Have you ever pulled off a prank that left everyone better off than before?
Join us as we recount our weekend filled with 'kindness pranks', a unique way of spreading joy and laughter to our friends. This episode is full of parenting, friendship, and a whole lot of love rolled into a series of heartwarming stories that affirm the beauty of giving back, even if it means the occasional tumble down a hill.
Life can throw curveballs, especially when it involves opening your home and heart to foster children. We get real about the emotional roller coaster that comes with the territory, discussing the last-minute nature of placements and the delicate balance of knowing when to say yes and when to reluctantly decline. It's a raw look into the decision-making process, underscored by faith and the support of a partner who helps navigate the blurred lines between emotion and practicality. You'll hear how we, along with our listeners who may be considering foster care, grapple with these life-changing choices.
Finally, we bare our souls about the internal struggle of finding peace amidst mental chaos. From the quiet refuge podcasts provide to the importance of counseling, we unveil strategies for managing the relentless noise in our minds. It's an episode not just about the laughter of our weekend adventures but also about the quieter moments that push us to seek balance between rest, productivity, and our spiritual walk. So, come take this journey with us—it's messy, beautiful, and absolutely worth every moment.
Episode Highlights:
Links Mentioned in Episode/Find More on A Force to Be Reckoned With:
This show has been produced by Adkins Media Co.
Have you ever pulled off a prank that left everyone better off than before?
Join us as we recount our weekend filled with 'kindness pranks', a unique way of spreading joy and laughter to our friends. This episode is full of parenting, friendship, and a whole lot of love rolled into a series of heartwarming stories that affirm the beauty of giving back, even if it means the occasional tumble down a hill.
Life can throw curveballs, especially when it involves opening your home and heart to foster children. We get real about the emotional roller coaster that comes with the territory, discussing the last-minute nature of placements and the delicate balance of knowing when to say yes and when to reluctantly decline. It's a raw look into the decision-making process, underscored by faith and the support of a partner who helps navigate the blurred lines between emotion and practicality. You'll hear how we, along with our listeners who may be considering foster care, grapple with these life-changing choices.
Finally, we bare our souls about the internal struggle of finding peace amidst mental chaos. From the quiet refuge podcasts provide to the importance of counseling, we unveil strategies for managing the relentless noise in our minds. It's an episode not just about the laughter of our weekend adventures but also about the quieter moments that push us to seek balance between rest, productivity, and our spiritual walk. So, come take this journey with us—it's messy, beautiful, and absolutely worth every moment.
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. Are you ready to join the force. Hi everybody, we hope that you're having a wonderful week out there and we had a wonderful weekend and we're going to get into that. But before we do, what I want to say is you know you're ready for your kids to go to bed when it is like, okay it's, for example, it's 9.54 on a Sunday?
Speaker 1:night.
Speaker 2:Our kids just went to bed like 20 minutes ago.
Speaker 1:Why are we not in bed?
Speaker 2:And every Sunday, every every night of the week we have to record.
Speaker 1:I was like this doesn't just happen on Sundays, yeah, every night of the week.
Speaker 2:It's like we got to record. We got to record and it's six o'clock and seven o'clock and eight o'clock and then by the time the kids get in bed, babe we still have to record, and then we're like we'll do it tomorrow, yeah.
Speaker 1:And then sunday comes. When's the best time to start a diet?
Speaker 2:tomorrow I'll probably work out tomorrow yeah, we're like you know we almost didn't record again tonight, but you know you're ready for your. So, with that said, we got to get the kids in bed, but they just keep coming down. They care so they keep coming down. They keep coming down, they keep coming down.
Speaker 4:They keep coming down, they keep coming down.
Speaker 1:They keep coming down. Do you see that camera zoom into my foot?
Speaker 4:Look at that Okay.
Speaker 2:Well, I said you guys, you know it, if your parents, they just keep coming down, you know, and by the end of the night this is getting really long-winded. Sorry, it's two minutes and you know you're ready for your kids to go to bed when they're like mommy, I have such a bad headache and I'm like okay, good night no, you first, you're like oh, you have a headache.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, okay, good night, this happened you just need sleep.
