Motherhood as Discipleship: Stephanie Joy Lasota on Parenting, Fitness, and Wholeness

Episode Summary
In this heartfelt conversation, Coach Alex sits down with Stephanie Joy Lasota—Certified Revelation Wellness Instructor, wife, and mom of two—to explore how motherhood, discipleship, and fitness intersect in the Christian life.

Stephanie shares her journey from wandering in New Age spirituality to being born again during a yoga retreat, and how God has transformed her perspective on the body, worship, and daily discipleship.

Together, they discuss why motherhood is the most relentless and rewarding form of discipleship, how parents can model emotional regulation for their children, and why the church must reclaim the truth that the body is not a burden but a temple of the Holy Spirit. 

Whether you’re raising kids, wrestling with feelings of being “too broken,” or longing to see your health as worship, this conversation will encourage you to see your body as a gift, your parenting as a ministry, and your daily life as a place of discipleship.

“Motherhood is the best form of discipleship — there’s no escape.” – Stephanie Joy Lasota Main

Discussion Themes
-Motherhood as the primary ministry and deepest form of discipleship.
-Teaching and modeling emotional regulation for children.
-Stephanie’s testimony: from New Age searching to a Christ-centered life.
-Why Gnosticism still distorts how Christians think about the body.
-Fitness as worship: moving from brokenness to wholeness.
-Stewardship over vanity: the body as God’s temple.
-Reaching the church and community with Revelation Wellness.

Timestamped Outline
00:00 – Pre-show banter, introductions, and setting the conversation outline.
07:00 – Parenthood as discipleship — “Motherhood is the best form of discipleship.”
12:30 – Emotional regulation: teaching kids to process and channel emotions.
20:00 – The importance of parents filling their own cup (Sabbath, rest, recharge).
24:30 – Stephanie’s testimony — leaving New Age spirituality, encountering Christ at a yoga retreat. 33:30 – Why the church must reclaim the body and reject modern Gnosticism.
41:30 – The body as temple, fitness as worship, and the call to stewardship.
52:00 – Science affirms Scripture: belief, mindset, and the slow transformation of the body.
01:01:00 – Revelation Wellness, children’s classes, and expanding the ministry beyond the church. 01:08:00 – Closing encouragement, Isaiah 40, and prayer.

Strong shorts/reels moments:
07:00 – “Motherhood is the best form of discipleship — there’s no escape.”
33:30 – Gnosticism and why the church must care about the body.
41:30 – “Your body isn’t a burden to escape. It’s a temple to steward.”

Move Forward Today!
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Featured Guest Resources Revelation Wellness – https://www.revelationwellness.org

Stephanie Joy Lasota – find her classes and resources via Revelation Wellness Instructor Directory.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the Faithful Fitness Podcast for My Dad. Coach
Alex Van Houghten helps you get stronger in mind, body,
and spirit. He believes that your body's a temple, so
taking good care of it is an actual worship.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
I should know.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
I live with them. Every week. He brings truth from
the Bible, tool from science, and stories that will set
your heart on fire. May God bless you to become
everything He made you to be, just one percent better
every single day.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
What's up, guys. This is coach Alex van Houghton on
the Faithful Fitness Podcast. I'm so excited to have you,
and I'm so excited to have our guest Stephanie joy Lesta. Stephanie,
how are you today on this Happy, Happy Thursday.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
Thank you, Alex. I am blessed and highly favored and
grateful to be here. I'm very humbled to be here
and honored that you found me on the Revelation while
on this website. People really do look and find people
on there, so it's really exciting to be on your podcast.
I appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
I think this is going to be an amazing conversation.
We're going to talk about motherhood. We're going to talk
about discipleship. We're going to talk about using our body
in the way that God designed us for his glory
and for the Gospel, which I can't wait to talk about.
But you're in a very special period of life right
now that I'm also in, and that is young parenthood.
And so before we dive into all this awesome stuff

(01:22):
we're going to talk about, I do want to share
or having a little story swap. So thinking over the
last week or two, you've got a little boy and
a little girl, correct, Yeah, that's right. Yeah, Okay, can
you think through the last like like week or two
and just share a story. It could be funny, it
could be terrible. But what's something that stands out to
you right now about your stage of motherhood that kind

(01:43):
of lets everybody know where you're at.

Speaker 3 (01:46):
You know, my mind always goes to the most recent thing,
because each day has enough trouble of its own. And
then I was getting my daughters in an afternoon program,
and you know, I really thought that this year there's
pros and cons to every program and every schedule, right,

(02:07):
and last year I ran into mourning logistical issues with
both of them leaving at different times. But I can't
be in two places at once. This year, I thought
would be easier because she's afternoon program, So I get
my son off to his thing in the morning and
then we have our mother daughter time and then she
goes to her afternoon program. But it's actually it's actually

(02:29):
a bit challenging because once you're home all day or
doing fun stuff all morning, it's hard to then go
ahead and go to school in the afternoon. Yes, so
she was, and she's usually very eager to go to school,
and she likes the program and she's doing really well,
but today was a hard transition. And so she's four,

(02:49):
my son is seven, And I think a big part
of where we are now is, you know, they're still
very young, and their brains are still very young, and
it's so such a present understanding to me to to
help them with the coping skills. But you know, it's

(03:10):
it's easier in theory than practice. So I think where
I'm at is like that showing staying calm. It's constant regulation,
it's constant keeping myself regulated, regulated, even in those tough
moments where today she was dragging her heels and not
wanting to get on the bus, and then having that

(03:30):
balance of discipline and pushing through, but also warmth and
gentleness and encouragement that you can do this. You like school,
It's going to be a good day and I'll give
you lots of hugs once we get strapped on the bus.
And what was it tough? It's tough when when they

(03:51):
leave like that. So definitely a big, big part of
where I am is that emotional regulation now and teaching
those hoping skills in the moment. And she's still a
little young, but she does. She does a great job.
My son, my son's a really expressive person, much like myself,
so he's really great at even saying what he's feeling.

