Silly Sheep
A podcast meant to encourage moms with Gospel truths in every season. Come dive in with Amanda and Ashley, friends, sisters (in law), and two silly sheep at heart as we seek to follow the Shepherd through seasons of motherhood.
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Connect with us through instagram @sillysheeppodcast
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Reach out with any questions or topic suggestions by email sillysheeppodcast@gmail.com.
Silly Sheep
Battling Busyness & Distraction in Motherhood
As moms, we ALL know what it feels like to be busy, hurried and distracted. Busyness is famous for tempting us to forget what matters most of all! You don’t need to do it all perfectly: God is not asking you to keep up with the pace of the world. He is asking you to walk at his pace and in his peace.
Battling lies with the truth:
Lie: “My value = my productivity.”
Truth: Your identity is received, not achieved (John 1:12; Ephesians 2:8–10).
Lie: “If I don’t do it, it won’t get done.”
Truth: God is the primary Worker; we join Him (Psalm 127:1–2).
Lie: “Hurry is holy because it’s for church/family.”
Truth: Love requires unhurried presence (1 Corinthians 13:4; Dallas Willard: “Ruthlessly eliminate hurry”).
Lie: “Attention is cheap; I can multitask my soul.”
Truth: We become what we behold (2 Corinthians 3:18)
Lie: “Rest comes after I finish everything.”
Truth: Sabbath is a gift that enables good work (Genesis 2:2–3; Mark 2:27).
Scripture References:
Mary and Martha - Luke 10: 38-42
Number our days- Pealm 90:12
Unforced Rythms of grace - Matt 11:28-30
Margin as Ministry- Mark 5:21-23
*Recommended resource- Present over Perfect- book by Shauna Neiquist
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Connect with us through instagram @sillysheeppodcast
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Reach out with any questions or topic suggestions by email sillysheeppodcast@gmail.com.
Welcome to the Silly Sheep Podcast. I'm Ashley. And I'm Amanda. And we are both silly sheep at heart.
SPEAKER_01:We are desperate for the guidance of the Good Shepherd as we tackle this whole mom thing.
SPEAKER_00:Come dive in with us as we explore the gospel in motherhood and the power we can find in community.
SPEAKER_01:We are so excited that you're here. Hello. So I was just telling Ash, the end of pregnancy is so weird. Like I'm just getting ready to pop. I'm getting ready to pop. Like I woke up this morning thinking, okay, well, I have an appointment today. I guess there's a small chance that they could think the baby needs to come today for whatever reason. She could. But then it could be two weeks or it could be three days. So I don't know. I feel like I'm just waiting on my life to change at the moment. I'm also extremely breathless. Yeah, she's self-conscious about that. So we're not gonna say anything. It's gonna be great. If you think I'm out of breath, I am I am. You've got a huge baby in there that's you know apparently affecting your breathing at the moment. We'll see. Jerry's still out on top of the house. Let's just get her out. Oh man. You want to do some silly sheep moments? Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_00:All right. So mine is from when we went on our road trip, and we are in Cape Cod. And we are sit okay, we're in Cape Cod. Have anybody been there? You know that's where the movie Jaws was filmed. And y'all, I had never seen Jaws. Like, I don't understand. Brian doesn't understand how I've never seen Jaws.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that that's really confusing to me. But I'm also kind of oddly obsessed with sharks.
SPEAKER_00:See, I don't, that freaks me out. I think I'll have nightmares. So I, anyways, growing up, of course I wouldn't watch a shark movie. I'm scared of sharks. But anyways, so we go to the like, it's called the Jaws Bridge. Like we were driving around, and Brian's saying this scene was from here, this scene. And obviously I hadn't seen it and the boys hadn't seen it. I'm not going to show that movie to my kids, really, you know. But the older boys really wanted to watch it. So we went back to the house in Cape Cod and we're like snuggled up on the sofa. The little two are doing something, they're downstairs, but like we're the four of us are upstairs. And um, I'm holding my Kava bowl, you know, I'm I'm eating my food, like I'm holding it in the and just like watching the movie. And I do not do scary movies. I just can't, I get I have a really high, you know, the like I don't do big gas, big ass. We call it the ash gasp. I know it's startled me. Well, I had a big moment like that. So if you've seen the movie, it's when they go down and they check this boat that was sinking, and they look through this little like hole, and then a dead bodies comes through. Like you see it, and it scared me to death. So basically, I'm like, like I did my whole gasp reflex. Y'all, my cava ball went everywhere. Everybody looked at me and was just dying laughing, and they're like, Mom, seriously, did you need to react like that? Come on.
