67: WE BACK BABY! Summer Break and Exciting New Updates!

Speaker: 00:00:06

Hey, I am your host, Mari Wagner,

and you're listening to The Ever Be

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Podcast where Faith Meets Lifestyle.

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I'm so excited you're here.

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Whether you're a new listener

or a longtime follower, I know

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: 00:00:19

there's something here for you.

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: 00:00:20

Pull up a chair and listen in for

insightful, real life conversations and

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actionable steps on how to claim the.

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Full life God created you for.

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If you're a woman desiring to live

a Christ-centered life in today's

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modern world, then this is for you.

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Welcome to ever be.

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mari_2_09-16-2025_214934: Ah,

you guys, we are literally back.

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Ever be is back, baby.

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Can you tell, I'm so excited.

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I have really missed you

guys these past three months.

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: 00:00:52

It feels so good to hit record again

and be sitting here with a microphone.

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Imagining you just

listening on the other side.

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: 00:01:00

If you're brand new here.

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: 00:01:02

Let me say welcome.

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This is really an exciting episode to

be tuning into because you are part of a

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whole like fresh and new start to ever be.

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: 00:01:10

This podcast is all about living

a Christ-centered life in today's

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modern world, whether that's

marriage, homemaking, faith, clean,

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living, fashion, all the things.

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: 00:01:19

And if you've been here since

the beginning, welcome back.

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: 00:01:21

Thank you for sticking

with me during the break.

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Let's dive into everything.

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I wanna start out by just

saying thank you to you.

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: 00:01:29

This pause from the podcast was totally

necessary for me this past summer, and

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I just wanna thank you for supporting

me in that and also just being excited

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for this podcast to come back and

for being here listening right now.

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I got several dms the past few

months and especially the past few

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weeks, , from you guys just asking

when the podcast was coming back,

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sharing how much you've missed it and

how much you look forward to it each

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week, and that just truly made my day.

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: 00:01:55

Every time I got a message like that,

it's so encouraging to hear from you

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because all I really see is just me

on this side of the screen or on this

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side of your earbuds or whatever.

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So I love hearing your feedback

and excitement about it all, and

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it makes me feel like we're both in

this together and someone's actually

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listening, although I see the numbers.

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I know y'all are listening, but I

love interacting with you guys so.

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Thank you for all that.

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Thank you for the love.

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Thank you for the support today.

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: 00:02:20

I just wanna give you a major catch up.

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Consider this your major bestie catchup

call, um, about what life has looked like

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the past three months, new updates that

I'm implementing to the podcast, and then

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a super exciting invitation at the end.

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: 00:02:34

So stick with me through it

all and we will get there.

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First, let's recap and

just really get into it.

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: 00:02:41

Why the break?

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Why come back now?

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: 00:02:45

How was it?

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All the things?

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So when I stepped back from the podcast,

it was, I know my last podcast aired was

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June 25th, so almost three months ago.

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And I honestly didn't know how long the

pause would be when I took a step back.

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Um, I just knew that I

felt this nudge from God.

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Telling me that I needed to slow down

and kind of recalibrate in my life.

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I feel like I needed to pray and

lean into prayer and rebuild that

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consistent prayer life because it

was kind of out of whack, honestly.

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And I know that I only can servee

you and pour out into you after

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the Lord has poured into me.

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So it wasn't that the podcast was bad

or it dragged me in any way, it was.

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It was good and it was a good thing,

but I just felt God nudging me to be

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present to him more, to be present to

Trey, to the people in my life, in front

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of me, to my health, to my wellbeing,

to truly just take a slow summer.

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And maybe you've had a season like

that where everything you're doing

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is actually good, but you just still

feel like God is nudging you to like

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come away with him for a while, to

be with him, to rest, to slow down.

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Um, so in this time.

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Here are a couple things that I feel like

God taught me that I wanna share with you.

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One slowness is not wasted.

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I've realized, and I've shared this

before, I've realized that I have measured

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my worth so much by productivity, by

what I can put out into the world.

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And it's really hard.

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It's really hard for me guys, because

I love to create and in so many

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ways, I get to do that with my job.

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And my job is literally my

dream, creating, evangelizing,

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building up God's kingdom.

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All at once using all my gifts, but God is

reminding me that he is more interested in

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who I'm becoming than what I'm producing.

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And I know that I need to be rooted

in the Lord and receive his grace

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before I can produce anything

of real value or impact for you.

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So that's number one.

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Number two, community is everything.

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You know this, I've said this and I've

had conversations with so many women

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lately who feel isolated in their faith.

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And I know I felt that same thing

years ago, which is what prompted

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me to start this whole platform

and ministry seven years ago.

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And I know it's hard for women to

meet other truly practicing Catholic,

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cool normal women that are just like

them out in the wild in the world.

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So at the end, I'm gonna share how

I'm making this reality come to life

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and gonna make a beautiful Catholic

community possible to all of you.

