The Proverbs 31 Ministries Podcast

Kaley Olson: Welcome to the Proverbs 31 Ministries Podcast, where we share biblical truth for any girl and any season. I'm your host, Kaley Olson, and I'm here with my co-host and friend, Meredith Brock.

Meredith Brock: Hi, Kaley. So great to be back with you today. We've got something really exciting in store for our listeners, so I'm gonna go ahead and introduce our guest right away. Some of you might recognize her from the podcast episode I taught a couple months back. Our friend, Lisa Allen is here with us today. Welcome to the show, Lisa.

Lisa Allen: Hi, guys. Thanks for having me today.

Meredith Brock: It's good to have you back.

Kaley Olson: Yes, we're so excited for what you have to share with us today, Lisa. But before we let you dive into your teaching, I want to take just a minute and give a quick shoutout to all of our listeners who have left a review on iTunes or shared on social media using the P31 Podcast hashtag. Whenever we started this podcast earlier this year, we really just wanted to bring the same conversations we have in-house here at Proverbs 31 Ministries to you, our listeners. Our hope was that you would be able to take what the Lord is teaching us and apply it to whatever season you're facing in your own life, and whatever season of life that you're in. God has been so faithful to do just that in the short months this podcast has been around, and we are so expectant for what He's continuing to do.

Meredith Brock: That's right, Kaley. When we're faithful to God's calling and step forward, He really does do immeasurably more than what we can do on our own. Lisa, you're giving a teaching today called “Making Room for the Assignment God Has for You.” I know personally, hands down, you're a woman who lives this message out day in and day out. I can't wait to hear what you have to share with us today. Why don't you take it away?

Lisa Allen: Thanks, Meredith. I don't know that I live it every day, but I sure do try. It's easier said than done. Well, today I want to talk about making room for the assignment that God has for us. There's four things today I want to talk about that help that we make room for, and conveniently they all begin with the letter C.

Meredith Brock: Love that.

Lisa Allen: We couldn't tell earlier whether it was an acronym or an acrostic. I think we decided—

Kaley Olson: Or an alliteration.

Lisa Allen: Alliteration, that's it.

Kaley Olson: Somebody out there—

Lisa Allen: Someone knows.

Kaley Olson: Some English major—

Lisa Allen: Please comment. Let us know.

Meredith Brock: That's right.

Lisa Allen: But they're all the letter C. There's four things we're gonna talk about in order to make room for the assignment God has. Number one is our connection with God. Number two is our confidence. Number three is our calling. And number four is our capacity. This message was birthed out of Hebrews 12:1 and 2, which is a very familiar passage that I have loved for years and years. It says, "Therefore, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles us, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith." Now, of course you know, when you see the word therefore, what do you have to do?

Kaley Olson: See what it's there for.

Lisa Allen: See what it's there for.

Meredith Brock: That's right. Look at you guys.

Lisa Allen: I know. I don't even have a seminary degree. I figured that out so far.

Meredith Brock: That was very clever.

Lisa Allen: I try. I try. So therefore, in light of chapter 11 in Hebrews, which is the heroes of our faith chapter.

Meredith Brock: That's right.

Lisa Allen: In light of that, considering the heroes of our faith from Hebrews 11, "Who died without receiving what had been promised. With that as our lens, then let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles." Now let me pause and say, this is where my learning started for the making room message. You see, I used to read this that, "Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin," as just one thing. Everything that hinders me is a sin. And it wasn't until I separated those two things, when God said there's two things. First and foremost, we have to keep our sin accounts short. We have to lay aside the sin, because that interrupts our relationship with God, our hearing from God, our being able to make an impact on His account, on His behalf. So of course, we have to lay aside that. But there's also things that hinder me. That is a reminder for me that it doesn't necessarily mean they're sin, but I have to begin to make room for the assignment that God has for me. So, that's where this whole message started from.

Then, after I lay off all those things that entangle us, then let us run with perseverance the race marked out before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. See, the race is our calling and it's through fixing our eyes on Jesus that we have that connection to God. And also our confidence and we have to create that capacity to run that race. Let's jump in and look at the first C, which is our connection to God.

