Living Simply, Ep. 13

Is is possible to live simply in 2026? We have found some practical rhythm's to help make prayer room life doable.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Hey guys, welcome to the Laughing Your Prayer Room Podcast, where we discuss what it looks like to grow in God through prayer, worship, and life in the context of a prayer room. My name is Trista LaSarde, and today we are talking about simple devotion or living simply in the midst of a crazy chaotic busy world.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

My name is Janie Myers, and in talking about living simply, we need to recognize that there is a pandemic almost of being overly busy and not being attributed to success or just normal lives. Like of course, you have to do all of these things to have success or to be a normal American with children, whatever. And how we can redefine what life is supposed to look like and look like.

SPEAKER_00 0:52

Right. We don't have to go by the dictates of the culture or by our peers. I want to look at what the Bible says about how to live. And for me and my season, for us in the context of a prayer room, a high priority for us is to interact with him in that room because my goal is different than it used to be. So now I am defining things very differently. So I know for me, that's where it started to separate from it's normal to be this busy. I have to do all of this. And the Lord talking to me about giving me wisdom and helping me edit my schedule and my world, how he wanted it to look. And for me, I was really desiring to hear his voice more, to feel him more, to have more understanding of his word, time with him. Um, and if that's a goal, he's gonna help me do that because our family is gonna always be our top earthly priority. Um, and it doesn't mean that you don't do all of those responsibilities. But what I have found is I can shift how I do them and still be accomplishing them and the way he's designed me to do it, but I don't have to do them like the world tells me to do them. That's what I found.

SPEAKER_01 2:18

Right. I have a family, five kids, grandkids. I mean, we have all the things because I imagine people would look in and say, well, of course they can do that. And then discount themselves because they feel like it's impossible. But I guess the point of today is it it is possible. It requires saying no to things, but it is possible to live simply in America with kids, with a job, and still have time for the program.

SPEAKER_00 2:49

Because I find a lot of external activities bring with it internal traffic, like the the to-do list, the where do I have to go next, what do I need? Do my kids have all their stuff? And some of those things you do have to do. But whenever you live a life that is one thing, next thing, next thing, next thing, next thing, next day, when you keep doing that as a pattern, um, that emotional traffic is constant because you have to mentally keep up with what you're doing. And as a mom, as a parent, you're having to plan ahead for your kids. What do they need? What's washed tonight? What needs to be packed tomorrow? Like, oh, we have this in two weeks. I need to order this online to have this. Like it's just constant stuff, which is life, but if I can edit that down, then that diminishes the amount of emotional traffic that is constantly going. Because there's anxiety, like there's just a lot that comes with it. And so there are some things that we do need to do, and there's a lot of things we don't. And as an American in 2026, in our culture, it is just a given. You're supposed to do it all, and you're supposed to be at everything, and you're supposed to do everything your kids want you to do and go everywhere. And it's kind of like a reevaluating thing, is what I've come into. Like, I'm not gonna go by what everybody else says anymore. I'm gonna come before the Lord with this and talk to him about what my schedule is supposed to look like, about what my family is supposed to look like. And in different seasons, like we're in different seasons, you know, my kids are grown. Uh, I wish I would have had some of this in my mind and heart when my kids were younger. Um, and I did do a little bit, I didn't quite do the right race that I could have with them. I reined it in a little bit, but I wish I'd have had this information, then I'd have done it differently. But I find you said it, people think, oh, your schedule looks like this. You don't have this, whatever it is. So that's why you get to do whatever. It could be the program, it could be anything else. Uh, but I have found going through many seasons now at my age, you always think when this is off my plate, then. When I have time for this, then. And I have found in every season, when that schedule shifts, or when you think something's about to open up and it's just gonna be what you thought it easy, the schedule immediately fills with other things, with a new routine that then takes over if you don't guard it and do it purposefully. I find in every season there's always more busyness to come in. You never get to the place where like, oh now it's just nothing but what I really want to do. Busyness comes in at every season.

SPEAKER_01 5:47

No, you in your life, I mean, there's things everybody has to do, but we all fit in to our schedule the things we want to do. Everyone does. Now, it may be different amounts of time or levels, but we all do prioritize what is important, and that's sometimes a hard pill to swallow because you do make time for what you value, you do, you figure it out. We all do that, and so the truth is you can have as much goddess you want to have. Um, and again, the time will be different. I mean, if you're working 40 hours, that that is a different schedule, of course. But we all have pockets of time that we waste throughout the day that can be used for something else if if we so desire.

