Join Savannah and Jeremiah as they celebrate the one-year anniversary of their podcast, Casting Seeds, reflecting on their journey and the lessons learned along the way. This episode focuses on the importance of setting New Year's resolutions that align with Christian values, emphasizing that resolutions should serve God and others rather than be solely self-serving. Savannah shares her personal experiences, including navigating her current pregnancy and the challenges that come with it, while Jeremiah discusses the growth they've both experienced through their trials. The hosts encourage listeners to seek God's guidance in their goals, rely on His strength, and embrace accountability within their community. As they delve into the principles of perseverance and grace, they invite you to reflect on your own resolutions and how they can honor God and support those around you.

Takeaways:

• This podcast celebrates its one-year anniversary, discussing the commitment and growth over the past 51 episodes.
• Listeners are encouraged to reflect on their resolutions in light of biblical principles and community support.
• Savannah shares her journey through pregnancy and the importance of relying on God's strength during challenges.
• Jeremiah emphasizes the need for accountability among believers in achieving their goals and resolutions.
• Both hosts express gratitude for their listeners' support, highlighting the role of community in their ministry.
• The episode addresses the significance of aligning personal goals with God's commandments and purposes.

Support Us

Savannah IG: Holyistic_Wife

Jeremiah IG: Holyistic_Husband

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Casting-Seeds-Podcast/61557099641711/?mibextid=ZbWKwL

Email: CastingSeeds.Podcast@gmail.com

Remember to subscribe, share, and leave a review if you find this episode valuable. Connect with us on social media to join the ongoing conversation.

Check out our Amazon Store

https://www.amazon.com/shop/holyistic_wife/list/2F14REVMYQGBR?ref_=aipsflist_aipsfholyistic_wife

Foreign.

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Casting Seeds.

I'm Savannah, your holistic health practitioner and host.

And I'm Jeremiah, your co host.

And you're listening to the only holistic health podcast that uses God's singular truth to give you individualized discernment.

Hi, everyone.

I am back and it's so nice to be back.

I miss you guys and I miss doing this with you.

Love.

Happy New Year, everybody.

I know I didn't get to say it in the last episode, and today we wanted to kind of celebrate.

This is our one year anniversary for our podcast.

We've been doing this for a whole year where I believe this is our 51st episode.

That's crazy.

And, yeah, that.

That is.

Most.

Most podcasters end on the 10th episode.

That's like 80% of podcasters in the world.

And when they say if you've made it past a year, you're.

You've already made it as a podcaster because it's the dedication and the effort that we put in.

That's crazy, you guys.

Yeah.

And so I also just want to shout out to all of you guys that who listen to us, thank you so much.

Your support and your love and your prayers have gone a long way in our lives and for this podcast.

Yeah.

And to go off of what Jeremiah was saying about us having this past year, we want to do a little reflection this episode and just kind of commit some time to that because you guys have been a part of this journey a lot more than you realize.

And also, Jeremiah wants to talk about his side of the pregnancy because we're getting close to nine weeks, which is the longest pregnancy we've ever had, which is such a huge blessing.

And then the main base of this episode we want to discuss, because it goes with the fact that we've kind of had a new year and our podcast is now a year old, which is amazing.

Is talking about New Year's resolutions and what that looks like for Christians in an appropriate way.

I've also been on and off sick since December, not due to the pregnancy, but because my immune system's really low.

So if my voice sounds different than normal, maybe a little more nasally, or if I sound more out of breath, I am having a hard time breathing because of my thyroid.

So hopefully this episode doesn't sound choppy through editing and things like that, because I literally cannot stop coughing.

And just interrupting us in our episode, I'm holding it back.

So the show must go on.

Prayers for that.

But yeah, so reflection, you know, 51 episodes we have over, I want to say, 20, 000 downloads, which is huge.

We have a Constant, at least seven to 10 listeners every single day of the year, which is crazy, insane.

And we've been downloaded from.

I think it's about 30 different countries around the world now.

That's awesome.

We have every single continent in the world, which is nuts.

Australia, we finally got you.

Yeah, we got Australia, finally.

It took a year, but we got you.

Yeah.

So what has your experience or what's it been like, Savannah, for you?

I know that for me, being the host, it's.

It's weird because people definitely look at me a little bit differently now.

Like, I.

I somehow have more authority when I've had the same amount of knowledge I've always had when it comes to holistic health.

I mean, yes, I do a lot more research, especially having the podcast, but it would be just as much research as if I had a client book me and say, these are my ailments.

Where do I get started?

Yeah, I learn new things all the time from having clients and touching bodies and working on different bodies.

So it's been cool because I feel like this is a space I actually really get to control, even in interviews.

