Transcript for episode 64 of the Style and Stewardship Podcast
Show Notes and topics covered in this episode
What has your attention? This world gives us many things to look at, focus on, purchase, do, etc. There is a tool for this and an App for that and though these things may be helpful we have to maintain healthy boundaries. Living a focused and intentional life can be difficult and we most certainly need the Holy Spirit to guide us in all matters, especially matters of the heart.
Topics in this episode
- Focused Living
- Healthy Boundaries
- Discernment
- Spiritual Disciplines
- Stewarding Entertainment
Listen to Episode 64 Here
Transcript of Podcast Episode 64 Style and Stewardship
I realized not long ago that there were a lot of things that I was doing that were needless. They weren’t contributing, in a way that was beneficial to my life, or to my family’s life. And upon recognizing these things, I had to clear them out.
So when it comes to… we all know this we’re on our phones a lot.
We have this smartphone, this computer in our hands within reach, and it is a tool many times. I can speak for myself. The tool becomes the thing that you, I feel used by I feel like, oh my goodness. I just went on here to look up the weather. And before I know it I’m, you know, reading headlines in, all of these things, I feel like are coming at me.
I don’t know if you’ve ever felt like that, but I got to the point where it was like, why am I taking part in things that are not fueling my life in a productive way? Or in a way that’s really even beneficial.
So yes, we can, you know, we can call things entertainment and things can be, but even with entertainment, I truly believe in order to live intentionally, (which is my goal) I really have to begin to look even at the things that I call “entertainment.”
At the end of the day, what is it really? And if I’m calling this thing that I’m doing entertainment, how many hours of the day do I need to be entertained?
Do you get what I’m saying?
So how many times do I need to hop on this app or that app?
And be quote, unquote entertained. I don’t walk around in my house with the TV on all day. I don’t let my kid watch TV all day. That’s for sure! I truly believe that what we take into ourselves through our eyes, through our ears, and even through our mouths, I talk about nutrition all the time.
All of these things have an impact on us and we can be flippant about that or think that you know because we’re adults, I’m an adult. Lol That we are not prone to be affected negatively by the things that we’re taking in.
Pin It for later!
Even the things that seem like they’re totally fine. They’re totally innocuous. What if those things are still causing something within us that we don’t recognize because we’re always attached to them or we’re always looking at them?
They become a rhythm of our lives. And I think for many of us, that’s our phone. I can speak for myself many times. I’m thinking I’m picking up my phone for no freaking reason at all. Like, why am I picking on my phone right now?
There’s nothing that I need from it. But that’s the thing, you know, whether it’s a dopamine hit or whether it is out of boredom or out of habit.
We’ve created rhythms and routines around our phones that are all connected to our phone, and us being connected on our phones.
This can be a great thing and a great tool, but anything in life, we need breaks from anything in life we need to step away from. I’m always fascinated. And I always point myself back to the fact that Jesus took so much time away from the chatter and the noise.
The demands on him and mind you, he was going to connect with the Father. He was going to have quiet time with the Father, God. And we see this in scripture and we know that we’re supposed to walk with Jesus and, and walk like Jesus as best, you know, as best as we can. But we, we look at these huge things, but it’s like the little minor details.
Quote unquote, I’m using air quotes.
These minor details. We don’t really always take it into account because it’s truly the little things that add up over time. And it’s not these huge, huge things all the time. Many times, it’s the little things that we do on a daily basis, and what we do the most affects us the most. But we don’t look at that because there are these little tiny habits.
There are these little tiny things that build and build and build and build. And they become such a part of our lives. That many times we don’t even recognize that we are partaking in being overstimulated. We’re partaking in being sold, sold things constantly, you know, and we’re being, our hearts are being, um, I don’t know what other word to use here other than our hearts are being seduced by the different desires and the desires in and of themselves.
You know, we know that it’s our desires, that when we act them out, that, you know, this is when we give into sin and this can be with so many different things.
But there’s always a gateway to every single thing.
And if I’m getting a little too spiritual, it is what it is. Because I truly believe that we are impacted and affected [spiritually] so much that many times we don’t even recognize it.