SPEAKER_00 6:37

And I also find that living overly busy, it acts as a barrier spiritually. Like even when you go into your times with the Lord, if if you run on a lot of chaotic traffic, emotional mental traffic, that goes in with you into your time with the Lord. Like it affects that too. It's not like, okay, I'm gonna take that off and now this. Like, no, your mind's wired that way now. You're still thinking of what you have to go to next and what you got to go to tomorrow, what the kids need, and what this needs to be done. Oh, I forgot to do this. Like, that's constantly there if that's how you live. So it really is like a rewiring to get out of that, and you don't realize how much you do it until you start to kind of detox a little bit, and the smallest amounts is when I started to see it more, and then I declutter a little more and I'd see it more. The further you get out of it, the entanglement, the more you pull up out of just the chaotic life, the more you see, oh, that's what that is. Oh, that's what that is. I don't have to do this, I don't have to do that. It it begins to open up to you the more you do it.

SPEAKER_01 7:49

Think of Jesus talking to Martha and saying, you know, you're busy and distracted by many things, but there is only one thing needed. And I mean, Jesus, it's not like only for Martha one thing was needed. No, Jesus' words are true for everybody. There's one thing that is needed, and that is the simple life. It's focusing on that one thing.

SPEAKER_00 8:14

Uh help me because I want to give them the whole hearted attention. And it doesn't mean it's perfect and unbroken, but it means it's my best. And I can't bring my best if my best is being stolen by everything else. Then I'm bringing him crumbs, and we all do it sometimes. But what we've been trying to work towards for years now, I mean, we've we've been at this for a decade or more, where it's been purposefully trying to live more simply in every aspect of our life. And I feel like I'm just now starting to really get some traction that is more significant than in years past just because I hadn't pulled enough stuff out to see as clear. The more you begin to reshuffle, the more clearly you see it.

SPEAKER_01 9:06

And some of the the overly busy is on godly things as well. I mean, you can you can overcommit to doing things that you think are good for the church, even. But if you know you're called to whatever it is you're called to for us, the place of prayer, well then I'm not gonna give myself to 50 other really good things at church. I'm gonna say no to those because that would steal this. And if this is the main priority, then this is the main priority. Like we can lose out on our um divine calling in God for other godly things.

SPEAKER_00 9:44

Yes. Okay, so let's talk about recognizing the clutter, because and clutter meaning the busyness, the chaotic living. Um because we've kind of mentioned it before a little bit, we buy into this is just life, this is just 2026, everybody's busy, you know, this is normal. And I think that's one of the biggest lies the enemy sells us that we buy is this is normal to be this busy because everybody else around me is this busy too. But we don't have to be, we don't have to be. People say, I want to start coming to prayer, the prayer room. Uh, I hope it works out. You know, it never works out, it doesn't work out for us still. It is something we have to purposefully choose to make time for. And you said it. We really do what we really want to do. We somehow all find time to do what we really want to do when we have no time. So as my hunger for the Lord began to grow, then it wasn't okay with me anymore that my time was getting whittled away on a million other things that did not have the priority of him. And um I find as American parents, um we justify a lot of activity for our kids. And there is a lot that we do for our kids uh that is good and the Lord wants us to, but I find not every single thing that is thrown at us is something we need to give ourselves to, and that I'm setting an example for them of how to live. If I have raised them the whole time to be crazy busy, one thing, the next, the next, next, next, next, next, bed, next morning, again, again, again, again, then I am raising them to not have time for God, to not have room, space on the inside for Him. I'm teaching them to live chaotically, and I don't want to do that. I don't want to do it for me and God, I don't want to detrain them that this is how normal is. It's just life and you're stuck. I want to to unplug from that whole system and lie. It's very counterculture, it's very counterculture to live simply.

