Work and Play with Nancy Ray

The key to success is contentment. I mean, think about it—if you can find a way to truly be content, to be happy in every circumstance, wouldn't it be awesome? Every day it would be incredible. I mean, we'd wake up so grateful and so happy because we're content! This episode is about fighting for contentment with simple habits in our lives. Habits that can help us pause and realize just how good we have it. Habits that help us to live at ease and to live content. Now, for those of you who just started the Contentment Challenge, you can do this! I hope this is going to be encouraging to you. And if you're listening and have no idea what I'm talking about, it's a challenge I host every year to give up shopping for things for three months, it's saying a temporary goodbye to Amazon Prime and Target and instead, focusing on the things that bring true contentment and fulfillment. It started January 10th, but the beauty about the Contentment Challenge is you can do it any time of year when it works for you. Head to nancyray.com/contentmentchallenge, where you can learn all about it. For the full show notes, head to nancyray.com/podcast/141. Resources from this episode: The Contentment Challenge Kid's Worship Playlist

This episode is going to be a fun one. I firmly believe before we can look ahead and move forward, we need to pause and look back, and this episode is going to do just that. It's going to be all about 2021. The things that happened in my life that were highlights, experiences—I recommend trips that we took, books that I read, things I tried and liked, and more. Here is the best of 2021! For the full show notes, head to nancyray.com/podcast/140. Resources from this episode: Blackberry Farm Up From Slavery, Booker T. Washington's autobiography Episode 103 - Book | Up From Slavery The Gospel Comes With a House Key, by Rosaria Butterfield Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens @shaycochrane @brooke_gantner @cameronfaye_ @naptimekitchen Olive & June nail polish Blog: Benji's Birth Story Blog: Children and the Passing of Time, by Emily Thomas Joanna Gaines' mac and cheese recipe The Contentment Challenge 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!

Hello and happy new year! I am so excited to be back, to be bringing you some fresh episodes of the work and play podcast moving forward, and to start this year off on the right foot, encouraging you in your work and in your play. Happy 2022! For the full show notes, head to nancyray.com/podcast/139. Resources from this episode: Take the Work & Play Podcast Survey! Take the Contentment Challenge Nancy Ray Book Club

Listen, we all struggle with social media. It is an incredible tool of connectivity, but it's literally designed to keep us scrolling, even when we don't want to be. Now in my best moments, I've connected with people I've never met. They have brought me hope or encouragement in a time I have desperately needed it. But in my darkest moments, I've thought some pretty terrible thoughts about myself as a wife, or a mother. I've wanted to escape a messy house or crying baby, or even worse, I haven't wanted to escape those things, but I've been scrolling none the less. I want to say is that technology isn't good or bad. Social media isn't good or bad, it is simply a tool. Just like money can be used to bless other people, and you can help eradicate poverty, do amazing things with money. Or you can spend it on some pretty terrible things and fuel addiction. Just like you can use bricks to build a hospital or a foundation that helps people in need. Or you can take a brick and throw it through a window and bring destruction. It's just a tool, right? Money is a tool, bricks are a tool, social media, technology, they're tools that you can use. It's not good or bad, it's how we use it or how we choose to use it that determines its outcome. With that said, it's incredibly important for us to know that this is just a tool, but it's also important for us to understand how it has been designed and refined over time. I want to enhance your understanding of its design, so that you can be aware of it and take responsibility for your life and your scrolling habits. It can be helpful. It can provide income. It can be addictive. It can be a trap. Today, I want to talk about simple practices that I have found incredibly life-giving to keep social media in its place. For the full show notes, head to nancyray.com/podcast/138. Resources from this episode: A Good Podcast Episode on the Subject BBC Article: Social Media is 'deliberately' addictive The Tech-Wise Family, Andy Crouch Digital Minimalism, Cal Newport Steelie phone car mount Nancy Ray Book Club

I have three quick things for you before I dive into a very brief, but hopefully very encouraging episode for you today. First, would you head to nancyray.com/survey to help me make this podcast even better for you next year? Listen, I choose the episode content based on three things: 1) what I believe God wants me to say, 2) what I'm learning, and 3) what you want me to talk about. And since I'm off social media and can't ask you there, this is the way I'm able to ask you, what do you want me to talk about next year? So I would love for you to head here to let me know. And I appreciate it so, so much. It should only take a minute, it's just a couple of questions and thank you in advance for doing that. Second, the Contentment Challenge is starting again on January 10th! Head to nancyray.com/contentmentchallenge to learn more and sign up if you want to be part of that. And the third thing is my book club. You can see the books I'm reading for 2022, and you can join in with me on some of them or all of them or none of them, or you can just see what I'm reading next year if you want. Whatever you want to do, it's very casual, but you can head to nancyray.com/bookclub to check that out. And now for the shortest podcast episode of 2021, I hope this encourages you and is just what you need today. For the full show notes, head to nancyray.com/podcast/137. Quick links from this episode: Work & Play Podcast Survey Contentment Challenge Book Club Nancy's Email List

