[SPEAKER_00]: Hello, and welcome to part in the mess.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm your host, Scarlett Hiltabidal.
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like I have a calmer vibe about me today, this intro, because I just took a sip of tea and I got very little sleep last night.
[SPEAKER_00]: This whole day has been kind of not what I planned on it being.
[SPEAKER_00]: So my vibe is a little more neutral on this summer day.
[SPEAKER_00]: I hope that's okay with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I hope that you are also taking a sip of tea.
[SPEAKER_00]: I hope you're not recovering from a sleepless night.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you guys, I'm happy to be here.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are deep into the summer time.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is summer, and that's the name of this episode.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's summer is long.dot.dot, what do I do with my kids?
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm really excited about this episode, because I had this question of myself.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had to do research for this episode, you guys.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not just sharing personal stories today.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had to do deep research to get good ideas about summer.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want this summer to matter.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want us to have purpose.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want
[SPEAKER_00]: to be intentional.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want it to be fun for my kids.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want the plans, excuse me, that I make.
[SPEAKER_00]: for my family to work out.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want all these things, but I struggle with being intentional, I struggle with rhythms and routines.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so not only am I really excited to just share some of my research with you, moms, but I'm also excited because I had a very special guest on our messy mom moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: She actually just left.
[SPEAKER_00]: She is one of my brand new real-life Texan friends since we moved here last year.
[SPEAKER_00]: and our daughter's your friends.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I've kind of kind of watched her do this so well just have intentional rhythms and fun things and also deeply spiritual things that she's teaching her family just by living them out.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've got to observe this as a new friend all year and so I was so excited I thought of her immediately and so I'm excited for you guys to get to learn a lot from her so anyway.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what we're doing today.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to talk about finding joy, finding purpose, and Jesus in these ordinary, long summer days, as we are anticipating, the fall, I don't know if you're like me and my kids, like we're so excited when summer's coming, and we're so excited in the beginning of summer, and then by the time we get about here, whenever you're listening, it's like, okay, we're ready.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're ready for the regular life stuff to come back.
[SPEAKER_00]: So maybe you're asking yourself, how am I supposed to keep my kids entertained?
[SPEAKER_00]: for the rest of this month, what am I supposed to do?
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you're feeling pressure to make every day magical.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't usually live there, but it's funny.
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, this always happens when I'm planning to talk about something.
[SPEAKER_00]: publicly and point to Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: I usually, for some reason, have to end up struggling with it like within 24 hours of recording.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just a thing that I have noticed is happening.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was thinking, oh, this will just be a fun, helpful episode for moms.
[SPEAKER_00]: But today, of course, today, I'm having a rough day as I had this really great summer day planned out for one of my kids.
[SPEAKER_00]: And a few things went wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I ended up saying to her,
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being I have to go to this ice cream social that with my class meet up.
[SPEAKER_00]: And one being, oh, I don't even want to go at all attending.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've got to be there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, where are you on the scale?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I don't know if we can squeeze that into our day.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I wrestled today with feeling stretched to thin, feeling like, oh, I'm going to let this one down, because I'm sleepless from the baby last night.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he didn't go down for his nap at the right time.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I had this other plan to record the messy mom moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I threw this plan off for this kid.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't want to ask the teenager to babysit.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, man, I could keep going.
[SPEAKER_00]: You guys, I could keep on rambling with the spiral of mom guilt that was attacking my brain today.
[SPEAKER_00]: Guys, it's hard.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are juggling.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you have one kid.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you have seven.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you're like, oh, Scarlet, you have four.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's nothing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Try juggling seven.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you're listening to thinking that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Listen, we are all juggling.
[SPEAKER_00]: and we are all tired sometimes drinking our tea and yeah it's hard man and we might accidentally miss the beautiful warm-undane looking moments that are right in front of us.
[SPEAKER_00]: So a couple weeks ago or maybe it was a week ago we talked about different or maybe it's next week.
[SPEAKER_00]: Whenever it's going to air somewhere soon we are going to be talking about different ways of schooling and I was sharing from my own experience I have homeschooled some we have done some public school and we've done
[SPEAKER_00]: I have experienced as a mom all the different types of schooling and one thing that I love about homeschooling and I'm no longer homeschool mom.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have one kid that I have homeschool.