And then now with me being interviewed and going on podcasts, including me going on one tomorrow, I don't know, I just.

I just feel really blessed and honored that a lot of people are excited to learn what holistic health looks like from a biblical perspective, because that's not spoken about as often.

And a lot of the content creators that are out there have started to blend holistic living into, like, that one Alex girl.

She changed her entire podcast to more.

I.

I want to say it's holistic, but not necessarily.

She kind of jumps on fads and then talks about, like, the latest fads in holistic health, where she asks a lot of experts to come on.

And I really do love that because it's a different way of learning.

And she definitely.

They go for the drama aspect of it and make it very political, but ultimately, at the end of the day, to me, it's still not a very biblical podcast.

And then you have a bunch of really biblical podcasts that then sprinkle in a little bit of holistic stuff, or they tend to make it more political, you know, about how our government isn't doing this and that they should be doing this, and this is what you need to step up in as a Christian.

And I think the base of our podcast is so different because it's a lot more of you as an individual, what can you do to represent Christ in the best way possible for you and your family?

But how can you be the best advocate for yourself?

Not for your government, not for your parents or, you know, your brothers and sisters in Christ at your church?

Yes, you should be, but more so for your own family unit, you, your husband or your, if you're the husband, you and your wife and your immediate family, and then extending from there.

Because if you're not solid in the home first and foremost, then you cannot love your neighbor.

Right?

Love your neighbor as you would yourself.

So I feel like our, our podcast is a little bit different because yes, we go through a bunch of different biblical things, a bunch of different holistic things, but we try to stay as non political as possible unless it really is affecting what's going on around us.

And that's why we did the nourishing news for a little bit.

And if I do nourishing news and continue it, I would like it to stay again more on like holistic health topics where like when we talked about the military inviting in different types of mindsets and things like that.

But yeah, ultimately I'm just really proud of what we have because I feel like it can be so much more diverse.

We could speak to political leaders if we wanted, we could speak to farmers, we can speak to teachers because we have really cultivated the aspect of holistic living is holistic living.

And it's a part of every aspect of your life and it's also a part of what you choose to not make it.

So we're trying to make it where our listeners have every single aspect of their life, be holistic living and understand what God's creation was truly made for.

Yeah.

Who are you doing this for?

Yeah, exactly.

And that's what we're doing this podcast for.

So yeah, I think when I talk about us on our podcast Growing, I would love to somehow monetize this podcast where we could actually make some sort of profit so we could give back more.

I think that's been the biggest thing is we have a huge support system and we have a lot of listeners.

But.

And I don't want to ask listeners just to like give back and pay.

Yeah, because that's not what I want.

I would love to have advertisements and companies be working with us that we love and agree with what they're doing where it also we could still be non biased in things that we say.

Even if a company wants us to sell a product, I can be like, hey, I don't even necessarily use this product.

But they're sponsoring our episode.

I don't even know if.

I don't know if I don't like it.

I wouldn't let them sponsor.

But it would be nice to have monetizing.

Yeah.

Aspect.

I think that's the next goal for us this year.

Yeah, I think that's my goal.

I mean I just feel weird being like.

And donate.

Yeah.

It's not my favorite but I know if this does end up becoming a main ministry for us or even a full blown career, then yeah, that would be awesome.

But I would prefer companies to pay us over the people.

I want to educate the people.

Yeah.

And always stay non biased.

I love it.

Yeah, definitely.

I think that's a great goal.

Another goal would probably be get another.

I don't know.

We're at 7 per listeners per day.

I'd love to get us to like 10.

Yeah.

I didn't even think, I didn't think anyone and their mom would want to listen.

So yeah, this was a huge like topic for what, two years?

Yeah.

If you, if you guys are new listening to us, listen to our very first episode that was recorded a whole year before we.

Like that was three years ago.

Yeah.

So.

And then that was our first episode a year later.

Yeah.

Which was last year.

But anyway, onto that because that actually segues.

We didn't start three years ago like we planned because we had two miscarriages back to back at that time.

Yeah, I was healing and I was really sick.

And then we didn't know that that year we would have two more.

And I'm really thankful that God really put on our hearts to wait on the podcast because we were going through so much and now here we are almost nine weeks pregnant.

Yeah.

It's amazing.

I, you know, going through the.

The first two pregnancies and having the miscarriages, I definitely noticed a huge difference from then till now.

The first two or the first four?

The first two.

Because when, when we first went, I felt like I was growing a lot more in the last two.

But this last pregnancy that we're going through right now is like I finally have learned how to biblically love you and lead our household and allow you to rest and really to learn and grow with you through the pregnancy.

Like going to the OB with you and just already knowing the questions and also the answers that I have.

