Being a Joyful Mother in a Fear Driven World

I'm going to dabble a little bit into this and I know I'm probably kicking a hornet's nest but I'm just going to kick it anyway and you can buzz in the comments if you disagree with me I feel that we as women are and especially mothers are especially susceptible to fear and anxiety I had so many questions I was wrestling with and almost angry at God and just like asking hard questions I just didn't know if I had answers to so I would have missed out on so many blessings if I would have let the fear of it all take over I've fallen victim to this so many times and I still have a tendency to go down the rabbit holes and it sounds so simple and so crazy but it's true try it [Applause] sometime I heard a charm recently that made me feel some sort of way and it turned on a light bulb in my brain and it was these two words fear porn so pornography is super addictive as we all know and it will ruin your spiritual life your mental health and often your physical health as well it ruins relationships family relationships husband and wife relationships and it degrades a society when I heard the term fear porn it just really hit something with me it just resonated I'm like you know what fear can be an addictive thing we keep coming back even though we're kind of scared of it we don't like what it's doing to us but there's something about it that draws Us in and we can feed on it so easily so it can be it's destructive to our spiritual health it's destructive to our mental well-being we get anxiety stress it causes so much and then that in turn creates health issues often it's destructive physically and then if a society is run on fear it's going to be destructive to a society as well so the correlation I was just like wow it was a term that just really turned a light bulb in my mind and I feel like I have seen it in my comments and I feel it in myself and I see it in the world around me this fear taking over people Christians um the whole world society and I just like to speak about that a little bit challenge myself challenge you all and we're going to dive into so many different rabbit Trails probably I have so much going on in my mind I've been thinking about this so much last while and it kind of feels like my mom brain has like a 100 tabs open you know and they're all playing YouTube videos so bear with me this is one of my front porch chats and hopefully we can encourage each other um so come along this is a topic that I'm passionate about it challenges myself and I hope it challenges you as well let me quickly interupt the video as we all know Mother's Day is just around the corner and if you're still looking for last minute gifts I've been working on something and I know it's a little bit last minute here on YouTube to be letting you guys know but you're still in time if you want to order if you've been a follower here for a while you know that we have a brand called Mama Java it's a coffee brand that's all about celebrating and supporting moms and so Mother's Day just perfectly aligns with everything our brand stands for and we had to do something special I've been working hard at this and I've been praying to the good Lord that everything comes in time because it was a bit of a scram but we managed to pull it off if you're anything like me I simply love packaging and when something is put together well and you open it up and it kind of creates this exciting experience when you're opening it so I'm one that when I'm gifting someone else I like to pay extra for that experience and a neatly put together item and so we did our best to try to make it very presentable as much as we can for um mailing and so on it says here keep calm coffee is loading you have a hint of what's inside and then when you open it up it says it's coffee time and then on the inside lid because you deserve better coffee and kind of our little jingle for Mama Javas because mamas deserve better Java we have fresh roasted coffee where we roast and ship the same day and so inside this package a bag of your choice of coffee and we have different options for mugs we have three different options we have biscotti from Northwest biscotti and then we also have a little note it says happy Mother's Day and then on the back it says there is no role in life more essential and more eternal than that of motherhood I think sometimes motherhood is so underappreciated sometimes especially by society and it is one of the most important jobs in all the world the hand that GRS the Cradle rules the world and so um our brand is all about that even on the back of our coffee we have like a little tribute to mothers um about Mama Java supporting and recognizing that mothers are the backbone of communities we have fun different names for our coffee Blends like we have messy bun toddler proof we have revive and Thrive different ones like that this just makes it really fun to open up we also have another one where if you don't want to gift the whole thing you can just do um two bags of coffee it will also come with the card so I'll have links below if you're interested anyway back to the video I just want to clarify a few things number one I recognize my Humanity I am not the smartest cookie in a jar I'm not a Bible scholar so there's many things in life I do not know I'm just sharing some of the my observations my viewpoint on situations and other viewpoints that are firmly grounded in Scripture that I can firmly stand upon some of these things are my opinions and I recognize I could be wrong so just to get that out of the way these are thoughts these aren't just me stating facts second thing I want to talk a little bit about conspiracy theories and also Bible prophecies and speaking of Bible prophecies as I said I'm not really a Bible scholar a lot of these things I could know much more about I think Bible prophecy is an amazing amazing thing I definitely believe in prophecies that have been fulfilled more prophecies that are to be fulfilled I think it's a good thing to study these things and observe them and whatever wisdom we can gain from them it's all right and good okay I want to clarify that also this video is not about Bible prophecy or conspiracy theories but it all sort of ties into this thing of fear and as I said the whole conspiracy theory thing I'm not the smartest cookie in the jar I'm going to dabble a little bit into this and I know I'm probably kicking a hornet's nest but I'm just going to kick it anyway and you can buzz in the comments if you disagree with me it's perfectly fine and like I'm saying I don't know everything I believe that there's truth in some of these things maybe there's truth in all of it maybe there's truth in none of it these are just my viewpoints and my opinions on these things I feel that we as women are and especially mothers are especially susceptible to fear and anxiety I think we are so such emotional beings and we feel so deeply and we have little children we're responsible for and their needs and their problems are directly ours and it's so easy to worry about them and worry about their future and our life and are they going to be safe and just so many things that just burden us down and and so my goal with this video is that we can um maybe shift our focus and rewire our brains a little bit and settle into the peace that Jesus calls us to and the joy finding the joy in life instead of letting fear overtake us because do you know how many times the Bible mentions the phrase fear not it's I think it's 365 times so Jesus was adamant that we don't fear and that we trust him another thing I think it's really important that we recognize and this is something I think about a lot is that we as humans so easily become imbalanced in life we are very susceptible to being swayed by opinions and we can also just like focus in on one thing and become so focused focused on that thing that we lose sight of the whole picture and we become skewed that can be um political issues it can just be habits that we have in life it can be pretty much anything in The Human Experience can become imbalanced even spiritual things actually that's probably a big one some people will hop on a spiritual bandwagon and kind of go down a road that is not a safe road to be on and it all comes down to this thing of being imbalanced and not recognizing maybe our Humanity not having humility to come in front of other people and be taught by others I see that a lot and it's a problem for myself like we don't want to be told