Affiliate links have been used in this post! I do receive a commission when you choose to purchase through these links, and that helps me keep this podcast up and running—I truly appreciate when you choose to use them!

listen on spotify

Resources from this episode:

Show Notes:

I am so excited to be back behind this mic! Today, we are going to talk about why I named this podcast “Work and Play” and I’ll share a fresh take on what it means to me now.

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

Friend, I am so glad to be here! I had my precious 5th baby on Christmas Day. It still blows my mind. It was a girl. Our little tiebreaker. Her name is Winnie. She is currently ten weeks old which is crazy. It has been so sweet as we have adjusted to being a family of 7. We are definitely in the category now where wherever we go, we get the question, “Are they all yours?” Will and I smile and we’re like, “Yes, they’re all ours.” It is so fun to be in the big family club and to have five kiddos. What a blessing. What a true gift. It has been really sweet.

Anyway, I just wanted to say, “Hi!” It’s always an adjustment after having a baby to come back and sit behind this mic. I feel like, “Oh my goodness, my brain is definitely foggy. I’m still sleep deprived”, but I think it’s worth just pausing and thinking through some things that I want to share and that are on my heart. It’s sweet as I’ve been praying about what I want to talk about and what direction the Lord is taking the podcast this year.

This sweet theme of going back to the truths and the themes that maybe I’ve talked about on here before, but going back and shining light on them again is kind of where I want to start because there is nothing new under the sun. God has given us so much truth and this track to run on in His word that is fresh, even if it’s repeated. It’s fresh in 2025 even if I talked about it in episode one. That is actually what I’m going to do today. I’m going to be refreshing why I chose to name this podcast “Work and Play with Nancy Ray.” We’re going to talk about work and play and God’s design for it.

Before I jump into all of that, I want to say… A couple of fun episodes that I’m planning on releasing coming up in the next few weeks are:

My Best Reads from 2024 (my favorite books that I read).
I’m going to share what books I plan to read in 2025 because I just love to hear what people are reading and I love sharing what I’m reading.
I’m going to share some tools that I’ve been using to nurture my love for reading.
I will be sharing Winnie’s birth story (at some point). I’m trying to blog it first, but that has proven to be very difficult. I love to share photos and words in written form and then I’m going to try to share it on the podcast as well.
I’m going to share my favorite postpartum things. I actually did blog about that. If you’re on my email list, you know I blogged about that and shared 10 things that I’ve been loving this postpartum. You can go to my blog to read about those if you want, but I’m going to do another podcast episode because I keep thinking of things that I want to add to that list that have been really helpful. The podcast episode will probably be like 20 things.

My plan is to keep these episodes kind of short and sweet because I don’t have a lot of time and I don’t have a lot of childcare. So right now, Winnie is napping and I am praying that she doesn’t cry and wake up in the middle of this recording. That’s where we are. That’s the only way I can keep this podcast going right now is if I can fit it around the priorities that already exist in my life.

With that said, I am aiming for at least two episodes a month. I’d like to do four a month if I can batch them and do some shorter ones. Just to be transparent, I’m not sure. I am hoping to do two a month and we’ll go from there.

Okay, if you take nothing else away from this episode, here is what I want you to hear. God’s design of work and play is the very best. The longer I learn and practice God’s ways for work and play, the longer I truly have a healthy soul and a fulfilling life. That’s it.

That is what I was after when I started this podcast. I was after that in my own life. I want a healthy soul. I want to be walking closely with the Lord. I want a fulfilling life because I believe that is the life that Jesus died to give us. A life that is full of life, light, and truth. The more I follow his simple ways (and they are simple ways) for work and play, the more I have a healthy soul and a fulfilling life.

So today is just a refresher of what work and play is about and God’s design for it in every season of life. When I first started this podcast (it was almost 6 years ago. It will be 6 years in April), I had two toddlers and a baby. I think Beaufort was four months old at the time. I had a photography business that was at the height of its success. I was at the height of my career. I was fully booked with weddings on weekends. I had a team working with me that I had employed. I had team meetings, I was leading them, running a business, being a mom, and my plate was very full.