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And especially, yeah, just for anybody

who really feels like they need that and

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they don't have that locally for them.

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Um, number three.

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God's timing is perfect.

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I thought maybe the break would slow

things down or would make people

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not wanna come back and listen to

the podcast, but in reality, it gave

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me space for a new vision to grow.

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I feel more excited about this podcast

than I ever have before, and I know

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God is going to bring people that

need to tune in and be part of this

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community at the time that they need it.

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I trust that and I've surrender,

surrendered it all to him.

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So if you're listening right now.

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You are literally meant to be here.

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God literally wants you to be here

listening right now and tuning

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in, so I'm grateful for that.

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So that's what the Lord has been

teaching me the past few months,

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and if I'm being honest, it has

been such a wonderful summer.

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I feel like for the first time I have

actually felt like summer has been slow

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and I feel like for years, the past few

years, like I can't even remember the

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last year that I didn't say this, but for

years I have just been saying how fast

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summer goes by and how it goes by faster.

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Every year.

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And I feel like how every season goes by

faster every year of life that passes.

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And I don't want that to be

my reality as I grow older.

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I don't want it to mean that becoming

more of an adult or being in my

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vocation or growing older means getting

busier and being just less present

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to my day to day, less present to the

season that I'm in all the things.

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And so this summer with the

break from the podcast and.

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With an increased prayer life and

just tuning into where the Lord

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was actually leading me in rest

actually, and actually implementing

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what I have learned about balance

and order and boundaries and really,

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really sticking to those it has been.

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Like one of my favorite summers.

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It has felt slow.

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It has felt peaceful.

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I have felt like I have lived every

day and I've enjoyed it and I feel

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rested and I feel like a new creative

energy that has like been given to me.

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And so I'm really excited about that

and I'm really, it just confirms

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even more that I needed to take a

break from things over the summer.

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Especially to be able to come

back and give y'all the very best.

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So that's my life update there.

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But today's comeback isn't just about

my break and how it was and how great

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my summer was, although it was amazing.

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Um, it's about the podcast starting again.

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It's about the beginning

of a brand new chapter.

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Forever be with a fresh.

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Structure and a deeper way

for us to walk this journey of

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Christ centered living together.

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And that's what we're gonna

be chatting about today.

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So now that we're all caught up with life,

let's get into the new rhythms that we're

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gonna be introducing here on the show that

I think you guys are really going to love.

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We are adding two new

segments to the podcast.

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That will be a part of every episode.

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Also, I say we because Trey is like

my right hand man in everything I do.

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So.

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It's really both of us

and you're here too.

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: 00:08:16

So it is a we, um, anyways, the two

segments we're adding are called

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Ever Be Moments and Ever Be Answers.

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And aren't those just like really cute?

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Like I love, I love,

okay, one of my favorite.

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This is like context.

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One of my favorite parts of this podcast

is honestly the name and how the name came

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about ever be is the song that I walked

down the aisle to when I got married.

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And the symbolism of that was basically

that I was always going to have the

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Lord's praise like ever be on my

lips no matter what he threw at me.

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No matter what we experienced

in our life, I was.

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Always going to be praising, always having

the Lord's Praise ever be on my lips.

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And considering this is a podcast

and I'm literally talking, I

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thought it was really fitting.

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So that's why The Ever

Be Name is what it is.

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And this is about to become one of

my favorite parts of this podcast.

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It's going to be sharing little glory

stories of how God has been moving.

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So I'm keeping that alive in this

next chapter of the podcast through

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something I'm calling ever Be Moments

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and it's exactly that,

sharing glory stories of how

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God is working in our lives.

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And we're gonna do it at the

beginning of every episode.

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So let's just jump in right now to

our first ever be moments together.

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Right now, for me in this break, I

have been so much more consistent

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with going to Eucharistic Adoration.

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I felt like my prayer life needed

a resurgence, and I knew that I

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needed to pray outside of the house.

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I knew that I needed to be in the

presence of Jesus, and I told myself

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like, we are going to buckle in.

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We are gonna get our, you know,

butt outta bed early in the morning.

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We're gonna get ourselves together and

we are going to go to the chapel to pray.

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At the adoration chapel

as many times as we can.

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And so I gave myself a goal to go Monday,

Wednesday, Friday, and I've been doing

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that for a few weeks now and I can't

tell you like the resurgence of life

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that I feel and the re-energized like.

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Life that I feel right now.

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I feel like ever since I've been going

my days don't feel like they're dragging.

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My days don't feel tired or impossible.

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My to-do list doesn't

like overly stress me out.

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It just like, I know things are gonna

happen as they need to, and I know God's

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gonna be leading the way every single day.

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Um.

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And not just my energy, I feel like

I'm like talking about like the

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benefits of like a new like wellness,

like hack or like a bio hack.