we want to think we have everything figured out we want to think that we have such a close relationship with God that we can never be deceived and never not know so I think the key is in so much of this is to make sure we're grounded in God's word and make sure we have humility I do see this whole trend of conspiracy theories especially like super involvement in what the government is all doing like I said before there may be truth there there may be a lot there may be little and then also like end time prophecies and they kind of blend together and mesh and there becomes this blurry line I see it very prevalent in Christian communities YouTube channels not nearly everyone but that's often where it ends up at do I trust our government I don't I don't have my trust and faith in them I don't have my trust and faith in any government across any Nation but sometimes by hearing these conspiracy theories just from like standing back and listening to that you would think that the government is all knowing all powerful allseeing according to these theories and some of the things that people are worried about the government is doing seem so minde in my mind that I'm like if they have the time and the resources and the manpower to actually be concerned about this little issue over here in your life or whoever's life or whoever's Community then they are way bigger and way more powerful than I ever gave them credit and they may be I'm I'm just this is all relative I'm just saying some thought along with this obsession with government and what all they're doing in our lives um is also like the co-mingling with end times events and depending who the resources from um or where you're getting your information or who you're listening to um they're very co-mingled and like I said before I think prophecy is a great thing and I think it's something that we're supposed to observe and be wise in but I don't believe we're supposed to be obsessed with it I don't believe the Bible is some kind of magic book that we're all supposed to be like getting addressed Adine Rush from trying to like coincident or like coincide is that the word um current events with Bible things I think sometimes you can pretty much tie tie them together and say this is pretty obvious other times it's just like so obscure and you see theories and people are saying okay this means this X Y and Z and you have to pull pretty hard straws to make that correlation but yet they're very adamant there's you know that this is the way and this kind of mentality I believe has really cast a shadow on the Christian Community on the name of Christ for instance how many times have we seen people rise up and have all these signs and saying this is the date that the Rapture is going to happen or that Jesus is returning why like why does this happen it is so clear in Scripture that no one not even the angels Jesus said not even the angels or the son of man will know the time or the hour I don't know how much more clear it is that that's a false teacher or false prophet my uh mommies always say if they predict a day that Rapture is going to happen you definitely know it won't be that day and I agree and this kind of happened again I believe over the solar eclipse we're going to talk about that a little bit later but once again lots of predictions and to me looking on it's like if people are becoming so obsessed with this they're trying to decipher and uncode things that are pretty obscure and to me are a little bit like really I mean sure it makes sense but is it really scripturally founded um and then they make all these claims that it's going to happen in this time period and so on and so forth Jesus said that it's going to come when no man thinks it will come and it's going to be like a thief in the knife and he's going to knife he's going to come like a thief in the night when no one is expecting him it also says that people will be you know still be getting married and being given in marriage and things are going to be going on as we normally are According To Jesus words in Matthew I believe it is I should have the verse here so it says that we should always be looking for his appearing lest it catches us unawares and so I view that as like I should be prepared for his return today no matter if I think all the prophecies have been fulfilled or not maybe they have in a way I was not expecting it maybe I should just recognize my humanity and know that I can't figure it all out it's wise to watch and observe and have your theory but maybe just maybe we should know that we could be wrong have that humility and know that we need to be ready every day every day because also even if it isn't Christ's return we don't know when we will die and I had heard I had watched this thing about near-death experiences it was very fascinating but someone had mentioned like you know we think of as eternity as out there but we should actually think of it as walking right beside us and it just takes one step for us to like end up in eternity and like we're we're just one step away and it's a sobering thought so no matter if it's Christ returned or if we die we should always be ready so for me personally for the Book of Revelation this is more like a a picture story of what's to come I don't really take it completely literally I think there's literal things in there and I think there's a lot of picture stories and things we're supposed to work through and decipher sort of like an allegory having said that Like Jesus Does talk about the end times and I take a lot of stock into what jesus' words are like I feel they're a lot more upfront and direct and um he talks about the end times being like birth pangs and they just keep increasing increasing and increasing as the world goes on so like all this is just going to keep getting worse and worse and worse and we see that I forget if it's jesus' words or if it was in one of the go uh um one of the letters where talks about in the end times the love of many are going the love of many will wax cold and many will fall away from the faith and you see that happening everywhere like I truly believe we're living in the last days however I don't ever want to become so consumed with it that I'm trying to figure out down to the minute detail or just be obsessed with it that I forget what the main point and the main call of the Gospel is and and the main calling on our life Jesus never said that that's what we're supposed to be focused on we're supposed to be focused on loving God with all our heart and loving our neighbor as ourself once again I do not want to be talking a lot about prophecy in end times the Book of Revelation has many many many many different View points Christians come out on many different aspects of this so that's why I said let's hold it a little bit more Loosely we don't have to bash each other on our viewpoints some people believe we're living in like the Book of Revelation is playing out now like it started back at the death of the Cross and we're working through it and like I personally don't believe there's going to be a Rapture pre-tribulation I believe that either we're living in the tribulation or maybe it will be something coming up or maybe it's an event that happened I don't completely know but I tend to think that that Revelation is a depiction of life to the end times I don't really view like there's going to be like a literal Thousand-Year Reign um because so often in the Bible numbers are used to um like for instance Jesus said to forgive 70 * 7 did he actually mean we're only supposed to give forgive 490 times I don't think so I think that's just a depiction of a limitless un Limitless unlimitless amount of times and I think so much of Revelation is that way as well but that's just my opinion other people view it more literal and I don't really know where I fall like I'm I'm just a human I don't know okay so I just think we're all going to be surprised at the end but I'm saying there's many different viewpoints of Revelation so let's just hold it Loosely and hold what people are saying about it Loosely another thing that I find great comfort in with this whole maybe conspiracy thing and people being so worried about the mark of the beast and end times that seems to be sort of the core thing there is something about the mark of the beast if it is a literal thing that's going to happen which is very highly likely possibly um it does say and and I think it's in chapter 14 where the angel is flying over and basically saying um whoever