August 7, 2024 • 16 mins
Hey, Mama!
In this episode, we dive into Matthew 6 and explore how to tackle feelings of overwhelm, fear, and anxiety, through the ultimate self-care practice: spending time with God through genuine spiritual connection.
Two tools I share in today's episode are the SOAP Bible study method, and Jennie Allen's book, "Untangle Your Emotions."
Verses found in today's episode: Psalms 34:8 and Matt. 5:6.
💕Caroline
👩💻Coaching- www.divinedesignwellness.org/coaching
👩🏻🤝👩🏽Community & Education- https://www.facebook.com/groups/divinedesignwellness/
🎁Become an Insider- www.divinedesignwellness.org/insider
🤝Connect- caroline@divinedesignwellness.org
✨Inspiration- https://instagram.com/divinedesignwellness?igshid=NzZlODBkYWE4Ng==
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to today's episode. We're taking a cue from Matthew 6 to continue the
conversation of overwhelm and how we can learn from the very best teacher how
to practice true self-care through daily reflection.
This episode is full of so much goodness pertaining to our number one self-care
need, time with God, so let's dive in.
(00:23):
Hey mama, welcome to Divine Design Wellness where we're putting down deep spiritual
roots and embracing our identity in Christ through holistic health.
Do you want to love your body and feel confident in motherhood?
Are you Googling quick workouts, devotionals, or time management tips?
Music.
Do you wake up with great intentions only to find your littles take up most of your time and energy?
(00:46):
Hey, I'm Carolyn, holistic health and essential oils nerd.
I too was a mom of littles. I felt like my body would never be the same and
wished I could find time for myself.
I wanted the confidence and strength to fully enjoy life with my family,
but I kept telling myself I didn't have the time, energy, or discipline to prioritize my health.
(01:07):
That is until I took a holistic approach to mind, body, and spirit.
In this podcast, you will find spiritual encouragement, healthy lifestyle tips,
and quick self-care routines to build confidence in your body again.
If you're ready to see yourself the way God does and embrace your divine design,
go Go find that pile of laundry you've been avoiding, pop in those earbuds, and let's go.
(01:34):
Okay, Mama, you want to get to a place of peaceful intention in your daily habits,
but you feel like you never have time to focus on yourself, and the majority
of your energy is spent trying to keep everyone else in your house fed, dressed, and happy.
Listen, I know you can't imagine finding the mental space to start prioritizing
(01:56):
your physical, mental, or spiritual well-being, but you can make it simple in
my one-hour Healthy Mama Habits coaching.
You will get clarity on what exactly to focus on and a customized plan on how
to start implementing just one streamlined habit that will give you a clear
path to reclaiming your mind, body,
(02:17):
and spirit so you can show up for yourself and your family in the best way possible.
Don't waste another day wishing your sanity into existence.
Let's make it easy so you can save the time that you don't have.
Go to divinedesignwellness.org forward slash coaching.
Today's episode stems from some of the lessons I've been learning lately through
(02:40):
both life struggles, my quiet time, and just meditating on scriptures.
I've really been enjoying this method of scripture study called SOAP,
which stands for Scripture Observation Application Prayer.
So you take a single verse of short passage of scripture, and you take time to really
(03:04):
observe what it's saying and write down what you observe, and then to make personal
application to your walk with God and pray over whatever it is that comes out for you.
Now, as a mom who loves to dive deep into scripture and take my sweet time going
(03:24):
through a whole chapter or maybe two or three,
but finds that now she has totally messed up her schedule and is running behind on everything,
I find this is such an amazing,
short, but so sweet time in the Word with God.
And I've been going through some verses on purpose for the past month or so,
(03:46):
and I've been so moved by the constant guidance that God provides when I choose
to fully seek Him in those areas.
Now, I shared last week some of the ways I've been working through overwhelm
to really stay connected and paying attention to whether or not I'm relying on coping habits.
(04:09):
Ultimately lead me to isolation and numbing out.
And I know this can be so hard to work through as a mom who's just so busy and
trying to keep up with all the different needs of her family.
And sometimes it just seems like it's the easiest route to catch a break, right?
