Latest / MESSmerized - Funny and faith based encouragement in marriage , family , Christian parenting , and finding purpose / Episode 128: Resetting Your Soul for a New Year with Tara Beth Leach

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Episode 128: Resetting Your Soul for a New Year with Tara Beth Leach · MESSmerized - Funny and faith based encouragement in marriage , family , Christian parenting , and finding purpose

0:00
[SPEAKER_01]: Hey guys, before we start today's show, I want to ask you a huge favor.
0:04
[SPEAKER_01]: It is officially the New Year or close.
0:07
[SPEAKER_01]: And February 3rd, 2026 is when my new book comes out.
0:11
[SPEAKER_01]: How did I miss that?
0:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Could I ask you if you haven't pre-ordered a copy?
0:15
[SPEAKER_01]: Would you mind doing that?
0:16
[SPEAKER_01]: It makes such a difference in how many copies Amazon carries and how many people see it.
0:21
[SPEAKER_01]: The bookstore is all the things that carry it.
0:23
[SPEAKER_01]: And so if you can take a minute, that would mean so much to me, I'm coming to you as people who listen to my show and are part of the community that I am in.
0:31
[SPEAKER_01]: If you would take a minute to do that, if you go on Amazon and order it, they don't charge you until it comes out February 3rd, but pre-orders are a huge deal.
0:38
[SPEAKER_01]: So would you take a minute and pre-order how do I miss that?
0:41
[SPEAKER_01]: If you look in the podcast notes, there's a link to it, but you can also just go on Amazon and put in Janolf and it will pull up.
0:47
[SPEAKER_01]: My two books and it's how to I miss that and I just want to promise you this is a book that will make you laugh It will encourage you and we're gonna talk about all the things we know to be true about our faith But somehow we miss it and what are steps we can take to put it back in place?
1:00
[SPEAKER_01]: How do we love people well?
1:02
[SPEAKER_01]: How are we generous and kind and how do we do the things that are significant because life is fleeting and short?
1:08
[SPEAKER_01]: I promise you will laugh.
1:09
[SPEAKER_01]: I promise it will make you think.
1:10
[SPEAKER_01]: I promise it's a great book for you, your friends, for Galantine's Day, all the things.
1:12
[SPEAKER_01]: So would you please?
1:13
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm asking for the bottom of my heart.
1:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Take a second, and pre-order, how do I miss that?
1:15
[SPEAKER_01]: On Amazon or wherever you buy books.
1:16
[SPEAKER_01]: [♪ music playing in background music playing in background music playing in background music playing in background music playing in background music playing in background music playing in background music playing in background music playing in background music playing in background music playing in background music playing in background music playing in background music playing in background music playing in background music playing in background music playing in background music playing in background music playing in background music playing in background music playing in background music playing in background music playing in background music playing in background music playing in background music playing in background music playing in background music playing in background music playing in background music playing in background music playing in background music playing in background music playing
1:40
[SPEAKER_01]: Hey friends, welcome to the podcast and by welcome I should be welcoming myself because apparently we took two weeks off and I was planning on taking a few weeks off just not that early and December, but life happened and I'm here to give myself a little grace and I hope you're doing the same because sometimes we cannot keep all the balls in the air so I'm back and I'm glad you're back.
1:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.
2:00
[SPEAKER_01]: for allowing me a little time to be with the family and I don't know about you.
2:05
[SPEAKER_01]: I was thinking out like how do I recap Christmas?
2:07
[SPEAKER_01]: We had an amazing Christmas.
2:08
[SPEAKER_01]: We had all the fun things.
2:09
[SPEAKER_01]: We had the hard things.
2:10
[SPEAKER_01]: We had some tears.
2:11
[SPEAKER_01]: Expectations were met.
2:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Expectations were not met.
2:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Family dynamics were in full display.
2:17
[SPEAKER_01]: All the things.
2:17
[SPEAKER_01]: But I was thinking like one thing I'd want to share with you.
2:20
[SPEAKER_01]: And that is maybe just a parenting encouragement.
2:23
[SPEAKER_01]: And so here's this from my heart, my hope is that you don't think I'm saying, oh, the end of kids are so great because listen, you know I tell them and I'm happy to tell more stories of ways we get it wrong and our kids do quite often.
2:34
[SPEAKER_01]: But we had a couple moments that I was like, this is what I needed to see 10 years ago, 20 years ago.
2:39
[SPEAKER_01]: These glimpses of the things we pour into our kids, they actually, they matter and they turn out one day.
2:45
[SPEAKER_01]: Like you will see glimpses of it later.
2:47
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you're raising younger kids,
2:48
[SPEAKER_01]: or your kids just aren't quite there yet, let me encourage you because I was seeing these tiny moments of like, oh man, we've put focus on this for so many years and actually we're reaping that now reaping the reward of that and so one of them is my dad, you may or may not know but he has Alzheimer's which is such a horrible disease and thankfully he's still happy and pretty with it but he received a petting green game for Christmas.
3:13
[SPEAKER_01]: And he's lost kind of track of time and so my sweet Brett was over there playing this putting green game with him over and over and over and over for probably two hours.
3:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Nobody asked Brett to at some point surely he wanted to be done but he kept doing it because it mattered to my dad and it was that glimpse of oh man.
3:32
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you, Lord, that all the things we've talked out doing selfless things, being obedient and caring for your elders, and having character, like you just get a glimpse of that.
3:43
[SPEAKER_01]: Same thing, Kate, she put together these boxes of memories of letters for my parents.
3:50
[SPEAKER_01]: her grandparents, she reached out to all the grandkids, my parents' kids, me and my brothers, and then also lots of cousins and had everybody write or really just text her, quick little note about the grandparents, what they mean to them, and she made a box with pictures, and to see my dad sitting in his chair, reading those letters and tears running down his face, and he'll have them to read over and over again.
4:12
[SPEAKER_01]: But also my mom, just getting to know how much
4:19
[SPEAKER_01]: It was so sweet and not anything I thought I ever asked Kate to do.
