"The Girls" Share How We Pray, Why We Fast & Why a "Reset" is Necessary for a New Year

Join "us girls" "around the table" as we dig into various topics to start a new year!  Sis. Diahanna, Sis. Audia, Sis. Anne, Sis. Tammie, Sis. Sandy, Sis. Joyce and Sis. Helen.  

What if prayer felt less like a script and more like a sincere conversation with a Father who knows you well? We pulled up chairs around the table and shared real stories: quiet moments that begin with the Lord’s Prayer, whispered pleas while driving, and late-night talks that end in silence—listening for a nudge, an inclination, or a verse that lands like an answer. Along the way, we named the difference between needs and wants, and how God keeps meeting us where we are.

January brought our first fruits fast, and with it a bold word for the year: intentional. The second word reframed everything: reset, not restart. We talk candidly about fasting what actually costs us—meals, sugar, coffee, TV—and how to fill the space with Scripture, not just willpower. From clean eating and intermittent fasting to swapping crime shows for faith-centered content, the reset moved from the pantry to our patterns. We dove into the Bible Recap, verse mapping, and a Genesis-to-Revelation overview to see the big story and let it shape our small choices.

We also got practical about mental clutter and scattered days. Simple lists, three-hour study deep dives that surprised us, and an honest look at how external mess mirrors internal noise. Intercession became specific: calling our leaders by name, covering our kids and grandkids, and praying peace over our homes. The throughline is intimacy—ending the night with Jesus and greeting the morning in his presence, not as a duty but as desire.

If you’re craving a spiritual reset that doesn’t erase your progress but realigns your heart, this conversation offers a path: start small, be intentional, and make room for God in the minutes you usually give away. Listen, share with a friend, and tell us what you’re resetting this year. Subscribe, leave a review, and help us reach more people who are ready for a deeper, simpler walk with Jesus.  (*Recorded on 1/7/2026)

Ways to Give at www.m3mi.org...Thank you for your seed!  :)

Transcript

Worship Sets The Tone

SPEAKER_01 0:13

Hi y'all, welcome to Simple Sun Filter. I'm your house, sister I'm thank you so much for joining me on this journey today. Can we be a real mum? So let me a turn, let me just smack. Let's open the word and see what Jesus has to say today. Hey, welcome to Simple Sumper Ship Unfiltered. I'm Sister Diana and I have the whole table surrounded today as we come together to just talk about Jesus for a little bit, right? Right. I've got to my left, Sister Tammy. How are you? I'm fine. Sister Ann?

SPEAKER_05 0:57

Hello.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Sister Helen.

SPEAKER_05 0:59

Hi.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

Sister Audia. Hello. And Sister Sandy.

SPEAKER_08 1:03

Hello.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

All right. So we gather around the table and and we were just having a little time of worship and a big CC Wining fan. So every time that we get together, I'm going to play something from CC Winin's and we're going to worship. But the song was You Are Worthy of It All. And I just couldn't think of a better song to just lift up to the Lord to just tell him he is so worthy.

SPEAKER_04 1:30

Amen.

Why Pray And Who We Pray To

SPEAKER_01 1:32

But to you, I want to ask each one of you, and I'm going to I'm going to put everybody on the spot tonight. Because I think it's important when we talk about when we pray, how we pray, why we pray, and who do we pray to, it's different in a lot of ways because people don't pray all the same way. We hope that we're all praying to the same God, right? Jesus. Um, and and if and if we're not, then we'll talk about that at the end of the podcast. But but for us around the table, for you that are listening, that that you're you're going through your daily walk, and and Sister Sandy had just did a prayer and talking about how everybody is struggling and things have just been really hard for everybody. Yet God has provided.

SPEAKER_02 2:23

Yes, he is.

SPEAKER_01 2:24

Right. There have that has there any one of us around the table saying, I've done without the righteous will not be. Not the stuff that you not the stuff that you want. I mean, have you ever if you've done without the things you need?

SPEAKER_03 2:38

No.

SPEAKER_01 2:39

Right. We could all say no. I didn't get all my wants.

SPEAKER_03 2:43

Right.

How Do You Pray Personally

SPEAKER_01 2:44

But I I never he has he has met all my needs, right? And so he has taken care of that. But but what I want to ask a question though. When you have your time in prayer, what does that look like?

SPEAKER_03 3:00

Chaos.

SPEAKER_01 3:01

Yeah, but what does it look like? So Tammy, you want to just tell us how do you when you go into your time of prayer with the Lord, is it just simple silent prayer between you and him, or is it a verbal prayer? Yeah, or or how does that seem, or is it just an unction? Depends on what kind of mood I'm in. Okay, well, say you're in a good mood because it's like because it's like Friday night, you're off of work, and and you know the weekend has come. So let's go start from there.

SPEAKER_07 3:34

Well, obviously, it just depends on if I want to do it out loud or if I don't. So it kind of depends on which way I go with that.

SPEAKER_01 3:43

Yeah, so it's just on your mood and your moment. Yeah. Yeah. So and so when you pray, I know some people think that you gotta do the mini my mo prayers, you know, or you can do just simple prayer, or is is it give somebody instructions. Say there's somebody listening that doesn't know how to pray. Is it just a verbal prayer? Do you read the word prayer? Do you thou shalt not prayer or or what? I'm gonna make everybody else say it too, so just like a simple conversation.

SPEAKER_07 4:30

Mine's pretty much just simple more of listening than I am talking anyway.

SPEAKER_01 4:38

Okay, okay. All right, well, we'll get into that too. All right, sister Ann, what is your when you go to the Lord in prayer, your set aside prayer time? What does it look like?

SPEAKER_05 4:53

You know when you used to talk to your father or your mother, just have a heart to heart with them. Heart to heart. Heart to heart, you know, the barriers are down.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

Like the heart to heart, like when you found out you're pregnant, or the heart to heart.

unknown 5:10

Right?

