The Christian Habits Podcast

One of the things we tend to do during hard times is head to the refrigerator for comfort, excitement, or stress relief. The other night, the only thing that saved me from that was that I had no treats in the house–and didn’t want to go out to buy any with the coronavirus going around! To help with this, I thought I’d do a podcast episode on how to avoid gaining weight during the coronavirus. How to Listen to the Podcast: Click here to subscribe or listen on Apple podcasts Click here to subscribe or listen on Google Play Click here to subscribe or listen on Stitcher. Click here to subscribe or listen on Android. Click here to subscribe or listen on Spotify. Resources We Talked About on the Podcast: How to Truth Journal Routines vs. Schedules: How to Organize Your Time Other Resources for Procrastination My Interview on the Homeschool Sanity Podcast with Homeschooling Tips Facebook Live Videos (You can also watch replays of these by clicking on the previous link. Next week I’ll be doing daily FB Lives Monday-Friday at 1:00 EST) My Facebook Page I Deserve a Donut app Things We Talked About on the Podcast: Practical tips to help if you’re busier than normal Practical tips if you’re newly working from home Practical tips if you’re just experiencing the general stress of the pandemic These will be tips to structure your life to avoid emotional eating (which will help you avoid gaining weight during coronavirus) and also tips to avoid eating so much. Lies and truth that will help you renew your mind Lies We Talked About on the Podcast: Life is so boring and it will always be boring. I can’t make myself work at home. (We’ll have a FB Live on this topic next week.) I deserve to eat because life is boring. I’ll just eat something and then I’ll start working. I’m so busy I deserve a treat. I’m so busy I don’t have time to plan. I’m so busy I deserve to eat since I’m suffering like crazy while the rest of the world does nothing. (One thing I forgot to mention in the podcast is a big shout out and THANK YOU to all of you who are putting yourself in harm’s way to go to your jobs and help people! I appreciate all of you!) I can’t handle all this pressure. This will last forever. Why This Episode Is on Both Podcasts: Basically, it’s because I don’t know what I’m doing! Usually I  have a helper put these podcasts out, but she can’t do it right now due to the coronavirus, so I’m taking her place – and I don’t know what I’m doing. So I thought better safe than sorry, and I’ll just leave it as is – so enjoy it on either podcast (Taste for Truth or Christian Habits). It will be the same episode either way! The post How to Avoid Gaining Weight during Coronavirus appeared first on Barb Raveling.

Earlier this week, I was sitting at a restaurant in the Denver airport having a cup of coffee and journaling. I’d already sanitized my hands, checked the news for Montana (6 cases), and was wondering if I should sanitize my hands again since I’d just picked up the cream pitcher to pour cream in my coffee. As I took all these unusual precautions, I thought of you guys and wondered, How are you doing with coronavirus anxiety? Note: My fork is on my journal so it doesn’t pick up germs from the table! Are you in a frenzy? Taking precautions but not super anxious? Or are you blowing the whole thing off and living life as usual? No matter which camp you fall into, we’re all affected by Covid-19. Either we’re in immediate danger of the virus itself, someone we love is in danger, or we’re affected by all the closures. It’s no longer life as usual. On today’s episode of the Christian Habits Podcast, we’ll be talking about six tips for letting go of coronavirus anxiety, stress, and boredom. These are the tips we’ll be discussing: 6 Tips to Ease Coronavirus Anxiety, Stress, Fear, and Boredom (We’ll go into these more in depth on the podcast. Scroll down to see how to listen to the podcast.) Stay away from the news as much as possible (at least if you tend to be a worrier). Visit with God about the things you read. Renew when necessary. Plan your day. Place your trust in God–not fun, safety, health, or being in control. Every time you catch yourself being worried, bored, or stressed, pray for the person you’re worried about, thank God for five different things, or do something for someone who needs help. Facebook Live I’ll also be doing 3-5 minute Facebook lives for the next few weeks on Monday through Friday (and maybe Saturday) beginning Monday, March 23 at 11:00 EST. You can find these on my Facebook author page. I think if you click the like and follow button, notices of these FB lives will appear in your notifications (you can turn the notifications off if you don’t want to be notified). You can also catch the replay of these later by going to my Facebook page and looking in the posts for that day or clicking on videos on that page. During the FB Lives, we’ll be going through Philippians and discussing things like: Finding peace in the midst of chaos Not beating ourselves up when we’re not handling things well Persevering (and tips) for handling things better Loving each other Growth vs. grumpy Getting along with each other in close quarters (both in parenting and marriage) How to stop coping with food and internet How new trials such as coronavirus quarantine and potential illness affect our walk with God, our attitude, and our habits An antidote to worry How to dwell on