Like doing my own research and listening to other podcasts and yeah.

Also getting the support at our new church.

Like yeah, dude.

Like guys, if you don't have a body to actually that will actually lean on you and you can lean on them.

You're doing it wrong.

Because having miscarriages, being a guy, we don't know what's going on.

We don't get to experience anything.

And talking to some of the guys and like some of them have lost their children in their 20s, 18, 19 years old, have had like seven miscarriages.

Getting all those different perspectives and seeing all those hearts for Jesus and allowing you to actually grow in that and lean on them and cry, I gotta say, has been life changing.

Yeah.

For me at our last church, we actually really do love that church a lot for a lot of different reasons.

Yeah.

But in every group that we were in, no matter what, during our miscarriages, we just weren't supported, which I know is not what the pastor represents or the church itself represents.

But we felt a constant void there.

No matter how much effort we put in and no matter how much we loved on people, there just wasn't that type of ironing, sharpening, iron, reciprocation.

And we just felt drained.

So we knew that God, when he gave us a job opportunity and it was time to say goodbye to that church.

We took the job opportunity, said goodbye to that church, and then the job opportunity fell through.

And in the meantime we were trying to help my parents find a more solid church.

And it just so happened that a few friends were going to this other church and I knew people there.

So we started, introduced my family to that church and it's become our new home church.

Yeah.

And your dad's been coming with me to like men's things.

It's been awesome.

But.

Oh, go for it.

Oh.

I was just going to say our community changing.

We still have a great community that's from our old church that we love deeply.

We still respect that church a lot for many reasons.

Great Bible teaching church.

Yeah.

I think what's been a hard realization is seeing what it's what we've been missing.

A church that suffers well together.

And that's the number one thing that we've discovered is that non stop outpouring of love.

Even if the church itself falls back a little bit because they're loving their members so well.

Yeah.

So we just wanted for anyone who had been struggling with any type of hurts because it is the new year and we know that people are going to be going through New Year's resolutions and wanting to set new goals for their lives.

And whether it's children or not children or like for us, we want to go backpacking.

Jeremiah has some Job goals and things like that.

We.

We want you guys to know that the biggest and most important thing first is obviously having a steadfast relationship with Christ, but also having Christ's community to lean on.

That's why when we were only six weeks pregnant, we announced to everyone and their mom on the Internet in our church and asked everyone to immediately pray for us.

Even if most people see it as taboo.

Yeah.

I.

Which I don't understand why it's taboo, because, like, you need help.

Yeah.

If you want to do this by yourself, I mean, go for it, but you're gonna fail.

Yeah.

You can't rejoice together, and then you also can't suffer together if things happen.

And most miscarriages happen within the first seven weeks of pregnancy.

That's crazy.

Yeah.

So that's why I think it's silly that people want to wait and unburden others, like, if they have a miscarriage.

Like, I don't want to burden everybody.

Excited to miss.

Burden them.

Your friends and family should want to be burdened with that, because it's not a burden to be able to love on you.

Yeah.

And I think that's one of the biggest things that I fell into in my last church is I felt like my problems were burdensome to the people around us.

And now at this church, it's the exact opposite.

And it took a loving community to bring that out of me and to have less shame around those things and understand that the more that I suffer, the closer I am to the Lord.

And I'm so thankful for it.

Even though, of course, we pray for a season of peace and not like a season of suffering, which would be nice.

Well, I mean, the thing about season of peace, that is the time you love on other people in their time of suffering.

Yeah, exactly.

You know, it's not a.

It doesn't end.

Yeah.

Because more suffering will come in by seeing others suffer.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's.

Being a Christian is a beautiful, like, unending circle of just support and love.

And I.

Yeah, we just.

We wanted to make that clear.

Which is why Jeremiah wanted to kind of give his perspective on pregnancy a little bit.

Because I will say this has been a completely different pregnancy than our last four with our relationship and how he's been as a godly man and supported me and protected me and blessed our home and just has been there in ways that I didn't think that he would ever want to be.

So.

Yeah.

I mean, I cried when I saw the heartbeat of our baby at seven weeks, and I was like, wow, I really.

We really did lose four other children.

Yeah.

That already hard.

Had heartbeat heartbeats.

And like that.

That was actually pretty devastating for me.

Like before, like I was.

It's easy to give to the Lord what you don't see.

And I did not see the previous pregnancies as full life because I had no correlation to what that looked like until I saw that heartbeat.

Yeah.

That's how they also, a lot of women who want to have abortions, that's the first thing they do is they show their baby's heartbeat.

It's crazy.

Imagine still being able to say, yes, murder that child after hearing the heartbeat or feeling the baby move inside of you.

I pray for them.

