For a long time, my addiction to learning came alongside a necessity to achieve. There was something to prove by my knowledge and there were people to impress with my growth.
However, in the last few years, the Lord has shifted my heart into a place that is learning how to receive words from Him that are just for me. The line between abiding and producing is getting easier to define.
I’m not as quick to share every moment or new understanding and I’ve come to cherish the little insights I know are only between me and God. Words, books, stories and lyrics all meet a deep place in me where I feel my most created self when around them.
Sharing the people and places I’m learning from comes more naturally and from a place that considers others first. It’s not my opportunity to show off but to share in case God has a desire to use it in your life as well.
I hope you check out a few of the following resources and I hope you share a few of yours too. I’d love to add them to my list!
WHAT I’M LISTENING TO
Podcast: Glorious in the Mundane
Who: Christy Nockels
Audience: Women
Why I Love It: Christy shares from a genuine place about the small and beautiful moments in her life. Her heart in this podcast has made me crave Jesus in a way I haven’t before.
Favorite Episodes: The Postures of the Heart Series, Unseen, His Banner Over Me
Podcast: Risen Motherhood
Who: Laura Wifler and Emily Jensen
Audience: Moms of Young Kids
Why I Love It: These are short, 20 minute sessions that have a refreshing take on Gospel centered mothering. It is never focused on the how-to’s of parenting, but always on the heart of us as mothers as we embrace parenting in all it’s glory.
Favorite Episodes: Mom Bods and the Gospel, Birthday Parties: Celebrating God’s Good Work, Ruth Chou Simmons: Faithfulness and Work in the Season of Young Children
Podcast: Funtherapy
Who: Mike Foster
Audience: Anyone
Why I Love It: Mike interviews people leading out with the question, “What is the thing you don’t want to talk about?” This allows raw stories to be told and in return makes me reflect on my own story. It can often feel like a distant counseling session (but I love that).
Favorite Episodes: Annie F. Downs, Jay and Katherin Wolf, Caitlin Crosby
WHAT I’M READING
Book: Unseen: The Gift of Being Hidden in a World that Loves to Be Noticed, Sara Hagerty
“We wonder if God could ever like what He sees in us when no one is looking. And we forget it was in that same hiddenness that our selves took shape in the first place.”
Book: Love Lives Here, Maria Goff
“Kids aren’t afraid their ideas won’t work, because they’re not in a hurry to take the credit if they do. They live in constant anticipation of what might happen next, not in fear of it.”
Book: Church of the Small Things, Melanie Shankle
“You can spend a lot of time looking around at what everyone else has or is doing or all the ways they appear better. We measure. We measure our insides by other people’s outsides and that’s never a fair assessment.”
Book: The Nightingale, Kristin Hannah
“A historic fiction novel…tells the story of two sisters in France during World War II and their struggle to survive and resist the German occupation of France.”
Written by Janae Collins
What are some of the things God is using to pour Himself into you recently? Let’s keep this list going!
I love this! Thanks for sharing these! Here are a few places I’ve found God lately:
Podcast: The Next Right Thing by Emily P. Freeman
TV Show: Planet Earth II on the BBC (available on Netflix)
Book: Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Peter Scazzero