chooses or whoever worships the Beast and takes his Mark is going to receive the wrath of God and so um I think one of the reasons maybe that people um fall into this thing it says uh he's going to force people great or small to take this Mark you can't buy or sell without it so maybe it is a little blurry there but here's the thing when you look at God and his character and scripture and the whole message of the entire Bible and the gospels there is no way unless you have unless you're not maybe unless you're calvinist I probably shouldn't say that here because I'm sure I have calvinist friends here on this channel but I do not believe that God predestines people and you just have no choice in your salvation I just do not hold to that and so the whole point in the garden was the whole point of the tree was to give people a choice whether they're going to follow God or sin and when they choose to sin they chose to separate themselves from God but God wants our love he doesn't want robots like he's not orchestrating everything to the point that we don't have a free will the whole point that I see in the garden is Free Will and so if we have free will and and scripture tells us that he Wills that none would perish but that all would come to repentance and that all would turn to him that's his will his will is that everyone would choose to love him and choose to be with him for eternity if that's his will then the whole book of Revelation um is not some kind of thing that God's trying to sneak onto us and we're not going to be knowing anything and we're trying to uncode all these things just to make sure we're not happen to fall into like this Mark of the Beast for instance back during Co there was this thing going around that the jab as they called it or the vaccine was this horrible thing which I didn't want any parts of it simply for health reasons but there was a lot of theories about it um some of them I think are very valid others I'm not so sure about but one of the things was um that there was a chip that was being implanted into people through the vaccine this was not founded and I just was like I wasn't worried about it I'm like God is not the kind of God that allows someone else to impose take away your salvation by a thing like a chip it's a choice it's a choice to worship and to take the mark and there's scripture I mean what's the most Comfort one of the most comforting passages is in Romans see if I have it here Romans 8:39 I think this is the ESV for I'm sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers any power nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our lord so right there you have it it's a promise if we have our hearts turned to him there's not going to be something in this end times event excuse me that's going to be forced upon us that we do not want that will separate us from God it's just won't happen so just rest in that we will know I had we we had talking with some friends too and they were just like we will know God's going to make it clear if we're if we're following him anyway if we're not deceived God will make it clear if it's you know the mark of the beast I'm convinced of that because it's a choice it sounds like it's a choice to choose okay enough about prophecies and whatnot I just want to clarify I'm not against prophecy and studying prophecy and Discerning the times because that's what the signs are given to us for I think it's as a reminder so that we don't become complacent like we see all these things happening and in my spirit I know we are coming to the end but to me that's kind of where I stop I don't have to know exactly it's going to happen or which events still have to happen before the Lord can return I just believe that he can return anytime anytime simple Faith simple childlike Faith that's what I'm taking I'm not condemning people that enjoy prophecy I'm just saying let's watch how obsessed we are with it that is consuming all of our life touching a little bit on conspiracy theories as well there is a little bit of a burden I have here too and this reflects also on my personal faith I'm anab Baptist and we believe that church and state is separate they should not be co-mingled or together they're two separate things our kingdom is not of this world I know some people don't take that stance I'm not here to argue with that but also even if you don't take that stance like do we really expect the government to be anything less than ungodly and evil um I'm sure there's good people in the government I'm not saying that but as a whole do we expect like not do we expect just righteous things to come out of there I don't think so in all reality evil has been here and evil people has been here since um the fall and it will be here until the Lord returns there's no there's nothing in between so why are we so wrapped up in a tizzy about what evil people are doing or what Wicked people are doing like why are we so consumed with it like we expect it we're living in a fallen world and we're surrounded by evil so why are we so worried about the government what the government's doing and trying to like predict all these things and I truly believe like at least half of them are hogus pogus and the other half probably have validity to them but does it even matter and maybe it's even 50% validity I don't know I'm just throwing out but some of the things that I have seen just make me scratch my head and like do people really truly believe this and so to me it's like why if if it's going to be this way anyway if it thingss it's out of our control why bother like why become so obsessed with it we have enough of things to worry about and we have enough of other things to take care of and fill our minds with why would we fill it with Hocus Pocus that might be true and might not why would we fill it with things that stress us out and worry us things we don't really have control of and things that may or may not be true there's another verse I didn't look it up but there's a verse that says that we shouldn't even think about the things that the evil do in private or whatever and I I often tend to think that is immoral things sexual issues whatever but I also think that translates to so much of the other things things that sometimes Christians get so consumed with like what is going on with all the you know in the political world or whatever whatever World um do we really need to worry ourselves about that aren't we supposed to be worried about the kingdom of Christ and shining his light and his love to the darkness around us we don't have to worry about what the darkness is doing so much is like reaching into it and showing God's love and making a difference to the lives of some because there will always be evil here and no matter what we do Satan is Unleashed and he is wreaking havoc and until the Lord returns and crushes him there will always be wrong so our our calling as Christians is to spread God's love and touch individual lives and bring others to him and to to show how Jesus can just change their life and give them freedom and and Break Free the changes of sin and when we're so focused on all this evil and negative how can we be doing that how can we be actually living out our our calling when we're just focused on the darkness Jesus said that the two greatest Commandments is to love the Lord your God with all your heart and to love your neighbor as yourself and that all the other Commandments hinge on these things and those two pretty much keep us busy right just focusing on those two simple commands they're simple but they're hard to live out and so if we're focused on that we're going to be busy enough here's one more thing I'm just going to throw in just just toss it in the bucket just blink and I'll probably get heat like crazy but here we go this whole thing with Israel the Israel war Gaza the whole Middle East thing if you're really really into prophecy and you enjoy watching Israel and all the unfolding events and tying it together I am not against that however it does burden me when people start picking sides and being like super um political about their views of this war and the reason I say this is simply yes I think God judges the world on different levels like individual levels and then like National levels um so like you there's like individual people and then there's countries as a whole and so I do believe God works through Nations and very likely that's what he's doing in Israel I don't know I don't know the whole point of this war um I don't know