SPEAKER_01:That's a good one. I thought it was scary. Yeah, I mean, I probably would have done the same thing. Um, okay, so mine is a throwback to the 4th of July. Um, so I'm probably what at the 4th of July, seven months pregnant, eight months pregnant, somewhere in there. Yeah, got a big old bump going. Big buzz. Um, and my nieces, Charlotte and Olivia, they wanted to do like temporary tattoos, uh, 4th of July themed. Yeah. And so I was like, okay, I'm entering fun ant mode. I'm just gonna be all in and let them do whatever they want to do. So they wanted to put um a cupcake on my pregnant belly, and then they wanted to put a tattoo that said Independence Day on my forehead.
SPEAKER_00:On your forehead, like who comes up with that?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and so I was just kind of like, okay, I'm all in, like, I'm being fun and whatever. And so, but like you're in swimsuits all day on the fourth, so I'm just like walking around so pregnant with this like massive cupcake tattoo, like just smack tap in the middle of my pregnant belly, and then independence day across my forehead, and then like your parents walk in, which like you know, they don't care, then they're my in-laws, and so I just like all of a sudden have this moment where I'm like, hey pops, and I just realized I have like independence like I do have a picture. I think Reese took a picture because there was I I was having a Cheeto craving that day, too. So I had brought a bag of Cheetos just for myself, and so I was like crushing this bag of Cheetos and had like and then the the eye fell off of Independence Day, so it just said deep day, and then a cupcake, and then I was crushing the Cheetos, and I think Reese took a picture of it. I'm gonna have to ask him.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so that was my silly sheet. You're being a really good sport, I think you deserve like some brownie points for that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I was going for the funny and award, so I don't know if I got it. The things we do, you know, too. Those tattoos, oh my goodness. Did you get it off before? It was a low moment trying to get those off later because I was just like scrubbing in the shower. Anyways. So funny enough, we're talking about battling busyness and distraction as moms. And I sent Ashley a text on the way over here because I was rushing from one meeting that ran late over here to come record this podcast, and I'm like, on the way, and I'm clearly rushing. And then I texted her again. I was like, I guess I shouldn't be rushing to record the podcast on busyness. So it's just a real, a real snapshot of busyness, but it really is a real thing for us as moms. I feel like a constant struggle is getting caught into this cycle of busyness and distraction where we end up feeling like our attention is on everything but the things that we would say matter most to us, you know?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I think especially moms would struggle with this. And I think that it's really not something I I do think there's some men out there that struggle with this too, but I think really we kind of put it on our on ourselves as moms, because if you think about it, we do kind of set the tone for the family, and we ultimately I mean, I'm just talking for myself, feel like I need to get the things done. If they're gonna get done, I need to do it, and then my list just keeps on growing and growing, right? Yeah, which is hard for me.
SPEAKER_01:And I think we talked about that in group of like, you know, we can say our priorities and we can say what our top priorities are out loud to people, like the Lord, our husband, our kids, like go on down, but then like, is where you're spending your time and your energy aligning truly with those priorities, which is kind of what you're saying, and a lot of times we have to take the second to slow down to analyze that and and be like, okay, am I truly in line with what I'm saying my top priorities are? Um, but so we did group a little bit different um this past week on this topic. We wanted to like really hone in on three different passages of scripture that can really relate to the topic, the topic of busyness and distraction. And we can't start anywhere else on this topic other than the Mary and Martha story.
