How is your summer going?
While we often anticipate summer to be a little more slow-paced, sometimes it's just the opposite. There is always something to do, whether it's spending time with friends or going to events - it's easy to get wrapped up in saying 'yes' to so many things that we get overwhelmed.
In our episode today, we're sharing about what's been going on with us and how we're learning to be more intentional in our approach to different situations. We'll talk about how our environment, the people we surround ourselves with, and the way we take care (or don't take care) of our bodies affects our mental state. Balancing work and our physical & mental health isn't an easy task, but we share our views on the challenges and the rewarding payoffs.
As we journey towards fulfilling our God-given purpose, we confront discouragement and spiritual warfare. We offer strategies for combating these feelings and staying encouraged. Alongside this, we also share our experiences with the foster care system, and the impact opening our home has had in our lives. So, join us on this journey as we share our trials, triumphs, and everything in between.
Episode Highlights:
Links Mentioned in Episode/Find More on A Force to Be Reckoned With:
This show has been produced by Adkins Media Co.
How is your summer going?
While we often anticipate summer to be a little more slow-paced, sometimes it's just the opposite. There is always something to do, whether it's spending time with friends or going to events - it's easy to get wrapped up in saying 'yes' to so many things that we get overwhelmed.
In our episode today, we're sharing about what's been going on with us and how we're learning to be more intentional in our approach to different situations. We'll talk about how our environment, the people we surround ourselves with, and the way we take care (or don't take care) of our bodies affects our mental state. Balancing work and our physical & mental health isn't an easy task, but we share our views on the challenges and the rewarding payoffs.
As we journey towards fulfilling our God-given purpose, we confront discouragement and spiritual warfare. We offer strategies for combating these feelings and staying encouraged. Alongside this, we also share our experiences with the foster care system, and the impact opening our home has had in our lives. So, join us on this journey as we share our trials, triumphs, and everything in between.
Episode Highlights:
Links Mentioned in Episode/Find More on A Force to Be Reckoned With:
This show has been produced by Adkins Media Co.
We are at war and it's not against our neighbors, spouses, children, politicians or whatever else we feel like we're battling against.
Speaker 2:So the questions are who's the fight against, and are we winning or losing? We're the Adkins, and we are a force to be reckoned with.
Speaker 1:Are you ready to?
Speaker 2:join the force.
Speaker 1:We're live.
Speaker 2:Take 473.
Speaker 1:Action.
Speaker 2:Hello everyone. We are here. We have video going this week. It has been a long time coming and also we were supposed to start recording about three hours ago, but this setup has taken forever.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we also did record, but it was just us rambling and you don't want to hear any of that. So one asterisk warning whatever on this is that this video is new.
Speaker 2:so if anybody's watching on video and we are not looking at the camera like I am right now and I'm looking over here, well, we're like we're just getting used to this thing, we're just like each other to look at, and then the computer, and then that computer, and then that soundboard and the phone. There's a lot.
Speaker 1:I feel like Ricky Bobby instead. Of. What I do with my hands is like what I do with my eyes.
Speaker 2:I don't know who Ricky Bobby is, so Will Ferrell.
Speaker 1:Taladega Knights. They're interviewing him on TV and he's like what do I do with my hands?
Speaker 2:I literally feel like that everywhere I go is I don't have a baby on my hip. I am so awkward. Have we talked about this.
Speaker 1:Did you go for the pocket tuck? You just go like this.
Speaker 2:Have we talked about this on the podcast, about how socially awkward I've become?
Speaker 1:I think every time.
Speaker 2:Have we? Why am I this way?
Speaker 1:I don't know.
Speaker 2:I didn't used to be like this. It all started.
Speaker 1:It all started on a warm, sunny day.
Speaker 2:It all started my junior year of high school when I threw the football varsity cheerleading through the football into the crowd and it never made it into the crowd. It spiked it into the ground because I released it too late, and then I sprained my ankle.
Speaker 1:So let me get this straight Since that day you've been socially awkward.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:I feel like you need to talk to a therapist.