if there is a point but I do know that there are people suffering on both sides and God loves each individual person he loves the people in Gaza just as much as he loves his chosen people that he made a promise to and I believe that all of us are God's chosen people we're grafted in since he came talks about we're grafted in and there's a verse that says there's neither Jew nor Greek Bond nor free male or female were all equal in God's eyes but I do believe that Israel has a special promise um given to them because of Abraham that they're Abraham's seed but it does not take away the value of the lives of the people that are being affected on the other end and my heart breaks for them and I'm just asking if we are so pronounced and trying to become so political in this whole thing and we're letting it be known from the rooftops and we get the chance to share God's love to one of the people say in Gaza or wherever that's being so affected that has lost everything and if we want to go in there and share their love and then they realize that we have been so political about this whole thing I'm just hypothetically saying if that would happen would that be a roadblock in the way of them finding Christ's love and I think it would be and so I just challenge us to view people as people and maybe just let go some of this political stuff it just I see it in our communities I see it it's just like can we just remember what we're here for we're not here for politics we're here to love and we're here to care for others and to like release their burden and it's a challenge for myself big challenge for myself I'm just talking to myself here so there I stepped I I stepped on a beehive I'm pretty sure but I don't really care I kicked it couple more things on the negative note and then let's try to swing this around so the truth of the matter is fear sells I've fallen victim to this so many times and I still have a tendency to go down the rabbit Hol sometimes I get so intrigued with theories and I can just go down a rabbit hole but I find that when I do I am not as happy I'm more stressed it it creeps up on me and I tend to think I'm strong enough like I tend to think oh I can read this it won't affect me but you know what you feed on will affect you and it will grow and the mind is a scary thing and how easily it is swayed one way or the other and we see it we see it in societies it doesn't take long to sway an entire Society One Way morally one way or another we are so easily swayed and we think we're strong but we're not and if we realize this and keep our feet grounded in God's word and if we can stay grounded on that we won't be swayed around like I think it's in Psalm 1 it says you know the The Godly man is like a tree that's planted by the rivers of water and his Roots Run Deep but it's not like so with the ungodly they're like the chaff which the wind blows around and it's and it's true if a if a person is deeply grounded in truth they are grounded and if someone doesn't have a foundation of Truth and they just kind of believe whatever you have societies and everything floating around so the ch allenge to myself is and this is so much a challenge to myself do I realize how easily swayed I am because it's so easy to think that I have the willpower and I have the knowledge and I won't be deceived I mean I'm 35 years old I have you know I will know what's wrong and what's right but it does not take long until what you're feeding on grows and you become skewed and after a while you become imbalanced and then I think eventually you become deceived I heard someone say once there's there's a saying you are the top five people you surround yourself with you are like them the first the five closest people to you and they and he he was saying that you know what everyone believes that but no one lives it out like you surround yourself with people that aren't good for you maybe it's spiritually healthwise or whatever and you become like them but you think you're strong enough to not become like them but you will become like them and the same goes with what we allow ourselves to listen to and to read and to watch it's why the Bible says to guard her eye to guard her heart does it say to guard her her eyes I'm pretty sure somewhere and um we have to guard it we have to actually guard what comes in with internet we live in an era where anyone can say anything online and if they have a YouTube channel per se and it looks very professional and they seem very well versed and very well educated it's very easy to believe them and let's just say someone makes a video and it goes viral and you see it and you're like oh this has like 5 million views it must be legitimate and you can kind of like start going down this bunny trail and it's like deception sort of and you're not seeing the deception and so it's a scary place and the thing with the Internet is there's an algorithm and whatever you watch is what it tells you to watch more of so if you're into sourdough you'll get a lot of sourdough videos I think it's kind of called this like infinity loop you spiral down and you become more more more more more narrow-minded especially when it comes to like these viewpoints but what happens is you start having this circle and your algorithm feeds you more and more and more and soon every time you look wherever you get your sources from you're only seeing this certain type of content and you become very imbalanced because you don't see the other side and I've gone down this rabbit hole and like even even like news headlines um the media puts like these very bold headlines that make you just ad because you want to click on it and to learn more um it's what sells fear sells and that's for news media and that is also for YouTube channels um remember don't ever forget these people are making money off of your fear so with that this is something that bothers me the whole homesteading movement I love it absolutely love it but I have seen different channels go down the path where they start homesteading that's what their channel is about and then they start diving into this conspiracy thing with the government and how we need to prep so much and I'm not against prepping I think I think being able to have a self- sustaining lifestyle where you're not so reliant on grocery stores I think if you have a lifestyle that you can sometime you know grow a little bit of your own food where you're not quite so reliant on the system is very wise however a lot of these channels go into this this and they they start there and then they just go deeper and deeper and deeper down the hole and they become obsessed with this thing of extreme prepping and I'm telling you they're talking about prepping to the point that you know you have years worth of food or you have all this ammunition you have bunkers some of them are building bunkers I mean you have everything and it's like very fear-based and I look at that and I'm like is that healthy is that a healthy prep no it's fear-based is um they see a monster behind every Bush maybe this will all come to pass it's highly likely I'm not saying it's not however if the whole world were to go into chaos like many of them are prepping for here's the thing how no matter how much food and no matter how much you have on hand if the whole town around you or out wherever it gets hungry and they know that you have something and they stampe there is very little you can do to protect your your resources it's all like no matter how hard you try to protect and save your life there's there's no point in it there's points to be wise but don't be obsessed with it because you know who he that um seeks to save his life is going to lose it and who that he that loses his life will find it Scriptures tells us and um even the Jesus gives a parable of the guy that had plenty and he said you know his Harvest filled up his barn let's tear it down and build more and I will say my soul is happy and Jesus said just tonight your Soul's going to be required of you your you fool or whatever and I look at that and I'm like if you value your life so much that you're trying so hard to safeguard against every possible scenario is still not going to work you see the wealthy trying to do this I mean they have billions of dollars and they're making these huge inground bunkers and it's like really for what like even if it if you would survive and the whole rest of the world dies like what's the point of that I don't know like if you really look at it it's just so full of