Latest / She Speaks Life - Christian Women, Strengthen Your Faith, Bible Study, Grow Spiritually In Christ / 5 Steps For A Consistent Quiet Time with Jen and A.J.
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- 0:00Hello, welcome back to She Speaks Life.
- 0:02If you haven't already heard, the Serenity Journal is out now,
- 0:07available for purchase. Orders are going out like crazy.
- 0:11I'm so excited. I give God the praise and the
- 0:14glory for what he has done and continues to do with this
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- 0:21about Serenity, calm your soul. Strengthen your spirit.
- 0:25It is a personalized scripture journal that engages you in an
- 0:29intimate, quiet time with God. The journal is split up into
- 0:34five topics with two weeks of interactively personalizing your
- 0:40name, your spouse's name, or even your kids name inside the
- 0:44scripture verse. It also comes with how to
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- 1:01jamieelizabeth.com. The link is below in the show
- 1:05notes, but make sure at check out you use code VIP15 and while
- 1:11you're at it, take my fun quiz. Find out what type of journal
- 1:16writer you are. OK, with me is Jen and a J from
- 1:20Soho Academy where they empower and equip women to.
- 1:26Follow God with great faith. We talk about how to keep
- 1:29consistent in our per life, different ways to study the
- 1:32Bible, and steps to establish a routine quiet time.
- 1:37These ladies are such a great duo and I hope you gained some
- 1:40inspiration to try something new.
- 1:43More encouraged to keep drawing closer and closer to God.
- 1:47So let's get at it. Here are my guests, Jen and AJ.
- 1:52Well, hello ladies. Welcome to She Speaks live.
- 1:55Jen and JJ, welcome. Hey.
- 1:58We're so glad to be here. Thanks for having us.
- 2:01I am excited for your message here about all things prayer and
- 2:06Bible study. All kind of different ways and
- 2:09steps that we're going to talk about how to be consistent in
- 2:12prayer and how to get through those struggles and hear about
- 2:17what you guys are doing also in your ministry as well.
- 2:20So before I kick it off and dive deeper into what you guys are
- 2:24sharing today, I love to start us off with your favorite
- 2:29scripture verse and why that is. Go ahead, AJ You want me to?
- 2:33Yeah. Get off.
- 2:34I'm. Gonna actually try to keep mine
- 2:36short because I could talk about this.
- 2:38Probably the whole No, don't. Tire, Don't do it.
- 2:41Is this presentation. I know.
- 2:43Warning me already. Okay.
- 2:47So I'm going to, I'm really seriously going to try to keep
- 2:50it short. So mine.
- 2:50I would have to say. It's hard to pick one verse like
- 2:54out of all God's word, but if I had to, it would be Psalm 84,
- 2:59verse 11. And it says for the Lord, God is
- 3:02a son and shield. The Lord bestows favor and
- 3:05honor. No good thing does he withhold
- 3:08from those who walk uprightly. And I think this is one of my
- 3:12favorites. It's been one of my favorites
- 3:14since maybe 10th grade. So that's been quite a few
- 3:17years. A few decades ago, Yeah.
- 3:21And I think one of the reasons is because one of the lies the
- 3:25devil planted early on in my life in my heart is that God
- 3:29wasn't good to me. Maybe he was good.
- 3:32That's a good descriptor for him overall, but he wasn't always
- 3:37looking out for my best interest.
- 3:40And maybe his intentions towards me weren't totally trustworthy,
- 3:44you know, And that was just a lie that I believed in my heart
- 3:47and I I couldn't articulate that necessarily, but it was
- 3:51something that my heart questioned.
- 3:52It questioned his goodness. And this verse was something
- 3:56that I clung to even very early on in my life, is that he
- 4:01withholds no good thing for me. He is not withholding.
- 4:06Even when it doesn't feel that way or it doesn't look that way
- 4:09or circumstances don't say that message to me.
- 4:13You know, God's word is true and he is not withholding good for
- 4:16me. So I've gone back to that over
- 4:19and over again in my life during certain seasons.
- 4:22Yeah, I think many of us can relate.
- 4:24I mean, because we're so used to just staring at our
- 4:29circumstances in the face and going, OK, this is what I see.