True story. I hate having to even share this because this, I feel like half the people are gonna just check out and say, "Blah blah blah. Of course we have to have a connection to God." It's not like that. You see, I believe that a calling requires a Caller. In other words, there is a connection that we have to be able to spend time with God. A lot of us that are listening, everybody in this room, and a lot that are listening, we do ministry as a lifestyle. That means either part time or full time. Maybe you're blogging or maybe you're even just leading a Bible study or volunteering in your church. But what happens is sometimes we get confused because we get in God's Word for that ministry, but we don't often take enough time to make that connection, to make it for us.

So, I get up early in the morning. I grab my coffee. I grab my dog. I open my First 5 app or my online Bible study, whatever it is I'm studying. I start to feel awake. I start to feel connected to God. I start writing notes in my Bible. I start journaling and then it happens. I think, "I should post this." Or, "I should make a graphic for this." Or, "I should open my next Bible study up with this." Or, "My sister-in-law needs to hear this." Now, I've broken connection with God in that moment. When that happens, I've broken connection with God. Now in fact, I might need to do all of those things, but too often I break connection before God is finished and before I'm filled up. So what I like, when we connect with God, we fill up. He is our power source and He fills us so that we can pour over.

I look to Jesus as the perfect example who did this when He was pursuing His assignment, His calling that His Father, in Luke 5:15, it said that He was preaching and He was healing people of their diseases. Two parts of His calling, preaching and healing. Then in Luke 5:16, the very next verse, it says, "But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places to pray." You see how He did the calling, but He made the connection to His Father. Then in Luke 22, we see Him in the Garden of Gethsemane, facing His ultimate calling, to shed His blood on the cross for you, for me. And what was He doing in the Garden of Gethsemane? He was connecting to His Father. He was filling up with the strength to walk the calling toward the cross on our behalf. So, we need to tenaciously guard that connection, that intimate relationship. We need to resist the urge to post it, blog it, speak it and lead with it. At least I do, until we're fully filled up.

We bring our empty cup each and every day before Him, and we let Him pour into us and pour into us like Ephesians 3:19 says, "That you may know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." He wants to fill us. That word, fill to the fullness, means “made complete.” And then that's when we're ready to go start our day. That's when we're ready to go pour back out. I like to envision it like the glass of water that we have right in front of us. If I filled my empty cup all the way to the full with water, all the way that you could not get one drop more of water in that glass, no matter what brushed against that glass, fresh water would splash out on anything that passed by.

I like to think about that, that when I finish with my connection to God in that early morning time, of course we stay connected all day long, but anything can brush past me. I can have a little discussion, so to speak, with my husband, and instead of empty Lisa spilling over, I can splash Jesus on him. What would happen if we filled up that full? We need to make room for our connection to God. That's our first C, if we're going to make room for the assignment that God has for us.

The second thing is we need to make room for our calling. Now, whether you call it your calling, your dream, your purpose, kingdom work, each of us has something God wants us to do with our lives that will impact His kingdom. It could be mentoring kids. It could be serving in your community. It could be just leading a PTA meeting, might be what it is. Some of us have been called. Maybe you feel nudged, sent, directed, pulled. Maybe even you feel dragged into it. But we have some work that God is calling us to do. The reason I love the word “calling” is the root of the word “call” in the New Testament is the word kaleo, K-A-L-E-O. That literally means a divine summons or a divine invitation.

You see, the Lord of this universe has divinely invited us into a calling, into some kingdom work, and it makes me think of this past spring's royal wedding. Did you guys watch the royal wedding, either of you?

Meredith Brock: I watched it after the fact. I didn't get up that early.

Lisa Allen: We had no choice after the fact, right? It was on all the news channels.

Kaley Olson: It was everywhere, right.

Lisa Allen: But I thought about that when Harry and Meghan got married. I thought about this invitation, the word kaleo. I thought, what would happen if I had actually walked to my mailbox and pulled out a golden-embossed invitation to that wedding? You know what, I would have RSVP-ed yes so fast, and I would have figured it out along the way. How would I get there? What would I wear? Where was I gonna stay? I think sometimes with our calling, we want to be perfectly ready and prepared and have it all figured out before we say yes to it. And I want to really challenge us to say yes to the work that God has laid before you and figure out the rest along the way. God will lead us. That we need to RSVP yes on the way.