[SPEAKER_00]: She does a hybrid.
[SPEAKER_00]: Two in full-time Christian school and then the baby's with me.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the one that I homeschool, I still have a taste to this.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I was like full homeschool for a while and something that I loved about it and that I miss about it is there's like it kind of in a way feels like an endless summer in that there is so much unstructured time.
[SPEAKER_00]: and you have the freedom to structure it how you want to structure it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, the discipleship that can naturally happen as you, you know, rollerblade or, you know, whatever thing you're doing in your homeschool day, it's just your, your way less likely to feel like you're having the squeeze discipleship into the day in between shoving people around and your way more likely to just feel the freedom to have these long conversations about God and what it's you doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so anyway,
[SPEAKER_00]: all this to say, this episode is not about homeschooling, it's about summer.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's about discipling, discipling our kids.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's about just fun ideas so that we can make memories.
[SPEAKER_00]: So back to the mess.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you might be tempted to believe if I do enough, everything's going to be great.
[SPEAKER_00]: My kids will have an amazing childhood.
[SPEAKER_00]: They'll super love me.
[SPEAKER_00]: They'll never need to go to a therapist.
[SPEAKER_00]: They'll they'll always look back with just fond memories of life in our home.
[SPEAKER_00]: Man, don't I, of course, of course I want my kids to look back with fond memories of life in our home, but the gospel reminds us and please let the sink into your heart as I am preaching the gospel to myself today.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our children do not need a perfect childhood.
[SPEAKER_00]: We cannot create that for them.
[SPEAKER_00]: They need parents who faithfully point them to Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, that's what they need.
[SPEAKER_00]: They need to know that we love them, that we are with them and
[SPEAKER_00]: that God is with them.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so that's our job.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, before I get to talking and sharing ideas and before we get to the scripture focus and all that, I want to just bring in our messy mom moment segment because there's so much goodness here.
[SPEAKER_00]: So let's talk to Anna.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hi, everybody.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is my friend, Anna Van Dyke.
[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to Pardon The Mess.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for having me.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is so much fun.
[SPEAKER_00]: She's actually in the home studio right now, which I've only done with my daughters.
[SPEAKER_00]: So this is extra fun and special.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a real Texan friend that I've made since I moved to your in August.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was telling her that I'm doing this episode about summer fun, and I just love her family and how fun they are.
[SPEAKER_00]: and they have like a bunch of family lore and traditions and stuff that they do because she's so intentional and she's also like watched one of my kids because our daughters are friends and when that kid comes home she's like mommy here's what Laurel's mom did she did this and then this and then this is what they do on Tuesday mornings and then this is what they do and i'm like this is so fun and but she's not like but she's like so free spirited about it so i just thought this is the perfect person to have on this episode so okay first question tell our listeners
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, first of all, I think that's a really polite way to say that we're weird.
[SPEAKER_01]: But we are, but in a fun way.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're okay with it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, I have a husband.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've been married 14 years this summer.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just crazy about him and two kiddos and 11 year old daughter and an nine year old son and we've lived in Tyler for 12 of our 14 years and have a sweet community love our church and sweet sweet friends like like scarly we get to meet their school and
[SPEAKER_00]: You're the best.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're not weird.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're unique and wonderful.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's why I like you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: So here's my real first question.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love these things I just said about you.
[SPEAKER_00]: So as we're talking about summer and being more unscheduled, you and I have daughters in this homeschool hybrid thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we get our kids, some of I get some of my kids, you know, in the school year more than someone who would be sending their kids away.
[SPEAKER_00]: but I would say all of us do have more unstructured time, probably most of us in the summertime.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I would love for you to just whatever lore and traditions you are willing to share with a bunch of people, just to give people like me ideas because I don't have as many of these things.
[SPEAKER_00]: Please just share some of these fun things you do as a family.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, hmm, I feel like the first thing I should say is I'm the kind of person that doesn't love like a packed schedule of like baseball this this this this like we don't we don't seek out a lot of big scheduled activities, but we do love a routine so for example, what's today.