- 4:34And then you need to be reminded of what Scripture says that God
- 4:38is good even though you can't see it in the natural, or you
- 4:42can't feel it because you're full of pain or disappointment
- 4:48or rejection or betrayal. But going back to his promises
- 4:54that hold true and just reminding yourself, OK, he's
- 4:58good no matter what, I feel because feelings can lie.
- 5:03Those are fleeting, and the circumstances we know shift, and
- 5:08they can change. And he can change things in a
- 5:11second as well. How about you, Jen?
- 5:14Yeah, well, mine actually toss in nicely with that.
- 5:17So isn't it God's word? Just kind.
- 5:19Of yeah, it's kind. Of so my and I don't wouldn't
- 5:23call this necessarily a life verse and it's not it's my
- 5:26favorite right now. It's the one that keeps coming
- 5:28back into you know their seasons in life where versus just keep.
- 5:31You just keep being reminded of them and for me.
- 5:34Romans 818. Is I mean of course, all of
- 5:37Romans 8, obviously I could quote but Romans 818.
- 5:41For I consider that the sufferings of this present time
- 5:44are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to
- 5:48us. And for me it's a reminder as
- 5:51we're going through these these times where it is hard and we
- 5:54are forgetting His goodness and we are suffering.
- 5:56And although those are if for the believer, those are building
- 5:59in us perseverance and hope and faith.
- 6:02We know all that, but remembering that as as low as
- 6:09the valley is and as deep as our suffering is, it's nothing but a
- 6:13drop of water in the ocean of the glory that we will one day
- 6:16see. And just being reminded of my
- 6:19hope and eternity on a daytoday basis while I'm living the
- 6:24everyday life. That does include the ups and
- 6:27downs, but that nothing that I experience here, it's going to
- 6:32compare to what one day I will see when I see him face to face
- 6:35in glory. And that verse is always just
- 6:38really encouraging to me, no matter what I'm going through.
- 6:42And. And one of the verses that I
- 6:44have stamped on my heart. Yeah, So good.
- 6:47Putting you back in that perspective of what God sees.
- 6:51I love that reminder. OK, let's dive into what you
- 6:55guys are all about. Let's start out with your
- 6:58ministry called SOJO. Yes.
- 7:04Is that right? Yeah.
- 7:05So share with us that title. Curious.
- 7:11Sure. So, so Joe, it is an interesting
- 7:14title, right? So it actually is short for the
- 7:17word sojourner, and it comes from the fact that we are all
- 7:22walking this path together. We actually just had to explain
- 7:24it this morning to someone who's like, I don't know what that
- 7:27means. We have to.
- 7:28It's probably not a great title for a ministry because we do
- 7:32have to explain it all the time. But it comes from the fact that
- 7:35we are women walking alongside one another in a world of which
- 7:38we are. We're not.
- 7:40In this world, we're not of the we're in the world, but we're
- 7:42not of this world. So we are again, we're looking
- 7:45towards eternity and we are walking together, and so we are
- 7:48sojourners together. So that's where it comes from.
- 7:51And just a fun fact, So my husband and I served overseas as
- 7:55missionaries for 14 years and there was this little restaurant
- 7:58in Thailand that was named Sojo's and it was the place
- 8:02where all the foreigners went and we they served sweet iced
- 8:07tea there. And you couldn't find sweet iced
- 8:10tea like anywhere else, like it was all hot tea.
- 8:13And so it was like a little touch of home in the middle of
- 8:18this foreign land. And that's kind of the vision
- 8:21that we saw Sojo Academy being it's like, okay, we are not,
- 8:26this is not our citizenship is not here on earth.
- 8:29And yet together, when we come together as God's people, as
- 8:34foreigners in this land, we can taste a little bit of.
- 8:38What our eternal home is going to be like.
- 8:40So that's kind of the back story that nobody understands.
- 8:46I love it. And so this ministry empowers
- 8:49and equips women in their walk with the Lord.
- 8:52So tell us some of the ways that we can keep consistent in
- 8:57prayer, Like what do you offer in your ministry when it comes
- 9:00to our prayer life, especially what we were just talking about
- 9:04facing those circumstances. Jimmy Diamond.
- 9:08Yeah, go ahead. OK.
- 9:09Well, one of my favorite things, and I started this a few years
- 9:12back. One of my favorite things is to
- 9:14have what I call a Ground Zero scripture.
- 9:20And this is a verse that to me is just a basic starting point
- 9:26when I feel like I have absolutely nothing.
