We need a bright light if we're going to shine it so that people see God through us! But that's the exact opposite of what Satan wants from us.

There are (at least!) 10 ways that we are regularly tempted to dim the light that God has put in us when becoming Christian entrepreneurs. They include things like falling prey to unnecessary mom guilt, focusing on shallow status symbols and making it about us instead of about God, just to name a few.

Listen to this week's episode to ensure that we don't let any of these temptations get in the way of us building the business that God has in store for us. Are you ready?

Download the free business starter guide here

Schedule a free coaching call with Bonnie

Microphone (2- ATR2100x-USB Microphone) & HD Pro Webcam C920: Hello there, friend.

Welcome back to burning brightly today.

I've got a powerful episode about evil.

Aha.

Just getting, we're going to talk about combating evil, but I just thought

that would be a funny way to start.

If you are a mom of faith, then you know, this one truth.

There are real forces for good.

And for evil out there.

So we're going to talk about combating those evil ones and working for good, We

know that everything good comes from God.

He is the source of all light.

All truth.

All love.

All kindness.

Everything wonderful.

When we feel inspiration to do anything that yields more of these things,

more like truth, love, kindness.

We know that that is from God.

On the other side, Satan is the root of all evil.

He tempts us with selfishness and cruelty and jealousy and anger.

And contention and so much more that we see, unfortunately,

in the world every single day.

If we let him influence us.

Then we may find some temporary satisfaction here and there, but we

will never find lasting joy and peace.

He has made sure of that because that's the opposite of what he wants.

So, what does all this have to do with building a business?

Well, Burning brightly is what God has asked us to do.

All those of us who follow him.

He has asked us to be a light for good, and to shine his light into the world

so that others can see him through us.

So, what does that mean?

It means Satan wants the exact opposite.

He wants us to struggle and he wants us to doubt ourselves and to doubt God.

He wants us to dim our light to Dern down that brightness a little bit so that

others can not see God's light through us.

So today I'm going to share with you 10 ways that Satan regularly tries to get

us amazing godly women and entrepreneurs to stop burning brightly or to just

dim the light just a little bit.

And that's not what we want to do.

We want to do the opposite.

I want to shine as brightly as possible.

So let's dive into the 10.

Number one in no particular order.

His mom guilt.

So many incredible moms who would be amazing entrepreneurs.

Fall prey to the idea that they should be.

Better moms or they should be doing more with, or for their children.

Now guilt in general, I don't believe is a bad emotion.

I firmly believe that there's not really any emotion that is bad.

They all teach us lessons and all service in one way or another.

But guilt is actually designed to put us back on the path to our greatest values

when we have strayed away from God.

Guilt helps bring us back.

It's job is to set in whenever we are not living with integrity,

there should be some guilt.

And then we use it to come back into keeping with those values.

But Satan, I have found likes to use mom guilt is to turn us away from

sharing our light and make us feel like we're being bad moms because

we're not circling around our children.

24 7.

He wants us to use the good of serving our families as a distraction from

something even better, which is using our light to be spread into the world.

Now to be clear, I firmly believe that serving our families

should be a top priority.

In fact, for me, it's number two, my number two priority just below

serving God is serving my family.

But sometimes I have to leave things undone at home.

Or allow my children to become more independent so that I can

do God's will outside of my home.

Now, there were many years, this wasn't the case.

I would actually try to do something a little bit more with my business,

and I would just feel held back like, like that was not my time.

But at this point, I feel like it is my time.

And so sometimes some mom get, will come up for me and I will

realize actually, No, I, I shouldn't be feeling guilty about this.

I know that the right step for me right now is to go out and build this business.

Even if it means my kids are going to have Mac and cheese tonight.

Does that make sense?

So when guilt comes up for you, analyze it, ask yourself if there's

any truth to where it's coming from.

And if so make adjustments, maybe your kids have had Mac and

cheese for six nights in a row.

And you're thinking, no, actually I think I probably should make dinner.

Great.

But if it comes up and you realize, no, there's no truth to that.

It's okay.

Instead, I want to be working on this business that God has

called me to do then peacefully.

Let that guilt go.

Okay.

All right.

Number one, guilt.

Number two, fear.

Let's start this one with scripture because every time

fear comes up, we should know exactly what to think about it.

And it's this.

Uh, scripture in Psalm 56, 4 says in God, I will praise his word.

In God, I have put my trust.

I will not fear what flesh can do to me.

There are so many scriptures.

That talk about how fear is the antithesis of God.

God, it does not work from fear.

So let's just eliminate it.

I like to start by naming my fears because when we just think one just kind of afraid

or nervous, it just seems impossible to overcome, but let's name them.

For me, some of the things I have been afraid of in my entrepreneurial

journey include fear of criticism, fear of failure, fear of looking dumb.

Right.

We're always afraid of looking dumb.