Speaker 2:I definitely need to talk to a therapist. Where did it begin? I don't know.
Speaker 1:I don't know, I wasn't around.
Speaker 2:I wasn't socially awkward when we first started dating.
Speaker 1:I thought you were just nervous to be around me.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:Good looking.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:Swah.
Speaker 2:So I was socially awkward for you too.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to lie. What First date. I thought that you were just like so into me. I am deeply offended right now. You weren't even that into me.
Speaker 2:I had like five boyfriends at the time. Why would I be nervous?
Speaker 1:Hello.
Speaker 2:Wait, what was our first date?
Speaker 1:We went to a wedding.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, well, that was awkward because I don't dance. That was awkward and you're like dancing on a dance floor. I'm like, yeah, this is weird. I don't even know this guy. He asked me to go to a wedding. But of course I said yes, because what else am I going to do?
Speaker 1:Socially awkward. Wow, so it sounds like I have socially awkward to thank for our entire marriage.
Speaker 2:Wow, so there's no hope for me then, wow, I can't even look at you, the same.
Speaker 1:Why.
Speaker 2:Why.
Speaker 1:I thought it was just because you were into me. You were just socially awkward into the whole thing. You didn't want to tell me no Because socially awkward. Okay, babe, you're acting a little bit nervous around me.
Speaker 2:The thing is, I did tell you no, remember your birthday party.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but then I followed up.
Speaker 2:I said no, give me your phone number.
Speaker 1:Don't take no for an answer. I'll never call you.
Speaker 2:Then you hit me up on Facebook and like you don't want to hurt a guy's feelings. Right, you don't want to hurt a guy's feelings. I mean you're cute and stuff Like you a lot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, good, real convincing. Now they can see your facial expressions too.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh Anyway so I take that back. Sounds like we need a therapist.
Speaker 2:My armpits are sweating. I don't even know what to say. Here we are. We're going to give a life update, moving on Moving on.
Speaker 1:Just hold on. I'm going to take a minute to text a therapist.
Speaker 2:So we hope you guys are doing well. We missed last week. Life's been crazy. I put a poll on Instagram, got some good responses. People had asked about like life updates, what else, foster care stuff, life stuff. I can't really remember. I should have wrote everything down but I didn't. So here we are, and it is mid August. Can you even believe that?
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:We hope that you guys are like mowing the grass or folding the laundry or doing the dishes or on a walk or doing something productive while you're hanging out with us, because oh yeah, that reminds me. Honestly, that's what our podcast is. We're not expecting you to take notes because we don't know what we're talking about.
Speaker 1:This comes out on Tuesday, right August 15th.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's a national holiday.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I'm listening.
Speaker 1:It's the day you were born and, speaking of which, happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you.
Speaker 2:Thanks, babe. Happy birthday, you're so romantic Hold on Remix.
Speaker 1:Happy birthday, happy birthday. Happy birthday to you. Are you trying to take my Celsius Today's, not your actual birthday, when we're recording this?
Speaker 2:No, you're right. Yeah, it is my birthday, so thank you for that. I'm 32.
Speaker 1:Wow, you just threw it right out there.
Speaker 2:Do you ever look at your life and think this is not where I thought I'd be at all, At all?
Speaker 1:Are you looking at with the Half glass, your glass half empty or the glass half full, kind of thing? Because I'm really curious now really kind of depends on what? No, we have a great life we really have a great life and you said it, though like well, I mean, yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2:We like I never thought.
Speaker 1:My life was gonna be much more grandiose. No, travel the world. My husband is gonna be taller.
Speaker 2:That one maybe, but I love my house would be bigger.
Speaker 1:My pool would be newer.
Speaker 2:My debt would be much smaller.
Speaker 1:I never imagined that I'd have a swimming pool, that the corner was held up. Tape, flex seal flex seal. That was that.
Speaker 2:I'm thinking the name.
Speaker 1:Not a sponsor of the show where I would be recording a podcast and my dog.