the good Free Coaching and Daily Challenges At the beginning of each Facebook Live, I’ll let you know if I have any openings for coaching that day – and then you can leave a comment on the video if you’d like to coach. These coaching calls can be used for help with things like marriage, parenting, fear, anxiety, and procrastination. (I won’t be doing any weight loss coaching during those calls.) I’ll probably only have 5-6 openings each week but I’m hoping I can help a few of you at least. I’ll also include a daily challenge at the end of each Facebook Live based on the topic for that day. Hope to see you Monday morning on Facebook! How to Listen to the Christian Habits Podcast: To listen to today’s podcast, click on the links below: To listen or subscribe on Apple Podcasts: click here To listen or subscribe on Android: click here To listen or subscribe on Stitcher: click here To listen or subscribe on Google Play: click here To listen or subscribe on Spotify: click here   The post Coronavirus Anxiety, Stress, and Boredom: 6 Tips + Facebook Live appeared first on Barb Raveling.

Do you ever agonize over decisions for days or even years? Do you wait until the last possible moment to make the decision so you can keep your options open? Do decisions stress you out? If so, today’s episode of the Christian Habits Podcast will help. We’ll be talking about how to make decisions peacefully. I’ve also included a chance to renew your mind at the end of the podcast with the decision questions from The Renewing of the Mind Project for a decision you’re currently struggling with. Following are the 11 tips we’ll be discussing in case you don’t have time to catch the podcast. 11 Tips for Making Decisions Recognize that there are no perfect decisions. Often we head into a decision not just wanting to make a decision, but wanting to make the best decision possible: the perfect decision. Because there are no perfect decisions out there, we take forever to make the decision. After all, we’re sure that if we just wait long enough the perfect solution will present itself. It’s critical at the beginning of the decision making process to recognize that there are no perfect decisions. Each choice will have its advantages and disadvantages. That’s why the next tip is so important. Limit your options.  One of the reasons we have such a hard time making decisions is because we have too many options. If you can narrow down the choices, it will be easier to make the decision. For example, when my friend Lauren and I used to go over to each others house after grade school, one of us would choose three games to play. The other person would narrow it down to two, then the person who started would eliminate the other. It was an easy way to decide which game to play. Make a deadline for the decision and try to stick to the deadline. This is huge. Often we put off decisions for years that could easily be made much sooner. When we do that, we have constant low-grade stress hanging over us because the decision is always there in the background. If you don’t want to make the decision now, just say, “I’m going to keep going as is and then revisit this decision in a year.” Then don’t think about it until next year. Which leads to the next tip. Set a timer and only think about the decision when the timer is running. Too often we wear ourselves out thinking about the decision for hours on end. To avoid this energy drain, set a timer. You have x number of minutes to think and pray about your decision. When the buzzer rings, time’s up. No more thinking about the decision until your next decision-making session. Use helpful tools and ask friends or mentors for advice. Here are a few things you can do in your decision-making sessions: Make a pro and con chart. Answer the decision questions from the Renewing of the Mind Project. Ask some friends for advice. Ask yourself, “What’s my gut feeling?” These are all helpful ways to gain input. You can also use the decision making template or problem solving worksheet that I often use, which you can find at this link: Resources from Freedom from Procrastination Bible Study. Pray for a set amount of time. If it’s an important decision, you may want to make a commitment to pray about it for a few hours. I did this with the last book I wrote. I made a plan to pray for three hours before I chose the topic of the next book. I did this in 15 and 30 minute increments, often while walking. I felt far better about my decision than I usually do (and also didn’t quit writing it halfway through like I often do) because I took so much time to pray about it. That said, it’s possible you’ll pray for three hours and still not have a feel for what God wants you to do. This leads to the next tip. Recognize that God doesn’t always care what decision you make. God gave us free will at great sacrifice to Himself. Why? Because He knew we would use our free will to hurt others and ourselves. If He knew we’d use free will to hurt ourselves, and maybe even walk away from Him, why would He give it to us? I think He gave it to us because He didn’t want us to be perpetual teenagers. He wanted us to be free to make our own decisions. Often He’ll have some boundaries for us but will give us free will for us within those boundaries. So for example with marriage, He tells us not to marry an unbeliever (2 Corinthians 6:14), but He never tells us to make sure we marry the exact person He wants us to