SPEAKER_00:So I'm wondering if everybody out there was kind of thinking that that was gonna come first.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. Um, so we have it pulled up, and we just want, you know, no matter how many times you've heard the story, just really, you know, us included, I've been trying to encourage myself to just really lock in and listen and hear what the Lord might be trying to teach me new through this story. So, okay, go ahead and read it.
SPEAKER_00:Right, okay, so here's Luke 10. I'm gonna read 38 through 42. Now, as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she went up to him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me. Oh my gosh, that's so me. But the Lord answered her, Martha, Martha, Martha, Martha. You are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so what stands out to you the most when you read that?
SPEAKER_00:Well, I think first of all, I just put myself in that situation because I really do think that maybe it's a personality thing, maybe it's a mom thing. I don't know. But I do feel like I'm gonna, you know, I I struggle with that same thing that Martha did. I need to get things done, I need to get the food made. I get and you get in this autopilot zone. Do you ever do that? Oh, yeah. So to me, I just I know you've mentioned this before too, but just the him saying, like, Martha, Martha, um, like it's insert your name in there, yeah, right? And I think that he totally would have said the same thing to me.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and I think um one thing that stands out to me that about this passage is that Jesus is calling her to focus on where her attention is going, where is her focus, where is her attention? So it's it's this concept of like attention over activity. So there can be times where like you are being spirit-led for your attention to be on serving and all of the things that we have to do as moms. Like, it's not that that Martha was like 100% in the wrong at any given time for like serving someone in her home or focusing on food or whatever. But I feel like what Jesus was calling her to focus on is like, okay, where is your attention right now? Where am I calling and leading your attention to be in this moment? Um, and in this specific moment, it was this rare, holy, sacred opportunity to be at his feet where he was calling her to put her attention there and not to serving. That's not to say that our attention is never to be to serving, because obviously nothing would ever get done as moms, um, if that was the case. But I just love this concept in this passage of like we're shifting our focus to where is your attention, not where is your activity? Um, and and where is your attention being led? And even just like asking those little prayers of like, Lord, where should I be placing my attention right now? Um, where where do you want my eyes right now? Um, and that's kind of the main thing that I see when I read this passage.
SPEAKER_00:I agree. I think just like you said, even a simple prayer, you know, saying, Jesus, help me choose what matters most, and just pausing in that moment and in the middle of the busyness, because if we're honest, I think we can feel it coming. I do. I definitely can feel it kind of like, okay, I'm going, going, going. I'm an autopilot. Am I even actually feeling what's going on around me, or am I kind of numbed out, to be honest with you? I think I do that sometimes too. But you know what? God cares more about your heart than your hustle. And I think that that is kind of hard for me to come to grips with that because sometimes I feel like, you know what? I pride myself off, I can get things done. Yeah, I can power through and get it done. Right. But in a way, I think it really is a distraction and it can take away from what's actually like being present. Being present is something, um, I know that can be kind of like a a big word, but um, but concentrating more on my heart than actually the things I'm doing and accomplishing.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and I think one question we said with this passage in group was something to just be asking yourself is like what pulls you into that much serving mode that Martha found herself in. Because I do think there is like a healthy surveying mode, and then there's a much serving mode that's shown in this passage that I think we as moms so often get get caught up in. And to your point, I think that we can often feel it coming um when we're in that autopilot mode, we're in that much surveying mode. Um, and there's kind of like something that maybe triggers you to get into that, or and it's often so much easier to pause and stop before you like fully get in the mode to evaluate it rather than um you know, after the fact. But I think that it this passage is just always so convicting to me because Martha truly could have just missed like Jesus sitting in her living room, which I know is very different for us today of like we have the Holy Spirit in this, we have him all the time. But with that, any moment can become sacred and holy at any given time. Um, and in this passage, she almost missed Jesus sitting in her living room, you know, and and he was too kind to let that happen. He was gonna call her, call her out so that she didn't miss it. So I think sometimes, like as moms, we need that healthy call out to be like, okay, I'm missing the Lord all around me in my busyness, in my distraction. And, you know, Lord, please help me to to slow down enough to not miss it, to not miss you um in these sacred moments.
unknown:That's good.
SPEAKER_01:You want to read the next passage? Yes, it is.