So, think about that invitation as something the Lord has invited you to do on His behalf. Maybe start a Bible study in your corporate office, in your board room, or mentor teens, or build wells in Africa, or run for the school board. Who knows? It doesn't have to be ministry. It's your specific calling that, God's imprinted in your life. But here's a couple of things that I have had to pay attention to when I pursue making room for my calling. You see, we have a ministry kingdom calling that we're talking about, but we also have a role that the season of life we're in demands of us. Let me explain that.

Our calling and our role will always hold hands. Some of us have a role to be a mom. That role ... I have a role to be a mom, but my kids are grown, so my calling to be a mom looks differently than your role as a mom.

Meredith Brock: That's right.

Lisa Allen: Because Meredith, you have little kids.

Meredith Brock: Right.

Lisa Allen: So, you're still giving them baths and reading to them and helping them with homework and everything.

Meredith Brock: That's right.

Lisa Allen: So, can you see how making room for the calling that I have for ministry might look different than yours?

Meredith Brock: Yes, very different.

Lisa Allen: But we have to pay attention to the role that this season of life requires of us because that will hold hands with our calling.

Meredith Brock: That's right.

Lisa Allen: So, it might be that your role might be to be a wife. Now, I'm called to be a wife. All three of us in this room are called to be wives. Sometimes our marriage is like a honeymoon, and that role looks completely different than that sometimes that act of just them breathing is irritating. Do you know what I mean?

Meredith Brock: No, I don't.

Lisa Allen: I know that's not you guys. That's probably just me. Sometimes our role to be a wife will actually call us to sit in a counselor's office and fight for our marriage.

Meredith Brock: That's right.

Lisa Allen: And what I'm saying to you is if we get so busy making room for our calling that we don't pay attention to the role and let those two things hold hands, we might have a published book or a lot of followers on Instagram or whatever it is, but we might have a dead marriage.

Meredith Brock: Mm.

Lisa Allen: And so whatever it is for you, for me it's aging parents. You know, the role to do ministry holds hands with being the only daughter here in Charlotte, and I don't want to miss the opportunity to be able to invest in these golden years of their life. I don't want to miss those nightly calls when I drove home from Pilates with my mom. Because some day I'm going to pull that phone out and I won't be able to call her.

And so that's what I'm saying. So, you have to say, you have to trust God's timing with these things and trust the way God is bringing your ministry calling along with the role.

And so, pay attention to the season you're in. It's just like milk in your fridge, there are certain seasons that have an expiration date. So, what is it that you have? God is always calling us to pay attention, but He's also equipping us for our calling while we're doing our role. So, while you're rocking those babies, I promise you, you're going to be a better writer if you rock those babies. He's equipping you for that somehow in His infinite wisdom. Or if we're sitting on the marriage counselor's couch working on our marriage or finishing your master's degree, or whatever it is.

So, ask yourself this question, what does my role in this season of life require of me? And then trust that God will allow it to hold hands with your calling.

But, we can't ignore our calling all together because while we're rocking those babies, our calling is also what pulls us off the couch. You know what I mean? It gives us purpose, it gives us passion, it gives us direction, it gives us focus and intention. I always like to say that your role is what is required of you sometimes, but your calling will give you passion and it's what you can do when you're tired. It's what you can do to go beyond yourself. It's not tied to a paycheck, it's not tied to a title, you know, that's why it's so important that we continue to make room for this calling.

So, after you figure out what season of life of you're in, what do you have to do to make this a no-regret season in the role that God has called you to, and then adjust your calling around that role?

So, we learned how to make connection, make room for our connection to God, how to make room for our calling, and then the third thing we need to make room for is our confidence. We need to make room for our confidence.

Confidence in God and who He has created us to be. Now, I don't know if you guys are like this, but have you ever noticed that people are just different than you?

Meredith Brock: Yeah.