[SPEAKER_01]: Tuesday.
[SPEAKER_01]: So on this day, we have like a standing normally, but now this is this is what's happening, which is great, is like a standing play day with a certain friend.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we don't know what we're doing, but we know we're seeing those friends every Friday.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have deep clean Friday.
[SPEAKER_01]: We do clean our house.
[SPEAKER_01]: We all have our own jobs.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then the kids get to pick where we eat out.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's super exciting for us because we don't eat out very often.
[SPEAKER_01]: We love tea time.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have tea time after rest time every day.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have rest time every day.
[SPEAKER_01]: Even though the kids are
[SPEAKER_01]: older they like to read and I need some introvert time normally right there in the middle of the day when they were little it was nap time but now that they're bigger we do rest time and then have some tea fried a night we watch a movie I don't feel like that's that uncommon but we love I love closing all the curtains and locking all the doors and we put on her cozy clothes and we either make pizza ourselves or we order pizza man what are other things that we do all sorts of just
[SPEAKER_01]: like little traditions that we, but in the summertime, we have something every day kind of slated, but it's not like this is what we have to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like, well, normally we're invited to every Thursday, we get to go swim at supergrams swimming pool and she's so generous and she lets us swim there.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's a sweet way that we fill our days, but they're flexible at the same time.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's what I love about you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I've gotten to be a guest at Tea Time.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your house report, and it was so lovely and fun.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's so helpful.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love that answer because those are like simple, doable things.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, like you said, you're not really biting off more than you can chew scheduling-wise, but you have an expectation for every day.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's like your kids aren't just sitting there board.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know we go to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, this takes it in a little bit of a different direction, but something else I love about you is that a lot of your time is filled with serving the people around you.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you live near a lot of your family members.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I know you help like with your sister when she's at work, you'll take the cousins, take care of your niece and nephew or your two nephews.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I know you take up a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little
[SPEAKER_00]: neighbors to doctors appointment sometimes because I've been like, hey, do you want to do this thing?
[SPEAKER_00]: And you be like, oh, I'm taking someone to a doctor's appointment.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I've just observed this about you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think it's really beautiful.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think it's a huge lesson to your family and to my kids who are like, oh, that's why we can't play with them today.
[SPEAKER_00]: That you are spending your time loving others.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I guess my question is,
[SPEAKER_00]: have your kids are long for the ride in that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Have they noticed that about your family or noticed that that's unique?
[SPEAKER_00]: Do they ask about it?
[SPEAKER_00]: Or maybe they're too young and it's like this is life and they're going to get older and be like, oh man, it's really cool that my parents were like the hands of feet in Jesus in these like
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, like simple ways, like your tea time and jammy's on the couch time, it's like very doable ways.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's just rhythms in your life.
[SPEAKER_00]: So my question is, have your kids noticed.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what are those conversations look like?
[SPEAKER_00]: And if they haven't noticed, tell us more about that.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a good question.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a hard question.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think what we talk about.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is on a good day, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because we all have like, this is, this is our goal, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: But then life gets crazy and, you know,
[SPEAKER_01]: things can unwind kind of quickly and then you're just surviving.
[SPEAKER_01]: Somehow you switch to survival mode, but I think if we have a relationship with Jesus and we have the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_01]: then every day is kind of an adept like it is.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we have routines that we plan and then things come up and it's like so and truly that's also my personality type a little bit is a little bit like oh what's happening right now and so I think like my sweet first born who really likes a plan.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm like okay Lord, poor thing but but I think I think we love it and like
[SPEAKER_01]: my daughter who's 11, she told me the other day, hey, I really want to make it a point to go see our sweet neighbor who's 86.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to see her at least twice a week.