4:22
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I say this again at the risk of people being like, oh, great for you and your kids, that's not the point.
4:27
[SPEAKER_01]: The point is when we put in these hard things over the years that
4:33
[SPEAKER_01]: that don't seem like cultural, that don't seem easy when we put emphasis on character and loving people well and putting in time with our family and all these things like at some point, you will see glimpses of it.
4:44
[SPEAKER_01]: So keep doing the hard work and I'm thankful for the glimpses I got and believe you, me, I got lots of glimpses of things.
4:51
[SPEAKER_01]: This whole holiday that was like, ooh, that wasn't good.
4:54
[SPEAKER_01]: We got to work on some character issues with, especially my sweet little one.
4:58
[SPEAKER_01]: So,
4:59
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the recap of Christmas, every body.
5:02
[SPEAKER_01]: Today, we're going to talk to Tara Bethleach.
5:05
[SPEAKER_01]: And I saved a show on purpose till the last one of the year, because I want us to think going into 2026, what's our spiritual trajectory?
5:14
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not huge into resolutions, but I do like to look at trajectories.
5:18
[SPEAKER_01]: And if I keep doing things the same way I've been doing them, is that good or bad?
5:22
[SPEAKER_01]: And how does that play out for me?
5:23
[SPEAKER_01]: And so spiritually speaking, I love this quote,
5:26
[SPEAKER_01]: D.A.
5:27
[SPEAKER_01]: Carson says people do not drift towards holiness.
5:31
[SPEAKER_01]: People do not drift towards holiness, and you know that to be true and so do I. I don't drift towards being holy or godly.
5:37
[SPEAKER_01]: I drift towards being selfish, towards being caddy, towards being lazy, towards being a lot of things at any given time.
5:43
[SPEAKER_01]: And so if we're going to drift like how do we get intentional that we drift towards holiness?
5:50
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not natural.
5:51
[SPEAKER_01]: And so Tara Bethleach she has a book out that we are going to talk about.
5:54
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a book that ran across my desk.
5:56
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll not ran, but showed up on my desk and kept kind of putting it away.
6:00
[SPEAKER_01]: And it kept showing back up and I just knew the Lord wanted me to read it and I loved it.
6:04
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's a good start to 2026.
6:05
[SPEAKER_01]: So we're going to talk about that.
6:07
[SPEAKER_01]: What are our mornings look like?
6:08
[SPEAKER_01]: How do we follow the Lord?
6:09
[SPEAKER_01]: How do we drift towards the things that matter
6:13
[SPEAKER_01]: Guys, what's up, glad you're here.
6:15
[SPEAKER_01]: Here we go, with Tara Beth Reach.
6:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, Tara Beth, welcome to podcast.
6:22
[SPEAKER_01]: How are you?
6:23
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm great.
6:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks so much for having me, Cynthia.
6:27
[SPEAKER_01]: Aw, thank you for coming on and chatting with us.
6:29
[SPEAKER_01]: Tell everybody a little bit about you, where you are in life, all the things.
6:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so I am a mom of two.
6:36
[SPEAKER_00]: I have two teenage boys, 13 and 15 years old.
6:40
[SPEAKER_00]: These days I've been spending my Friday nights at football games.
6:44
[SPEAKER_00]: I have a six foot one nose tackle son, size 14 shoe, and I'm like, how in the world did I give birth to that mammoth man child?
6:55
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I have a 13 year old who just has total engineer brain, which takes after my husband, who have been married to for almost 20 years, he works, he's a rocket scientist, works for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and just seriously like orbits a different planet, he's so absolutely brilliant.
7:17
[SPEAKER_00]: But we have, we've been married for 20 years and been doing ministry together for 20 years, and I currently serve as a pastor at a church in Naperville, Illinois, which is very much home.
7:28
[SPEAKER_00]: This was a church that I was on staff with for a long, long time, and I never thought that I would return after a decade away, but here I am, and I'm loving it.
7:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Wow, and how long have you been back did you say when you said you returned two and a half years two and a half Okay, got it.
7:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so I was on staff here You know as a as a youth pastor for a long time and Went out and did some other things and came back as a senior pastor and I've been back for two and a half years And I hope to write off into the sunset with this place.
7:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I'm gonna go old with them
7:59
[SPEAKER_01]: I love that.
8:00
[SPEAKER_01]: I love that.
8:01
[SPEAKER_02]: Especially because I've been on church staffs and I've worked in ministry a long time and when you see the inner workings it can be difficult and you're just too close to it and to hear someone like you and a senior pastor level to be like man I want to grow old here like dysfunction, no dysfunction to good the bad the ugly I mean I think that's a testament to to what the Lord's doing there so congratulations that's amazing.
8:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
8:23
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's talk about this.
8:24
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, your husband really is a rocket scientist.
8:26
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, you know, we all make that joke.
8:27
[SPEAKER_02]: But literally he is one.
8:28
[SPEAKER_02]: Is that what I'm hearing you say?
8:30
[SPEAKER_00]: So he would say, no, not really, we joke.
8:34
[SPEAKER_00]: So he's a senior software systems engineer, I don't even know if I said, but I'll tell you what, like it might as well as be rocket science, because I have no idea what he does and when every time he explains it, I kind of sadly start to zone out, because I don't understand it, but he's brilliant.
8:50
[SPEAKER_00]: He works on just a lot of the, so like, for example, the NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, they said, you know, they're the ones that did the Mars rover.
8:58
[SPEAKER_00]: So they don't do human space exploration.
9:01
[SPEAKER_00]: They do the other like universe space exploration.
9:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Wow.
9:07
[SPEAKER_01]: Wow.
9:07
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, there you go.
9:08
[SPEAKER_01]: How about that?
9:08
[SPEAKER_01]: How about that for a smart, awesome husband?
9:10
[SPEAKER_01]: I love it.
9:11
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.
9:12
[SPEAKER_01]: So listen though.
9:13
[SPEAKER_01]: Speaking of smart and awesome, I told just for we started taping that as a girl who sees a lot of books that have across my desk, a lot of books people.