Kaley Olson: Of course, every minute of every day.

Lisa Allen: Sometimes, would you ever go so far as to say they are just downright peculiar?

Kaley Olson: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Lisa Allen: Now, one of the reasons I love the use of the word peculiar, the word peculiar literally means that which stands apart. And that's the kind of godly confidence, God created us in His infinite wisdom to stand apart within the body of Christ. And to do that Ephesians 2:10 work that He's prepared in advance for us.

Hebrews 10:10 says that we're holy and we're set apart, but we've also been created to stand apart. And we walk in the confidence in God alone, in how He's wired and equipped and qualified us. And who God is and what He's put in me and what He's left out of me.

One of the illustrations I always like to use with somebody is just simply asking someone to write their name. If I asked you to write your name, you would just pick up your pen and do it. And you wouldn't think for a second, "Oh, I hope my handwriting looks better than hers." Or, "I hope, I better practice this a little bit more. I'm not quite ready to write my name yet."

We just do it instinctively. And that's the kind of godly confidence I'm talking about. What it does is it requires a lot of humility to be that confident.

Meredith Brock: That's right.

Lisa Allen: C.S. Lewis says that humility isn't thinking less of yourself, but it's thinking of yourself less. And when you pick up your pen to write, you're not thinking about anything about yourself. And that's the kind of godly confidence that I think that we need to have. It doesn't matter, our confidence isn't who's published or who's platform is bigger or who networks best or who's more experienced. But our confidence is in who God is and who He's created us to be.

Now, it doesn't mean that we don't work on things. We all have strengths and weaknesses and we work on it.

Meredith Brock: Right.

Lisa Allen: But when I was preparing for this message, I got an email and the subject line said this, "Get your confidence on." And I couldn't wait to open up the email cause I was studying confidence, to think what is it that I'm going to put on that's going to give me confidence? And what do you think it was? It was shape wear!

Meredith Brock: Oh, gosh!

Lisa Allen: Now, you know, I'm all about a good pair of shoes, a good pair of shape wear, I'm even about, at my age, a well spackled face. But heaven help us if we are asking things like our education for confidence, whether we have a lot or a little. If we are asking our experience for confidence, our Facebook likes, our Insta followers, even our Enneagram numbers, am I two-wing three, or a three-wing two, I don't know! I don't know! But I can trust that whatever I am, God's put it in me and He knows how He's going to aim it and how He is going to use me.

So, we need to make room for this type of healthy, godly confidence. And I think it's a beautiful thing. I think healthy, godly confidence is a tool that we can use for evangelism. Because I think we become approachable when we believe in who God created us to be. It's not an over-focus on self, it's an over-focus on who God is and trusting.

So, we need to make room for our connection to God, for our calling, for our confidence, and then lastly we need to make room for the assignment that God has for us by literally creating capacity. We literally need to make room for it.

See, capacity is the space between what you have committed to do and what you've been designed to do. It's the space that lives between our self and our limits. See, the fact of the matter is, if we're going to make room for the assignment that God has for us, we need to learn that we don't manage our time, we manage ourselves. It requires the fruit of the Spirit, self-control, and self-leadership. It's within us to be able to create this capacity.

You see, I believe that God has put a rhythm into our lives. Like the rhythm of the flexibility of a rubber band. There will be an ebb and a flow. There will be a give and a take. There will be times that our rubber band is expanded. Maybe, have you ever planned a wedding?

Kaley Olson: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Lisa Allen: It's an expanded season. I'm not here to beat anybody up because you have an expanded season, we will have expanded seasons. Have you ever had a baby? Expanded season. Got your master's degree? Expanded season. Maybe you're working in, our son's a tax accountant, well he's in an expanded tax season right now.

So, the problem is not being, having that rubber band stretched. The problem is we get so used to it being stretched that we don't allow time after that expanded season to contract. And if we live at the pace where our rubber band is always stretched, it will break and so will we.

So, we have to learn that rhythm. And so what if we actually stopped living, and I'm saying this to myself, what if we stopped living deadline to deadline? You know? What if I actually made friends with the word margin?

