The calendar gets louder, but your soul doesn’t have to. In this episode, we get honest about holiday busyness and how to keep the Word central without adding pressure or guilt. Learn three simple rhythms—unplug, unattach, and unwind—that protect your attention and bring peace back to your days. Discover how a five-minute Scripture + journaling rhythm can root you in grace, not performance. Breathe easier, slow down, and find joy in walking with God through every season.
Grow in God’s Word. Lead boldly.
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Episode Transcript
This is episode 109, and this is your host, Letoya.
And this is Equip the Next,where you get equipped to lead,
disciple, and move the missionforward.
So you want to know how to keepthe word central in a busy
season?
You don't want to miss this.
(00:52):
If you are returning, returning,sorry, thank you for coming
back.
So, anywho, I forgot to mentionthe challenge last week.
We had such an in-depthconversation, it completely
slipped my mind.
But if you are subscribed, ifyou've joined the community,
then I usually will share achallenge in the email.
(01:16):
I send out weekly emails that goalong with the um, you know,
podcast and just share someupdates when we have lives, all
that good stuff.
So I just encourage you to justjoin us.
You can also grab the five Biblestudy guardrails for confidence
(01:37):
ebook, and you can find that atequipthenext.com forward slash
freebie.
Just scroll all the way to thebottom, subscribe, and you're
in.
And I promise I will not bugyou.
But I would love to see yourface, especially if you've been
coming for a while.
I just love to see new faces.
So yeah, don't forget to do thatanywho.
(01:57):
Um, I thought it was fitting totalk about how to keep the word
central in a busy season or busyseasons, because we are
approaching the holiday season,depending on where you are in
the world.
But typically, um, you know,these seasons that are the
holidays that are coming up, insome way, shape, or form, we are
(02:20):
all kind of celebrating them,whatever that looks like.
Um, even if it's taking holidayor, you know, taking some time
off, um, whatever it is, thingskind of slow down a little bit,
and then they're busy at thesame time.
You know, you're on vacation, itseems like everyone bugs you,
you know, and then you need avacation from the vacation.
(02:42):
Or perhaps you have a time whereyou like to gather to remember
um friends and family that havegone on to be with the Lord, or
perhaps you gather to spend timewith your family who are here,
you know, or friends.
Um, it's just busy around thistime.
Let's just let's just keep itreal.
It's just busy.
(03:02):
And so I wanted to kind of givesome tips on what to do because
I want to make sure that youknow that busy doesn't equal
Bibleess.
Okay, just because you're busydoesn't mean like you're a bad
Christian or anything like that.
(03:23):
You know, things happen, changehappens in family, and God
understands.
Also, being busy doesn't equalyour faith warrior, meaning,
like, you know, you have a lotof people who are extra busy and
they think that that's a meritbadge or something, like, yeah,
I'm busy, and you know, itdoesn't equal that either.
(03:46):
Um, you always have to know thatwe are all we all have different
seasons, and God understandswhether you're a single mother,
whether you are um a fosterparent, whether you have a very
busy job, God understands.
Um, He's blessed you in thatcapacity.
(04:09):
Um, and so I wanted to sharewhat do we do in that so that
we're not discouraged.
I I want to make sure that wenote that relationship is better
than a task list.
So once you understand that it'sbetter that you have
(04:33):
relationship and it's alifestyle, walking with Christ
is a lifestyle, then you'll takethe check, they gotta check this
off the box list.
You'll you'll you'll take thatout of the equation, and you'll
understand that because Christlives in you, it's an ongoing
fellowship and an ongoingrelationship, and you'll want to
(04:57):
check in, you'll want to havethat fellowship with him.
But you want to make sure thatin that there's prayer that then
also pours into that fellowship,and you can pray anywhere.
(05:17):
You can pray sometimes.
I'll pray in my car, sometimesI'll pray when I'm washing
dishes.
You know what I'm saying?
It's a it's a you're having aconversation with him.
You're you can worship anytime,you can praise him anytime.
(05:37):
So I just don't want you to loseyourself in the hype that you
have probably already seen,which is stuff that's on social
media, you know, materialisticthings.
There's nothing wrong withgiving, of course, and treating
yourself and all that stuff, butsometimes we can get lost in
(06:00):
that.
We we're busy, but we're notbusy enough to pull away from
like social media and thingslike that, and so we spend our
time endlessly scrolling, andthat actually sucks up a lot of
our time.
Or maybe we're bombarded withthe gift list or the table
(06:25):
settings we have to do if you'rehaving food over your house.