Speaker 2:And then, two seconds later, carter's like mommy, I have a belly, can I please have some probiotics? And I'm like, oh, your stomach hurts.
Speaker 4:Okay, good night and you just stood there like you're just like okay, good night.
Speaker 2:Um, yeah, that's how you know. So, anyway, we had a great weekend. We got to spend some time with the kids. What was your favorite part of the weekend?
Speaker 4:Come on, probably kindness pranks with Corey and Beth.
Speaker 2:Oh, we had a kid-free night on Friday and it was great. It was great. What did you want to say about it?
Speaker 1:Whoa, it was great. What did you want to say about it? I just was like man. This is what it's going to look like when we're empty nesters. Yeah, this is going to be fun.
Speaker 2:Well, we would be like babe, I just got a glimpse into what it's going to look like when the kids are all moved out of the house and then we both look at each other for like two seconds and we're like it's gonna be awesome we just missed the high five. There you go so it was fun. And then I'd be like, oh, I just went in to kiss the kids good night and they weren't there and I'm so excited you, just you for sure just yelled in somebody's ear their AirPods.
Speaker 2:I'm so sorry, but really, oh, okay, okay, okay. But I was just like looking at the pictures of kids and I promise we're going to get some more today, okay, and like, oh, such a cute weekend, and I was and I didn't even remember about Friday because it's been such a cute weekend.
Speaker 2:And I was and I didn't even remember about friday because it's been such a long weekend and then I forgot started seeing like pictures and videos and I was like we do like each other because it's like we went from being on top of the world like we're kid free, we're on a date, we're having a blast, we're laughing at each other, but you're like top of the world, to like, oh man, sunday scaries, you know yeah and then so I see that video and I was like we do like each other.
Speaker 2:But until I saw this video clip okay, are you ready? Yeah, so this is like instagram verse reality. Okay, just to paint the picture, we decided to do kindness pranks, kindness, why, why are we doing? Why are they called kindness pranks?
Speaker 1:because we're adults and, like children, do these pranks yeah that are like destroy cars, they're destructive and they're not nice and like illegal yeah so we're softies is what he's basically saying I'm scared of cats no, we're grown adults with families and a lot to lose, and we're nicer people than we were when we were kids that's why sorry um it's called growing up, yeah so anyway so we did kindness friends with cory and beth.
Speaker 2:So we went and got a couple cookies and delivered them to a couple friends. I was thinking that you know.
Speaker 1:You know how they do those videos like training videos for works and for work and stuff yeah or whatever, you know the real corny ones. Yeah that we would make videos like that and it would be like kindness pranks with Corey and Beth All right kids.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you were envisioning a whole YouTube channel.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the whole thing.
Speaker 4:It was like well now, I know you want to go and egg your buddy's house, but that's just not nice now, is it? How about we just do a kindness prank instead, right you?
Speaker 2:go into the driveway. You sneak around like ninjas.
Speaker 4:You're creeping me out and you deliver hot, warm cookies to their doorsteps exactly.
Speaker 2:So that's what we did, basically because we sat in the car for 30 minutes and we're like what? Do, we do without kids and so we were like it's like we haven't lived since we were 12. Yeah, literally. Yeah, let's do it.
Speaker 1:We meet my mom for the kids to go and spend the weekend with her at a Sheetz parking lot and they get out and when they get in the car and load it up, say their goodbyes, they pull out. And we just sat there like what do we do now? And like I don't pull out. And we just sat there like what do we do now, like I don't know.
Speaker 1:We literally sat there for like 30 minutes I know we're trying to figure out what we were gonna do, and we both felt like we needed, to like, do something productive, right, but we agreed that we were not gonna do that so we sat there, no, but so we ended up doing kindness pranks.
Speaker 2:And back to the video thing the instagram verse, reality. So I, we deliver cookies to our friends, like it's dark out and to make it fun, they had really long driveways, but we just parked at the bottom and like, pretended like we were ninjas on the way up and I they live one of our friends live up on a hill and, to complete the ninja effect, I decided to roll down the hill and so Corey got video of it and I was watching the videos like laughing, like oh, we do like each other, except I had the sound on, so I'm going to play.