(04:15):
And I think that's such a big step already when
it comes to like emotional regulation, even recognizing like, oh,
I don't know, it isn't good.

Speaker 2 (04:25):
So you use a term there that I'm so glad
you're using emotional regulation. A lot of parents, a lot
of parents do not understand this, and I'm not stepping
on their toes. If you're a parent who hears that word,
you have no idea what we're talking about. But this
is so important because because emotional regulation is the capacity
and I'm not an expert by any means. I just
have two boys, so like, I live this every day.

(04:47):
I don't know the first thing about raising a girl.
But emotional regulation is the capacity for a parent to
teach their child how not to let their emotions get
the better of them, while still validating the emotion itself.
I'm angry, this is stupid. I don't want to do this. Yeah,
I get it. Sometimes I'm angry too. We're gonna channel
that energy into the things that that are productive and

(05:09):
good in our life. Or oh, I'm so sad, I
don't want to do this. I'm I'm gonna droop my
shoulders and I might I might even have a crummy
attitude and be disrespectful to mom and and you know,
kick my toys around or whatever. Yes, I'm so sorry
you're sad. That that feels terrible. I hate that too.
Let's sit in that sadness for a second. But we're
not going to stay here. We got stuff to do,

(05:31):
so it's time to get up. And we can be
sad while we do them, but we're gonna We're gonna
get the things we need to done. And and what's
putting right and what's crazy is what's so weird is
I say that out loud because I teach my children
these things. But what I've noticed, and I'd love love
to hear from you, what I've noticed is it's in

(05:51):
the moments that I'm frustrated or sad, or grumpy or
angry or what lists the emotional wheel? Right to list
the emotional wheel, which apparently we can only name like
three of them. So having gonna having a vocabulary is useful.
I am modeling to my child as a reaction to

(06:13):
their emotion, how I regulate my own. Yeah, And it
was so crazy for me as a dad when I
realized raising my boys are ten and six, so I'm
just a just a couple of years ahead of you.
But but when especially my three and four year old,
Both my boys very expressive, very extroverted, very they feel

(06:33):
things so deep, you know, and it's it's hard not
to be like, you know what, shut it down, like
I don't. I don't know where this is coming from.
It was it was crazy to me as a father
to realize that if I'm if I'm going to say, hey,
you come here, we need to have a conversation, and
I would bring them to the room or wherever we
need to be away from other people so we can
have this talk and we're going to sit in front
of each other, we're gonna make eye contact, we're going

(06:55):
to breathe. Those moments were just as much for me
as they were for them, so that I could respond
having regulated emotions rather than blowing up at them or
or letting my emotions get the better of me. And
I think, what's so cooling coming at this from the
perspective of somebody with slightly older kids. What's really cool

(07:16):
is I can see the hard work paying off now,
which is so cool. It's so cool to see that.
And I work with children and children's ministry, so I
can see when I'm working with a child whose parents
haven't maybe maybe they've tried, but whose parents haven't quite
gotten that lesson across to them in an embodied manner,

(07:37):
such a powerful tool. So thank you for sharing that,
and also for the work you're doing with the kids
on that front. Did you have something to add to that, No, it's.

Speaker 3 (07:47):
That's where the rubber meets the road when you have
the opportunities to practice the emotional regulation, because you begin
you're co regulating, you know, and you're working together as
a family and as a you know, a and a child.
And you know then when you when you throw in
like school staff and bus drivers, it's even more so.

(08:08):
You know, it really so cliche. It takes a village,
but it really does. Thank God for the patience of
our bus driver today and just a little bit. But
there's that balance of And I think Alex, you're probably
around my age because the elder millennials are really coming
up to middle age right now, and we are definitely
a generation that likes to emotionally process things. And I

(08:33):
mean that's a that's a generalization, stereotype major maybe, but
I do think that we we long for more authenticity
in our daily lives and uh helping our children to
not suppress but also realize that things don't revolve around

(08:54):
them completely. So there's that balance, right. And then the
other thing too is like we don't have to wait
for things to explode before we work on those things.
So when you have moments of peace and calm in
your house, those are the times to talk about, you know,
what you're feeling. And then you know what, talk about

(09:18):
things in the past. You know, I remember when you
got frustrated last week getting on the bus. But I'm
really proud about how you know, how you push through.
You're a really strong person. And I do a lot
of that with my kids, positively reinforcing them, you know,
just random times, toughout the day. Something my mom always
said was you can't spoil kids with too much love.

Speaker 2 (09:39):
So right, Yeah, and.

Speaker 3 (09:41):
We're all thirsty for that love. Kids need it, they
need it from their parents. So and not all parents
have received that either. And that's where you know the
Gospel is so big and the good news because you
got to get it from somewhere. So if you hadn't
seen it modeled for you, well, God's the best teacher.