Heart To Heart Conversations With God

SPEAKER_05 5:11

Or like, you know, or just uh just a emotional one, just uh just just you know just actually talking about your life and and where you want it to go and and what your parents perceive you doing. Yeah. Okay. It kind of looks like that. Yeah. You know, I'm like, what am I doing? And am I doing it wrong? Yeah. What can I do to correct all of that and and you know, go and follow the path, you know, take the narrow road.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 5:57

That's it's just a conversation.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

Yeah, you know, and and the narrow road is a hard conversation.

SPEAKER_05 6:04

Yeah, it is it is. And when you're you sit there and you ask these questions and then you have you're silent and still and you're waiting for an answer, and it's not gonna come immediately. Not always, yeah. No, sometimes and then it's you know, I can be sitting there listening to my music or hear somebody saying something, and I'm like Didn't I just ask that question? Is that the answer?

SPEAKER_03 6:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 6:40

I don't actually hear uh his voice. Yeah, it's just an incredible. It's a we'll call it an inclination, call it, you know, call it deja vu sometimes. But it it's yeah, it's just uh a real heart-to-heart uh talk and and it's sometimes it gets pretty deep, sometimes it looks like a a comedy session. But yeah, it it's that that's the way I do it. I you know, I go in my little room in my room and close my door and turn my music on, turn the lights out. Oh, you get the whole mood. I mean you like setting it all up. Yeah, okay, okay. Turn on my little wax burner. Why gets ambiance? Yeah, you know, I've got to get the the the sort of the incense goal. See, I would probably like fall asleep. I mean, because once I sit down and I told well, the key is not to lay down. That's the point.

SPEAKER_01 7:50

There you go.

SPEAKER_05 7:51

If I lay down, we're done.

SPEAKER_00 7:52

Yeah, well, you don't set the mood, sis.

SPEAKER_05 7:55

You don't set the mood. We're good. And and you know, I'm lucky if I can be in there for ten minutes before somebody knocks on the door.

SPEAKER_01 8:04

I get that.

SPEAKER_05 8:04

Or the dogs go to barking and interrupt me. But yeah, it's it's just a matter of it I don't make a list. Yeah, I just sit there and these things just start coming out and I'm like, oh, why do we have to get up so early to talk to you? Don't you sleep? Of course you don't sleep. You don't sleep. You don't have time as I will say, yeah. You know, I was like, I wake up for some unknown reason, it seems to be every morning at like 3 30. Yeah, we've talked about that, right? Sometimes it's four, and if I'm lucky, it's five.

SPEAKER_01 8:44

But yeah, you have to sleep in if it's five.

SPEAKER_05 8:47

Yeah, yeah. And and I'm like, okay, what's going on? Did I have to be up this early? Right.

SPEAKER_01 8:55

There's always something.

SPEAKER_05 8:56

There's always always something.

SPEAKER_01 8:57

Well, we'll dig into that in a minute.

SPEAKER_05 8:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

All right, Sister Helen, what about you? What is your prayer time with the Lord look like?

SPEAKER_06 9:05

I usually start off with like the Lord's Prayer.

SPEAKER_04 9:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 9:12

Thank you. No, no, I usually start off with the Lord's Prayer.

SPEAKER_01 9:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 9:20

First off, giving thanks.

SPEAKER_01 9:23

Yeah, giving thanks.

SPEAKER_06 9:24

Because he is good.

SPEAKER_01 9:25

He is so good.

SPEAKER_06 9:26

And you know, and then I'll go into thy kingdom come, though we'll be done. And usually that's centered around my household and my kids and and you know what's what's going, you know. I very seldom get past that.

SPEAKER_01 9:45

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 9:46

But and a lot of times if I'm running, it's it's a prayer and a and a goal.

SPEAKER_01 9:51

Yeah.

The Lord’s Prayer And Everyday Moments

SPEAKER_06 9:52

And usually it's just kind of talking to him in my head as I see or feel or think something. It's like, okay, Lord, I need, can you help me with that? You know, it's just kind of, you know, and what do you want me to do here and help me not to to beat my kids and that, you know, so it's like, yeah, you know, it's it may start off formal, but then after that it's kind of just it's just kind of as it comes along, as it as it comes up, as something pops in my head, it's like, okay, need help here or bless them, or you know, touch Yeah, so just share it's on your heart, on your mind.

SPEAKER_01 10:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 10:40

Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_01 10:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 10:41

And of course, in that is putting on your armor and covering everybody and everything I know by the blood of Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 10:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 10:48

And rebuking the enemy out of my house with the sound.

SPEAKER_01 10:53

Yeah, because you got kids that are like young adults. Young adults.

SPEAKER_06 10:56

So they're so they're doing their own thing.

SPEAKER_01 10:59

Yeah, they they're out and about and doing and so you gotta clean the house all the time.

SPEAKER_06 11:04

Between the games and the music and and uh whatever they're wanting, you know, yeah. It's like okay, guys. You know, yeah. So and these boys can get kind of rowdy sometimes, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:14

Of course, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 11:15

So it's like if y'all gonna wrestle, go out and y'all get out of my house, I'm gonna get my broom out to you. I like to see that. That's what Mima would do.

SPEAKER_01 11:24

All right, all right, so Shardia, what's your prayer time look like?

SPEAKER_04 11:29

Well, it's usually in the evening after I get ready for bed. And I'm kind of like Ann. I cannot get into bed and pray. I have to sit beside my bed. Yeah, I tried that, it didn't work. And uh yeah, getting in bed is uh I'll get into thank you, Lord, for waking me up today and giving me another day and I'm out.

SPEAKER_05 12:00

But so it's called soaking. Yeah.