Speaker 2:The court will be wrapped right there by him.
Speaker 1:Look at that if he moves, this whole thing could be done.
Speaker 2:No 32 today, feeling thankful. I just mean you know we have three kids. Yeah, I probably would have guessed that married two couriered kids I mean 11 year old me Would have died. You were like the Justin Timberlake to my is this now you're trying to?
Speaker 1:I?
Speaker 2:Did like you a lot when I was in fifth grade and you're a ninth grade.
Speaker 1:Can look. Look up at the screen for second. Look at your nose. You got a little something.
Speaker 2:Is it brown? Yeah, okay, but yeah, life's been good. We are a couple highlights. Let's get this thing moving. We, we rented a dumpster, did I? I don't know I forgot about that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, things just happen and then I just forget.
Speaker 2:So anybody?
Speaker 1:who filled that thing?
Speaker 2:We sure did. We sure did high five. So anybody who knows me knows I'm a little bit impulsive, like you know. Sitting in church one day listening to sermon Fill me up. People are thinking about oh, I could apply this to my life, this to my life. This is my life and I'm thinking. You know what this is making me want to do. It's making me want to rent a dumpster.
Speaker 1:I want to throw away everything in our house. Yeah, and that's truly what it did the problem is, though, you miss the other part of the sermon because you're in the process of like Looking at prices on dumpsters in the middle.
Speaker 2:I didn't do that I waited till we got home, but that day that day I messaged got a dumpster booked, so that was in the beginning of July.
Speaker 1:What was the name of that company?
Speaker 2:Oh, Uh, we'll figure it out. We'll do an ad for a minute later time. I can't think of it. Um, this podcast is sponsored by the dumpster guy. No, but we. That was the beginning of July and I came home and I was like you know what? We have way too much stuff. We've been in this house for a year and a half. I just cannot handle clutter. It's really bad. Maybe I have a little bit of OCD. Do you think? Maybe you should be my therapist?
Speaker 1:No, no, cuz I have a little bit OCD too.
Speaker 2:So, anyway, rented the dumpster and I said, okay, we're gonna get the dumpster end of July, but between now and then I'm going through every drawer, every closet, every Underneath, every bed corner, no cranny, and we're getting the junk out of here. And our kids were like, and I was like, too bad, too bad, you know.
Speaker 1:My favorite part about that whole thing, though now looking back, well, maybe not my favorite part, but one of them was the kids climbing. Like like we're in the backyard, you're inside and I come around the corner and the kids are up in the dumpster pulling stuff out.
Speaker 2:That's true, we're like no it wasn't even good stuff, though. That's the thing. It's like a broken picture frame or something you know. It was like no, I know one, An old knife set that we won in a white elephant gift. It was so dull. It was a white elephant gift.
Speaker 1:Because it was old and used like probably 10, 15 years old.
Speaker 2:I look over at Carter's walking through the front door and I'm like, what do you have? And he's hiding it under a big blanket. And I'm like, what do you have? And he's literally carrying up a chop block full of knives up to his bedroom. I was like, dude, what are you gonna use that for? He said hunting. But anyway, I let him keep one knife.
Speaker 1:And it was the butcher knife.
Speaker 2:Don't worry, it's locked up.
Speaker 1:They can see you winking.
Speaker 2:I know. So, anyway, we got the dumpster. Honestly, why are we even talking about the dumpster? Because this, I mean, we're gonna make this into a whole episode. But when you have too much stuff, your life is just chaos, and I truly feel like the environment around you, like the state of the environment around you, impacts your mental state more than you realize.
Speaker 1:Okay, I've got a question for you, something I've never admitted to doing before, but it ties right in.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:And I'm sure there's other people that do this too. Have you ever been at somebody else's house.
Speaker 2:No, you don't do this, cause it's gonna make us seem mean. No cause.
Speaker 1:I'm sure people do it to us, I do it to me too. But like you look at something and you're like, oh man, they could just paint this or just fix that, or they like things that you just forget about, like things even we take for granted, and then I try to take that perspective into coming back to our house.
