong, Mama, You're Not Too Busy to Be the Light, Hope, Peace, & Joy

Welcome back to this episode of Wholly Made Life. Ladies. I'm so glad that you're here today. Joining me. I am always grateful for those of you who are listening and get to share a few minutes with me a couple of times a week. So again, I just want to thank you for always tuning in and listening. And by the way, I also want to thank those of you who have left to review and who have shared an episode here or there with one of your sisters who you think might benefit from the information. So, so my ladies today, we are going to talk about standing strong young lady because you, my friend are a lighthouse let's get into today.

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Hey guys. Welcome back to this episode. So today, ladies, I want you to stand up strong. Go ahead. Actually, if you're not driving, go ahead, stand up, put your shoulders back, put your chest out. Brace yourself with your feet a little bit shorter. We shoulder length apart and just look forward and stand strong young lady because you, my friend are a lighthouse. I don't know why a lighthouse has just kept kind of appearing to me as I'm driving through. I'll see something that says light house, or I drove, I drove by a church that has a program called the lighthouse, but I decided to go ahead and talk to you ladies about a lighthouse because as I started studying and looking through things and thinking about the lighthouse, it made me think of you ladies, because you ladies are a lighthouse. So let's talk about it.

A lighthouse is a tower or a beacon or a structure containing a light to warn our guide ships coming to shore or to help assist with aerial navigation. It is a powerful light that cuts through the darkness. It stands strong through damaging storms. It AIDS in navigation for the loss, for the weary, for the confuse. And even for the disoriented, it is a symbol of strength and individuality or uniqueness. It is a symbol for safety. It withstands those powerful storms. So it is resilient in nature. It gives a sense of hope and a safe Haven when the ship or the captain is, has been out to sea and they are pulling in and they finally see that light, that small glimmer of light, it provides hope in the distance for them to be guided safely to Harbor. A lighthouse is something that overcomes challenges and adversities.

You can think about it in that way, where no matter what kind of storm or rocks or waves are on the shore, no matter what kind of damaging winds, the light house stands and the light burns on. The other neat thing about lighthouses are that they're local hated strategically and intense. They're not everywhere. They're specifically placed in areas in which it is dark. It is in an area where, where it will light up the most hazardous or dangerous of coastlines. So it's strategically placed intentionally placed in the most hazardous and most dangerous places. And this is to guide the safe entry of ships to harbors, or again, that aerial navigation. So while these were wildly used in the past, operational lighthouses have declined. So the use of operational lighthouses has declined. Interesting. I feel like because the use of lighthouses have declined because of the, of the maintenance of the lighthouse.

Now, I find that interesting because it makes me think about our culture. If we are lighthouses symbolically, how expensive does it have to get until we decide that we need to become an operational and stop shining our light because it gets too expensive in this culture. It's too expensive to stay peculiar or stay unique, or stay individual as an individual that shines light in the darkness through challenges through adversities. Think about that. How it's expensive. Does it have to get for us to go ahead and throw in the towel and shut down our lights? Just a thought that I want you guys to think about this. The other neat thing that I think about with lighthouses is that the job of the light house keeper. So the light house building foundation is strong, but there needed to be a light house keeper to ensure that light kept burning so that it would never go out.

The person who tended to the lighthouse was keeping the light so that even in the most dire circumstances, the light would continue to burn so that people could find their way in darkness. I think about the light housekeeper as our God, the God is always there keeping us and the Holy spirit within us is always burning as long as we decide to stay operational in that function of shining light. Right? I found this very inspiring when I started to think about what a light house does, what it's for and the spiritual connection of, or the, I guess, the symbolism that I think of when I think of the job of a lighthouse to be the only glimmer of light in the darkest of the dark, the only glimmer of hope in the most hazardous, confused, disoriented situation, that my sister is what we are called for to be light for others, to be a glimmer of hope for others, to always shine the light that is within us and never let it burn out.

So that at any point, anyone coming into our circumstances in our life, in our circle, if they are suffering through a storm, if they are walking through darkness, we can be that glimmer of hope and that light that helps guide them into shore safely back to where it is they need to be to light themselves up again. I just, I find it's so parallel. And especially when you think about the fact that because of the expense, a lot of lighthouses has gone have gone on operational. They've stopped operating because of the expense that just reminds me of the culture in which we live. Everything always pounding against us to try to tell us that it is too expensive to continue to shine our light through all of this darkness. Think about 2020. We were pounded and pounded and pounded with confusion and anger and hate.

And those of us who were symbolically house chose to keep shining no matter what was happening, everybody around us could see that we're still standing strong. We're still that structure. We're still that beacon of hope. We're still that person that can guide people back to shore, back to a safe place. We still help the lost navigate their way. The weary come find rest and peace with us. We were not the ones creating the division. We were creating unity through loving and shining our light on others. That's what a lighthouse is. It stands strong, despite adversity, despite challenges, despite the expense, it stays in operation 24 seven to shine the light through the darkness. So, wow, that was just something that for whatever reason, the Holy spirit dropped in me. And so I looked up some verses to see what I could find that would parallel or align.