SPEAKER_01 12:05

Yes, yeah, because success and busyness for some reason have become synonymous. Like if they're busy, they must be successful. And I guess even just redefining what your definition of success is, and then being okay with it. Like, no, I'm not gonna have the nicest house in my neighborhood. That's okay. I don't drive a new car. My car, I'm so blessed. It works and it has AC, which are the two requirements in South Louisiana. I'm blessed, but it's not the you know, the most brand new. That's fine. But I have to redefine what success was to me and be okay if someone thought less of it. But but we we do that, that battle of comparison, and so just changing that's not important to me, and then making sure it's really not. My identity is not in my house, my car, right? Those things, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:57

Because if you are a slave to what you have set your dream as, and that's financial, what is the goal? And if that demands all of your time to get there financially, then you're gonna be a slave to that, and you're not gonna have options. And for me, I know that it began to shift. Um, like I don't have the options, and so let me start to change things. And when a goal changes, then that route you thought you had to do for the first goal. Now you can reevaluate and start to map out, well, if that's not the goal anymore, then I don't have to do it this way. And other people are gonna have their opinions about why this, why not that, and everybody else's this that comes into play. But I know for me, like my hunger for him would not let up. And so it began to dictate a lot of my choices. You know, I did everything right for sure, uh, but it's made me start to make different choices than I was making before, as far as my life to accommodate more time in prayer.

SPEAKER_01 14:09

Yeah, we don't want our things to own us. You know, tell that to my kids. Don't buy the brand new truck. You don't own the truck, the truck owned you, working for the truck. It needs to be the other way around, but it's all about redefining. That's something that we talk about in the prayer room all the time: redefining what things are, what is success, what is normal, what's okay.

SPEAKER_00 14:30

So the trap of more. And more can be material things, more can be activities. Why do we all we all do this? We just keep adding instead of reducing by nature, and I know I'm guilty of this. I just think I can keep juggling, like I'm good at juggling, I can do it all, like I can do it, I can do it, and so that would be my mentality, not anymore, but that's what I would do, you know, just like I can manage it, I'm good, and not realizing how tapped out I was and how spent I was because I didn't have like a break or a crisis that made me see it. I just thought I was good because I was functional, not thriving, but I was functional.

SPEAKER_01 15:19

In that that more trap that you're talking about, you cannot live first commandment or second commandment. You cannot love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength if you are tapped out in all your time. Everything is stressful, everything's chaotic, and then in return, you cannot love others because there's no margin, there's no space for your kid to make a mistake because there's no time for that. So then as a parent, you're lashing out when it they're just a child making a mistake, you know, or whatever, because there's no margin. You can see it if you just drive down the road. People are so angry and zipping around and speeding around me because no margin. It's the anger, the frustration, the stress that we put on ourselves by over putting things into our schedule. Like we do it to ourselves, and then we say we love God. But do I love somebody I never talk to, never think about, never want to spend time with? Am I loving others if I'm constantly aggravated, irritated because I'm so just full of the world and stuff and craziness? No, you cannot live the gospel out. I mean, not that I'm living it great by any stretch, but it's impossible to do it if you're trying to do the rat race as well.

SPEAKER_00 16:34

I found two turning points for me. Um, one was that ache for God, like it just it it wasn't okay anymore. I wanted to give him more and and in the place of prayer, and I understood the context of a prayer room, so that's more days, more hours, and the goal that I was going for. And so that began to be part of the the first wrestle. And then in that, I just started to choose quality over quantity in my life overall, because it started out as a spiritual desire. Like I'm not fully available for him, and so that started to turn, but then I started realizing, oh, it's every area of my life that I am just given bits and pieces to, and that's not quality. And so loving my family, like one of the most loving things I can do is declutter my schedule and my life, um, have more margin, not be rushing all the time. It trickles into so many areas, even like just the running of a household, the organization of a household, being more thought out in everything I do because I have space to think. My mind is not filled from activity and activity to activity. And that did not happen overnight. That happened over years, and I'm still not where I want to be with it. But I'm thankful that the Lord has put us on this journey because now I see much more. And it was, I got to the point where I stopped settling. I stopped settling for my life in God being what I could squeeze in, and it started to dictate how everything else was gonna fall into its place instead of everything else, and then let me shove my time with God here if it works out and nothing else tips, you know, because that's gonna steal my time with God right away. So I stopped settling for living that way with the Lord.