Speaker 2:And like is there anything?
Speaker 1:I'm taking for granted that when people come to my house, they're like why didn't they?
Speaker 2:Weed their front flower bed. Yeah, it's really bad, but we just walk by it every day or like that. I do that you're right, Because we have this like sign that I got from goods and better store that I just randomly there was a random nail hanging on our wall and I just set it there cause I didn't have anywhere else to put it, and it's been there for like four or five months now no, since Christmas and it's just looked so crooked and bad and it's not even supposed to go there.
Speaker 1:You know, like what helped me with that was like running that through the lens of my own house. And then when you see other people's stuff, you think like why haven't I done all of these things? Because all of those things add up to being a big list of things. But when you're at somebody else's house maybe you only notice the one or two things and you think, oh, if that one little thing they did like man, that would be big for them.
Speaker 2:You're not like judging them, like saying that they're like Well, you're just going with a fresh set of eyes, yeah. So yeah, I totally get it. I do that all the time. I actually, when I was little, I was so weird. I was I guess I was always weird. You guys Like I think I'm just starting to accept it Like I was so weird, my mom would have me clean the bathroom and I would like get my lens on and be like, okay, I have to pretend like the president of the United States is coming to the house and I would pretend like I was cleaning for George W Bush at the time and laid a candle and I'd be like, okay, president Bush was walking into this bathroom, would he be happy? So like, that's the kind of stuff that I was doing as an 11 year old girl. Think of that.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:I know, but yeah, I would clean my room and then I'd be like, all right, I'm going to leave.
Speaker 1:You got some urinal stains of mass destruction over here in this toilet. You missed a spot right here.
Speaker 2:Maybe I've always been weird, I don't know. Yeah, I have for sure you need to clean a fire to countertop. Okay, so what else has been going on in life? We've been hanging out and we've been trying to enjoy summer. It's been really crazy the last couple months or couple months, probably four weeks We've had very little downtime, but it's all been good stuff and yeah. So school starting this week.
Speaker 1:Up and down, not all good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what we're realizing is stuff that everybody knows. It's like this, like you can say yes. It's hard to say no to things because everything that you get offered is like good and it's stuff that you you know, it's good, but when you say yes to everything, then you're like wanting to die.
Speaker 1:Like no is a complete sentence.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, we probably feel better about saying no.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like we've spent so many nights fighting. I'm serious. But and it's because we're at maximum capacity. And then we sit and we're like we gotta start saying no to stuff. We gotta start saying no to stuff. And then we look at our list and it's like what is there to say?
Speaker 1:no to, and then the next day somebody's like hey, can you guys do this?
Speaker 2:We're like sure, no problem.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we got it. We're like what time We'll be there. You know, Then you shut the door, yeah.
Speaker 2:Like why?
Speaker 2:did you make us do this? No, but it's like when you look you're, we're so blessed because you think, oh, we like them, we want to do that. That's a great opportunity. Sure, we should do this. This is like good to do and it's hard to be like okay, what do you say no to? So what we're trying to do is get better at doing our weekly touch bases, which we'll get on actually more next week. We got out of routine with that this summer and then also pointing way back to our why, like what is our mission as a family and what is our mission as a couple? And if things don't, if some of those yeses are taking away from those things even though they might be good or they might be fun, it's okay to say no sometimes, because it could be bad to say yes if your heart really feels no. It's like a disservice to whoever you're saying yes to.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Like yeah, I'll do this for you, but your heart's like or you're just completely overwhelmed and you know you can't give your full self to it. Then that's where we're learning. It's not like we're trying to say yes to please people.
Speaker 1:It's like we just like to do a lot and we're like hey, I could do that and I could do a good job at that, or hey, I should do that, you know.