Well, either way, obviously, those women can be saved.

Yep.

Anyone can be saved.

Those babies are saved, even if they're not.

Yeah, I know that's true.

That's actually a thankful thing.

But either way, we want to get into the New Year's resolution topic, what that means and what that looks like because we.

Last year we had a resolution of doing this podcast.

I think it's the only thing we followed through on.

Let me think about that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's the only thing.

I don't even know if we had any others.

Did we?

Not really.

We'll help.

We've been so.

Yeah.

No health.

We followed through all the way.

Okay.

Our two only resolutions.

We actually did.

Yeah.

Can I get a amen to that?

High five or.

High five.

But yeah.

So studies have shown that 80% of resolutions fail by February.

Most of them fail earlier than that.

Like January 20th.

Yeah.

50 of resolutions.

It's called failed Friday, right?

Yeah.

By the second Friday of January.

And we don't want God's people to be a part of that statistic.

Because it's not biblical.

No, it's not.

Especially if you make outward promises.

People should look at Christians to people who follow through.

And we kind of realized as a couple that especially like compare.

The reason why we talked about our last two churches and what we experienced with our miscarriages is because we noticed Christians are known as either the people who are there for you, have got your back, will do anything for you, or they're known as being the biggest flakes.

Yeah.

Like very selfish, self desired.

They'll do anything for themselves, but not for the people who really need help.

They take help.

They don't give help.

Yes.

Take help all day, but never give.

And that's not a Christian.

No.

So.

And if your New Year's resolutions.

It's also.

We're going to talk about, too.

Because they shouldn't just be about you.

Right?

Correct.

It should be how you're serving.

I mean, the church as well.

But serving God, ultimately.

And serving God is doing his only two commandments.

Love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength.

And love your neighbor as you would yourself.

Yeah.

So if your commandment or your commandment, resolution, you don't get those.

If your resolution doesn't fit under God's two commandments, then you need a new resolution.

It is meaningless.

And then some people could look at that and be like, well, Savannah, I wanted to lose £20.

How does that have to fit?

Oh, that's easy.

One, how can you love your family by losing the weight and being able to serve better because of that.

I already disagree with you.

Why?

Because the question is, who are you doing this for?

Well, for God.

And the way you serve the Lord is with the healthy body.

Wait, that's not always necessarily true, because some people are not called to have the bodies that they think that they want.

True God makes it very clear.

And I actually talked about this in the last episode.

Paul, he literally prayed to God and said, I have stomach ailments.

I have issues.

Can you please heal this?

Can you help me heal this?

What do I have to do?

And God said, nothing, because it's never going to be better.

I mean, Jacob had a limp because he.

He wrestled with God.

That's a little different.

I mean, but what I'm trying to say is, first and foremost, check your resolutions with who you're doing this for.

Yeah.

Because if ultimately, if God knows you want to lose those 20 pounds just to look good because you want to get that guy.

And if you're married, if you want to just look good for yourself, but it's not the motivation of.

You know what?

I want to be more attractive to my husband.

I know that my husband prefers this.

And I want my husband to feel loved.

And I want him to know I'm doing this for him, not just me.

That is a completely different mindset than me saying I want to lose 20 pounds to Jeremiah because I feel ugly.

Which one do you think God is going to support?

The first one.

And the first one's actually going to go further.

That's what I'm saying.

Yeah.

So my thing is, obviously, don't ignore what Jeremiah said, but ignore what Jeremiah.

Santa, I'm not the holistic health practitioner here.

My thing is, I want you guys, with everything that we're going to talk about right now, I want you to please Scope it first with God's only two commandments.

And then I want you to remember who you're truly doing it for, because it's not for the Lord.

And you know in your heart whether or not something is truly for the Lord.

It's true, you know, and it's easy to say whether or not, like, no, if you can't back it up with scripture, I'm sorry, it's not going to happen.

And I hope God doesn't allow it to happen.

And if God does like he does, you know, often in the Bible, he'll be like, fine, have your gods.

You're worshiping that God, you can have it.

Know that you're in a scary place.

You're in a scary place.

I pray that you come out of it soon.

And then I just want to add, you know, just practical things, lack of planning.

I mean, if you're planning.

If you're not planning, you're planning for failure.

So you got to have a good plan that is biblical and that will not take you away from the Lord.

And you have also have to not put this before God.

This has to come after God and all your other responsibilities in life.

You also have to create realistic goals, because if it's something unrealistic and you don't know how to do this, you're probably setting yourself up for failure.

Yeah.

And then building accountability.

I think that is, like, the number one thing.

So this is why you need community and good community.

If you don't have a brother or sister in Christ that understands that you want this change and they understand it's for the right reasons, it's going to be hard by yourself.