pointlessness and vanity maybe is that the word because you know you can do all you can in your little human power to like Safeguard against all the possible evils and it's still not enough it's still not enough a bomb could drop on your house take it all away a fire could destroy everything um there could be there there is so many scenarios where in the blink of an eye everything you've worked for everything you have is gone so why not stop worrying why not just do keep everything in Balance you know maybe prepare for if there's there's some kind of thing that happens that could keep you sustained for a few weeks have a little bit more of a sustainable lifestyle in case grocery stores run out of food you know just balance the key to me is balance and so I go back to say these YouTube channels and a lot of times like I said it's part of a community that we tend to trust at least those of us that are Christians um people that have more conservative mindsets and um are God-fearing and we look at that and we think okay we can kind of trust them we trust them more than the media right but can we really I look at these people and I'm like there's one of two things happening either these people are number one um truly believing what they're saying they have started down this rabbit hole and become very imbalanced in their views or what I would consider imbalanced maybe maybe they're correct on everything I'm not saying that I know but it appears that way that it's becoming they they go so far down their algorithm and their feed of of the constant same they're always feeding the same thing so they start believing it and then they believe it more and more and more and then everyone just feeds everyone else and then it's just this big hype over maybe nothing and so then they truly believe it and then they make videos on it the second option is that maybe they don't completely believe it but they know that it will sell and it will get a lot of clicks and Views and they'll make a lot of money and I tend to think it's either it's one of the two or maybe a mix of both because often you will look at those channels and they started off off like a lot of like decent stuff and then suddenly it just spirals into this fear-mongering content and every title is a very clickbaity title that kind of instills fear that makes you want to click and as soon as I see that I'm like I kind of write it off I'm like this is to make people it's fear porn fear porn we're back to that whole topic so let's just be careful let's be cautious how much we go down these rabbit holes and maybe we're getting imbalanced and it's affecting us negatively and we are getting anxious and stressed and all the things that Jesus tells us not to do for me as a mother I can so quickly become I can really quickly become off-kilter and all this this is something I've struggled with and I still struggle with it some maybe not as much as I used to but um the thought of having more children in the world we live in terrifies me and I there for a while especially over 2020 all the things that were happening there I was just terrified to have Lex like to when we got pregnant with Lexi I was just like I had toay L down and lay down self and lay down my fears again and again and I I had so many questions I was wrestling with and almost angry at God and just like asking hard questions I just didn't know if I had answers to and then just worrying I'm like what's the point what's the point of bringing a child into all this and I was focusing so much on the negative and the evil that I forgot to focus on the positive and the good and that that will always be here until the end of time like Jesus will be with us he will be with his people and there will always be his blessings around us and if we focus on that and and our whole worldview can change and our life changes drastically Philippians 4:8 is a favorite of many and it says finally Brethren whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just pure I'm just going to quickly go over whatever things are pure lovely of good report if there's any virtue if there's any praise think on these things and there's so many so much scripture that tells us to be thankful no matter in what season of life no matter what state of life we're in that we're supposed to be thankful and praise the Lord even in trials and tribulations and hard times we need to find things to be thankful for and to me it's like if we're focused on the evil and trying to figure out what all the evil people are doing we're never going to be able to enjoy God's blessings because we're so our mind is so taken up with that and it's stressing us out and making us anxious unless you have a mind of Steal I don't think God has called us to live that way so I read this where somewhere that God did not call us to build bunkers to preserve life at the end times but rather to spread tables and invite others in and show his love and to spread the message that you know what time is short you will find such Freedom if you accept Christ and love and promise of eternal life and not Eternal death Nolan and I were talking about this the other day how when Jesus tells us that the Kingdom of Heaven is like little children there's so many lessons you can learn from that like little children have such a simple faith and a trust in you like they just believe that you can figure it all out when we watched the solar eclipse Lexi um was pretty sure that I could make the moon go back to where it had been cuz it got dark and then it got light again and she was out there shouting again again again like very demanding of me that I make it happen again anyway but they're so trusting in you and your decisions and they don't worry they do not worry about the next day very rarely especially young children they live so much in the present and they live joyfully like the joy that is in a child like there is just nothing compared to it like as a parent you get to like live life through their eyes so joyfully it just makes the whole world come alive and it's it's it's an amazing thing and I truly believe that's what we're called to be as Christians we're supposed to be like little children and trust God that he's got all this and we don't have to figure everything out and we don't have to be worried and that he promises us that he's going to be with us so I don't care how evil the world gets if we have a relationship with him and he has Us in his hand even if they can destroy us by killing the body which they can um he will be with us and he'll help us through it and he won't leave us he won't forsake us just like that verse says there's nothing that can separate us from the love of God so let's stop worrying maybe so much about all this stuff and just focus on the simple life and the simple Joys especially for us as mothers I I think it's so key but back to this thing of thankfulness and the gifts that that God gives us um like if we give our children gifts and they they just disregard them or view them as something terrible in their life or something they shouldn't be grateful for or they Grumble about them or complain about them like how does that make you feel as a parent like you want them to light up with joy over the things that you give them and the same goes with the things that God blesses us with I believe that if we hold our life Loosely like and it's hard to do like death is a scary thing I'm not trying to say it's not um but if we realize that even the older I get the more I realize how short life is I'm going to die whether it's today or tomorrow or 60 years from now or 50 years from now whatever um or if the Lord returns before then like we're all headed to the same path like to the same end and so if we can understand that and and hold our life not quite so like what's the point of trying to preserve it like just worry so much every day to try to preserve it and try to like fortify ourselves against all this and then that consumes us and we miss out on the gifts that we could have enjoyed that day let's just say all these theories never come to pass or even hardly any of them do and we spent all our time worrying and all our time like holding our life and our everything just so tightly that we missed out on all the gifts that God gave us and even if it is coming soon um still I want to enjoy the the the gifts that I have today like I think of um I just am so thankful for the the place we get to live here and and I know that there's a very high chance it won't always be here I I just