9:22
[SPEAKER_01]: Not a lot of them catch my eye, especially if I don't know the person.
9:28
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not convinced the Lord didn't super naturally keep bringing this one back to me.
9:33
[SPEAKER_01]: Probably because there's a word for me, but because I think there's a word in it for everyone because I put it down or aside so many times and so many times I feel like it was right back in my view.
9:43
[SPEAKER_01]: Or at one point is on my nightstand, I'm like, well, this got weird.
9:46
[SPEAKER_02]: How did it get to my nightstand?
9:47
[SPEAKER_02]: And my little one was walking around, I don't know why.
9:50
[SPEAKER_02]: He had it.
9:51
[SPEAKER_02]: So anyway, I think the Lord's like, listen, you're gonna read this book and man alive you guys.
9:55
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm so glad I did.
9:56
[SPEAKER_02]: It's called the great morning revelation, daily spiritual practices for meaningful moments with God.
10:03
[SPEAKER_01]: And listen, I'm just going to tell you something.
10:05
[SPEAKER_01]: If as talking out spiritual practices makes you gloss over, then you're exactly where God wants you.
10:10
[SPEAKER_02]: because if you've, especially, if you've spent much time in church, like I have, like you have tarabeth, then you, you know, you've heard, you're like, I know, and there's, like, all these raw emotions around it.
10:21
[SPEAKER_02]: This guilt, the, I should have already been doing more of this.
10:25
[SPEAKER_02]: Maybe a little dread, like, oh, man, I need all the things that come along with this.
10:29
[SPEAKER_02]: And that is absolutely not the approach you take.
10:31
[SPEAKER_02]: You take the approach of like, it's changed my life from the inside out.
10:35
[SPEAKER_00]: And so.
10:36
[SPEAKER_02]: So good.
10:37
[SPEAKER_02]: So let's just start with that.
10:39
[SPEAKER_02]: Are you girl that like grew up in church or your girl that always just love God's word?
10:42
[SPEAKER_02]: And you got up early and that was naturally who you were or did you have to work your way into it?
10:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so I did not grow up in the church.
10:50
[SPEAKER_00]: I grew up in a cultural Christian family.
10:53
[SPEAKER_00]: We went to church a couple times a year.
10:55
[SPEAKER_00]: And at the age of 16, God had got to hold my life through the minister of youth for Christ.
11:00
[SPEAKER_00]: And from there and out, I never looked back.
11:04
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I grew up in 1990s youth group culture, ministry, and anyone who grew up in the 90s knows exactly what I'm talking about.
11:12
[SPEAKER_00]: And so back then,
11:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, back then, like, spiritual discipline, I had a lot of guilt around it.
11:19
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, so for me, back then, to be a good Christian, was, well, I need to read my Bible for an hour every day.
11:24
[SPEAKER_00]: I need to pray every morning, I need to pray every night, I need to Sabbath, and there was such a rigidity, and almost like, it seems so formulaic to me, that I had so much guilt around it.
11:37
[SPEAKER_00]: And at the same time, you know, any time we do get into God's Word and pray, we're so grateful that we do.
11:44
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, by way of being a pastor going to seminary, of course, you know, spiritual discipline, connecting with God in prayer, connecting with God in Scripture, has always been a part of my life, but I wouldn't say it's been as rhythmic as it has been over the last several years.
12:01
[SPEAKER_00]: And this came, just honestly from a call from God when I was in the wilderness season.
12:08
[SPEAKER_00]: So my dad was dying of cancer.
12:12
[SPEAKER_00]: So we moved back, we were living in sunny California, moved back from sunny California to Chicago to the Polar Vortex, to freezing cold, to care for my dying father and my mother who,
12:26
[SPEAKER_00]: I was fading away with Alzheimer's and eventually my dad died and I found myself in this liminal space, who am I what am I doing?
12:35
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was, it was just this liminal wandering wilderness experience and I just heard the Lord say to me,
12:49
[SPEAKER_00]: And I took that literally, before this I was not a morning person.
12:53
[SPEAKER_00]: I was the person that would wake up at the very last minute.
12:59
[SPEAKER_00]: I would lay there and bet at night and think, okay, how much time do I really need to get ready to get out the door in the morning?
13:07
[SPEAKER_00]: And I would just back into it from there and I wouldn't carve out any other time for anything else.
13:12
[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, and they say people who run late by the way are just really optimistic.
13:16
[SPEAKER_00]: People, I was really optimistic about my mornings about how I could comp, how much I could accomplish.
13:22
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I was always rushing.
13:23
[SPEAKER_00]: I was always, always, always running late, I was always rushing.
13:26
[SPEAKER_00]: But when I heard the Lord say to me, Rise with me, Tarabeth, it's time to wake from your slumber.
13:30
[SPEAKER_00]: I took it literally.
13:31
[SPEAKER_00]: And I sent my alarm the next morning for 4.30 a.m.
13:35
[SPEAKER_00]: And when I woke up, I was like, okay, God, now what?
13:39
[SPEAKER_00]: What do you tell me to wake up?
13:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Here I am, now what?
13:43
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, you know, every morning for six months looked different, but it started to come together more and more.
13:50
[SPEAKER_00]: One of the things I've learned about myself now, as a mom, a 43 years old, is I do thrive on routine.
13:57
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, on Monday, I like to do Monday things, on Tuesday, I like to do Tuesday things, on Wednesday, I like to do Wednesday things.
14:03
[SPEAKER_00]: And I really like having a rhythm and a routine.
14:07
[SPEAKER_00]: And so waking up early started to become part of that routine of what I was looking forward to.
14:12
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was reading scripture.
14:14
[SPEAKER_00]: I was listening to podcasts.
14:16
[SPEAKER_00]: I was listening to worship music.
14:19
[SPEAKER_00]: I was journaling.
14:22
[SPEAKER_00]: I got into the prayer of examin.
