Hey, friends, and welcome to Faith Fueled Woman.

This is your host, Kristen.

Today this is a mini episode and I'm coming to you to talk about Bob Goff's new devotional called Catching Whimsy.

We're going to talk about how can we be open to possibilities and how can we open our hearts to everything that God wants and has for us this season and as we step into next year.

Welcome to Faith Fueled Woman, a podcast designed for Christian women eager to deepen their faith and shine God's light in every aspect of their lives.

Each week we'll delve into practical strategies, inspiring stories and biblical wisdom to equip you with the tools you need to navigate life's challenges and grow deeper in your faith.

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Hi, I'm your host, Kristen.

I'm an encourager, a faith led entrepreneur, a mom and a wife.

Let's be encouraged in our everyday lives as we let our faith guide us, fuel us and fill us with God's incredible peace, wisdom and joy in our lives.

Bob's new devotional comes out actually tomorrow and it ships or arrives to my house on Saturday.

I cannot wait to dig into it.

But if you're looking for a gift this Christmas or you're looking for something for yourself as we step into January, a devotional that will just get you thinking, be inspiring and just lift you up and fill your spirit, then I highly recommend his book.

I've read an excerpt of it and I've loved all his other books.

So my the link to his book is obviously in my show notes.

You can click right there to check out more information about the book.

Okay.

On today's mini episode, I just wanted to share with you two really small bits of Bob's new devotional that really just spoke to me and I think they might speak to you as well.

So let me share those.

Okay.

The first one he is talking about, ambitions aren't bad when they're driven by love.

And he's just explaining that sometimes we can get ambitions and thinking that us pursuing an ambition or a dream or a goal as selfish.

We can think that, oh, we're being selfish.

If we want to pursue something bigger, that's not the case.

It's really, is it driven out of a place of love or do you want to do more good?

Do you want to leave a bigger legacy?

Is it what God's prompting you to do?

Is it based on the gifts you've been given.

And so he has a really lovely one of his days.

It's a365 devotional.

So one of the days talks about that.

And there is a part of this devotional that he, that I wanted to share.

Okay, here we go.

He says, he says, I'm a guy who gets a lot of calls after putting my cell phone number in the back of millions of books.

When I did it, I didn't know if I'd get one call or 1000, but I knew I wanted to be available.

What if you were to say to the world, I want to be available to the things that God has already put inside of me?

And he says, we can't always control the opportunities that come, but we can decide to make ourselves available when they do.

Start today by saying, God, I am available to those things that might come my way that uniquely sync up with what you already made me good at.

I love that.

And he just wraps up by saying, get busy, start making your list and add a dash of whimsy to them.

How beautiful is that?

So the first thing just to piggyback off of his idea is just to say to you, we are stepping into a new year in just a couple of weeks.

And what are those ambitions?

What are those dreams or those things that you think about or that you'd like to do more of or step into?

You haven't yet, or maybe you haven't in as big of a way.

It's time to write those down.

It's time to get serious about showing up in the world, how we were called to show up.

And so for some of us, that might not be in a big, flashy, flashy way, but it might be that we write a write down stories for our children, you know, to remember and to have that legacy for their grandchildren and great grandchildren.

It could be that we want to create a cookbook of all of our family's recipes over many generations.

It could be that we're ready to speak on a bigger platform.

It could be that we want to volunteer in new places or step into missionary work.

It could really be anything.

Maybe we feel called to step into a new career because we've been slowly moving towards this new direction.

Or maybe our heart has been pulling us or tugging on us to help people in a different way.

Maybe a life change of our own or a life hurdle has made us passionate about a new topic.

And it's something that we want to help other people with.

And so I think this is the, is a great time of year to slow down to reflect, to ask ourselves, what are these ambitions that we have in our heart?

We maybe need to get serious about going towards.

And I've mentioned it before, but I do have a Reignite youe Passion workbook that you can download.

It's a free download from my website, but it's a great place to start to kind of tap into what are the things you're dreaming about?

What are the things that you want to rekindle within yourself and within your spirit?

Okay.

The next thing I want to share with you that he shares.

Let me just get to this.

Okay.

He.

It's another one of his devotionals is Relationship Audit, Keeping our accounts on the positive.

And I absolutely agree with this.

I think we definitely live in a time where too many families, too many people have allowed the world's view of things, of topics, of categories, of politics, differing viewpoints to pull us apart, to divide us instead of bringing us together.

And so I think we have to be careful about what we're feeding our minds and our hearts.

