Latest / In His Circle / Crossroads: Embracing the Wisdom of God's Path | Ep 21

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Crossroads: Embracing the Wisdom of God's Path | Ep 21 · In His Circle

• 0:00
  Announcer: Welcome to In His Circle, from women for women.
• 0:03
  Announcer: We're here to help you find peace in knowing you are in God's hands.
• 0:08
  Announcer: Our goal is sharing the Word of God in simple conversations.
• 0:12
  Announcer: We're here to help you thrive every day.
• 0:15
  Announcer: And now, here is your host.
• 0:19
  Tiffany Windsor: Good morning.
• 0:19
  Tiffany Windsor: I'm Tiffany Windsor.
• 0:21
  Mary Koning: And I'm Mary Koning.
• 0:22
  Tiffany Windsor: And today we're going to talk about crossroads.
• 0:25
  Mary Koning: Jeremiah 6, 16 says this is what the Lord says Stand at the crossroads and look, ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.
• 0:39
  Mary Koning: So, circle Sisters, I ask that we ask the Lord for our path, our next steps, our next words, our decisions, our choices, that we trust in the Lord with all our heart and lean not on our own understanding, and that we can rest easy knowing that the Lord is for us.
• 0:59
  Mary Koning: In Jesus' name, we pray Amen.
• 1:02
  Tiffany Windsor: Amen In Jesus' name we pray Amen, Amen.
• 1:04
  Tiffany Windsor: Crossroads can be a word that might trigger some people, because if you're at a crossroads, typically the connotation is you're at a point where you need to make a decision that you may not want to make and that can be really difficult.
• 1:21
  Mary Koning: And I don't know about you, but when I hear crossroads, I've found myself on many trails figuring out which way to go.
• 1:28
  Mary Koning: It's not really marked very clearly and I'm like I just don't want to take extra steps.
• 1:33
  Mary Koning: I don't want to have to circle back or retrace my steps or get lost.
• 1:39
  Mary Koning: That attitude has not really prepared me for my journey very well, knowing that there is going to be some backtracking.
• 1:44
  Mary Koning: There is going to be some backtracking, there is going to be some roundabouts and there's always going to be a lesson in the wandering.
• 1:52
  Tiffany Windsor: When we hit those crossroads, one of the questions that comes up is what is God's vision for my future?
• 1:58
  Tiffany Windsor: Am I going to be going straight ahead on that path?
• 2:01
  Tiffany Windsor: Am I going to be turning right?
• 2:03
  Tiffany Windsor: Am I going to be turning left?
• 2:04
  Tiffany Windsor: Am I going to be turning left?
• 2:05
  Tiffany Windsor: Is there a stop sign?
• 2:07
  Tiffany Windsor: When you're at the crossroads, you may feel like you don't have choices.
• 2:11
  Tiffany Windsor: So I recommend that you pray through those crossroads, because that's where you're going to get God's guidance to help you make decisions.
• 2:20
  Tiffany Windsor: I know in the past, before I started following the Lord, I was making my own decisions.
• 2:27
  Tiffany Windsor: That didn't always serve me well, and so crossroads for me have been more about waiting waiting on the Lord.
• 2:35
  Tiffany Windsor: So sometimes those crossroads can be days ahead, weeks ahead, for me, years ahead.
• 2:41
  Tiffany Windsor: What I love about listening to the Lord and knowing, through my prayers, that he's guiding my every step.
• 2:47
  Tiffany Windsor: When that moment comes, it doesn't feel like a crossroad, it doesn't feel scary to me.
• 2:52
  Tiffany Windsor: It feels like the green light has turned on.
• 2:55
  Tiffany Windsor: I'm at the intersection and the green light has turned on.
• 2:59
  Tiffany Windsor: That says Go forward, my dear child.
• 3:02
  Mary Koning: I love that image so much, Tiffany, because it's reinforcing the fact that our God and Savior loves us and is with us and wants to show us the way.
• 3:13
  Mary Koning: And I don't know if you're well, I know you.
• 3:16
  Mary Koning: So I'm going to say I do know you are a strong, independent woman and as strong, independent women, I sometimes forge ahead without checking with the Lord, feeling like I have to control the situation and the outcome, especially in the work I do with being a teacher and having to what feels like sometimes forced information on these third graders, whether they want to know it or not, instead of making way for the Lord, Like, really, my job is to usher in the presence of the Lord, usher in the students into the presence of the Lord, usher in the information the Lord wants.
• 3:53
  Mary Koning: I guess my struggle is releasing control versus just trusting in the one who holds everything in his hands.
• 4:01
  Tiffany Windsor: What I have experienced recently is when there are different crossroads in my life.