And some of the verses that I came across were John eight, 12. Again, Jesus spoke to them saying, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. I don't know about you. But that to me is paralleled with what we're talking about. Being that light house, Matthew five 14 through 16, you are the light of the world. A city set on a Hill cannot be hidden nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand. And it gives light to all in the house in the same way. Let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven, give glory to our light house, keeper, our God, wow. Psalm 43, three sent out your light and your truth. Let them lead me. Let them bring me to your Holy Hill and to your door. Guide them back, guide them back to the shore, to the safe place, to God's arms.

I mean, so good. I feel like so good ladies. I want you to think about how you stand strong and who it is. God's called you to be the light that he's put within you. The Holy spirit that is moving and burning within you. He has so equipped you to be that light, be that shimmer, that glimmer of hope to all of those around you. And even when you are feeling in a dark place or in a place where challenge after challenge is coming and beating up against you like the waves do against the rocks. That's a time for you to burn even brighter, praise, even harder, seek out the other lighthouses in your life to help them guide you. You know, sometimes we are on those ships in the sea that need to find that tiny little glimmer of light up on that hillside to help guide us, find other lighthouses in your life that you can go to when you are the captain on a ship that is sailing through some storms and sailing through the dark.

All right, ladies, I we'd love to pray for you today. So God, I want to come to you today and just thankfulness and praise. I want to praise you for each and every woman listening to this podcast today, God, every family represented here today. I speak blessings over them. Now in the name of Jesus, I speak your hope, your light, your strength, your wisdom, your peace, your safe place that you give them to come hide. I pray that they are overwhelmed with that peace and that love today. God, I pray that they walk strong in the Holy spirit, equipped miraculous gifts. You've given them on the inside so that they may be a shining light to all of those that encounter them. Thank you God, for every single heart that is touched today, that is changed today. That is reminded today of how much you love her.

Thank you God. For changed hearts, transformed minds and awakened spirits. Thank you God. For shining light upon the gifts that you have given your children of the promise. We say yes to you, God. And we say amen. In the name of Jesus. Amen guys. I will see you guys on the next episode. Hey, what's up successful mama. Listen, I know you are a success driven woman, so I know you're successful in your job or your career, your business. But I also know that there's something going on in your heart or your mind where you're feeling a little unbalanced or a little off as a mom or as a wife or maybe in another area of your life. Are you unsure of what this thing is? You've been feeling, but you know, there's something missing. You're wanting something more. Do you wish there was a way for you to feel balanced in all areas of your life?

Says, what if you could go from feeling restless or burnt out overwhelmed or stressed out all the time to actually restoring the joy and feeling balanced in all areas of your life? Well, let me tell you, I have felt this way. We've all felt this way sometimes where we've just been off or felt unbalanced, but it's when you're stuck and you can't really get past it when you might need to reach out for some help. And that's where I'm here for you. Listen, I believe you're not created to do just one thing. Well in your life, you're not just your job or your title or your salary. You're not just a mom, a wife or a sister. You are fearfully and wonderfully made and you're made to lead in all areas of your whole life. God has a specific intention for you in all areas of your life.

You deserve to have joy and feel completely balanced in all parts of your life. You can't actually feel successful as a mom and a wife and a friend and at work. So are you ready to reclaim your whole life and happen to God-sized fulfillment and all areas of your life? Well, friend, I have something for you. I can help you find that again and help you rediscover. God's big idea for you and your life. We're going to go through an hour session where we are going to get you balanced. We're going to fix the foundation of your Holy made life. And we're going to go through my framework of idea, which is identity, identify, define, embrace, and activate. We're going to go through that entire framework to get you back to where you feel equipped to lead a balanced life in all areas of your life. Okay, we are going to do this thing together. So I encourage you today to get over to my website at www.angietoninirogers.com so that we can talk about scheduling a coaching session for you, where I can help you find that balance again. Okay?

Okay. Hey, before you go, I'd love for you to hop over to my podcast and give me a review and you know, I'd love five stars. That's how we can share this thing with other women, just like us. You're five stars and written review really helps me get the word out. You can also take a screenshot of this episode and tag me in your Insta and Facebook stories. And I'll give you a shout out right back, leaving a review and sharing this episode is the best way you can show me some luck. Thanks so much. And I'll see him the next episode. And remember your smile is like a boomerang, throw one at somebody and it'll come right back.