Speaker 2:And yeah, it's like we're just busy and we like to be busy and we don't really like to sit still it's a really hard time. It's really hard for us, but then we I don't know that we've ever been to a point in our life where we've actually reached our limit, and I think we've been pretty close to that recently.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Where it's like oh well, we could just say yes, yes, yes, yes, and we can handle it all. And now it's like ooh.
Speaker 1:Tying right into that how I personally have known that we're close to hitting our limit, or did or I don't know is how it's affected my mood and my health. You know I don't have anything extreme or anything like that, but Beth and I have been working with a nutritionist, tracy.
Speaker 2:Which you did talk about a little bit last time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but like now and I don't remember exactly what I talked about in that last time but been doing all these different things to get my health in a better place.
Speaker 1:And now I'm starting to see a little bit of the results of that and it's like, oh my gosh, what a huge difference it makes.
Speaker 1:You know, and I know that on podcasts and all these different things that people talk about how, like, being healthy and being is part of being the best version of yourself, and we've talked about that before. But I've really like felt that lately because I was pushed to a limit to where my sleep was. I was stressed out about all kinds of stuff, my sleep was affected and I wasn't eating healthy and I was snacking at night and all this stuff. And it wasn't like I put on a bunch of weight or anything like anything that had been super noticeable, but like I just wasn't taking care of my body very well. And now that I'm doing that and I'm releasing a lot of the control that I wanna have over to God and also putting healthier foods into my body, being more mindful, being mindful of my sleep and taking supplements and things Like man like, if I don't like as much stuff as we've got going on lately. If I don't do that and take care of my sleep, like you know, I get cranky like that.
Speaker 2:It's really bad.
Speaker 1:You know, and it's tough, but like so for anybody out there that's listening is anybody out there?
Speaker 2:If anybody out there or?
Speaker 1:we're watching. I guess too. It's really important to take care of your body you know, and the Bible even tells us that you know your body is a temple. But and I'm not talking about like sitting there singing kumbaya, and what do they call that? The me time thing, the Self care. Yeah, self care, self care. My nails done self care. Like I'm not talking about all of that, but like truly, and there is a little bit of that, I guess but like.
Speaker 1:I don't know. Just be more conscious of what your body is a vessel, it's a tool and you're limited by the physical capacity that you have to do things. And if you're not taking care of your body, it's going to catch up to you at some point in time. And for me, like I'm talking to myself here, like I'm really I've really realized that as of late.
Speaker 2:I do think that I struggle because we've talked about before not, this is not to like puff our selves up or anything, but we've talked about millennials and how for a long time. When people would say millennials, like we would take offense to it because we're not like the normal I don't want to say stereotypical, but it's like we can relate to the older generations a little bit because we like you know, I don't know but also we can relate to the millennials too. So when I hear, when I think about being go, go, go and working hard, like I look at my grandfather, that's like that's what he did, and my dad too, one of the hardest workers. I know my uncles and they're super successful. And then you see, like this grind culture, you know you go online and people are like grind it, you can sleep when you're dead and blah, blah, blah. And I do. I think it's a balance.
Speaker 2:So I struggle with that, because I don't. I love that because, on the flip side, I see people who are like you know, you gotta get at least eight hours of sleep and you have to drink all your water and you need time to rest and you need time to yourself, and it's like, okay, well, at what cost? At where I'm a mom, I have four kids right now, I'm running a business, I have a family to operate and at some point it's like that kind of stuff to go that far, to the end of the pendulum, it's like a little bit selfish. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Like self care can be selfish, so it's like finding that happy medium of like yes, I need to work, I need to honor that work.
Speaker 2:I need to be diligent in my work. But also, just like you said, it is biblical to honor the body that God has given you. Take care of it, because when you take care of yourself, then you can serve people better. So, like this, I've just started running for a half marathon and we have which we didn't even talk about foster care yet. But we have our new little guy with us that we mentioned two episodes ago. He's been with us for a few weeks now and the super sweet guy we've started building a relationship with his mom. She's super sweet.