marry. I’ll expound more on this in the podcast. Renew Your Mind: When we take the time to renew our mind, we’re taking the time to see the situation from God’s perspective. Doing that often helps us realize that it’s really not that big of a deal what we decide. And for the important decisions, renewing helps us remember that life is about God–not about making perfect decisions. If you want some questions to help you see your decision from a biblical perspective, try the Decision Making and God’s Will questions. (We’ll be using these questions at the end of the podcast to renew.) Find out why you’re so obsessed with the perfect decision. When I renew, I often find I’m caring more about something than God wants me to care about it. If we’re stressed out by decision making, usually it’s because we want something: fun, success, comfort, approval, or even the best decision possible. The more we learn to make life about God, the less we’ll worry about perfect decisions. This leads to the next step. Remember that you don’t need to make perfect decisions (and have a perfect life) to be happy. Often we feel like we have to make the perfect decision so we can have the best life possible. But here’s the truth: The best life possible is a life lived with God–loving Him with all your heart, soul, and mind. And after that, loving your neighbor as yourself. And joy comes from walking with the Spirit, not having a perfect lifestyle, perfect spouse, perfect job, etc! That’s a super hopeful truth. Go ahead and make your best decision, but then let it go, knowing that you don’t need perfect decisions to have a great life. Make the decision and hold the outcome with open hands. Once you make the decision, embrace it! Dwell on the good of the choice you actually made. For example, if you decided to marry one person, don’t think about how great that other person was that you used to date. Following are 4 things to accept, which will help you embrace your decision. 4 Things to Accept About Making Decisions You can’t make everyone happy. Yes that’s sad, but true. Different people want different decisions. Try to ask, “What would God want,” since He’s the best person to make happy? You can’t always know God’s will. It’s important to ask God what He wants but we also have to face the fact that we can’t always know what He wants. I’ll expound more about this in the podcast. There are no perfect choices. Often we want the best decision possible, but here’s the truth: there are no perfect choices. I’ve come to realize that usually there are a few 90s but rarely a 100. Each option has a different 90 and a different 10. Choose your 90. (I talk more about this in the podcast.) Your decision may not turn out well. If it doesn’t turn out well, that doesn’t necessarily mean you made a bad decision. You just made a decision with what you knew at the time, which was incomplete knowledge. You also made a decision at your then-current maturity level. You might make a different choice now. Thankfully we know that God causes all things to work together for the good to those who love Him – so we can sit back, breathe a sigh of relief, and thank God that He can redeem anything! How to Listen to the Christian Habits Podcast: To listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts: click here To listen and subscribe on Android: click here To listen and subscribe on Stitcher: click here To listen and subscribe on Google Play: click here To listen or subscribe on Spotify: click here The post 11 Tips for Making Decisions Peacefully appeared first on Barb Raveling.

Do you ever feel like you’d like to start a new habit but you just can’t make yourself do it? In today’s episode of the Christian Habits Podcast, I interview Ian Warner, an expert on habit stacking. Ian created a habit tracking app. Interestingly enough, the number one positive habit that people want to build is reading the Bible each morning. Ian Warner is a follower of Christ, Olympic athlete, NCAA all-American, and the author of two books. In the podcast, he gives a wealth of information and ideas on how to use habit stacking to start habits that are hard to start. Here are a few of the things we discuss on the podcast: Tips for starting a quiet time habit. How to habit stack—adding the habits we want to start to the habits or activities we already have in place. The value of starting out small. Habit stacking during those difficult times of the days such as the 3:00 mid-afternoon slump. How to use rewards to get yourself to do new habits. Using times such as the morning “making-your-coffee” session to set yourself up for success. Resources we talked about on the Podcast: Ian’s App –  https://apps.apple.com/us/app/wewake-morning-routine-habits/id1445178269 Ian’s Book for Athletes – https://www.amazon.com/Endure-Athletes-Guide-Faith-Success/dp/0692232443/ref=sr_1_1?tag=habitstacker-20 Ian’s Website – https://thehabitstacker.com/ Ian’s Course – https://habitmastery.thinkific.com Freedom from Procrastination Bible Study I Deserve a Donut app How to Listen to the Christian Habits Podcast: To listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts: click here To listen and subscribe on Android: click here To listen and subscribe on Stitcher: click here To listen and subscribe on Google Play: click here To listen or subscribe on Spotify: click here The post How to Use Habit Stacking to Create Habits with Ian Warner appeared first on Barb Raveling.