It’s almost like this small hum. That we’re hearing all day long throughout our lives that we’re inviting in, that are taking up residence in our hearts and in our minds. Where we feel a lack of clarity, we feel a lack of peace. Sometimes we feel a lack of direction and many times it’s because we haven’t gotten quiet enough because we always have this slow, steady hum..
And worse even is that we invite these things in. We look for these things and we’ve made them a regular part of our lives. And that right there is something that God has been showing me.
I don’t know if you can relate to this, but I feel like, in this world, there are so many things that we can invite in that we have to be intentional and quite honestly guarded.
Guarding our hearts on what we allow to come in, whether that be what we’re listening to, or what we’re eating. And this is not about legalism. This is the point. We have freedom, but we’ve attached ourselves to things so much that we’ve made it, that this is the thing we have to do. we have to check our email.
We have to check that app. We have to answer immediately and I’ve gotten into, what I’m trying to do is a new rhythm of putting my phone in a separate room. Putting it away from me when I’m doing things that really need my full attention, putting my phone on, do not disturb, or silent.
And I’m doing this not because I have a control issue or, any of those things, but it’s because I’m trying to be disciplined in how much I’m using something, what I’m doing with it, and really taking a step back. Even just to see how I’m affected when something is removed.
So in, Nutrition one of the things that, if you listen to any of the other episodes or read any of the other blog posts, I’ve, you know, over the course of several years, I’ve eliminated different things from my diet for a time to see how I would feel when I brought those things back in. And how I would feel when I didn’t have those things.
For example, two, really two to four hours before I go to sleep or lay down to try to go to sleep. If I eat certain things that have a lot of sugar in them or are higher carbohydrate things, I do not sleep well. It’s like I do not, and I cannot get into a deep enough sleep. And I wake up feeling groggy and I feel, you know, like I had NyQuil or something.
It’s Hard to get up and I have to peel myself out of the bed. What I recognized in removing certain things or changing how I used certain things in my diet. It gave me such a clear picture of how I was affected when this thing was removed. So I just want to encourage you with that. Being disciplined is an awesome thing.
Having self-control is an awesome thing. And I know the world would like to tell us, do it. If it feels good, buy it. If you want it, get it. If you, you know, get it, if you want it or whatever the case may be, but God’s word says something very, very different.
It [the Bible] does not say chase every goal that you want follow every dream that you want and go after what your heart wants.
It says the exact opposite. It says, do not follow your heart. Because our hearts are in scripture says they’re, deceitfully wicked. Like who can know them, it’s a deep well. It says that all the issues of life flow from the heart. Why does, why does God tell us this?
And we think that it’s weird because the world tells us to follow our hearts, to follow our passions, to go after what we want.
And God tells us to be self-controlled and I’m preaching to myself right now. Keep, keep that in mind. But I think that it’s no different when it comes to what we’re using, what we’re utilizing. Are we focused on the things that are really life-giving God-honoring, um, intentional and doing them with God in mind? You know, “whether we eat or drink, whatever we do, we should do it to the glory of God.”
And we can do that in the smallest ways. And I believe that that’s actually one of the hardest things to do. That’s part of the spiritual discipline. That’s part of the, you know, Delaying gratification and not following every whim and every passion and every desire that we have, even if we can, it doesn’t mean that we should.
Other Episodes
Ep 59 – Less Stuff, Less Stress Simplicity
Ep 60 – How to Live Intentionally, Living in Freedom
Ep 47 – Christian Maturity How to Grow Deeper in Your Faith
Ep 49 – Managing What Matters Most -Are you managing your home well?
Ep 48 – You Are Doing A Great Job
Ep 36 Making decisions that support Stewardship
Ep 35 You can not do it all and trying to may hinder your ability to Steward well
Ep 34 You don’t have to do it all, and some other truths about identity and stewardship
Scriptures referenced via bible gateway
“Guard your heart above all else, for it is the source of life.” Proverbs 4:23
Yet he often withdrew to deserted places and prayed. Luke 5:16
Blog: Style And Stewardship
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