Speaker 2:But it's just crazy to, you know, have people in your home that they just they're just brought up differently and maybe there's no values because there's no family structure there or values are much different. But I am training for this half marathon and I had to go running pushing him and Maya in the stroller and he's four so he can talk, he understands things, but he just like could not wrap his mind around. He's like why are we running? Like what are we running from? Like what are why? And I'm like I'm running and like I have to do exercise.
Speaker 1:What is?
Speaker 2:exercise, like, why are you exercising? And I was just like I'm exercising because I'm a mom and it's good for my body to move my body and it's taking care of my body and so when I take care of my body then I can take care of my kids better. And I don't know how I got on this tangent, but do you know what I mean? It's just like. I know what you're saying and I agree with it wholeheartedly. I just would hate for somebody to listen to that.
Speaker 1:And then use it as an excuse to be lazy.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, 100%. Because, like in my mind, because we're so busy and we do so many, we do so many things and, honestly, sometimes that's probably not a good thing.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:But like I don't confuse that for me as being lazy, Right, I you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:I look at it. Be diligent with your time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like if I do this, this will recharge me to be able to continue to do these things. Yeah, so don't use that as an excuse to be lazy. You know, I feel like for somebody that doesn't have a lot of things going on and isn't like I don't know. I don't know what I'm trying to say, because I mean, there's people. Everybody's called to do different things, so I'm not trying to like, I'm not judging people, but like you know who you are, if you feel like unsettled in life because you're not living out who God called you to be, and if you're trying to live out who God called you to be and you know we're trying to do that, I can confidently say that we're not perfect. We get off course, but when you're trying to do, that we're trying our best okay.
Speaker 1:You know life can get. You know you can neglect yourself. Yes, is what I'm getting at.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:So like you don't want to work to the point of neglecting your health because that also can be like I don't want to wake up one day and be 80 years old and be like oh my gosh, I wish I would have ate better food so I don't have a fricking. I'm like arched over like this and have to walk around with a walker all the time.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean. I have like double amputee because I have diabetes.
Speaker 1:Oh, I could have done something about this, but now it's too late, right, you know what I mean. I just don't want that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, on to the next thing. So the life update kids are doing good, we're starting school this week. There's just a lot, but anyway, we're getting kind of long winded. So I would just want to kind of wrap up this episode with just saying that we hope that you guys are doing well, we are. We have some really good ones lined up.
Speaker 2:Next week we're going to talk about back to school stuff. We are going to do a little deeper episodes about foster care. So our first, just a quick touch base our first placement the two kiddos that we had for 10 and a half months. He did go home. It seems that he's doing well and we're just still, you know, trucking along in the foster care world. The county is absolutely so desperate right now. We can't wait to just talk more on that, and I know we've talked about it before, but there's just such a need, and not even just to be foster parents, but to do different things in the community, and the one of the ministries that we are part of is doing some incredible things. So we can't wait to talk more about that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm just real quick on that note. Just what she's talking about is there are over 500 kids in the foster care system in Stark County, ohio. If you live in Stark County, there are 120 licensed foster families in Stark County and it's gotten so bad that and overwhelmed everybody's. You know all the workers are getting like maxed out all these things but they're having to place kids in like Dayton and in group homes in these different places. So if you're somebody out there that's interested in foster care, they can go to HopebridgeOhioorg and sign up for the email list right. To get on the email list, we have a foster parenting information nights. It's like a zoom thing. Just go ahead and get on there because as things are coming out about Hopebridge, there's ways where you can either get more information about becoming a foster parent, there's volunteering opportunities, there's sponsorship and donation opportunities to do with Hopebridge.
Speaker 2:So and it's also been really cool, like we talk about our lives on this podcast, and so when we got into foster care, I was a little bit nervous because I'm like I don't really want this shift to be solely foster care, but it has become a big part of our lives and it's like several of you have messaged and said we're in the process of getting licensed, or your story, like sharing about foster care, convicted me to do this.
