Shownotes
We’re diving into day nine of our ADHD Friendly Advent study, where the focus is on creating a low-effort, high-impact experience tailored for ADHD brains. If you're just joining us, no worries - you're not behind! I’m Rachel, your guide through this journey, and I’m here to help women with chaotic minds embrace the abundant life that Jesus offers. This week, we’re exploring Elizabeth's reaction to Mary's arrival, which beautifully illustrates how our obedience can inspire and uplift those around us. We'll also delve into how being in a supportive community can transform our experiences, especially when facing challenges that feel daunting. So grab your workbook, listen to the suggested song, and let’s get ready to journal and reflect on how our faith and encouragement can ripple out to others!
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Transcripts
We are on day nine of our ADHD Friendly Advent study.
Speaker A:If you are just finding me, you are not behind.
Speaker A:This is designed to be low effort and high impact specifically for ADHD brains.
Speaker A:If you are new here, my name is Rachel.
Speaker A:I am an ADHDER and a Jesus lover and I help women with chaotic brains seek, find and live the abundant life Jesus offers us.
Speaker A:So we are starting off week two.
Speaker A:Technically, yesterday was the first day of week two of our Advent study.
Speaker A:There's a couple different options here.
Speaker A:I've designed this study so that it can be very free flowing.
Speaker A:If structure is just not how your brain works, that's totally fine.
Speaker A:Everything's in the workbook, which is free.
Speaker A:You can download that at the link over where links live.
Speaker A:But there also is a suggested schedule in there.
Speaker A:If structure is more your jam, so no one is ever behind here, you can do all of the work in one day.
Speaker A:You can just listen to the song and then watch the videos.
Speaker A:You can however you want to do.
Speaker A:It is totally fine.
Speaker A:Again, the idea here is to be low effort and high impact because we are working with the brains that God gave us, not against them.
Speaker A:So what I would like for you to start out with, if you have not already listened to this week's song, it is oh Come All Ye Faithful, which is another really good one that just really feels like Christmas to me.
Speaker A:So if you have not listened to it lately, I would encourage you to pull up the lyrics.
Speaker A:Those are in the workbook as well.
Speaker A:I personally really like the Shane and Shane version.
Speaker A:Shane and Shane, they're one of my favorite musical artists and their music has been really, really impactful for me through different periods of my life and has been a huge encouragement to me.
Speaker A:So I very much love their music and their rendition of O Comely Faithful is one of my favorites.
Speaker A:So pause here, go and listen to the song.
Speaker A:I would recommend having the lyrics there with you.
Speaker A:And then if you have the time slash bandwidth right now, listen to it again with your eyes closed so you can really take it in and like let your brain kind of wander.
Speaker A:Our brains do really cool things and go really cool places when we allow them to wander a little bit with like a prompt.
Speaker A:So go do that and come back and we'll dive into today's scripture reading.
Speaker A:Okay, if you listened to it, let's go ahead and move on to today's scripture reading.
Speaker A:We are still in Luke 1, looking at verses 39 through 45 and I'm in the ESV.
Speaker A:In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.
Speaker A:And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb.
Speaker A:And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.
Speaker A:And she exclaimed with a loud cry, blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
Speaker A:And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
Speaker A:For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.
Speaker A:And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.
Speaker A:As I'm picturing the story in my head, you know, when there are girls who haven't seen each other for a long time, or one of them has exciting news and they see each other, and there's the like, oh, my gosh, you know what I'm talking about.
Speaker A:That is what I imagine here.
Speaker A:I know Elizabeth is much older.
Speaker A:Mary is a young girl.
Speaker A:Elizabeth is not.
Speaker A:But that's how I picture this going.
Speaker A:That is probably not biblically accurate, but, I mean, Elizabeth has some very glowing, excited words here.
Speaker A:Hold on.
Speaker A:My dog is, like, begging to go out.
Speaker A:My dogs have finally, after over a year of being in the same house, started actually playing together.
Speaker A:And so every morning now, they go out and they just, like, romp around in the snow.
Speaker A:And it's.
Speaker A:It's the absolute cutest.
