Laying it Down For The Lord. Seeking REST & RESTORATION!

Hi Friend!

If you’re in a space of seeking — looking for inner peace, calm perseverance, & a restful spirit, this one is for you. In a heavy season of… well… A LOT (could the past year get any weirder?) God led me to a 2-week study on ‘REST’. I found answers to questions I didn’t know I had. I found restoration and peace in my ever-seeking soul and spirit. I found a deeper understanding of WHY God asks us to lay down our idols and worldly focuses and seek HIM.

I asked myself multiple times over the past two weeks; what do I need to lay down for the Lord? I prayed out, “Father, what do you need me to let go of so you can have my full attention?”

Oh, he answered me.

Inside today’s episode, we dive into living more Christ-like and uncover how to lay certain things down for the Lord. I discuss scripture with you that helped me lean into a new understanding of REST in my mind, business, life, and motherhood. I vulnerably share with you my plan for what God’s calling me to lay down, and I hope that it inspires you to inventory how you are showing up in your life. What you’re hiding behind, and what needs to change.

Are you doing life and business with God? And, if so – are you being obedient to what He’s asking you to let go of? Saying NO to the world isn’t easy – but saying YES to God is always right.

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION:

(00:01):
Hey, loves! I am sitting outside on my patio. Nobody’s home, the air is fresh and clean and crisp. There’s a nice breeze going. And I just wrapped up a 14-day Bible study on rest. And I feel like we’ve been so focused on business on this podcast for the past three weeks, because first of all, I had the Podcast Pro University special, and then we launched Podcast to Profit.

(00:28):
We had the Growth Hacks Workshop and it was just so business focused, which is great. However, let’s take a break from tha, shall we? Let’s talk a little bit about the other part that’s so important for us as busy working mamas, which is rest, and I don’t necessarily mean rest in your life. I mean, rest in Him, rest in your heart. You are going to absolutely resonate with this episode because we’re going to dig deep into finding peace and restoration.

(01:59):
Hey, I want to start with this verse that just absolutely triggered my heart in the most incredible way. This is Matthew 11:27 through 30, verse 27 through 30. Are you tired? Worn out, burned out on religion? Come to me, get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me. Watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.

(02:49):
Sisters, so much gold is hidden inside that incredible verse. I mean, thinking about each and every line inside of that scripture, it’s truly like a guide and a directive of how to find peace, how to have inner rest, get away with me and you’ll recover your life. And I think it speaks so much to us as working moms and mompreneurs or moms to be.

(03:21):
Are you tired, worn out? Check and check. It doesn’t say take a nap. It doesn’t say be stressed out and work harder, show up more, do more hustle harder, phone a friend, like get a massage. Like all of those things are fine and great. There’s only one clear direction here. Come to me, get away with me and you’ll recover your life. Walk with me and work with me. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.

(04:05):
I thought that was so beautiful, so refreshing. We are students of Christ. We are daughters of the King. I love this. This concept of unforced rhythms of grace, just free flowing is kind of how I visualize that. So that scripture just spoke really deeply into my heart. And what I wrote down as far as what I applied from that verse was that I felt hungry for Christ’s peace.

(04:42):
That the world is always telling us how busy we need to be. And we are constantly being told that idolizing is acceptable and that it’s just a human norm and that to be here, part of this world and to have success, we have to idolize our phones and social media and all the people who are already successful. And we have to read this book and follow that coach.

(05:14):
And while I’ve been telling you guys that, that doesn’t sit with me, it’s being reinforced by the way that God is speaking to me through scripture and I choose to lay it down. I choose to lay down worldly ideals of busy success, not enough judgment. Comparisonitis,sisters, wanting, wishing, wallowing, just all of those emotions and words. They’re all worldly.

(05:53):
I’m not here for that. I’m here to recover my life, to take on a real rest. God says in this scripture, I won’t lay anything heavy or ill fitting on you. So if you’re feeling heavy right now, what are you putting on your shoulders that you think is your burden to bear? What are you wearing that isn’t yours? How can you take it off?