We can get bombarded and lost inthat, and we can distance
ourselves or think that we'vedistanced ourselves from
fellowshipping with him, but wehave to remember that he is the
reason for the season, he is,and you and he lives in you, and
(06:51):
so I just want to kind of kindof share some some tips to help
you during this busy season.
But first, I want to highlightLuke 10 40 and 41.
You know about uh Mary andMartha.
It says, but Martha wasdistracted with much serving,
(07:16):
and she went up to him and said,Lord, do you not care that my
sister has left me to servealone?
Tell her then to help me.
But the Lord answered her,Martha, Martha, you are anxious
and troubled about many things.
I'm gonna keep um going to verse42.
(07:36):
But one thing is necessary.
Mary has chosen the goodportion, which will not be taken
away from her.
You see, you might be feelinganxious and troubled around this
time, and it might cause you tojust feel like just burnt out.
(07:57):
Let's just say what call it whatit is.
When all the Lord wants you todo is sit at his feet.
To sit at his feet and be likeMary.
And have you know, sometimes youjust have to develop simple
rhythms that you can apply whenyou have a busy season.
(08:20):
So even though you're busy,there's still time in there.
I'm guilty of this too.
Like I'm in school right now,and then I do other stuff and
then have family.
And so I understand, andsometimes I can feel like, man,
did I even check in?
You know what I'm saying?
With all of the other readingsand stuff I have to do, that I
(08:41):
get just a personal downtimewith him, and that's when the
Holy Spirit will quicken me andI will stop and praise him, stop
and worship him, stop and makesure that I check in.
So he understands.
I'm gonna give you, though, Iwant to share with you quickly
just some simple rhythms thatactually, in my opinion, work.
(09:03):
They're very simple.
They're stuff that you can applytoday, going through the season.
Okay.
Um, one is to unplug.
Unplug.
Unplug from social media and alldigital devices.
Like give yourself a cutofftime.
(09:25):
Give yourself a cutoff day.
You know, on the I have my my umphone on do not disturb um
during the weekdays.
It's usually on do not disturbaround business hours.
And on the weekends, I have themon do not disturb on um for an
extended period period of time.
(09:47):
So usually in the morning tolike the evening, it's on do not
disturb.
That allows me time to justunwind, be with my family, and
fellowship with the Lord.
Read or catch up on some stuff,do the podcast, you know, all
(10:08):
these things, and I don't havethe distractions, nor do I have
that itch to want to scroll.
So do yourself a favor and setup some unplug time where you
unplug from all of those socialmedia and those social and
device, all those devices andthe phone calls.
I mean, there's people that maycall me, I'm not gonna answer at
a certain time.
(10:30):
Because I need to unplug.
The next one is to unattach andto attach to God.
So after you've unplugged, nowyou have to still kind of like
separate yourself from your workand from busy life, and just you
(10:52):
have to be able to like havethat boundary and that cutoff
point, and then attach it toattach to God, give the burden
to Him, release it, let it go.
All the stress, let it go.
I know it might seem um easiersaid than done, but if you
(11:13):
create a rhythm, it'll geteasier every time.
A little easier every time.
And before you know it, it'll bea habit.
And I must admit that it alsohelps you sleep better too if
you aren't sleeping that well.
But this one segues into thenext, which is to unwind.
(11:36):
Unwind.
How do you unwind?
Journaling is very key.
We just did a um a couple weeksago, we did a journal,
journaling party kind of thing.
Um, and we just journaled andmapped out briefly what we see
(11:56):
um for our goals for 2026, butwe put God in it.
We let him lead.
It was a great time offellowship.
Um I encourage you guys to againsign up because we have stuff
like this.
I just randomly will dosomething.
So you never know with me.
(12:16):
But journaling is good becauseyou especially before you go to
bed, because you can really justunpack and just take everything
out of your head and just put iton paper.
If you journal and you love towrite your prayers out, that's
beautiful too.
If you journal and pray beforeand or after, that's beautiful.
(12:39):
But it allows you to justunwind.
You need that time.
You need to be able to unplug,unattach, and unwind.
Think about those rhythms.
Apply them if you can.
I'm gonna give you a challengethough, since I forgot last
(13:00):
week's challenge, and Ichallenge you just to read five
minutes a day this week.
Just five minutes a day.
Journal for five minutes thisweek.
Just five minutes, just journaland just really sit at his feet.
(13:28):
That's it.
Well, thanks so much forlistening to Equit the Next.
Listen, if you're ready to go tothe next step, if you want to be
a part of a community, feel freeto grab your five Bible study
guardrails for confidence atequitthenext.com forward slash
freebie, and guess what?
You'll be a part of thecommunity.
(13:48):
Love to see you.
Bless you.
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