Speaker 1:Wait a minute. So you watched it first with no sound.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh my goodness, so it's literally just a video of me rolling down the hill and like after dropping off cookies, and I put music Morgan Wallen, spin you Around, I'm just gonna spin you around, it's all cute and stuff, so wait a minute, hold on.
Speaker 1:Hold on, because I didn't get all this earlier. So you made the video, but you had never even heard the sound yet.
Speaker 2:By the time I made the video, I heard the sound, but the first time I heard it on mute, I was like, oh look, how cute we do like each other. And it's him recording me rolling down the hill. Well, this is never before heard footage people, and I am so embarrassed and mortified by it. I couldn't even post it on my Instagram without music on top of it, because just wait Just wait.
Speaker 4:Okay, okay, that was so loud, that was so loud. Oh my gosh, oh my gosh. She fell, I'm rolling, I think she fell. She can't stop rolling I was definitely rolling.
Speaker 1:I could for sure stop I don't think you could, oh my gosh first you like tossed the cookies on the porch and we're trying to be quiet. It was like smack boom. It's like oh my gosh, it was so loud. And then you did your ninja roll thing, but the hill's kind of steep and you started rolling and then it seemed like it really she can't stop. It really looked like it picked up momentum and you couldn't stop. Oh no, like this went too far it could not be more rude.
Speaker 2:Not only did you say she can't stop, you thought I fell, you thought I fell so rude, like as if my role was so ungraceful. You thought I fell I didn't actually think you fell you're kind of like because after the whole, after the night, we had you saying I can't hop fences and stuff oh, but that's real I could definitely hop if you're not a fence hopper kind of a person you guys.
Speaker 2:the whole point of that is to say sorry guys, we got a little inappropriate, we had to cut some stuff out. Hopefully they left in my wheezy laughs what.
Speaker 4:You can't say that.
Speaker 2:What Say what?
Speaker 4:Cut out that. Listen, we're not perfect.
Speaker 2:We're real. Stop trying to be so. That's not who we are. Okay, okay, so, anyway, we're trying to make our weekends more fun. Yeah. And I think we accomplished it this weekend Right.
Speaker 1:Oh, for sure. I do? I do got to go back on a serious note to all laughing aside. I think we were getting in. Oh wait, a minute.
Speaker 1:We were getting in the car. Oh, it was, this was Saturday, because we were being very productive. So Saturday we didn't have any kids, we were getting a lot of stuff done around the house. So Saturday we didn't have any kids, we were getting a lot of stuff done around the house. And we went to get in the car and I was like man, I was like you know, like if we didn't have kids we would get so many things done, We'd probably have so much more money. And pause Cause. It was like we were being a little bit funny. And then I was like, yeah, but it wouldn't be worth it, it would be very unfulfilling yeah am I just kidding?
Speaker 1:no, that part didn't deserve just kidding, I know it's so for real, like as much fun as we had like, and we need that. We needed that. We needed some time just you and me hanging out with but not not just hanging out, not being productive, because we have a real tendency I think we talked about this before about like filling our time with to-do list stuff yeah, yeah, yeah, I think that time I agree, like this is the most fun chapter of life, like we're living in the golden years.
Speaker 2:You know, no normal person looks back on their teens and is like, oh, I wish I could go back. But you do see old people like wishing missing the season of raising kids, raising kids For actually that's a better example.
Speaker 2:Like think of all old people, I would say 98% of them miss that season the most it's. You don't ever hear an old person say, oh man, back when I was 14, I just wish that was the best years of my life. Nobody says that. Or like when I was 18, those are the best years of my life. But, like people always are saying those are the best years of their life Raising family.
Speaker 1:Yeah for sure. So yeah, raising family, yeah For sure.
Speaker 2:So yeah, it's really hard.