Yeah.

There's no one to check in with you.

There's no one to hold you accountable.

There's no one to.

What?

What's the word?

Put.

Oh, what is that word?

When you feel like.

Not guilt, but conviction.

Conviction.

There you go.

Thank you.

But, yeah, and then just keep aligning your resolution with God's will.

Proverbs 16:3 says, Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.

I mean, you want success?

Make it about God.

Yeah, that's kind of the.

I was gonna.

I have, like, five things that I want people to do with their New Year's resolutions and to check with overall or, like, how to continue doing them in a good way.

Yeah.

And mine was also in Proverbs because the first topic is to seek God's guidance.

So if you begin by praying for God's wisdom and aligning that with your resolutions, I Mean, if you just do this day to day, you're gonna do well.

Yeah.

But you have to align it with God's will first.

Right.

And if you trust his will, then you're gonna be put on the right path.

And that's Proverbs 3, 5 through 6, which is trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.

In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths.

Mm.

So if you're not submitting your life to Christ in that way where you're really, like, checking his will first, because that's the thing.

I could get discernment.

Let's say I need lose £20.

Let's go back to that.

I've gotten discernment.

Like, I'm pretty sure I need to lose £20.

And then I go to Jeremiah and I come up to him and I'm like, honey, I think I need to lose £20.

And what's the typical husband response?

Oh, well, I mean, if you want to.

You look great, love.

Like, I love you.

You're just as sexy and beautiful.

And I'm like, okay, my husband's giving me zero discernment right now.

He's not.

Cuz he doesn't want to tell me the truth, which is fine.

Sometimes it's not called to.

So my role is supposed to be saying, is this resolution God honoring?

Yeah.

And then I'm supposed to say, like, am I relying on his.

Are you relying on his strength or your own?

Yeah.

And then how can this resolution serve you and others and bring glory to him?

Yeah.

So that would be.

That's literally whether it's a friend or my husband or a leader at church, these are the things that we should be asking whether it's a resolution or an actual problem or whatever.

But I loved those questions to actually reflect on which Jeremiah has.

He's going to be saying that every time for everything that I say.

Print those out, baby.

I know.

What is it?

Is the resolution God honoring?

Yep.

Am I relying on his strength or your own?

Okay.

And then how can this resolution serve others and bring glory to him?

Yeah.

I don't feel like I'm called to lose 20 pounds right now because I'm pregnant.

So this is a hard thing.

You're called to put on what I think, like, the most.

It's like, what, 35 pounds for, like, a really heavy baby.

Can I just.

This is a little side topic.

We're gonna go on to the next point too, which is rely on God's strength.

I am relying on God's strength right now.

You know why I look in the mirror, you guys.

Last July, I looked a certain way.

I looked really bloated and swollen.

I was a lot heavier, even in my face.

And it looks like it's all coming back right now because I have, like, a pouch already.

Like, a baby bump.

I know.

So I'm freaking out a little bit because my brain went from, this isn't healthy, Savannah.

This isn't good.

Look at.

You look sick.

Because I did, and now I don't look as sick, but I'm swollen and I'm freaking out.

So I'm relying on God's strength to tell me the truth, because the truth is what's happening is healthy anyway.

Number two, Rely.

I'm freaking out.

I'm not gonna lie.

Rely on God's strength.

So you need to understand that lasting change comes through God's strength, not your own.

You have to depend on his power to achieve your goals.

So I don't.

What's a really good example?

I feel like we've done this a few times this year where we relied on our own power, not God's.

Really?

Yeah.

Well, you were perfect.

No, I'm just, like, trying to rethink everything, and, like, the entire year is kind of a blank all the way up until you're pregnant.

And, like, it's.

That's all I can remember right now.

Okay.

I'm like, pregnancy brain.

So let's.

Well, so even when I was sick at the.

In July, like, getting really, really sick.

Yeah.

We literally.

I was gonna go on antibiotics, and I'll.

I just kept hearing the word no pop up in my head.

And I told Jeremiah.

I was like.

I literally have, like, a male voice in my head telling me to not get antibiotics.

And this is weird.

I feel like I'm making this up.

Like, I feel like I'm crazy.

And he was like, okay, well, let's just trust it.

And then I found out, what, an hour later, that if I took antibiotics, I would have made everything a thousand times worse.

Because antibiotics would kill more bacteria and feed the yeast in my gut.

Right.

Which would have prevented me having a healthy pregnancy today.

So, yeah, Philippians 4:13 comes to mind.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Yeah.

Christ literally gave me the words.

He outwardly told me no, but also, too, you can.