[SPEAKER_01]: And she goes over and she visits with her and she's like, you know, I just see that she could really use company.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think goodness, you're so sweet.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, like, I'm so, I'm so thankful that she has that kind of intentional time where my son will say, hey, can I go sit on the porch with
[SPEAKER_01]: They do seek out people, but it doesn't feel like a burden because they're so like everyone is so wonderful in our lives.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like it's such a gift to have sweet neighbors or like my sweet grandpa who lives with us who's 91, you know, things get derailed sometimes because he wants to stop in or he, you know, he wants me to help them understand a piece of mail that should, you know, and so it's like the interruptions are kind of just part of the adventure and we
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, it's not really, it's not even an interruption.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just a gift to get to be flexible with your day.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so, again, routine, but not really a schedule.
[SPEAKER_00]: Does that make sense?
[SPEAKER_00]: Totally.
[SPEAKER_00]: What I'm hearing is you're not saying, okay, kids, now we are going to serve Jesus by visiting this elderly neighbor.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're just doing it and you're finding joy in it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so then your kids are seeing it and doing it and finding joy in it on their own.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's like the whole thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's like, that's the whole thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's the parenting advice for the week.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our kids are going to learn so much more by seeing us joyfully serve Jesus and love people than us saying, okay, this is our now doesn't mean you shouldn't have scheduled love people time or tell them hey, this is why we're doing this thing, but I think that's such a
[SPEAKER_00]: Radiant beautiful.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's just awesome.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Amanda, you are the perfect guest, and thank you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for sharing your wonderful wisdom and fun.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will ask you to come back.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't have to say yes, but I will ask you to come back.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, okay, thank you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks for having me.
[SPEAKER_01]: This has been so fun.
[SPEAKER_01]: Goodbye.
[SPEAKER_00]: Wasn't that great you guys?
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, I'm so grateful for Anna and for her example of not just like, you know, do digestible doable fun rhythms that you can incorporate into your family that make it like, it's Tuesday, it's two, it's tea time, whatever it is that you do.
[SPEAKER_00]: Whatever your version of that is, not only that, but I just also loved getting to talk to her about her quiet acts of service in her neighborhood.
[SPEAKER_00]: with people in her church and in her family that lives close to her, like I love that she just does that and that her kids just also naturally do that and maybe someday they'll meet more people and they'll be like, oh not everybody lives like this but I love that they're already finding joy in serving others.
[SPEAKER_00]: Man, and it's like, we have more time to do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have more time to serve in front of our kids.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that sometimes I might over communicate the things that we're doing, because I really, really want my kids to understand, okay, kids.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, this is why, this is why we're doing this.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that that's valuable too.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I also think there's so much value in just doing what the Bible says, because it's, and of course, showing them, this is what the Bible says.
[SPEAKER_00]: But just doing it, and then it working, like the Holy Spirit working in you,
[SPEAKER_00]: and producing that joy and excitement.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like even Anna talking about, well, I have so many lovely people that I get to love.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, that's just, she's full of the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: So of course, that's how she's going to view the people that she's serving.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just think it's super beautiful.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there's value in just doing it in front of your kids and letting them learn naturally and pointing them to the source, pointing them to Jesus, and then watching Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: do that same thing through them.
[SPEAKER_00]: How cool is that?
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that's so cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so let's get to our scripture focus today.
[SPEAKER_00]: Two places I want to look, we're going to kind of look at a story in the Bible, but first I just want to look at this one verse.
[SPEAKER_00]: Colossians 317 says, and whatever you do in Word or indeed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it is very natural, like if you go on vacation or travel,
[SPEAKER_00]: I remember when I was younger and I'd be like, oh, I don't want to pack a Bible.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's too heavy.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is before Bibles were on our phones.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I would just notice like, oh, man, did I spend any time thinking about Jesus or talking to him?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I didn't have my Bible on my nightstand and I was somewhere else.
[SPEAKER_00]: I remember having that feeling.
[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, summer time is similar, even for us adults, it's like, especially for us moms who are just kind of like running the home, the kids are here.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't have, for those of us who drop our kids off at school, we don't have the drop-off time and then kind of the calm that comes after the drop-off time when the house is quiet or quieter, if you have a baby like me, you know.
[SPEAKER_00]: It might, summer might feel like a pause in your spiritual life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And, man, it's such an opportunity.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not a, it shouldn't be a pause.