14:23
[SPEAKER_00]: And eventually, as I started to form my practice, I was on a walk when morning just praying and this was after me telling my husband that I had a great morning.
14:32
[SPEAKER_00]: And he said, you did, I said, yes, I had a great morning because I began with God and it doesn't matter what is going to happen the rest of this day, I began with God and that is the blessing, that is the blessing.
14:47
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I was on the walk and I was thinking about these practices and the Lord just placed on my heart, this acronym, Great, which stands for gratitude, reflection, exaltation, asking, and trusting.
15:00
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's now how I begin my days.
15:04
[SPEAKER_01]: With all with that.
15:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, okay.
15:07
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna I love all of this.
15:08
[SPEAKER_01]: Let me step back to second and I'm gonna go back to the The guilt portion of it for anyone listening and the reason I want to release this at this point in the year is because we're headed into a new year as we're releasing this
15:21
[SPEAKER_01]: And I want people to realize like we don't have to start everything in a new year like I want us to start now, but I do think we read look at what's working and what is up working and if we're not doing that we should be doing that and I was thinking about you saying like coming from a place I came from a place of guilt when it came to spiritual practices like we were talking about.
15:40
[SPEAKER_01]: And I feel like the Lord keeps lying on my heart like this isn't coming from a place of guilt.
15:44
[SPEAKER_01]: It's coming from a place of privilege.
15:47
[SPEAKER_01]: And the privilege of getting to be in the presence of someone who's dying to spend time with us and literally died on a cross-to-have relationship with us.
15:54
[SPEAKER_01]: And if we could reframe this a little bit in how our mornings look.
15:58
[SPEAKER_01]: I spoke at something recently where I said, I was speaking about to women, I'm like, we have permission to reprioritize our days.
16:05
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I don't know what happened where it became chaos, and crazy, and running, like, we can stop the treadmill, and we can say, okay, and I would suggest to reprioritize your days.
16:15
[SPEAKER_01]: You've got to reprioritize your mornings.
16:17
[SPEAKER_01]: And which is exactly what you're talking about here.
16:19
[SPEAKER_01]: Like it starts there, and it starts early for you.
16:24
[SPEAKER_01]: And I mean, really, really for you, Terrible.
16:26
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I would, when I read that as like holy moly, put the book back down, we've started a little too early.
16:31
[SPEAKER_01]: But let's just start with practically speaking.
16:34
[SPEAKER_01]: 430's not a magic number or it is, or is it the magic number?
16:37
[SPEAKER_00]: No.
16:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Nothing about this book is formulaic.
16:42
[SPEAKER_00]: This is not a prescription.
16:45
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a testimony of something that really worked for me and I pray that it will inspire people to do just something a little bit more in their mornings.
16:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Whether it be that the great morning prayer, framework or just beginning in the morning and simply by saying,
17:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Here God here.
17:02
[SPEAKER_00]: I here I am.
17:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, but you know for me and I love the way that you put it sink the up about privilege because that is so true.
17:08
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know how many times the scripture verse has come to mind when I wake up in the morning.
17:13
[SPEAKER_00]: His mercies are new every morning.
17:16
[SPEAKER_00]: And how true is that?
17:17
[SPEAKER_00]: How many times have you had a really, really bad day?
17:20
[SPEAKER_00]: And you wake up the next morning you're like, wow.
17:23
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not upset about that anymore.
17:25
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not angry about that anymore.
17:28
[SPEAKER_00]: And so much of that is because of the freshness that our brains are experiencing when we rise, our brains are a blink canvas.
17:38
[SPEAKER_00]: And here's what ends up happening.
17:40
[SPEAKER_00]: So many of us wake up completely refreshed.
17:43
[SPEAKER_00]: And then the first thing we do is we reach over into our nightstands and we grab our phones and all of yesterday's junk that we dance to.
17:52
[SPEAKER_00]: be dropped down right into our brains, where they are a perfectly fresh, clean canvas.
18:01
[SPEAKER_00]: And what an opportunity that we have that we can begin those mornings and instead of letting our agendas or our calendars, the emails, the text messages, the latest headlines to set the agenda of our day.
18:14
[SPEAKER_00]: What if instead?
18:16
[SPEAKER_00]: We let God set the agenda and our intentions for the day.
18:19
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, and it's not just like you or I or whatever came up with this great idea or we're like, hey, you know, I mean, it's biblical, right?
18:28
[SPEAKER_01]: And I love that you touch on that that like there's biblical examples of God shows up in the morning and people are changed in the morning time.
18:37
[SPEAKER_01]: Can you just give us a couple of those that you studied that really kind of made a mark on you and convinced you that it mattered.
18:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, absolutely.
18:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, when you look throughout the Ark of Scripture, you see the prayers of David, for example, as he's talking about rising early in the morning and the Psalms, we have examples of Jesus himself that he would wake up in the morning while it was still dark, while it was still dark.
19:04
[SPEAKER_00]: And we see, you know, in the Old Testament, we see some of these faith leaders, like Abraham rising early in the morning to hear from God into experience the presence of God.
19:16
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know,
19:19
[SPEAKER_00]: It's such a beautiful picture, an example set for us, of people choosing to begin their days with God while the canvas of their brains is still fresh and renewed.
19:30
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think about especially about Jesus and Mark's Gospel, for example.
19:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Mark's Gospel is packed with ministry.
19:40
[SPEAKER_00]: One professor once said to me that Mark almost writes as if he's in a hurry.
19:44
[SPEAKER_00]: It's, and then Jesus did this, and then Jesus did this, and then Jesus did this.
19:48
[SPEAKER_00]: And so you see just how full Jesus' schedule is and some of his days are clearly incredibly full of healing people, of calling disciples.
19:58
[SPEAKER_00]: And there's one example at the beginning of Mark's Gospel where after a full day of calling disciples, Jesus could have been like, you know what, I've earned the sleepin.
20:09
[SPEAKER_00]: I've worked hard, my body is tired, I'm going to treat myself in sleepin tomorrow morning.
