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Building Consistency that Lasts: Faithful in the Little Things · The Rooted Woman Podcast

• Courtney Her Mind On Mission: Hello and welcome back to the Mission for More podcast. I'm your host Courtney, the face behind her mind on Mission on social media. And today we are diving into a topic that I know that is number one, it's so intentionally orchestrated by the Lord because every single topic that he has been planting on my heart more recently really strings together to build up to the point that we're at today. And I'm so grateful for his guidance and leading there. But I also know it is a topic that needs to be heard because I never. really have to do editing. I never really have to re-record anything. And I'm telling you, I'm sitting down to record this episode for the fourth time. Every single time I have tried, something has come against me or interrupted me to the point that I have not been able to sit down and record it. So I'm getting it done today, mark my words. The Lord is going to lead and guide the conversation and it's going to be so good. I know the enemy does not want me to put this episode out, but it's coming out for you and I pray that it will bless you and that it will help you in the area of consistency. Let's dive in. So I think so many of us, if we can just honestly look at the picture of our lives really quick and think about the things that we want to do or the people that we want to become. My husband and I were just talking about this, like catching the vision and we can really envision and see who we want to be at our like best and healthiest selves. When we have the best routines, when things are really exactly where we want them to be. We know what that looks like. We know exactly what we want to do. And we also know the steps ⁓ that we to take to get there. ⁓ However, I think that what we do struggle with, and not just me and my husband, but everybody, as I'm speaking to all of you, and why the enemy did not want me to put this episode out, is because we struggle with actually showing up consistently, actually implementing the steps that we know will get us to that place, and living it out in the day-to-day because of circumstances that happen. Whether it is spending time with God or taking care of your body or being a present parent or walking in obedience, I think... So often we start really, really strong when we say, okay, this is the game plan. I'm giving it a go. But then life happens and we drop off. And I can resonate with this so much right now because I got the flu, you guys, so bad to where I physically, like I couldn't stand up for two days. ⁓ Anytime that I did, I would get so lightheaded that I thought I was going to pass out. I was like crawling around the floor just to like go and say goodnight to my kids at night. Like it was, it was intense. And I have not been that sick in a very, long time and it threw off my whole body. I don't want to get into the nitty gritty because it is just so many personal TMI things, but so much happened. It threw off my hormones, it threw off my rest, it threw off my strength. I was not able to get back on track with working out because then I got sick as I was recovering, one of my other kids got sick and it trickled through my home for a two and a half week process. Then I started taking walks to just kind of get back into movement and not overdo it, because I did feel so weak. And so we're going for walks, all that's fine. I'm like, okay, great. I finally feel like I can do like more of a strength workout. My very first workout. Guys, I literally pulled a muscle and it was like the inner thigh. And I'm like, ⁓ my goodness, seriously? And it hurts so bad. And I'm like, are you kidding me? Now it hurts to walk or to strength train. So what am I going to do? then I just felt so defeated and I was talking about it with my husband and he's like, we have to be so vigilant in praying against these things that are trying to hold us back or cause like these areas of frustration in our life. Like we keep saying like, ⁓ why is this happening? And we know why it's happening and we do individually pray about it. We pray about it as a family. We pray about it before bed, but like, no, pray about it, war against it. Make sure that we are doing everything that we can in our own strength to. come against these challenges that we feel the enemy is putting in our lives so that we can get to the place that the Lord has us. I love knowing that. Even when the enemy comes knocking, even when he's putting these barricades up in my life or making me feel like, oh my goodness, how will we ever overcome these things to get back on track? I love James 4-7. I clung to this so much in, it was like 2020, 2021. It just really, really, really reminded me that yes, the enemy will come knocking and it doesn't mean that I am like fallen off track or that I need to quit or that I have to give up. James 4-7 says, submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. I love this so much because so long as I submitted so long as I am doing the things that the Lord has called me to so long as I am being obedient and walking with him as I continue to resist the enemy he will flee these attacks will subside and I just cling to that because so often in these seasons where we feel like we are so off track that how do we get back up