New Beginnings: Honoring Your Divine Appointment Any Day of the Week

Have you ever woken up on a Wednesday with the fire to start something new, only to brush it off because it wasn't a Monday or January 1st? Tiffany Windsor and Mary Koenig challenge this mindset head-on, sharing how any day can mark the beginning of a life-changing journey. In our heartfelt discussion, we shed light on our own transformations, from embarking on 21 days of prayer to launching our Periwinkle Pomegranate e-zine, proving that divine appointments aren't tied to a calendar date.

Embracing a fresh start is often clouded by the comfort of old habits and the daunting shadow of visibility. Yet, it's in these moments of stepping out that we find our true potential. Join us as we open up about our personal battles with comfort zones, the fear of judgment, and the power of community in fostering bravery. Whether you've faced similar struggles recently or decades ago, we're here to affirm that it's never too late to leap into the unknown and honor those divine appointments that can redefine our lives.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to In His Hands podcast from women for
women.
We're here to help you findpeace in knowing you are in
God's hands.
Our goal is sharing the Word ofGod in simple conversations.
We're here to help you thriveevery day.
And now, here are your hosts.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Good morning.
I'm Tiffany Windsor and I'mMary Koenig.
Mary, today I would like totalk about new beginnings.
We have certainly experienced alot of new beginnings over the
past couple of years, and todaywe want to talk about how new
beginnings can come to you atany time.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
I like the idea of starting on a Wednesday versus a
Monday, or starting on possiblyeven January 2nd rather than
January 1st.
That soft start feels a littleless intimidating, less
expectations, and that hasworked for me, as long as I make
sure I begin.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
It's funny because the structure in me says, oh, I
need to follow the rules, and soif the rules are saying that
our new year starts on a certainday, which would be January 1st
and I love how you haveencouraged me to get beyond that
structured thinking a lot haschanged for me, too, as I

(01:17):
started doing 21 days of prayer,or when we started working on
our 40 days of prayer throughDraw the Circle, or our 365 days
of drawing creativity, we wereable to start it at any time
that we chose to, and so newbeginnings happen every day.

Speaker 3 (01:37):
And I like the title of our journal as Fresh Start.
That just means every day we'regiven as a fresh start.
If we didn't start yesterday tonot spend too terribly much
time lamenting or grieving that,but using that feeling to
motivate and launch the next day, to prepare for the next day,
because we aren't assured of allour days, the Lord has counted

(02:01):
them and holds them in His handand if we don't use today well
to achieve what he wants us toachieve, then maybe that divine
appointment wasn't kept and I'mnot okay with that anymore.
I need to keep my divineappointments because I don't
know what's in store there.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
When we talk about divine appointments and timing.
I think I've talked about thisbefore.
I am of the nature of Iactually really like to be
invisible and the Lord has beenpushing and pushing and pushing
me to step out of that,certainly with this podcast.
When we started a new beginningwithin His hands, based on

(02:41):
prayer and listening for theguidance to start.
January 1st, we launched thefirst issue of our periwinkle
pomegranate easing, that pushedme out of my comfort zone and
wanting to be invisible becauseit was drawing me back into the
creative world, which is where Ispent my whole life, with my

(03:03):
mom's background in the creativeworld and then with my time
spent in her world of the crafttelevision show that I did.
I was also the editor of amagazine and it was a beautiful
time of creativity.
When I decided to close thedoor on all of that, I closed
the door on so much and the Lordhas been trying to pull me out

(03:23):
of that for years and years andyears.
I tell you it can feel so scarywhen you put yourself back on
the line and visible in front ofpeople.
There are thoughts of judgmentand I know I've canceled Mary on
that so much.
It's like, don't worry about it.
And yet there are times when itcomes up to me where I will say
to myself well, I wonder whatother people will think of this.

(03:45):
Thankfully, through my prayers,I'm able to get over that, but
I just wanted to share with you.
It's not always easy to welcomenew beginnings, because we want
to be so comfortable in oursafe place which may not have
served us well that it can be soscary to step back out and

(04:06):
start something new.

