Coffee Chat with Amber & Lisa
What does it mean to be a woman of influence in the everyday of life's raw, good, bad, and ugly? Join Amber Weigand-Buckley and Lisa Burris Burns, authors of the #1 Amazon Bestseller and multi-award-winning book Leading Ladies: Discover Your God-Grown Strategy for Success (Bold Vision Books), for coffee and a messy bun conversation. Each week, we'll talk about how things we'd rather keep hidden can prevent us from moving forward in purpose. You'll receive insight and encouragement to be the world-changing woman God created you to be. No makeup, no pretense required. To find out more, go to www.coffeechatladies.com. Like, subscribe, download, and visit @coffeechatladies on social media.
Coffee Chat with Amber & Lisa
When Your Life is Screaming, "Stop the Insanity"
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Have you ever found yourself caught off guard by life's unexpected twists? This episode of "Coffee Chat with Amber and Lisa" promises to equip you with the tools to navigate those surprises with grace. Amber, who is more improvisational, contrasts her approach with Lisa's planned and practiced style. They explore how they've adapted to unexpected life events, including health crises like Lisa's bout with shingles. The conversation covers balancing daily responsibilities with unforeseen challenges, managing health issues, and the importance of creating spaces for peace and fun amidst the chaos.
They share personal stories and practical tips for finding balance, including the importance of laughter, flexibility, and intentional planning.
00:00 Introduction and Welcome
00:15 Embracing Impromptu Living
02:01 Daily Life Challenges
03:36 The Importance of Margin
07:11 Performance Mode vs. Authenticity
08:31 Balancing Strength and Vulnerability
19:11 Finding Peace in Chaos
32:50 Intentional Living and Letting Go
35:04 Closing Thoughts and Prayer
Thank you for taking the time to like, subscribe, share, and comment. Visit leadingladies.life to find out more. Also, follow @leadingladieslife on social. Amber & Lisa are authors of the multi-award-winning book, Leading Ladies: Discover Your God-Grown Strategy for Success, which dives into the power of community and empowering women of faith to rise up and make a difference, using our gifts and faith to shine brightly in the world. Watch the Facebook Live edition on our YouTube Channel @coffeechatladies .
Welcome
Speaker 1Hello everybody and welcome to Mosquito Land, because I have some mosquitoes flying around my head. Welcome to another episode of Coffee Chat with Amber and my co-author in crime, lisa. I'm freshly rolled out of bed. If the truth be told, we are on such a season of kind of impromptu living. I think Maybe that's what we should have called the podcast impromptu living. I do have a lot of acting.
Speaker 2I've done a lot of acting in my life and something I've always despised is impromptu anything, because I rely on being practiced and planned for those moments. I have to make sure my lines are there, I know where I'm walking, I know what I'm picking up, the whole thing. When you say the word impromptu, it sends shivers down my back and yet, if I'm honest, I have had to learn how to just flow.
Speaker 1What did they say? By the seat of my pants? We could put a title behind your name that says expert at flying by the seat of my pants or expert planner. And I think that's why we compliment each other so well, Lisa. It's because I'm the fly by seat of my pants and you are the planner, and that's the beauty of our lives. But we've all had to learn to adjust a little bit to impromptu living and we have to do that. And it's been interesting in this season because we've had to just adapt to everything that's going on and it's either a challenge or a struggle. It's either a challenge or a struggle. How many? I just love to say, if you're listening this morning to the live stream, we'd love for you to drop something in the comments. What are you struggling with? Are you a planner? Are you a fly by the seat of your pants person Also working through our day-to-day?
Speaker 2life. If you're like me and Amber probably there are a lot of women like this you cram as much as you possibly can into your day-to-day life. While it sounds nice to say, just be balanced, pick one large project at a time, we don't live that way.
Speaker 2No, we do not there's daily life that is already keeping life full to the brim right and then, you have the unexpected, the unimaginable things that come at you from different directions and you have to figure out what to do with those on top of the everyday maxed out capacity.