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Like so much more energy than before.

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But it's true you guys, like I have

so much more energy than before.

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I have so much life to me, I have so

much like zeal and like joy every day.

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And also I feel a whole new wave of

creativity and a whole new desire

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to be creative and to create.

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And I have so many ideas.

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That are just like bouncing all around

my brain and that I'm just super excited

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about and it's not on like all fronts.

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I love to create in so many ways, both

for my work and outside of my work.

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And so I've been painting, I'm

like doing things in the kitchen.

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I am even, you know, I've been hosting

all these dinner parties if you've

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been following around on Instagram,

and I'm getting really creative

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with them and just the content that

I make and the way that I bring my

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vision to life, like in so many ways.

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I feel like the Lord is allowing me to be

creative and it brings me so much life.

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And sometimes when like that is

so much of what I do both inside

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and outside my job, it's really

easy to get creatively drained.

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And I feel like that's kind of where I was

in the spring, which led me to the break.

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But since going to adoration multiple

times a week, the past few weeks, um,

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this summer, I, yeah, I have just like.

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I have felt like a whole new wave of

creativity has been given to me, and

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I'm so grateful because it just gives

me so much life and I'm so excited.

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And if you're listening to

the podcast, I feel like you

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can hear me smiling right now.

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And if you're watching the podcast,

you can definitely see me smiling.

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So.

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Y'all know, I get so giddy when I talk

about creativity and, and all that stuff.

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So that is my ever be moment.

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Um, from this week.

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It's just like, go to adoration.

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I know it's like the easy thing to

say because it feels like a cop out.

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It feels like, oh, I know this.

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Like, yeah, go pray in the chapel.

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But like, seriously, you

guys, it's such a superpower.

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God gives us the grace that

we don't have ourselves.

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So this is my encouragement to you.

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To go to the adoration

chapel as much as you can.

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Even if you can go once a week, trust

me, it's gonna change your life.

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It's literally changing

me from the inside out.

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I'm gonna have to do a whole different

episode, but I literally feel like

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I'm going through like a new deeper

conversion in my life, which is,

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which is so exciting, and I feel like

it all stems back to the Eucharist.

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So surprise.

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That's basically it.

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: 00:13:04

That's what ever be moments

is gonna look like every week.

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And when I have a guest on the podcast,

I'll also be inviting them to join me

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in sharing their Abe moments as well.

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And I wanna keep this section like

relatively short and sweet and just

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always pointing back to the truth

that God is alive and he's active

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in our lives every single day.

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And there's a.

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Always a reason for his

praise to ever be on our lips.

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How cute is that?

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: 00:13:27

So as you're listening, I encourage you

to also pause and also think like, what's

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one glory story in your life this week?

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I want you guys to be reflecting

on this as well in your own

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life, and then share that.

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Share that with a friend.

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Share that with your small group.

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Call your mom, tell your sister,

like actually share that with

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people and have the Lord's praise

ever be on your lips as well.

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: 00:13:48

Okay, now let's get into the

new structure of the podcast.

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So I told you about Ever Be Moments,

and so here's basically what you can

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expect each week for each episode.

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: 00:13:56

I'll intro the episode of that week and

then we'll get into the Ever Be Moments

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segment, which is the glory stories.

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: 00:14:03

God working in our lives.

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Everything I just did.

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Then we're gonna dive into

the regular topic discussion.

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: 00:14:09

You know, whether it's a solo episode

and I'm sharing about something,

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or we have a guest and we're doing

kind of like an interview style.

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: 00:14:16

We'll just dive into the discussion like

today, you know, and we'll talk about

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: 00:14:19

faith, marriage, homemaking, living,

clean, living, whatever it is, you know,

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all the things I normally talk about.

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: 00:14:24

And then we'll end with a new

segment called Ever Be Answers,

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which is your questions answered.

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: 00:14:31

On the podcast every single week.

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: 00:14:33

I went back and looked at the

episodes that I've put out, and the

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most listened to episodes are Q and

as by far, and I think people just

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: 00:14:40

want to hear real applicable advice.

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From someone they trust.

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And I get it.

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: 00:14:46

Like I want that too.

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: 00:14:48

And I love knowing.

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: 00:14:49

I loved seeing that, and I love knowing

that Q and As have been so helpful to you.

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So from now on, literally every episode

is going to have a q and a at the end,

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and this is how it's going to work.

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I am going to answer one question

at the end of every episode during

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the ever be answers segment.

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: 00:15:06

Okay.

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And then this is another new part.

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: 00:15:09

The rest of the questions are

going to be answered by both

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Trey and I at the after party.

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: 00:15:16

The after party is our

brand new post show segment.

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: 00:15:21

So after every single episode, there's

going to be basically like a bonus

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: 00:15:25

mini episode where you get to hear

from both Trey and I answering your

291

: 00:15:30

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