What is the Contentment Challenge? In a nutshell, it is a commitment to giving up shopping for clothes, accessories, household decor, stuff, really anything excessive, for 3 months straight in order to focus your heart and your mind on the root of true contentment. It's also a commitment to replace shopping with activities experiences and relationships— the things that really matter in your life. We live in a world where money seems to kind of fly out of our bank accounts with the simple push of an Amazon button on your phone or the irresistible one spot at Target. We keep buying more and more to make us happy, but does it really? Does it really foster a deep, centered posture of joy and contentment? A few years ago, God asked me to give up shopping for 3 months straight and at first I was not happy about that. This episode is all about that journey and the profound difference that it's made in my heart and in my life. The simple act of abstaining from shopping for extra things for a short amount of time opened my eyes wide to the weird way that I was living life is a consumer and it revealed the actual way that I want to live—full of gratitude and Grace. I have actually taken the Contentment Challenge many times over the years, and in this episode I share the three things I learned during my most recent time through (Jan-March 2019). This also includes a lot of our financial story. Some of which, quite honestly, hurts my pride a little to share, but I pray that God can use it to benefit you! I hope this episode causes you to pause and think about your own life and how content you are today. Who knows? Maybe you need to take the challenge, too. For the full show notes, head to nancyray.com/podcast/136. Resources from this episode: Take the Contentment Challenge (begins Jan. 10, 2022!) Dave Ramsey's 7 Baby Steps Making Things Happen Conference Philippians 4:12

Taking a long-ish break from social media has been on my heart for quite some time, and having Benji, our fourth child, just seemed like the perfect time to do it. So when he was born at the end of July, I decided to go off social media completely for six months. I'm currently four months in—and yes, Benji is already four months old, which I cannot wrap my mind around—but this episode is all about what I've learned in the last four months from my social media sabbatical so far, I can't wait for you to hear it. For the full show notes, head to nancyray.com/podcast/135. Resources from this episode: Minted Holiday Cards The Tech-Wise Family, by Andy Crouch Work & Play Cornerstore Some of these links are affiliate links, which means I do receive a commission when you choose to purchase through them, and that helps me keep this podcast up and running—I truly appreciate when you choose to!

I have an invitation for you today: choose the courageous thing and slow down. It's time to live a simpler, slower life than the one that you're living. Does that feel impossible? Does it feel like it just cannot happen for you? Do you feel scattered and a bit out of control? I know sometimes I do. Maybe you feel like your life can't actually change right now because of work, kids, or a schedule that you really can't change. Well, friend, I have good news. Even though your life can't change, you can. You can change. The feeling of living out of control and always in the chaos can absolutely change because you can always change. For the full show notes, head to nancyray.com/podcast/134. Resources from this episode: FREE DOWNLOAD: 5 Steps to Creating Calm Amidst the Chaos Shauna Niequist The Effective Executive, by Peter Drucker Psalm 86:11 What's Best Next, by Matt Perman 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!

I recently shared the news that after this year, my twelfth year of business, the doors of Nancy Ray Photography will close. This was one of the hardest, most difficult decisions of my life. I love this work, I am going to miss this work, but the bottom line is this: God gently made it clear to me that this season has come to an end. This was a massive decision for me personally and for my family, and it all started one year ago. Today, it feels like I've turned the page into the next chapter of my life. Now, I'll be honest, I could've kept going. Part of me really, really wanted to just keep going. I was good at it. I was confident in it, but this quote from Richard Blackaby explains why I'm letting it go: "Our problem as leaders is we do everything we know to do. That's not enough. We need to do everything God wants us to do." That says it all. I just know that in order for me to everything that God wants me to do, I need to let this go. I simply know that God wants me to do something different. I'm going to walk you through how I got to this point and how I finally made the decision and how I listen to God's voice every step of the way. I'm going to share some questions, some hard questions, that I had to ask myself and I'm going to ask these questions to you, too. So I'm going to start this episode by asking these questions and hopefully as I share my story, you're going to understand a little bit more about what those questions mean. And as I finish the episode and come back and ask these questions again, maybe you'll have a fuller understanding about where you are today. My hope is that as I share how I navigated this huge decision, you'll hopefully walk away with some helpful tools for he next time that you step into a new season, too. For the full show notes, head to nancyray.com/podcast/133. Resources from this episode: The Seasons of God, by Richard Blackaby Lioness Arising, by Lisa Bevere Ecclesiastes 3 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!

I am so excited to bring this special episode with Emily Ley back to the Work and Play podcast today. She is one of the most authentic people I have ever met, I kid you not. She's been a friend of mine for several years now. I've watched her grow as a mom, as a business owner, but she never loses that on authenticity. Every time I hang out with her, she makes me cry, and it's not in a bad way. It's because her heart for life, her heart for her people, it moves me. She really wants the right things in life. She's doing something really wonderful with her work and her play. For the show notes, head to nancyray.com/podcast/132. Resources from this episode: Emily Ley's website Emily Ley on Instagram Simplified on Instagram When Less Becomes More, by Emily Ley Listen to the first chapter of Emily's new book for FREE! Naptime Kitchen Deep Work, by Cal Newport