Speaker 1:But speaking of, the 98% of old people. I also read a statistic that said that 67% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
Speaker 2:Well, it's true. So, okay, All that to say, corey has a new spinoff YouTube channel called Kindness Pranks. Kindness Pranks with Corey and Beth. Okay, but home life, real life, the dust is starting to settle. We're getting into a groove. It's been interesting and weird and odd and quiet, but we're getting back to that we talked about earlier in the year nourishing nourishing what's around us, nourishing ourselves. We've been doing home updates with going from seven to three kids. The house is staying cleaner. We just have less to do. It was like the house was in a constant state of of upkeep. Yeah, and not that there isn't any upkeep, but more than having your kids like the laundry, I'm like my gosh, I actually don't have a pile of laundry. For once, it's been weird, but we've also been embracing the lower capacity yeah, and there's.
Speaker 1:I mean, and honestly there was a lot of things that we wanted to do just home improvement type stuff inside and outside that we haven't had the capacity to do. We had too many younger kids for both of us to be doing stuff and then to have the kids stay somewhere. We had to split them up between two or three different places. So we haven't had a whole lot of time to do the home improvements yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So it's been exciting to have this extra time, because we've done a lot, yeah, in a short amount of time. But it's also been also a lot more I want to do, yeah it's also been hard and yeah. Yeah, and so we knew that this was going to be a kind of a weird season. Also, we've talked about it, we have the kids once a week now, so just trying to figure out what that looks like. We kind of have told our closest friends like, ok, we're definitely taking a three month break, for sure.
Speaker 1:Don't let us do anything crazy.
Speaker 2:We know that if we get a phone call we're not going to be able to say no. So we just told the county, like don't call us. And we told our friends, like hold us accountable. But anybody who's in this arena knows how long saying something like that lasts, like I'm not taking any more chances.
Speaker 1:We ask the wrong friends to hold us accountable.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, because when you have that call, and that conviction like.
Speaker 1:It's hard.
Speaker 2:It would feel wrong telling another person. No, you know, I mean like if your friend was asking you. It's like that's a tough call. So anyway, all that to say, we were like, yeah, they're enjoying the rest. Well, this week on tuesday I got a like a text from our family worker, just like randomly checking in. And so I might have just been very ironic that like an hour later she called me. Well, her text was just checking in before I go on my leave and wanted to see how you guys were. And then she was like, yeah, I know that you guys are enjoying your break, don't worry, I called. I told placements only call you, they can call you, but only if they absolutely need it and you guys can make the final decision. And I was like, oh good. So she basically told him like don't call us.
Speaker 1:An hour later I get a call yeah, don't call us wink wink yeah, well, I said yeah, but they're in a state of emergency like, oh, unless we absolutely need us, we always absolutely need you, that's true. So anyway, I get a call an hour later and she's like don't hate me, but we have a sibling set of seven. Seven, yeah, seven. Like the seven dwarfs, yeah Like. Add our kids in there and we're the only one that lives in a shoe and don't worry one of them about a place to go.
Speaker 2:Seven, so there's six. And I was like, okay, I'll talk to cory. And I talked to cory but before I even got to call them back, the placement's office called me and they asked me about the kids and I didn't, and I didn't call them back. So like an hour later they called me again and they were like we feel like we're harassing you, but at this point we need for sure placement of four of them. You can take all of them, one of them any combination. I probably shouldn't be sharing all this information, but that's just showing how desperate the county is right now yeah so I'll.
Speaker 2:I'll just say I'm not gonna go through the whole story. But cory said no. And then you came to where I was working and we were talking about it and you were like still no. And then we got in the car to drive home and what in the world?
Speaker 1:because you had just told me no and I was like okay yeah, well, it's not such an easy thing and such a cold thing, but, like I said, no, because we really need like it's been a hard go of it the past 18 months. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And we're just we actually haven't even unpacked this, yeah, so I guess we're unpacking it here.
Speaker 1:We really like and we had literally just recorded a podcast about like we're going to take a break and we need to pour into our family and we need to nourish our family and reconnect with our kids and everything. And I really felt that like I still feel tired from the past year and a half you know, and then we're also still in the kiddos lives on sundays especially.
Speaker 1:You know we're watching them on Sundays, which is a great thing, and but you know you add kids into the mix and then we're then bring them in for a day. You know it'd be a lot of kids at our house.