National Intercession And News Overload

SPEAKER_04 12:04

Soaking. Yeah, I have 12 grandchildren. Yeah, and I have six kids. And I I try to talk to God about each one of them. Of my 12 grandchildren, only four are saved. So there's a lot of time spent talking to God about them. And but I want to cover the ones that are saved that are really doing the best they can, you know, to learn about God and encourage them and and for the Holy Spirit to speak to them. And then y'all know I listen way too much to the news and to the prophetic. Praise Jesus. I can I can I can verify that for sure. For sure.

SPEAKER_06 13:00

You gotta be able to pray for your country.

SPEAKER_04 13:03

So I you know, um I pray a lot for my country, I pray a lot for our leaders. Yes, and I'm very name them by name and what they need. And I know I I go through all of it. And you know, and then sometimes I I we just I just sit and talk to him about this is what I heard today that you're gonna do. And I've heard I can pray against it, and Lord, I really don't want you to do that, you know, but you do what's you know, you do you, and I'll pray, you know. But so yeah, it's it's a lot of conversation, more, you know, talking.

Prayer As Friendship And Honesty

SPEAKER_01 13:49

Yeah, yeah. All right, Sister Sandy, you want to share what it what is it that how does your prayer time with the Lord look like?

SPEAKER_08 13:57

Sometimes it's at bedtime as I'm laying down, and other times I will start it off with a question. If something's troubling me, or my animals are getting too far out of control, or something like that. I said, My God, do we have to listen to all of this? And sometimes that's how my prayers start with God is with a calm, just a conversation that is between me and him. Yeah, like he's my best friend. Yeah, I'll talk to him, tell him what's on my mind, and then I sit back and listen to see if he has anything to say to me. But most of the time it that's how I do it. It's not a formality I do. I just pray that in my ramblings he knows my heart.

Needs Versus Wants And God’s Provision

Fasting First Fruits And Being Intentional

SPEAKER_01 15:06

Yeah, and he does, and that and that's a cool thing about God is He does He takes each one of us knowing He created us, right? And and He adjusts Himself to us, doesn't make Him less God because you pray a certain way, you pray a certain way, you pray a certain way. It's the same God and it's the same Father, and that's the thing that we need to see is that He's not just God, He's our Father. And so when we begin to pray to Him as our Father, right? And and I love that several of you said I have a conversation with Him because that is prayer. Prayer is a conversation to say the thing that I've got going on in my life, God, one, I want to I want to praise you and exalt you because you're the most high and you're holy and hallowed be your name. That's how the Lord prayer starts, right? Right, right. You're holy, you're awesome, you're magnificent, and you and and even if He didn't do anything for you that day, He woke you up and put breath in your lungs and strength in your body to get up right because I don't want to. My flesh does not want to move. I'm gonna tell you, when this cold front starts coming in, we we're fine, we've been having heat, a heat wave in and it's January. Uh we had heat wave at Christmas, and it's heat wave now in January, but a cold front is coming, and I could feel it today because my bones like where I was in a vice. And I was like the other day, Sister Audi goes, uh, what's wrong? I said, I can't move. Because the weather had changed. I said, and my body hurts when the it just it's like in a vice, and it's hard to move. And but I but I'm thankful that I have breath to move, to get up and move. And I and I tell the Lord on those days when it's hard, yeah, I need your strength. I need extra strength, right? I don't want to have to go and pop some pill to have it. I want you to give me your strength in my body to raise me up and do the things I gotta do. Can't run this whole ministry and be and be laying in bed all the time. If I went through what I wanted to do, what my flesh wanted to do, I'd be sitting in my recliner on a heating pad watching Netflix. I promise you, that would be the goal. But I love that each one of you have that personal time set aside. Now, we talked about because it's the first of the year, we always, as a ministry and hoe, everybody around this table, we do the first fruits fast for January, right? Now, we don't set a fast that everybody's gotta do this fast or that fast or whatever. Just do a fast that is a sacrificial fast to you, right? Right now, I'm a big girl and I I love to eat, and so for me to say, Lord, you know, I'll what do you want me to do? What do you want me to sacrifice in this? And the Lord was adamant when we all got together New Year's Eve, because we were all together, that we are to to sacrifice something, you know, that's gonna hurt, right? What's gonna hurt you to go without this month, right? And so the Lord, the one of the words the Lord gave was to be intentional about your fasting, to be intentional in this month of January, but not just January, but to make it for this year for 2026, to be intentional about what God's calling you to do. And so anybody want to say what they're fasting? Do you want to share?

SPEAKER_06 18:53

I fast one to two meals a day.

What We’re Fasting And Why It Hurts

SPEAKER_01 18:56

Yep, you're you're fasting one or two meals a day, and you're doing like a meal replacement vitamins and junk, so I'm getting nutrients.

SPEAKER_05 19:06

What else? What are you fasting?

SPEAKER_01 19:08

I'm fasting my morning coffee, and y'all know how I like my coffee. The stomps and Starbucks just went and and soda, and sod soda. Yeah, that was the first time. What about you, Tammy? What's your fast this year?

SPEAKER_07 19:27

Besides at work, it's TV.

SPEAKER_01 19:29

Yeah, TV. Yeah. She she works as a she's a caregiver, so she has to be giving care to someone who's watching TV, and that's out of your control. So the Lord knows that. And but she's she's giving that up on the other time. What about you, Sandy?

SPEAKER_08 19:48

I've given up all my normal cop shows. Oh, there you go. That's wrong. I've given up all my crime shows and What I'm watching is I said it has to have some religious spark or be of religious content. So I'm watching Touched by an Angel. I said when I run out of episodes for that, I'll watch Highway to Heaven. There you go. And then I'll go on the history channel and pick up some story of famous Bible biblical people.