Speaker 2 (10:01):
Yeah, amen. Amen. And and it's been my experience that
that if if there was something missing in me from
my parents, perhaps there was there was something that that
I didn't learn, and you know, they did their best,
but there's something I didn't learn or something missing in me,
those those gaps. If if I understand the Gospel and

(10:22):
if I spend time getting close to the heart of God,
he teaches me those things and he fothers me in
those ways. And so when I in turn have the
opportunity to father my children. Then then it's I get
the opportunity to give what I've already received. I have
the opportunity to to give that to them, and and
for for many kids when when I get to work

(10:44):
with them. From a church perspective, what I what I
come at because they're not my children, right so so
discipline is a little different when when I'm not the
father figure, or reinforcement or emotional regulations a little bit
different when I'm not parent. But what I find is
my Father in Heaven gives me this validation, He gives

(11:05):
me this love, He gives me this direction or discipline
or or whatever it is that I need. And then
I have the opportunity to also give that as well.
It reminds me from a Gospel perspective, it reminds me
why Christ is so important in our lives. Not just
that he's the son of God, not just that he

(11:26):
died for our sins, not just that he rose again
and he was the perfect example and the perfect man.
But when he says to us to love the Lord
your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength,
and then to love your neighbor as yourself. When we're
raising these little ones, they are the neighbor. They are
the good Samaritan neighbor. They are constantly in need of

(11:47):
a drink of water and clothes anes And so we
have this opportunity as parents to have the greatest impact
in ministry we can have to the little ones that
God has entrusted us with. And I take that very seriously.
It sounds like you do as well.

Speaker 3 (12:04):
Yes, and you I got a little distracted because I
was trying to look up as scripture as you were talking,
because this is what it is in Second Corinthians three stocking.
I'm sorry, sucking Corinthians one three. Blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the Father of
mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in
all our affliction, so that we may be able to

(12:25):
comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort
with which we ourselves are comforted by God. That is,
and we tend to think maybe only in times of
crazy distress or affliction, but that's actually a daily reality,
just in those little little moments where our children need comfort.

(12:46):
And sometimes as a parent, you know, it's easy to
get dysregulated, It's easy to get compassion, fatigue, and burnt out,
especially if we're not turning to God for that comfort
ourselves and receiving it. We need to be filled up.
We need to be filled up every day and keep going.
And when we recognize we're on empty.

Speaker 2 (13:06):
Then as you're speaking about that, it makes me think
of this season of parenthood specifically. And we'll talk about
the physical body in a second. But I'd like to
ask you as a mom, because I know that as
a dad, the way I fill up, or a better
way might be to bring back or I like to
redeem a very old school idea, the sabbath Ah. The

(13:32):
way that I sabbath, I turn it into a verb,
and that might be an American problem, I don't know.
But the way that I sabbath is my wife knows
that I feel closest to God when I'm out in nature,
and I generally like to fast. I generally like to
go for a hike. I will go find a waterfall
somewhere to crawl under and spend some time praying and

(13:52):
reflecting on things that have happened over the past few
weeks and asking God for fresh vision for the coming
weeks and years. And then I come back to my
household and I come back to my family and I
am filled up. I'm ready to do what I need
to do as a father and as a husband and
as a man to lead my family. Well, I have
noticed that my wife's way of filling up is very different.

(14:16):
Very If you sent her out in the woods by
herself with no food to find a waterfall to get under,
she would say that you were abusing her and that
this is this is a terrible death march. And she
didn't enjoy any any frame in that that whole day.
So so you know, for her, that looks very different.
As a mom with two younger kids, what are some

(14:37):
of the ways that God has led you to refresh,
to recharge, to fill up your cup so that you're
not pouring from an empty cup as a parent?

Speaker 3 (14:46):
Well, for me, there's there's a lot of ways. I
do find a lot of peace and solitude. I'm actually
an extroverted introvert, so I have a really I have
a pretty high capacity for people and being around and
it both energizes me and drains me sometimes so so

(15:07):
depending on the day. Having good fellowship and a good group,
like I was at Bible study last night with our
local church and that was so refreshing and like, oh,
you know, life giving. Other times it will be like
I say to my husband, I just need to go
run errands by myself, or I need to go out
on a walk. Obviously, fitness and exercise is a huge

(15:30):
outlet for me, and I like when I'm doing my
rev classes on Monday nights, like there's night and day
difference from when I begin to when I end, because
something happens when you move your body and you're able
to just get wrung out and spend that time. So

(15:50):
those are the ways that I'm also a very artistic person,
so I do a lot of painting and art and
creating and things like that, and it's filed closer to
God in those things too. Yeah, it's all gonna be life.

Speaker 2 (16:06):
I love it. I love it. Thanks for that now
in your story because we're going to talk about fitness,
but your testimony and your story have a lot to
do with how God has taught you to move and
to take care of your body and also to teach
others to do the same for His glory. And I
know that might sound weird to somebody who's not working

(16:27):
out in a way that feels worshipful, or maybe has
a strange relationship with how they move or their experiences
in a gym setting or in a class setting. And
I hope to address those together in a bit, but
I'd like the opportunity to share a bit of your
story and ask you there was a time where as
I understand it and correct me if I'm wrong, There's

(16:49):
a time somewhere around twenty twelve where you were pretty
heavy into the self help, new age, spiritual maybe even
yogi culture that wasn't explicitly Christian, wasn't wasn't even under
the umbrella of Christ, but was spiritual, And I could

(17:12):
you speak to that a little bit, like what what
was that? Like? Where were you? And how did God
get your attention and lead you to him?