And of losing money because that's a real thing.

When you invest money in your business.

But what is the worst case scenario of all of these?

And I would challenge you to ask yourself, what's the worst

case scenario to your fears?

It would just be negative emotion.

That's it?

It would be feeling some shame, feeling some embarrassment, maybe

feeling some financial discomfort.

And that is it.

That's all we're afraid of is feeling those feelings.

So if we can learn to embrace those and operate any way.

Build our business.

Through the fear and through the discomfort.

Then there's nothing we cannot do.

We cannot be stopped.

So just remember if you are paralyzed by fear.

You might be letting Satan take control.

God does not, nor has he ever operated out of fear only out of love.

So pray for a li a release from it.

If that is something you're struggling with, pray for help, and then get busy

taking action, even while the fear hangs around, because you can do that too.

Okay.

Number three comparison.

Oh, if you are a woman, you probably know this one real intimately,

Comparison or being worried about how we will look to others , Also

closely connected with that fear.

So I was a sprinter in high school and I ran very, very short distances, a hundred

meter, 200 meter, 300 meter, 400 meter.

My longest race was under a minute.

So they were second Sloan races.

And do you know what I never ever did in those races?

I never looked in the lane next to me.

I did not have time or energy.

To waste.

Looking at where my competition was.

In fact, the only way I could tell where anyone was, was by

how loud their breathing was.

They're breathing got louder.

I knew they were coming up on me.

And that was my hint to hit it hard.

There just was not time or energy to waste looking around going, oh,

what's she doing what she doing?

Because if I had looked from one side to the next, they would have passed me up.

I would've wasted precious milliseconds looking at another

lane and I would have lost the race.

So every minute we spend as entrepreneurs looking over the fence is again,

time and energy taken away from our metaphorical candles that are burning.

Remember episode nine, where he talked about the fuel that we need, we need

that fuel to shine our own light.

We can't waste it, looking at other people.

But Satan loves comparison.

He wants us to look around and just think about all the things we don't have.

All the things we're not doing comparison takes our amazing blessings

and it turns them into not enough.

And it makes us.

Irritated and ungrateful and miserable beasts.

Instead of being grateful, godly women.

It can turn us away from gratitude and towards self-pity.

So Sean comparison at all.

Costs protect your mind, do not let it compare.

Number four is using good things as excuses.

So thankfully God has filled our lives with so much.

Goodness.

We have families and homes and wonderful things to occupy ourselves with.

But they can be a temptation to take our focus off this mission

we have of burning brightly.

We can spend our entire life focusing on good things, like time

with our kids and volunteering at school or at church cleaning our

home or connecting with friends.

Now there's a concept I want to touch on really briefly here.

It's called the concept of good, better, best.

What that means is you will have good things in your life.

You will have better things, and then you will have the best things.

And that concept simply teaches us to not allow the good or even the better

things to distract us from what is best.

So for example, if you have committed to yourself that you will work on your

business from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM every day, Then the best thing you can do at

1:00 PM is to go to your office or go to the library and work on your business.

Even if a kid is upset at you, even if your house looks like a wreck, because

you have committed to yourself to do this thing that God has called you to do.

The best thing during your work time would not be to organize

photos or play UNO with a kid.

This can be a hard pill to swallow friends.

I know because there's so much good in our life.

But if you make commitments to yourself and to God, be ready

to respect them and do not allow those good things to sidetrack you.

Okay.

Number five is to fixate on the unimportant.

So when we women become entrepreneurs, we can easily pay too much

attention to the shallow stuff.

Things like having the right hair and the right makeup or the right clothes or

the perfect handbag, having a home that looks a certain way or the right car.

Especially, as we begin to see monetary success, we see more money come

into our lives and we think, well, what should I do with this money?

Well, I should buy all these things that other people are buying,

because that seems important.

Satan wants us to be obsessed with shallow status symbols.

It's a very easy way to distract us.

From shining our light brightly.

Now, to be clear, I am not saying that you shouldn't make

a ton of money and spend it.

You can absolutely do that.

And as a wonderful godly woman, I know you will spend it on things that build

God's kingdom that make the world a better place, that benefit and bless your family

and your friends and acquaintances, families

just be cautious about how important you are making, fitting in with the cool

kids or gaining specific status symbols.

Because unfortunately, even among grown-up entrepreneurs,

there are cool kids and there are mean girls and there are cliques.

Don't let success turn you into that and fixate on those things

that do not have lasting value.

Number six, socializing.

We all have to socialize.

We all love friendships and they are critically important

to our mental wellbeing.

But for many of us, we are going from full-time stay-at-home mom

status to part-time entrepreneur.

And that means we have to let some things go.

And for me, that has meant some socializing time.

It doesn't mean I never see my friends.

It doesn't mean I never hang out with people that I love, but it is a lot less

than I was doing when I was staying home.