20:16
[SPEAKER_00]: But instead, Mark tells us that he rose early in the morning while it was still dark to be with God.
20:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Because he knew that, yes, he was fully God.
20:26
[SPEAKER_00]: He was also fully human that in his human limitations.
20:29
[SPEAKER_00]: He would need to be in the presence of God to refresh and renew him for another day of ministry.
20:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Hmm, it's good.
20:37
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, and I think, too, I'm an ambassador and now we're going through acts.
20:40
[SPEAKER_01]: And I just think of how the Holy Spirit just led everything they did.
20:43
[SPEAKER_01]: And just how he was so real in their lives.
20:46
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that that's a lot of them, like is, am I allowing the Holy Spirit to like, author my moments, in my days, in my speech?
20:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Mm-hmm.
20:54
[SPEAKER_01]: I like that you said this on its page 22 of your book, against called The Great Morning Revelation.
20:59
[SPEAKER_01]: It says, when we commit to the practice of rising early and sitting with God, we start to see the fruits of transformation in our lives.
21:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Our mindset changes from one frantic activity to one of purposeful spirit-led living.
21:12
[SPEAKER_01]: We find ourselves less reactive to the stresses of the day, more grounded in peace, and more open to seeing how God is working through the small, everyday moments.
21:21
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was just reminded as I was reading that, like if we
21:25
[SPEAKER_01]: If we want to have the opportunity to have these big spirit-led moments, if we feel this presence of God and have this friendship, and really have these deep connections with our Savior that we hear about it.
21:36
[SPEAKER_01]: We read about our other people experience, and we're like, why not me?
21:40
[SPEAKER_01]: Then it starts with this, right?
21:41
[SPEAKER_01]: Like you have to be present and available.
21:44
[SPEAKER_01]: And we're not doing it to earn God's favor.
21:46
[SPEAKER_01]: We're doing it just to be in His presence and to have the Holy Spirit speaking into our lives.
21:50
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I loved that reading that.
21:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Go back through if you don't mind.
21:55
[SPEAKER_01]: And so great again as an acronym everyone.
21:58
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's go through it if we can like each part of the acronym, just quickly because everyone needs to read the book, but someone is sitting here and is like, oh my gosh, okay, that's all great and fine that when I get up early, if I'm up at 430, by 434, I'm going to be like, what do I do now?
22:13
[SPEAKER_01]: What do I do now?
22:13
[SPEAKER_01]: And I love that you're kind of, you've given kind of not a formula per se, but a way to kind of go about it.
22:19
[SPEAKER_01]: So talk to us about that.
22:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, well first let me just bounce up a one thing you said that I thought was was so good about just changing and setting our attitudes for the day.
22:29
[SPEAKER_00]: I think at the heart of us all of us want to live transform lives and when I meet when I say transform lies I mean we want to be in living the highest form of ourselves that we could possibly live or the how God created us to live God's best purpose for us
22:50
[SPEAKER_00]: by the renewing of our minds, and the morning hour is such a beautiful time for our minds to be refreshed and renewed in the presence of God.
23:00
[SPEAKER_00]: And so yeah, thanks for asking that question as well about this acronym.
23:05
[SPEAKER_00]: And so,
23:06
[SPEAKER_00]: For me, in the mornings, that first one right there is gratitude for gratitude and beginning with gratitude.
23:17
[SPEAKER_00]: For me, it's sitting in the presence of God and allowing the gratitude to flow.
23:22
[SPEAKER_00]: And again, there's so, you know, being grateful, being thankful is all of our scripture rejoicing.
23:29
[SPEAKER_00]: and being grateful is a response to the abundant presence and the abundant goodness of God.
23:36
[SPEAKER_00]: And so one of the things that my husband and I have found about gratitude is it does feel repetitive at times.
23:43
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, we are sometimes thinking God for the same things every single day.
23:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Not a morning has gone by where I am not grateful for something about my children, where I am not grateful for something about my husband.
23:56
[SPEAKER_00]: because I recognize that time is fleeting and I never want to take for granted the people that God has given me and there are times where I am grateful for the role that I get to serve and the church I am grateful for the home and the heat and my house.
24:11
[SPEAKER_00]: There are so many things that I'm grateful and then sometimes there are new things that happen during that week or the day before that I'm getting to celebrate and thank God for.
24:20
[SPEAKER_00]: And then from there we move on to reflection.
24:24
[SPEAKER_00]: And reflection is really a returning to the prayer of Saint Ignatius, where he calls the people to examine the hearts, where we reflect on and reflect back how we were impacted the day before for good or for bad.
24:42
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're also able to reflect back on our own hearts, the darkness, and our hearts.
24:48
[SPEAKER_00]: We're maybe able to ask ourselves, why did I hold such anger when this person treated me this way?
24:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Why was my reaction seemingly so disproportionate, God?
25:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Would you examine that within me?
25:03
[SPEAKER_00]: And would you cleanse my heart?
25:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Would you hold up the mirror in my life?
25:07
[SPEAKER_00]: God, would you reveal that sin to me so that I can repent so that then from there you can transform me into this life of holiness.
25:18
[SPEAKER_00]: My husband also, the ways that we practice reflect is we actually begin by reading scripture.
25:23
[SPEAKER_00]: So, by the way, I say my husband, so we now do the great morning prayer routine together.
25:28
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, reflect, we're listening to Scripture right now.
25:32
[SPEAKER_00]: We're doing a year long through the Bible, and we listen to Scripture, and then we also say, okay, so, how does the word, what we just heard, how does that inform my life today?
25:43
[SPEAKER_00]: What is God saying to me about that?
25:45
[SPEAKER_00]: And how has the word revealed darkness in my heart or revealed darkness in my mind?
25:51
[SPEAKER_00]: And what do I need to repent of?
25:53
[SPEAKER_00]: And what is God saying?
25:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, okay.
25:55
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
25:56
[SPEAKER_01]: And wait, just a quick question on that.
25:57
[SPEAKER_01]: Are y'all literally sitting together for 30 every morning doing this together?