SPEAKER_00:The next one is in Psalm, and we're gonna read from Psalm 90. Um, it's just one verse. It's verse 12. So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. So the question here, golly, this idea of numbering our days, like can you ask yourself, like if you numbered your days this week, where did your energy go? And did it matter? Did it did it match what mattered most? And I think just truthfully, if I was to be very honest here, I think I've been definitely with what I'm mentioning, just with such the fast-paced life that we have right now, and a lot of things are really good things that we're committed to. I really do think that my days have been filled in this autopilot of numbed out need to get things accomplished and just in the busyness, honestly, just to sum it up in the busyness and not really stepping back. And so one thing that I was thinking is, and this can tie back to the Mary and Martha story too, but just kind of like a this reminder that even sitting with Jesus, even pausing and reflecting or looking back on your week, like we just said, in the middle of chaos is usually the best use of your time. Um, because we can kind of question, you know, that's a good place to pause.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, totally. And I think just this concept of like numbering our days in general is so helpful because what it's doing is it's kind of forcing you, like we talked about in the Calling a Motherhood podcast, to take a minute and think about the eternal perspective. Um, because that's what busyness and distraction does, is it gets your eyes on things that are seen rather than things that are unseen. Um, and this concept of numbering our days is is a shift in mindset to get your eyes back on things unseen, um, and remembering that we are finite and this life is really short, and there's eternal things going on all around us, eternal purposes, eternal mission. Um, that's just so easy to miss in the middle of distraction and in the middle of chaos. And so I think it having whatever it is for you, those verses, um, you know, quotes or songs or whatever it is, that kind of gets your mind out of that, like, you know, only focusing on the seen things mindset and can get you to have a shift to focusing back on the eternal. Because that that the thing is, that's not our natural tendency. It's never gonna be as humans, as sinful as fallen. Our natural tendency is gonna be to focus on things seen. Um, and so with that, it doesn't matter how many times we tell ourselves to focus on unseen, focus on eternal, that's a daily battle. That's something that like we constantly have to reset on to bring back to mind um this concept, at least for me. So I think this concept can come up in so many different topics because we're we're constantly forgetting um to set our minds on on things unseen.
SPEAKER_00:Alright, so the third one we're gonna mention is unforced rhythms of grace. And this one's gonna come from Matthew 11, verse 28 through 30. So let me grab that really quick. Um Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
SPEAKER_01:So with that passage, I feel like there's a temptation because we've all like a lot of us have heard that so many times. So you start hearing it and your brain starts doing the like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, you know. No that one. Um, but I think that a lot of times with passages like this, there's a reason why we've heard it so much, because it needs to be constantly um on the front of our minds. So I don't know what what comes to your mind when you read that passage?
SPEAKER_00:I think that really it's that he, if if our yoke, so if we are tied to him truthfully, if we're coming to him um for guidance and direction, then we can find strength in that and he will guide us. And it's also in God's renewing grace. I think we can't talk about this without grace because a lot of times, I mean, what is what is grace the opposite of? I've heard this before. What is it? Legalism or striving? Well, yeah, and I think the opposite striving is probably a good thing because don't we always strive, strive, strive and think we're finally gonna f to to receive it or get it, but we never are. And so just finding strength in God's renewing grace, I think, is a big one here.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and I'm already laughing because if you have been listening to us the whole time we've been doing this, then you know I've already tried to explain this in one of our first episodes, and it did not go well. So I'm trying to explain the analogy. The picture of the yoke, the picture of the yoke. So let's see. I'm gonna I'm gonna give it a go here. But I'm just not a farmer and I don't understand the new analogy. The summary is what he's explaining with the yoke and being yoked together is this picture of like two cattle who are working in a field being yoked together and linked together as they're doing whatever it is that they do, that I don't know, um, planting seed or sowing the soil or all the things, but they have to be yoked together so that they are at the same pace. Because if they're not at the same pace and one's ahead and one's behind, and they're off, then it messes up the whole way that the work is being done and the field is being sowed and reaped and all the things. So um I think what's so powerful about that is like in this passage, we see that we're called to be like yoked to him, like yoked to Jesus. Um, and something I feel like