Speaker 1You also have health things thrown into the mix. I know a lot of people deal with health and relational things that get thrown into the mix, Like people unexpectedly are going through rough, rocky relationships, maybe some of them in separation and divorce, unexpected, a lot of struggle that comes through. And it's especially hard when you have purpose thrown in the mix and you don't want to say purpose thrown in the mix, it is that's what you feel like you're supposed to be called to do. And Lisa, I know that in the middle of the summer you were diagnosed with shingles.
Speaker 2Oh yes, of course I need one more diagnosis at all times.
Speaker 1Yeah, that is an amazing impromptu.
The Importance of Margin
Speaker 2It was quite an experience too, because it was in the midst of once again living life. Everybody says you should always leave a margin. People with wisdom leave a margin. You leave a margin of time to get where you were planning to go. You leave a margin in your bank account in case there's emergencies.
Speaker 2Right the week that I came down with shingles, the week before I was not feeling well. I have a tendency to tolerate a lot more discomfort than most people because I don't feel well a lot. I've just been that way all my life and I don't always know how bad a situation is. And the week before I had lived life maxed out. I had gone to I have a show I'm involved in, I'd gone and worked backstage and I really wasn't having symptoms then. I don't think I was symptomatic then. But let's just say the week before was maxed out.
Speaker 2I watching my grandbabies and doing everything I needed to do. And then, all of a sudden, a few days, I start not feeling so great and I just push it off and I take Tylenol and ibuprofen and by Monday I'm being told by a physician you're going to have to go to the hospital. That meant everything that was already packed for the next week and I had appointments for my mom, two physician's appointments. For those that don't know, my mom is in a rehab facility. She is needing full-time nursing, long-term care and I'm the one that usually meets her at appointments. I had to call in the troops to help cover that for me. As I'm laying in the bed, ivs in both arms, I wasn't able to help with my grandbabies, which put my kids in a bind.
Speaker 2It was an insane time and really all I could do in that moment was lay my behind in the hospital bed and try to concentrate on getting better.
Speaker 1That was all I'm going to do. A short PSA for the shingles vaccine. Right here, get shingles vaccine.
Speaker 2I know we have a lot of strong feelings concerning immunizations and vaccines, and I get it. I'm a person who doesn't even take a flu shot and I haven't. I've had every form of flu there was, Thank goodness, as an adult. It does not affect me like it did when I was younger and I have autoimmune disorder. Can I tell you, I was on my way to get the vaccine for three months before I got it. I was like I'm going to get the vaccine, I promise you, as soon as my time is up here. I was supposed to wait two to three months. I'm getting the vaccine.
Speaker 1And I think chaos happens in those moments because, number one, you're beating yourself up because you knew you should have done this, but at the same time, you're like okay, we are in scramble mode because this is ABC, but the part of the miracle in this, you were faced with Ramsey Hunt, which is a paralysis in your face which was even worse than shingles.
Speaker 2I live with discomfort a lot and I have learned to just push through. Sometimes it's hard for me to differentiate between just pushing through daily. This is the way I'm going to feel, short of a miracle of God. And what do I do in those situations?
Speaker 2And I didn't know until my face was drooping and other people noticed it. Whoa yeah, that there's a problem. My face was not acting right. It felt numb to me, like I would go to smile, and I knew this side wasn't doing quite what this side was, and that's the only way I was like okay, I guess you're right, there's a problem, one of the things that I remember in this whole process, because we were actually getting ready for a coffee chat right before, when you were in pain.
Speaker 1you did the coffee chat.
Speaker 2You were in performance mode, which I'm sure that your stage training has taught you to go into. Suck it up mode, girl. We tell people that all the time. I battle with that because we tell young performers don't walk into an audition and say right off the bat, I just want to let you know disclaimer, here I have a cold or I'm getting over strep throat. We tell them not to do that. We tell them to give their best because, in all honesty, those who are qualified judges can tell when you got a little something going on here and we can also hear the potential of what you can do when you don't have that. I feel like we have to be real careful. I'm not so sure that I always feel a catch in my whole being when we say things like that to people because, also asking people to not be authentic with where they're at the moment.
Speaker 1Yeah, I think that's the whole point of what we wanted to do when we started this coffee chat is let's talk about the realness of who we are and not having to be in performance mode, even though we want to talk. I'm going to let you talk for just a second.