Speaker 3 (04:08):
And, as you're talking, I'm wondering how much
time we've spent operating inthat old manner.
My marriage was over 20 years,so I spent over 20 years
operating in an old manner wheremaking a fresh start was not a
safe thing to do.
There was going to beconsequences, and not always
good ones.
So that trained me to not dreamor try to become something new,

(04:33):
and some of you haven't spentthat long in that brain space,
which is good, because that wayit doesn't become a habit.
I think being brave takes somecommunity to feel courage with,
to be encouraged and to hearother people's successes and
even failures, just so we knowthat we're not alone.

(04:56):
And when we feel like we haveto do something alone, that
maybe stops me from making adifferent choice, but having
this community has made me bold.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
Can we go back to the discussion that you and I
started having about the 365days of drawing book when we
first started on our first day.
This was all about newbeginnings because we decided to
do it at the first of the yearto start this, and the very
first exercise is where you canread the instructions on the

(05:27):
page.
You can draw a shape, theauthor gives you an example of
an apple, and the apple is drawnwith just a regular pencil.
And so what did I do?
I drew a pomegranate, did mylittle sketch and it was like,
oh my gosh, this feels reallygood accomplishing this.
So that's on day one.

Speaker 3 (05:49):
And then Mary comes in and we started talking about
day one and, mary, I'm going tohand this over to you to talk
about day one, which was sofunny because I don't know if I
would have made a choice likethat had it not been for my exit
experience and your sage adviceto give me permission to do

(06:11):
something different.
So in my recovery group, thecounselor who leads it had
talked about borrowed shame andno-transcript, and in our family
units someone will have someshame and guilt and they might
not know what to do with it, sothey dump it in the middle of
the family.
It can be family of origin,like you are the child and your
parents do it, or your siblingsdo it, or it can be in a

(06:31):
marriage where your spouse dumpsit.
Somebody has to pick it up, andI was always the picker-upper.
So I had so much borrowed shameand guilt from my family of
origin and from my marriage thatwhen I learned this that it's
not mine and I need to give itup it's just this glorious shape
of release and it's kind of ablob shape of a person.

(06:52):
What it looks like, translatedon paper from what it felt like,
which is the gong of my heart,a pure tone of truth, and that
truth released all of that oldshame and guilt and I wanted to
remember that on this first dayof the year to not pick up
someone else's shame and guilt,and that was the beginning of my

(07:14):
journey to freedom.
So my new beginning and thathappened, you know, not on the
first day of the week, even on aWednesday.
It was just the beginning of mynew understanding of who I am
in Christ.

Speaker 2 (07:29):
Here's what I love about our partnership in all of
these creations we are making.
I read the instructions on dayone, page one, and I followed
the specific guidelines and youtook a look at that page and you
said, oh, that's too muchwriting on that page.
And I chuckled when you saidthat and you did your own thing.

Speaker 3 (07:54):
That's what independent, wise women do.

Speaker 2 (07:57):
Yes, we do, and I don't always follow the rules.
I am known to push myself andhelp other women saying wait, we
don't have to follow the rules,and I just loved that example
as we started our new beginningsin our new journey and 365 days
of drawing.
I definitely want to commit toa lot more creativity this year

(08:19):
and to have a space to do that,because I had made choices in
the past years to downsizereally small, so I gave away all
of my creative supplies andit's going to be interesting to
see how I find the new space formy creativity and how we can
all gather together increativity.
It was a wonderful way for meto start the year.

(08:39):
I love the new beginnings.

Speaker 3 (08:41):
New beginnings, and that is a true path of healing.
Talk therapy can get us so far.
Exercise is very important, andalso accessing those areas of
our brain that only pencil orpen to paper and drawing
something can access.
Those are really wonderfultools to help you move beyond,
into where the Lord wants you togo, into the Promised Land.

(09:03):
So I'd like to pray us out Inthe beginning of our journal.
It says welcome to your freshstart.
Just start Start anywhere withanything.
This is your year to get toknow yourself better, to dream,
to grieve, to celebrate.
This is your year to celebratethe woman you are and to
envision the wise woman you arebecoming.
You're not on this journeyalone.

(09:23):
We are praying you into yourbeautiful future circle, sister.
In Jesus' name, we pray Amen.

Speaker 1 (09:30):
Amen.
Thank you for joining us fortoday's podcast.
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