Speaker 2:So that's that's why I said no but also, like at that point I was saying two like we could probably take two. Well, yeah, then you're like well, we could. But I was saying two like we could probably take two.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, then you were like well, we could.
Speaker 2:but I was like but if you, don't have peace about it absolutely, because this is one area in our life where I know I won't be able to say no. So I just have to let Corey take the lead on it, because literally any call that came in, I just it's an emotional thing for me, like an emotional decision, because it has to do with kids, and so I don't know that there will ever be a scenario where I'm going to be a no. Even if I feel like it should be a no, I'm still not going to say no yeah, that's why I have to let you be, more logic and you
Speaker 2:could be like that, but you are able to pull into your logic faster than I am yeah, so that's a good way to put it, um, but yeah, so.
Speaker 1:so I mean, we're having this conversation where we're sitting with our, our friend, and you know everybody's feeling it, everybody's feeling, you know the heart and we see it, and we see
Speaker 1:the need and I'm just like it's going through my mind. It's like where are these kids going to go? They don't have anywhere to go. You know what, if you know, god wants these kids in our home? And, oh, I'm praying in my head too, just like god, give me. I'm saying no, but give me, give me clarity, give me clarity. And I wasn't getting clarity, yeah, and I felt I remember, I told you, I remember it's like when I was asking god for the answer, in my head I started getting these thoughts of like um, I was listening to a podcast earlier in the week and it was not talking about this at all, but it was talking about like, do the hard thing, like the hard thing is usually the better path. Pick the hard thing. And I just remember thinking about other times in my life where I really needed to lean on God and just trust him to get us through. So then I'm praying.
Speaker 2:Like trust his strength.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So then I'm praying, I'm like God, are you like? Okay, god, are you telling me that I need to do this, even though it's hard, even though it's going to overflow my plate, even though I'm really not ready, I'm exhausted? Do you just want me to surrender this to you and you will take care of me?
Speaker 2:yeah, and my family and my family you're sitting over in the driver's seat of the truck and that is like you're not saying this out loud, you're just quiet and you're like, occasionally you're like I actually took a picture of you took a picture of me with my hand on my head oh, you were so stressed and you know you're like praying through all this and then meanwhile me, I'm sitting in the passenger seat and I'm like, no, but seriously.
Speaker 2:I was like, okay, like he clearly doesn't have peace about this, but like they're also waiting on a call back, like I told they've called me four times now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I'm just sitting there having this conversation with God in my head.
Speaker 2:Kids for the day, like we're. If we're making a decision, it's gotta be before witching hour, so like we need to let them know, and so I was like, okay, you have you have.
Speaker 1:You have two more minutes to make a decision, Like if you don't have peace about it, then it's a no. Oh yeah, you can put these times on it. We definitely passed that time.
Speaker 2:I was like the answer's either got to be yes or no. If you don't have peace about it, though, but even if you're feeling like you want to say yes, but you still don't have peace, it still needs to be a no. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I'm literally sitting there in my head and I'm like, like god, like, does god want? Like if I say no, we're gonna pass up on these kids, and we were supposed to have these kids at our house yeah, so anyway, we are about to pull into the babysitter to pick up maya and the county calls and I'm literally like I'm waiting on, I'm thinking they're gonna. Hey, did you talk to your husband? You know what's your, what's your answer?
Speaker 2:and what were you gonna say I?
Speaker 1:was gonna say yeah, yes to all four kids, because that was the other thing as soon as you even said it. I didn't tell you this, but as soon as you said two, I was like I can't just split up the other kids.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow, so making me sound like the bad guy.
Speaker 1:No, but like you were doing it because of our capacity is what you were thinking. I figured two is better than nine, and that's where your logic kicked in on part of it and my emotion took over and I was just like I can't split these kids up. We've seen this before. We can't.
Speaker 2:I can't do this. It's just so hard when you're dealing with kids. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I, literally, was even picturing because they were all.
Speaker 2:They were three to 18 months and three months old.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I was like they're in my head those are. Yeah, they're all in car seats and I'm picturing them in our car and I'm like car seat, car seat, car seat, car seat, car seat. I said, can with that? Yeah, okay, that'll work yeah we can do that, like that'll work easy.