remember um when I was young I would hear older people talk about um you know we everything we own is God's and we treat it as his and I could never quite understand that until I got older and I started realizing like the brevity of life and how life is so so so short and the things that we have yeah I always knew when I was younger that you couldn't take them with you but yet when you're young your life just feels like it will never end but as you get older you realize like nothing is Promised like everything could just be taken from you in a minute like don't set your heart on things of the earth and you can enjoy them like I don't think it's wrong to enjoy things that God blesses us with and I think if you're blessed in many in whatever it is if maybe some people have more than others and I think it's just wise to be thankful for that and then bless others with it and hold it Loosely realizing you might have it today and you might not have it tomorrow I think if you balance that like your outlook on life and how short it is and how brief it is and how everything is in God's hands and how everything that you enjoy is God's suddenly you find this peace and this you can just relax in it because no matter how hard you try to fortify yourself there's no guarantees there's nothing you can do make wise decisions and not be stupid like make sure your lamp is prepped like you know it talks about that's more of a spiritual connotation making sure our hearts are ready for the virgins that were waiting for the bride um the bridegroom sorry but I think too like in a lot of situations like be be ready be prepared don't make stupid decisions but also realize that um everything we do is is Vanity and in essence like we can't we're not God we can't control things and so I'd rather put my faith in God and give it over to him and then enjoy the little things of every day and stop worrying about everything and it's I'm just challenging myself so every day there's so many blessings I live in the country I'm a huge nature lover but um some of the things for me personally is like right now it's springtime and you see new life budding everywhere from the trees to the grass to the flowers um Springtime we're calving so you have these little calves being born and running around they have new life they have energy it's just a pure gift from God like everything in creation just speaks of his handiwork I just don't see how you don't understand that there could not be a God Like A Creator because everything is so precisely in tune with with the seasons and everything relies on everything else and the whole ecosystem like if you take a little piece of it out other parts would just completely fall apart like everything is so meticulously put together and even like the solar eclipse that we went and watched in the last video like the fact that God set this all into motion and the Moon is exactly the perfect distance between the Earth and the Sun to become the same size as the sun and block it out just enough so that you can still see the light a little bit from the Sun around the Moon moon but yeah it's not so large that it completely blocks the light and it's not so small that it just is a DOT like it's just everything is amazing and how it all just works together like I just it was just such an awe inspiring moment and back to this whole fear thing just a little bit talking about the solar eclipse there was a lot of speculation speaking of theories whether true or not there's a whole thing going on about um the government is planning some huge mission on this day that the solar eclipse is to happen they're going to use the solar eclipse as a distraction so that while everybody is focused and having this big hoopla over the solar uh eclipse the government is going to be over here doing their thing and I'm just like the government doesn't need a solar eclipse if they want to do their thing they're going to do their thing like can we just let it go let's just go and enjoy the moment and other thing was like one of their reasons was um you know the government announced a nationwide emergency because of this to me it made perfect sense that the the path of totality is going over the most populated areas of the states people are rushing in like can the um infrastructure hold it all like you know bathrooms parking lodging food so many things if you have a millions of people coming to one place and then trying to get out like it can cause a disaster like there's not that much to read into that really um and other thing was you know the Baltimore the boat that crashed into the Baltimore bridge that was all planned by the government as well and it was going to be close to the eclipse because I don't know like once you start going I'm not saying it couldn't have been planned I'm not saying there couldn't be truth in it but I'm saying once you go down this Rabbit Hole find a monster behind every Bush you miss out on the joys of Life anyway so I'm just throwing that out there like some of that was niggling in my mind I'm like am I crazy taking two children up like am I going to be caught in a disaster is is something really life-changing going to happen is the whole world going to just collapse over the solar eclipse because of all this it was ridiculous I went up there um I decided to go against some of that an anxiety and I went up there and we had an incredible time traffic wasn't just horrible the way up I had a really fun time with my children they did amazing little memories like Lexi waking up and uh and we were all sleeping in the same bed and Lexi woke up Xander with cute little booze that I managed to capture on camera it's one of my favorite memories or just um you know the people we met there was this kind lady that allowed us to park at her house you know there's a show of kindness that someone did like something to be thankful for and to look out for um kind of the camaraderie Spirit among people Everyone is like enjoying their time and there was just sort of this uplifting feeling it was like a wholesome thing that a community of people could get together and enjoy it was God's creation and if you're not standing in all of that like something I feel like there's something wrong like because it just makes you feel so minute in the whole realm of life and so there was so so many blessings tied up up in that trip that if I would not have just stepped out and went against a little bit of that fear I I wasn't really believing it and there's also other things with prophecies but we'll leave that alone I'm not really into prophecies right now that I felt was a little bit obscure pulling strings from a little bit too far anyway so I would have missed out on so many blessings if I would have let the fear of it all take over just by some news media and channels and whatever all that want to do this whole fear thing whether they believe it or just want to make money off of it and so to me that was a to me that was a lesson so many of these things even back in 2020 when I I was really worried and I know a lot of people were and it just our whole world's turned upside down and we realized how quickly things can go from normal to not normal and since then I think is when things have really blown up on the whole everyone's looking be for a monster behind every Bush but some of the predictions that were going on back then that would be happening by this time have never happened at least not as of yet um so many things that actually caused anxiety and fear in me have not shown their face yet so it was kind of pointless to worry about it I'm not saying they couldn't happen I'm not saying some of them are valid honestly I'm not but I'm saying why worry and why fear um I did not think we would be traveling to other countries by this time I I thought um Global Travel was going to be an end I really did just how it had everything had turned but here we are traveling like we like nothing ever happened almost no one knows the future and why would we why should we worry so much about it so I think if we just be like little children and live in the present and just focus on the joys and the gifts that we have today and be thankful for those gifts realizing that we might not have them tomorrow and then again if we do have him tomorrow be thankful for that day that new day the new life the new Gifts of that day and I think if we live like that we will have such much more of a joyful Life free of stress and anxiety and we just have a simple trust that you know what no