SPEAKER_01 18:32

Yeah, and I think another reason we keep adding stuff is because we're looking for fulfillment. You know, I wasn't happy doing this, but maybe this thing, or I'm gonna buy this, and it gives you that endorphin whatever boost. And so that made me feel good for a minute, but now that's gone, so now I need something else, and so just not feeling fulfilled as a person makes you add things because you're just searching for that thing that's gonna give you whatever you're looking for, and it's only found in God. I mean, we hear that all the time like it's so cliche, but it's so true. Your identity comes from God, then I don't need all these other things, and when I start feeling the need for all those other things, it's like a red flag for me. I'm not finding my my satisfaction, my joy in the Lord anymore, you know, because that's also true, it's a constant bring it back in, you know. It's not like you do it and you're like, oh, I'm good forever. No, I'm constantly re-evaluating my schedule, my time, my money, you know.

SPEAKER_00 19:32

And that internal clutter, we mentioned it a little while back, but I find in the prayer room, when I get in there, my week schedule, it comes in with me. Because as it progressed, this is now where I'm at. It wasn't where I started, and it's not where I'm gonna end up. But I find, okay, I finally made time to be in the prayer room. I finally made time for more hours in the prayer room. But even the rest of my week comes in with me in that if I have spent every other day going from one thing to the other, then I get in there and I am still moving at that pace. And in the prayer room, we try to be in there for longer amounts of time. So it is a slowed-down pace, it is a dialing down to be able to hear and connect with him. So if the traffic is constant and I get in there and I am fighting the whole time the way I live there, when I'm here, well, now the rest of my week is hindering this time here, which no longer works. I'm not settling for that. So I don't try to fill every other night with an activity. Now, in all of my week, slow down that pace so it's how I do life. What do we need to do? God ordained priorities. And then, Lord, how do you want me to do them? Because I could say, God wants me to love my kids, so I have to do everything my kids want me to do. God didn't say that. He said to love my kids, and then he'll give me wisdom with let's do this or let's not do this here, let's do this here. Let's not make this a priority. This is an occasional thing. Like I just started to be able to see there's way more options than I sold myself on, like the have to the have to. I can I can rearrange things, I cannot do it like all the other people I know. I can do it different. So not filling the rest of my schedule actually affects how I am in the prayer room. And once it started tampering with me and the Lord in the prayer room, that's when it I really started. That was a different level for me, I guess. Of okay, everything's back on the table. We're gonna look at it all again. Let's talk about this, Lord. You give me Me wisdom and how to manage my schedule.

SPEAKER_01 22:03

Yeah, because God, the longer you sit with him, the more you get of him. Like he's not coming in quick 10 second reels. Like, or whatever, we're constantly scrolling or whatever. That's not how God communicates. I mean, of course, he can communicate however he wants, but in the slowed down time with him, you get more. You get actual conversation.

SPEAKER_00 22:23

One thing in simplifying is that moving from a chaotic way of living busy to um intentional. I just I have one life to live. I have one life. These years on earth is where my choices are gonna reveal my love for him, and I'm gonna take those rewards through eternity when I stand in front of him and I'm giving my life to something. I am spending it all on something, and I want it to be spent mostly on him and then everything else he's given me to have a full great life. But I'm spending it one way or another. And sometimes I think we think of we're busy doing what we have to do, like that's in my heart to do, uh, but I just can't give myself to that. Well, you're giving yourself to something already. By default, you're giving yourself to something, so I want to be purposeful.

SPEAKER_01 23:28

Yeah, it makes me think of something I heard from another lady in a different prayer room, and I don't remember if it was a dream or a vision, and it doesn't really matter, but in I'm gonna say dream, she is telling the Lord, like I don't hear you like I used to, and I want to, like I want to hear you, and then she just started seeing like a finger scrolling as if like on um you know one of the social media Instagram or something, just scrolling, scrolling, and just information just flying over this screen in this dream, and then it stopped and he and he said, You're too full. Too full. Bible says like the hungry are the ones that die, the thirsty are the ones that drink. But if I'm full of everything this world gives, then no space. And that's that's the point of living simply is we're trying to have carve out space for what what is what matters and he matters. Like it makes me think of a song uh they sing like you make time, you make space for what we value. So Lord, we value you. You know, we're gonna make space.