Speaker 2:So what the counties say. Well, actually, I'll tell you, because I answered, the county called and and you know we had taken six hours, and she just called and let me know that they got it figured out and that they were going to, I think, three of the four.
Speaker 3:I don't know, we don't even yeah, I think yeah, we'll just that's fine.
Speaker 2:No, they were all going to ken it worked out, thankfully, because I had no idea that you were getting ready to say yes to all four, because that would have been.
Speaker 1:I was just going to tell her that while we were on the phone with the county too, yeah, so, yeah, that happened and we, yeah, it's just been. But we got off of the phone with them and I was was like immediately thinking and I said to you is that I think that God just wanted me to say to say yes to leave it up to him. Yeah. And to trust him. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Even in my weakness and that was even going through my head to like the Bible verses I talk about in your weakness, god will show his strength yeah and. But I think, like this is what I think, I think that god wanted me to say yes and to leave it to him and to just trust him, and then he took care of it yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And doesn't that happen so much more often than we would prefer?
Speaker 2:and it just made me even more so realize how much we really do just need this time yeah, I, I heard you say that that night and I felt it, but I still was like I get that. Yeah, I get that. That was god, like kind of not testing but challenging you a little bit. But I still felt like now we need we, even if they call tomorrow for the same kids, it's going to be, yes, the hard thing and part of me, the reason for me with like having trouble saying no, is that we just had seven kids and like we know the need and we know we're capable and the need hasn't gotten any less and I know that I can operate fine, not like perfect, not like the best version of myself at that level, but like I know I can function at that level, I can still get my work done, we can still pay the bills, we still are sane. We're not like alcoholics at this point, like we can do it At this point, like we can totally do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and also, if I'm like at this level where we are right now, like the lower level, I have too much time to think and like too much time to sit still and too much time to like be alone with my thoughts or be alone with God, and I just don't know how to operate at that level, like I know how to operate.
Speaker 2:This sounds really bad, but like function as myself, as a healthy human, and operate with God at a level of chaos. Like that's where my relationship thrives with God, because I know I have to cling to him and like, lord, I'm with you, I need you, don't leave me. This is really hard. Like I can do that. I can do that really really well. But when we're in this, like things are pretty good and like where we have downtime and I don't hate my husband and I don't hate myself, like I'm doing okay, I don't know how to to exist in that it's really hard. And so, because it's really hard and it's uncomfortable, we both I mean, are you. Am I speaking for you too when I say all of this?
Speaker 2:yep we both. Just then we decide to fill it because then you can't, you don't have to like that's this sounds really like oh, millennial, but like you don't have to deal with that level, that stuff that comes up in that level of quiet. You know what I mean yeah, yeah, I've.
Speaker 1:I honestly, I've told you this, but I have a hard time being alone yeah, is it because you have so many demons? What that's what I'm saying no, I just like I need somebody to talk to, like even if I go on a work trip yeah by myself, like and I'm in my you know, maybe I am doing the this conference or whatever, and I'm spending the whole day, I'm talking to people and doing all this stuff, and then I get back to the room, I'm just like looking around, like yeah I don't know it's uncomfortable yeah, and I mean we are both like excuse me, we're both like pretty productive, yeah, people, I think.
Speaker 1:And so when I have that downtime, it's I think we've gotten really good to it, I think, at figuring out how to like jam pack our schedules to get the most out of our days and everything.
Speaker 2:And so like when there is that margin we just try to crank it all Like why would you be unproductive when you can get this thing?
Speaker 1:Right, I've got this. I've got a whole to do list. I just updated my to do list on our on our family calendar in the kitchen and I thought I had checked, like I don't know, 85 percent of it off and I just managed to refill it yeah, yeah, it's just who we are that's what we do yeah and um, I think that again, that's a personality thing.
Speaker 2:I think a lot of people can probably relate to that and some can't, and that's okay.
Speaker 1:It's just a personality thing but also we need rest and we need that quiet time. Yes, and that's why I think that, like it just reassured me that God wanted us to have this time. Like we do, we need to slow down a little bit. Can we get some things done at our house? Yeah, that's fine, but like we don't need to jam pack every second of every day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the part of like my realization that came, like a part of a realization that came for me, was when I was talking to, when I was talking to my counselor. I hate saying that, it's so uncomfortable.