Speaker 3 (17:20):
Yeah? Well, well twenty twelve was the time I came
back to Christ, right, I oh, but as my born
again experience. So but before that, and I was it's horrible,
I should I should have done the math beforehand. By
in twenty twelve, Oh gosh, how old is that? That
was thirteen years ago? So was I like twenty six

(17:41):
or twenty seven. So basically from my late teenage years
to like my early twenties, I had sort of gone,
you know, I had the knowledge and understanding of Christ
and Jesus because I was raised in a believing family
and I was used in church culture and going, you know,

(18:03):
to services, and I always had a hunger for those things.
I had a hunger for the things of God and
the things of the Spirit, and I pursued those things.
I remember at one time when I was younger, our
family wasn't going to church consistently, so I used to
walk up the road. We lived on a Saint Michael's
Church road, so there was a Lutheran church up the
street called Saint Michael's and I used to go there,

(18:25):
and I had some neighbors and friends that went there.
And I remember sitting in Sunday school class in some
of the elderly men in the class because it was
like a mixed age class, and they're like, wow, you
really have, you know, a love for God. So it's
like those roots were always there in my life. But
when I was a teenager, I mean, it's I'm not

(18:48):
going to say it's a cookie cutter story, because absolutely
each of our testimonies are unique. But I don't think
what I went through is uncommon to a lot of
people in their teenage years or in their early time twenties,
where I just basically got up, got caught up in
gratifying my flesh and like wanting to pursue what felt

(19:09):
good and meant you know, you know, being in relationships
like sexually promised sexually promised uous relationships. And I was
in when I was a teenager, a pretty serious relationship,
you know, I was sixteen, So I thought it was
going to last forever. Yeah, yeah, and it became it

(19:35):
became greater than God. I said. You know, I had,
like I said, I had the knowledge and understanding, but
I thought my ways were better. I thought I could
get around things somehow. And by the grace of God,
you know, he had his hand on me the whole time,
because that's not the story for for everyone that you

(19:59):
know that has gone through sexual sin. You know, I
never had an unwanted pregnancy. I never had any sort
of illness or disease that happened to me, And that
is only the grace of God, because it could have
happened to me, and my consequences of my sin could

(20:21):
have been a lot and a lot of people deal
with that and deal with that brokenness. But that was
sort of the start, like the self gratification and like
the lust of the flesh. And then I was, well,
you know, God can't possibly love me anymore, and so
I'm just going to go after all the you know,

(20:44):
but I'm still I still have this hunger and this
desire for God. Right, So I started pursuing like other
spiritual avenues, and I got really big into astrology and
studied it a lot, and I was actually able to
like read people like a book, like they you know,

(21:04):
I'd tell them, you know, your moon is it here?
And this and that, and so that went on for
very many years. And I was on a yoga retreat
in Costa Rica in twenty twelve, and and now I'm
kind of I'm fast forwarding in the story, Alex because
I don't want to take up too much time on it.

(21:26):
It was the second time I was in Costa Rica.
I had gone to Costa Rica in two thousand and eight.
I was living there for a year teaching English. It
was also it was part of my career, and I
was pursuing my career. I had graduated with the degree
in communications and then I was working in the field

(21:48):
for a little bit, and I thought, you know, before
I get married and have kids, like I want to travel,
I want to do some other things. But still I
was still very lost spiritually. I was lost, you know,
didn't really know what I believed. But I'm still searching.
So like this can't be it, Like this can't So
I went on this yoga retreat. Now, mind you, my

(22:10):
father and my older sister are believers, and my mother
was too. My mom passed now. But so I said
to them, I said, I'll take my Bible. I'll take
the Bible on this yoga retreat. And I said, you know,
I'm searching, but just pray for me. You know, God
will reveal himself if this is if this is real.
And so I'm on this retreat and it was a

(22:31):
lovely time. But all I can say is I don't
want to speak badly about anyone that was on the retreat,
But as I was watching things play out, I could
just tell that there wasn't like depth or truth to

(22:52):
the things that we were talking about chanting about. You know,
we would have these times of coming together and practicing yoga,
and there would be evenings of like partying, and there'd
be gossip and there'd be dissension over here, and I'm like,
this doesn't seem very deep and spiritual to me.

Speaker 2 (23:07):
It felt like a mask, right, It felt like a mask,
like you were trying on a spiritual mask, but it
wasn't real.

Speaker 3 (23:14):
Yes, so it was definitely And what we would say,
you know, is a counterfeit. How the enemy will take
things that belong to God and spin it to a
smaller truth. So I was chasing after all those smaller
truths thinking because I was too broke. I was basically

(23:37):
believing a lie Alex that I was beyond repair. I
was too broken, I did too much. God doesn't want me.
Those are all lies of the enemy that he comes
in to whisper it to us.

Speaker 2 (23:51):
Right that you know so, And those lies go so
deep you don't even know you're believing them. You'll act
on them, and it's so interesting, like I'm too broken,
I'm not enough and so so not even subconsciously consciously,
you're seeking lesser gods. Really, because big g God, you're
not good enough for him somewhere in there. And if

(24:14):
anybody asked you at the time, I'm very sure that
you would have said, no, that's not at all what's
going on right right here. But in retrospect, it sounds
like you've come to understand what those those lies were.