SPEAKER_00 24:38

Yeah, because we all have so much bandwidth. We only have a limited amount of bandwidth. So what we fill it with is what we fill it with. We're not God, we don't have this infinite amount. We only have so much time, so much mental, emotional, physical resource to give to this life. So I want to spend it on him. Like I do value him. I want to make space not as a margin thing, as the main thing, and then bring that into everything else. And he wants us to have a well-rounded life. It doesn't mean it's the only thing we do, but in the context of a prayer room, which is what we're talking about, it means my schedule looks very different than if that wasn't the goal. Like, and he he wants us to have time with our family, he wants us to have time with our job to earn money, he wants us to have uh even just downtime recreation, entertainment. Like he wants all of those areas in our lives to be present. We enjoy them because he made us to. So he doesn't want to take everything away and you just sit in a room and pray only. But it is possible to do that in the middle of all the other things. That's still possible, I guess, is is what we have found. And for those who are called to it, we want to say, you can do it. One thing that began to be like a gift when the Lord kind of started impressing it more on me, and I started doing it was the grace to say no to a lot of um opportunities, even good, you know, things for God. I'm not even talking about bad things, I'm talking about we can fill our schedule with a lot of good things that choke it out. So it was just permission to say no and then not feel bad or feel like I have to go here because I'm obligated, you know. Um a lot of that God does not put that on us, and it will steal what's best. So when I started just saying no and being okay with it, not having the guilt afterwards, it was so freeing, and it gave me this um this boldness to run in my calling. I kind of just felt like some chains had come off, like all the have-to's or you should, or people will expect you there. It was like I stopped buying into it, and it was just like, no, I I can say no, and God's happy with that. Because I knew the shakedown of because it uncluttered me for him. So now I see no as such a gift, and I used to be a person who would um agree to something off the bat, and now I will say no automatically and then may come back with a yes if I feel like I can, or I will say, Let me see if I can, instead of just being like, Yeah, we'll be there. You know, that was my go-to before.

SPEAKER_01 27:48

And it's just deciding. I heard somebody um preach a message and said you have to decide who you're gonna disappoint. Because ultimately, there are gonna be times we're gonna disappoint people, we're gonna say no to something, and someone's gonna be upset. And I don't I mean, honestly, I don't want to disappoint anybody, is the problem. But am I gonna disappoint a person? Or am I gonna disappoint the Lord because he's called me to something and now I'm not doing it? And I hate to use it like I'm a disappointment, but if this is my calling, I want to live in it. And then it disappoints me.

SPEAKER_00 28:23

And if you're gonna give yourself fully to something in it, we're talking about this, but it could be a number of things. There's gonna be people you love that you disappoint sometimes. I mean, you have to decide who you're gonna disappoint. And like you said, I don't want it to always be God because someone's always regardless, you can try to cater to everybody and kill yourself. Someone's still gonna be disappointed.

SPEAKER_01 28:45

Yeah, birthday parties are probably the biggest thing, especially when you have young kids. So, like I would plan my birthday, my kids' birthday parties around the prayer room. So, like when I would say no to someone else's, it would be kind of like I but I planned my own kids around this time, so no, this is a non-negotiable for me. And then honestly, my family started changing when they would do birthday parties, you know, Jamie has prayer on Saturday nights.

SPEAKER_00 29:11

So no. Okay, one of the kids has a birthday coming up, so I'm gonna plan something, like you said, like on another night. Like, I will make a plan intentionally to not be like, oh, it's gonna fall there and now it's an issue. Plan it out so that it's not an issue. Like, go celebrate them, go have time, you know, do it. Yeah, because Mary Bethany, when she sat at Jesus' feet, she disappointed people. She disappointed Martha, who thought she should have been working. She disappointed the disciples who thought she should not have anointed him with that expensive perfume. They thought it should have been used for the poor, but Jesus affirmed her choice of that single devotion. And, you know, we'd all left to be Mary Bethany, and we have that extravagant, I gave you my best. I poured the oil of my life, the best I had. It was very expensive what she gave. But if we have not been living a life, sitting at his feet, making lots of choices to choose him, we don't see that opportunity when it comes. He was heading to the cross, he was about to go to the cross, she anointed him for burial right before none of the disciples thought to do it. Martha did not think to do it, but Mary saw the opportunity because of how she lived before him and chose him. So when that opportunity presented itself, she recognized it. Whereas she lived differently, she would not have even seen the opportunity. So I want to live extravagantly before him. I want to pour the perfume of my life on him. So I'm gonna choose things different so that I see those opportunities and I make as many of them as possible.