[SPEAKER_00]: We shouldn't view somewhere as like, okay, we'll get back to Jesus when all the programming returns.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that's super easy to fall into.
[SPEAKER_00]: But summer is actually an opportunity where like every walk around the lake and every popsicle and every sibling argument and grocery store run can be an opportunity to have more time to talk
[SPEAKER_00]: the things of God and like the things of God like on earth as it is in heaven like living for eternity living in light of eternity today with the people around us like it is so much easier in the summertime to be able to talk through those things with our kids.
[SPEAKER_00]: So let's say you have a conversation with a neighbor and maybe that neighbor doesn't believe the same way we believe and they say some things and it's sort of rushing to soccer practice
[SPEAKER_00]: your maybe you like you know Anna has built in you know couch time or tea time or whatever it is maybe you have your morning walk time with your family or rollerblading time or scooter time and you're able to kind of like untangle
[SPEAKER_00]: what they saw, what your kids saw or witnessed and talk through that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, okay, well, here's what this neighbor believes, you know, what do we believe about that?
[SPEAKER_00]: And just not only teaching your kids what is true about God and his word, but also teaching them what it looks like to interact with people who don't agree in this world.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, there's so much more time for that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And even just simple discipleship, like spiritual disciplines, helping your kids learn to do that on their own.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have been good friends with some people who like,
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, this is the kids Bible reading plan and they must do this.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's almost like they are expected to do this.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then there are other people who say, I want them to come to those spiritual disciplines on their own as the Holy Spirit leads them.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think either one of those things are wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think be led by the Spirit and how you shepherd your kids toward that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I do think summer is a super, you have more time to be intentional about
[SPEAKER_00]: you know showing them what that can look like and you know our church sent home this kind of these posters with one of my kids who's one of the younger ones and it had kind like a kids Bible reading plan with a chapter a day and then it had another one that was a verse a day and one of my kids had started out the summer like oh I'm going to do this Bible read I've never done a Bible reading plan and she's a believer and then so she started off doing it and it got she got behind and I remember being this kid being this adult I
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's time to bend that long since I've been the adult, where it's like you plan on doing this thing with Jesus, you plan on reading through the Bible in a year or whatever it is doing this one six day Bible reading plan on whatever it is.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then you get behind and then you're like, well,
[SPEAKER_00]: can't really catch up now so I guess I'll just quit and I kind of saw the wheels turning in her head and I was like hey I was like you don't have to stay on the calendar that you know you can just go back to where you just pick up where you left off like the point is being with Jesus it's a gift we get to be with him you don't need to worry about checking the box.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, what she ended up doing, which I think was great was she switched from the chapter day to the verse today chart because she was like, I think I can keep up with this better.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was like, great, I just love that you are going to God's word every day, that you have a little chart, that you're making time for it and being intentional about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, stuff like that, that is just simple.
[SPEAKER_00]: stuff we can teach our kids and giving them grace and helping them have grace for themselves when they missed a day like I think that's super valuable and I think that's a gift that we get in the summertime and we don't have to wait.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't have to wait for the Bible teachers to bring back the the rhythms okay okay but here's the main so that was just a verse which is whatever you do in word or do you do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus like everything we do in the
[SPEAKER_00]: We have more time to talk about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: We just do, we're all together.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, here's the story I want to still get.
[SPEAKER_00]: Luke 10 versus 38 through 42, this is the Mary Martha story.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think this is so valuable to look at as we talk about our summers.
[SPEAKER_00]: Martha and Mary, I'm just gonna read it to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: First 38.
[SPEAKER_00]: While they were traveling, he entered a village and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home.
[SPEAKER_00]: She had a sister named Mary, who also sat at the Lord's feet and was listening to what he said.
[SPEAKER_00]: But Martha was distracted by her many tasks, and she came up and asked, Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to serve alone.
[SPEAKER_00]: So tell her to give me a hand.
[SPEAKER_00]: To Lord answered her, Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but one thing is necessary.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mary has made the right choice and it will not be taken away from her.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so two sisters, the same house, or I don't know if they live in the same house, but there's sisters, that's what the Bible says.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mary chose what mattered most.