 

EP 41 Why Am I so Burnt Out, Stressed, Overwhelmed, Restless? Let's Talk About the Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer

EP 41 Why Am I so Burnt Out Stressed Overwhelmed Restless Let's Talk About the Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer

Get the Book: Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer

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For my yoke is easy. And my burden is light. Jesus said that in Matthew 11, verses 28 through 30 today, we're going to talk about how to make our burdens more lights from the teachings of what Jesus said. Let's get into it. Hey ladies, before we get into this episode to talk about how his yoke is easy and his burden is light and why we get so stuck about living that out. I wanted to let you know about a new free gift that I have for you. It's called the BIG IIDEAA journal. It is a 26 page journal that you can download and use and go through the Wholly made life, short assessment, and start to go through some journaling prompts and things that will help you start on your journey to going through your identity, identifying areas in your life that you might need to change, defining it, embracing where you are, where you're going and activating, coming up with an action plan and then assessing, okay.

Thinking about, okay, what is it that's going well and what needs to change? So I've got a journal for you that I created. You can go to https://bit.ly/IIDEAAjournal And that will get you your free copy of this journal that I created for you guys. And this is just for my Holy made life ladies. So I wanted to let you know, also that link will be in the show notes and you'll be able to grab that. But I wanted to let you know about that free gift for you. I just released it. And I wanted to make sure that you guys were the first to get a copy because after all you guys are my girls, you're the ones that made it for all right. All right, let's get into it.

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Hey, what's up successful mama, listen, I know you are a success driven woman, so I know you're successful in your job or your career, your business. But I also know that there's something going on in your heart or your mind where you're feeling a little Unbound or a little off as a mom or as a wife, or maybe in another area of your life. Are you unsure of what this thing is? You've been feeling, but you know, there's something missing. You're wanting something more. Do you wish there was a way for you to feel balanced in all areas of your life? Since what if you could go from feeling restless or burnt out overwhelmed or stressed out all the time to actually restoring the joy and feeling balanced in all areas of your life? Well, let me tell you, I have felt this way. We've all felt this way sometimes where we've just been off or felt unbalanced, but it's when you're stuck and you can't really get past it when you might need to reach out for some help.

And that's where I'm here for you. Listen, I believe you're not created to do one thing well in your life, you're not just your job or your title or your salary. You're not, not just a mom, a wife or a sister. You are fearfully and wonderfully made, and you're made to lead in all areas of your whole life. God has a specific intention for you in all areas of your life. You deserve to have joy and feel completely balanced in all parts of your life. You can actually feel successful as a man and a wife and a friend and at work. So are you ready to reclaim it your whole life? And it's happened to God-sized fulfillment in all areas of your life. Well, friend, I have something for you. I can help you find that balance again and help you rediscover. God's big idea for you and your life.

We're going to go through an hour session where we are going to get you balanced. We're going to fix the foundation of your Wholly Made Life. And we're going to go through my framework of idea, which is identity, identify, define, embrace, and activate. We're going to go through that entire framework to get you back to where you feel equipped to lead a balanced life in all areas of your life. Okay, we are going to do this thing together. So I encourage you today to get over to my email angietoninirogers@gmail.com so that we can talk about scheduling a coaching session for you, where I can help you find that balance again. Okay. All right, guys, I will see you on the inside of the episode. Let's go, come to me all year, who are weary and burdened, and I will give you, take my yoke upon you and learn from me for, I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy. And my burden is light. Jesus said that in Matthew 11, verses 28 through 30 today, we're going to talk about how to make our burdens more lights from the teachings of what Jesus said. Let's get into it. Hey ladies, before we get into this episode to talk about how his yoke is easy and his burden is light and why we get so stuck about living that out. I wanted to let you know about a new free gift that I have for you. It's called the BIG IIDEAA journal. It is a 26 page journal that you can download and use and go through the Wholly made life, short assessment, and start to go through some journaling prompts and things that will help you start on your journey to going through your identity, identifying areas in your life that you might need to change, defining it, embracing where you are, where you're going and activating, coming up with an action plan and then assessing, okay.

Thinking about, okay, what is it that's going well and what needs to change? So I've got a journal for you that I created. You can go to https://bit.ly/IIDEAAjournal And that will get you your free copy of this journal that I created for you guys. And this is just for my Holy made life ladies. So I wanted to let you know, also that link will be in the show notes and you'll be able to grab that. But I wanted to let you know about that free gift for you. I just released it. And I wanted to make sure that you guys were the first to get a copy because after all you guys are my girls, you're the ones that made it for all right. All right, let's get into it.

Welcome back to this episode of Wholly Made Life. And I am excited to share with you today about a book that I recently read. It is so amazing. Okay. So the title of this book is called the Ruthless Elimination of Hurry and it's by John Mark Comer. So the first quote that he has in the book is it is a scripture and it is come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest, take my yoke upon you and learn from me for, I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. This is what Jesus says in Matthew 11 verses 28 through 30. So this book is all about hurry, the hurriedness and the busy-ness of our lives. And I just want to read a little bit more and I will put a link in the show notes to this book.