On today’s episode of the Christian Habits Podcast, I interview Neil Anderson about gaining freedom in Christ. Neil Anderson is the author of many best-selling books including The Bondage Breaker and Victory Over the Darkness. He writes and speaks worldwide, helping people resolve personal and spiritual conflicts.   Here are just a few of the things we’ll be discussing on today’s podcast: What a stronghold is and how to break free from strongholds. The steps to freedom in Christ. Why it’s important to know who we are in Christ The difference between identifying ourselves as sinners saved by grace or saints who sin How unforgiveness affects us and why we need to forgive The importance of replacing lies with truth The importance of letting go of rebellion and submitting to God How the things we learn in childhood affect us. Tips from Neil Anderson Podcast Here are two tips I got from Neil’s podcast that I thought were super helpful: Go through the Steps to Freedom in Christ that are in his books. Neil said that if you want information, you should read the book. If you want transformation, do the Steps to Freedom in Christ with God because we need an encounter with God if we want transformation. Try reading through the “Who Am I in Christ” once a day for 30 days. Neil gave a great example on the podcast of a person who was transformed by doing this. Click here for a downloadable PDF: Who I Am in Christ Resources We Talked About on the Podcast Victory Over the Darkness Freedom from Fear The Bondage Breaker Freedom from Addiction A Way of Escape: Freedom from Sexual Strongholds Managing Your Anger How to Truth Journal Other Helpful Resources from Neil Anderson Great free resources from Neil’s website Steps to Freedom in Christ How to Listen to the Podcast To listen or subscribe on Apple Podcasts: click here To listen or subscribe on Android: click here To listen or subscribe on Stitcher: click here To listen or subscribe on Google Play: click here To listen or subscribe on Spotify: click here   The post Breaking Free from Strongholds with Neil Anderson appeared first on Barb Raveling.

A few weeks ago, I asked members of my Facebook page if they were afraid of failure. I was overwhelmed by the responses. It seems that I’m not the only one out there who fears failure! In today’s episode of the Christian Habits Podcast, we’ll talk about seven steps you can take to overcome fear of failure. But first let’s look at some of the things we’re afraid of. Examples of Fear of Failure Here are just a few of the examples Facebook readers gave of the areas where they were afraid of failure. Trying weight loss again after so many defeats. Messing up at work. Trying to be social and being or feeling rejected. Starting your own company and having it not work. Making decisions because you might make the wrong one. Deciding to resign and stay at home with the kids. Losing weight and then gaining it back. Raising kids. There’s no end to the things we could come up with in the fear of failure arena. Let’s take a look at how to overcome fear of failure. If you’d rather listen to this as an expanded podcast episode on the Christian Habits Podcast, click on the links below. Keep reading for the blog post version. To listen or subscribe on Apple Podcasts: click here To listen or subscribe on Android: click here To listen or subscribe on Stitcher: click here To listen or subscribe on Google Play: click here To listen or subscribe on Spotify: click here How to Overcome Fear of Failure 1. Find out what you’re afraid of and why you’re afraid of it. We can’t fight something until we know what we’re fighting. Thus the first step in overcoming fear of failure is to ask yourself, “What am I most afraid of?” and “Why am I afraid of that?” Naming your fear will help you take the next step which is to evaluate your fear. Here’s an example: I’m afraid whenever I publish a new book. When I ask the question, “What am I most afraid of?” my answer is that I’m afraid someone will write a horrible review on Amazon berating me up and down for how terrible my book is. When I ask the next question, “Why am I afraid of that,” I answer with “then no one else will buy my book” and “all of my friends and family will read the negative review and think I’m a loser.” I’m not the only author with these fears, but there are many who don’t feel this way. I was talking to one very successful artist a few months ago and he told me that every time he finishes a painting he thinks its great and that everyone will love it. By the time I finish a book, I usually think it’s terrible and that everyone will hate it. This is probably the main reason I’m so bad at doing book launches – I’m afraid to put the new book out there. Often our fears are shaped by our childhood. When I was young, I had two different experiences where I did something in a public way and got yelled at for not doing it perfectly enough. Thankfully, God has given us wonderful brains we