and build consistency again if we remember that it's so much easier to say okay I'm just gonna get right back on and like do the things that I was doing and that's exactly what I've been doing finally I feel like my legs feeling better I'm feeling like I have a little bit more energy. I'm congested again and have horrible allergies, but I'm like, you know what? No, there is no excuse. I'm feeling better. I'm getting up. I'm doing the thing. And so that's what I did this morning. I was like, no excuses. I got up. I had my time in the word. I worked out. I did my sauna session and my red light therapy. And I don't have to do all these things. I don't have to complete everything in such an order. And it doesn't have to be a checklist. But for me today, I needed the whole package. I was able to shower before making my kids breakfast. And it just felt like, OK, even though I'm tired, the workout was hard for me. I'm feeling like, wow, this is a lot coming back from taking such a big break. But I know that if I continue to do this, it's going to become easier. the same way that if I continue to battle against the enemy and submit myself to the Lord, I know the enemy's attacks are going to dwindle down. I know that he will flee. I just have to continue to do what I'm doing. If I am consistent first in the word with the Lord and then consistent in fighting back against the enemy and saying, no, I'm not giving you any ground here to feed me these lies. I'm not going to come into an agreement with it to put up this barrier for me and make me fall off track. I'm going to continue to push forward even if it takes four times of trying to sit down and record an episode I'm gonna do it if I know that the Lord has called me to string these episodes together and land here with this final message in this Quote-unquote little series that he has planted in my heart and so I'm doing it. Will you do that same thing? I want to talk about why we struggle with consistency. So Let's start with the fact that consistency is hard And think admitting it is okay. Everything is hard. Consistency is hard, staying stuck is hard. You have to choose your hard, right? But more than choosing our hard, we have to choose to deny our flesh. Because our flesh is so inconsistent. ⁓ day I'm like, ⁓ yeah, I'm totally gonna eat all the healthy food. And the next day I'm craving ice cream. So do you fall victim to the craving? Or do you continue to choose the things that you know are gonna be more beneficial to your body ⁓ have, you know, those fun sweet treats every now and then, but you can't fall victim to your cravings every single day or you're going to block. your progress. It's going to be hard to be consistent when you're constantly giving in and you can apply that with anything because of our flesh. We live in a culture that really tells us like, just do what feels good and like, well what does your heart say? Follow your heart or rest when you don't feel like it. Take a mental health day and I do think that there's a time and a place for that but we have to make sure that it's like the sanctified biblical version of rest, that it's a surrendered rest, that it's a I'm expectant for a refilling and a refreshing from the Lord rest. in order to be able to then get back on track with that consistency. Not following what culture tells us and society tells us to just do what feels good in the moment because if I go by my feeling, if I go by my fleshly desires, I'm going to be led so astray because they are so inconsistent. It will be like a roller coaster ride trying to get to this place of consistency in my life. Right now I'm studying Galatians 6, 9 with my discipleship group and I want to read it here today. It does not say if you feel like it or when it's convenient. It says, not grow weary. So we know that we would be faced with the exhaustion. We knew that these trials would come because the Lord gives us the words to not grow weary. He gives us the vision. ⁓ you know guide us and ⁓ illuminate to us the direction that we need to go or will we go and we'll counteract the word and we say like ⁓ well I just don't feel like it today you're literally counteracting the word of God and you're wondering why he's feeling far from you no continue to move forward even if I would rather move forward and give 1 % then sit back and and have that 1 % feel now like 50 % in the future when I'm further back because I took so much time off then that's not just with working out, that's with anything in life. I would rather give that 1 % and trust, again, the Lord says that if we're faithful in little, right, we will be faithful with much. I'm going to trust that if I'm faithful and I just move forward and I give the 1%, that 1 % is going to lead to the 10 % and it's going to lead to the 50 and it's going to bring me closer to my goals so long as I have Christ at the center. We always want these quick transformations because we see it all the time on social media, six second reels and it looks really great and the caption sounds pretty, but if you looked at somebody's life, if you looked at my life, I just took a month off, my hormones were out of whack after healing my hormones for the last year. I was so frustrated, I was so defeated, I was so grumpy about it. I will be so honest with you. Still, I chose. I'm going to show up. I'm going to move forward because I'm not going to give