26:00
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you just saying, he does his time and you do yours at your time and then you kind of get back together and talk out later?
26:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, we're sitting together.
26:08
[SPEAKER_00]: And let me just also say, so we are no longer waking up at 430.
26:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, so.
26:13
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what I'm panicking about this for.
26:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
26:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
26:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
26:17
[SPEAKER_01]: Or that early girl.
26:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, no, we're not waking up that early anymore.
26:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Six a.m. is our usual time when we're up now.
26:25
[SPEAKER_00]: My boys, they're back in school and they go to school.
26:27
[SPEAKER_00]: So my boys go to school later.
26:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
26:29
[SPEAKER_00]: And so.
26:32
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's a, and they, they can also, their teenagers, you know, and so it's not as crazy in the mornings.
26:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so we're waking up at 6 a.m. our boys wake up at 7.
26:40
[SPEAKER_00]: And we are, we are sitting together and we are doing this routine together.
26:44
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
26:44
[SPEAKER_01]: And what's the timeframe on that?
26:45
[SPEAKER_01]: Usually like, again, for people that are just curious.
26:48
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, is it usually 34 to 35 minutes or is it a full hour?
26:50
[SPEAKER_01]: How long do you all spend together doing this in the mornings?
26:54
[SPEAKER_00]: between 30 and 45 minutes.
26:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
26:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
26:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Usually 30, it really depends on how long the Bible reading plan is for that day.
27:03
[SPEAKER_01]: Got it.
27:03
[SPEAKER_01]: Got it.
27:04
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
27:04
[SPEAKER_01]: And then exaltation.
27:05
[SPEAKER_01]: So where are the E of Great?
27:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah.
27:08
[SPEAKER_00]: So on to E of Great as Exaltation.
27:11
[SPEAKER_00]: And one of the reasons why I started praising God after Scripture was because God had revealed such good things to me, and I had now been in the presence of God and how could I not then respond in worship.
27:23
[SPEAKER_00]: And so there are a couple different ways that my husband and I will do this together.
27:26
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll either play a worship song that has been in our hearts over the last week, or we'll read Psalm 145, which is a great,
27:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Psalm of praise, or we will simply go back and forth and say, God, we exalt you for this, for you are the creator of the universe, you are the king, you are the name of all names.
27:44
[SPEAKER_00]: And so that usually takes a few minutes at most.
27:49
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the reflect portion that takes the longest.
27:52
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're going in there in your reading scripture,
27:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, okay, yeah.
27:55
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
27:56
[SPEAKER_01]: And then, and only then, do you get to the asking portion, which is interesting?
28:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
28:01
[SPEAKER_01]: And let's talk about that, just generally asking for yourself for your family, for your loved ones.
28:06
[SPEAKER_01]: That kind of thing?
28:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
28:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
28:08
[SPEAKER_00]: These are prayers of petition where we are interceding for others.
28:13
[SPEAKER_00]: We're interceding sometimes for our children who are maybe having a difficult time with friendships at school.
28:19
[SPEAKER_00]: We're interceding for our family members.
28:22
[SPEAKER_00]: We're also always interceding and praying for our church.
28:26
[SPEAKER_00]: I have been taking seriously lately.
28:28
[SPEAKER_00]: The call that Jesus has that we're up to pray for our enemies.
28:33
[SPEAKER_00]: And so for that, what that means is I'm praying for the people who have upset me, or maybe who have hurt me, and some sort of way so that God can work on my own heart.
28:41
[SPEAKER_00]: And so this is a wonderful time also that Jeff and I just get to do this together because and we are united in the things that we are praying for.
28:50
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah.
28:52
[SPEAKER_01]: And then you end and I love how you end this with trusting, which is so biblical too.
28:58
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think I've been reading a lot about this too, just some of the greats of the Bible that would ask and then they moved on and just believed in God's will handle it, how God will handle it into the day.
29:09
[SPEAKER_01]: And so what does trusting look like?
29:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, trusting is surrendering, trusting is saying, not my will, but your will be done.
29:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Your will on earth as it is in heaven.
29:23
[SPEAKER_00]: It's this recognition that we have brought all of these requests.
29:26
[SPEAKER_00]: We have brought this moment before a holy and loving God who does hear us.
29:32
[SPEAKER_00]: And we are trusting that not only does God hear us, but God will continue to establish our steps that the Spirit will continue to guide us,
29:41
[SPEAKER_00]: to renew us and transform us and so we are surrendering all of these requests to the feet of God and trusting that God will establish our steps for the rest of the day and so there are two main ways that my husband and I do this.
29:57
[SPEAKER_00]: My favorite way is ending with Psalm 23.
29:59
[SPEAKER_00]: It is the most beautiful
30:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Psalm of trust and surrender, that our God is the good shepherd, that brings us to still waters, makes us lie down and green pastures, and it's such a calming and soothing Psalm for me.
30:19
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a Psalm that my, my staunch German Lutheran grandmother,
30:22
[SPEAKER_00]: had memorized and I remember hearing her recite it when she was in hospice and I was just always so moved that she had memorized that passage and that beautiful so much rest in the other way is will end in the Lord's Prayer.
30:36
[SPEAKER_00]: The Lord's Prayer is just another great prayer of trust and surrender.
30:42
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, I did mention this earlier but I did, I love where you talked about seeking the Lord's presence before you seek His help.
30:52
[SPEAKER_01]: And I thought that was a good word when I was reading that I made a note of that as it comes to that asking and petitioning the Lord for things.
30:59
[SPEAKER_01]: So everyone again, it's great as gratitude, reflection, exaltation, asking and trusting.
31:06
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think it's a great, just kind of method to walk you through things you may be already know, but this kind of puts it in a way that's,
31:14
[SPEAKER_01]: that's orderly and organic and I can't help but think again like you, my kids are older while some of them I saw a little bit, you know they're older, I don't have babies and I was thinking though even like preschool or carpool this is so doable like yes get up early like find a way but even if you're overwhelmed by that this is great carpool material I can't tell you how many days I sit at an awkward time and I sit in the car for like
31:39
[SPEAKER_01]: 25 minutes because I don't have time to run an errand, but I can't get out, you know, like this is just a great thing.