Speaker 3 (24:24):
Yeah. Absolutely, and yeah. And as I was grappling with
things too, there were people I remember along the way
that told me things and also called me out on
my thinking, on my double mindedness, because I remember thinking,
you know, being so spiritual. But then I was going
ahead and I was like, you know, sleeping around or

(24:46):
having a lot of pride, and people would call me
out on things, but I didn't feel like I was
doing anything wrong. So but long story short, I was
sitting after the yoga retreat. I was sitting back with
some lovely people that I lived with in Costa Rica,

(25:06):
in the town, in the town that I volunteered in,
and I just felt the peace of the Holy Spirit
wash over me. And you know, God just said saying
like I'm here, I love you, You've never left my hand,
and but you need to stay now, like you need

(25:28):
to stop running. And so I always get teary eyed
when I tell that because I heard him speak so
clearly to me. And some people will think that's like nuts,
but I just know that I had a lot of
joy at that moment, and at that time I was
I was living with my now my husband, but we

(25:51):
were living together at the time, and so I actually
moved out, moved out and went back home to my
parents' house and before we got married married. We ended
up getting married a few months later after I had
kind of that moment because so, yeah, the fact that
we'll be married thirteen years in October, congratulations hasn't thank you,

(26:14):
and it's you know, marriage, Marriage is difficult already, I
think a lot difficult for anyone. It's a challenge for anyone,
but coming from you know, my background and things, it's
just a miracle for me because I didn't think I
would ever have like a family or a husband. I was.

Speaker 2 (26:42):
Yeah, So it was that lie that I'm not worthy,
I'm not I'm too broken, I'm not like you know,
I'm going to have to settle for something less. And
it sounds like God has redeemed that in you and
replaced that lie with a truth, which is you were
a daughter of the most high King. You're a deemed
by Christ Jesus, and you or your family is under

(27:02):
that covering and you get to mother your kids and
grow with the struggle of maturity, like well, like you
were meant to which is excellent. Yeah, yeah, well, thank
you for sharing that part of your story. I think
it's so interesting that you are on a yoga retreat,
and so I want to talk about this because there's

(27:22):
something happening in the world right now, and I hesitate
to sound too hoky, but I'm going to do my
best to articulate this. Some of the things, spiritually speaking,
aren't ineffable, which literally means you can't say them because
there's no good words to describe it. But I feel this,
and I see this in the world, and it started
with COVID. There's something happened. There's something happening in the

(27:42):
world with regard to the body. I feel like the
Holy Spirit's moving in the world to redeem the church's
understanding of why the body is important, because for a
long time those things were separate. And I don't want
to try to speculate as to why, but those things
were separate in the mind of believers. I know, even

(28:04):
growing up in my neck of the woods in a
Bible believing church, people talking about the sins of the
flesh and all that stuff, as if you could be
good with God and be tight with God and follow
Christ and stuff. But then there's this annoying meat sack
you kind of have to live with, and eventually it'll
go away and you get to be in glory and

(28:27):
everything's good and you don't have to worry about your
sin nature anymore. Blah blah. And unfortunately that is sut
I didn't know this at the time, but that's a
theological heresy called gnosticism.

Speaker 3 (28:40):
Yes, thank you what I just pulled up the definition
of gnosticism.

Speaker 2 (28:43):
I hoping you were going to h So what's so
strange is so as I'm saying this, this thing that's
happening in our world that I can feel in my
spirit and in a lot of ways, God's been preparing
me for this in my life for twenty years, which
which is great because this makes sense to me all
the way down to my bones. It makes sense to me.

(29:05):
And it's only now that I feel like it's actually
coming out in a way that the rest of rest
of the world can get on board, which I'm so
excited about. But gnosticism originated back in I want to say,
about as old as Christianity, So back in the early
one hundred two hundred, three hundred AD times. And basically

(29:27):
what it was is this idea that that was rooted
in a heresy that Jesus was a spirit not a spirit,
and a body not fully God and fully manned, but
God kind of trapped in a meat sec so to speak.
And so gnostics at the time, there's all kinds of
strange beliefs, kind of like we were talking about a

(29:49):
deeply rooted lie. There are a bunch of different things
that kind of stemmed from gnosticism. But in the Church
today gnosticism is alive and well, even though people who
who think that way don't really know they're thinking that way,
which is that my body has nothing to do with

(30:09):
my walk with God. It's just this annoying thing I
have to deal with. Sometimes it's in pain, sometimes it's suffering.
Sometimes sometimes it wants to eat things that aren't good
for me. Sometimes it wants to do drugs that aren't
good for me. Sometimes it has lustful desires that aren't
good for me. In some day I get to be
rid of that thing. And so for now I'm going

(30:29):
to build my spiritual self and I'm going to grow,
and I'm going to do better and all that stuff,
and then ask God to forgive me of this terrible
body I have to deal with, you know, and have
to put up with. And everything I've said in the
last two minutes is a lie. That's a lie. Those
are that's not the gospel. That's not what scripture tells us.
Scripture tells us that we are. We are one being.

