Episode Transcript
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What do you do when everythingfeels like it's falling apart?
When your problems feel louderthan your peace and you simply
can't catch a break, maybeyou're juggling sick kids, a
to-do list that's piling up amile high or struggling through
the thoughts and feelings of notbeing enough.
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Today, I'm sharing how you canfind peace and the chaos even
when it feels impossible.
Let's dive in.
Hey, mama.
Are you tired of wrestling withself-doubt and wondering if
you're truly enough?
Do you find yourself questioningyour worth even though you know
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God has called you for more?
If you said yes and you're readyto walk in confidence, enjoy
your calling without guilt andtrade overwhelmed for peace.
then you are in the right place.
I'm Caroline Tao, host of theRestored Mind, and I'm so glad
you're here.
let's invite God into the spaceand step into the freedom he has
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for you.
Are you ready?
Let's go.
if you've been looking for acommunity that gives you support
and fun challenges, you're inthe right place because I have a
free community just for you.
It's filled with moms who arestruggling with mom guilt and
they're trying to find ways tobe more fulfilled.
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And they're partnering with Godfor this.
So I want to personally inviteyou to join my free community.
It's a place where we gathertogether to share faith-based
encouragement so that we cangrow stronger as moms.
You've heard the saying it takesa village to raise children,
right?
well I believe it takes avillage to lift one another up.
So what are you waiting for?
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Click the link in the show notesand join us today.
I can't wait to see you thereand to start this journey with
you.
There was a time where myhusband was deployed and all
three of my kids got sick, andhonestly it was like a domino
effect because it started outwith sluggish movements and then
fever and then projectilevomiting.
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Yes, you heard that right.
Projectile vomiting.
It was.
Not the best time.
That week was a week that Istruggled to the extent of me
wanting to just quit and go andhide somewhere.
The crazy part was that my twoyoungest children, so my two
daughters, they had neverexperienced that type of violent
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vomiting before where your bodytenses up and I could imagine
there were throats also hurtingfrom just how.
Much they were throwing up andso they were of course scared
and the only thing they could dowas follow through with what
their body's natural reactionwas, as it was getting rid of
whatever it was in their system.
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So, as you can imagine, therewas a lot of chaos in that time
because I had one person cryingbecause they wanted to be held,
another person needing endlessbaths because one of them, my
oldest daughter, was soexhausted that as she threw up,
she would just lay in that vomitand it meant that I had to give
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her baths and wash her clothesmultiple times during the day.
And it just wasn't from her.
It was from all three kids.
There's a lot of emotions andfrustrations that came over me
that day, and I began to feelincredibly small in that time
because I felt like I wasn'tcapable of handling all three of
them being sick at the sametime.
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And it made me feel bad as a mombecause I felt like I should
have been equipped for this andthat I shouldn't be frustrated
in the way that I was.
But here's some things that Iwanna share with you today to
encourage you in this season ofyou feeling overwhelmed or
feeling like you're not enough.
The first one is to admit thatthe struggle is real because
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there are gonna be days wherelife presents itself as a hot
mess, and sometimes we don'tknow which direction that's
going to go in.
But what we do want is animmediate calm, especially in
the chaos that interrupts ournormal routine.
It's so easy to get flusteredand caught up in the feelings of
frustration, especially when.
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We have other things planned,right?
So when you make the mindsetshift, mama, that you'll have
days where you struggle morethan others, it can soften the
pressure that you might haveunintentionally placed on
yourself to get all the thingson your to-do list completed,
because let's get real.
When you fall behind that to-dolist is only going to grow, and
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the bigger it grows, the moreout of hand things feel, making
you feel tiny against all of thethings that you want and need to
get done.
When this happens, I want toencourage you to take a step
back and remember that you don'tneed to carry the weight of
what's happening in your worldon your shoulder.
Instead, take a moment.
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I.
To pause in the chaos andsurrender your frustrations,
your fear, and whatever else itis to God.
Now, this my friend, is not amagic pill that erases
frustrations instantly.
So don't surrender these thingswith that kind of expectation,
but it does set you up from mynext point, which I'll share in
just a second.
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In the meantime, I wanna finishout this thought by reminding
you of this one thing, and thatis when you find yourself
carrying the weight of yourworld on your shoulder.
Find a reason to be grateful.
It is very challenging to dothat, but the more that you
practice this, the less you endup seeing your challenges as
something that's impossible toovercome.
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Both of these things combined,taking a moment to pause and
then finding a reason to begrateful actually leads us to
the point that I wanted to sharejust a second ago, which is
shifting your focus onto God,because when you shift your
focus onto God, it doesn't meanthat you ignore what's happening
around you.
Even though it might feel likeyour problems are piling up and
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has become too big to handle, itmeans that you are choosing to
focus on God's greatness overyour weaknesses and your
circumstance, which changeseverything.
it can actually begin to calmthe storm for you.
He is the one.
God is the one who's going tobring you this peace.
In Matthew chapter 14, welearned that Jesus walks on
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water.
And if you know me, or if you'vebeen hanging out with me for
quite some time, you know that Iam going to be reading
scripture.
So if you are able, my friend,bring out that Bible and open up
to chapter 14 in Matthew.
And while you're doing that, Iam going to give you a brief
summary of what's happeningJesus has now given the
disciples orders to get on aboat.
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Once he saw that there was agreat crowd around him, he then
dismisses the crowd and thenwent up the mountain by himself
to pray.
And when night came, the boatthat the disciples were in were
already far away from the land,In scripture, it talks about the
fourth watch of the night, whichaccording to the English
standard version, the footnotesays that it is between 3:00 AM
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and 6:00 AM.
And by this point, the disciplenow sees Jesus walking on water
and they become terrified.
So we're gonna pick up at verse27.