(06:27):
Take off the weights on your shoulders, the weights of the world, the worries in your heart and cast it aside so that you may be restful and recovered through Christ. Now, a couple of the goals I wrote down for myself in case you guys are wondering what my plans are for living out this new truth, this new walking in God’s rest for my life and in my business.

(06:56):
Putting my phone away every evening, after dinner, putting it away. Okay, you guys already know I’m huge on deleting social media Friday through Sunday night. That is me being willing to lay something down for the glory of God. If you are not willing to lay down social media and technology, we have a problem and you got to take that up with God, and I did.

(07:28):
You’re not alone in that, but the second that I laid it down, my life was refueled and renewed, the present moments were heightened. Life was simple and easy and free, and I was available, fully available to serve my kids in a new way and my husband, my spouse, my home and myself, without having something constantly beeping and embedded in the back of my mind. Well, what’s happening over here? What’s happening in my inbox? What’s happening on social?

(07:59):
Lay it down, once a week. I’m also choosing to say yes to more in my actual life and say no to more in my business. I don’t know if any of you, like me, find business really easy and natural. And it’s a gifting. I truly feel that leadership and business and public speaking and this podcast and coaching and clarity coaching, all of those things are spiritual gifts that God gave me.

(08:30):
And I’m so excited about that. And I’m showing up at a really high capacity, but I then say no to some of the things that aren’t so natural in my life like, mommy, will you play soccer with me? Mommy, will you color with me? Mom, will you play this game with me? Wife, do you want to go away on the weekend and do this? Wife, do you want to go on a hike?

(08:56):
I find myself saying no to the things that matter because I’m so fixated on the giftings. Now, when we get fixated on the giftings, there’s a sweet spot and there’s a dangerous spot where the enemy knows that because we’re good at something he can use that to his benefit and what? Create a workaholic, create new idols in success or money, start to create more barriers between you and your family.

(09:31):
So what I took from this 14-day Bible study was I’m going to say more yes to my family, to the things that aren’t inherently natural for me to play, to rest, to sit, to be, to travel, to go away when it’s inconvenient. I’m just going to be willing to lay more things down because God wants me to be Christ-like and Jesus didn’t just focus on one thing, one person, one area of His life.

(10:08):
He showed up for everyone and He was willing to just be less of himself so that he could be more for others. And that’s what I want. That’s what I want in my life. I also said yes to more help in my business. I’ve expanded. I had a launch team this time, they were incredible. Huge shout out to Ronica and Angel and Suzie who helped me launch this program. It took a ton of weight off my shoulders.

(10:35):
I said yes, to a new program facilitator who’s helping me run my programs. Huge shout out to Ronica again, who’s taken on that role. So I’m saying more yes to creating more space, time and rest in my own life and letting go of more control. Here’s the other thing that I am willing to do is to just allow the weight of this world to flow through me.

(11:07):
So the world’s heavy sisters, friends, right? Like all the things, politically we’ve got still race wars, we have riots, we have distance learning, we have people arguing over vaccinations, we have people who’ve lost their jobs. Could it get any weirder right now? We have world events. We have earthquakes. We have all the things.

(11:34):
Now, I don’t know what I don’t know, but all I know is I need to show up as my best version of myself or whatever is coming and that God is doing a work in me. He is working really intensely on some of my clients and some of my sisters Christ like to the capacity where I feel like we are being prepared.

(11:58):
I don’t know for what, and I don’t know for when it doesn’t matter. We are not to know the timing of things. We are only to know that we are called right now, bigger, better, and more deeply than ever before. And so we have to be walking with God to hear his direction. And there’s so much persecution going on in the world and it feels so heavy but when we cast that aside and we give it back to God, we’re able to then get back to our own walk.

(12:33):
One of my clients and friends, Heather Shriver Burns and I were talking this weekend about, we have to stay in our lane. Like there’s so many battles to be fought right now. And it’s easy to get distracted from the battle that we’ve personally been given. We’ve all been given a battle that we are here to fight.

(12:52):
So one of the battles that God has given me is to help you all fight for the calling that you’ve been given and to step into that so that you can make an impact here with the people that you’ve been meant to impact and to do it fearlessly and to do it God’s way and to be proud of yourself and do it with clarity and clear messaging and confidence and inspiration.