(04:30):
And believe me, I have been there so many times, but the problem is I've been there so many times.
I keep finding myself caught in the same cycle of overwhelm,
burnout, coping, depression, over and over.
And I know that God has more than that for me, so much more.
(04:54):
And I know he has so much more for you. So that is why I want to share what
God shared with me while I was meditating and praying over this passage.
It's in Matthew chapter 6, verses 30 through 34.
And I'm reading from the message translation, which I'm finding I really love
(05:17):
to read, especially since I grew up with always hearing the King James Version.
And so a lot of familiar passages can actually become lost in the familiarity
and so hearing it in different translations helps me hear that same verse in a whole new way.
(05:38):
So I'm going to read this from the message translation.
If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers,
most of which are never even seen.
Don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you?
What I'm trying to do here is get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with
(06:03):
getting so you can respond to God's giving.
People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things.
You know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God reality,
God initiative, God provisions.
Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.
(06:29):
Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now.
And don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow.
God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.
So how many times have we heard this passage and felt like God's telling us
(06:49):
to stop worrying, to quit being human and get it together?
Together i know i have read this many times
and in my head it makes sense like
yeah duh god's made everything in this
world with perfect detail and design and
loves me so of course i don't
need to worry about my basic needs but try telling that to my heart when i'm
(07:14):
in the middle of trying to keep my kids loved and taken care of keeping my house
from looking like a tornado came through and I don't even remember the last
time I had an adult conversation.
It's so much and we can feel so inadequate.
I heard something recently that really shifted how I see this verse.
(07:40):
It was how all the references in the Bible that say, fear not,
which are a lot of references, if you haven't ever counted, there's quite a
few, but those are not God telling us, We should feel stupid for having fear.
It's him inviting us to be with him, to know him in such a way that our fears
(08:03):
become small in contrast to his great love and power.
I'm reading a book right now that I'm really enjoying, and it's called Untangle
Your Emotions by Jenny Allen.
And it's this great perspective on how our emotions are not these negative things
(08:24):
that so often we've been taught to think of them as.
And I really love, in the book, Jenny makes a connection of how emotions are
like strings that if we're properly understanding them and communicating them and accessing them,
they can help connect us to God and those around us. and I really love that visual.
(08:48):
Our feelings of overwhelm, worry, and anxiety are not things to shame ourselves for.
Those are invitations to connect with God.
So anytime we see phrases like, don't fear,
don't worry, don't be anxious in the scriptures,
(09:08):
rather than seeing it as a command that we're failing at and feeling guilty about,
look at it as an invitation from God to come closer, to see more clearly,
to know more fully how good and trustworthy he is.
Our fear is an invitation into his safety.
(09:32):
Our worry is an opportunity to trust in his provision. And our anxiety is a door into his peace.
So I sat with this passage and really meditated on how amazing it is that God made us in his image.
Nothing else in creation is made with his image.
As wonderfully perfect and awe-inspiring as the rest of the Earth and the universes,
(09:58):
he chose us, us humans, to be the signature of his masterpiece,
the little self-portraits among the whole of his incredible design. sign.
And somehow, despite the reality of that, we get lost in the burden of the day-to-day
(10:18):
demands on our minds, our hearts, our spirit, and our body.
And we begin asking the same exact questions that Jesus mentions in this passage.
What are we going to eat or drink or wear?
As moms, that could sound like, what are we cooking for dinner tonight?
(10:39):
Am I getting everything done that I needed to do?
Do I still fit in these clothes and why can't I lose weight? The list goes on and on.
Everyone is dealing with the same thoughts and struggles, but Jesus says,
look, see how much your father understands that you need all these things.
(11:01):
I'm standing right here in front of you in the flesh, walking through all the
same human experiences.
He knows and I know.
He says, focus on the eternal, the heavenly issues first, and everything else, it's going to work out.
All you need to do is come closer, hold my hand, and let me help you take the
(11:25):
next step one day at a time. We've got this.
So I asked myself, if this is the truth, why am I struggling so much to actually
walk this out on a daily basis?
What's keeping me from living in that place of trust and obedience?