31:45
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, morning.
31:46
[SPEAKER_01]: I think mornings matter.
31:47
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm with you a hundred percent.
31:49
[SPEAKER_01]: I think this is also a great thing you can get to a clock or four o'clock or, you know, as you lay down a bed.
31:54
[SPEAKER_01]: I just think this is awesome.
31:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.
31:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, absolutely.
31:57
[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, especially for moms who, you know, have little at home, I have said to moms who have babies.
32:05
[SPEAKER_00]: I said, this can be done while you're changing diapers while you're nursing in the chaos.
32:10
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't have to be even used sitting alone in a quiet space.
32:15
[SPEAKER_00]: it can happen when you're on the move.
32:17
[SPEAKER_00]: There were months where I practiced this while on a walk.
32:20
[SPEAKER_00]: After I got my kids out the door, seasons of life are constantly changing and we have to do what works for us.
32:29
[SPEAKER_00]: And for some people I say start with five minutes.
32:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Begin with gratitude and then move on to a brief moment of reflection whether it's reading scripture or for asking God to examine
32:38
[SPEAKER_00]: And maybe a song of praise, then while you're stepping into the shower to get ready for the day, and then you're bringing your requests before God, while you're blow drying your hair, and you're saying the Lord's prayers, you walk out the door.
32:49
[SPEAKER_00]: I know that not everyone has the incredible privilege to set this kind of time aside, but no matter what we're doing, we can begin by setting our hearts and tuning our hearts with God.
33:02
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah.
33:03
[SPEAKER_01]: And you make a point in the book that also stuck with me is that we repeat this.
33:07
[SPEAKER_01]: If I go back to my strong Baptist streets, which I love, I love my Baptist streets, but the repetition for me is historically has been because I've stained God's favor.
33:17
[SPEAKER_01]: And I just want to hit this again.
33:18
[SPEAKER_01]: We're not doing these things stained God's favor.
33:20
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're like, well, I missed a day.
33:22
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, you know, man, I can't know.
33:23
[SPEAKER_01]: Like that's not how our Lord operates.
33:27
[SPEAKER_01]: And so, but you talk about it's just realignment.
33:30
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, like every day, re-aligning your heart with his, figuring out your why.
33:34
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a great section on this.
33:36
[SPEAKER_01]: Your why matters.
33:36
[SPEAKER_01]: We're not going to get in that today because y'all need to read the book.
33:38
[SPEAKER_01]: But being reminded of what your why is and being re-aligned.
33:44
[SPEAKER_01]: And so if we could just pivot this from this place of if I don't do this, then I'm not a good Christian or God.
33:50
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not going to hear my request or whatever the thing is from that to this place of like, can I just take a enough time to re-align my heart with his?
33:59
[SPEAKER_01]: and my priorities with his, like it's a game changer, and so I was encouraged by that and that helped me remember like in the mornings where I'm like, oh, so I want to go and pick, yes, because I want to be aligned with the Lord, and this is a way to re-align with him.
34:14
[SPEAKER_01]: It's been a good time with him.
34:15
[SPEAKER_00]: And the good news is, you know, there's no guilt or shame when you miss a few days, when you miss a few weeks, there have been plenty of mornings where I have not engaged in this routine.
34:30
[SPEAKER_00]: This isn't a, I'm not testifying from a perfect record, you know, and in those seasons where I am not rising early to begin with God.
34:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Guess what?
34:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Two weeks later, when I get back into the rhythm, especially coming off of vacations or coming off of crazy travel schedule, God is still there with grace welcoming me and happy to meet me in the morning.
34:56
[SPEAKER_00]: And God was still there even in the beginning between.
34:58
[SPEAKER_00]: There were just other ways I was connecting with God.
35:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Morning time is not the only time to connect with God.
35:05
[SPEAKER_01]: Right, right.
35:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I wanted to hit this early before the New Year, but also this is a book I think you order now.
35:13
[SPEAKER_01]: Everyone, we order this now and we haven't ready.
35:15
[SPEAKER_01]: And as we're going into the holidays, we may or may not get through it.
35:17
[SPEAKER_01]: And if we don't, then there's grace for that.
35:19
[SPEAKER_01]: But you have it.
35:20
[SPEAKER_01]: It's on your mind.
35:21
[SPEAKER_01]: You're ready going into a New Year, especially to,
35:24
[SPEAKER_01]: to look at these spiritual disciplines and I always think about atomic habits when I think of spiritual disciplines because I read the book with the other 22 million people in the world who read that book and I remember a couple of things that struck me was that, you know, habits are, you know, they're just things you do enough that they become routine.
35:41
[SPEAKER_01]: And so you just little incremental things can make a big difference.
35:45
[SPEAKER_01]: Little small incremental changes.
35:47
[SPEAKER_01]: These little habits can become huge.
35:49
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think about this, if that's the case in secular world, and Atomic's habits, I mean, it's sold millions of copies of people who want to make small incremental changes and have vastly different responses.
36:01
[SPEAKER_01]: How much more when we're doing these little things in the name of the Lord?
36:04
[SPEAKER_01]: How much more can he use this exactly?
36:06
[SPEAKER_01]: And do with our lives.
36:07
[SPEAKER_01]: The one thing that struck me from a tonic habit is it says you won't change what you're doing unless you
36:15
[SPEAKER_01]: dislike your trajectory.
36:17
[SPEAKER_01]: So you're going to keep doing the same thing unless you don't like the trajectory.
36:21
[SPEAKER_01]: And from not from a place of guilt at all, but I like to look honestly at my life and say, okay, if I'm doing it the same way this next year that I have been doing it, spending that same amount of time at prayer and all these things is that a good thing or bad thing long term.
36:34
[SPEAKER_01]: And so consider your trajectory would be my encouragement for all of us and not from a place of guilt, but a place of realism and a place of like,
36:42
[SPEAKER_02]: life is brief, man.