(13:14):
That’s my fight and, in the past, even recently, I’ve tried to pick up battles that are not mine, and that’s where we see persecution because we aren’t equipped to fight that battle. So it’s just staying about the fray, staying above the fray. Not letting the lies of the media movies or leaders impact our trust in God and really reminding ourselves to cast that.

(13:44):
So we’re casting the worries aside. That’s something I’m actively practicing and I’m also actively practicing discernment in my own truth seeking. Remember my True Seeker Series? While that was so amazing and so much fun for me, I also feel that that is not my personal battle. And I feel like some of the amazing women I interviewed that is their battle, fighting for truth and fighting against spiritual warfare and fighting against them of literal demons that they have to face here on earth, but that’s not my battle.

(14:17):
And so I’m able to walk more easily with God when I’m wearing the spiritual gifts that he gave me, because I feel more equipped, I feel armored to be on the path that I am on. So if anybody needed to hear that, I think it’s just a permission slip for you. Let go of the things that aren’t yours. Let go of the weight of the world. Let go of the battles other people are fighting in your family fi it’s giving you stress and trauma and you keep sleepless nights, and anxiety, cast that aside.

(14:55):
And here’s a prayer for you if you need it. Heavenly Father help me to be brave as the world gets darker, scarier and more evil. Use me to share your truth and your goodness in the way that you need and want me to, help me to be a beacon of grace and light and softness as I impact and change people’s hearts, allow me to show up for You with the gifts that you’ve placed inside my heart with confidence, and please remove from my heart and soul, a spirit of darkness or heaviness in the battles that are not mine.

(15:31):
I pray that you take those battles and you, and you take them out of my vision and out of my mind, I cast them back onto you, Lord. Do not let me be distracted from the work that you have for me here. And most importantly, God keep me in your rest. Remind me of how important it is to be fully living my life as presently as possible for my family, for my spouse, for my kids and for myself. And most importantly for You.

(15:59):
And remind me that when I do business your way, God’s way, easy and light, it’s free, it’s simple and it’s full of provision and I don’t need to worry. And I don’t need to show up 24/7 in order for my life to be successful. I need to say yes to more of you and no to the world and no to the world’s way. I have ultimate faith in you, God.

(16:24):
I have faith, I have trust, speak into me through me, use me, allow me to be your beacon of light here in any capacity that you need and help me to know and be discerning over what’s not mine in your incredible, amazing name. Amen.

(16:43):
That is my prayer. This is my message for you today. It’s what’s yours. What’s not yours. What do you need to let go of? And what do you need to say more yes and what do you need to say more no to. I hope you’re with me in showing up in a deeper capacity for yourself, your family, and saying yes to more help in your business over this next season, saying yes to the resources and mentors that God is leading you to and more no to all the rest.

(17:21):
No to social media 24/7, no to notifications beeping at you, no to never setting your phone down, no to idols of success and money. No to starting arguments that cannot be won, no to aggressively arguing with people over a battle that is not yours. No, let it go. Let it flow. Let God work through you in your life and in your business. Whoever needed to hear this, I pray that it impacts you in a deep, amazing way. And I just love you guys so much.

(17:57):
I hope you have a beautiful rest of your week. I am getting off social tomorrow for a solid 72 hours. Cause I am done, son. All I got tomorrow is my Podcast to Profit 2.0 group number two, who’s kicking off tomorrow, which is gonna be so much fun, but I don’t have anything other than that. And so I’m going to detox. I’m going to soak all of this amazing the amazing lessons I’ve learned over the last two weeks in through my Bible study and apply it.

(18:26):
And I hope that you are too. I’ll meet you back here Monday and we will get back to it. If you get off social this weekend and you’re willing to detox, I want you to tag me in that Instagram post let’s start a ripple effect of people getting off of social every single weekend. Because when we lay it down for the Lord, He can work through us and speak to us in a deeper capacity.

(18:50):
You know what? Let’s hashtag laying down social for the Lord. Everybody, I challenge you, let’s do this. Let’s have some peace and quiet in our hearts and spirits. Let’s journal. Let’s get closer to God so we can hear what exactly He needs and wants from us over the rest of 2020. I love you. See you later. God bless.