Speaker 4:I was talking to my friend. It makes me uncomfortable.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, what have I become? Um, but like just talking through this and realizing that sometimes and she said this to me that sometimes, even like, the enemy will use even good things to keep us from God. So like, yes, is our mission work, family and kids? Yes, is it foster care right now? Yes, do we have capacity and could this be good? Yes, but is it? I think there might be a book about this and that's what she was explaining Is it the best, yes, that you could make for your family?
Speaker 1:And I think sometimes the enemy uses good to keep us from like great and what god really wants for our lives and to keep us from our potential, because if we're, if we stay busy and distracted or um, or even just, you know we're exhausted from it, you're tired from it and we're you're not at your best self if you continue to be tired.
Speaker 2:So she said she was reading this book, which we actually did podcasts about these two books a couple years ago To Hell with the Hustle and the Ruthless Elimination of Hurry and Corrie. Ten Boom was quoted in one of the books and she said that if the devil can't make you sin, he'll make you busy. And there's truth in that. Both sin and busyness have the exact same effect. They cut you off from your connection to God, to other people and even to your own soul, and I know that you challenged this when I read it to you the first time.
Speaker 1:Because I don't think it's absolute.
Speaker 2:Yeah, busyness, but I think that there's a difference of busyness of like filling your schedule and filling your time and having a full life, because that's what God calls you to, but you're continuously doing it. You know what I? Mean. Walking.
Speaker 1:I feel like if you're staying busy just to avoid something, or staying busy just for the sake of staying busy, then I don't think that it's a good thing.
Speaker 2:But I feel like if you're being instead of busy, I would say you're being productive and you're being efficient with your time and getting a lot of stuff done and you're saying no to distracting things. Or how can you discern whether you're being busyness because of your flesh is causing you to make you busy, or if you're just very packed, like if you're have a full life and it is stressful and there is some chaos sometimes, but it's you're walking in the will of god I.
Speaker 2:I think you said there's one thing I feel like that makes it being in the will of god, it's did you how can you tell, like, how can you discern, like I don't know, if I'm this season that I'm in is what god is well for my life or if I'm just forcing busyness upon myself?
Speaker 1:In my life it's been God pushing me to rest by like what happened with that phone call and me seeing it, or feeling it and seeing it in my kids, or seeing how it's affecting me in a negative way.
Speaker 2:For me. I was going to say like. The difference is sometimes they can both look the same to the outside world, like, for example, the season of us doing foster care and having seven kids. We look very, very, very, very, very busy, but there's a difference between just doing that to be busy and doing it because it's what God called you to from the outside they both look exactly the same but there's one thing that's present that just like deciphers the two, and it's that you have peace about it and that sounds so like, oh, that was such a build-up for nothing, but it's true.
Speaker 2:It's like at that time we had peace, that that was what god called us to do, when we got four calls in a row, four weeks in a row, for the kids that we brought back into our home. At that time we had undoubted peace about it, whereas, like this situation where we're in the season of slow and we could have done it again and we physically could have, but the difference was, with that call, we just never had peace about it right and god protected it yeah and in instances, even when we decided to do foster care like it was evident through conversations, sermons, things coming up from people that weren't even in the foster care world Just it was like, okay, I'm getting the message.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And then the same here, because I don't think that busyness is a sin. I think if it's busyness for God's calling on your life, then you have the duty to be busy.
Speaker 2:And you will have peace about it if it's what God's calling you to do.
Speaker 1:Right. But then there's also a time for rest and, if you think about it too, it's like a sports season. You've got basketball season, let's say you're an NBA player, you have your whole season. And then there's the off season, and that off season is a time for them to, for their bodies to recoup, for them to if they need to get surgeries and all those things. It's a time for recuperation and recovery. And then there's a season and it's time to get to it, and it's an 82 game season. You got practice, you got games. It's going hard. Get to it and it's an 82 game season. You got practice, you got games. It's going hard during the season, but there is a time for rest. You know. It's why God gave us a Sabbath. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. I feel like we could talk about this a lot because it seems so easy and I don't know, just simple, but it's like actually.
