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the work & play cornerstore

Show Notes:

Well friend, this is my last episode of Work & Play before I take a two month break from the podcast and a six month break from work and social media. I just want to use this time and space to encourage you. And I want to speak life over you. And I want to encourage you to speak life over the people around you.

I'll also tell you a little bit about what to expect from me for the rest of the year. It's going to be a short and sweet episode, and I kind of hope it feels like a little podcast hug, and I'm excited to know I'll see you again soon.

For the full episode, hit play above or read through it below.

I started this podcast over two years ago. My hope is that it would be an outlet for me to speak life. To speak life–that's it. That I would be able to speak life over you wherever you are, and that I would encourage you to do the same in your own life.

And today, I want to encourage you to simply do that to whomever you're with, even to yourself sometimes, to whoever's in your family, to your coworkers, to the people in your life who are even difficult for you. To speak life. What we say with our words are so important.

Proverbs 18:21 says "life and death are in the power of the tongue." The passion translation says "Your words are so powerful that they will kill or give life. And the talkative person will reap the consequences."

As I'm recording this episode today, I am getting very close to having my fourth baby. Maybe I've already had it by the time this episode comes out, I'm not sure. It depends on when baby decides to come. But I have just been thinking a lot about what has helped me in my past labors and deliveries, because if you've ever prepared to have a child, you know that it is, it's like warfare. It's like, you know there's a big event coming and you have to prepare for it.

It feels like spiritual warfare. It's the hardest work I've ever done in my entire life. It is an event that you prepare for. It's like, if you sign up to run a marathon, you know it's coming, you know that day is coming. And if you've ever run a race before you kind of start thinking, okay, like what helped me in the past races that I've run and what's going to help me again this time?

And while it is a very physical event. So much of it is spiritual and mental and has to do with the words that you speak and what you believe. It really comes down to that to your mind and training your mind for what's to come. So speaking scripture, singing worship songs, focusing my mind and attention on the Lord's presence over and over and over again, reading prayers of faith out loud. Those have been the things that have gotten me through it. Period. Those are the things.

When I think back to the most intense times of delivering my babies, going through transition. And I mean, just it's wild. Those are the things that got me through. My mom was even reading a prayer full of scripture over me as I was about to give birth to Beaufort. And it was like the last thing that happened while I was giving birth to him. So I know this is a lot of information, maybe a little TMI, but the bottom line is: words have power. Words are so powerful. They give life. And I just want to encourage you in this day and age where everything feels a little upside down, our culture seems a little bit crazy and life just seems like confusing and hard, be the one, you be the one in your family and your community, and ultimately in your world to speak life.

Ephesians 4:29 says, "Do not let any unwholesome talk, come out of your mouth, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen."
Passion translation, I have really been loving the passion translation lately, it says, "Never let ugly or hateful words come from your mouth, but instead let your words become beautiful gifts that encourage others. Do this by speaking words of grace to help them."

Now, of course, it's not only what you say, but how you say it. And those, both of those things are so important, but stand on truth and continue to speak truth in love.

It can actually change someone's life. I know it's changed mine. I'm sure you can think about times where someone has spoken a word to you that is just so timely and good. I mean, what you say to your kids, what you say to your husband, what you say to your friends, all of that matters. The words you say matter. And I just wanted to remind you of that.

I just wanted to remind you of that, and I wanted to remind myself of that today. May we be the one to speak life to those around us. And my prayer is that if you think about me while I'm on my social media break, while I'm on my work break, while I'm not super engaged in the podcast, which, I'll get to that in a second.

If you think of me and think, I wonder what Nancy is doing, I wonder how she's doing. I pray that two words would come to your mind, speak life. That these last two words that I leave with you before I leave just for a little bit, that you would grab onto them and remember, you know what? Her, last exhortation, her last encouragement to me was to be someone to speak life. And if you can remember that while I'm away, then I feel like I've done my job.

So here's what you can expect from me in the coming months. For two months, I'm going to be off this podcast. It will not be releasing episodes every week. It's just going to be a two month break and then I'll come back after two months and you're going to hear some of my favorite podcast episode reruns, the most popular ones, the ones that people have listened to multiple times that have been shared the most, that have been downloaded the most. And I think they're going to be worth listening to again, even if you've already listened to them, but you, you probably have missed it. It's very rare that someone has l listened to every single episode of my podcast.

So stay tuned for those, they're going to be really good. I am also helping to come back and record just a few episodes this year, if I want to. And I'm hoping to come back on here and record my birth story. I'm hoping to come back on here and record maybe just a couple of things that God puts on my heart, but honestly, all the other episodes are either reruns or they're fresh content that have already prerecorded. And so they're ready and waiting for you, I have some amazing interviews and some amazing stuff waiting for you for the rest of the year.

But I'm going to just take off for the next six months. I don't want any obligation on my life to do any kind of work other than just being present with my family. And I think this season of my life is going to be something I look back on and I'm going to be so glad. I think I'm really going to be so glad that I did this. And I'm going to use this time to just go back to neutral, which I talk about a lot on this podcast. Going before the Lord saying, is this what you have for me in my life right now? Getting quiet before him and just asking him to show me what he has for me in the next season of my life.

So I'm excited. I appreciate your prayers. I appreciate your patience. I so appreciate you being a listener and I hope you enjoy everything that I have for you for the rest of the year.