Speaker 2My dogs are going ballistic in the backyard and I need to bring them in before the neighbors get them, so I'm just going to put you on mute, we learn to perform, we learn to adjust.
Speaker 1We came into our podcast thinking, okay, we need to dispel some of the myths of people who are on a platform and say, okay, we deal with authentic struggle too. That was how we laid out even Leading Ladies the book. And we have to see that even in our authentic struggle there is authentic strength and that's built up in us and it's so important to realize when we walk through these things. There's a difference between being fake and finding strength.
Finding Balance Amid Chaos
Speaker 2Exactly. Stacey Sanchez said something in the comments. She says if you want something done, ask a busy woman. We're good at carrying the weight of the world on our shoulders. If you want something done, ask a busy woman. We're good at carrying the weight of the world on our shoulders.
Speaker 2There's a fine line between allowing yourself to mentally become this martyr where you leave things unsaid and just push ahead, but there are little nagging thoughts that constantly make you feel like people just don't get it. People really don't have the ability to help you out. Get it, people really don't have the ability to help you out. And I feel like there's a fine line between becoming a martyr internally and having an effect how we allow the Lord to walk with us through these moments. He doesn't just take those moments away. He doesn't just disappear. Now, I'm not saying he can't and I'm not saying he doesn't. In my life experience, walking years with autoimmune issues and in spite of prayer and constant introspection God, I know you can change this if you want to I've noticed that what he changes is probably me.
Speaker 2And I think there's truth to that comment. I think we stand on our own strength a lot, especially strong women. As women, we have a tendency to put up with or to deal with or to juggle. Innately, we are created to have the capacity of meeting multiple different options at one time. We multitask. For the most part, we have to, but we came into this world just having to because of the sheer fact that we are female and our roles in this society, whether it's what God intended for us or not. In this society, whether it's what God intended for us or not make us have to face that early on.
Speaker 2Right, I would say that my personality type is to try to figure it out on my own. I used to listen to sermons and people who say you don't rely on your own strength, you rely on the strength of the Lord, you seek help. I had to figure out that God had made me a woman that had the ability to think, solve, be resourceful, and he'd given me those gifts with once again, let's use that word purpose, reason for us being able to figure out, prioritize and work through and relying on his strength. Let's talk about that. What does that really mean?
Speaker 1Does that mean you just sit and allow.
Speaker 2I don't know what to do about this situation. God, here it is, yeah.
Speaker 1What does that mean? My number one Okay, so I come at this to God is my strength. The old, the old World War Two paintings of the woman who's getting ready and she's saying we can do it, we can muscle through. And there is that point in me is you don't want to look like a wimpy woman, because we aren't wimpy, we are not wimpy girls but at the same time, my muscle tone at this moment says otherwise.
Speaker 1Here's my muscle right. I know that there are a lot of women I've seen a lot of women doing CrossFit that have a lot more muscle than some of the guys but at the same time like when I think about we can do it we're made out of dirt, bones break. Where do you go with that? That's where our authentic personhood is in the dirty dirt and the bones that break. But at the same time there's a very real God who breathed into us his life, his strength, and he resides, he abides in us and his spirit and it gives us strength. But a lot of times, stubborn, headed, bullheaded. That can be my downfall, because I'm wanting to push through all the time and God is at. I'm carrying weight that I wasn't intended to push through myself, so I find myself having to balance that pushing through and then I am so freaking tired I don't want to do anything. We also have special circumstances.
Speaker 2So you've been very open, amber, about your battle with your brain chemistry. Sometimes your brain chemistry takes over and makes you feel stronger than maybe you are, make you feel like you can take on the world.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2And that can be troublesome as well. How do you weed through those moments? Personally, because this is an issue for a lot of us how do we know when we're supposed to pick it up and carry it or when maybe we're supposed to let it lie?
Speaker 1I think one of the things that I've been doing in my practice of trying to let things go a little bit more and it's been a struggle because we have experienced a lot of delay this summer, especially trying to push through all the time as you lose steam. Can we be happy about something that's happening if it's not happening in our desired timeline, and how do we be flexible about that? And one of the things that I started to do is be very purposeful in what I can fully commit my body to do. I know what I will do is I want to muscle up, I want to push through. I have to realize, yes, god is in me, but I have to have realistic expectations of the bones and dirt he's given me.