I missed in this passage for a really long time was that that includes being at his pace, which if you look at scripture and you look at the gospel is extremely slow under a lot of a lot of the gospels, and to the point where it kind of drove his disciples crazy at times that he wasn't taking the more like efficient or productive route because his pace was always unhurried, interruptible, never frantic, striving. Does that describe you? No, what about you? So so often when I'm thinking of this picture, I'm seeing myself as the cow that's like way ahead, and he's just yanking me back, yanking me back, you know, which in his grace and kindness he does, you know, he pulls us back and pulls us back. But I think remembering that like part of being yoked to him is being yoked to his pace of life. Um, and we talked about this in mom's group, but there's a difference between like circumstantial busyness and being like a busied, hurried presence, right? So like Jesus was super busy on paper, like he had a lot going on and a lot he was doing, and like a jam-packed, you know, schedule ministry, but he was an unhurried presence, and that was very clear. And so I think like that is something that we you know can have a picture of of like what does it look like for us to be an unhurried presence, even if we a lot of times as moms, you can't control the amount of circumstantial stuff that you have going on, but what we can have influence over is our presence. And um, so I just love this idea of an unhurried presence that Jesus gives us.
SPEAKER_00:And practically speaking, I when when we are rushed, when we're feeling rushed, because how many times are we running late or trying to get everything together out the door?
SPEAKER_01:Me on the way over here.
SPEAKER_00:You on the way over here, yeah. But it's usually, you know, I'm thinking of, you know, you still don't have your shoes on. I asked you to put your shoes on. Where's your lunch? Did you pack your lunch? Where's your swimsuit? Did you bring that? Like it's always the next thing, and just this it to me, that is the opposite of an unhurried presence. But I mean, hurried, the opposite. Yeah. I said that wrong. You know what I mean? But I think that when I do that, it rises anxiety in my children. And I think they can sense it in me, right? They're smart. I bet Remy can even find it in you. Yeah. Even from a really young age. And I've noticed that even in a step-by-step, if I'm gonna be a little bit more prepared, a little bit more unhurried, then that's gonna kind of set the tone for my temperament and maybe my children as well.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. No, I I think our presence is is super powerful. It's one of it's one of the biggest gifts that we can give people. It's also one of um, you know, the biggest like not giving it can be a big like hindrance in a lot of ways, like you were saying, or or what what we're showing up as, um is just extremely important and extremely impactful. So I think remembering that the biggest gift we can give is the gift of our unhurried, non-friendtic presence a lot of times to our kids and our families.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So this was kind of a surprise. I when we were getting ready for this, I kept thinking of this book that I read um a few, I think it was a few years ago, um, called Present Over Perfect. And then when I mentioned it to you, you said, I'm reading this right now. Yeah, I'm like 50% the way that um, but it's good though, and I and I would I would definitely recommend it. I think it kind of I was thinking about that because in the way I think we're really reject this idea of rejecting busyness, like it's a hard thing to do. But I think when you read a book like this and here, there's actually like full-on stories in there that are kind of helping you walk through, you know, other situations in life. But remembering, I think what I really gathered from that book is remembering that even in the small acts of love, like folding laundry, wiping tears, cooking dinner, all of these things we do as moms daily. But they do actually become holy when they're done with him and for him. Um because ultimately it's our job that God's given us. We talked about this with the calling of motherhood. We've been called to be a mom, we're accepting the calling, and these things can we do these out of love? Because sometimes at the root of it, it's not joyful.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. And I think we talked about that in group, like the difference between um spirit-led serving and kind of like burdened obligation type serving. And I think Keith actually is the one that said this recently in a sermon, but he was saying like spirit-led serving will always at the end lead to feelings of like joy and gratitude. That doesn't mean not exhaustion. You can lay on your your head on your pillow and still be absolutely exhausted, um, but filled with joy and gratitude from spirit-led serving. Um, but it's just kind of a good litness test to be like, okay, because the opposite is true, where if you're if you're not, if you're doing all these things, but it's not necessarily spirit-led, the end result becomes like bitterness and burnout. And that's it's just kind of an easy test to be like, okay, am I actually doing these things from a place of like spirit-led serving or obligation? Because if I'm sitting here with bitterness and burnout, that's just a really good um kind of test. But yeah, it is.