I know a lot of people don't have those, like, amazing moments where they hear an audible voice in their head, but you can also ask questions and pray and then get in the word and Find wisdom so easily through that and through God's church.

Like, my friend called me and she confirmed.

She was like, yeah, in our other guy friends, he.

We had two people saying, yes, we think this is yeast and candida.

And so I started treating it, and then now we're having a healthy pregnancy for the first time.

Yeah.

So, yeah, if you follow through with God's word and discernment in your life in the moment, it has, in the future healthy benefits.

I got to see it physically in my life.

Some people see it more spiritually, more mentally, emotionally, but everyone's different.

And you could see all of those throughout your lifetime.

Yeah.

So I just want to make that clear, that relying on God's strength isn't just like, I'm at my weakest.

What do I do?

Sometimes it's in the moment, just being obedient.

That's what strength is.

Having Proverbs 7:1.

Oh, what is it?

Or Proverbs 1:7.

Oh, I need to look it up.

One second.

Yeah, okay.

It's Proverbs 1:7.

I was right.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.

But fools despise wisdom and instruction.

So I had that fear in that moment that I wasn't going to be.

Obey the Lord.

And I was patient.

I just sat, and in an hour, I was given truth.

I was given an answer by two people.

Two people that we trust.

So God can be good and sweet like that when in his urgency, and he also can be good and sweet by making us wait.

Yeah.

It's not about your timing.

Right.

And it is crazy because, like, we went to the.

Oh, my gosh.

What's it.

What is it called?

Urgent care over there in Dana Point and in the.

Yeah, Laguna.

And, like, it's such a blessing that he was willing to just give you everything you needed to take the test and stuff like that, where, like, other doctors would have just gave us a huge run around, get this tested, get that tested.

He was a nurse practitioner, and he was like, let's just give you all these tests.

Yeah.

To make sure that you're.

And then when I.

At first, being pregnant, I was nervous because I was like, I'm still not done killing the yeast in my gut.

And he was like, well, let's see.

And I had H.

Pylori.

And I took all these things naturally to kill it, and it all came back negative.

Yeah.

And I was like, how did we do this?

What's July to December?

That's six months, isn't it?

No.

Is it July, August, September October, November.

December.

That's six months.

Yeah.

My gut was healed in six months and now we've been having a healthy pregnancy.

That's crazy.

Yeah, it's a blessing.

So that's what I'm saying, you guys.

I.

I just, I'm in awe of what God has done this past year.

Uh, three Also, there's only five of these, so I promise we won't go on forever.

Pursue self discipline with purpose.

This is what Jeremiah was talking about earlier.

Having proper planning.

That was the word I was looking for.

And how do you get proper planning?

This is what I was thinking.

You could pray for clarity and guidance before setting your goals.

And then you could also ask for help from friends that have done something similar.

Yeah, that's true.

Get real testimonies and ask God to.

Help lead those people into your life.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, this says get specific is the first thing.

Meaningful goals that contribute to your spiritual growth.

Beautiful.

And serve others.

They help practice self discipline along the way.

Right?

Yeah.

So it's being specific in those things.

First Corinthians 9, 25 says, and everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things.

Now, they do it to obtain a perishable crown.

But we for an imperishable crown.

Oh, Jeremiah loves the word temperance too.

It's one of my favorite.

Yeah, I'm gonna jump on there.

He could.

There could be a whole other episode just on temperance.

You know, hearing you say that like, it just, it reminds me.

If you build spiritual habits that are daily things for you, and you have your daily Bible reading, you have your daily prayer.

Yeah, it just makes sense.

Whatever you do, following up after that will be so much easier.

Like if you have a good spiritual discipline, then anything else that you throw out, do throughout the day will be so much easier.

Yeah.

And I'm noticing why people tend to do like family Bible time at night.

Because it's easier to gather the kids together and it's easier for parents to have that one on one time with the Lord in the morning.

But it makes sense because you get to start your day off with the Lord and hopefully have that temperance.

Right.

And long suffering and with kids and family and with each other.

Uh, but ultimately it's like you get to start your day off with the Lord and then end it as a family coming together with the Lord.

So I could see in the past, I was like, man, I always had my Bible time at night with God.

I'm realizing that's much easier as either a single person because like Jeremiah and I Catch up at night.

We pray together, but now we have individual Bible time at night as well.

Kind of.

That's been our habit, but it's going to be a lot harder with a baby.

Um, I wouldn't mind still at night.

Like, you know, there are different sleep schedules that we can do, but I'm seeing the benefit of waking up really early and having that time.

Yay.

Do I want to do it right now?

No, right now you need your sleep.

Don't worry about it.

Once you hit 12 weeks, then you could talk about it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll get into that.

All right.