Meredith Brock: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Lisa Allen: In order to create capacity. I love when I open up my laptop, a Word document, a blank Word document will always be set to normal margins. And this is where I have to get honest with myself, what are my normal margins? And it's different for all of us, every one of you listening has a different margin. But we have to get honest.

Lisa Allen: So, what's your relationship with sleep, for instance? You know? Like I need a lot of sleep. I know you don't need a lot.

Meredith Brock: I don't need much at all.

Lisa Allen: I know! But I need like eight hours of sleep a night, it's so sad. It's pathetic, really. But I found that if I'm going to make room for the assignment, I have to bring my full self to it.

Meredith Brock: That's right.

Kaley Olson: There's nothing wrong with that.

Lisa Allen: So, maybe you're a single mom, you know, and your normal is going to look completely different than somebody whose husband is home at 5:00 every night. Or maybe you're retired, maybe you travel. So, what is it that we can do to be honest with ourselves about the kind of margin that we need. What's our normal?

Another thing that's really important in creating capacity is I'm going to give you five letters, five letters that will really, really help you create some capacity. Ready?

Meredith Brock: Yes.

Lisa Allen: N as in Nancy, B as in boy, T as in Thomas, F as in Frank, A as in Ashley, NBTFA, No But Thanks For Asking.

Now, of course, of course we always pray before we say yes or no to something, of course we do. However, I would venture to say that most every one of us listening to this could benefit from exercising our no muscle a little more often.

Meredith Brock: I agree.

Lisa Allen: I know I sure I could. I know I sure could. I have a friend, an early morning friend that's been practicing her no muscle. And we celebrate her no's because she was overusing her yes muscle. And because she overused it, it almost sidetracked her from the assignment that God has.

And so, what is it that you can say no to in order to make some room, in order to make some margin?

Leviticus 19:9 says that when you reap the harvest of your land, don't reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. And of course, we know that's talking about leaving gleanings for the poor. But what if we used that same philosophy with our time? What if we left gleanings or margins of time around the edges of our weeks and our months and our quarters so that when carpool runs late, you don't panic cause you're like, "That's okay, I have a gleaning. I can do this somewhere else." Or bosses move up deadlines, "It's okay, I've got a gleaning. I've got a gleaning." Or babies get sick and you're ending up home, you know?

So, what is it that you can do to create some margin in your life, making room? Also, what if, and I'm saying this to myself, what if I stewarded my time like I steward my dollars? What if my time became a holy act of worship and I laid it before the Lord? Every single month I write down every commitment I have for the month. We just did this, it was October 1st a couple of days ago, I wrote down every single commitment. And you know, sometimes, I remember one month was so, so busy for me that I sensed the Spirit, not audibly, but I sensed the Spirit say, "Not one more thing." Because there was so much already on my calendar that even the fun things, like if friends asked me to go out to dinner, I had to say no. And I would say to them, "It's just for this month, next month will be better." You know?

But it's that ability to really, really steward our time. Psalm 90:12 says, "Teach us to number our days of right that we may gain a heart of wisdom." And later, in Psalm 90:17 it says, "May the favor of the Lord rest upon us and confirm and establish the work of our hands.” What if that's what we did? What if we created capacity by giving our time back to the Lord and saying, "How do you want me to make room for the assignment that God has for us?" So, we need to make room for our connection to God, for our calling, for our confidence and capacity, what is it that God is nudging you on as you listen to this and then I want to close with just a piece of encouragement.

I love it when people way holier than me in the Bible face the same situation as I am, you know, it always makes me feel so good. In Acts 6, starting in verse 2, the apostle said, "It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait tables. Brothers and sisters choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and we will give our attention back to prayer and the ministry of the word."

You see their assignment was prayer and the ministry of the word and so what they did was they really made room for it. They modeled it for us by making room for their assignment, so what is it that we need to make room?

Meredith Brock: So good, Lisa, so good. I mean, I have a whole page of notes and this is the second time I've actually heard this teaching and I feel like every time I hear it, the Lord just speaks something new to me.

Lisa Allen: Thank you.

Meredith Brock: Really new—

Kaley Olson: Me too.