(30:53):
That Christ was one being. He had a body and
a spirit, and both of them were good, and he
was sinless. And when he rose from the dead, he
didn't say, Hey, everybody, look at my nail scarred hands,
but don't touch them because you can't. I'm ghostly. He
was risen and given newness in his body. And so

(31:14):
I want to talk about this because something's happening in
the world right now where the body of believers are
being I want to say called compelled, pushed to get
serious about the redemption and sanctification of our bodies. And

(31:35):
in your story is one of the reasons I think
that's so important, and that is that this new age
self help spirituality does not neglect the body for many people.
I went to a yoga class recently. I have a
friend of mine who's gone through a five hundred hour
yoga instructor course, and I'm in there and a lot
of people are here for a spiritual reason, absolutely, but

(31:56):
they're moving their body, you know, and it's deeply healing
and help and good for them. And what's really interesting
is a lot of these people don't go to church.
This is church for them. And so one of the
things that I would love to talk to you about
is why does the body need to be important to
the church? Because I see this area that we've kind

(32:17):
of seeded, c ed ed, not the good seating, not
when you're planting things, but like, hey, we're a church,
but we're not going to do the yoga thing. We're
not going to do the running thing. We're not going
to do the revelation wellness fitness gospel preacher fitness teacher thing.
We're going to leave We're going to leave the doughnuts

(32:37):
on the counter and invite you into worship and then
act like your bodies aren't really a part of this thing.
Why in your mind and heart, is it's so important
to you that the church changes the way we approach this.

Speaker 3 (32:53):
So many reasons, but I think the most important reason
why so that we can love people better and understand.
You know that God created man and woman in the
garden and he said they were good. He created us good.

(33:15):
Now we had the fall and like as you spoke about,
you know, with the gnoscissism, and then this this idea
that our flesh is something that is a hassle, that
is a bother and it can be right. But I'm
taken to I wish I would have wrote this one down.

(33:37):
I wrote down many scriptures for today, but I didn't
write this one down. Maybe know the reference the word
became flesh and dwelts among men. I always go to
that one. It is John one. Okay, I thought it
was John, but I've got so many scriptures open now.
I love that word because that right there. It sort

(34:03):
of still boggles my mind that there are believers in
Christians that don't understand the importance of the body and
taking care of the body. But again, everyone we're coming
from different backgrounds and journeys and experiences, and there's we
have an enemy that wants to deceive and kill and
steal and destroy. And if he can't steal your faith,

(34:25):
he's gonna get you in other ways or cause you
to be ineffective but for me especially, it's important because
I saw and I was raised, you know, with church
culture and believing parents, and like I said, so I

(34:47):
have the knowledge of God from my roots. However, I
think back to when I was a teenager, there was
a couple people in the church that talked not really
in reference to physical stewardship, but more like the purity
culture stuff for like, you know, sex is for marriage.

Speaker 2 (35:06):
And.

Speaker 3 (35:08):
But it wasn't talked about too much. So and I
don't I want to. I tried to stay out of
the trap of placing blame on others for my life choices,
right because I think that like in James it says
it's the desires of our hearts that leads us away
from God. So I don't know, but I do think
that it's important to the church because it's a part

(35:32):
of discipleship and we want to be telling people how
loved they are by God and how important their body is.
There's plenty of scriptures that say, you know, the body
is for the Lord. I'm going to turn to one now.

(35:54):
I was in First Corinthians, you know, First Corinthians three sixteen.
Don't you know that you're you yourselves are God's temple,
and that God's spirit lives in you. If anyone destroys
God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is
sacred and you you are that temple.

Speaker 2 (36:15):
Yes, Halls a huge proponent of this. He actually he
actually implores us that we would present our bodies as
a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. I want
to say that's Romans. It is a calling letter. But
but that that idea, that idea is not it's not
foreign to the Jewish culture at the time, in the

(36:35):
Christians of the time before the Gnostic heresy, which was
called a heresy by the church. And root it out
that that before that time, it was very evident to
everybody that Christ's teaching about stewardship. As an example, this

(36:57):
body is one of those talents, the parable of the talents.
You have the servants who are given a specific part
of the master's portion and asked that while he's away
that they would take care of it for him. And
when he comes back, the ones who actually saw return,
the ones who are productive with the thing, are given more.

(37:18):
And the one who kind of buried it out back,
he's the wicked servant. He doesn't get to keep his talent.
And there are many things that God gives us, and
I would encourage all of our listeners to count their blessings,
but one of the things that every single one of
us has, because some of the things I have, you
don't have, Stephanie, some of the things that God's given

(37:40):
me to Steward, he hasn't given you to Steward and
vice person. But we've all been given this body. We've
been given the one body we've got, and he asks
he asks us to be good stewards of it while
we're here on earth. Like my mission in life is
to help people to make the most of the body
God's given them because that place of stewardship. I'd love

(38:02):
your thoughts on this. It feels to me as though
for many individuals their body is not a reflection of
God's love and goodness in their life. Their body is
actually a bit of cognitive dissonance. It's like I can't
look at my body, not how it looks, how it feels,

(38:22):
how it carries me around, how it does and doesn't
do what I need it to do. All those things
that I can declare God's goodness, but then I can
ask for prayer request because my hip hurts so bad
I can't get around, or I can declare God's goodness,
but then I'm so in fear of this medical thing
I have going on that I trust my doctors with.

(38:45):
But I don't see that there's a stewardship in my
body that God wants to bring my faith alive for
me in my own body. How does that resonate with you?