Speaker 1So how do I weigh that up? And I walk through seasons where I'm in my hole of a cave just working, where I'm in my hole of a cave just working, but at the same time I've had to say to myself okay, I need to step away, I need to go for a walk, regardless of how I might be feeling in my head, right, I have to tell people.
Speaker 2Your expectation is not realistic. Right, I've had to put things on the back burner, because you are that woman who pushes through for everyone. Project after project, they come to see you as someone who is almost superwoman in some ways. I say what is?
Speaker 2practical about this? What can you do practically to help people see, I'm not just superwoman. I may be able to push through, but it's not always healthy for me to push through. And sometimes what you're asking of me, because of who you think I am, which I'm the exterior, what you're asking me to be is not realistic.
Speaker 1I had to limit the circle of people I dealt with and then committed to. I limited that very small and I refused to take on projects beyond that. But at the same time I have to honestly say okay, if these all things need to be done at the same time, something's going to give the Advanced Writers and Speakers Association Conference.
Speaker 2I was trying to get there, I thought maybe my hubby and I could go. That wasn't working out and then I was just like, okay, maybe I'm not going to make it, maybe I'm not going to be able to go by myself. And here we are, just a few days out and we're rerouting everything, yeah, and rerouting and having to do something.
Performance Mode vs. Authenticity
Speaker 1And I think this is what I feel about this conference we're going to just go and have fun, we're just going to go, and that's our road trip Kind of who we are anyway, folks.
Speaker 2I don't know if you know that about us, we're just here for the laughter.
Speaker 1Watch the videos in my comments. Well, and that's the thing is like. We need to learn to have fun in the middle of chaos. You have to, and those moments are precious and we get so work focused. I can get so aggressive in my struggle to push through. Your personality almost changes when you're pushing through and I'm like wait, this is not who I am normally.
Speaker 2This is, and just because you appear from the outside to do it Well for me. I'm real good at that resourceful, get it done. It looks real polish when I'm finished, but the reality is what it does to me internally sometimes because, I haven't learned to balance, or I've learned to balance every once in a while. We just forget what that means.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2We just plow through life?
Speaker 1Can we learn to take joy in just the everyday and know that struggle happens, it's inevitable. So laughter and letting go I think letting go and laughter for me is key and going with the flow a little bit more. And I do that, naturally. I go with the flow and then I get really okay, I got to make something happen that has to be tempered, happen that has to be tempered. I know that has to be tempered, but at the same time I doesn't mean I don't go through those periods of it feels like this and I'm feeling this coming on. What do you struggle with? What is your approach? When you hit struggle, do you tune out? Do you go a gecko on a branch? You hit struggle, do you tune out, do you?
Speaker 2go a gecko on a branch. I kind of think I had three things just as we've been talking, that kind of come up to my mind in the midst of the chaos. First thing you were just addressing have some fun yes, if that. Or have something that takes you out of the immediate pressure of the chaos. So for you that's a walk. Sometimes I need to get away, walk away from the desk, walk away from the phone calls. I noticed something you're doing these days that's very new, and that is you put the little focus time on your phone and yeah 20,.
Speaker 2I understand you forget it's on sometimes, but it doesn't matter what I'm trying to contact Amber about. I'm driving or answering calls right now and it's so fun. That's a very new development for Amber. You have to find a way to step away from it. Learn how to rest your spirit in the midst of the calamity, the chaos, the calamity, the chaos. There's an ability, with Jesus, to have peace internally in spite of the whirling plates all around you. You can have peace internally in spite of the pace you're running and gunning at, and that is something that has taken years for me to learn how to lean into it.
Speaker 2If I can't control the chaos if I can't put it in its place, to help make it better sometimes. I just want to ease it for myself and for others. Recently I decided that I needed to overhaul a couple of rooms in my house I don't mean calling the decorator taking what I have and making it more streamlined and create a sense of calm for when I'm in the midst of moments. So I know a lot of people may think this is crazy, but we have an old 70s style house that we're living in right now and the kitchen area is a kitchen with a small nook, with a bay window for a little kitchen and table, a little in-kitchen breakfast nook, so to speak. There's also a dining room which we have always used for my office slash, another living area couch chair. We come in here to take a nap, we come in here to talk to people, we come in here to read a book and we don't want to be around everyone else.