SPEAKER_05 20:31

Yeah, yeah. The Angel Channel has a lot of good shows on it. You can always replay the chosen.

SPEAKER_08 20:40

Oh yeah, that's something we've talked about.

SPEAKER_01 20:43

Yeah. All right. Audio, what about you? What's what have you fasted this year? Well, I have uh decided to go back on more of my just turn it.

Health Resets And Sugar Caffeine Battles

SPEAKER_04 20:56

Um two years ago I was struck with neuropathy and it was very painful and very debilitating. And I went to doctors who told me there was no cure. I found a holistic doctor who helped me and he put me on an eating plan of vegetables, fish, chicken, meat, but you know, no fried foods, no things like that. So I've pretty much gone back to that. The holidays I was I was not good. And I could feel some little tingles, especially in my right foot, where I had it before the most. And I was like, uh-uh, you are not coming back. So my whole plan was just to eat healthy, a lot of salads, a lot of chicken, uh, a lot of fish, and no sweets. That was the main thing was no sweets, no sugar. They didn't make me give up my morning coffee, thank you, Jesus. But I'm limited to one cup. So it's you know, but a lot of water. Yeah, a lot of water. You know, it hadn't been that bad. No, it hasn't been that bad, but it showed me it went if from if nothing else, it showed me how after that first year I started kind of slipping back into some old eating habits that I I can't do.

SPEAKER_01 22:45

Yeah, which is real easy.

Reset Not Restart: Renewing From Within

SPEAKER_04 22:47

Number one, I've given away all my clothes, which is what you're supposed to do, you know, so you don't go back. Yeah. And so I have to eat healthy. I have to. Yeah. So for me, that's that's my my fast is my promise to spend the rest of my life eating healthy.

SPEAKER_01 23:09

Yeah, yeah, because when we were talking about doing doing a fast, and and we always we we set aside this time, we talk about what we're gonna do. And and so we did I did a three-day full fast with just water because it's supposed to reset you. And my head hurt, like I thought my head was gonna blow out of my head because I I didn't have any coffee, no sodas, I mean nothing but water for three days. And so then we ate, we were finally able to eat something. What did we eat? It was our first day.

SPEAKER_04 23:43

We had a salad with boiled eggs and chicken.

Food, Comfort, And Changing Habits

SPEAKER_01 23:47

It was really good, and just a salad, and and so anyway, and we've had a lot of salad since then, but we had like all the veggies to it, like you know, cucumbers and radishes, olives, and it's so good. Yeah, so it's been really good, and then we put like a different meat, a chicken or a beef or something like that. And so, but for me, it wasn't about just doing a fast. Because the second word that the Lord gave me was reset. And so when I asked the Lord, well, what do you mean by reset? Because when you when you say reset, your mind automatically says restart. And so you think, oh no, I gotta go back to go and start all over again. No, it and the Lord said, No, no, no, no, no, no, you don't go back to go. You're you're you don't have to restart. I'm resetting you from the inside out. I'm not you don't have to restart because I was panicking going, all of these two and a half years that we've been going, you're talking about we gotta go back to go. And he was like, No, no, no, no, no. It's not monopoly, you know. That's exactly what he said. This isn't monopoly. You didn't do anything wrong. You don't have to, you know, don't pass, you know, don't pass go, don't collect$200. You're not going back to Lake Charles and all that, like we talked about on the boardwalk, you know. I don't want to go to the cheap property. I'm ready to get over to the park place, you know, and and all that. So he was like, no, no, no, not not restart, reset. Because a lot of us, the way that we eat and the way we eat incorrectly is because we were raised like that. And and be honest, our you know, not all of us had a lot of money when we were growing up and we ate what was there to eat.

SPEAKER_03 25:35

Right.

SPEAKER_01 25:35

You know, we didn't, you know, we didn't right. I mean, you whatever you got. I mean, there was times where we went up to the minyards, minions, and and had like got the commodity cheese, which made the best grilled cheese sandwiches, right? I mean, you got peanut butter, commodity cheese, you got, you know, because times were hard. I mean, this isn't the only time that that we've gone through some hard times, right? I mean, we there's been hard times before. Do y'all remember when there was gas lines?

SPEAKER_04 26:06

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:07

And you had to line up and get gas?

SPEAKER_04 26:09

Some of them even born here.

SPEAKER_01 26:11

Yeah, yes, that's my point, is is we were meant we and and we're not even, you know, I mean, Audia and and are are a little a little bit older than us, but they can probably go a little further back and say, but I just as a kid, you know, from the from you know, 69 I was born, but I remember in the 70s where there was the gas war, and we could only go up and get gas on odd and even days based on it depending on your registration to have on your license plate.

SPEAKER_04 26:43

And they would check your fuel gauge. Yeah, if you weren't half a tank or lower, you couldn't get it. You couldn't get gas.

SPEAKER_01 26:51

You had to be below a half a tank, and it had to be and you had an odd or even day that you could go and and it went by your license plate number.

SPEAKER_04 27:01

And so get up at 4 a.m. and go get in the gas.