Full-time as a mom.

My business actually fills me up in so many ways that I used

to get through friend time.

And it has actually brought me a lot of unexpected friendships as well.

But sometimes it's still hard to say no to social engagements.

People want to go hang out, do the mom thing at the park.

And I just don't have the time or the energy because I'm caring for

my family and building a business.

So be aware of spending too much time socializing and not enough building

your business, but also on the flip side, be aware of making your

business, your best friend and the only thing you ever spend time on.

That's also not healthy.

We obviously can't shine brightly if we're never interacting with

anyone or if we're only ever online.

So just pay attention to this delicate balance and ask God for help.

If you need it.

Number seven, believing our own poisonous stories by now, you

know, enough about life coaching.

To know that the stories, our brains tell us are not always facts.

In truth.

They actually rarely are facts.

They are just stories.

Satan often wants to convince us that any damaging or limiting

stories we tell ourselves are true.

Things like I don't have any talents.

Nobody wants to hear from me.

I'm not special.

, I've never been successful that this isn't for me and on and on and on.

If you find yourself entertaining, these stories go listen to episodes.

Three and five.

Number three.

We'll remind you.

How it's our brain's job to keep us safe.

And sadly it does.

So by limiting our experiences and keeping us in the cave, it

wants us to just stay home at all costs and not do anything risky.

Right.

So go listen to that one, listen to number five, because that one's about

self compassion and self-compassion is crucial in this instance, when

those poisonous stories come up.

You need to write them down in a notebook and leave them there.

Ask yourself.

Are these even true and if they are, so what, what does that mean about me?

Do I want to hold on to them?

And then go build your business anyway.

Number eight temptation is making it about us instead of about God.

It is so easy to fall prey to this.

Woe is me mentality.

As you're building a business, oh, things got hard or things didn't work

out the way I wanted to, or we're focusing on fear or insecurity because

we're all wrapped up in our own needs.

But if we truly believe that what we're doing is what God has in store for us.

It changes everything.

We will quit that drama and dive head first into this plan he has for us.

There's an amazing story about this.

I want to share with you.

This is from a faith leader that I really admire and respect.

And he has a story about when he left for a two year mission trip

to England, I believe it was.

And he wrote home once complaining about what was going wrong.

I am miserable.

I'm homesick.

This is hard.

I don't want to be here.

I think I'm wasting my time.

And his dad famously wrote back, forget yourself and get to work.

Basically stop the boo-hooing.

It's not about you.

This is God's work.

Hop to it.

And he said that turned him around and he realized I was too fixated

on my own self and was not fixated enough on whose work I was doing.

So think for a moment about the people that God is sending you to serve.

Who needs his light.

And acknowledged that you may be the only one that they can get it from.

You may be in the right place at the right time to give them that

light, that they so desperately need.

So just get ready to step up to the plate sister.

Because God needs you uniquely, you.

Number nine temptation isn't to not care for our bodies and our minds.

Now in episode nine, again, we talked about that fuel

needed to get this job done.

Satan might tempt us to run ourselves ragged and not prioritize our self-care.

And then guess who we're good to.

Absolutely.

No one, not our families, not our business, not to anybody online

or anyone we meet in person.

Do you have a system and plan for caring for your body, spirit and mind?

Because if you don't, you need one, get one and it can be something super simple.

You can start so small.

Like you need a little exercise a couple of times a week.

You need some vegetables, you need some scripture reading and you need a journal

or some coaching to do for your mind.

That's it start very, very small, but start investing in

that fuel you need for yourself.

So treat yourself like a receptacle of God's spirit should be treated.

Because that's exactly what it is.

So ditch any self-loathing thoughts and honor yourself as the child of

God, you are so that you are ready to fulfill this mission he has for you.

Number 10, the last temptation that Satan tempts us with to get us a

dimmer light is to not walk by faith.

Everything God asks us to do requires faith.

You guys, everything he wants to see if we have the strength

to do the things he asks.

Even when we have no guarantee of how it will pan out.

That is hard to do, but it's also so worthwhile.

So do you have faith for that?

And if not ask him for it.

Again, I can't help, but think of another one of my favorite

scriptures about faith and it's in mark chapter nine, verses 23 and 24.

You probably remember a man goes to Jesus and asked for help.

Getting rid of an evil spirit that is in his son.

And Jesus says anything is possible if you can believe.

And the man says, Lord, I believe.

Help thou my unbelief.

Love that so much you say yes.

Yes.

I believe, well, maybe not perfectly.

Can you help?

And he says, of course I can help if you can just try to believe.

Our faith does not have to be perfect.

In fact, I don't think perfect faith actually even exists.

I don't think that's a thing.

But it does have to be stronger than our fear.

So lean on that faith.

Pray for more.

And then get out there and shine that light.