[SPEAKER_00]: She was worshiping at Jesus' feet.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now does that mean Martha was wrong for serving Jesus?
[SPEAKER_00]: No, of course not.
[SPEAKER_00]: When we serve others, I mean I just talked to my friend Ann about this, like her serving her neighbors and her family is a beautiful, beautiful act of love and a beautiful opportunity for her to share the gospel and the love of Jesus with other believers and people who are not believers, like service is a super important aspect of loving one another.
[SPEAKER_00]: But Martha was distracted by many things.
[SPEAKER_00]: So when I picture Martha, I picture the mom, the mema of this morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: Me, me as a mom, I picture myself distracted by the schedule and the ice cream social and I'm going to record the podcast and the baby's got an app at this time, but he was up all night.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was distracted by many things and it was taking my joy and it was taking my love.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as I
[SPEAKER_00]: tried to get my family ready for this day.
[SPEAKER_00]: I noticed that I was feeling overwhelmed and upset and not full of love and not full of joy and not full of peace.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: That's where Martha was in this moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: So she had become distracted by serving.
[SPEAKER_00]: Instead of simply being with Jesus or just serving him out of love, another thing I want to point out about what Anna said.
[SPEAKER_00]: She was talking about having her routines in her family but having flexibility.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like they usually play with a friend today, but I said, hey, do you want to cut me on the podcast?
[SPEAKER_00]: And she had the flexibility to say, yes, I will go talk about Jesus on this podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: So like, if we get too married to our plans
[SPEAKER_00]: not the main thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: If we have a routine that's really good for our family and we love the structure and it's good for us and it's healthy and it's a way that we love others.
[SPEAKER_00]: If we get too married to it, we can become like Martha and get distracted and then, you know, it's not, it's like the verse that says,
[SPEAKER_00]: if you say you have love, but you are acting, you are serving without love.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're like a clinging symbol.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like love isn't love if it's not loving.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you understand what I'm saying?
[SPEAKER_00]: If we become so focused on making summer perfect or memorable, we will forget to actually enjoy the people that God gave us.
[SPEAKER_00]: These people that we want to love and serve our families, our neighbors, our friends.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like we're supposed to, we're not supposed to.
[SPEAKER_00]: We get to enjoy them.
[SPEAKER_00]: when you are so loved.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are so loved by God.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are for we are so loved.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hold on.
[SPEAKER_00]: For God, so loved the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are so loved that hold on.
[SPEAKER_00]: For God, so loved the world, that He sent His only Son.
[SPEAKER_00]: What in the world?
[SPEAKER_00]: My brain can't even remember John 360, and that's how tired I am.
[SPEAKER_00]: forgot so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe we shouldn't cut any of that out you guys.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a perfect example of my mom brain.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have so many versions of that Bible verse memorized that I couldn't get through it one time without looking at it because
[SPEAKER_00]: The King James is jumbled with the ESV, which is jumbled with the NIV and the CSB, and I'm on no sleep.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, part in the mess, messy moment, relieving the sin, okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: God loves us so much that even when we can't remember the verse, the simple verse, the classic verse, that tells us he so loved us that he sent Jesus to die for us, and that all we have to do is believe.
[SPEAKER_00]: And all we have to do is trust him.
[SPEAKER_00]: All we have to do is worship him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And sometimes that can feel like the hardest thing in the world to do, because we get so distracted.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, think about Mary and Martha both loved by God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mary was sitting and enjoying and worshiping and Martha was distracted by trying to be the right kind of servant.
[SPEAKER_00]: She was distracted by herself.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let us serve, let us worship like Mary and let us serve like Martha if she wasn't distracted.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, let's do that for our families.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus never says, come to me after you've been the perfect summer mom and created the perfect magical memories.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says come to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: All who are weary and I will give you rest.
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember, our children don't need perfect summers.
[SPEAKER_00]: They need moms who know Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: because mom's who know Jesus and walk with Jesus will naturally point their children to him, just like my friend Anna.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know she's intentional about tea time.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know this, her tea time was amazing.
[SPEAKER_00]: We had coffee, black coffee was so good.