(11:47):
And it really hit me. In that message translation, it says, steep your life
in God reality, God initiative, God provisions.
So I was thinking about what does is steep mean?
Steep means to soak in, to cover with or plunge into, to saturate with,
(12:08):
or subject thoroughly to.
And I realized I'm not letting my heart and mind soak in the goodness,
provision, and care that God shows to me on a daily basis.
Instead, I find that I'm soaking in the weight of all the to-dos,
(12:28):
all the needs of my family, the worries of this world, to the point that I'm so saturated with that,
then nothing else can get in.
In my prayer, I asked God to show me how can I really soak in his presence,
his provision, his voice every day.
(12:51):
And what I heard was that I am going to have to wring myself out of all of the cheap filler.
The things that I'm filling myself up with,
hoping to feel better, to do better, the things that actually end up ruining
my appetite for the real thing and leaving me constantly unsatisfied.
(13:16):
So only then can I really fill myself up with the good stuff,
the things that satisfy and bring hope and peace.
So this has really encouraged me to just take a look at the things that I am
filling myself with on a daily basis.
(13:37):
Are they things that are just cheap filler that's ruining my appetite for God?
Or am I filling myself up with the goodness of God?
So I want to leave you with two verses today as we wrap up. The first one is Psalms 34 8.
Taste and see that the Lord is good.
(14:02):
How blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.
And then Matthew 5 6 says, you're blessed when you've worked up a good appetite
for God, he's food and drink in the best meal you'll ever eat.
So I know you're tired of feeling like you can't prioritize your time with God
(14:26):
like you used to, and you're tired of feeling defeated in your motherhood.
Wishing you could just take back those moments where you just lose control,
whether it's because you're frustrated, you're overstimulated,
or just plain tired, and you're wishing you could feel more connected to God,
but just can't seem to get out from under that overwhelm.
(14:48):
You're tired of the pressure to keep it all together when inside you just don't
know if you have the strength to get through one more meltdown,
one more squabble night of cooking and chaos.
You know what I'm talking about. And you're deeply desiring to trust that God
has it all under control, but you're just not able to find that joy in your day-to-day life.
(15:14):
And you are just feeling guilty for thinking those things.
So I want you to stop hopping from one solution to another, stop striving,
and start resting in the ease of allowing your mind, body, and spirit to align
with God's design for you.
I'm going to help you identify one thing that will quickly help you get moving
(15:40):
forward with confidence.
We will brainstorm together to find the best plan to start building that foundation of wellness.
Music.
Welcome to today's episode. We're taking a cue from Matthew 6 to continue the
conversation of overwhelm and how we can learn from the very best teacher how
to practice true self-care through daily reflection.
This episode is full of so much goodness pertaining to our number one self-care
need, time with God, so let's dive in.
(00:23):
Hey mama, welcome to Divine Design Wellness where we're putting down deep spiritual
roots and embracing our identity in Christ through holistic health.
Do you want to love your body and feel confident in motherhood?
Are you Googling quick workouts, devotionals, or time management tips?
Music.
Do you wake up with great intentions only to find your littles take up most of your time and energy?
(00:46):
Hey, I'm Carolyn, holistic health and essential oils nerd.
I too was a mom of littles. I felt like my body would never be the same and
wished I could find time for myself.
I wanted the confidence and strength to fully enjoy life with my family,
but I kept telling myself I didn't have the time, energy, or discipline to prioritize my health.
(01:07):
That is until I took a holistic approach to mind, body, and spirit.
In this podcast, you will find spiritual encouragement, healthy lifestyle tips,
and quick self-care routines to build confidence in your body again.
If you're ready to see yourself the way God does and embrace your divine design,
go Go find that pile of laundry you've been avoiding, pop in those earbuds, and let's go.
(01:34):
Okay, Mama, you want to get to a place of peaceful intention in your daily habits,
but you feel like you never have time to focus on yourself, and the majority
of your energy is spent trying to keep everyone else in your house fed, dressed, and happy.
Listen, I know you can't imagine finding the mental space to start prioritizing
(01:56):
your physical, mental, or spiritual well-being, but you can make it simple in
my one-hour Healthy Mama Habits coaching.