Speaker 2I decided that I was going to just totally turn the nook in the kitchen into a nook with a chair, a space where I can watch the sunrise and sunset. All of the houseplants went to the window. It's created this atmosphere where I can just calm down for a minute and start my day. It helps me control that inner chaos and bring peace to it, and my dining room now actually has a dining room table in it. My desk is in the corner but for me just doing that has eased some of the tightness in my gut. I'm trying. I can't control everything out there, but I can control how can I find my way to a more peaceful space right here. And sometimes it doesn't take a lot of money, it just takes a little revamping a little organizing, so to speak.
Speaker 1I usually have this little place outside that is my little hovel hole, and if I can just keep that place, like you keep it that is the control element Like hey, I can go out here outside now. Right now, with the mosquito population ramping up, that has been an extreme challenge. So I haven't had as much time around the fire pit as I would like, but that's just that, my little soulless place as well that I can go to in my home, that I can turn on the fire pit, I can put a marshmallow. One of my things that I really loved in this season of life is I fish for marshmallows. I roast marshmallows.
Speaker 1I don't necessarily eat them, but I like to toast them perfectly, like I like to get that perfect toast, and it takes time to get the perfect toast. I get the huge marshmallows, I get the campfire ones, but that has been like this is the good life. This is me fishing for marshmallows and it's those little things that are like, okay, I can do this. And you really realize in those moments that you slow down, you breathe, you concentrate on toasting a marshmallow and it's fun. It's recapturing part of your childhood that we often forget when we have to be adults and I think that's part of what you do with your crafty yarny stuff. My crafty.
Speaker 2It's a funny thing, though. I love crafting. Anybody who knows me knows I love to make things. But let's just be honest. It's not like I'm this amazing seamstress or I can come up with my own patterns.
Speaker 2I love and I say how can I do that with my skillset, find a way to do it. Once again, that whole resourceful thing pops in. And how do you make it? A meal out of a loaf of bread and two eggs? You, you figure it out Right.
Navigating Life's Simple Comforts and Chaos
Speaker 2So for me, lately life and I will say it all started. It's been a rough couple of years, but it all started when we had to really put the book in place. We had to put those kinds of things on a back shelf. In my mind I often think, man, it would be nice to just be able to sit and make something. I have to find a way to get back to that, because I do believe that God allows those things in our life. Sometimes in our life Christian society we have this mentality that if we aren't throwing everything we've got into evangelizing the gospel, where do we fit in? That? If we aren't doing what we see other people doing, then we must not be being a very good steward of our time. Do you believe that there are simple things in life that become of comfort Things?
Speaker 2like a warm cup of something. There have been days where it was just a warm cup of water, maybe there was no coffee in the cabinet, or tea. Maybe it's as simple as picking up a little loom and knitting something. Maybe it's as simple as I was always an avid reader. For years I read all the time the kids would go to bed. I was staying up all night reading a novel because I didn't have any other time to take myself out of the space I was in and go somewhere else. Recently, my younger daughter, who reads all the time, started buying me books that I mentioned. I want to read and I've started reading again, and I'm not saying I didn't read. Reading now for me is purpose getting ready for interviewing a guest reading someone's book because I want to give them a review, because I want to support them.
Speaker 2It starts to become work. There are elements of life that I believe God gives us that may seem mundane but, they can help quiet and bring peace to that internal chaos and storm we're feeling.
Speaker 1Sometimes we bring storms into our lives that disturb our peace and we don't really have to have anything to do with them. What is disturbing your peace right now? That really should be put on the back burner. We can fill our feed with political anger or what's happening in the world or the things that are happening that really we don't need to take on our shoulders. Do we really believe God's in control of situations?
Speaker 1not that we should live ignorant I say but we don't have to emotionally invest. And I find myself getting angry squirt the more I scroll through news and that was causing me stress that I even didn't need to take on at the moment.
Speaker 2Because I didn't know the whole story.
Speaker 1I did not know the whole story, I did not know everything, and you can hear a bunch of stuff and I'm like, oh no, I heard this was going to happen, and, and this is just coming true, and so hard to turn in it, to turn that off.