Speaker 2:So it's been cool and we thank you guys for reaching out and just sharing that stuff. It's exciting to us and I mean it's not gonna be a whole 100% foster care podcast, but we're gonna still keep talking about our lives and our struggles and that is kind of. My next point is, I mean, what is a force to be reckoned with? That's what I've spent, you know, the last couple weeks really kind of sitting with and battling with, I think, because I got into this rut with, you know, saying goodbye to baby J. That was super, super hard and I was in a funk. I mean, still, you kind of have to fight it every day because it's so new and it's so hard.
Speaker 1:It's grieving, it's a weird. Yeah, it's just a weird thing, weird grieving.
Speaker 2:Um, but then with that, you know we're busy with life and the business is doing really well and I'm so thankful for that. And then often we've talked about this before just our stuff kind of falls to the wayside and I have felt like kind of discouraged. With the podcast, I mean, I love doing it but just and I love the engagement that we do get but like discourages and like, is this even impacting? Is this even? I don't want to just create more noise out there, I don't want to be part of the problem. I definitely don't want to do this to be like a social media influence or anything.
Speaker 2:And we've gone through so many different pivots over the last few years. You know Adkins highlight real. We were sharing real life and our real struggles and people's stories about figuring out their God given purpose and how to figure that out. We were kind of sharing that because that was what I was struggling with at the time. You know, I was a nurse but I wanted to be home, but then I wanted to create and it was like navigating this journey, which we're still doing, because life, the purpose in life, it's a journey You're never going to arrive, you know. So then we transition to the millennial mission, it's like okay, so now you know how to like dive into purpose and figure out what that is and walk that path. Let's talk about tools for pursuing that purpose and how to get better and how to grow and how we can grow together as a community. And we've done a whole episode on the this transition to a force be reckoned with. But the millennial mission went from okay, purpose, now we have the tools. All right, A force be reckoned with. We have the tools. Let's just take action, let's rise up, let's we.
Speaker 2:The biggest thing when you're living at your purpose is that there's going to be spiritual warfare, that you're going to face opposition, because if you're truly living at your God given purpose, if you're doing what God calls you to do, it's going to be so hard. And I mean we have experienced that. And I'm not saying like, oh yeah, of course we're living on our God given purpose, like we have it figured out. Oh, no, we're so far from having it figured out, but I do have peace and I do feel like we're exactly where we need to be. And while there's so many unknowns, we're just doing, you know, steps of faithfulness every day.
Speaker 2:And also it's like this spiritual warfare, the hardships. It is a little bit validating and like, all right, I mean we got to armor up, we got to suit up, we got to do this and that is the whole purpose of this podcast. Now it's still everything from before just pulled into. Okay, we're literally at as Christians, we are literally at war, and like it's not against you know, other people or the county or whatever it is that we think it is, and I forget that, like in my real life, you know, I'm thinking this podcast sucks, I suck, I we're just squeaky wheels, like we don't know what we're saying. And then this week I was like you know what? That's what this whole thing is about, discouragement and spiritual warfare and I was so thankful just over the last I don't know 10 days, three or four different people from completely different, not connected. These people aren't connected at all. There just have been different ways where people have brought the podcast up to me people who I know personally that I was like, yeah, there's no way that they listen. Or people who, yeah, I just like, it just was valid, like people that were even like encouragement that caught me
Speaker 2:very off guard. Yes, encouragement that got me very off guard and like I had even confided in something and been like I just I can't, I don't even want to do this, like, and they're like no, you need to keep doing it, doing it, and that just made me, it rejuvenated me, and it was very small things, but it was what I needed. And so my point in all of this rambling is to remind you guys that whatever you're walking through or whatever you've started pursuing, because you feel like God has asked you to do that thing, keep doing it.