up everything that I've worked so hard for. I am just not going to do it. The enemy wants me to give up, but I'm saying, no, I'm putting my foot down and I'm going to continue to move forward towards the things that God has called me to. Will you do the same thing with me? God cares about our small daily choices, the extra five minutes that we have. I always say, if it's only going to take five minutes, do it. Just do it. If I'm in the bathroom and I notice that it's dirty and just tidying it up, not saying doing a deep clean. Maybe I want to deep clean the bathroom and I don't have time, but I have five minutes. What I normally do is I take a little, we use the crocodile wipes, I should not say little, they are huge. I love those things. But I'll take a crocodile wipe and I'll wipe down every surface in that bathroom really, really quickly. The doorknob, the light switch, I'll do all the sink, know, I'll go onto the toilet. I'll make sure if I need to like fold it over, clean right around the bottom of the floor, because I've got boys, and throw that away and the bathroom feels refreshed. It's not perfect. I didn't do a deep clean. But within not even five minutes, I was able to tidy up and I walk out feeling a little bit more accomplished because I gave the one or maybe 10 % to take three minutes to tidy up the bathroom. That's all took. ⁓ And so often we let these little five minute tasks build up and we we feel like we can never overcome the mountain of things that we have to do, but if we just took those five minutes and we were faithful with what we had, we would be so much further ahead than where we are if we don't do anything at all. And I think we think that life is built on these really big dramatic decisions or changes or overnight successes, and in reality, when you look at the back end of so many things, that is not the truth. our small decisions every single day add up. make sure that you're focusing on being intentional. And it is, let me just say this, and I know I've said this and talked about this so much lately, but our phones, our phones, if you've got your phone in hand 24 seven, you're not going to notice all the little things that need to be done. You're not going to be faithful with the five minutes because your five minutes turned into 25 minutes while you were scrolling. And the phones will get in the way of doing so much and they are such a distraction. Will you set it down while you are in the kitchen? Will you set it down? Don't bring it in the bathroom. So gross, you know, don't bring it in there. And you will notice the little things that need to get done and you will realize how much extra time you really do have when it is not in the picture. So look at how you steward the extra five minutes, the extra 10 minutes, the ordinary mornings, the little things in the evening where you're like, I could just go sit and veg out on the couch or I could clean up the kitchen and then watch a show while I'm folding laundry. Best of both worlds, right? You can still relax and still find the entertainment that we so desperately want sometimes because of our flesh while also being faithful with the time that we do have. have. And when we talk practically about even just being in the word of God, like opening our Bible and leaving it out to the last place that we were reading so that we can pick up where we left off when we have a quick minute. When you're like, okay, the veggies are simmering on the oven, everything on the stove top, everything else is in the oven. I'm gonna lean over really quick where I left my Bible and I'm gonna pick up where I left off and I'm going to read for the next five minutes before I have to turn everything over again. That five minutes is so important. But if we stood there in the kitchen scrolling on our phone, we just missed out on five minutes with the Lord. or maybe it was a five minute prayer because the day was really hard, you want to surrender to him so that your conversations at the dinner table with your husband are not about complaining and venting, but about rejoicing over all the things that God did do that day. It is about choosing God again and again and again and choosing to live distraction free so that we can be intentional in our time again and again and again so that we can be good stewards of all that God has given us. And I encourage you to slow down, to take some things off of your plate so that you can recognize where you do have or 10 minutes so that you can recognize where you maybe are a little bit more distracted and you can do something about it because if you're going at such a fast pace you will not always recognize where you need to kind of shift and turn and move forward in one area because it's so hard to see it when we have to move so quickly on to the very next thing that we have because our schedule is just so tight. So let's talk about for a minute because you know I like the why behind things. Why is it important for Christians to be consistent? How can we achieve consistency? What does consistency as a Christian even look like? I think it's really important that, I mean you can go back to like Matthew 6 and really read that Jesus was teaching his followers where to start. A consistent walk of faith doesn't come from forcing this. perfect schedule. It is really really really stemming out of a place of such deep surrender and reverence and love