SPEAKER_00:God's not asking you to have it all together, to to do it perfect. He's not asking you to keep up with the pace even of this world, because it is so fast-paced and so busy, and that is just the theme of life these days. I I feel that. I feel that weight. But he's asking us to walk at his pace and in his peace. We need to have if you do not have peace right now, then you probably need to figure out how to rest. And we're not doing a podcast on rest, but there is definitely something to be said. I remember one person in mom's group mentioned this week that when they feel like they are overdoing it and feeling this weight of busyness and distraction, it's they've learned that it's okay to say, you know what? Mommy needs like 10 to 30 minutes. Yeah. I'm gonna go pray, or I'm gonna go read my Bible. Like, what a lesson to teach your kids that that's okay to do, and that's healthy to do, even from an early age. Yeah, no, that's really good.
SPEAKER_01:Um so something we did in mom's group that we wanted to do on here too was we kind of came up with, let's see, one, two, three, four, five, five different lies that we kind of hear as moms um in our heads relating to this topic. And then, you know, if you've listened to us, you know, we love fighting the lies with the truth, and like just lining them up. And so that's kind of what we're gonna do here is just talk about a few of these lies that at least we see in this topic, and then talk about the truth that you can kind of, you know, battle against um that lie with. So, do you want to kick us off?
SPEAKER_00:Yes, and I chan challenge you to write these down side by side. Put it on your fridge, put it on your bulletin board. Maybe it's in a place where your children can see it too, because I think that it's a good reminder for them as well. All right, why don't I say the lie and then you combat it with the truth? You want to do it that way? Sure. Let's do it. All right, so what if my lie is that my value equals my productivity? What would you say?
SPEAKER_01:So we said your identity is received, not achieved, which all of these truths we have linked to scripture, which we'll note in the show notes. But just this concept that you work from a place of rest, not for a place of rest. You as a daughter of the Lord are working from rest, not for rest. And so your identity is already received. There's nothing you can do to achieve it, and so therefore, your value cannot be attached to your productivity, and that's like one of the most freeing truths out there is is to that we're working from a place of rest.
SPEAKER_00:That's good. I struggle with that one on a daily basis. All right, Amanda, what's the next lie?
SPEAKER_01:If I don't do it, it won't get done. Okay.
SPEAKER_00:I feel like that's the story of my life.
SPEAKER_01:That one's hard because it does feel like there's like a half-truth in there. I know, right?
SPEAKER_00:Because I mean, I I think it depends. It definitely depends. And and even within our group, we had some that were reverse roles where the the father, the male figure, tends to be more of the um, you know, get it done, and the wife is a little bit more of the passive one. And I think that that is definitely out there. Um, but I do think that at any time in life, a mom can relate to the fact that are you kidding me? Why don't I just go ahead and do it? Because it's just not gonna get done. And that's not setting ourselves up, that's not setting our children up, you know, to be independent and to learn things, but it's also putting way too much pressure on us. And I think the truth here is that God is the primary worker. We join him. This comes from a reminder in Psalm 127, 1 and 2, that we join him. He is the one who's ultimately going to help us and guide us and get through all of this.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and we could do a whole other episode on this, but I think that the concept of Sabbath really hones in on this truth because what you know, this concept of a day of rest is saying is that I can stop. Everything that I am doing for an entire day and watch the Lord continue to do all of the things. And it just is this massive declaration that like you are not the hero of the story, that we're not the primary worker, that he's the one doing doing the work. And so, you know, you can think about that like a full-day Sabbath. You can also think about it like just moments of rest throughout your day or declaring that to yourself and your kids that like I am not the primary worker, like the world keeps spinning without me. We, whether you believe or not, you declare that every night when you go to sleep for eight hours and you're a sack of potatoes, you know. Um, and so I just think like it it can be such a powerful message to ourselves and our kids. Um, when we're this concept of working from rest, not for rest. If you're working for rest, you truly are never gonna get there. There's always more stuff to get done, there's always more stuff to do, but there's something super powerful about stopping when there still is a bunch of stuff to do to rest and to declare that, like, no God is the one who truly keeps everything spinning, you know.