Speaker 2I look at the feed and I see people that I love. I have known for years and. I see them taking on a tone that is not who they are.
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 2My heart is grieved. I almost feel like maybe we should do a segment on how to know when something is not true, how to fact check. How do you Google, in a way trying to pull us into a storm that keeps us consumed with something other than what we're really supposed to be doing. Yeah, that's the unfortunate part.
Speaker 1Yeah, that's the thing is. Don't let anybody contribute to your struggle that shouldn't be in the room. I know that we take on also and we've talked about this before we take this on the struggle of other people's opinions about us. I have been consumed more over in the high school-ish relationship with Travis Kelsey and Taylor Swanson and, by the way, football season training has started.
Speaker 2I believe my friend Amber is talking about football this time, a year ago, she was not really ramped up yet.
Speaker 1I think as the season went along.
Speaker 2she started, but this time, a year ago, my Amber was not owning any Chiefs gear. I was the only Chiefs gear person.
Speaker 1Yeah, I do know they're in their dorm. They're in their dorm season, I guess it's for a month. They're locked in the dorm of college life.
Speaker 2They locked down.
Speaker 1I was really nervous because of all this talk about Kansas City Chiefs moving to Kansas. We don't know yet, but I got myself stressed out about that. Why, I don't know. I think I was just trying to be so yeah, I think that's why my husband doesn't really like the football, because he feels like there's stress invested there that shouldn't be like the football, because he feels like there's stress invested there that shouldn't be. But I think that they're to take the salt with the sensational feeling of seeing a touchdown.
Speaker 2But Sanchez says what's football? Go Yankees, stacey. For those of us here I call Missouri misery. Let's be honest For us here it's been decades Now. I have to admit, boy, those boys in blue, those Royals, gave us a thrill just a few short years back when we did the world series, and nothing since, although this season is going to start to stir up my heart again. But when you are raised in a place where your team doesn't win for decades and decades, and then they do, I've always been a Chiefs fan since I was a little girl, and this has been a nice ride. It won't last.
Speaker 1It never does. I was in our favorite sports bar in town, where we've gone to for 20 some years, and I took a picture of this team playing baseball and I said is this the Yankees to Stacey? And she says sacrilege.
Speaker 2Stacey, she used to do that to me and she lives in the same state I do, with the same professional ball teams, so don't feel bad, just ignore it. It's petty, she's silly.
Speaker 1Don't take a picture of those people.
Speaker 2They're not the Yankees. It sounds silly and funny, but we do get ourselves caught up in all sorts of those people. They're not the Yankees. It sounds silly and funny, but we do get ourselves caught up in all sorts of little things. For me, do you know something I do. I get caught up in things. I can control Word games.
Speaker 2I play all the word games, the word games where you spell as many words as you can within a time. I just started in person. Words as you can within a time. I just started in person.
Speaker 1There's these games where you untie the knots, oh do you know how grand it is to untie a massive knots?
Speaker 2Yeah, now we're just now, we're just getting silly. We're revealing our raw underbelly now with these games, right.
Speaker 1Yeah, my husband just got me into text twist and on the app and it's one of those and I didn't really I've never been in, really into puzzles but it's activated my brain to, as an editor, to spell again what's it called? Again, Make a text twist. I've never understood people who just stay on their phones and play with puzzles, but it's just a little bit of a brain stimulating my brain with some thought.
Intentional Living and Letting Go
Speaker 2And to mention all the games. If you're 50 years old, if you're 60 years old, you need to play this game. The reality is there are things in life that can help us pull away from the extreme. I'm talking about the negative aspects of dwelling on those things that keep us totally rushing and never accomplishing anything. We have to learn how to give them the amount of space they're supposed to have, without overindulging to such a point that they start to become part of a problem. Yes, and I say be intentional. I know our time is almost up here, but I think putting some very practical things in place for me. I can be a very practical person and, yes, I love the laughter and I love the distraction. But also, sometimes something that helps me is just sitting down with a calendar and, yes, it's already right here in my little magical. Sometimes it helps just to write down the next seven days on a piece of paper and in black and white, look at the schedule and determine how I'm going to conquer and am I leaving anything out?