Intermittent Fasting And Daily Rhythms

SPEAKER_01 27:04

And we stood in line, and you we sit in line, and it was summer. Yeah, it was, it was hot, and you couldn't run your car because you're conserving gas. Oh yeah, I remember that. We couldn't, we didn't have, you know, we went back to school, they didn't have no AC because they were conserving everything. No Christmas lights, no Christmas lights that year. Horrible. And so my point is, is there's been times, there's always seasons of that where as a nation and and whole, we go through hard times. And so we right we went through the last administration and and things just got out of hand spending and and you know, just to buy eggs was you know, five or six dollars for you know a dozen. We and there's just crazy, crazy amounts. Now it's starting to regulate and go back down a little bit. Gas is good right now. We got a surplus of gas now. And we got that whole Venezuelan thing just happened, and so we're supposed to get 30 to 50 million barrels from them. So I mean, you know, so we're gonna gas is gonna be cheap for a little while, and so praise God for that. We do lift up Venezuela, we do lift up the people of Venezuela, they've been rejoicing, they're dancing in the streets, they're extremely happy. The only people that are not happy are our own people over here that have nothing to do with it. So it's like, I don't know, but we're not talking about that. But but the point was is that we're resetting and and to do that, and I was like, Lord, what does that look like? Because I want to honor what you're saying, and he said, Change the way you think about food because food has always been a comfort for you, it is right, yeah. When you're depressed, what do you do? Refrigerator, get something to eat, or get something to eat. If you get bored, if you get bored, yeah. You what's the first thing you do?

SPEAKER_05 29:00

Well, we don't have any snacks around our house except for apples, oranges, and bananas.

SPEAKER_01 29:05

Yeah, see, that's but that's what you do, and that's what audio knows. We said we gotta let's clean out some of this stuff so we don't have the temptation of it, you know. The hard thing is that the kids are here sometimes, and so we have angry, yeah. No, no, no, it doesn't work like that. So, you know, so the we're fasting, you know, over the weekend. I was still on the three-day, and so the kids are like, Green, we want to go go see SpongeBob in the movie. Okay, y'all know what's one of my favorite things at the movie. That's one of my favorite things.

SPEAKER_04 29:40

So, what did I buy today?

SPEAKER_01 29:41

So she found some popcorn that she can make. She makes it on the stove, and then it's no no-carb movie theater popcorn oil. It has a butter flavor, no carbon flow movie theater butter popcorn flavor.

SPEAKER_00 29:56

Yeah, I'm so excited about it.

SPEAKER_01 29:59

So it comes in a jar about like this, it's already got the butter in it.

SPEAKER_05 30:06

Long time ago. I'm thinking I'm going back to it. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:10

I mean, you still had to, you know, watch how much popcorn you eat, which y'all know we gotta get that refill when we go.

SPEAKER_06 30:18

Yeah, I get to have popcorn.

SPEAKER_01 30:19

Yeah, so uh so I didn't have the popcorn, and then Olivia was like, I need to go to Canes, and I was like, Oh my Lord. And and I'm not a big Canes fan, but them big old fat chicken fingers and fries and all that, and that toast, that's the thing, right? I was like, Y'all need her to meet this, y'all need her to be fast, you know. So, but anyway, we made it. Um, but the mindset is eat clean, you know, no processed, we're not being processed, we're not. I mean, we've ate a lot of salad, but it's been really good. And and so to reset, to get rid of the sugar, I haven't had coffee, uh, have not had soda, uh, haven't even had anything carbonated.

SPEAKER_05 31:06

We're just gonna argue with each other.

SPEAKER_01 31:07

Yeah, no, but don't you feel I mean, I feel better drinking the water and stuff, and I know that that's the thing that's good for me. Once I got past that first three days, I'm telling you, caffeine got out of it. I said my head's about to fall off, you know. And but it was that last day I didn't have any problems the first couple of days, but then I got mad. I got mad. Emotions kicked in. No, I got mad because I don't want anything in my body that has that much control.

SPEAKER_05 31:37

Oh yeah, yeah. Caffeine has a lot of control.

Bible Studies And The Story Of Scripture

SPEAKER_01 31:40

I know, it but it made me mad that it did. Yeah. And I was like mine is sugar. Then I was like, no, you're really not gonna get it. Yeah. Because I was like, after the third day, I thought, well, maybe I can just have a cup of coffee if I can find a creamer or something that won't, you know, take you out of intermittent fasting. Because there is some like I think if you do heavy whipping cream, yeah, you can do that with your coffee and it won't take you out of intermittent fasting.

SPEAKER_05 32:07

So half and half.

SPEAKER_01 32:09

Yeah. Do that in your keto, keto will let you do, I think. I'm not doing keto, but keto, which you know is the least low carb thing they tell you to do, half and half, or heavy whipping cream in in in your coffee. So and I thought, well, okay, I'll do that because then it won't be, you know, it won't mess up the intermittent fasting because we fast till after noon in the morning. And so we only really eat between noon and six. We don't eat after six o'clock, and so we have that little window there, and in that we're making good choices. I'm pretty proud of us, you know. I'm pretty proud of us. Yeah, because it's tempting, you know, because my old mindset is you know, when things are going on and and there's some stress involved, you know, that they go grab something, you know, to eat.

SPEAKER_04 33:02

So y'all know when I get stressed, when I get upset, what do I do? I go in here and bake. Yeah. And I bake.

SPEAKER_01 33:09

And then she's like, come taste this, you know. At Christmas, she was like, I mean, she baked for two weeks and she's like, Come taste this. Come, oh here, taste this, here, taste this. Oh, Lord. I'm like, ah, so I was in need of a detoxin.

SPEAKER_04 33:28

And then I called her and I said, There better not be one thing sweet left in that house. I can't take it.

SPEAKER_01 33:35

So Helen come over and I said, You need to take some of this chocolate. Come take this. Richard came over. Here's you a two. The girls came over, New Year's, here taking everything and taking yeah. So anyway, so so the thing is to be intentional about what we do for the Lord, not just this month, but be intentional for what we're doing in the past.

SPEAKER_06 34:00

When I'm drinking my drink, yeah, to be reading, yeah, to be studying, to be listening, to be talking to him and get off of whatever distraction it is that I'm usually on. And that, you know, I'll be halfway through my dream, going, oh, oh, stop, stop, you know, stop doing whatever.

SPEAKER_01 34:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 34:21

Come here and you know, sit down with me for a minute. Yeah. You know, and it and it really is a conscious decision. It is. It's intentional.