36:44
[SPEAKER_02]: This is our opportunity, like, let's do the thing God created us to do, and that is going to be with him to do it.
36:49
[SPEAKER_02]: So, as we wrap up, this is the last thing I want to ask you about.
36:53
[SPEAKER_02]: I was really touched about how you talked about your dad.
36:57
[SPEAKER_02]: William, your parents in general, but you're dad and how you grew up wealthy by anyone's standards.
37:03
[SPEAKER_01]: And your dad was an
37:11
[SPEAKER_01]: everything you could want from a worldly sense and houses and cars and all that.
37:16
[SPEAKER_01]: Just end us with that about kind of how your dad lost it, but yet gained everything.
37:21
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I just thought it was really touching when we talked about that.
37:24
[SPEAKER_01]: I'd love for you just to encourage us without this.
37:26
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.
37:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so my dad was a CEO of a Fortune 500 company and, you know, in the smaller town that we lived in and just outside of Chicago, he was relatively wealthy.
37:41
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, and, you know, back then in the 90s, he's always wanted to have the biggest and best.
37:46
[SPEAKER_00]: He wanted to have the biggest house, the coolest and biggest cars at the age of 16, I was driving around a homer, in fact, wrecked it something like 11 times,
37:57
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I was the first one of my family to become a Christian at the age of 16.
38:02
[SPEAKER_00]: And I mean, man, God just like flipped my life upside down, all the sudden, all the things that I thought I wanted in life, I didn't want.
38:12
[SPEAKER_00]: And I wanted something different.
38:13
[SPEAKER_00]: I wanted Jesus.
38:15
[SPEAKER_00]: And so as a teenager, I started to pray for my parents and pray for my dad and eventually my mom did become a Christian and surrendered her life to Jesus.
38:26
[SPEAKER_00]: And my dad eventually did as well, but it was after he, it was my senior year of high school.
38:32
[SPEAKER_00]: He had lost his job at this company and he was in Cleveland, Ohio, after getting fired and call my mom and said,
38:42
[SPEAKER_00]: I just got down to my knees, and I accepted Jesus into my life.
38:46
[SPEAKER_00]: And from there, that was in the year 2000, from there, he had tried to start several different businesses that unbeknownst to me were, were, were, were coming apart.
38:58
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, my parents, they had this, you know, 10, about 10,000 square foot home, horse farm, 40 acres, that was,
39:08
[SPEAKER_00]: A very meaningful home to us, you know, every room, you know, there was a piece of architecture that was something to do with family history or something meaningful.
39:17
[SPEAKER_00]: My husband and I were married in a gazebo on the back, 40th there, and so the memories there, you know, and my children, you know, grew up when they were young, going there for Thanksgiving and holidays and playing hide and seek.
39:31
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the house was just so ingrained into who we were.
39:37
[SPEAKER_00]: And in 2020, when my dad was diagnosed with stage four stomach cancer, and my mom with Alzheimer's, they were young at 64 years old, 64 and 63, we learned that my parents had been in significant financial crisis for years, and we had no idea, and they lost their home.
39:57
[SPEAKER_00]: My dad, they lost their home just a couple of months after my dad being diagnosed with cancer,
40:04
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we moved back to Chicago land because I really felt like God was calling Jeff and I to move back to honor honor my father and mother and Jeff felt that same cause.
40:15
[SPEAKER_00]: We moved back and moved them out of this 10,000 square foot.
40:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Managing our home, my childhood home.
40:21
[SPEAKER_00]: And moved them into this tiny little duplex that they were paying, you know, a very humble $1,300 a month, which they were scraping, they were scraping for, and they lost everything.
40:37
[SPEAKER_00]: And as I cared for my dad that last year and reflected with him on his life, he realized that he hadn't really lost anything, but that he had gained what mattered the most.
40:51
[SPEAKER_00]: And that was Jesus.
40:53
[SPEAKER_00]: And my dad in those final years really began to realize that the things of this world that only collect us, that won't go with us, that's fleeting, it's fleeting.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And as I watch my dad take his just final moments in his final days, he had gained everything because he had gained Jesus.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I mean, that's, thank you for sharing that.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And it's so touching and so real that whatever it is that's taking our time, that it's fleeting most likely.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And so like, let's lose whatever the thing is, lose the extra time at the gym or lose the extra time volunteering.
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[SPEAKER_01]: None of these things are bad.
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[SPEAKER_01]: But what is eternal is Jesus, the things we do with and more him.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And we hopefully don't have as big of
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[SPEAKER_01]: a story as your dad does from, you know, everything to feeling like there's nothing yet that was everything, but it's just a reminder that it's all fleeting and so take the time.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It's been the time with the Lord, and you will not regret it, so you guys, Tara Beth Leach is the author, it's called the Great Morning Revolution, daily spiritual practices for meaningful moments with God, and I
42:04
[SPEAKER_01]: that if you get this book, it will follow you around your house like it did me.
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[SPEAKER_01]: The Lord will not let you put it down and it will show up in all the places.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So grab a copy of that and so nice to meet you.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you, Tara Beth for doing this.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much Cynthia.
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[SPEAKER_00]: This was a lot of fun.
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[SPEAKER_01]: All right, I hope you enjoyed that.
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[SPEAKER_01]: There's links to her book in the show notes.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And guys, if you don't receive emails from me, do me a favor.
42:29
[SPEAKER_01]: Jump on my website, Cynthiaganoff.com and on the very front page, you can put in your email.
42:35
[SPEAKER_01]: And I only send one week, it's usually about the show.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Very rarely do I send to anything else.
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[SPEAKER_01]: But it's about the show, what's going on.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Opportunities of things you can do.
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[SPEAKER_01]: with this community so just make sure you're signed up, go to Cynthiaganoff.com, put in your email address, I promise you will knock his band, that would be an awesome thing for us going into the new year.
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[SPEAKER_01]: All right friends, thanks for being a part of the mesmerized family, you're the very best.