Meredith Brock: ... And needed for me. One of the things that really stood out to me that I was kind of processing as you were teaching is, thinking about the word connection, you know you made the joke like, "Everybody, you know this, spend time with Jesus," right? But it's kind of embarrassing to admit but that's hard for me.

I am such an achiever that it's an innate drive in me that not just connecting to God can be hard, but connecting to other people—

Lisa Allen: Yes.

Meredith Brock: ... Because it's embarrassing to admit. That doesn't feel like an accomplishment to me and so—

Kaley Olson: I get that.

Meredith Brock: ... I want to place my energy and my time in the direction of actually accomplishing something and by all means have nowhere perfected this. It's a daily struggle for me. I have to force myself, like you said, I have two small children. I have a three year old and a seven year old and I'm in that season where I don't get time alone, like it's not even really ... Like, I don't even get time alone to go to the bathroom.

Kaley Olson: Yes, I remember those days. They're sitting on the other side of the door.

Meredith Brock: They follow me in or they're sliding their fingers underneath the door or they're talking to me, asking me to get them things constantly, you know and so I really had to discipline myself to wake up before they do, to set my alarm, wake up before they do and to take that time to really connect with the Lord and I have found myself, the temptation in that little bit of time before my kids wake up is, "Oh, this is my opportunity to answer that email. I really needed to do that."

"Oh gosh, you know what, I forgot to take the trash out."

"I need to go really quick. I'm going to run and take the trash out." And I have really, really ... Most recently I really have felt like the Lord has said to me, "Meredith, this is an act of faith for you to believe that when you connect with me, I will enable you to accomplish all that you need to accomplish today."

Lisa Allen: Absolutely.

Meredith Brock: And that's hard for me. It's really a ... It is a mental discipline to make myself sit down and say, "No, there's nothing more important than this." There's literally nothing more important than sitting down and sometimes it may only be 20 minutes before my little girl is upstairs saying, "Mom! Mom!"

Lisa Allen: But God takes those 20 minutes and He multiples it because your role of being a mom is holding hands with your heart to connect to God.

Meredith Brock: That's right and I have seen and this is ... I'm not saying this is some magic recipe okay, y'all it's not some kind of special formula but I have seen on the days that I was overwhelmed with the amount of stuff that I needed to do, the list was insurmountable that if I still took that little sliver of time at 5:45 in the morning until usually ... It might be 6:15, it might be 6:30, you never know when those little munchkins are going to come calling but if I took that little 30/45 minute of time and connected with the Lord and said, "Lord, my list is too long today and I am anxious and I am stressed out, will you help me accomplish exactly what I need to accomplish today?"

There have been more times than I can count that I got through the whole list and was like, "Oh my gosh," like, I can't believe I got that all done today. "Thank you Lord."

Lisa Allen: And that's the spilling over I'm talking about.

Meredith Brock: Right.

Lisa Allen: When you fill up it spills over into every task that He knows is already on your plate.

Meredith Brock: Right. And I've seen, He gave me the idea that I had been chewing on and couldn't land on or He gave me the ability, literally the ability to fly through emails and be hyper-focused when I needed to be hyper-focused and so for me, connecting to God is an act of faith.

Lisa Allen: Yeah, that's so good.

Kaley Olson: Yeah.

Meredith Brock: An act of faith and obedience in knowing He'll provide exactly what I need.

Lisa Allen: For sure.

Meredith Brock: Exactly what I need.

Lisa Allen: I wrote down ... Three times you said the word discipline and that making room for the assignment is all about self-discipline.

Kaley Olson: I know. It's kind of a dirty word these days.

Lisa Allen: It is.

Kaley Olson: People don't like to say, "I'm really ... Discipline is important to me," but it's so important.

Lisa Allen: I remember a quote, I have no idea who said it that said, "The disciplined man is the free man." There's freedom in discipline.

Kaley Olson: Wow.

Lisa Allen: You know what I mean? And the other things is, we discipline ourselves for 100 things. It's just, we choose where we do it, you know, so I always say when people say I'm not disciplined and some people aren't naturally disciplined.