matter how evil the world gets God promises he will be with us so it's all about our focus and also guarding what we watch cuz that's a big big part and what we listen to so I got kind of distracted with things to be thankful for a child's laugh I there's something about a child laughing that is just the most joyous thing and just to to just relish that sound um there's other sounds children do that I don't Relish in but yeah the child's laugh is definitely one another thing is I love creating and I think our Creator God instill cre like He blesses creativity within us and if you have a creative outlet that you enjoy like find joy in that like experiment in it and um do things that bring joy to in your Crea in your creating or like blessing others with your creativity or whatever that's another joyful thing I love spring peeper these are really random but spring peepers on a beautiful spring clear night it's the most beautiful sound Stars overhead and you just stand and you look at the heavens and you think about how small we are and that we are one drop in a bucket in the millions billions of galaxies out there and within each Galaxy is like billions of stars you feel so small and you realize that we have no control over our life and once again just trust back into to God's hands campfires oh campfires on a summer evening and sticky marshmallow fingers you know the children are having a great time roasting marshmallows the simple Joys the crackling s it's just it's I love camping also camping is another one God's creatures in creation I love animals observing wild animals um whether it's the bird singing in the trees whether it's deer um all manner of creatures a little toad that sits out under our lamp post to get the gats at night there's so many things and you just watch how it all works together and God takes care of them he he says he takes care of the sparrow how much more is he going to take care of us another thing is if you're always watching watching the news and the media you tend to think that the whole world is just going to hell in a hand basket and maybe it probably is but when you go out in the real world and you start like having interactions with people you realize there's a big disconnect between the online hor mongering and the people that are in your life or just Community like so often I don't even see the things that everyone's talking about online and like to look for kind acts acts of kindness whether you're going through a drive-thru someone has a big smile on their face face and and blesses your day that way you can tell them you know what I love your smile you you know just bless people that way um the the kind lady that let me park at her place that so many people will do little acts of kindness and if you look for them it lifts your spirit instead of trying to look for the monsters behind the bush I don't enjoy grocery shopping but there's something about going grabbing a cart pushing it through a store there's plenty of food right now in grocery stores it's something to be thankful for and to be able to have the money to purchase it um even like at the beginning of my health Journey when I was diagnosed with ulcerative cus um so many of the books they were talking about the benefits of going organic and trying to get rid of pesticides and chemicals and all these toxic burdens which I agree with but so much of that I couldn't afford and so you tried to like all the healthy foods I had to eat which I felt like we did fairly well but even like healthier it just got so expensive and we you kind of have to pick and choose and we still don't have Limitless money for that but things are a little bit more loose and I can just go in and buy healthier foods and my health has been so much better with a lot of these different choices and God's hand of healing I there's just a whole bunch of combination and I'm so thankful for that just the ability to go in and to have food to feed our family is just amazing and to have better health that's another one for myself um I'm doing so much better than I did a few years ago I'm thankful for that I know it might not always be that way but I'm thankful for being able to keep up with my family and to have have healthy children um you know you see so many parents that have children that are battling cancer and and I know even in those tribulations you can find God's goodness but for me personally it's one thing that I am very thankful for is for so far I have very healthy children another one I have down is to find joy in mastering a new skill I think that's always um a good thing to do I always love to learn and and do things finding new things to challenge myself with I think there's joy in that looking for ways to bless others and that could be by giving giving of your time giving them money but it's also little things like just being patient and when your children are stressing you out and they're just not being nice people that day or very grumpy like just to be patient that's one way to show love because I know that when I struggle with this so much I think all moms do but you know when I become unnerved I just see it Ripple throughout my family and there's just a gloomy atmosphere and and I hate it so bad it's about that I have but when you can master that and just push through your feelings and and try to be as cheerful as you possibly can and that affects your home even you know just learning more about Wholesome foods and and filling your children's body with wholesome ingredients like That's Another Blessing another way you can bless them in their health get in tune with your senses like your sight smell taste when you really stop and you shut out the noise and you focus on one of your senses like maybe it's listening like right now you can hear the the birds and the trees you can hear traffic in the distance and if you listen long enough you can hear the breeze a little bit through the trees there's so many things and it just heightens your awareness and it just brings calm and peace and more things to be thankful for um even sight sometimes I just marvel what what site is like have you ever stopped and just broken down all the things of your body that is just like I sometimes I just marvel I'm like what is sight really like you can't really put a finger on it you can't really really like feel it and like physically it's a little bit like the wind you can't see it but you know it's there and sight it's just like this this world we live in and and suddenly you dive down that road and you're like wow sight is very impressive um and then just be thankful for that some people don't have sight so much of that um taste and I even think of things like walking sometimes I will be feeling really well really good healthwise and I will just just relish the feeling of strong legs to walk on because I know that I won't have them all the time I know that I'm going to get old and feeble if if if I do get old and live that long um and I see older people and I think you know what they must look at me or other people and just think how much fun it would be for them to be able to go back when they were younger and walk around confidently with a sturdy stride and not worry about steps and not worry about falling and hurting themselves and so those little things like I realized going to be there before I know what happened and so I need to just relish the feeling of strong legs and it sounds so simple and so crazy but it's true try it sometime just just the feeling of being able to move and move about maybe some of that came with my health issues too there are so many health conditions that people have that we don't even realize and so if you have health just do not take it for granted another thing I'm so thankful for I love to travel our family loves the experience of traveling seeing God beautiful world experiencing different cultures in different parts of the world it just expands your mind it helps your children expand their minds and we live in an era where travel has never been easier I mean we can hop on a plane and in a day we'd be halfway around the world or the other side of the world like it's mindblowing what we are living in a time of history that has never ever before been anything like this and you know we as people sometimes we get so hung up like oh back in the day you know they had life so much better they did things this way that way um okay let's just say you're going down the path of medications and some people are very against medications and I'm