SPEAKER_01 31:08

Yeah, so there's a wrestle with abiding. Jesus said, you know, abide in my love, and abide means to stay, to dwell, to live there, live in my love. And as American Christians, I can say I spent a lot of time not abiding, but almost using God like a gas station. And I'm like, oh, I'm running on E, so I'm gonna stop for a minute, I'm gonna fill up, and then I'm on my my normal life doing what I normally do, and I'm not thinking about God until the next time I'm on E or the next crisis or the next whatever. No, abide is to stay, to live, to dwell there. So that is intentionally slowing down. That's intentionally staying with it. And again, it's not like I'm walking around with the Bible and 24 hours a day. That's not life. But the slower I get, the more I can invite God into my my time. As I'm doing laundry, I'll talk to Jesus. You know, they're whatever I'm talking about. I mean, whatever, it it's throughout my day, or I can go outside and say, Anna, look at the sunset. God didn't have to make it beautiful, he could have made it black and white, but he chose colors for you. He loves you. This is a testament. But if we're rushing to the next thing, you don't have that moment. You don't get to bring people in, and that's the abiding. Like imagine you cut a plant from its root, it might look alive for a minute, but very clearly it's gonna start to wither and and the truth will be known. You have to stay plugged in and not a fill up and leave and fill up and leave.

SPEAKER_00 32:43

Talking about making space for God, like practical tips, um, a running conversation with him in the day, it doesn't mean constant, but I have found that the more I pull him in to just driving in the car, you know, doing the housework at the store, whatever, like talking to him, just having a conversation. And I have found um when I do that, questions I have asked him in the middle of the most mundane task, he'll speak and answer. But it's because I was talking to him, or I'll open the refrigerator and suddenly the answer, like I'll just hear the solution to what I was asking him about that morning. He just speaks, but it's more because I'm listening, is all also another thing, really practical tip for connecting with him, uh, praying in tongues. When I'm doing a mindless task, I'll pray in tongues and it's not a super concentrated time with the Lord. It's just like that running conversation, but now it's just in tongues. And I may know what I'm thinking behind it, and sometimes I don't. It's just a spirit connect with him. Um, one thing I would say is just put everything on the table. Like everything, even the things he's given us, for him to shuffle it the way he wants. He's not gonna take away, you know, that you need to take care of your family, but he's gonna show us how to do it best and in the season we're in, because it looks different in different seasons. We did years ago, and we've done consistently every year since, we did a paper, and it breaks down a weekly schedule into 15-minute increments, and it wasn't until we filled that out that we all realized I'm wasting way more time than I think, and I have more time than I think. If you fill it out honestly, not what you wish it would be, but like fill it out literally what your normal week was. Like, don't fill it out like, oh, well, this week I happened to have all this time here, but that's not normal. Like, fill out your typical schedule, and when you have to look at it in black and white in front of you, and you can't worm out of it and save a bunch of excuses, it's just there, then you have to own it. And for me, I know that was a wake-up call.

SPEAKER_01 35:04

Oh, definitely. I remember the first time we had it. I actually I didn't like schedule my day for the whole week. I just wrote down what I did, and some of it was hard to write, like because there was some time wasted, and like, no, that's what I did, you know, Instagram for an hour, whatever. I mean, just really honest about the time, and then what I did was I made one that I wanted, like, what would be my goal? So then I had this like reality goal. Now, I'll be honest, my goals for some of it was it's it wasn't doable, it was not realistic, so there's also that, like, you don't want to go so far into scheduling yourself that it's not realistic, and then you feel like a like you're constantly failing. You do have to sleep, it does take you half an hour to get to work and back from work, so that time has to be accounted, you know, like those kind of things. But then, so I what I did was well, I like to go to bed early, so I scheduled that in. Then this is when I wake up, this is my time at work, and then I scheduled in all my prayer room time. I spend these hours on Monday, these hours on Friday, these hours on Saturday, and I blocked those all in in different colors, and then the rest of the time was just time, and there was way more than I imagined, and I I would think that's probably true for most people. It's way more than you imagined, even in putting Ethan's baseball practice or Anna's theater, whatever, whatever the kids are doing at that moment, even adding that in, because you do have to get kids to things, um, there's still time, more time than I thought.