SPEAKER_01 34:31

You have to really be intentional about your time with the Lord. Now, I want to ask you this. Not only are we like watching what we're, you know, we're doing our fasting food-wise, we're fasting our TV, we're fasting, you know, whatever that we're doing. What is it that what are you doing as a substitution for that? Remember, we talked about when you fast something, it's to give that time to the Lord. If you're doing that, if you're switching it out, what does that look like for you?

SPEAKER_06 35:07

My TV, I was like her. I watched the crime shows. And now it's like, okay, you can watch a Christian movie, or YouTube has the Bibles up the box.

SPEAKER_01 35:18

But have you substituted any of your time, your food time to his time?

SPEAKER_08 35:26

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 35:26

Yeah, you find that, Sandy?

Saul, Kings, And Learning Patterns

SPEAKER_08 35:29

Yes, I do. I was actually surprised at ma'am. Got up, had my cup of coffee, and went straight to the Bible and was doing my Bible study program and started Bible mapping. And before I knew it, like three hours had gone by. So my time with him has greatly increased.

SPEAKER_01 35:59

Yeah, that's the point. That's the retrain our mind, retrain our thoughts to go to spend more time with the Lord, right? What about you, Ann?

SPEAKER_05 36:09

Me?

SPEAKER_01 36:12

You're studious anyway.

SPEAKER_05 36:14

I drink water.

unknown 36:15

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 36:17

But yeah, when I'm not working and I've I'm studying. Yeah. Yeah, I'm taking the taking the scripture and I'm gonna get you a lava lamp now that you said all that.

SPEAKER_00 36:30

I'm gonna get you a lava lamp to just put it with a little romance. I mean we're supposed to be intimate with Jesus, but you know.

Practical Substitutions During A Fast

SPEAKER_05 37:02

Yeah, uh-huh. That's a good thing. But it's a good thing. It is. I mean, because you know, well, Brother Ernie has his Thursday night study Bible study. We're on John, which is is really interesting.

SPEAKER_01 37:17

Yeah, so if you're interested, I'm gonna interject, if you're interested in another Bible study, Brother Ernie just started doing the book of John. You can find him on Facebook under John Ernie Perez. And and he and he posted on his his wall there. So I highly recommend that. And and we'll be videoing it and doing a podcast with that too.

SPEAKER_05 37:39

Seven o'clock.

SPEAKER_01 37:40

Seven o'clock.

SPEAKER_05 37:41

Central time.

SPEAKER_01 37:42

Central time on Thursday nights, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 37:44

So and then I of course I have the Bible recap that I do.

SPEAKER_01 37:51

We started the Bible recap as well.

Sleep, Devotionals, And Direction

SPEAKER_05 37:54

Yeah, okay. And then I'm also doing another class. Boy, I just got them all. It's a 13-week uh course or class, and it's titled uh The Story of Scripture. So it's through Dallas Seminary and they start uh with Genesis and from Genesis to Revelation, yeah, and it's just how this story just keeps continuing on. Yeah. And you see where God created, he is the creator, he's a great creator. And the first three chapters are great, and then all of a sudden this serpent or Satan appears and he throws the whole thing into a turmoil.

SPEAKER_00 38:53

Yeah.

What God Wants To Reset In Us

SPEAKER_05 38:54

He he's he brings out the sinful nature in the human, yeah, in the flesh. Yeah. And then you know, you're like, oh, yeah, I can see that. And of course after that, you know, I mean I can go on and on, but yeah, but we go it goes through every book. Yeah. Every book, you know, it's like like I did with y'all the other night last week, I think it was where we did the five twelve, five, five, twelve. Yeah, okay. Which is pretty cool when you think about it. Because I'm you know, I'm you taught us that part too, you know, that the first five are the book of or the Torah or the law of Moses and it's the Pentateuch. Okay. Then you have your history uh books. You know Joshua Judges Ruth uh and so on. There's twelve of them, and then you have your five. Major prophets, your five minor prophets, and then you've got well, I think I missed something in there. Oh, yeah, five poetry, five major and twelve minor prophets. And it's like and he asks this question, he says what makes them minor. And I was like, Well, anyone knows that that's because there's not that much in there. But yeah, and you know, and then we've we've it's discussed Saul, yeah, how he was not God's choice, he was the people's choice. Yeah. And look how that turned out.

SPEAKER_01 40:38

Look how that turned out. So yeah. So because the same was that he didn't even want he didn't even want them to have a king, but they wanted a king.

SPEAKER_05 40:46

Yeah, they wanted to be like the other nations. Yeah. Well, you know what happens when you want to be like somebody else. Right. I mean, even after Samuel is telling them he's gonna take your cows, he's gonna take your fields, he's gonna take your daughters, he's gonna take just take, take, take.

SPEAKER_01 41:07

That whole slavery mentality that they still had. So we can get into that another time. Yeah, yeah. But anyway, but but substituting when you're fasting, it's to substitute your time also for the Lord. And so you've gotten into your Bible studies and things like that. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_05 41:23

Yeah, I just tell me what about thinking about food.

SPEAKER_01 41:26

When you're when your time of fasting, what are you fasting this year and and what does that look like for you?

Priorities, ADHD Brains, And Lists

SPEAKER_07 41:34

My time is pretty much pretty much when I get home, I usually don't even look at a TV. It's in the word, I literally go to the bedroom, get my Bible out, get the tablet out, and I found something online, it's a 31-day thing in January. Cause there's more a page for each month. Yeah. That I'm going literally going through and writing the scriptures out and then going back and finding the references to that one and writing those out.

SPEAKER_05 42:16

Yeah, and when you do that, don't you find it where it sends you back? Yeah, is is what happened.