[SPEAKER_00]: She made cookies, it was awesome.
[SPEAKER_00]: She's intentional, but also,
[SPEAKER_00]: She is naturally loving and serving, because she has been so loved and so served by the God of the universe.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what we can do the summer as moms.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, to the practical part you guys, I had a friend in Nashville, and she did a summer fun list with her family every summer, and she took like a big, what is that paper that's super big that rolls off of a big roll, whatever that's called?
[SPEAKER_00]: But you're a paper?
[SPEAKER_00]: No, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: She would take, she would cover a wall with paper, and then they would make a summer bucket list basically.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it would be simple stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: It would be like, go to the library story time, depending on the kids' ages.
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, splash pad, go berry picking, go out for snow cones, catch a firefly.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm looking at this list.
[SPEAKER_00]: I found the on the internet.
[SPEAKER_00]: backyard picnic, lemonade stand, write a letter to missionaries, make a care package, go to the farmers market.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, here's some summer faith ideas.
[SPEAKER_00]: How great is this?
[SPEAKER_00]: Read one gospel together as a family.
[SPEAKER_00]: Memorize one verse together each week.
[SPEAKER_00]: Prayer walk around the neighborhood.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, I'll see what else.
[SPEAKER_00]: Practice hospitality by inviting another family over.
[SPEAKER_00]: read a missionary biography before bed.
[SPEAKER_00]: The list goes on you guys.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can type into the internet, give me some summer fun list ideas, and it'll just go on and on.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you're using robots, guys, if you're using a how you can say, I didn't like those.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can you give me more?
[SPEAKER_00]: Can you give me some Texas-based summer fun list ideas?
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot of ways to have fun, and then there's also a lot of ways to be intentional, and there's a lot of ways to point your family to Jesus,
[SPEAKER_00]: to not feel the pressure to entertain every minute.
[SPEAKER_00]: But that is a burden that God never asked us to carry.
[SPEAKER_00]: The gospel reminds us that Jesus is the perfect Savior, and we do not have to be perfect summer planners.
[SPEAKER_00]: The gospel reminds us that our children need his presence more than to be constantly entertained.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it is in our power to point our kids to Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember that the Holy Spirit is going to grow your kids.
[SPEAKER_00]: through thousands of tiny moments that might feel mundane.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I hope we make really great memories.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're planning to go on a little mini-texification as a family and explore, since we're new around here.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I know that like days like today, what is it a Tuesday?
[SPEAKER_00]: Just a regular Tuesday where we went to take the dog to get groomed, and we saw a friend, and we canceled the ice cream moment, and the baby got off track with his nap.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like these are the moments.
[SPEAKER_00]: that are shaping our family and our kids, and it would be such a waste if we were like these days don't matter.
[SPEAKER_00]: The days that matter, the planned out vacation days, like, no, it all matters, but also the pressure is off because our job is to point to Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So our kids, they're going to remember how home-felt, they're going to remember,
[SPEAKER_00]: If their mom laughed, like, let's be moms that laugh, probably 31, so we can laugh without fear of the future.
[SPEAKER_00]: We can do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, sometimes we're going to figure the future because we're human beings, but we can laugh without fear of the future because our future is secure.
[SPEAKER_00]: So they're going to remember if we laughed, they're going to remember if we ever apologized when we had a mommy meltdown.
[SPEAKER_00]: They will remember if they saw us or heard us pray, they're going to remember if Jesus seemed real in everyday life, if he was a priority.
[SPEAKER_00]: in our home.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, they're going to remember those things.
[SPEAKER_00]: So let's chase those things more than chasing the perfect summer plants.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I hope this was encouraging to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was way encouraging to me, especially on this day of of exhaustion.
[SPEAKER_00]: For those of you who are watching, here's Baby James, sleeping peacefully.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wish he had done this last night.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I'm grateful.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm grateful that I struggled with this today because I think it helps me to
[SPEAKER_00]: you know, be more empathetic and it helps me to remember how media I am.
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, thanks for being here you guys.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you enjoyed today's episode, please share it with your friends and I'll see you next week.