- 9:29Or so maybe. Maybe it's a morning when I wake
- 9:31up and I feel no inclination towards the things of God and
- 9:36overwhelmed by my To Do List or by that anxiety that stress if I
- 9:42can just pre know what scripture I can start with.
- 9:48That helps me just to get that ball rolling and to get the
- 9:52momentum that I need to keep going.
- 9:54Because The funny thing is, is when we simply go to God, he
- 9:59meets us where we're at. That's all we have to do is take
- 10:02that very first step. You know, it says when we seek
- 10:06him, we will find him. And that means seeking in just
- 10:09the slightest way of saying God help.
- 10:13It can be that simple. You know, when we cry out to
- 10:17him, when we call to him, he hears us.
- 10:20He promises us that in His word, He promises His presence.
- 10:23And so for me it's having just a simple scripture like Psalm 23.
- 10:28One, you know, the Lord is my shepherd.
- 10:30Just saying, God, you are my shepherd.
- 10:33You are my shepherd. Meet me here.
- 10:35I have nothing. I got.
- 10:36I got nothing. I'm empty handed, but I'm coming
- 10:39to you trusting that you will fill me.
- 10:42And he does. That's the precious thing about
- 10:45it. He does.
- 10:46And so just, you know, find you a Ground Zero scripture that can
- 10:50be your go to in those moments when you just need a starting
- 10:55point. Yeah.
- 10:56And in addition to that I think and and this is implied in that
- 11:00is being consistent in just the habit of it and that's one of
- 11:07the things that. Whatever that takes for you,
- 11:10whether it's having a reminder on your phone, whether it's
- 11:19sorry, whether it's having a reminder on your phone, whether
- 11:23it is what, whatever it takes, whether it's putting stacking
- 11:29habits and pairing them with other things, which is one of
- 11:31the things that we talked about in our membership in our
- 11:33community. But whatever it takes to be
- 11:38consistent is really important. And one of the things that I
- 11:42have found is that it doesn't take, like you said, a big
- 11:45production, but it does take knowing what you're going to do,
- 11:49whether it's finding that one thing or having a plan and
- 11:53opening up and knowing, OK, today I'm going to do this.
- 11:57I like to do prayer journaling where I have a plan each day.
- 12:01I know what I'm praying for, and just having the plan in and of
- 12:05itself is enough to help me in my consistent yeah.
- 12:10Consistency is key with all areas of our life.
- 12:14You guys share three ways to study the Bible, and I know
- 12:19there's many different ways to study the Bible, but you know,
- 12:23share with our friend here that's listening, that would
- 12:27love to hear what you guys have to say on how to study the Bible
- 12:31and some of the different ways that we can draw even closer to
- 12:36the Lord. Well, I mean, obviously there
- 12:39are lots of different things you can do.
- 12:41And so, but specifically a few of the things that you can do to
- 12:47to really help facilitate your Bible study in addition to
- 12:50having a plan, having a schedule.
- 12:52Is finding a way to to use what you have, Like for example, if
- 12:58you have a Bible reading plan that you're going through, to
- 13:03use that plan in kind of creative ways.
- 13:06For me, one of the keys to consistency is being creative in
- 13:10how I study and how I do things and kind of changing things up.
- 13:14Some people are very, very. Their personality is very good
- 13:17at they do the same exact thing all the time.
- 13:20For me, it means changing things up a little bit.
- 13:23And that is a real key to my study, is it doesn't look
- 13:28exactly the same every day. And that's OK, That's OK.
- 13:32It doesn't have to be the same time every day.
- 13:34It doesn't have to be the same. That's that's that's a big thing
- 13:37with people, right? They feel like if they're not
- 13:39doing their Bible study at 5:00 AM, it doesn't really count.
- 13:43It doesn't have to be the same time every day.
- 13:44It does not have to be the same. It doesn't have to look the same
- 13:48every day. And you can take the Bible in in
- 13:51a lot of different ways. And so knowing that and being
- 13:55free in that is really important.
- 14:01Yeah. And I would just add, you know,
- 14:03there are tons of ways, you know when you ask this question, I'm
- 14:05like oh, which which three do we give out of like the the 2030
- 14:10plus that we have. But I'll just share the one that
- 14:12comes to my mind immediately is meditation.
