Episode 319: Become Spiritually Strong
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[00:00:00] You are listening to episode 319 of the Peaceful Mind Podcast.
Welcome to the Peaceful Mind Podcast, a place for creating the peace of mind. You need to be the best mom you are created by God to be. If you want to bring more balance, more joy, and more peace to your motherhood, this is the place for you. I'm your host, certified life coach at Catholic Mom Danielle Thienel.
In the name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Let's get started.
Hello, my beautiful mamas. Welcome back to the Peaceful Mind Podcast and to part four of our strength series. So far, we've explored becoming mentally strong, emotionally strong, physically strong, and today we're diving into one that holds it all together, becoming [00:01:00] spiritually strong. If you are a mom who loves God and desires to keep growing in your faith, but you've also got laundry piles, dinner to make, and maybe your toddler just dumped out the goldfish crackers on the floor while you are reaching for your Bible, then I just want you to know you're in the right place.
This episode is about strengthening your spirit. In the real life that you live, not the perfect one you think you need before you can draw closer to God and become stronger spiritually, of course, if that is something that you're desiring to do. So let's start right here with this question. What does it even mean to have spiritual strength?
To me, it means you decide it [00:02:00] matters to you. You decide. It's a decision. So you would decide that being spiritually strong is something that you want to pursue in this season of life, not because you have to, not because someone told you to. Because you know that it makes your life better when you're deeply rooted in your faith as all things.
I try to remind you here, it's not about being perfect. That won't happen. Perfection doesn't happen here in our earthly experience. It's not about doing everything every day and having all the boxes checked off in regards to your spiritual practices. It's about where your focus is, and the truth is, it will drift sometimes.
So if you are not feeling [00:03:00] like your spiritually strong, then nothing's gone wrong here, it's just, oh, my focus wasn't on creating that strength spiritually. And that's part of the human experience for to happen to all of us when it comes to things we want and goals we're pursuing.
But every time you choose to bring your focus back to God, every prayer, every surrender, every Lord, I need you whispered in the chaos you are building spiritual strength. Just like the physical or the emotional strength that we talked about. Spiritual strength grows like you build muscles through reps. Again, I'm using this example, but think about how we build muscles in our bodies.
You don't start with a hundred pound weight. You start small, you repeat, you rest. You challenge yourself again, and the same goes here. [00:04:00] You're not failing. If you've been inconsistent, you're not less spiritual. If you forgot to pray this week, what matters is that you come back to it, that you choose it again.
Again, there's that you decide and discomfort, like anything that you are pursuing is part of the process. Resistance will show up. Your brain will try to talk to you out of quiet time. Or you'll feel too tired to attend that group or read that passage, but when you lovingly meet that resistance and then show up anyway in some form or fashion, you're growing stronger.
Let's talk about what I've learned a little bit on my own journey and also the women I've coached spiritually strong women aren't women who have it all together. [00:05:00] They're women who have a relationship with God that they've intentionally chosen to nurture. The ones who are strong spiritually, we have learned how to stop letting guilt run the show.
We don't make ourselves wrong for how much we're doing or not doing. And we've all let go of the myth that spiritual strength looks a certain way. So do you fall into these categories? Are you letting guilt run the show? Are you making yourself wrong for how much you're doing or not doing when it comes to your spiritual spiritual wellbeing?
And are you believing that spiritual strength must look a certain way? Maybe it's a daily rosary. Maybe we wanna be journaling with God. Maybe it's simply stopping to say, thank you, Lord, during the day, or while [00:06:00] you're driving to school pickup, right? All those little simple things, it all counts, and I'm wondering if some of you are already doing that and discounting it, or if you aren't doing that, then this is a beautiful reminder, right?
What we do is decide what matters to us, right? Do we want to be in a conversation with our creator? Do we want to shape our life around the values that reflect his love? And are we giving ourself grace as we follow this journey and path to become Spiritually stronger? Let's get a little practical.