and relationship with our Father. And if we're missing out on that, we're missing out on so much more that He has to offer for us in our lives in the area of consistency and otherwise because we are devoting ourselves to so many other things that it's hard to fully devote ourselves to the Lord where He is going to prepare us, to teach us, to lead us, to guide us, and to show us where He wants us to be consistent. We're trying to be consistent in 100 things It's not gonna happen. is just that nobody can be consistent in all these different areas You can only ever give 1 % to all these other areas But if I choose one thing to be consistent in make sure that it's Christ first You know one thing to be consistent in until I build that habit I'm going to be able to give 100 % to that one thing form that habit and then build off of it as I continue to implement that in my life and it becomes so Engrained in who I am and if it's not first with the Lord, then What are you putting first? Because that thing can become an idol, can take over part of our identity and it makes it harder to then really lean into the Lord and go through the ebbs and flows. Remember I talked about our flesh being inconsistent in our circumstances, coming in as a barrier. It's going to be very, very difficult in the ebbs and the flows of life if we are not so rooted in Christ and our identity in Him to remain consistent in everything else because our identity will be built on things that will just fall and crumble the moment that our circumstances don't match up to it. You have to consistently meet with the Lord and also be with other believers to encourage you to ⁓ to challenge you to be able to hold you accountable. That's why the accountability group in the 75 Holy or Holy Habits challenges that we do are free because it is so important to me to be able to cultivate this community where we could, you know, encourage and spur one another on so that we can grow in Christ together and that there is that community aspect to it because I think this is such a hard area to really live out in our lives, especially when we're talking about the whole Daily Five. ⁓ You know, just like movement and our diet and our time with the Lord and, you know, reading it. and really building our character and learning and growing, right? And then having time to reflect. It's a lot. It can feel like a lot. And then also, I mean, many of us have other things outside of that. If you have got kids or you are committed to a ministry or volunteering somewhere or you have a job, you know, all those other things can pull from us too. And so we need that, that accountability piece and that community piece that's going to encourage and lift us up and pray for us too when those circumstances don't align with the direction that we're trying to go. consistent believer really is going to realize that earth, the afflictions, the trials, the temptations, the fleshly desire to you know step outside of that area of consistency in our life, those things are going to come up. And I think when we are consistent as believers we realize that these things are going to happen and then we can go back to James 4-7 like I talked about and continue to submit myself to the Lord and then recognize that I have to resist the enemy and that he's going to flee and I'm going to continue to move forward. If you come up to a roadblock or let's just say like a pay toll that's what came to mind. I'm coming up to a pay toll. Imagine that pay toll is the enemy and that my coins into that coin bank is me submitting to the Lord and resisting. Right? I'm submitting to the Lord. I'm resisting. voting as I'm putting the coins in. I'm putting my coins into the basket of the Lord. And then all of a sudden that arm of the toll comes up and you're able to continue to drive. So that arm is the enemy, right? The enemy's arm is removed. I'm able to continue my journey on wherever I'm going to go. That does not set me back. I didn't back up. No, there's a line of cars behind me. I stayed right there and until I put the coins in or until I paid, that's when the arm goes up. And so many of us have like the eye pass thing now. And so maybe that's a little irrelevant if you're thinking about practicality, but I hope you're able to think about it spiritually and really see that vision of our lives. Okay, I'm not going to Backwards when I just pause for a moment. I put the coins in I vote with the Lord. I say, okay God I'm giving this thing to you. I'm resisting the enemy I'm calling on you father to lead me through this the arm of the enemy is released and you continue to move forward You're no longer feeling like you have a setback. You know, they say ten steps forward ten steps back I'm not going ten steps back. I went ten steps forward I paused and I'm gonna go another ten steps forward How much easier is it to become consistent to reach our goals when we have that? Mindset instead of feeling like we're being deranged completely and also sometimes it's the reality of being derailed completely because of our failure to submit to God in the first place. James taught believers to meet challenges and tests of faith with both what? Joy and endurance so that we can grow and develop into the Christian, the woman that God called us to be. You know, we think about like quote unquote becoming her. What I think of becoming her, it mostly has to do