can use to evaluate those things we believe and see if they’re true. This leads to the next step. 2. See if your fears are realistic. When we have a nameless fear it’s pretty easy to be convinced that what we fear will take place. But when we name it, we often realize that oh, that’s probably not going to happen. This is helpful. For example, when I tell myself there’s a less than 1% chance of my fear coming true, it’s easier to see that it’s ridiculous to worry about it. And easier to stop worrying. Let’s see how this works with my publishing example: Is it true that no one else will buy my book if I have a terrible review for it? No, that’s not true unless 1) all of the reviews for the book are bad or 2) there aren’t enough good reviews to counteract the bad ones. It’s also true that God is really in charge of all of this, not me, and my only responsibility is to do my best to write the book He wants me to write. The rest is up to Him. Is it true that all of my friends and family will think I’m a loser if there’s as terrible review? No! First of all, I would guess that none of them even read my reviews – and if they did, they’ll feel sorry for me and love me – not berate me and think I’m terrible. This is true for you guys, too. If you fail in a public way, people will still love you.  Most people will be compassionate and feel bad for you. People care far more about your character and how you interact with them than they care about how successful you are in some arena of life. That said, it’s still possible that people will judge you if you fail or that there will be other consequences of failure. That’s why we need the next step. 3. Hold success with open hands (or let go of your have-to-haves). We’ll never be able to let go of the fear of failure if we’re not willing to have our fears come true. When we set out to do something scary, there’s no “guaranteed success with the project” option. We have to step into the project knowing we could fail. Because of that, the more we hold success with open hands, willing to fail, the less scared we’ll be. It will be easier to do this if we take the next step. 4. Look at your fears from a biblical perspective. Here’s what happens when we look at our fears from a biblical perspective: we usually realize that we’ve been barking up the wrong tree. We’re either caring about things God doesn’t care about (like looking good in the eyes of the world) or caring too much about things God does care about. In my example, God just wants me to love people and serve them by writing. His definition of success is so much easier than my own definition because I’m successful each day I work on the book and the minute I publish it. Even if I get a million bad reviews and no one buys the book. I’m also successful even if I don’t write – which leads to the next point: 5. Find your identity in who you are rather than what you do. Try to remember that whatever you’re trying to succeed at – that’s just a little part of who you are. So for example in my case, I’m not only a writer. I’m a child of God. He loves me and created me as a unique person, different than everyone else. It can help to look at those differences because they’re part of who we are. So in my case, I’m not just a writer. I’m also an outdoorsy person who loves to hike and camp and backpack and kayak and ski. I’m a wife and a retired homeschool mom with four kids. I’m also a person who loves to read and play games. And I’m an extrovert who loves meeting new people and visiting with them. Writing is just one of the things I do, it’s not who I am. 6. Remember that the spirit-controlled you is better than the non-spirit-controlled you, but that’s a work in progress for all of us. It’s also helpful to remember that we’re all works in progress. Often our sinful and fragile human selves show through. People see things in us that are worthy of condemnation. They may speak those things and they may be true. But rather than beating ourselves up, we can go to God for comfort, strength, perspective, love and finally, for help to change those things that need to be changed. That’s why it’s so important to take this last step: 7. Keep your eyes on Jesus. As you work on your goals, try to remember that Jesus is the main goal. Hebrews 12:2 tells us to “fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Jesus knows what it’s like to experience failure in the world’s eyes. But his failure led to great success for all of us in being willing to come to God and have our sins forgiven. That’s what’s really important in life – not success with our projects. If God wants us to succeed, He’ll help us succeed. And if we don’t succeed, it’s not a big deal because Jesus is the our main goal. And we already have Him! More Help If you’d like more help to overcome fear of failure, check out the Week 5 Bible study in Freedom from Procrastination. The post How to Overcome Fear of Failure – 7 Steps appeared first on Barb Raveling.