SPEAKER_01 42:24

Yeah. So having a daily devotional that works for you? Is that does that work for you?

SPEAKER_07 42:32

Honestly, right now for the few days I've been doing it, yes, it's actually been working. I think that's all honestly been sleeping a lot better.

SPEAKER_01 42:41

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And and that's the point. Having some direction and and something to look forward to every day, whether it's five or ten minutes or 15 minutes or whatever it is, it's just that time set aside for the Lord and being intentional about making that time.

SPEAKER_03 43:01

Yeah.

Clearing Mental And Home Clutter

SPEAKER_01 43:01

Right. And so when we're when we're talking about this and doing a reset, what would you say, each one of you, whoever wants to get to the mic, to say, I I really want, I really feel like the Lord's leading me to reset this one thing. What would be the thing that you feel like the Lord is resetting that wants to reset in you? And it it may not be just January that it gets worked on, it could be the whole year that it takes to do, but what is the one thing that he wants to reset in you that you're gonna allow him to do and submit to? Because understand the gentlemaness of it. He'll he'll he'll tell you, I think you need to do this, this, this, and you can say, That's a good idea, but I I really don't, you know, I don't feel like that's what I'm gonna do. And you don't have to do it. And he's not ever gonna come back and pressure you again and say, You need to do this. He's gonna say, I really would like for you to do this, and you'll say yes or no. I mean, because he's not a dictator. You know that that's the thing. God isn't a dictator. So anybody want to share what they feel like the Lord wants to reset in their life?

SPEAKER_04 44:18

The hardest thing for me is prioritizing my time. Yeah. Because I I have a very scattered mind. And I start one thing and then I go and do something else, and then I forget that I was doing this first thing. And it if then if it didn't drive y'all crazy that I'm that way, think how crazy it makes me. You know. And one thing he's I've said is I wanna be, one of the things he told me this year was to be intentional.

SPEAKER_00 44:56

Yeah.

Bible Mapping Calms The Mind

SPEAKER_04 44:57

Prioritize prioritize, even if it means that you sit down and you say, Okay, this morning I'm gonna do this, and then I'm gonna do this, and then I'm gonna do this, and you stay and you check it off, and you check it off. I finish this, I finish this. And there's there's still some things I'm not I haven't gotten to, but I am starting to be intentional in what I do with my day. And it's hard for a for this brain. Yeah, yeah.

Reading The Bible In Six Months

SPEAKER_01 45:32

You're very what people would call ADHD. So like the squirrel runs across 30, every 15 minutes, it's like, I'm like, what are you doing? You were we were having a conversation the other day, and then all of a sudden she's where are you going? She said, Oh yeah, I'm going over here. I was like, we were just talking. And then she's like, When I gotta go over here and do the I was like, okay. Well, when you get through, when you come back over here, it's really hard to be intentional with your time, right? With your time. So, Sandy, what were you gonna add in there?

SPEAKER_08 46:15

He's telling me to get rid of the clutter. Oh, not only in my head, wow, but in my home.

SPEAKER_01 46:26

Oh, she said so. You said not only in my what?

SPEAKER_08 46:30

Mind.

SPEAKER_01 46:30

Your mind. Yeah, the clutter in your mind.

SPEAKER_08 46:35

Because in some ways, my mind goes back and forth. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like Audio was describing. Yeah. Uh he said calm that down, calm it down, calm it down, and get rid of the stuff that is clutter. Yeah. If it's cluttering your mind, get rid of it.

SPEAKER_01 47:00

Get rid of it.

SPEAKER_08 47:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:03

See, I think you have a pastor that probably told you the same thing not too long ago. Yeah, I think I uh that might have been something said. No, because isn't it a direct, yeah, a direct correlation? When you when you're when your mind is scattered and you're so anxious and you're so upset all the time, everything else reflects that. Right? You're not gonna be all that you can be when you're when you've got so much all the time just going around, going around, going around. Make your to-do list and do what you can every day. Yeah, and don't make it an idol.

SPEAKER_08 47:46

Do your best, do your best, and God'll do the rest. Since I've started doing that, I'm much calmer. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 47:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 47:58

Right? She agrees.

The Bible Recap: How It Works

SPEAKER_01 47:59

All right, yeah. Because that's the thing, is that some things are out of your control.

SPEAKER_06 48:09

Yeah. Well, didn't you ask him how to how you were gonna calm your mind?

SPEAKER_08 48:14

The calming my mind part came easily. Really? Yeah. Yes. When I started, when I made the commitment to do the Bible recap and do Bible mapping. I've been doing the Bible mapping on the verses of the pages that Tammy found.

SPEAKER_01 48:36

See, that I think my Bible mapping is perfect for you because you're a very studious person. So that would be perfect for you. And it has been.

SPEAKER_08 48:47

Yes, it has.

SPEAKER_01 48:48

Awesome. Awesome. Anybody else want to share what they're doing in their time now? We're doing Bible recap too, but we've made the commitment that we're going to read through the whole Bible before six months. And so we're doing in the morning, we've been up at five o'clock. We have. We have. Yeah, but the squirrel, listen, the squirrel got out this morning.

SPEAKER_00 49:15

Let me just tell you. Let me just tell you.

SPEAKER_01 49:18

We had somebody coming to do podcasts today. So I said, okay, I have a plan. My plan was I'm gonna get up, get my water, come over, sit down, we'll do our Bible recap. Then I'm gonna have a you know, nice hot shower, and then we'll get ready, and people are gonna come, and I got some other things I gotta take care of before that. So that was my plan. And I was just like at five o'clock, because I'm an early person. It's a I love the early morning. So I'm up and just okay, Jesus is in the room, and I mean it was the whole thing. I come out and she's taking out the trash.

SPEAKER_00 49:55

And I said, What are you doing?