You can find it anywhere on Amazon. It's an audio book. I've listened to it a couple of times on audible. So I will put a link to this book because I think if you are anything, like I am the busy-ness is such a distraction in our lives. And I want to talk and I want to talk about it because it's about time that we get okay with eliminating the hurry in our life. So he says this on page two of his book. My life is so fast and I like fast I'm type a I'm driven. I get it done type of guy, but we're all past that night. Now I work six days a week early to late, and it's still not enough time to get it all done worse. I feel hurried like I'm tearing through each day. So busy with life that I'm missing out on one more on the moment and what is life, but a series of moments.

So he talks about hurry and busy-ness and talks about, is this the way of Jesus is this who I'm actually becoming? He talks about all of the focus on being busy and hurried and out on the actual moments of our day, he talks about always being in a hurry, rushing to become somebody that he doesn't even like. He doesn't want this in his life. And I don't think that you do either. And so this book is all about eliminating hurry. So he talks about an inventory that we can take. And I'm telling you, this book was life-changing. I'm going to have to read it again. I've listened to it twice. And I'm about to go through the written part of the book. But here are 10 symptoms that John Mark Homer says that might indicate that you are a victim or a participator you're in the life of being hurried.

All right. Number one is irritability. Number two is yeah. Hypersensitivity. Number three is restlessness. Number four is workaholism. I know none of you have ever heard of that one before. Right? number five is emotional numbness. That's a really good one. Number six is out of order priorities. Number seven is lack of care for your body. Number eight is escapist behaviors. Number nine is slippage of spiritual disciplines. And number 10 is isolation. I don't know about you, but I feel like we just hit on every area of our Holy made life pie. If you are in a place where you are feeling irritable or hypersensitive or restless, or you're working way too much, or you are nonstop activity, like you're go, go, go. You can't stop. You feel like you are having to keep a pack schedule. And even when you don't have something to do you feel like you should be doing something emotional numbness is like, when you are numb to the things going on around you, like example.

When is the last time that you remember laughing did seriously? When you think about your day, do you recall laughing and feeling joyful today out of border priorities? Yes. That is their lack of care for your body. Oh my goodness. How many of us are in such a hurry that we grab a quick bite to eat on the way home from the fast food restaurant? We don't remember the last time we had a healthy home cooked meal. You know, we are living on coffee and diet sodas with caffeine, maybe we're drinking bangs or some other type of energy drink. What about the fact that escapist behaviors? I can raise hand on this one that I used my workaholism to escape the places or the things that I felt less competent in. Maybe you're just so tired that you don't choose to do things that would impact others positively, or maybe create that quality time that your husband is looking for. So you, you turn to whatever your distraction of choices like Netflix or social media,

I don't know about you, but it was,

It would be a really neat experiment. I think if you wrote down every single time you picked up your phone to check an email or check to check a social media site, literally that's an assignment, okay. For the next day, the next 24 hours, when you get up, I want you to make it tick in a notebook or however you keep track, but make a little tick of how many times you pick up your phone in idle times where you check social media, where you check an email, where you go back and see how many likes you got on your story, or how many viewers you got. I guarantee you it's much more time than you probably even realize is going to that. Okay. Number nine, talking about the slippage of spiritual disciplines. I don't know about you, but when you're in a hurry, when you get over busy, the things that are truly life-giving like prayer, like reminding yourself of what God says about you using biblical principles.

And the only way you do that is by opening up the BI B L E. Those things tend to fall off. What about those Wednesday nights? At least for me, where it's church night and you are just so swamped or so busy that you're like, ah, maybe I'll just watch online instead of getting yourself to the church building where you'll be surrounded by other people who you love and love you. And you can gather together in a praise and worship. Those are the things that tend to slip. He goes into an entire chapter and maybe it's more than that on the Sabbath. That's a whole 'nother section that I won't go into, but, and then finally, isolation, isolation, w you know, when we are feeling hurried and busy, it is like a domino effect. We start to feel disconnected from God, which makes us feel disconnected from others, which makes us feel disconnected from ourselves and who we are and who we're becoming.

And then we forget to talk to God. It's like this vicious cycle. So if you were to think about these things and score yourself in irritability, hypersensitivity, restlessness, workaholism, emotional numbness, out of order priorities, lack of care for your body, escape, his behavior, slippage of spiritual disciplines or isolation, that's 10 items. How many of those would you raise your hand and say, yep, that's me. Yep. I'm guilty of that one. Yep. I fallen into this other one. How many? Five, seven, eight, ten one. I'm telling you right now that when things feel a little out of control or a little unbalanced, a little overwhelming, I can raise my hand for all 10 of these. If you can raise your hand for at least half of these, then you may be in that may be an indicator that you may be living a hurried busy. So as far as this book, first thing as we always talk about ladies is awareness, personal awareness.