Number four, persevere through challenges.

Don't give up when obstacles arise.

I think that's the biggest thing with any resolution or anything when we're talking about, you know, lord, I want to make this change in my life.

He's going to give you obstacles to choose him.

I think that's what people are like.

Why does this keep happening over and over?

Because he's letting you have opportunities to choose him.

That's the point.

And if you notice the same issues keep happening over and over again and you keep failing at it, you don't have it yet.

Yeah.

You gotta trust in God's faithfulness and continue to work towards those goals with endurance.

Okay.

You don't just start running marathons.

You got to build up that endurance.

You gotta jog daily.

You gotta work out.

Get outta here.

Galatians 6.

9.

Let us not grow weary while doing good for induced season.

That means in the proper timing we shall reap if we do not lose heart.

Hello.

Yeah.

God's very practical.

I think this is the hardest thing I've noticed for Jeremiah.

Oh.

Is the endurance aspect.

His family did not raise you or your brother to have endurance and see it as a positive thing.

Whenever your family has seen obstacles, they see it as a negative thing and they want to shut down and just leave it and walk away.

And I've noticed a lot of growth, especially in this past year for you, that when you've seen obstacles, you're getting more excited.

Like, lord, how can I work with you in this?

Yeah.

My perspective is changing.

Yeah.

And it's.

I've noticed it's made our marriage a lot easier as well.

I had an issue where I'm.

I'm a half empty type of guy.

And my prayer for the last three months has been, please, Lord, help me see your glory in everything and try.

It's been a struggle, but I've been trying to put God first in all my hurts and Having a community of men has made that so much easier.

Like, my wife's great, and she's great at calling it out, and she's a great support.

She wants what's best for me.

Even though, like, sometimes I feel offended, in all honesty, I'm just offended by God, and I have to give that to God, because that's me and God, not my wife.

And I.

Yeah, well, and that's the thing.

I feel like, in the opposite aspect, where Jeremiah gets hurt more emotionally by the endurance.

I.

Where then, like, he gets emotionally hurt, then physically gives up, I do the opposite.

I.

If something seems too difficult and I've been doing it for too long, I physically give up, and then I emotionally beat myself up for it later.

So having those two opposites also has been hard in a marriage.

Yeah.

Because I look at Jeremiah and I see things, and to me, it's easy.

And I'm like, you're crazy.

Like, why are you just.

Like, why are you being so mean to yourself?

You haven't even tried.

And, like, that drives me nuts.

But then Jeremiah will see me do things over and over again, and then just one day, I'll be like, nope, I don't feel like doing this anymore.

And he'll look at me like, what is wrong with you?

You've been doing this.

Why all of a sudden today do you not feel.

And I'm like, I just.

I'm giving up, like, emotionally now.

And that drives him nuts because he has to do things repetitively to get it and do it well.

And.

Yeah.

So it's just I work towards success, and Savannah's working for success, and when she doesn't see the success immediately, it's hard on her.

And when the success takes too long for me to achieve, it's hard on me.

Yeah.

That's a great way of putting it honestly.

And both views are sinful because the success either way is for God's glory.

And if we're not doing it for that and we're doing it for convenience or feelings or that's why we get.

Hurt, because we're doing it for ourselves.

Ourselves.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So I just want to let you guys know that perseverance through challenges is not.

That's the hardest one, I think, out of all of these that we're going to talk about.

But if you do that, then you can go to five, which is embracing accountability and God's grace.

Right.

Perfect.

Y.

You gotta share your goals with others for support and accountability.

Need prayer.

Yeah.

It goes so far.

And then, like, you get that phone call in the middle of the day.

It's like, how you doing with this?

It is so rewarding to hear that.

And also humbling.

Yeah, you get that little shame aspect, which is good, especially if you haven't been doing it.

And you're like, yeah, yeah, you're right.

What's your excuse?

But some people feel that shame and they run away.

They don't like it.

And that's when you know that their heart really isn't humbled before the Lord.

If you get that shame and you're like, oh, okay, yeah, I needed this.

Thank you.

You're much better off than most people.

So that's why you also have to remember that God's grace is sufficient when you stumble, but it's also not the only thing that provides.

You don't just live off of God's grace, because that's not how God works by any means.

I have two verses here, by the way.

Jeremiah likes this one.

As iron sharpens iron, so man sharpens the countenance of his friend.

That's a sweet one.

I think us, as humans, we don't really realize how powerful that is because, like, when you temp.

Here we go.

Temperance.

I knew it.

That's why I said Jeremiah.

How do you.

How do you go through it without actually not wanting to explain?

Temperance.

Okay, why don't.

Let me give the second verse.

Okay.

Before you get excited about temperance.