with the Lord. Yes, I want to be stronger. I want to be healthier and all those things. But when I really think about it, it's like, no, I want so deeply to be this version of myself with the Lord. And like that Sunday morning worship. Wish that I could get to that place every single morning, but halfway through it's like I've got a child crying and I have to remember that this is just a season and that these things right the temptations the afflictions the trials that we just talked about they're gonna come but James taught us that We can meet challenges and tests of faith and still have joy and still have endurance and still continue to grow and still move forward We don't have to just bow down to the circumstances and say okay. I guess you're right I'm going to just give up now. No, I've got a child crying. I'm gonna tend to their cries. I'm gonna move back into worship I'm going to make their breakfast. I'm going to move back into the things that I'm doing for me in my life, in my habits, in my consistent areas that I'm trying to develop, I really want to talk about the practical ways to build consistency because I think this is going to take the the why as Christians and the truth of the of the Lord and really allow us to walk it out if we Can audit our lives and really see the areas that we are struggling in? Number one, I think we need to start smaller than you think that you need to. So often we fail at being consistent because we go too big, too fast. I love that saying like go big or go home. Well, half the time that's what happens. It's like you try to go big and then you miss it and then you go home or you like set aside the goal, you know. And instead of feeling like you need to do all this, like I'm going to do a 60 day workout plan. Can you just say, okay, I'm going to move my body for 30 minutes a day, you know, by doing weighted vest walks or I'm going to even start, you can start smaller. just because we focus on 30 minutes of movement. This is like over your whole day and I'm just saying move your body. If you have a sedentary, if that's the word, lifestyle, like just get up and move your body. ⁓ It doesn't have to be an actual like 30 minute workout, but let's just say you do want to work out. Don't start with 30 minutes. Say, okay, I'm gonna do like a quick 10 minute YouTube video that I have found. Wonderful, beautiful. That is something. Celebrate it. Start smaller than you think that you need to and build on it. When 10 minutes finally feels like, I'm like, passed that up so quickly, then move to 15, then move to 20, and move to 30, and then stay at that 30 place and really focus on building strength there and focus on pushing yourself harder there after that consistency has already been grown and is manageable and is feasible for you to continue on moving forward. I think so much of society tells us like again the big overnight success that we will reach for the bigger goals but often we try to reach for that bigger goal and we are so overwhelmed yourself start smaller than you think you need to. Number two ⁓ Put habits on what you already do. Like build off of what you already do. For me, right now I'm trying, I make my little electrolyte drink in the morning. I'm trying to remember when I have the electrolyte drink like made, to then go do my vitamin D and B12. Because I forget, I forget all the time. Life moves fast when you've got four little kids that have lots of needs in the morning. And so I have to remember, okay, I get my electrolytes out. That's my signal to myself to then go and take my vitamins. If you're struggling to stay consistent, don't try to create a whole entire new routine from scratch, build on what is already working. So for example, if you are struggling with submitting to God in the morning and praying, have your Bible open right next to where you make your coffee, read your verse and pray while your coffee is brewing in the thing. ⁓ Listen to scripture while you're driving or journal right before bed so that it's like your brain dumping and hopefully you can go to bed. There's a couple of people in the Holy Habits Challenge that have started this and said it helps them to go to sleep and fall asleep faster and have better rest because they're able to like empty out their brain before they fall fall asleep. So whatever you're already doing, try to build a little bit. Remember, start smaller if you need to, a little bit on what you're already doing. That's called habit stacking. And it's going to be so much easier because as you do these things that are naturally ingrained in your lifestyle already, you'll start to remember the things that you're trying to build in there. And it's like your brain just connects the two and you start doing it. And then number three, you have to get rid of the all or nothing mindset. We're gonna be talking about this again in the coming weeks. This one is so big. If you think of this, you know. all-or-nothing mindset and maybe you fall into it like if I miss a day then I failed and I just give up or if I ate the chocolate a little bit of chocolate then I should have dessert every single night this week if that's maybe not the exact words that you're thinking in your mind but the actions that you actually take because of the mistakes quote-unquote that you've made no you got to get rid of that mindset missing once is human missing twice is human