How do you hold onto your faith when it seems like God has disappeared? Whether in struggle, illness, death, or failure, the presence of pain is often so overwhelming it can drown out God’s voice. On today’s episode of the Christian Habits Podcast, I visit with Michele Cushatt who offers hope and faith for times when life is so hard we can’t always feel God’s presence. A three-time head and neck cancer survivor, Michele is a (reluctant) expert of trauma, pain and the deep human need for authentic connection. Michele shares her story on the podcast and also helps us with the following questions: Why doesn’t God take away the pain? What do you do on the days when the emotional and/or physical pain feels devastating? How do you deal with the doubts about your faith that often accompany relentless pain? How do you deal with the fairness issue–when it seems like everyone else has great lives and you’re stuck with this hard life? What final advice do you have for the person who is suffering? Relentless, by Michele Cushatt Michele also discusses these questions and more in her new book, Relentless: The Unshakeable Presence of a God Who Never Leaves. Like the Old Testament story of Joshua’s altar of twelve stones, Relentless delivers twelve key biblical stories that demonstrate God’s unfailing presence. Each chapter offers an invitation to identify a “stone” in your own life as tangible evidence of God’s nearness. With the turn of the last page, you will have discovered twelve markers of your own, an altar of memory to carry you through questions and losses, even ones yet to come. Where to Find Michele Cushatt Online WEBSITE: michelecushatt.com SPEAKING: http://www.michelecushatt.com/speaking/ FACEBOOK: facebook.com/michelecushatt/ TWITTER: twitter.com/michelecushatt INSTAGRAM: instagram.com/michelecushatt How to Listen to the Christian Habits Podcast: To listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts: click here To listen and subscribe on Android: click here To listen and subscribe on Stitcher: click here To listen and subscribe on Google Play: click here   The post How to Hold Onto Your Faith When Life Is Hard with Michele Cushatt appeared first on Barb Raveling.

Do you ever feel like you have a million things to do, but you only have time and energy for about three things? Do you often ignore the important things in life because you’re too busy doing the million things in life? If so, you’re in the same boat as most of us. We’ve all experienced this at some point. The question is, “How do you stop feeling overwhelmed when you have a million things to do?” We’ll be talking about that today in the Christian Habits Podcast (but I’ve also included a summary below if you don’t have time to listen to the podcast). How to Listen to the Christian Habits Podcast: To listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts: click here To listen and subscribe on Android: click here To listen and subscribe on Stitcher: click here To listen and subscribe on Google Play: click here How to Stop Feeling Overwhelmed 1. Do the important things first. In Dr. Stephen Covey’s book First Things First, he gives an example of how to put a few big rocks and lots of little rocks and pebbles into a jar. If you start with the big rocks and fill in with the little rocks and pebbles, it works. But if you start with the pebbles and fill in with the big rocks, they don’t all fit. In like manner, when we focus our lives on all the little details, we ignore the important things we need to do (the big rocks) and that completely stresses us out. We can avoid that by starting the day with this question: What are the three most important things I need to do today? 2. Don’t let others choose your important things. Often we let other people answer that question for us. We’ll open an email and all of a sudden that email item is first on our list. We spend an hour working on it, ignoring our other to-dos, even though the email to-do wasn’t all that important. Or we’ll get involved in projects and goals that aren’t important to us–all because someone else wants us to do them or we feel like we should do them. Sometimes when we feel like we should do something, it’s legitimate. God wants us to do that thing too. But other times it’s not legitimate. It’s on our list only because others want it on our list or because experts tell us we should do that thing. This happens on a daily basis, but it also happens on a monthly and yearly basis. If you look at your life, you may find all kinds of things in it that don’t belong there. Not because they’re bad things, but because we don’t have time to do them. 3. Eliminate the things that don’t belong on your list. Sometimes we’re overwhelmed because we’re procrastinating or not managing our time well, but other times we’re overwhelmed because we really do have too much on our plate. We’re trying to fit too many huge rocks into that quart-sized jar. When that happens we need to take a close look at our lives and visit with God about what to keep and what to eliminate. If you need help with this, I have a chapter on reducing overwhelm in my Freedom from Procrastination Bible study. 