- 14:16And I know a lot of times people don't think of this as a Bible
- 14:19study method, but it really and truly is.
- 14:21It's what I call portable Bible study.
- 14:24Because you can take it with you anywhere, and you don't have to
- 14:27sit at your kitchen table with your Bible open to do it.
- 14:30You can simply write one verse. Say you have one of those Bible
- 14:34reading plans and it's a topical plan and you have a verse or a
- 14:38passage for each day would just take your daily passage, write
- 14:41it on a note card, carry it with you, or you could put it on your
- 14:44phone. You know, I'm I'm a little older
- 14:46so I probably prefer writing to having it on my screen, but you
- 14:51could do it on your screen too. And meditate on that throughout
- 14:55the day. So how do you meditate on it?
- 14:57Will you read each word? Emphasize each word as you read.
- 15:01You know, that's one way. A second way is to look for the
- 15:05verbs in that passage and really under, like, define them,
- 15:10mentally Mull them over in your mind, define them.
- 15:13So when it says that that God loves you, love is a verb, what
- 15:18does that mean? Like think through what it means
- 15:20when you love someone. What happens when you love when
- 15:24you are loved by somebody? What do they do to communicate
- 15:28that left? Like, ask yourself all of these
- 15:30questions. If you find a noun, look at the,
- 15:36you know synonyms and antonyms to those to those terms or a
- 15:40keyword. To find that, look at those
- 15:42synonyms and antonyms. Do comparison and and some
- 15:46contrasting of them, like really take some time to meditate.
- 15:49This is what it means to meditate on scripture And as we
- 15:52do that the Lord gives us deeper insights into what that one
- 15:58little passage is truly sane and we start to glean His heart for
- 16:02us. We understand who He is.
- 16:05We understand who we are in Him, His love and intentions towards
- 16:09us. And so just taking that
- 16:11meditation as a portable Bible study.
- 16:14It will blow your mind like if you really start to spend some
- 16:18time meditating on scripture, it is life transforming.
- 16:21And some people will call that like burst mapping, some
- 16:25different techniques to that, but all of those techniques are.
- 16:31Really. About getting it in your in your
- 16:32heart and meditating on it. Yeah, that's so good.
- 16:36I mean, I found I really retain information when I write out the
- 16:40scripture verse. And like you said, just
- 16:46marinating on that or meditating on it and just asking Lord, you
- 16:51know, show me some highlights, you know, And usually or
- 16:55insights, usually there's some kind of download that I haven't
- 16:59seen before in that scripture verse.
- 17:02And I'll just like write it out. Or I sit on a word like you're
- 17:07saying and just letting it take root.
- 17:10And then sometimes I like to go in and see what that means and
- 17:15Greek. And then we all know that could
- 17:17go into some big rabbit hole, like all kinds of different
- 17:22things. And and you know, I'm looking up
- 17:24cross references to you and having it really become a Bible
- 17:29study instead of just a reading plan.
- 17:33And that was one of the things I wanted to do was start reading
- 17:37the Bible chronologically. But what turned me off was that
- 17:41these Bible plans had you need to do this on day one and you
- 17:45need to do this on day 2. And it wasn't conducive to what
- 17:50how I like to do things or it was too much reading.
- 17:54And one day, just to try to get through it, I the Bible plans.
- 17:59To me, I'm a little bit hesitant because I don't like just
- 18:02checking things off because it becomes a list that I just check
- 18:07off and I don't want that, you know?
- 18:09I don't want it to become that. So I got this like, aha moment
- 18:15where I'm like, hello, I could do it chronologically and just
- 18:18go at my own pace and do it my way.
- 18:22Is it that chronological Bible in a year?
- 18:25No, it's probably gonna take me several years to get through the
- 18:29Bible this way. But that's OK because I know I'm
- 18:33retaining it. It's taking root.
- 18:35I'm not just reading it and then forgetting what I just read the
- 18:40next day. And so I found that to be very
- 18:44helpful of writing out that verse and then just pondering on
- 18:50it for a while and that being my morning quiet time.
- 18:53One of the ways that if you are reading a big swath is listening
- 18:57to the Bible. Sometimes I will pick up things,
- 19:00especially if you have a good narrator and and I always choose
- 19:04like very dramatic narrators because my Bible has options.
- 19:09And it's like all of a sudden they're just the inflection that
- 19:13they use in particular verses and Bible stories and things.