• 4:06
  Tiffany Windsor: It affects some of my close circle sisters who may not as easily process my crossroads as I do.
• 4:15
  Tiffany Windsor: It throws them off because they're expecting a certain path, a certain pattern.
• 4:20
  Tiffany Windsor: Maybe not for me anymore, because those who are close to me know that I do not like to stay put in one place.
• 4:28
  Tiffany Windsor: The Lord seems to have me doing a lot of things and going in different directions, but I've come to understand how I need to recognize how my crossroads affect other women.
• 4:41
  Mary Koning: It's a really interesting idea knowing that, as my family, all of our crossroads affected each other and then kind of the dismantling of the family and trying to kind of operate in those same broken methods.
• 4:56
  Mary Koning: Our family has had to relearn how to operate together and we're still in the relearning process and what that's shown me is I will always be in a relearning process.
• 5:06
  Mary Koning: There's really no standard and to just embrace that and let the Lord lead, and a verse that comes to mind about that is Psalm 119, 105.
• 5:16
  Mary Koning: Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.
• 5:19
  Mary Koning: So it's just the next step.
• 5:21
  Mary Koning: God's not going to give me next week or next year.
• 5:24
  Mary Koning: I know generally what I'm doing, I hope.
• 5:26
  Mary Koning: I think he really wants us to have that trust journey with him.
• 5:30
  Tiffany Windsor: And so many people are going to get stuck on that trust journey that they never even reached the crossroads to be able to have that faith in the Lord.
• 5:39
  Tiffany Windsor: You know, faith is about getting you out of your comfort zone.
• 5:42
  Tiffany Windsor: That's a challenging place to be because we get stuck in our comfort zones.
• 5:48
  Tiffany Windsor: Sometimes the opportunities that come up appear to be more challenges and become very disruptful, depending on how you address them.
• 5:57
  Tiffany Windsor: Because if you address those crossroads from a prayerful standpoint, I truly believe it clears the path ahead of you.
• 6:07
  Mary Koning: That is so timely for me today.
• 6:10
  Mary Koning: Thank you very much, tiffany.
• 6:11
  Mary Koning: Is that my comfort zone?
• 6:14
  Mary Koning: The Lord is really asking me to stretch my comfort zone out of its boundaries, into really understanding what it means to be a circle sister in another circle sister's environment and home.
• 6:31
  Mary Koning: How do we have a close community where we might potentially be living in the same house or the same general area?
• 6:38
  Mary Koning: And we talked about how to be authentic, have some good house rules, circle back and talk about challenging issues and be authentic.
• 6:52
  Tiffany Windsor: So, mary, as you're talking about this in your authentic voice, I am watching you struggle with not being able to speak and have a little cough, and I wanted to you know this.
• 7:07
  Tiffany Windsor: I just want to remind everyone our bodies tell us so much and if we will listen in the moment that that's happening, where you were trying to speak out some of your truth that you may have been stuffing down, what happens?
• 7:23
  Tiffany Windsor: You can't speak, you start coughing, and I just wanted to remind you in this moment, everyone in this moment, listen to your bodies, because this isn't about Mary having a cold.
• 7:35
  Tiffany Windsor: This is about Mary finding her voice.
• 7:39
  Mary Koning: And that has been such a powerful piece of information for me, because this thing started right before school started up again and my job is challenging and I'm struggling to love it, and it involves speaking all day, speaking and teaching.
• 7:56
  Mary Koning: This thing also comes up on podcast days where I'm using my voice, and we had talked about this in prior to recording, and I'm remembering as a child I used to get croup every year, and as a child I wasn't free to speak.
• 8:13
  Mary Koning: As a child, I couldn't vocalize or even put words to my feelings, and so this has been a lifelong journey to find my voice, and so my body is saying oh, this is new.
• 8:25
  Mary Koning: We don't know what to do about your voice.
• 8:27
  Mary Koning: We're trying to help you or stop you.
• 8:29
  Mary Koning: Maybe stopping my voice felt safer.
• 8:32
  Mary Koning: It did in my marriage to not speak the truth, and when I started to speak the truth, the marriage couldn't survive the truth, and so here's to all of us finding our voices and speaking our truth and walking in the light.
• 8:48
  Mary Koning: I'd like to end with number six, 24 through 26.
• 8:53
  Mary Koning: The Lord bless you and keep you.
• 8:55
  Mary Koning: The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you.
• 8:59
  Mary Koning: The Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace Circle sisters, jesus name, amen.
• 9:07
  Announcer: Amen.
• 9:07
  Announcer: Thank you for joining us.
• 9:09
  Announcer: Peace Circle sisters In Jesus' name, amen Amen.