So here's a few tools to help you build your spiritual strength. If you've found that, what I have [00:07:00] just said before is helping is just like birthing some in something in you that maybe you haven't put any attention to. And I want you to know what I'm offering here in these tools. I try to be as practical as possible because I want you to know you can do these things even within your full life.
So this is how I start and I'm offering and inviting you. And that is to start with a check-in. On a scale of one to 10, my clients know I love to use this as a way of helping your brain focus in on where you are. Think of a scale from one to 10, right? Where one is I am extremely spiritually weak, which 10 is I'm extremely spiritually strong.
On that scale, how spiritually strong do you feel today? Not to judge yourself, just to gain awareness and just to see and declare where your [00:08:00] current location is, where you are. And then second, we want to then, wherever we've decided, let's say you're, you say, I'm a four, and then you wanna get to a nine.
Okay, so now you've gauged where you are before you venture into moving from a four up the scale to a five and a six. I want the next step is to just ask God for help. You literally say, Lord, help me reconnect. Show me where to begin. I want this, and I would love for you to be guiding me. And then the next step is to choose one small thing.
What is it? Is it finding a devotional book that you like. Is it to write things you're grateful for in a gratitude journal? Is it that you're gonna have silence for [00:09:00] three minutes at some increment throughout the day? Is it writing a couple of your scriptures and posting on the fridge so that you can, see it and remind yourself and then say them?
Is it mass? Is it church? Is it service that you want to start attending or something within the week or within your faith practices, that is something that in your mind would increase your spiritual wellbeing, some activity that you want to then add.
Then step four. I'm gonna ask you to let go of the manual. You've heard me talk about on the podcast before about having a manual, and that is all of those lists of shoulds that you've accumulated for yourself in order to be spiritually stronger. So we wanna stop [00:10:00] thinking that it has to look like maybe somebody else's version of what it is to be spiritually strong.
Again, we wanna analyze our shoulds and we wanna question those, and we wanna redecide. Whatever you decide for yours is enough. And then five, we've got to lean into grace, especially as we try and increase and become stronger into something. We have to remember our humanness. We have to remember that we're fighting our lower brain all the time.
We want to be light on ourselves. You are not stronger when you're hard on yourself. You're stronger when you're honest, when you're humble, when you're willing to fail and mess up and start again when you're willing for it to be just a little messy and wobbly as you like. Go to explore what can help you become spiritually stronger.
I want [00:11:00] to just remind you that we can anchor our spirituality in the promises and the word that God has already provided for us, and that is in the verses of scripture, especially when your faith feels shaky, this can be a go-to place to become stronger. I love these three verses that help me feel stronger, and that is, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
This literally one says it in it, right? I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me when I need courage to do hard things or to stay committed to a goal, that is my go-to. I love Romans 8:31. If God is for me, who can be against me? Yes, that's a question. [00:12:00] But when I take my mind there, my answer is always like no one, nothing can be against me.
God is for me. So when I feel overwhelmed by life, when I feel opposition, certain circumstances that wanna take me away from, my spiritual wellbeing activities, I'm like, if God is for me, who can be against me? And this helps just refocus getting back to the activities that will build strength. And my last favorite scripture that anchors me, especially when life feel shaky, is come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest, which is in found in Matthew.
Because when I'm spiritually tired, when I'm emotionally drained, if I'm unsure on what's to do next, that one right there, I'm just, I know I can hand it over to him. I know that he's ready and that he tells me right there, he's give it to me and I will give you rest in [00:13:00] exchange. And I always remember this and I want you to remember it too.
Mamas, God sees your efforts. He knows your intentions, he knows he sees your heart, right? And so if you are just doing, if it's there, if that desire to connect with him more and to grow spiritually, and to get spiritually stronger, is there then he, even if we do allow ourselves to get distracted even when we fall short in that pursuit he still sees it.