Speaker A:I'll insert a video here, little clips that you can see, but let's keep going.
Speaker A:We have two questions to go through that are in the workbook.
Speaker A:Again, if you don't have your workbook, go download it at the link in the place where the links go, which I was surprised.
Speaker A:I went into my.
Speaker A:My email system, and we've got a bunch of new people on the email list who have downloaded their workbooks.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:And that's not including the people who are already on my email list.
Speaker A:So that is exciting.
Speaker A:As a marketing gal at heart, I love seeing the numbers go up.
Speaker A:I'm a big, like, numbers nerd.
Speaker A:I really love that part of marketing.
Speaker A:But anyways, we're getting off track, so let's go ahead and dig into the questions from today's reading.
Speaker A:Okay, so we are going through scripture journaling prompts one and two today.
Speaker A:So the first one, Elizabeth reaction.
Speaker A:Elizabeth's reaction to a pregnant Mary's arrival is such a beautiful picture of how our obedience and subsequent blessing can impact others.
Speaker A:How has seeing others belief and trust in God impacted you and your faith?
Speaker A:So take a Moment, pause this video, grab your journal, go do some journaling on this prompt.
Speaker A:You can rewind it if you need to hear it again and then come back to me.
Speaker A:Actually do it.
Speaker A:Don't just keep watching the video, pause it and go do the journaling prompt.
Speaker A:Or I guess if you want to do it mentally, you can kind of use it as a thought exercise.
Speaker A:But take some time and go do some journaling, thinking, whatever you're gonna do.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Did you do it?
Speaker A:If not, pause, go do it, and then come back.
Speaker A:But we are going to go ahead and continue.
Speaker A:So, for me, personally, I had some friends that I've known many years now, and they were walking through a very, very difficult financial season.
Speaker A:When I first became close with them, I was really good friends with the wife for a while, and I don't want to share too much of their story because it's not really my story to share.
Speaker A:But seeing how they handled this difficult situation that God had asked them to stay in, God had placed them in this situation and asked them to stay there.
Speaker A:Seeing how God provided for them as they painstakingly followed him, and how crazy things happened, like a check showing up in their mailbox for the exact amount of their mortgage from a friend who was just like, hey, I felt prompted to give this to you.
Speaker A:Crazy things like that would happen.
Speaker A:And seeing how their faith played out and how God provided for them.
Speaker A:And even though it was such a difficult season and things were so tight and it was completely uncertain how it was going to play out, watching them go through that helped prepare my heart for when, you know, my entire life fell apart, which I have talked pretty extensively about on this avenue, on my podcast.
Speaker A:I've been pretty open about my personal journey that, that I'd been on in the very, very dark times that I have been through.
Speaker A:So another example is my husband.
Speaker A:So my husband also has gone through this.
Speaker A:Just unspeakably terrible things, I guess.
Speaker A:Not unspeakable, because I'm talking about them, but he was diagnosed with brain cancer after having a grand mal seizure three, almost three years ago.
Speaker A:No, it has been three years.
Speaker A:Right, hold on.
Speaker A:Yes, it's been three years.
Speaker A:So he was diagnosed with brain cancer, had a very large tumor removed from his frontal lobe, and then a couple of weeks later was served divorce papers.
Speaker A:And so that kicked off his own very, very dark time of having to go through cancer treatment while going through a divorce.
Speaker A:And just it has been a really dark season for him and how he trusted God and sought the Lord and worked on himself and sought his own healing and how God has provided for him and turned him into the most incredible person I have ever met in my entire life.
Speaker A:It is just such a testament to God and who he is and what he does and what he is able to do in and through us when we allow him to mold and shape us.
Speaker A:It's really difficult to surrender, but surrender is incredibly important and my husband is just a wonderful example of that.
Speaker A:So we've been able to be an encouragement to each other because we both have just had this focus on, okay, what does the Lord want for us?
Speaker A:Where does the Lord want us to go?
Speaker A:We are not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but how our stories have been able to kind of, even before we met, bolster each other.
Speaker A:You know, we've, we've had these experiences before we met.
Speaker A:So then when we did meet, we were able to have this beautiful moment of you've been trusting God too.