SPEAKER_01 49:58

And she's like, I gotta get this trash out. I said, It's five o'clock. They're not coming yet. Well, I got all this. I was like, We'll get it.

SPEAKER_02 50:08

We'll get it.

SPEAKER_01 50:10

So it kind of got sidetracked for a little bit. We did get the trash to the curb at five o'clock. There's a guy that crossed the street and he leaves, and his muffler is like really loud when he starts his truck. And so it's usually around 5 30 when he leaves. And he was coming out as I'm in my nottle.

SPEAKER_04 50:34

He dismissed until I took my shower.

Song Of Songs And Deeper Love

SPEAKER_01 50:38

Because um, do y'all need some help? I don't think we got it in my nottle. He's probably thinking, what are these out here get their trash at five o'clock in the morning? So anyway, but we did get the trash done that got picked up and thank you, Jesus. And uh, we had really good podcast today with uh brother Ernie on circumcision. So if you haven't heard that, go back and listen to the circumcision.

SPEAKER_04 51:07

Well, ladies, uh yes, say please. Yeah, fascinating. It is, it is like almost to a point like today, she was like, Can we you want to do a couple more? I'm like, Yes. And then it was like, oh, we're stopping.

SPEAKER_01 51:23

Yeah, so listen, we have we were at 16 chapters, and so we were like, okay, we gotta stop because I got the rest of the, you know, I got other things I gotta do, and gotta get we all both gotta get a shower, all this stuff going on. And so when you do that Bible recap, I highly recommend it. You can download the app or you can go to the or you can go to the Bible app and it and you can select Bible recap in there with your Tar League cobble.

SPEAKER_05 51:50

It's by you version, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:52

Tar a Tar League cobble is the one we'll set it up for you, Helen. But what it does is that it gives you, she does a whole thing on there. Helen, listen to this. She does a whole thing on this. And on her daily on her daily thing, she does a devotional, she does the study, she gives you the the word that and you can do audible or you can read it, and then she'll talk about it afterwards, and that's one day. So every day she has a certain amount of chapters, usually about three chapters, and and then you she'll do the devotional for it, and then she talks about it afterwards, and then the day's clear, and then the next day when you pull up your app, it goes to day two, day three, day four, whatever. And so it's a really good program. And I heard about it several years ago from my friend Tracy. I'm gonna give her a little plug because she listens. And she and I went to out to I think Frisco or something like that, and Tarly was out there promoting the Bible recap, and her guest for the year was Candace Cameron Baret. And y'all know how much I love her. And so they did a live podcast about the Bible recap. And so it was really fascinating. And so Tracy had given me the Bible, the the whole thing with it, the book, everything to do it. And so we started it, and of course, I flaked off because then we took over, you know, left the ministry and started doing all this stuff, and so everything just changed quickly, and I didn't go back to it. And so when we were talking about this year, I said, we heard two other people talk about the Bible recap, and I said, Let's go to the Bible recap. And so we're on that as well. And I highly recommend that you do the Bible recap. So, real quick, we gotta wrap up.

SPEAKER_06 53:44

God started me off in the Song of Solomon with um receiving a deeper love and me saying, I'm not perfect, I messed up. Yeah, I I'm a simple person. My parents or my family threw me out in the venue.

SPEAKER_01 54:01

We need to do a whole podcast with just you and your story, seriously, because amazing strengthen me.

SPEAKER_06 54:10

Yeah, because I fell for a long time. But you never forsook me. No, you knew where I was. Yeah, you still had your hands up.

Prayer As Intimacy With The Groom

Closing Blessing And Mantra

SPEAKER_01 54:19

If you want if you want to read a love story, go to the Song of Songs or Song of Solomon. It depends on how your Bible's written, but it's Song of Songs or Song of Solomon, it's a beautiful love story there. And it's intimate, it's you and Jesus. Here's the thing, let's wrap this up with this. Prayer is intimate. Yeah, prayer is to draw you into an intimate conversation, but into an intimate time. Yeah, with your with your with your groom. Yeah, he does. He does, he does, and that and that that time right there, that time right there, that's what he wants. That's what he waits all day long for you to finish all of your agenda to get to him before you lay your head down. He wants to be the one that you close your day with, and he wants to be the one you open your eyes to. Yes, and that's what's so powerful about it. It's like we are pursuing God, but he so wants to be pursued. Yeah, he wants that. He wants, he wants his bride. He wants his bride, he wants that intimate time. Well, thank you guys for being around the table. Thank you so much for sharing about what's going on. Time goes fast, we're already almost at an hour. Wow, and so uh I'm wrapping you up because I'm like, we gotta get off here. So I do appreciate you. Thank you, Tammy, and Helen, Audia, Sandy. Thank you all, and thank you all for listening. We just asked you to share, like everything for this, and and and just support us. And we thank you for praying for us. Pray for M3 Ministries and and all the ministries that we we work for and to try to cover. And we do love you all so much. And so as we end the program, we always say the same thing, right? Right, y'all know what it is the mantra to go show some love, show some compassion, give mercy, and go be Jesus today.

Support, Feedback, And Giving

unknown 56:28

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 56:29

Hey SDU family, if you have enjoyed this podcast today, would you please like, follow, and share our podcast link? And we would love to hear your feedback and your podcast topic suggestions. To do that, simply go to our website at www.m3mi.org, scroll to the more tab, and select contact us. Also, if STU has been a blessing to you, you can also go to our website and select sow a seed. There are several ways that you can give, whether it's Zel, Venmo, Cash App, or if there's an address to send a check or money order. All your gifts are tax deductible, and we thank you so much for sowing your seed with us. I want you to remember this. The last person once said that a person has given you their time, they have given you their most precious gift because they can never ever get it back. Thank you for sharing this day with me. We love you, we'll see you soon.