You will get clarity on what exactly to focus on and a customized plan on how
to start implementing just one streamlined habit that will give you a clear
path to reclaiming your mind, body,
(02:17):
and spirit so you can show up for yourself and your family in the best way possible.
Don't waste another day wishing your sanity into existence.
Let's make it easy so you can save the time that you don't have.
Go to divinedesignwellness.org forward slash coaching.
Today's episode stems from some of the lessons I've been learning lately through
(02:40):
both life struggles, my quiet time, and just meditating on scriptures.
I've really been enjoying this method of scripture study called SOAP,
which stands for Scripture Observation Application Prayer.
So you take a single verse of short passage of scripture, and you take time to really
(03:04):
observe what it's saying and write down what you observe, and then to make personal
application to your walk with God and pray over whatever it is that comes out for you.
Now, as a mom who loves to dive deep into scripture and take my sweet time going
(03:24):
through a whole chapter or maybe two or three,
but finds that now she has totally messed up her schedule and is running behind on everything,
I find this is such an amazing,
short, but so sweet time in the Word with God.
And I've been going through some verses on purpose for the past month or so,
(03:46):
and I've been so moved by the constant guidance that God provides when I choose
to fully seek Him in those areas.
Now, I shared last week some of the ways I've been working through overwhelm
to really stay connected and paying attention to whether or not I'm relying on coping habits.
(04:09):
Ultimately lead me to isolation and numbing out.
And I know this can be so hard to work through as a mom who's just so busy and
trying to keep up with all the different needs of her family.
And sometimes it just seems like it's the easiest route to catch a break, right?
(04:30):
And believe me, I have been there so many times, but the problem is I've been there so many times.
I keep finding myself caught in the same cycle of overwhelm,
burnout, coping, depression, over and over.
And I know that God has more than that for me, so much more.
(04:54):
And I know he has so much more for you. So that is why I want to share what
God shared with me while I was meditating and praying over this passage.
It's in Matthew chapter 6, verses 30 through 34.
And I'm reading from the message translation, which I'm finding I really love
(05:17):
to read, especially since I grew up with always hearing the King James Version.
And so a lot of familiar passages can actually become lost in the familiarity
and so hearing it in different translations helps me hear that same verse in a whole new way.
(05:38):
So I'm going to read this from the message translation.
If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers,
most of which are never even seen.
Don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you?
What I'm trying to do here is get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with
(06:03):
getting so you can respond to God's giving.
People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things.
You know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God reality,
God initiative, God provisions.
Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.
(06:29):
Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now.
And don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow.
God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.
So how many times have we heard this passage and felt like God's telling us
(06:49):
to stop worrying, to quit being human and get it together?
Together i know i have read this many times
and in my head it makes sense like
yeah duh god's made everything in this
world with perfect detail and design and
loves me so of course i don't
need to worry about my basic needs but try telling that to my heart when i'm
(07:14):
in the middle of trying to keep my kids loved and taken care of keeping my house
from looking like a tornado came through and I don't even remember the last
time I had an adult conversation.
It's so much and we can feel so inadequate.
I heard something recently that really shifted how I see this verse.
(07:40):
It was how all the references in the Bible that say, fear not,
which are a lot of references, if you haven't ever counted, there's quite a
few, but those are not God telling us, We should feel stupid for having fear.
It's him inviting us to be with him, to know him in such a way that our fears
(08:03):
become small in contrast to his great love and power.
I'm reading a book right now that I'm really enjoying, and it's called Untangle
Your Emotions by Jenny Allen.
And it's this great perspective on how our emotions are not these negative things
(08:24):
that so often we've been taught to think of them as.
And I really love, in the book, Jenny makes a connection of how emotions are
like strings that if we're properly understanding them and communicating them and accessing them,
they can help connect us to God and those around us. and I really love that visual.
(08:48):
Our feelings of overwhelm, worry, and anxiety are not things to shame ourselves for.
Those are invitations to connect with God.