Speaker 2Sometimes it's just as simple as that and there have been times where I've looked at the next seven days and I've said this is not realistic, this is not possible. I know I'm letting people down and I'm letting myself down, but I have to honestly back out of this. Being told you're going to hospital for the next week, it's like as much as you hate to let people down, you just got to do what you've got to do, and there are things in life far more that happened to us than a few days in a hospital trying to get well. There are moments in life that come crashing in that rock us to our core, whether our marriage is dissolved or whether it's like a reset moment, right Wounder in the midst, and I believe God can come in and help us reset. So, being intentional about you, take on how much you do once again, who you let yourself up close to In the past, your circle had to become much smaller during those moments to rally back with the help of the Holy Spirit. Right, it's not always easy.
Speaker 1So for today, I would love if we could just pray for our listeners today and looking at those things that are in our lives and I think this is a great thing to end in prayer on is what are the things that we are holding onto, that are needless, that are causing our struggle to be more profound? What things do we need to reorganize? What things do we need to let go of for a season? Where are we focusing our energies in? We have a profound need to be flexible and realistic about our days. Lisa, before we go, I'm going to have you close this out in prayer, but can you read that Tozer quote that I sent you?
Speaker 2While it looks like everything is out of control, behind scenes there is a God who has not surrendered authority.
Speaker 1So in our out of control moments, we know that God has not surrendered authority over our circumstances.
Speaker 2He's still actively with us. He's working in our behalf. He's on our side. He never sleeps nor slumbers. Sometimes we get the feeling, when we are out of control, that he's left us. God doesn't give up. He keeps pursuing us. I believe his desire is always to draw us closer to him.
Speaker 1He's always in the room. That's the thing we have to realize. God's always in the room and we have to acknowledge him in our space. So, lisa, just close us out in prayer, and that would be great.
Speaker 2Heavenly Father, I just come before you and I thank you, lord, for this time today where we could meet together and have a real conversation about those things in life that create that overwhelmed feeling. I'm grateful that we can share on the airwaves, like this. In the computer we can go places that we can't when we're just sitting in our home, and I'm grateful for the reach that you give. Your message and your comfort point us to you. It points us to you and the fact that you are our source when we get caught up in these moments of overwhelm, these moments of run and gun, not being able to discern what we put our hand to next and in what order we get it done. God, I pray that you would break through those difficult moments for us.
Speaker 2God, I'm asking you for wisdom. I'm asking you for that flexibility that Amber was speaking of, that can help us to rock and roll when we need to. I'm asking you to help us understand realistic expectations, father, not just for ourselves, but for others. We are all flesh and blood. We all have limitations and big moments of giftings, and I ask you that you would help us to not only be kind and gentle with ourselves, but with those around us. You never know what someone else is going through, and I just thank you, father, that, just like this quote from AW Tozer says, you are not willing to surrender In the midst of our chaos. You are right there, you are always in the room, you are always pursuing us and you are just a whisper away. I ask that for those that are going through a really tough time right now, god, that you would make it apparent that you are in the room and that they are not alone, that you are with them and that you have a plan. In Jesus name, I ask these things, amen.
Speaker 1I want to just give a quick shout out to our amazing leading lady, tracy Glass, for anybody who's going through a season of unexpected divorce or separation. She has an amazing new book out called Restored God's promises to beautifully rebuild you after divorce or separation. Get that book Also. Next time we're supposed to have a copy chat, we are going to be on the road again together.
Speaker 2Once again. If you haven't seen what being on the road does to Amber and I, just skip on over to her wall and look at some past goodness, I hope we find some good restrooms we can feature in our oh, maybe so. My goal, instead of scrolling this week, my goal is to find the best roadside attractions between Indiana. That's what I'm going to do. We're going to find some good stuff. And we're going to bring some humor to your life.
Speaker 1And then we're excited because our book, le discover your God grown strategies for success, is up for a second award, golden scroll award. So that's gonna be fun. We're going to be at that award ceremony. We're going to see all our friends, so it's going to be a lot of friend reunion. But until next time, would you please go to wherever you get your podcasts, subscribe to a coffee chat with Amber and Lisa. Thanks for joining us.
Speaker 2We'll see you on the road again.