Speaker 3 (38:57):
Yes, I turned to John, So I'm going to read
those verses. In the beginning was the Word, and the
word was with God, and the word was God. No,
I'm sorry, it's verse fourteen. The Word became flesh and
made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory,

(39:20):
the glory of the one and only who came from
the Father, full of grace and truth. And so I
just love that we have in Jesus a picture of
we have a savior, we have a model, we have
a standard, and he became human. Literally, when I was

(39:43):
telling you the story about my daughter getting on the
bus we just brought, she said to me, I don't
like to be human. And you know what gave mean.
She's never said that before. I said, you know what, honey,
it is hard to be a human. I said, that's
why Jesus came to show us the perfect example for
me to tell her. You know, that is why Jesus
came to show us how to be, how to be

(40:07):
in this world. You know, it says in First John.
As he was in the world, so are we in
the world. I love that Versus been feeding me a
lot lately, and he really does want us to bring
our whole selves. But then we come, we come as

(40:31):
we are, I know in my classes, so my classes
are very most of mine take place in the church,
and so I really do think the Body of Christ
is my number one like mission field. To be honest,
I have had like people that are not of the
faith come and it's been my classes are outreached to

(40:52):
get you know, to share the gospel as well. But
the majority of the people that come to my classes
are believe, which is a beautiful thing. And I think that,
like you said, Alex, that people are like waking up
to their need for God in their bodies as well.

(41:13):
That you know, we have this one, one life and
one body to steward and it's beautiful. However, we come
to Him because He loves us, and I know for
me growing up, I had the model of my parents.
My mother went through a lot of health struggles when

(41:34):
I was growing up. So the beautiful thing about my
mother's life and testimony because she was a believer, and
I know for fact that her prayers availeth much God
rest her soul. But I watched her struggle with her
mental health and her physical health, and there was a
bit of growing up. I didn't understand how, you know,

(42:00):
we could have such a good like all powerful, mighty
God and worship him, but then we were still walking
through this brokenness, or there weren't answers, or I was
seeing her suffer, which I felt that she was suffering
more than necessary. And I do think at that time
it was also at a different time, so I don't
think that she had all the tools or the help needed.

(42:23):
But then I did also see gaps, like in the church.
I thought, well, other people aren't coming alongside her, or
you know, there were things that weren't making sense to me.
And then in my own life and testimony, I started
to wander away from the church and look for all
those things outside of the church, you know, and they
were empty, they came up short until you know, Holy

(42:45):
Spirit took to cold and then I found revelation wellness.
I was actually doing like a scroll on my Facebook
like background twenty fourteen or so, and I saw Alisa
Keaton doing like a chair workout and talking about Jesus,
and I'm like, oh, that's cool. It's like a combination
of you know, Jesus and fitness and my mom. That

(43:08):
would benefit my mom. But then I, you know, I
ended up following the ministry and getting involved in becoming certified,
and it's been It's just an awesome ministry and a
tool for discipleship too. Is what I've really found is
it's given me parameters and structures and structure to be

(43:30):
discipled because there's so many people that have such a
heart for God and a love for His word and
wanting people to be free from the bondage of the
past or deception or lies or pain. There's so much
trauma that people carry in their bodies. Yes, that you
know they may be aware of on a cognitive level,

(43:53):
but they don't know what to do with it. They
don't know how to work it out.

Speaker 4 (43:57):
So that is why it is so important for the church,
because you can't you just can't separate your body from
your your mind, and your spirit.

Speaker 3 (44:09):
It all works together.

Speaker 2 (44:11):
Yeah, And I think I want to speak to this
a little bit because from a scientific perspective, we're actually
learning how this works. I think that's the cool thing
about as an exercise scientist. What we learn in science
is not anti scripture. That like there's again there's this
chasm between science and religion. It's like, no, the more
we learn scientifically speaking, the more we objectively study creation,

(44:37):
what we find affirms scripture deeply. And so what we're
learning in science is that our belief structures what we
not just what we think, but some of it. Like
like you said, I'm too broken, right, that's that is
a belief. People have that belief. There are people listening
to the sound of my voice right now who believe
I am too broken for whatever reason. I don't know

(45:00):
your story. I don't know what got you here, but
you believe that I am too broken. You might not
say you believe it, but watch how you think, and
then watch how you act, and then watch how that
gets encoded into the body. Because what's really cool about
belief and Jesus taught us this belief can change in

(45:20):
a moment. Yes, belief can shift, belief can change in
a moment. The hard part is that our belief has
to permeate our minds now because we have a lot
of thought structures, and that this isn't anti scientific, this
is neurological. We have thought structures that have formed themselves

(45:41):
around the belief that has now shifted or changed. So
let's say God redeems that untruth in you. I am
too broken. He says, no, I have made you whole.
I'm good. I don't make broken things. And so you
have this truth now God has made me whole. Okay,
guess what. Your brain's got to get reprogrammed. It's going

(46:03):
to take some time to start noticing where I am
too broken has seeped into the way you think. And
that's what Paul calls taking every thought captive for Christ,
right is saying no, no, no Christ. Because of Christ,
all these beliefs are now not They don't have to
be subject to these lies anymore. We can replace those

(46:25):
with the truth of the Gospel. And so now we've
got all these thoughts that are going to take I
don't know, months, sometimes years. I'm curious are your thoughts
on this? But scientifically speaking, we're noticing that this whole
realm of mindset research is proving to us that we
can actually change the structure of the way we think

(46:45):
because of belief. And then here's the kicker, the way
we act it out. Our body is a much slower
process of change. You can't change the belief I'm too
broken to I'm whole in Jesus name, and your body
follows suit instantly, or for Jesus it did when he
laid hands on somebody. You are no longer blind. Body

(47:09):
done right. But in my line of work, I like
to joke with my clients, I'm not quite as cool
as Jesus. I'm doing my best to follow him. But
this is going to take a few months at least
to get your body on board to this, to this
new way of thinking, this new way of believing and understanding.
Because what we understand is that our cells and our
body can adapt to stressors. But it takes a while.