Now, I don’t run that business anymore. I have closed my photography business. I have five kids. Their ages are 9, 7, 6, 3, and two months old at the time of this recording. My work now consists of raising my kids, running my household, homeschooling them. I do a homeschool/hybrid school so I homeschool them three days a week. Obviously I take care of the toddler and baby all the time, even when the big three are on campus. I keep this podcast going, purely out of this desire to speak life and proclaim God’s truth, His goodness, and His ways. That’s it. My work looks very different then it did at the start of this podcast.

Here’s the simple design that God laid out for work and play. Work hard for six days and rest one. That’s the simple design that God laid out for our work and our play. In every season of my life, when I am doing this and applying myself to His Word, life has this cadence that is so fulfilling. My soul feels like it gets this reset once a week during Sabbath that is so life-giving.

Looking back, I did not practice working hard for six days and resting one super well in the beginning of this podcast. I at least tried to. I talked a lot about it, but we didn’t truly honor the Sabbath as a family until a few years ago. Now, my life feels very different. It is different. It feels very different because we have really implemented that as part of our family culture and our family rhythm. Really, truly. Friday night we light the candles and enter this season of rest. Saturday, on Sabbath, we watch movies, lay around, and do what fills us up. Our kids look forward to it every single week. It’s so sweet.

I say all of that and I paint the picture from when I first started the podcast and where I am now because the more that I embrace God’s simple ways for how we should work, live, and rest, the happier and more fulfilled I am.

We went to an Andrew Peterson concert the other night. He came into town. If you don’t know Andrew Peterson, he is an incredible artist. He is a songwriter and a musician. He leads the Behold the Lamb of God Christmas tour and the Resurrection Letters Easter tour. He is the author of the Wingfeather Saga books. I’ve talked about that on this podcast before too. Anyway, he came into town and he sang a song I had never heard before. It’s called, “You’ll find your way.” It’s a song that he wrote for his son. I’m just going to read you a few of the lyrics from the song. It says,

“Keep to the old roads. Keep to the old roads and you’ll find your way. You’ll find your way. Go back. Go back to the ancient paths. Lash your heart to the ancient mast. And hold on boy, whatever you do, to the hope that’s taken hold of you. And you’ll find your way. You’ll find your way. The old roads lead to an open door and you’ll find your way back home, back home, back home.”

I love how he talks to his son about if we can just go back to these ancient paths; these old roads that God has laid out for us since the beginning of time, we will find our way. My work looked so different when starting this podcast. Three kids, running a business, leading a team, serving photography clients. Now my work is loving and caring for five kids, homeschooling three of them, managing my household (wow, that workload really increased), and speaking life through this podcast when I can. My play has changed too. I went from kind of scheduling it here and there, around my work and my life and calendar. It was hard when I had to shoot weddings on Saturdays. Now I’ve settled into this cadence of not just play. It’s true rest once a week. Predictable. Life-giving. Seasons change and the way that we learn and grow changes, but these old roads, these ancient paths don’t change. The more that we take hold of them, the more fulfilling life will be.

So that’s the heart of this episode. Wherever you are with your life, whatever season you’re in, whatever that looks like, whether you’re doing this well or not, I’m here to remind you that God’s truths never change. He laid out to work six days and rest one. When you do that, no matter what your life looks like right now, you’re going to have a healthier soul and a more fulfilling life.

My hope is that this podcast will be entertaining, fun, challenging, but my heart and hope is that it will always point back to the truth. To those rhythms that never expire and to the grace that will gently lead you forward no matter where you are as you listen to this.

2025 is going to be full of some fresh content. It’s going to be at a pace that works for me and my family. Mostly, my hope is that it will point you back to the ancient past; the truths of scripture, and that will fill your heart in a fresh way this year.

I’ll say it again because Andrew Peterson said it best.

“Keep to the old roads and you’ll find your way.”

Thanks for listening and I’ll catch you next time.

Subscribe on iTunes

tune in on Google Play

listen on stitcher