Speaker 2:And you know, and I wanted to talk about that more today just to be like remind you guys that we are at war, a literal war, and I'll link the episode where we talk about Ephesians and more depth Um, when we relaunched a force to be reckoned with. But it was so fitting because today we needed to record like several episodes, and then I was thinking in my head, should we go to church at Sunday, but or should we just stay home and be productive? Because that's how I am? And we went to church the answer is always Jesus.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:We went to church and, of course, the sermon would be exactly about what our podcast is based on, and so I just want to leave you guys with a couple of reminders. I'll come back and link the sermon that our pastor did today because it has so much to do with a force to be reckoned with and like and just everything along those lines but he was talking about the devil and how the devil is a real thing. Like he gave eight principles of spiritual warfare but he also gave five of the devil's tactics, and so if you're not a Christian, this stuff is so crazy and it sounds crazy. And like 10 years ago, if somebody would have talked to me about spiritual warfare and a real enemy, and I mean even talking about like dragons, it wasn't dragons, was it.
Speaker 1:It was dinosaurs.
Speaker 2:I like this is so weird, but it's in the Bible and it's truth. You know what were you gonna say.
Speaker 1:I'm just laughing. It was just the descriptor in Revelation I know.
Speaker 2:So anyway, our pastor Brandon today gave five of the enemy's tactics, and those are the enemy wants to discourage your emotions, distract your attention, he wants you to doubt God's love, he wants to downplay your impact and he wants to devalue your identity. And when he was reading those off, I was like holy cow. I feel like every one of those are things that I have recently struggled with and I know that we've been in kind of tough emotional spots. But even with work it's like you know, I don't know what my identity is. I do feel discouraged. I do want to be distracted by other things. That's exactly what the enemy is trying to do. Is there anything you want to say?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was just going to say, like one of the things that sounds so simple, what really stood out for me and helped me to visualize it was when he was talking about how the verbs in there were passive verbs of like put on the armor of God and stand firm, and like how oftentimes, like I know I'm like this it's like put on the armor of God and fight back and it's like you think it's in your own power, but it's in God's power, it's in God's strength, not your own. And he was talking about how the battle isn't yours, the victory isn't yours, because the battle isn't yours, because the strength isn't yours, it's all God's. And the visualization sounds simple, sounds silly, but made so much sense to me was it's like giving a hug and he said have you ever given a hug to somebody and they didn't hug you back? It was a one-sided hug and it felt awkward and weird. That's like what we do when we're trying to stand on our own.
Speaker 1:The real hug is when he says stand in. He talks about the passivity stand or be strong. You're being strong, you're using God's strength. So it's like when you put on the armor, you're getting something out of the armor. It's like when you hug somebody and they hug you back and it's like Jesus hugging you back in the through the armor, so like that's Jesus' strength, so by putting on the armor. And he said, your strength is limited by your connection with Christ. So if your connection isn't there, if you're not connecting through the word and through prayer, you're not putting on the armor, so you're not getting the strength. You know, it's like you're not hugging them back. And just that simple hug thing was like oh yeah, that makes sense. It's like that's what it means in the strength you're getting something back out of the hug. When they hug you back. It's a mutual thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there was just so much goodness in that sermon, so I will also make sure that that is linked below in the show notes. But I want you guys to be reminded out there that if you're feeling tired, if you're feeling discouraged, if you're feeling frustrated, keep going. I feel like we see this all the time, but that is seriously what it is. That was the other thing that Brandon said today. He's like, yeah, the enemy, he's really good, but he's not creative. He's not creative because, it's the same stuff over and over.
Speaker 2:It's discouraging being tired and it's questioning like is this really what I'm supposed to be doing? So?
Speaker 1:did God really say?
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you're feeling that way, plug into the word, you know, listen to encouraging podcasts, lean into good community and encourageers, and if there are people out there discouraging you, just quiet the noise and go to truth. And so that's kind of where I want to leave you today, because that's where we're at, that's what we're working on, that's what we're always going to be working on, because the further we get down our path of where God leads us, the more the enemy wants to be our soft course. So that's all we have for you this week. Next week we're going to be talking about back to school and then, following week, a really good episode, kind of diving more into what do you do when you know the path that you're supposed to go down and people around you don't really support you in that. So, anyway, we hope you guys have a good week and we'll talk to you soon.