SPEAKER_00:Ultimately can't do it without him. That's a hard one. Alright, the next lie is hurry is holy because it's for church and family. Okay. This is tough. Because we can be committed to, we can be overcommitted to a lot of things, and they can be good things, which is what we mentioned before. It could be church-related, it could be family-related, but what is it? It's too much, right? It's ultimately too much. So, what's the truth, the truth to combat this lie?
SPEAKER_01:So we said that love requires an unhurried presence. Um, so kind of like what we talked about, like true love and spirit-led serving to do it like to the max of God's glory and um spirit-led, we have to be able to be in a place of being an unhurried presence. And and if you're it's kind of this concept of like sometimes I feel like I'm giving, you know, like 10% of myself to everything in my life. Like I'm I'm giving just enough to everything, versus like this concept of being able to be in a place where you're truly showing up with everything that the Lord's given you to have to the things that He's called you to do. Um, but then that ends up limiting the things that you're able to give that amount of capacity to or that amount of unhurried presence to, you know.
SPEAKER_00:And what's the saying of every yes means no to something else or something like that? And uh there's so much truth to that. Um, I've been trying to remind myself of that lately because sometimes there's it doesn't feel like you have enough time to do everything. And that's when you need to, as a family, step back and question what like what turn to God and and ask him, is this something that I need to be committed to?
SPEAKER_01:And that can also be a powerful, like I've had m times like that where you know I felt maybe led to give something up or to start to step away from something and just to declare, like, I am not the hero of the story, Jesus is the hero of the story, and I'm gonna trust that if I'm being led away from this, whatever it is, relationship, ministry, that he is going to provide for that through another person, another means, another, and then you get to just sit back and watch him do it. And I've had some cool experiences where we felt led to step out of something or say no to something, and then you watch him fill that in another way, and it's just this cool reminder of like, okay, no, I'm not the hero, I don't have to do everything, and I can trust that the Lord will fill fill these gaps um if I'm being led to create one in some way, you know. Um, you want to read the next one?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, the next one is attention is cheap. I can multitask my soul because we are multitaskers at once. We like to be that, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yes, and I think the truth here is that we truly do become what we behold. So what you give your attention to is in itself spiritual formation, whether you're actively trying for it to be spiritual formation or not, what we give our attention to is shaping us, is forming us. And so, like attention is something similar to like our presence. Our attention and our presence are very connected, um, that we have to give a lot of thought to, um, because it's forming us, whether we're realizing it or not, you know. Um, so you know, what we put our focus on forms our hearts, and I I think that we just have to um be constantly evaluating that because it's it's something that's every day, at least for me, is is shifting. Um and and I have to be focused on on analyzing it.
SPEAKER_00:And I think this could be this could go into us being present and really showing ultimate um attention to our children as well. I'm thinking of one child that just really needs a lot of my attention and and it's hard because I do always feel like I have a lot going on. It's very easy for me to get distracted, and I definitely see that in that child they start struggling when I'm not able. I mean, really, oh is it hard for me to just set aside 20 minutes to do something and put this real attention on them rather than trying to multitask all over the place?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So it can also be right there with our children as well.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, totally. Um, the last one we had we already kind of hit on a little bit, but the lie that rest comes after I finish everything.
SPEAKER_00:Everything, so we'll never be done. Right. No rest.
SPEAKER_01:Right. And I think we had a lot of moms in our group that would say they just feel like every single thing has to be done at the end of the day before they can sit down or rest. Um, and I think I mean that's definitely a struggle for me. I know that's a struggle for you. Um, but like we talked about, I think sometimes it can be a really powerful thing to sit down or to stop in the middle of there still being a ton of stuff to do. Um, because what you're saying is that you don't you don't have to work for your rest, you know? Um, and that's not to say that you're not gonna finish those things or ask for help for those things or get them done eventually. Um, but it's just if if the lie truly is that it comes after you finish everything, we will never actually rest, you know.