- 19:17It helps you kind of see things differently.
- 19:19And then you can take that that reading or listening in the big
- 19:23swath and you can kind of. Narrow it down what you're
- 19:26talking about, the two or three verses that you really want to
- 19:29dive deep in. I love the audio as well, just
- 19:32because that is something that you can pair with other habits
- 19:35and you can start to cultivate a scripture intake habit in your
- 19:39life without necessarily having to find any additional time in
- 19:45your day so you can pair it like.
- 19:46Shower. I do it in the shower, yeah.
- 19:48Shower or driving, you know, while you're in the car or car
- 19:52line, waiting, whatever, so you can find places.
- 19:55Cases naturally throughout your day that you can squeeze that
- 20:00in. So I I love the versatility of
- 20:02it, yeah. OK, so let's dive into that
- 20:05meaningful quiet time. What are some things that you
- 20:09share in your ministry or even what you guys do?
- 20:14The five steps to a great quiet time.
- 20:18Well, I think we've kind of alluded to some of them, but the
- 20:20first step is actually. Scheduling it, I think.
- 20:25I think scheduling your quiet time knowing.
- 20:28And when I say quiet time, I use that word loosely, because if
- 20:31you're listening and you have, for example, tiny children, your
- 20:35quiet time may or may not be. Well, I shouldn't say tiny.
- 20:38Tiny. You probably get away with it.
- 20:40But medium sized children? It may not be quiet all the
- 20:44time, but. Having knowing what your
- 20:46schedule's sort of going to look like for the day and where you
- 20:49can literally schedule in time with God makes a huge
- 20:54difference. And as I mentioned earlier, it
- 20:57may not always be the exact same time, but knowing that it's like
- 21:01an appointment. You've made an appointment with
- 21:03God, like like any of your other appointments, and you're much
- 21:06more likely to keep that appointment if you schedule it.
- 21:10So scheduling is the first one, yeah.
- 21:12And I would say having some sort of plan is the second one.
- 21:15And it doesn't have to be a read through the Bible in a year, or
- 21:18it doesn't even have to be like one of those reading plans that
- 21:21we were talking about, but just knowing what you're actually
- 21:24going to be doing. Before you sit down to do it is
- 21:27super helpful because otherwise I don't know if you're like me,
- 21:32but I can spend my time trying to figure out what I'm doing
- 21:35instead of actually doing it. And that's super frustrating
- 21:38because maybe I get up extra early to make the time for it
- 21:42and then I sit down and I'm like, I'm so overwhelmed because
- 21:46I'm not sure where to start. So having a plan before you sit
- 21:50down for your time just eliminates that stress of.
- 21:54Trying to figure out what it is you're going to do, whether that
- 21:57scripture, reading, journaling, singing, worship, you know,
- 22:01whatever. Whichever of the spiritual
- 22:03disciplines it is that you want to include, knowing what it is
- 22:06you're going to be doing as soon as you hit your time is helpful,
- 22:10yeah? Yeah.
- 22:11So making the plans, scheduling. I think praying, starting with
- 22:15prayer is one of the things that sometimes we.
- 22:20You know, if if prayer is part of what we're doing, we will do
- 22:23it. But sometimes it's important to
- 22:25realize before you sit down with the Bible, starting with prayer
- 22:29is is really important to just to kind of ask God to speak to
- 22:36you and ask him. And then you can also even start
- 22:39at the beginning of the day before you even do any of this,
- 22:41before you do the scheduling and the Gathering, the things of
- 22:44things we'll maybe talk about in a minute.
- 22:46Is praying God just be with me during my day.
- 22:49Help me to keep my appointment with you and and hugely faithful
- 22:53to do that. And so start your day with
- 22:56prayer, but just say it doesn't have to be a long you don't have
- 22:58to sit in for a long time. It's just a quick be with me
- 23:02today and allow me to spend time with you throughout the day and
- 23:07pray throughout the day. We're supposed to pray without
- 23:09ceasing, just small prayers throughout the day.
- 23:11But then when you when you actually do have time to sit
- 23:13down with your plan. At your scheduled time started
- 23:17with prayer. Yeah.
- 23:19And then the next thing I would say is to just have some sort of
- 23:24device handy for note taking. And you're going to use that in
- 23:28a number of ways. Not only are you going to
- 23:30document how God speaks to you and journal, maybe you're going
- 23:33to journal your prayers or write out scripture.