You gotta be aware of what's going on. You got to stop long enough to recognize where a problem might be. You know, when you're feeling that restlessness or that overwhelm or that stress, or you're just not finding the joy and things that you used to anymore, or maybe you're thinking back on your day or maybe a week and thinking, man, have I even laughed about anything? If you're in a place where you're feeling that way, number one, get this book, it will change your life. Number two, grab a coaching session with me. This is exactly what I worked through with my clients. So grab a session@angietoninirogers@gmail.com. These are the things that we are identifying and defining. We're embracing where we are. We're coming up with an action plan to activate to make a difference in these areas. And then we are assessing to make sure that we are staying on the right track and evaluating to make changes as we need to.

Okay. So I just want to remind you of that, but this book I'm telling you is absolutely amazing. So let me give you a quick cliff notes of what some of the solutions are that John Mark Comer, the author of the Ruthless Elimination of Hurry recommends. So the first solution is to discuss time. We all have the same amount of time every single day. So what he talks about is to slow down and manage your time effectively. The greatest thing that in the world that we can do is to become aware of what we're doing every single day, so that we can manage our time in a way that is beneficial to really work towards who it is we are intended to become. You know, we did all throughout my time, working in mental health and in social worker arenas, we did what we called time studies.

And I can remember the groans now when it was time to do our time studies. So this is where for a certain block of time, let's say you work an eight hour shift and it is every five minutes or every 15 minutes. You have to label what you did during that block of time. And you have to do that for your whole shift. And usually we would do it for an entire week. So if you work a five day work week in an eight hour shift, then you would have to every 15 minutes label what it was you were doing. And I will tell you those people that were being honest in their times, it was eye opening because there were so many times where you would look at those results and you would see that, wow, you're spending so much time on emails. You're not getting to any of the actual day-to-day operations that you should be participating in.

Or there were so many different times where let's say you had a 15 minute block and you would have several different labels during that 15 minutes, it showed a lot of distractibility or you were not managing your time. Well, so you would start an email and then get interrupted with a phone call and then somebody would be at your door and then you would go get a glass of water, and then you would come back and eat a snack. And then you would answer the phone. And then you would answer an email. And, you know, by the end of an eight hour shift, it's like my goodness, what did I do all day? So if you have never done a time study of sorts, I would take as many, much as it feels kind of annoying. It is so eye opening to take a look at what you're actually doing in a day.

So from the time you wake up to the time you go to bed, I would say one of the first things that you should do is just do a time study. It doesn't have to be elaborate, but just keep a little record of what you're doing. And maybe you do it an hour blocks. So it's a little bit easier to manage, but that will at least give you an idea of what you're doing throughout the day. Okay. The second thing he talks about is the secret, the easy yoke, and, Oh my goodness, this was so good. You guys, this is on, this starts on page 75 of his book. I'm telling you, you guys have to get this book. Okay. He talks about the easy yoke and he talks about Jesus saying that his yoke is easy and his burden is light. So really what does that mean?

It talks about the way that Jesus shouldered the weight of life, living as a human being, walking this earth and experiencing thing that we have experienced. So when we think about ourselves, it's the way that we shoulder the weight of our lives through marriage, through to force through prayer, through money, through sex, through conflict, conflict, through government, through a law, all of those things that we are all shouldering as a weight. And if you think about what we've had to shoulder through the weight of life, this past year in 2020, and halfway into this year, it's the way in which we carry that. It's the way in which we shoulder that weight.

Yeah. Two oxygen that's yoke together to pull a cart, to plow a field. The yoke on the oxygen is how they shoulder that load. What made Jesus unique wasn't that he had, it was that he had an easy yoke think about it. And I have never thought about this scripture in this way before, but yes, I know that, you know, he's got an easy yoke and his burdens are light. I never really attributed to it's because of the way he shoulders that weight. And he's calling us to shoulder the weight, but to give him the weight that we're carrying in our lives so that he can shoulder it for us, shoulder it in a way that will make it light. I just, I was, I was blown away by the way that he talked about the easy yoke and the light Brown that Jesus carries.

So let me read this again to you. The scripture come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest, take my yoke upon you and learn from me for, I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy. And my burden is light. This is from Matthew 11. And I'm paraphrasing a little bit. Think about that. This is like an invitation from Jesus to live, how Jesus is calling us to live. It's like saying, are you tired? Are you burnt out? Are you overwhelmed? Are you stressed out? Are you restless? Come to me, daughter, come to me, get away with me and I'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. I'll show you how to rest. Walk with me and work with me. Watch how I do it.

Jesus is saying to us and inviting us, learn from him, learn the rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me. Stay with me, learn from me. Talk with me, walk with me, be at peace with me. And you will learn to live freely and lightly too. That's what God's saying. That is what this author is reminding us. It's an invitation for us. We're tired. We're burnt out. We're stressed. Yes. We're stuck. We're going through our to-do lists. We are on caffeine just to make it through the day. What if we didn't have to live like that? What if we were able to give ourselves permission? Not to be hurried, not to have to check off that last thing before bed. I mean, what if we accepted this invitation to allow him to show us how to shoulder the weight of life so that it is a light burden?