kind of on the bandwagon like I will avoid them if all possible but I also Marvel at what the medical world has been able to do and so speaking of imbalance I do kind of feel like you know sometimes people can be so anti- doctor um and then they throw everything under the bus and it's like look at how far we've come you look back just a few hundred years and Nolan says you know you walk around an old graveyard and the amount of young children that were in Graves back then is horrifying and now we expect that if we have a child we'll be able to keep that child whereas back then uh I think there was even a saying that you don't count your children until they're like reach a certain age don't count me on that for sure but just those little blessings like we have come so far in so many ways and yes there's a lot of negative netives but I would much rather live in the Comforts of my home like in a modern era like the Comforts and conveniences that we all enjoy no matter how rich or poor we are especially in the states usually like electricity running water most of us have that even the kings of old did not have that like I would much rather take my air conditioned house heated in the winter cooled in the summer a nice soft bed running water I can just pull hot water for a bath whenever I want I would take that over this ginormous Palace that Kings used to live back that's like decked in Gold but it's kind of cold and harsh and you don't have all the modern amenities like we are literally living like kings would have dreamed of back then like seriously they might have been more wealthy and stuff but the conveniences we have nowadays is just mindblowing and yet people still have a way of just yeah I mean it can be scary like technology definitely can be scary I'm not saying it's not sometimes the progression of things is just mind-blowing but anyway um but yeah at the same time it's like can we be thankful for what we do enjoy instead of finding a bear behind every Bush and a monster and um realizing that we live in a pretty amazing time right now as far as just what we enjoy and yes we might be coming to the end and sometimes I hope it's sooner rather than later and my children don't have to experience the the world as it is so yeah there's so many things I think we're going to stop at that but just I think that constant gratefulness in our heart every day is a gift from God we treasure it um we live our life I I heard this saying as well as far as speaking of the Lord's return or the end of the world like live your life every day like he was returning this day and that you're ready for him but plan your life like he won't return for another hundred years because you know the Temptation sometimes if you get so caught up in this you're like well the world's all coming to an end tomorrow anyway so why would I go plant my Garden why would I save for my children's future or you know plan in a way that's being beneficial for the family like why would you I think even in Thessalonians Paul reprimanded the people there because they all thought that the Lord's return was going to be right away and they quit working and they were idle and Busy Bodies it said and I think that we have some lessons to learn from that as well and then I'm just going to end with this and I'm sorry if you're still here I'm amazed because this is a long one this is a really long one pray over your children this has been a challenge for me I have not been a prayer Warrior but something I've been challenged with is I'm one that loves to learn and I love to hear thoughts and ideas but filling our minds with things like I'm sometimes it can be too much too much of a good thing can be too much and you always have noise and I realize you know what I never had time to actually pray and talk to God um because I'm so busy just throughout the day listening to things and I was convicted of it the other day and I'm like I need to pray more over my children I try to just pray for lots of little details of their life if I can cover them with prayer my my greatest prayer for my family um besides them knowing god loving God growing up with a heart after God is that God protects our young children from evil people and evil things especially when they're young I don't pray that they don't have hardships in their life I don't pray that they never face um persecution or whatever although I would would would hope that but my main thing is that when they're young and so impressionable and need to be with their parents that the Lord protects them from Evil from evil people that could take them away I pray that I would Lord rather take them through death even than have them fall in the hands of evil people when they're young so I pray for that I pray for their future I pray for their their future spouses the parents of whoever those future spouses are that they have wisdom and raising their children um to be Godly so that those Partners can be good partners for my children because marriage is such an important thing and who you choose um is such a trajectory and how your life goes and so I think if we can just let go of all the noise and shut it out and just really guard ourselves against what we're feeding on and realizing that we're so easily swayed and we might think that we can stand but the Bible says take heed if you think you stand lest you fall and if we just fill our minds with this stuff we're going to start seeing a monster behind every Bush and there might not be one behind every Bush and we might start like falling into the path of false prophecies and false prophets and believing it and being deceived and so I think we just need to be very very careful and to guard our hearts and to guard our minds and always come back to God's truth and to come back to the simple simple things of life I don't really feel anything's wrong with these other things but if it's taking away from what we're called to as Christians to live a simple joyful life where we live in the present we don't worry about tomorrow we trust God for today we are thankful as the Bible teaches us to be for the blessings of today I truly believe that our heart will change from anxious to peaceful and that relationship we have with god um will just be Amplified and we'll grow and grow in that and we can observe these signs and know the end is near but we won't be so obsessed with it because we're busy I think with other things in life that affects individual people and is more important to drawing people to the Light of Christ than it is that we've have everything figured out on how the end of time is going to happen or if the government is going to get us tomorrow or not now I know that most of the people on this channel are similar in belief to me they're Christians we're Christian Community but I also know there's quite a few that aren't and I'm so honored that you all are here if you're like me a lot of you say that you find my beliefs fascinating maybe you um agree with a lot of them um or you enjoy learning about cultures I'm the same way I love learning about other cultures and what their belief system is however there is one thing I would ask and that is that if you are open to the thought of there being a God if let's just say you're not religious you think maybe there is just ask God that if you are real show me and I truly believe that if I am correct and if the God that I serve is truly the god um that he will show himself to you here's the thing and and the the what I wish every person could experience and that is the true peace that comes with knowing god and having a relationship with him when he washes you clean and cleanses you and gives you Freedom like you've never experienced before and a peace that is uncomprehended in a world so full of turmoil and fear and conflict like if you're Desiring that true peace and calm no matter what comes your way I point you to him there is so much truth there is so much joy to be found in him there is no description to it unless you've experienced it yourself and have the Holy Spirit living with you so that's my invitation I hope you all have a blessed day and I need to get to work this is a beautiful day I want to go enjoy the sunshine take care

Channel: The Mennonite Mom

Views: 18,928

Keywords: the mennonite mom, mennonite mom, mennonite, mennonite blogger, mennonite vlogger, mennonite youtuber, mennonite youtubers, joy in motherhood, finding peace in a fearful world

Id: 4-FaYfKC-4E

Length: 66min 13sec (3973 seconds)

Published: Fri May 03 2024