4. Don’t let the little things distract you. This happened to me when I was writing this blog post/podcast. I had the outline all ready and turned on my computer to start typing. Then I thought, I wonder if I’ve ever written on this topic before? So I did a search, and sure enough, I had a blog post on it. I started reading it, wondered if that outline was better, and before I knew it, 15 minutes was wasted. This happens to me all the time, and I’m guessing it does to you too! We have so many options for distraction these days, it’s not even funny. Since a whole post could be written on how to focus, I won’t go into that here. Just be aware that this is something to think about and keep reeling yourself back in when you find yourself being distracted. 5. Go to God for help.  Last but not least, we need to go to God for help.  Philippians 4:13 tells us, “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” Here’s the problem, though. When we read that verse, we have a tendency to focus on the “I can do all things” part of that verse, and we use it as proof that we can do all things. We forget that the important part of that verse is the second half: “In Him who strengthens me!” It takes time to go to God for strengthening, just like it takes time to go to the gym for strengthening. We don’t get strong by walking into a gym and looking at the weights; we get strong by walking into the gym and interacting with the weights consistently and time-consumingly. It’s like that with God. The more we interact with Him and actually take the time to develop a habit of relying on Him–the more we’ll be able to do, because He will strengthen us to do it. So what does that look like on a practical basis? For me, it’s taking the time to renew my mind when I feel like I can’t do the next thing on my list. God speaks truth to me and strengthens me, and by the end of our visit I actually feel like doing the next thing on the list. If you’d like some help with going to God for that strengthening, see below. Freedom from Procrastination Bible Study Online Classes If you need help with the relying part of your relationship with God, I’ve just published a new Bible study called Freedom from Procrastination that will help you develop the habit of relying on God for your daily to-dos. I’ll be teaching both an evening and a daytime class with the study beginning the week of November 4, 2019. For more info on those classes, click here: Freedom from Procrastination Classes The post How to Stop Feeling Overwhelmed – 5 Steps appeared first on Barb Raveling.

On today’s episode of the Christian Habits Podcast, I’m excited to have Tricia Goyer with us. This will be the last podcast for the next few months as I’ll be taking a break from both the Christian Habits Podcast and Taste for Truth Weight Loss Podcast over the summer.   Tricia Goyer is a woman I could sit down and visit for hours with because I feel like she has so much wise advice. We talked about both productivity and parenting in this podcast and I’ve been thinking over one of her tips on productivity (the 80/20 rule) ever since I recorded the interview a week ago. We talk about productivity first on the podcast and then parenting. Here are a few of the things we’ll be talking about: How the 80-20 principle can help you get more done. How to be productive in a house full of kids (Tricia has ten kids and has published 70+ books. I can’t even begin to imagine that!) How to calm angry kids. Why angry kids want to see you get mad as well. How the 80-20 rule can help you in parenting as well. What it’s like to live in a house full of kids. Why God wants us to get out of our comfort zone. Some of the things we struggle with when we get out of our comfort zone. How God can help us grow when we get out of our comfort zone. Resources we Talked About on This Podcast: Tricia Goyer’s book Calming Angry Kids Tricia’s website Tricia’s Podcast: Walk It Out Podcast Tricia’s Facebook Page How to Listen to the Christian Habits Podcast: To listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts: click here To listen and subscribe on Android: click here To listen and subscribe on Stitcher: click here To listen and subscribe on Google Play: click here The post Productivity and Parenting with Tricia Goyer appeared first on Barb Raveling.

Do you ever feel like you’d like a little help with some area of your life? If so, consider starting a “renewing of the mind project.” We’ll talk about what that looks like and how to get started on today’s episode of the Christian Habits Podcast. This podcast will be a little different than my normal as I’ll be the interviewee rather than the interviewer. I’ll be sharing a recent interview I did with Jodi Aiken on her podcast, Pennies from Heaven. Jodi Aiken is a writer, podcaster, and speaker. Raised in a small South Carolina town, Jodi grew up in a non-Christian religion, the youngest of five children. She understands and desires for others to know that trusting God with the past, present, and future is essential to living free in Christ. She is a “mom” to two adult sons. Thirty years of marriage to her husband Chris have provided countless adventures, including life as a military spouse, a police officer’s wife, and now the wife of a pastor. Resources Mentioned on the Podcast Jodi’s podcast: Pennies from Heaven Jodi’s website Jodi’s Instagram The Renewing of the Mind Project How to Listen to the Christian Habits Podcast To listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts: click here To listen and subscribe on Android: click here To listen and subscribe on Stitcher: click here To listen and subscribe on Google Play: click here The post How To Do a Renewing of the Mind Project appeared first on Barb Raveling.