Speaker A:You've been working on yourself too.
Speaker A:Like you've been pushing forward and seeking truth this whole time.
Speaker A:Me too.
Speaker A:And so it's been really, really cool to see.
Speaker A:So I love seeing how, you know, Mary's yes was a difficult yes.
Speaker A:She was basically being asked to commit a social unaliving because being an unwed mother is already pretty stigma riddled now, let alone back in a very shame honor oriented society where it was more or less a death sentence to be pregnant out of wedlock.
Speaker A:And so her yes and how it was able to be such an encouragement to Elizabeth is, is a really beautiful picture of how we can encourage each other and how us saying yes to God doesn't just impact us, it affects those around us.
Speaker A:And when we are in a community of people who are seeking the Lord and putting him first and seeking truth, that is such a beautiful thing.
Speaker A:And it's just like this, this constant circle of encouragement that just builds on itself.
Speaker A:And we were designed for community.
Speaker A:And so I love being able to see in scripture and look back on my own story and just remember how beautiful it is to be in a community.
Speaker A:Okay, let's go ahead and answer or talk through rather scripture journaling prompt number two.
Speaker A:So in these ancient times, being a pregnant woman out of wedlock carried even more of a stigma than it does now.
Speaker A:The vast majority of people in Mary's life likely looked on her with disdain, disbelief and condemnation.
Speaker A:How do you think it felt for Mary to be not just believed, but openly encouraged and celebrated?
Speaker A:So pause, go do some journaling on that or kind of just think through it.
Speaker A:You don't have to write it down if that is not the best for your brain.
Speaker A:Writing is backed by research as being a really solid tool for helping us think and process and learn and remember information.
Speaker A:So I would encourage you, even if it's.
Speaker A:I don't really feel like it is the reason you're not wanting to get your journal out.
Speaker A:I would encourage you to try.
Speaker A:I totally get that feeling of like.
Speaker A:But it's just extra work.
Speaker A:But putting in that extra work is really important.
Speaker A:So pause.
Speaker A:Go do your thing with whatever you are going to do and then meet me back here and we'll talk through it.
Speaker A:All right.
Speaker A:Did you do it?
Speaker A:Only if you did it.
Speaker A:Can you continue watching this video?
Speaker A:No, I'm not gonna enforce that.
Speaker A:I don't.
Speaker A:There's no way I could anyways, so.
Speaker A:Scripture journaling prompt number two.
Speaker A:So for me, thinking about how it feels to be around your people, especially when you've been around people who just don't understand you or who just don't really like you being in a hostile environment and then getting to a place where people know you and they love you and they expect the best from you and hope the best for you and already give you the benefit of the doubt.
Speaker A:That is an experience like no other.
Speaker A:It really is like finally being able to breathe.
Speaker A:This is a very silly example, but I would imagine that Mary kind of getting to that place of going from being surrounded by people who we don't know if the entire community knew at that point, knowing human beings, there was almost definitely some gossip going around, but we don't know entirely what Mary's situation looked like.
Speaker A:But I can imagine her going from being in this very hostile environment where even if people didn't know yet, she was just waiting for them to find out.
Speaker A:Mary.
Speaker A:Maybe Mary was better at taking her thoughts captive than I can be sometimes.
Speaker A:But she was a teenage girl.
Speaker A:She's a young girl who is going through something that genuinely could threaten her life.
Speaker A:So it just thinking about the kind of faith that she needed to have to like, exist in that community and in that time and in that circumstance and then the breath of fresh air it must have been to be able to just, ugh, okay, these people already know my situation.
Speaker A:They believe me.
Speaker A:They understand.
Speaker A:They like see the vision that God has and they're excited about it.
Speaker A:Again, this is a very silly example, but I have done a bit of traveling in my day and at one point I spent three months in Guatemala.
Speaker A:My now ex husband and I sold our cars, sold our.
Speaker A:Our condo, sold Everything.
Speaker A:Put the rest of the stuff we had in a storage unit and moved, for all intents and purposes, bough one way tickets and moved to Guatemala.
Speaker A:We ended up only staying three months.