missing five times as human messing up over and over and over again until you get it right it's so human it is so human quitting is what is going to break your consistency So get up and try again until you figure it out because there will be a way or there will be some day that comes and you'll be like, ⁓ It makes sense or ⁓ it's finally sticking but if you don't keep trying you're not going to actually be able to see what works and what doesn't because you're not trying at all. So remove that all or nothing mentality. Number four, focus on your identity as a daughter of the Lord not just on behavior and also your identity and who you're becoming. So instead of saying like I'm trying to be consistent, no I'm a daughter of the king and he's called me to consistency. I'm going to show up consistently in this area. Really speak life over yourself. Put it on a post-it note, you know I'm big on post-its and put it on your mirror so that you can read it as you're getting ready. They say this often ⁓ for like people who are overcoming addiction or trying to stop smoking like instead of saying I'm working on not smoking anymore, just no, I don't smoke anymore and you say that and it's so much easier to really shift into that mindset because you're already giving yourself those words that are the like hard no in the sand. I'm not doing this thing or I am doing this other thing. As believers obviously our identity should first be rooted in Christ. and we're not striving, I just want to say this, we're not striving to be like this overly disciplined daughter of the Lord. No, when we really, sit. in our identity as daughters. I see grace. I see mercy. see laughter with the Lord like, my goodness, I can't believe I did not take my vitamins again. Like, what is it God? How am going to get there? And you laugh it off and you move forward and you pray, God, help me to be consistent in this area. And you keep showing up and you walk in the spirit and you allow God to continue to produce good things in you as you continue to submit to him. Allow God to come in and remind you. Allow God to ⁓ give you those little God wings in your life that you're like, okay, even when I fail, I'm still a daughter of the king. And so I'm not going to allow this failure to now be my whole identity. And I'm not going to shrink back and allow myself to just fall completely off track because I know my identity as a daughter never changes. And so just one mistake that I made didn't make me less of a daughter. It's also not going to make me, let's say you miss a day of running, less of a runner. I'm going to show up tomorrow and I'm going to run, continue to get back up and get on the path you were on before and allow God to just continue to lavish his love on you as his daughter and be reminded of that as you move forward towards your goals. And always, always, always invite God into the process. Consistency has a lot to do with discipline, but it has more to do with dependence on the Lord. If I am so surrendered to him and so dependent on him and trust that I can't do anything outside of being his daughter, then I have so much more confidence as his daughter to do the things that he's asking me to do, to show up consistently and to really build these new habits in my life. I will, whenever I'm struggling, I will pray and like, God, why is this so hard? Help me, Lord, to just make this easier. Help me to see the areas where I can shift so that this becomes a part of my lifestyle and really just inviting him in to give me a magnifying glass to look at things a little bit differently from a different perspective, from a new lens and see where maybe I'm missing the mark. In John 15, 5, it says, apart from me, you can do nothing. I want Remember that apart from the Lord I can't do nothing Courtney has not built a podcast or built a social media following following or built habits or built a family or Moved into this house none of it without the Lord all the good things in my life come from God first And if I don't remember that I'm going to build this thing that's off of my own strength And then I'm going to burn out because I've done it alone without the Lord when you invite God into the process It's that much easier to have strength to have discipline to have desire to show up and when these things happen and we continue to move forward consistently, that's when the motivation shows up. Because consistency isn't just sustained by like this supernatural willpower that the Lord gave us. No, it's sustained by abiding in Him and saying, help me to make this right choice. This is really hard for me right now and trusting that He is going to show up in the process and He's teaching you something through it. If we don't recognize Him, how do we recognize what He's teaching us? So for the woman before we end that keeps starting over, I just want to speak into you. I know that you say like, I've tried that before. I've heard that so many times. I've tried that before. Or I just keep starting over. I don't know how to build consistency. I can't seem to stay consistent. Here's what I want you to hear. Starting over is not failure, but I also don't think that you need to start from ground zero. You need to pause. Like I said, at the toll booth, you pause and you say, okay, God, I'm voting on the side of the Lord. I'm not voting on the attacks of the enemy. I want you to raise that