My goodness, that's good right there. You can't tell me that's not good, but here's the thing we want that life. We want that easy life. We want that easy yoke. We want that burden to be light. We want to be able to shoulder that weight of light so that it is light, but Jesus didn't just live that life. He wasn't just about that life. He lived and walked and talked a lifestyle. It's like, we want that life, but not willing to adopt the lifestyle behind it. That's what this author says. And yes, that might give you a little spiritual spanking or a little personal awareness. But that's the truth. Sometimes we make things so much more difficult because we're not really working intentionally to adopt the lifestyle that he modeled for us. And not only that, he modeled this lifestyle, but he gave us equipment that we are to use to help us create this lifestyle.

The equipment is the yoke. A yoke is a work instrument. It's a thing that helps us bear the responsibilities that we have in life. It's a way that he can help us use a piece of equipment. Metaphorically called a yoke that helps us shoulder, the weight of life in a bearable way. You guys, the ticket is not to think about an easier life because he never said that we'd have an easy life. He says, when the trials and tribulation comes, when the struggle comes, we will be prepared, right? He will give us what we need while he has said to us, yes, that he has an easy yoke. He has an easy and a light burden. He is not saying that we're going to have an easy life. He's saying that he's given us the equipment to shoulder the responsibilities and bear the responsibilities that we have in our life.

That can be hard sometimes. Yeah. Revelation. That's what this is. Okay. So he does say that there are four solutions and I'm not going to give you all the details around these, because I know that this book for my listeners, you ladies, that are sitting here listening to the Wholly made life. I know this book is for you. So I just want you to go get it. And I don't get a daggone thing for you going to get this book, other than knowing that this book is going to be a gift to you and your life. Okay. All right. So the four solutions that he mentioned, and you're going to have to go get the book to dive in, to see what these mean. All right. Number one, silence and solitude. Number two, the Sabbath number three, simplicity. And number four is I lost it slowing.

Okay, ladies, I hope this was helpful. And yes, I just dropped the mic and like slam the book shut because this book is like a mic drop moment. Okay, ladies, I urge you go out and get this book. It will be such a gift to your life. And like I said before, if you are working through these kinds of things and you're feeling stuck, jump over to AngieToniniRogers@gmail.com, let me know that you're ready for a coaching session and we will walk through this thing together. All right, ladies, I will see you on the next episode of Wholly made life, where we can live it out together and live whole wholly.

Hey, before you go, I'd love for you to hop over to my podcast and give me a review. And you know, I'd love five stars. That's how we can share this thing with other women, just like us, your five stars and written review really helps me get the word out. You can also take a screenshot of this episode and tag me in your Insta and Facebook stories. And I'll give you a shout out right back, leaving a review and sharing this episode is the best way you can show me some luck. Thanks so much. And I'll see him the next episode. And remember your smile is like a boomerang, throw one at somebody and it'll come right back.

 

EP 40 How Accurate are Personality Assessments? Are Personality Tests Effective for Defining Who I Am? Do I Need to Be Concerned about my Emotional Intelligence?

EP 40 How Accurate are Personality Assessments? Are Personality Tests Effective for Defining Who I Am? Do I Need to Be Concerned about my Emotional Intelligence?

Oh girl, you are such an introvert!

Hey, you are way too analytical.

You are such a high achiever.

You are such a type A!

Oh no, I can't do that. I'm an introvert.

I am way too shy for that...

You're the life of the party. You are like a magnet. Everybody comes to you everywhere you go.

Have you guys ever heard of any of these kinds of things? I'm a type, a personality.  I'm a partier. Maybe you have heard that you are a, like... a dictator. Well, all of these kinds of things come from personality traits and there are so many different personality assessments out there. And I just wanted to give you a soft warning about personality tests today in this episode, that's what we're going to talk about. A warning about all of the different personality tests actions.

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Welcome back friends to this episode of Holy made life. Before we get into it, I want to talk to you for just a minute. Listen, I know how you might be feeling right now. There's a lot going on around us. And I think that that impacts how we feel about our ability to feel successful in all areas of your life. There's something going on in our hearts and our minds. And we're just feeling a little as a mom or a wife, or maybe we feel like we're putting too much into our work and not having enough energy and love left for our spouses, our kids, and all the extra things that we have to do. You know, maybe you're unsure of what this thing is you've been feeling, but you know that there's something more and you're just trying to figure out what you can do to get to a place where you feel more balanced.

Again. You know, if you wished there was a way to feel more balanced and successful in all areas of your life, you know, you wish maybe that you can go from feeling restless or burnt out, overwhelmed, stressed out all the time from not being able to meet all of these X pay expectations and all areas of your life. You know, we can get to the point where we can actually restore that joy and the feeling of satisfaction in those areas that we feel a little off in. So, you know, we feel this way sometimes, right? All of us feel a little stuck sometimes, but there are times that we feel like, man, I just can't get past this. And those are the times that you got to reach out for help. I believe that you're created to do all the things in your life well, and that you're more than just your job or your title or your motherhood, or being a wife.