And we have to be careful how we're prioritizing things because you know, we have to remember there's lot and then there's family, there's the people we care about.

And we need to prioritize and nurture those relationships.

Okay, so the one little bit I wanted to share with you about this devotional is that he says, adopt a practice of setting aside time every year to audit the various areas of your life.

Each of these areas ask yourself, just as God is providing what I need, how can I be part of providing what the people around me need?

God is probably not going to give you a fish with a $20 bill in its mouth, but he might have already given you a friend who needs just the right word in just the right season.

And I have definitely talked about doing a life audit before, especially in the Reclaim youm Life series.

If you haven't listened to that, go back and search Reclaim youm Life.

There's a five part series that you can listen to.

But if we don't audit our lives, then often we get stuck on autopilot instead of living intentionally.

And so as I just mentioned, one of the highest things in our lives is really spending time and investing in the people we care about and investing in the people around us.

So our loved ones, it could be in our communities, it could be for a group of people that we feel called on our hearts to care for or support.

But this is a great exercise.

And you know, I also have a life wanted exercise as well.

But if you do this, then you start saying, how can I be of service?

Instead of who's frustrating me?

Or, you know, this person has different viewpoints than me.

We have to get back to showing up in our own lives by being intentional.

We have to get back to being someone of service.

Now, that doesn't mean we do that to our detriment.

It means that we do it when we have space and capacity, but that we make time to rest, right?

We take the Sabbath or some version of it.

We make sure we don't overbook ourselves so that we then can show up and do what we feel drawn and pulled and called to do in our own world, right, in our own universe.

And by that I just mean whoever's in our radius, if you will.

And so those are the two things from Bob's devotional that I wanted to share with you.

It's obviously 365, so there's lots more of those in his book.

What I love about Bob is that he doesn't try to, you know, talk church speak or too much Jesus speak.

It's down to earth.

And it's really about showing up in love, showing up and being available to people and just saying to people, like, what can I do for you?

How can I help you?

You know, try to make other people's day just a little bit better.

And I love that about him because he is very approachable.

His other books, most of them have very little scripture in them, but they have good messages from the Gospel and how Jesus lived.

They're just encouraging.

They're very much full of fun and whimsy and just pure joy, actually.

So if you haven't picked up his books before, I highly recommend all of his books.

He has several books, and then he has.

He has two devotionals, the one that just came out, and then he has another one that he wrote a couple years ago.

I think I have all of his books.

They're all great.

And I want to wrap up today's episode by sharing just a little paragraph with you from Bob Goff's other one of his other books called Undistracted, which that title is Capture your purpose and rediscover your joy.

But here's what he says.

My purpose means staying incredibly available to people.

But please hear me when I say this.

This is not how life has to look for you.

And you aren't wired if you aren't wired this way.

I've already told you, even I have boundaries in this department.

Like I've said, we are meant to be one.

Not the same.

Your undistracted, wildly purposeful life may demand you throw your phone into the ocean so you can get back to the things that you're meant to do.

If that's the case and you need to throw your phone away, just give me yours, because mine is old, beat up, and cracked.

Think of it this way.

Getting rid of a big distraction has everything to do with being available elsewhere, right?

And then here's what he goes on to say.

Maybe your next thing is ridding yourself of distraction so you can dial up your availability and presence with Things that Matter way More than Netflix.

None of us knows when our time here will end, but I think I know what my last last minute or two will be like.

I think that moment will be filled with tremendous gratefulness for the people I made time for and who made time for me.

This is in large part why I want to make myself available to others.

It is why I write books, take calls, and sit at Tom Sawyer island at Disneyland on Wednesdays.

Perhaps you're asking yourself, why be available at all?

Well, because Jesus was.

For starters.

Being available doesn't make us Jesus.

It just makes us a tiny bit more like Him.

And anything that nudges me more in his direction, I'm willing to do.

If being available isn't for you, don't feel bad if it's not your thing.

Love and embrace this about yourself.

Just don't complain about not being pursued by others.

Perhaps they're wired the same way.

Doing things that matter means just doing things that matter doesn't mean just doing things that are easy.

Some of the ideas in this book will no doubt be hard for you to implement.

I get it.

These things are hard for me to put wheels on too.

Try it anyways, even if it's hard.

Thanks again for listening to the show and if you enjoyed today's episode, we would love it if you could take a minute to leave a rating and review on Apple Podcast because it helps our show get discovered by more people.

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