Speaker A:We missed our dog.
Speaker A:But anyways.
Speaker A:And it.
Speaker A:I did not realize how much of my mental energy it was taking up to communicate until I ended up coming back to the States.
Speaker A:It was just like this weight I didn't even realize I was carrying was lifted.
Speaker A:Not having to put so much effort because I.
Speaker A:Maybe this is a little bit of a pride point for me.
Speaker A:I. I like to try and, like, break the stigma of Americans.
Speaker A:And so even though my Spanish is not great, I tried very, very hard as much as I could to communicate in Spanish.
Speaker A:Even though most of the people in Antigua, where we were did speak English, I tried really hard.
Speaker A:I was like, no, I'm gonna speak to you in Spanish, dang it.
Speaker A:And I put so much of my mental energy into that.
Speaker A:And I did not realize how taxing it was until I got back to the States and was like, oh, my goodness.
Speaker A:I didn't even realize I was so stressed about this.
Speaker A:I didn't even realize I was putting so much into this.
Speaker A:Again, this is not a comparable example, but that release that I felt, that relief that I felt, just the.
Speaker A:The airiness of not having to wonder, okay, on top, okay, I'm going grocery shopping.
Speaker A:I need to remember my list.
Speaker A:I need to check prices.
Speaker A:Do I have my money with me?
Speaker A:All, you know, all the mental things that you go through when you're going to the grocery store, I didn't even realize that the overarching one on top of that was, am I going to be able to communicate effectively and quickly?
Speaker A:Because it is incredibly embarrassing when you are in a country where you don't speak the language.
Speaker A:They are really trying to work with you.
Speaker A:They're being so kind, and you are just bumbling all the way through.
Speaker A:I had an experience like that.
Speaker A:I spent some time in Spain as well, and I was in Barcelona and was in a cafe ordering breakfast.
Speaker A:And I was struggling.
Speaker A:I don't know why I was struggling so hard this particular morning.
Speaker A:To order like a coffee and a muffin is what I was getting.
Speaker A:And I just, I was having a real hard time.
Speaker A:And so I'm communicating with the barista in Spanish and it's clear I'm having a hard time.
Speaker A:And so the barista takes my order in Spanish, is like chatting with me about my day in Spanish.
Speaker A:I'm struggling.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:And she goes to type it into the computer and like to herself goes, okay, so a muffin and a coffee.
Speaker A:And I'm like, you knew?
Speaker A:Like, I'm choosing to believe that she just was like, okay, this girl really wants to communicate in Spanish, so I'm gonna do that for her.
Speaker A:But like if your English is good enough, that that's like the language that you speak to yourself in as you're kind of like just talking to yourself.
Speaker A:I was like, come on girl, you couldn't have thrown me a bone.
Speaker A:But I was being a little bit stubborn and prideful.
Speaker A:But anyways, we are so, so far off the mark here.
Speaker A:But yeah, I have to imagine that for Mary getting into this welcoming environment, especially again when the stakes were so incredibly high, it just had to be the most incredible feeling.
Speaker A:Okay, that is all I have for you today.
Speaker A:Make sure you follow.
Speaker A:Tag a friend in this, send it to a friend, put it on your stories.
Speaker A:All of it is helpful.
Speaker A:These videos do all get uploaded as podcast episodes on my podcast, the True Grit Podcast with Rachel Grit.
Speaker A:The link to that is in the place where links live as well.
Speaker A:So if you are more of an audio person than a video person or if podcasts are just easier for you, all of those videos are up there as well.
Speaker A:Make sure you subscribe to the podcast.
Speaker A:I don't just post my short form videos on there.
Speaker A:I also do longer episodes that are with a nice mic and edited nicely and all of the things.
Speaker A:So definitely make sure you go subscribe.
Speaker A:Go download your workbook.
Speaker A:That is going to be such a help to you.
Speaker A:Again, that is free.
Speaker A:Free.
Speaker A:I am doing this entire thing for free.
Speaker A:So if you would like to buy me a coffee as a thank you, you can do that at the link as well.
Speaker A:And I will see you tomorrow.
Speaker A:Bye.