enemy's hand and his arm off of my life right now Father and help me to continue to move in the direction that you are calling me to go and you really lean into that and you ask God to help you to reevaluate the things in your life that you need to maybe shift a little bit to get to where you want to be. Ask him to have eyes to see your blind spots and ask him what needs to go, what needs to stay because he will make it apparent to you. I also want to say that God's not frustrated when you start over and he's not looking at ⁓ your restart so to speak as a failure. that you're trying and you're trying and you're trying and he wants you to surrender it to him. He wants to do it with you. He wants to give you the strength but half the time we're doing it over and over and over again. We haven't spoken a word to him. So will you just speak to him and remind yourself that he's not frustrated even when you have failed to be consistent in this area that maybe you feel convicted about. He's inviting you to just say, God I didn't do it. I know you see me. I'm asking for help. He wants that invitation into your life. He's a such a gentleman. He is such a gentle father and he wants us to ask him in because he's always there, he knows everything that's going on anyway. But when we develop relationship, I want my kids to ask me into their hearts, ask me into their lives, ask me into their struggles. I don't want to poke and prod until I force it out of them. That doesn't feel very relational to me. And I think God gave us that picture when we are parents, when we have friendships, when we have a husband in our relationships here on earth, so that we could understand that relationship with him a little bit more. And remember, his mercies are new every morning. That is the picture that is above my little quiet spot. in my corner in the front room that I have done a couple of my reels in front of. It's the wildflowers and his mercies are new every single morning. That means every single day you get to begin over again. And that doesn't mean that you have to start completely over. Remind yourself, okay, tomorrow is a new day and I'm gonna pick up where I left off. That is going to be the game changer in your life that says, okay, I'm moving forward, even if it's like centimeter by centimeter, not even inch by inch, and I'm going to celebrate that movement forward instead of feeling like, ⁓ my goodness, I'm not where I wanna be. Don't pressure or shame yourself. Move forward the grace that God has given you. I really, really pray that this is helping you today. Actually, let's do that right now. Let's just pray Lord. Thank you that you are consistent father even when we are not consistent in our own lives Thank you that you are faithful and that you never waver father even when we do I just pray God for the woman who is listening right now that you will give her the desire to grow in consistency that she will not just be Disciplined in the area because of her own strength that it's a submission to you father and through that submission you give her Desire to continue to move in that direction. Maybe it's desire to work out desire to eat healthier desire to read your word desire to get in community, desire to do the things that you've called her to do. God, would you please just strengthen her? Would you, God, give her discipline in the areas where she feels weak or feels like she's constantly starting over? Would you help her to just be faithful in the small things? Will you help her to show up even when it's hard, Father? Will you help her to choose obedience over the way that she's feeling? And will you help her to not succumb to her circumstances, Father, but really just lean into you when things feel hard and move forward, God, just like we envisioned at that toll booth with the arm going up just continue to move forward on the road that you have her on to be the better version of herself in you first father I just pray God that if her identity is shaken right now Lord that you just remind her that she is your daughter that you have called her for such a time as this to do the things that she's doing in her life gotta just remind her of her gifts and her talents that you have uniquely given to her that so that she can see herself as your daughter and just be the word I want is rooted in her identity in you first father remind her that she doesn't have to do all this alone that you are with her in every single moment, every single movement forward, every single failure, every single setback, every single circumstance, God, you are right there. Let her just surrender her habits, her routines, her daily choices to you, Father, and help to just shape her into the woman that you are calling her to be, most of all just rooted in you, Father. We just pray all this in your mighty name. Amen. Thank you so much for tuning into the Mission for More podcast. If this episode encouraged you, I would just invite you to share it with a friend, screenshot, share it to stories and tag me. Remember, consistency is not about being perfect. We have let go of perfection, remember, and we are moving forward in just those small, faithful steps to build consistent habits in our lives. I hope that you feel encouraged today and I hope to hear some testimonies that come from even just listening to this episode. I will see you next week with a special guest, so stay tuned.