SPEAKER_00:Alright. Well, the last point that we wanted to mention is just this idea that margin, having having margin in our life, is necessary and it actually is part of a ministry. Um so Jesus when he often did his miracles, um, he did it in the interruptions. And if we tend to over-schedule and and get caught up in this busyness, we miss divine appointments. I think this could be huge.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and I think sometimes, at least for me, I have this like jam-packed schedule with no room for anything else. And it's like, how can I truly be saying I want to be led by the spirit if I have no room in my schedule for him to lead me, you know? Um, and so I think being interruptible and being an unhurried presence is extremely tied together. Yeah, um, I am definitely not an interruptible person, I would say. It's something that I'm always um convicted of because Jesus clearly was so interruptible, you know. Um, and so I think that's a prayer, at least for myself, is is creating margin for the sake of becoming more interruptible like Jesus.
SPEAKER_00:I want to be more like that. Yeah. Alright, so I have a question for you. Based on everything that we have talked about here, I'll ask you. We'll talk about this, but I want you as a listener to ask this question to yourself and kind of analyze where you would be at this point. So the question is where could God be inviting me to choose presence over productivity?
SPEAKER_01:I feel like this one is very timely for me because um, so obviously I'm about to have my second baby, and I think for the longest time I was choosing productivity over presence without even realizing it before she's even born. Um, because I was just kind of telling everyone, including my work, that I was just gonna take two or three weeks off and then be back to all my productive things. And um, I had a friend like very lovingly challenge me on that and call me out and just be like, okay, but what if like you're called to just simply like be present with your new baby and Remy and your husband when he's off? Because my husband is off for a month, which is a huge blessing. And um, you know, it was just a very loving call out to kind of be like, okay, what if the Lord isn't asking you to choose like just being present during that time instead of you know, I saw it as an opportunity to get more stuff done because I have my husband home and I'll be fine, I'll recover, whatever, you know, and just keep going and get back to normal and be super productive. But when I really prayed about it and got challenged, I felt like the Lord was inviting me to choose presence um over productivity, just like the R question said. Um, and so I redid my whole maternity plan, and I'm gonna actually force myself to take six weeks to try to just be actually present with Hamp and my two girls and enjoy that time. And so um that's really, really hard for me, but I feel like that's the way I'm being invited into that.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. So my answer would be where I am in my stage right now. I'm not working because I know that in this phase of life, honestly, I just can't. But I also know that my kids and my family, they need me. And like I mentioned, I think I tend to um really try to overproduce and and be productive constantly because I think that's my job, that's what I need to do. But it even translates and it translates into when my kids are at home or on the weekends. And I like I said, I think I can just see it affect my children. I don't want it to become in the middle of us and feel like a distraction or you know, this is more important to mom than me, or spending time with me is not as important as her getting uh the house cleaned, things like that. That just kind of convicts me a little bit, especially when they call you out, because you know they absolutely can call you out for certain things like that too.
SPEAKER_01:So and I think sometimes there is a balance. I'm learning to invite Remy in to some of my productivity um because you know, like we've talked about this from one end, but there is the other side of like these things do have to get done. Like you can't constantly just be present all the time. But there's a powerful reality that we can like invite them in to some of our productivity. Um, and I'm trying to work on that of just like, hey, like mommy really has to cook dinner right now, but I would love for you to get your helper tower and help me cut these, or you know, I like inviting their them in. Um, so I think that can be huge in this topic too, because yes, like we do have to be productive, we cannot just sit all the time and we know that. Um, so yeah, that's another thing I think about.
unknown:That's really good.
SPEAKER_00:All right. Well, I think we need to sum it up a little bit. Let's sum it up in a little words. I just I really hope and pray that all of us, all of us moms, can take this to heart. Remember these scriptures where originally it came from, help it to be a challenge to not let busyness steal what matters most because it's it can be an idol, it absolutely can become an idol. But I really pray that we can have this unhurried presence um of Jesus and take this movie over we're gonna be able to do it.
