00:00:00 Thanks for joining me on episode 612 of the inspired stewardship podcast. I'm Shelly Lombard, founder of Millie money, learning how to invest. We'll give you options for your future and to help others get inspired. One way to do that is to listen to this podcast inspired stewardship with my friend Scott Mader. But having that spirit, having that ability to find hope when everyone else is looking at things as hopeless is a tremendous gift, not just for you, but for others. It allows us to bring the spirit back to those dry bones,
00:00:49 to breathe life into them again, so that they begin to move and take on energy and go forward. Welcome and thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true color. In the inspired stewardship podcast, we'll learn to invest in yourself, invest in others, and develop your influence so that you and today's spiritual foundation episode about impacting the world.
00:01:30 I talk with you about Proverbs chapter 17 verse 22 I share why I'm Mary. Heart doesn't require everything to be going right or well and I share talk about learning to bring the spirit back to your dried bones. Proverbs 1722 says, a Merry heart does good like a medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones. You know, I was reading different Proverbs today. This is one of those things that I do regularly as I read through Proverbs and I probably had never really noticed this passage before, at least I don't remember paying much attention to it in the past,
00:02:11 but right now it really spoke to me. Uh, the idea that we need to have a Merry heart.
00:02:20 We need to be happy on the inside and how that will do us good like medicine. But having a broken spirit,
00:02:30 being beaten down, being looked at, looked down on frustrated, tired, exhausted, isolated, all of the things that seem to be going on for so many people right now dries the bones,
00:02:45 that that image of being dried up and brittle came to mind. If you've ever seen bones that have set out in the sun and completely dried,
00:02:55 they become incredibly fragile. They become almost, we're just the slightest impact or touch can make them break and crumble into dust and I can picture our,
00:03:10 our bodies, our minds, our spirits, brittle like that whenever we're not able to look at the world and have a good feeling about it.
00:03:20 When we don't have hope, when we don't look to the future and say to ourselves, things will probably be better tomorrow than they are today,
00:03:29 it begins to dry out our bones and make it work. Even the smallest impact, the smallest change can cause us to break apart into dust like dried bones.
00:03:44 And don't get me wrong when I talk about having a Merry heart, being happy, being joyful is probably even a better word because you know,
00:03:52 happiness. I think sometimes we try to aim for as if it's some sort of perfect state that we can attain and we can live there,
00:04:00 but it's really not. It's a place that we visit, but we don't live in that place. But contentment and joyfulness.
00:04:08 Those are things that we can have in our life all the time and it doesn't require that everything be going right.
00:04:15 It doesn't require that everything be going well. It doesn't even require that things be going particularly good at all.
00:04:23 Instead, we can often find joy and happiness and even the smallest thing, recognizing whenever we're on a walk,
00:04:35 that there's air for us to breathe and that we're able to stand in the bright sunlight and feel the warmth on our face can bring joy.
00:04:44 Recognizing that even if things are bad, that the real truth is tomorrow will likely be better. Recognizing that even if today,
00:04:58 something's going wrong in your life, even if today there are rough patches, if you keep moving forward and you focus on making progress and not trying to get everything perfect,
00:05:10 if you begin to look at the world is not needing to be exactly the way you want it to be,
00:05:16 to be something that you can be joyful and thankful for. If you recognize the fact that moment to moment feeling joy,
00:05:23 feeling contentment, feeling happiness is a choice that we have. It's not something that comes upon us from outside.
00:05:34 It's something that comes upon us from inside. That's what having a Merry heart means. It means it comes from inside of us.
00:05:41 It comes from our ability to view the world with gratitude. It comes from being able to take and be optimistic and hopeful even when things are rough.
00:05:57 And what's interesting is in a time like today, you know I am worried or concerned about so many different things.
00:06:04 I don't know about you, but it seems like there's literally every time I turn on the news or look at Facebook,
00:06:11 there's somebody else posting some conspiracy theory, some bad news, something new to be concerned about. I'm concerned about the economy.
00:06:20 I'm concerned about the virus. I'm concerned about murder Hornets. I'm concerned about the fact that our government has taken on some,
00:06:29 some controls that perhaps aren't great. I'm worried about all of these things all at once. It's not one of these things where you have to believe all one way or all the other.
00:06:41 You can actually have a diverse set of views. But given all of that concern, all of that worry,
00:06:46 I still wake up every morning and I do my gratitude journal and every day I find things that I can be thankful for,
00:06:55 things that I can hold in my heart and say, despite the things, the fact that things are not perfect,
00:07:00 despite the fact that things are hard, I still have joy. I still have happiness. I still have gratitude.
00:07:10 I still have things that I love and things that I just hold up and say, thank you God for giving me these things each and every day.
00:07:20 And what's interesting is focusing on that, making a habit of thinking God for the blessings that you have.
00:07:30 Making a habit of no matter how bad things are, finding things, even little tiny things that you can be thankful for.
00:07:38 Everything can be turned into a win or a joy or a praise. Even things that are bad, not because God lets bad things happen to good people so that they quote,
00:07:51 learn their lesson or become better or anything else. Those are byproducts often of that happening, but I don't think it's an intentional something that God causes to happen.
00:08:02 But having that spirit, having that ability to find hope when everyone else is looking at things as hopeless is a tremendous gift,
00:08:13 not just for you but for others. It allows us to bring the spirit back to those dry bones,
00:08:22 to breathe life into them again so that they begin to move and take on energy and go forward instead of backwards.
00:08:31 It's, it's what allows us to find that moment of a joyful heart. So do this today. Even if you're frustrated,
00:08:44 if you're tired, if you're scared, if you're worried that it's even more important that you do it,
00:08:49 that you sit down today and you find three things that you hold up, you can be grateful for that you can say,
00:09:00 you know, with everything that's going on still for this, for this I give you. Thanks. Thanks for listening. thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast.
00:09:20 As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling.
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00:09:59 Until next time, invest your time, your talent, and your treasures. Develop your influence and impact the world..