2nd Corinthians 12, 9.

And he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.

Yep.

And that leads perfectly into.

Stop it.

I'm not done.

Therefore, most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

All right, all right.

So let me boast in God's temperance and say that if you look at anything in the world that has been tempered, you'd understand that it has been treated to handle and endure anything that it's thrown at it.

Well, what is tempered?

Okay, so tempered.

I'm going to go with steel, because I don't.

That's what everyone knows.

The way you.

I don't.

I know glass, but.

Okay, the way you temper steel is you heat it up.

You beat it up.

You heat it up.

You beat it up.

You quench it in ice water or an oil, you pull it out, you heat it.

You don't just heat it, you scorch it to extreme temperatures to where it's, like, melting so you can mold it.

Yes.

And so that is a representation of the human going through all its sin and God tempering you.

And so through sanctification, when you temper steel and you go to test it, it will not shatter.

Yeah.

And as.

As Christians, when we temper with each other, we beat on each other, we help each other grow, we put each other in.

In through the fire, and we get through it together.

When we go into a difficult time in our life.

Icy water.

Yeah, we hit that.

Icy water.

We hit that.

Another piece of steel.

And where most people break and shatter because they have not been tempered, we do not.

Because we have God as our tempered hearts.

Yeah.

That's what ironing, sharpening iron means.

Because the irons have been sharpened it through temperance.

So they're so sharp and so strong that they actually sharpen one another.

Yeah.

That's what happens.

They don't shatter like everything else would.

And that's the point.

Jeremiah's making is that Christians are the only ones who can do that.

For you Christians and other Christians, I'm not saying you can't learn from non Christians.

That's not what I mean.

It's just different when you have a brother or sister in Christ.

Yeah.

They gotta understand your situation where your heart is growing too, and understand your sanctification and be able to relate and love on you the way you need to be loved on.

Yeah.

Because they want to grow you through the fruits of the Holy Spirit.

Right?

Yep.

So if they see any of those lacking, if they see fruit in your garden that needs to be pruned or time to harvest, like, they're the ones who, if you're not seeing it correctly, they're the ones who are holding that accountability like we talked about in this Embrace accountability and God's grace, and they'll give you grace for not seeing it on your own.

Right.

Or they'll hold you accountable and be like, it's God's job to give you grace on this, because this is not okay.

And I'm actually annoyed or hurt by the way that you acted, which is just as well.

You know, there are different types of this.

Yeah.

I mean, God will put us through the.

I don't know what to call it, but there'll be opportunities of our weakness to show.

And we get tested.

We test our temperance.

And that's how we honor the Lord.

And that's how I honor my wife and the body of Christ.

Yeah.

We got to be the Testament.

I mean, that's what I put my test my testimony all about.

It's like, it's not my testimony.

It's God's.

Yeah.

So who are you doing this for?

I think I.

I just want to recap those three questions from earlier so that way people could plan their year around the Lord.

Okay, so is this resolution God honoring?

So does it represent the two commandments God gave?

Yeah.

Am I relying on his strength or my own?

How can this resolution serve others and bring glory to God?

And I just want to encourage everyone to reflect on their own resolutions and invite them to dedicate their plans, their goals, their life to God.

Yeah.

And if you guys want us to share your resolutions on the podcast, send it in.

We'd love to let people know and have them pray over you specifically.

We don't have to say your name if you don't want to, but yeah, let us know.

Send us in resolutions.

And we're here to support you and pray over you and be that extended church community.

Right.

We love you guys.

And we're so honored and thankful to have been doing Casting Seeds for a whole year.

And we're so gracious that during our really sick time for those last two weeks in December that you let us have that break for Christmas and New.

Year's, we had more listeners during that break.

Yeah.

Than ever.

Yeah.

So we definitely.

You could tell it wasn't for the benefit of the podcast, but we love you guys and we're so thankful for you as our extended community and for reaching out on Facebook and Instagram.

And if any of you want to be interviewed, let me know.

Definitely.

All right, you guys, remember to keep casting seeds.

We hope you enjoyed learning how to cultivate God's creation from a biblical perspective.

Holyistic health is to prioritize whole person wellness through Christ like and comment on what topics we're casting seeds or casting pearls.

If you found this information provided useful, subscribe to our podcast for future updates.

Leave a review to help us improve and share this episode.

We would like to remind you before we leave that perfect health cannot be attained in this world.

Only spiritual salvation through sanctification and repentance to God and turning away from sin will give you a perfect body in the kingdom come.

Nourish yourself in the word, in prayer, and in biblical fellowship daily.

Thank you for joining us today and a special thank you to our listeners for making this podcast possible.

Always praying.

Keep Casting seeds.