SPEAKER_00 36:40

Yeah, so that's a huge tool. Write out your schedule and don't do like hour chunks, because that's another thing we can get away with a lot if you just would do it in hour chunks, but when we had to do it in 15-minute chunks, then we had to be more accountable with with what we were doing.

SPEAKER_01 36:57

And even it made me think, I'm kind of like, well, if I can't sit and finish it, then it's not time for it. And I mean, there are times where I want to sit and have a good amount of time to do a Bible study. But I can study something in 15 minutes. I can start, you know. But before I did that, I wouldn't have even looked at those 15 minutes because I'd have thought that's too short of a time. So so wasted, you know, like it's just changing the way I thought. But it's like, well, if I couldn't sit for two hours and I wasn't sitting, well, that's silly.

SPEAKER_00 37:28

And it helped us to begin rhythms in our life. Because when you see it on paper, I don't know. It's just for me, that visual helped what was just like everything swimming in my mind of the schedule. Seeing the visual of it laid out on paper helped me be like, okay, okay, here's some good rhythms, here's some bad ones, here's room for good ones that I could put. It helped me really begin to establish things that began to be a rhythm in my weekly schedule, even rest. Like that affects me in the prayer room if I have not gotten adequate rest and I don't always get as much as I want, but I'm more purposeful because it affects me in that prayer room. So that makes me take it more serious and not just as haphazard as before. It was just I got what I got, and I was gonna function and roll anyway. But now it's like, no, I want to show up and have mental clarity. I don't want to be falling asleep. I want to be able to press and engage and not be dragging because I'm tired or just super distracted because I don't have the mental energy to do it. So even the rhythm of rest affects me there as well. So if it affects me there, it affects me in all of the areas of life. Like you said about being, you know, sharp with our kids or anybody. When you're rushed, there's no time for any extra or not finding something or something not working. Like that just pushes you to be snappy and and not who we want to be. So it's finding better rhythms that trickle into every area of my life. Another thing that has helped me declutter mentally and emotionally is I do it most in the prayer room, but that's it's not limited to that, is writing things, writing uh thoughts and feelings, talking with the Lord. Even if I just do it with like I don't do it in every area of life, I do it mostly when I'm talking with the Lord, but it helps to start to file away things mentally and place them so they're not running through as much, which ends up affecting the rest of my mental capacity for everything else in my life. So I just find writing just highlights of what we're talking about or a question or something, you know, that the Lord's just impressing on me. I want to talk to you about this. And I know this is going to be a running conversation for months, and I'll just start writing what I feel he's saying or pointing me to a scripture. So it doesn't mean I am transcribing a whole conversation, but it's just things I feel impressed to write, which helps just get it on paper and get it out of my mind. It does help to declutter a level of my mental, which I didn't know until I started to do. I didn't do it to do that, but in doing that, I discovered that that actually helped me in that area too.

SPEAKER_01 40:28

I I 100% agree. Journaling in the program is it's a gift. It's a gold, it gets you somewhere more than you'd imagine. So many questions I ask, and then an answer comes. And honestly, if I hadn't written it down, I probably would have forgotten. Even within the same date. I'm not talking about like I don't I don't even go back and read. Very rarely do I go back and read what I've written, but even within the same time in the prayer room. And I don't think I would have caught how many answers I've gotten had I not been journaling.

SPEAKER_00 40:59

So I think we touched on everything we wanted to talk about with living simply or living fully devoted, and we just wanted to say it's doable because it's something we are striving for. And so we've seen a little bit of progress in our life. It's possible. So for someone who's hungering or wanting to and thinks it's impossible, we just want to be an encouragement that it is possible, it is doable in 2026 in America, and just start small. Start small, start with one thing this week. Like, oh, I I want this to change. And I have found it's small tweaks through years. When I tried to do big sweeping changes, I usually was not consistent. I did not stick with it, but small, constantly doing the little bitty small tweaks, those stuff more. So that would be my encouragement. So start small.

SPEAKER_01 42:01

I agree. Well, thank you for choosing to spend your time with us today. You can find us on Facebook at Lafayette Prairie Room or Instagram, prayerom Lafayette. Our website is LafayettePrairoom.org. So we look forward to seeing you next time. Bye.