So anytime we see phrases like, don't fear,
don't worry, don't be anxious in the scriptures,
(09:08):
rather than seeing it as a command that we're failing at and feeling guilty about,
look at it as an invitation from God to come closer, to see more clearly,
to know more fully how good and trustworthy he is.
Our fear is an invitation into his safety.
(09:32):
Our worry is an opportunity to trust in his provision. And our anxiety is a door into his peace.
So I sat with this passage and really meditated on how amazing it is that God made us in his image.
Nothing else in creation is made with his image.
As wonderfully perfect and awe-inspiring as the rest of the Earth and the universes,
(09:58):
he chose us, us humans, to be the signature of his masterpiece,
the little self-portraits among the whole of his incredible design. sign.
And somehow, despite the reality of that, we get lost in the burden of the day-to-day
(10:18):
demands on our minds, our hearts, our spirit, and our body.
And we begin asking the same exact questions that Jesus mentions in this passage.
What are we going to eat or drink or wear?
As moms, that could sound like, what are we cooking for dinner tonight?
(10:39):
Am I getting everything done that I needed to do?
Do I still fit in these clothes and why can't I lose weight? The list goes on and on.
Everyone is dealing with the same thoughts and struggles, but Jesus says,
look, see how much your father understands that you need all these things.
(11:01):
I'm standing right here in front of you in the flesh, walking through all the
same human experiences.
He knows and I know.
He says, focus on the eternal, the heavenly issues first, and everything else, it's going to work out.
All you need to do is come closer, hold my hand, and let me help you take the
(11:25):
next step one day at a time. We've got this.
So I asked myself, if this is the truth, why am I struggling so much to actually
walk this out on a daily basis?
What's keeping me from living in that place of trust and obedience?
(11:47):
And it really hit me. In that message translation, it says, steep your life
in God reality, God initiative, God provisions.
So I was thinking about what does is steep mean?
Steep means to soak in, to cover with or plunge into, to saturate with,
(12:08):
or subject thoroughly to.
And I realized I'm not letting my heart and mind soak in the goodness,
provision, and care that God shows to me on a daily basis.
Instead, I find that I'm soaking in the weight of all the to-dos,
(12:28):
all the needs of my family, the worries of this world, to the point that I'm so saturated with that,
then nothing else can get in.
In my prayer, I asked God to show me how can I really soak in his presence,
his provision, his voice every day.
(12:51):
And what I heard was that I am going to have to wring myself out of all of the cheap filler.
The things that I'm filling myself up with,
hoping to feel better, to do better, the things that actually end up ruining
my appetite for the real thing and leaving me constantly unsatisfied.
(13:16):
So only then can I really fill myself up with the good stuff,
the things that satisfy and bring hope and peace.
So this has really encouraged me to just take a look at the things that I am
filling myself with on a daily basis.
(13:37):
Are they things that are just cheap filler that's ruining my appetite for God?
Or am I filling myself up with the goodness of God?
So I want to leave you with two verses today as we wrap up. The first one is Psalms 34 8.
Taste and see that the Lord is good.
(14:02):
How blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.
And then Matthew 5 6 says, you're blessed when you've worked up a good appetite
for God, he's food and drink in the best meal you'll ever eat.
So I know you're tired of feeling like you can't prioritize your time with God
(14:26):
like you used to, and you're tired of feeling defeated in your motherhood.
Wishing you could just take back those moments where you just lose control,
whether it's because you're frustrated, you're overstimulated,
or just plain tired, and you're wishing you could feel more connected to God,
but just can't seem to get out from under that overwhelm.
(14:48):
You're tired of the pressure to keep it all together when inside you just don't
know if you have the strength to get through one more meltdown,
one more squabble night of cooking and chaos.
You know what I'm talking about. And you're deeply desiring to trust that God
has it all under control, but you're just not able to find that joy in your day-to-day life.
(15:14):
And you are just feeling guilty for thinking those things.
So I want you to stop hopping from one solution to another, stop striving,
and start resting in the ease of allowing your mind, body, and spirit to align
with God's design for you.
I'm going to help you identify one thing that will quickly help you get moving
(15:40):
forward with confidence.
We will brainstorm together to find the best plan to start building that foundation of wellness.
Music.
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