- 23:36It comes in handy for that, but it also helps as your mind gets
- 23:40distracted. And tells you, oh, I got to
- 23:43remember, take the meat out for dinner tonight.
- 23:45Just write it down so that your mind has the freedom to focus
- 23:51back on what it is you're there to do, which is to spend the
- 23:54time with God, right. And to meditate on his word and
- 23:58to allow that to speak to you. If our minds are so distracted
- 24:01and running in 1000 different directions, it's it's too tied
- 24:05up to really focus and we can be spiritually ADHD.
- 24:10Especially in the world we live in right now.
- 24:13Yeah, with our phones. With yes, constant pains and and
- 24:17I think just having something to to just brain dump on while
- 24:22you're having your time with God, it just gives your mental
- 24:26state the permission to let that go.
- 24:29It's taken care of. You can get back to that later.
- 24:32Right now is time for this. Yeah, that's good.
- 24:36That's the first time I've heard that.
- 24:38That's, that's a good one. I just remember when I had
- 24:41Littles, in order for me to really have that quality quiet
- 24:47time, I just got up earlier and that was a sacrifice.
- 24:51I mean, that did not feel too great.
- 24:53You know, I think get up if they got up at 7:00, I mean, I'm
- 24:58going to get up at 6:00 or if they got up at six, having to
- 25:01get up at 5:00 in the morning just so I can get that 30
- 25:04minutes to an hour. But I got to see the blessings
- 25:10out of that, the rewards, it wasn't for, you know, it was all
- 25:15for a purpose. And God blessed that time.
- 25:20And he gives you that energy when you just don't think, how
- 25:24am I even gonna make it through the day with Littles if I get up
- 25:27that early? And but he does.
- 25:29He gives you that energy supernaturally and gets you
- 25:33through because you started out giving him your first and
- 25:37starting out with your day with him.
- 25:40And I remember plugging myself into a women's Bible study at
- 25:47the time. So there was homework being, you
- 25:50know, done through this quiet time along with just reading
- 25:54scripture on my own. And I think that was key too, is
- 25:58just being accountable of being involved in a community.
- 26:03Is there anything else you guys like to share before we
- 26:06conclude? And additionally to that, I love
- 26:10for you to be able to share a take away on something our
- 26:15friend here who's listening but they can ponder on or take
- 26:18action in well. We.
- 26:21Just we do feel like one of the things that is one of our core
- 26:25things that we think through is that in order to grow
- 26:29spiritually, and this is an encouragement for everyone, it
- 26:32takes consistency in these disciplines.
- 26:34And not just the disciplines of Bible study and prayer, which
- 26:36are the biggies, right, but all of the spiritual disciplines.
- 26:40And some of those are much more practiced than others in our
- 26:43lives. Some of them are much more
- 26:44understood than others in our lives.
- 26:48And so I think that it's really important that we understand the
- 26:51different spiritual disciplines. Of course, starting with those
- 26:55that we've talked about today and then kind of trickling down
- 26:58to some of the ones that we're less familiar with, we actually
- 27:01do have a resource to help with that.
- 27:04And it's free. It's SOJO academy.com/momentum,
- 27:08and it's basically just a guide on the spiritual disciplines and
- 27:11hopefully it will help you to give practical ways in which to
- 27:15grow in each of them. It's really, really supposed to
- 27:18be a really practical, quick way to grow.
- 27:22And I guess my take away and then I'll let you just comes
- 27:25from and it's interesting because I thought about this
- 27:28earlier and then. I think you might have mentioned
- 27:30it. So she might have stole it
- 27:31already, but that's good for that confirmation.
- 27:34But it comes from an Elizabeth Elliot quote where she was
- 27:37getting ready to go back to the people that had killed her
- 27:41husband, right. She was going back to minister
- 27:43them. And she wrote a letter to her
- 27:46supporters. The people that you know where
- 27:48she was just kind of get letting me know what was going on.
- 27:50She was going back with her daughter and she actually said
- 27:54don't think that this is some. You know, great thing, this
- 27:58great sacrifice. It's just the next step that I
- 28:00need to be taking. It's just, it's just what God
- 28:03has told me the next step is. And so it really kind of
- 28:06resonated with me to think we all need to be just taking that
- 28:09next step. So take a small step, even if it
- 28:13is not a grand. I'm going to come up this great
- 28:17big plan. Maybe it is figuring out what
- 28:20your plan is going to be next time you sit down and study.