You are more than all those things. You're so wonderfully and fearfully made and you deserve to have that joy to feel fulfilled in all parts of your life. And so does your family, so you can have it. All. What I want to do is invite you to come have a session with me to go through the five things that will help us get ourselves back to where we want to be. We're going to walk through rediscovering your identity, identifying those areas of your life. That might mean a change, defining what success looks like. How do you even know if you're getting there? If you don't know what you're going after, we're going to embrace where you've been, who you are and where you're going, who you're becoming. We're going to embrace that because only you can get to where you're destined to be. And we're going to activate those things by coming up with simple action plans that you can implement in each area so that you can start to feel more balanced and meet that expectation for you in your life.

And then we're going to reclaim feeling that balance and our whole lives. All right. So hop on over to Angie tune, anyRogers@gmail.com and I will be so excited to talk to you and walk through this idea framework together. Okay. All right. So today we're going to talk about something that I think is a pretty neat thing, and it is the spiritual gifts. Now I want to pause for a minute here and talk a little bit first about the amount of weight that we put on things such as personality assessments and even the spiritual gifts assessment. You know God has made us who we are for a specific purpose. You know, all of us have gifts that differ. And it's all according to the grace that he has given us to let us use those gifts that we have actually Romans 12, four through six says for, as in one body, we have many members and the members do not all have the same function.

So we don't many are one body in Christ and individually members. One of enough having guests that differ according to the grace, given to us, let us use them. And so that's speaks to the fact that we're all made different. So I want to just have a balance here of what it is and who it is God's calling us to be. We need to be very, very clear of our identity in Christ. Jesus. We need to be very clear about what the Bible says about who we are that always comes first. And then when we take these personality assessments and I've taken, I mean, probably all of them, not all of them, I guess, but many, many of them throughout my time in the social work and mental health and behavioral health field, we take personality, assessment galore. And quite frankly, a lot of those traits or characteristics or ways that I do things or how I experience things.

A lot of those ring true. But some of it doesn't. So yeah, it's important to know first your identity in Christ, so that when you take these assessments, you are able to gauge that and see if it's aligned with who it is called. God's called you to be pray about those things that are out of place or feel a little bit different than what you feel like you experienced life as. So sometimes things come back and assessments that make you feel a certain way. Like, man, I don't really feel like I experienced life that way, or that's not really me now. Number one, I asked you to think about the feedback and really see, is it really not like you? Or is it an area that is a area I don't call them weaknesses. I call them areas for growth. Is it a place where you can grow or get that feedback and just get some insight on how you might be able to change a little bit in that area to experience life a little differently, or use some of those areas for growth to become more impactful or effective in that area of your life.

But ultimately it has to align with the word of God. It has to align with what God has said about you. So remember that as I talk through this spiritual gifts assessment, okay. There are lots of different assessments. The Myers-Briggs I know people talk about the Enneagram and you know, there's a lot of controversy, especially among Christians with that one, because that one was rooted in pagan roots. And so obviously that is a controversial one, but I think that with anything, because guys, we live in this world, we are of this world, but we're not from this world. So we are going to be impacted. We're going to be surrounded by, you know paganism things. Is that even a word? I don't know we're going to be impacted by the culture of this world. It's just important though, that we take a stand and have that basic foundation of who we are in Christ, who we are in a biblical worldview, so that when things don't align around us, in our culture, in personality tests, that we are able to call out those differences and walk in alignment with God.

All right, let's talk about the spiritual gifts. I just want to go through these. I was having a discussion about this recently with some girls and while a lot of it rings true for them, some of them were talking about how well that doesn't really feel like me. And you know, the important thing is just as in Romans 12, four through six, it said that we all have different gifts. We all are members that don't have the same function. So, but we're all one embodying Christ. The same thing happens with these characteristics. These, all these things, ebb and flow for me specifically, and this might come as a surprise for a lot of people, especially in my professional world. I am an extreme introvert. I did not say extrovert. I said, introvert. I am an extreme introvert, but I have had positions in my life, especially in my career where I have had to adapt and develop my skill sets to be more extroverted because I was in positions of leadership and I had to go out and talk to people.

I didn't know. And I had to make room for that skillset. So I had a lot of practice how I know that it is something that is outside of my nature, outside of how I'm built, how I'm wired is because it exhausts me completely exhausts me, you know, after serving hours at the church for a function or after working an eight to 10 to 12 to 18 hour shifts. I am exhausted when I am done with that because not only is it I'm putting the best energy that I can out for that the best activity that I can, but it's also an adaptation that I have developed to be over and beyond what my nature, what my normal characteristics, my normal personality would be. So it's just that much more work. So what's important. What I, I guess my point in that was is that you can develop skill sets if you are weak or have an area of growth in one area, but it's something that you think might be beneficial.