Meredith Brock: Right.

Lisa Allen: But if you pay your taxes on time, you're disciplined.

Meredith Brock: That's right.

Lisa Allen: If you get your kids to school on time, you're disciplined. It's just where you aim it.

Meredith Brock: Yes.

Lisa Allen: And you know what, it's worth it for this assignment God has.

Meredith Brock: Absolutely.

Kaley Olson: Yeah and Lisa I love what you said whenever you're talking about calling and how your role will always hold hands with your calling and that you know, it's a certain season of life that you're in and we all go through different seasons of life and what worked for us in one season or what we enjoyed in one season, isn't what this season requires, like you probably think about before you had kids, all the stuff you were able to do or maybe—

Meredith Brock: What did I do?

Kaley Olson: I know.

Meredith Brock: That's what I want to know.

Kaley Olson: I know. And I'm terrified of what that season will look like in the future. Y'all scaring me over here.

Meredith Brock: Nothing to be afraid of.

Lisa Allen: It's so fun.

Kaley Olson: You say that but I was thinking about this one time, last year, I was driving to a video shoot and I grew up in the country where there was a lot of open space and I was driving to a shoot that was located kind of far out and I was looking at all the empty pastures and I thought, "Those people, they get to get up and they sit their coffee on the front porch and they probably take long walks and they get to watch the sunset and probably not have as much to do," but I realized, the Lord told me in that moment like, "Kaley, you're not called to that season anymore." You grew up in that season but you're not called to that.

Or, sometimes I'll be on social media and I'll see however much someone else is knocking out in their season and I'll think like, "Why can't I keep up with them? They're doing so much," but lately what the Lord has been telling me and what I've had to tell myself is, "Just keep your head down."

So you talked about discipline but for me, like I have to get off Instagram, I have to do this so like all of the things and all the distractions that are keeping me from what I am called to do, like not what they're called to do or how much she's able to get done but like the more that I can keep my head down and stay focused on exactly what I need to do, like the more I am going to get done and feel good and confident about what God has called me to do in this season.

Meredith Brock: That's really good. That's really good. I know it's such a temptation to look at other people’s calling, look at other people's seasons and compared them to your own and it will steal every ounce of joy.

Kaley Olson: It will. And energy.

Lisa Allen: I think we need to get used to celebrating how other people do things differently.

Kaley Olson: Yes, that's right.

Lisa Allen: When we look down and we say, this is who you created me to be, then I can look at you and go, "I love that you only need six hours of sleep or four hours of sleep."

"I love that you're so organized," I think it creates the ability to appreciate each other so much more.

Meredith Brock: Yes. What a great teaching today, Lisa.

Lisa Allen: Thank you.

Meredith Brock: Thank you so much. Lisa's message today was actually an adaptation from a keynote message she gave this year at our She Speaks Conference. Maybe you sense God calling on your life to take the next steps toward your writing, maybe speaking or leading. The next She Speaks Conference happening in July 2019 could be a great option for you.

Kaley Olson: Yeah, that's right. It's a two-day conference we host in the Charlotte, North Carolina area every summer and although registration isn't open yet, you can certainly sign up for the interest list to be notified when registration opens in 2019. All you need to do is visit shespeaksconference.com to sign up.

Meredith Brock: Or—

Kaley Olson: Yeah.

Meredith Brock: Maybe you don't want to wait until July 2019 to get the training you need to be a writer. That's a long ways from now. A fantastic resource for our writing friends is our COMPEL Writer's Training. It's a monthly subscription offered by Proverbs 31 Ministries that helps writers hone their craft while getting the encouragement and support they need to reach their writing goals. You can visit compeltraining.com to learn more about this great resource.

Kaley Olson: Yeah and shameless plug here. Lisa Allen does several teaches for COMPEL and I promise if you love today's message then you'll love being a COMPEL member and getting to hear even more incredible teaching from her.

Alright guys, well that wraps us up for today. Thank you for your teaching Lisa and our listeners, thank you for listening today. We pray everything you hear helps you know the truth of God's Word and live that truth out because when you do, it changes everything.

See you next time.