- 28:22Maybe it is finding the Bible study.
- 28:24Maybe it is is going finding one of our Bibles.
- 28:26Studies, we'd be more than happy to help you.
- 28:29Maybe it is just taking those 5 minutes that you had not been
- 28:34taking previously to be in the word or be in prayer and
- 28:39practicing these disciplines and just the next step.
- 28:42Just take the next step and God will, as A J said, meet you
- 28:45there. And then he will increase your
- 28:47desire to know him and make the next step even easier.
- 28:54Yeah. Yeah.
- 28:55I think my take away kind of piggybacks on that a little bit
- 28:58because you mentioned earlier about we can give up if we feel
- 29:04ourselves failing at the plan that we wanted to do or not
- 29:09reaching that standard of perfectionism.
- 29:11And my take away would be to learn how to fall, quote UN
- 29:16quote forward instead of falling back, because all of us are
- 29:21going to mess up. It's just the way humans do,
- 29:26right? There's no such thing as
- 29:27perfect, and there's no such thing as perfect execution.
- 29:32And so I think that if we can just lower that standard, give
- 29:36ourselves grace and learn how to use our quote UN quote failures
- 29:42as a way to move forward. And the the best way that I do
- 29:48that personally is just by asking Okay.
- 29:51What went wrong? What worked in this?
- 29:55Like what? What was it that made me keep
- 30:00going? And then what was it that made
- 30:03me stop? Like, what happened?
- 30:05And and you know what? I've learned the craziest things
- 30:08about myself and about God by simply doing a little bit of
- 30:13reflection on that, and I've been able to make tweaks and
- 30:17learn okay well. That, for example, that audio
- 30:21Bible, that's a great fall back for me when I don't have time
- 30:25opening the actual book, you know, of God's Word.
- 30:30So I've just learned little things that work for me.
- 30:33And we can all do the same thing if we don't see our failures as
- 30:38failures but as opportunities to learn about ourselves and the
- 30:42way we connect and commune with God and use that to fall forward
- 30:46instead of falling behind. Yeah, I like that.
- 30:49Kind of look at like we're tailor made for a certain style.
- 30:54And I think we put so much pressure on ourselves like, oh,
- 30:58well, that works for her. Like maybe I should be doing
- 31:01that. And then you try it and then
- 31:02you're like, no, I don't like this, you know, And and so we
- 31:06don't all have to be in one box or be all one shape of how we
- 31:14study the Bible And just like you said, find what works for
- 31:18you. Where are, you know, the
- 31:20strengths the the ways you delight in it and then what are
- 31:24the ways that don't work for you and that makes you unmotivated
- 31:29and then change that and yeah, just making it like a custom
- 31:35style just for you. I I love that.
- 31:37And you know I like to add personalizing scripture verses.
- 31:41I think that was a big game changer for me when when I found
- 31:44out I could do that, I was like, what put my name in there
- 31:47instead of we and us and and how much it just really made it even
- 31:54more closer to my to my heart, the scripture verse and how much
- 31:58I felt close to the Lord in that.
- 32:02So that's something to try also. So well thanks girls John and A
- 32:08J for coming on here. You guys have a great ministry
- 32:11and love what you're doing for God's Kingdom and just equipping
- 32:15women and how you know that's what I love all of us building
- 32:21each other up for the glory of the Lord.
- 32:24And thank you for coming on here.
- 32:27Thank you for having. Yeah.
- 32:28Thank you so much. It's been great.
- 32:29We enjoyed it. Thank you so much for listening
- 32:33today, and I trust that God has encouraged you through this
- 32:37story. Did you know?
- 32:38This podcast is on YouTube? Hop on there and subscribe and
- 32:42you can see a live recording of each episode.
- 32:46And For more information on this ministry and to access free
- 32:50downloads, please visit my website at jamieelizabeth.com.
- 32:55That's JAYME elizabeth.com. And let's connect beyond this
- 33:00podcast by going to my Instagram handle Jamie, Elizabeth, She
- 33:04Speaks Life or Facebook. Until next time, my friend.
- 33:08I hope God reveals himself through your own life story.