Then you can take actions to get outside of that and develop that skill. The more you do it, the better you will get at it. Here's another perfect example of that. I have been studying real estate investing. And so as a part of that, I have been going to a lot of Korea, which is the Kentucky real estate investor association meetings. I have been going to meetings and I'm telling you, it is the most uncomfortable thing that I could possibly be doing is to go into a room full of strangers, who a lot of them know each other. They're all talking to each other and walk up to them and introduce myself to them and start a conversation. I mean, small talk is like, totally not my thing. I would rather just not talk then to make some small talk or to walk up to a group that I don't know and introduce myself and then have to come up with a conversation.

It is nerve wracking to me. However, I have been to probably maybe eight meetings in the past, maybe 10 meetings in the past month of different types of meetings that are networking meetings. And I have just taken a deep, deep breath. And I have said, Angie, the worst that can happen is somebody doesn't talk to you or somebody doesn't really strike up a conversation. You're not going to die. You're going to live. And you just do it. You take that bold courageous step to do something that will increase your experiences, increase your skillset. So some of these personality tests it's even the spiritual gifts assessments come back and it feels like you maybe, you know, I could be this one or I could be that one, or, you know, I am like four or five of these. All of that is okay. It is not a black and white thing.

It's a great thing. And it is a thing that needs to be aligned with the biblical principles on who it is God's called you to be all right, now let's go do the spiritual gifts. So if you go to the spiritual gifts, test.com, I'll put this link in the show notes, you will see an example of the definitions and descriptions of the different kinds of spiritual gifts. There's actually a test. It's a free test that you can take on this website, spiritual gifts, test.com. And you'll be able to take this test to see where you fall based on your interests, your desire, desires, or passions. So that's at the spiritual gifts, test.com. I'll give you a couple of other personality tests that I had taken that have been helpful in just creating some of that personal awareness and insight. There is the Myers Briggs. There is one that is called the disc.

D I S C there's one called the color code. I actually liked that one. That one is an easy one to use for everybody in the household, especially children because they understand the way that the results come out. It just is simple enough. I feel like for kids, there's the five love languages that gives you insight on your type of personality and how you receive and give love and appreciation. There is the strength binders. That's a book that you can get. There's one that is emotional intelligence. So there, and I'll put these all in the show notes, but if you are looking for ways to gain some personal awareness on your identity and why it is, you are the way you are and some clarifying information, then taking some of these personality tests might be a good idea, but I just want to give you that soft warning to make sure that you don't take that as gold, that you don't take that as a black and white and say, Oh, well, that's why I am.

And now you're going to start using that as an excuse as to why you can't do things, the worst thing that you can ever do. And I've heard this from so many people, they'll say, Oh well, that's because that's not, you know, I'm not in that personality group. You don't, I'm an introvert. So I can't go to networking, networking meetings, or I can't, you know, be in a leadership position because I'm an interview vert I'm too shy. So they use that as a crutch almost so that they don't have to take bold courageous actions that can help propel them into the purpose God is calling them for. So I just want to give you a soft warning to not get into that trap, because that would be something that is being used in the world to keep you from becoming who it is God's calling you to be.

But this is a that I was having about the spiritual gifts test. And then we started talking about all these other personality tests and I'm all for the personality tests because I, I am, as you know, an avid learner and an avid growing, I want to be avidly growing in. Always want to be more self-aware of who I am, why I'm the way that I am. Why do I experience life and circumstances a certain way, but I always test those results against the word of God. Okay. All right. Well guys, thank you so much for listening into this episode. And if you do go and take a personality test hop over to the Facebook group and let us know which one it was, even if you have one that I didn't name. If you have one that you really like put it in the Facebook group so that other of other ladies can discover those personality tests and get more information about themselves that way get more personal clarity and personal awareness about it, about the ones that you might like.

Okay. And then the other great thing about personality tests that it's not just about you, you find out about you, but what I used to love to do, I would have my team take, I did the strength finders. Most recently, I'd have them all take this test. And then what we could do is share the results with everybody else. So then when I'm looking at a Macy's and over here, I'm looking at Amanda's well, when Amanda is having trouble with something, if we understand her personality type, it helps us to communicate with her better and support her differently, support her in a better way than if we didn't have that insight about each other. So I love it for that. I just want to make sure that I, again, encourage you to align that with the word of God. Okay. All right, guys, I'll see you over in the Facebook group. And once again, if you are stuck in any part of your Holy made life pie, and you need a little extra help pop over into my email, Angie, tonyRogers@gmail.com. And let me know that you are ready for a coaching session.

Hey, before you go, I'd love for you to hop over to my podcast and give me a review. And you know, I'd love five stars. That's how we can share this thing with other women, just like us, your five stars and written review really helps me get the word out. You can also take a screenshot of this episode and tag me in your Insta and Facebook stories. And I'll give you a shout out right back, leaving a review and sharing this episode is the best way you can show me some luck. Thanks so much. And I'll see him the next episode. And remember your smile is like a boomerang, throw one at somebody and it'll come right back.