Speaker 1:Because I just want to say this. I think that it's very trendy right now and popular for people to talk about the. Sabbath I need a Sabbath and I need to take this rest. It's like okay, dude, you're just making an excuse to be lazy. I feel like some people are doing that.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Like because it's so trendy.
Speaker 2:You don't even work. It's like you've been on a.
Speaker 1:Sabbath for 17 years. Right, right yeah. What are you doing? You have no. There's no fruits of your labor. Yeah, Like, where's your fruits of serving God's kingdom? And I'm not. I'm not saying that people are perfect, but like, I think that a lot of people will use it as an excuse. And I think the opposite is true too. There's a lot of people that will use busyness as an excuse to oh, I'm working for God's kingdom. It's like, okay, when's the last time you checked with him on that Cause that's, I've experienced that. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Or I felt like I was working for God's kingdom and doing things for him. And then I checked with him and he's like no dude, you stopped doing this for me a few months ago.
Speaker 2:This is all for you now.
Speaker 1:It's like, ah got it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's so true.
Speaker 1:And that's where it's. It's really.
Speaker 2:And how do you figure that out?
Speaker 1:It's a relationship.
Speaker 2:By having a relationship with God, by spending time in the word, by praying.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And yeah, that's how you know. If you're not in regular communication with the creator, then how are you going to know what he wants for you and if you're still doing the right thing?
Speaker 2:like you need those routine check-ins, and it's so important because not only is it just because you want guidance from him, but on top of that, if you don't, there's someone else who wants to guide you to, and it's the opposite of God, it's the devil. So like, not only are we just doing this to be directed, we're doing it because we're literally at war, like spiritual warfare, like a war with a true enemy, and so that I mean all of this ties into being a force to be reckoned with. We cannot possibly live the life that God is calling us to live until we are in constant relationship with him. So, yeah, that's, yeah, that's interesting conversation that we just had All that to say.
Speaker 2:Sometimes your schedule gets cleared and it's okay to not fill it right back up, and it's okay if it's uncomfortable, it's okay if you're not always operating at maximum capacity. For me, I feel like if I'm not always operating at maximum capacity, I'm wasting the life that God has given me. But that's not true, and I realized that truly, like I've known it, but I realized it again this week just thinking through all of this stuff. And so slowness and stillness can still be just as God honoring, and sometimes more Godoring than running on fumes, because who are you serving? Well, if you're running on fumes?
Speaker 2:And then just some things that we're doing practically in this season of slowness and soaking in each day, knowing that we don't know when God's going to call us back into this. It could be six months, it could be nine months. It could be six months, it could be nine months, it could be a year, it could be never, it could be three weeks, we just don't know. But during this downtime we're just going to appreciate every day that we have in it and we're going to be present with the kids. We're going to be resting and recalibrating so we're not so short fused when it is time to get back at it. Like we said, we're working on taking care of the house and getting into rhythms and routines and updates and not feeling so scattered.
Speaker 1:And our health.
Speaker 2:Yeah, working on our health Always are but constant work in progress and then just reading and being okay with sitting in peace and quiet, and it's not comfortable doing that.
Speaker 1:I've even tried doing yard work without headphones and podcasts going. I think it's the wire on my mic.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's not like you, but that's a good thing. I know that's a really good thing. Have you recently felt like sometimes you can't even listen to music because there's so much chaos going on in your head?
Speaker 1:I don't listen to music usually, I just mean anything, anything in your head.
Speaker 2:I don't listen to music usually, I mean, I just mean anything, anything in your earbuds, like I've never felt like that in my life before, but recently I've been like I can't even hear sound right now mine isn't like that, because I've always I've I shouldn't say I've always.
Speaker 1:There are often times that I've used the listening to podcasts to distract my brain from all the thoughts going on inside my head, so I always have crazy thoughts going on inside my head.
Speaker 2:I think that's all we have today. You have anything you want to add? All right. I think we pretty much did it well, we will catch you next week, everyone.
Speaker 1:Stay classy.