He sees it, and he knows what your heart is thinking or feeling. And so I would love to invite you all to create your own spiritual strength plan. It's just as if you were gonna get stronger physically then we need a plan. Like what, [00:14:00] what are what are the actual exercises and what are the actual reps?
And when make a plan too for your spiritual strength. Ask yourself the simple question of what's one way I can draw closer to God this week? What does being spiritually strong look like for me right now? How can I make that doable? I love these empowering questions that put your focus into becoming spiritually stronger Again, I'm gonna repeat those questions.
What's one way I can draw closer to God this week? What does being spiritually strong look like for me right now, and how can I make that doable? If you're feeling stuck, I want you to explore what spiritual strength might look like with support. So if it might mean going outside of yourself. It [00:15:00] might be like a fellow person of your faith that, it might be putting yourself into some activity that church offers, and it might be asking support of either a spiritual director or even a life coach like myself.
And that's exactly what I can help you with and would love to help you with if you decide to put a focus on becoming spiritually stronger. We can do that on a Peaceful Mom Strategy Call, so be sure to look in the show notes on how to connect with me in that way. We'll look at what's working in your spiritual wellbeing and spiritual strength life right now.
What's not working and where maybe where your soul is nudging you to grow. And that could be of any of these strength series, mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. And that's what I do. And I also want you to know that I have, if you all connect it in the show notes for any of you who don't know.
I have a my own a devotional that I've created for you all. [00:16:00] It's called Happy, Healthy, and Holy, and this one will help you grow spiritually. It's a book that every day. We'll have a scripture passage, a little reflection from me, a prayer and a positive. Focus for the day. So if you're, this is a beautiful place to start a tangible way.
And if you think that would, it just takes a few seconds. Like it can even take you 30 seconds to a minute to, and if you are doing that on a regular basis, you could be telling yourself, I'm working on getting spiritually stronger. If that's something that sounds, good to you. Then just check out the show notes and I'll link there to where you can purchase that book.
But you probably are already stronger than you think, and I hope that. If you are listening and you're like, I am doing these things, I feel [00:17:00] great spiritually. I'm really high on that scale then. That is amazing. I hope this has encourages you to keep going. And if you've listened to this episode and you're like, yes, this is something I'm not, doing as well as I'd like to right now, that I hope that this episode gave you a little motivation and inspiration to start.
Maybe some thoughts that, oh. It's not as hard as I'm was making it out to be. Alright everyone, that is what I have for you today. Again, thank you so much for being here. Please share this episode with somebody else who you feel like might benefit from it. And I'm gonna see you next week as we finish up our series, our strength series, with the final episode becoming financially strong.
Alright, until then, keep showing up. Keep leaning on Grace. And for everyone I wish may peace be with you always. Thank you so much for tuning in to today's [00:18:00] episode of the Peaceful Mind Podcast. If you found value in today's episode, I'd be so grateful if you could subscribe and leave a review. It not only supports the podcast, but ensures you don't miss out on future episodes packed with insights and tools to create peace of mind in your busy mom life.
And if you're of the Catholic faith, like me or any Christian mom seeking to feel better in any area of your life and to show up more calm, connected, and confident, I can help become an empowered mom who knows how to bring about the changes you desire, no matter the circumstances.
Whether you need one-on-one guidance to get there, prefer a group coaching program with like-minded women, or a self-study course I've got you covered. Explore my private one-on-one packages. Join my Busy to Balanced group life coaching program or delve into my signature course Divine Time. To find out which path is right for you, let's meet and see what's the best [00:19:00] fit.
Schedule a free call with me at daniellethienel.com or send me a direct message on Facebook or Instagram @daniellethienelcoaching. And also don't forget to get your copy of my book, the Cyclone Mom Method, How to Call on Your God-Given Power to Remain Calm, In Control, and Confident as a Busy Mom. Dive into the digital and bonus audio version when you go to book.daniellethienel.com/new-book.
You'll find all the details in the show notes too. Until next time, peace be with you always.