Now, hope that you're therealready if you're able to follow
along with the Bible in yourhand.
If not, it's okay to just listenalong.
But verse 27 says, immediatelyhe spoke up to them saying, take
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heart.
It is, I do not be afraid.
And Peter answered him, Lord, ifit is you, command me to come to
you on the water.
And he said, come.
So Peter got out of the boat andwalked on the water and came to
Jesus.
But when he saw the wind, whichthe footnote here also says
strong wind, he was afraid andbeginning to sink, he cried out,
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Lord, save me.
Jesus immediately reached outhis hand and took hold of him
saying, oh, you of little faith.
Why did you doubt?
And when they got onto the boat,the wind ceased and those in the
boat worshiped him saying,truly, you are the son of God.
So why is this important?
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I believe it's because ithighlights how naturally you and
I focus on things that are goingwrong.
Maybe it's the sickness of yourchildren or the mess in your
house, or just the overwhelm ingeneral.
It all demands.
Your attention, but you zoom inon only the problems, much like
I did when I was caring forthree sick babies all on my own.
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And when you focus only on theproblem, you lose sight of the
peace that God gives.
Just like Peter focusing on thestrong wind, instead of keeping
his eyes on Jesus.
But all is not lost because italso says here in scripture that
Jesus immediately reached outhis hand For Peter, however, I
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wanna take a moment and focus onPeter because something had to
take place first.
Can you guess what that mightbe?
Peter cried out to Jesus saying,Lord, save me and this right
here for me, as I see it, is anact of submission and
acknowledging that he cannot doit himself and is in desperate
need for someone mightier thanhim.
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He puts his faith and his trustin Jesus.
I think this is an inspiring waythat you can begin to shift your
mind and intentions instead ofstaying in the frustrated
emotions and to the overwhelmthat you're feeling, I encourage
you to cry out to Jesus,acknowledging that you need him.
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This can be something that youdo in the midst of your chaos
that doesn't require you to takea lot of time.
I would encourage you to simplytake a breath, take a deep
breath in, and as you exhale,say the words, Lord, I need you.
Or as Peter says, Lord, save me.
there is no telling when yourkids are going to get sick or
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when the work that you'veplanned for the day is going to
slow down or even come to acomplete stop because something
else is calling for yourattention that is more urgent.
And it can definitely befrustrating and out of
frustration, you can end upspiraling because you're trying
to make up for lost time or fixeverything all at once.
But peace comes when you breakit down and.
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Focus on the next small step.
So you might not be working onwhat you've planned on doing
that day, but in the moment,what is the next step that you
can take?
You don't need to have all theanswers and the solutions right
at this moment, mama.
But focusing on your child whomight need a little more of your
attention today is not by anymeans a mistake and look at it
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in a positive light.
You're spending more time withyour child, which deep down
internally you want to doanyway, right?
And the quality time that you'respending with your child might
look a little bit differently.
You might not be playing boardgames or going out and doing
something fun.
Maybe this quality time is justsnuggles and a nap time.
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so I encourage you to take amoment and really just embrace
the abrupt change that hashappened in your plan.
And honestly, even in the chaosof possibly doing endless
laundry and giving endless bathsbecause there was upset tummies
in your home or whatever thatabruptness looks like.
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There is still peace in knowingthat you have not been left
alone, even when it feels likeit.
And you can begin to take astep, a small step at a time by
honestly pausing to reassess thesituation and asking what is one
thing that you can do right nowthat is going to help you feel a
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little more in control?
Maybe it's letting go of theplans that you have for the day.
Or maybe it's taking a deepbreath and remembering God
focusing on him.
So Mama, what does that looklike for you?
Think about it and then moveforward with it.
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Okay, so that was a lot, right?
It probably felt intense becauseI felt like I was reliving that
moment with the emotions thatcame rushing back as I was
thinking about that time when Iwas taking care of all three
sick kids while my husband wasdeployed.
But let's recap really quickly.
When you're trying to find peacein the chaos, you have to
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acknowledge that the struggle isreal.
There are going to be days thatpresents itself as a mess, and
sometimes we won't know whichdirection to go in.
And when you make that mindsetshift that you're going to have
days where you struggle morethan others, it is going to
soften the pressure that youmight have unintentionally
placed on yourself to geteverything on your to-do list
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completed.
Also, take a step back andremember that you don't need to
carry the weight of what ishappening in your world on your
own or all at the same time.
and then we talked aboutshifting your focus onto God,
that is where you choose tofocus on God's greatness over
your weakness and yourcircumstances.
we read through Matthew chapter14, and I talked about Peter and
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his actions, right, and how hecried out, Lord, save me.
Last but not least, we alsotalked about taking it one step
at a time, Because peace comeswhen you're able to break down
your circumstances and focus onthe next small step.
Remember, you don't need to haveall the answers and the
solutions right at this moment.
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So mama, I hope that this helpedyou today as you begin to turn
to God and shift your focus inthe midst of your chaos.
Remember that you are not toosmall for what you're facing.
I know that it's hard, but youcan do hard things.
Thank you so much for hangingout with me today.
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I had such a wonderful time.
I cannot wait to meet you againnext Wednesday.
Right here on this podcast.
Mamma.
I hope that as you are inspiredand uplifted, that you would
show up at all the spaces andplaces ready to serve with a
joyful heart.
And yes, with confidence.
Please take a moment to leave areview on apple podcasts.
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It would bring me so much joyhearing from you on top of that.
If you want to connect evenmore, join the insider's list.
I would love to continue helpingyou as you journey on in getting
God centered confidence.
The link to join the insider'slist is going to be posted in
the show notes..
All right, my friend, this iswhere we part ways.
I hope you have a wonderful day.
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Go in peace.