(47:30):
It takes, it takes practice, it takes consistency, it takes change.
So the way when we change what we eat, when
we change how we move, when we change how we rest,
and we reflect those beliefs, then our body will get
on board, but it takes. It takes a significant amount
of time. I'll give you one example and the I'll
let you speak to that. I'm working with a guy

(47:50):
right now. I've been working with him for two years.
Love this guy very much, has become a brother to me.
But when we started working together, he said, he in
his h he's in his mind, late sixties. He says, Alex,
I'm too broken for physical therapists to want to take
me on. Can you help me? And I'm being honest,
I'm like, I don't know, let's work together. The nice

(48:11):
thing about being outside of the medical community is that
I can give you a waiver to sign that seeing
be like this is not again, this is not medical advice.
But we are going to explore what your body's capable of.
And so when we started working together. My driveways forty
feet long. He could not walk my driveway like his
hips and his back and his knees everything hurt. He

(48:33):
was in so much pain, on so many medications right,
could not get to the end of the driveway. In
long story, short, fast forward two years. This morning I
had the opportunity to walk three miles with him and
talk about his new grand baby that he was able
to hold and be with the service that he's providing
in the church and the way he's discipling younger men.

(48:54):
He had two years ago given up on being useful
to the body of Christ, and it was one hundred
percent because of the condition of his body. Fast forward
two years. It's not everything's perfect. He's still got the
struggles of a you know, a late sixties guy with
a few health conditions and stuff, but they're getting better

(49:14):
and better every every year. And he's noticing that that
he can actually step into the calling on his life,
not just the spiritual calling, but the physical calling, the
physical presence that he's been called to because of stewardship.
And I believe that for many believers, that's the story.
That's the story that I want for every believer, mother, father, grandpa, grandma,

(49:38):
or child. It's the thirteen year old boys and girls
needing to learn how to steward their bodies well and
to know that their body is a gift from God
and that they if they learn how to use it
in that way rather than abusing it and breaking it
and trying to satisfy it with anything other than God
calling on their life that the well, that's that's what

(50:02):
I'm calling the fifth grade awakening. So for you hearing
that it sounds, I can see the smile on your face.
I can see that you're seeing this some people who
come to you too. Ministering to the body of the believers.
Through the body, what does the spirit bring to mind
for you?

Speaker 3 (50:17):
Yeah, yeah, it's so, that's so good. Praise the Lord
for his progress and you're walking alongside of him. And yeah,
so many people feel too broken or or dejected or
of no use, and that's a horrible, horrible place to be.
And I was. I was in that place in different ways,
you know. But when I think of my own testimony,

(50:39):
even with my mom, the most important thing is moving
from death to life, right, And that's like a spiritual regeneration.
And so as you were talking, I pulled up John
five to twenty four when Jesus said, I tell you
the truth. Whoever hears my word and believes him who
sent me, has you eternal life and will not be condemned.

(51:02):
He has crossed over from death to life. So Jesus
is the one that gives empowers us in our lives
right to overcome send to overcome temptation and to overcome
even the flesh. Because yeah, you referred to it as
when you say meat suits, I think you said meat suit.

Speaker 2 (51:21):
Me that.

Speaker 3 (51:24):
It's a real drag for people. It's a real drag
in a lot of ways. And there are real issues
and there's real hardships. But the good news of the
gospel is that God meets you where you're at and
that he promises death to life and goodness. And it

(51:44):
doesn't necessarily mean there's going to be a quick fix
like you said, or healing or breakthrough, but there is
hope and it is that is what we need.

Speaker 2 (51:56):
I know.

Speaker 3 (51:57):
There's also also like brain sign brain research out about
hope molecules as we exercise and move that our muscles
release those things. Talking about brain health, I'm a big
neuroscience nerd. So it's as we're building healthy habits and
doing things, we are helping our brain to create new
neural pathways. So we are literally changing our minds and

(52:21):
renewing our minds, and we're combining the truth of God's
word with fitness and wellness and movement. It's just such
a powerful thing. And so I would say, like for
my classes in Revelation Wellness, and my ministry name is
Revelational Wellness, Faith and Fitness, so faith is really really important.

(52:42):
I have been feeling pooled to go outside the church
born more. I did some classes like in community spaces
this year, and God's been pulling me out. So He's
challenging me to get some other certifications and do things
to move out more, which is exciting because I'm always
trying to learn and grow. I've been serving primarily like
in my church the last few years, and starting the

(53:05):
children's class this past year was new because I, you know,
I have the two young kids, and I wanted something
to do with my daughter and to show her because
there's a lot there are some children's activities in my area.
There's like mommy and me yoga stuff like that, but
I didn't see anything that the church was offering for

(53:27):
like Christ's centered wellness, and so I wanted that for her.
I wanted her to know like that, you know that
she's important, valued, and I heaven, I would hope like
each generation, we want our children not to fall into
the same traps that we fell into. Right, So I
think back on my life and going back to your
question about why is this important to the church. It's

(53:49):
important because we want to save souls and we want
to win souls for Jesus, and we want them to
know that God does care about your body. He cares
what you do with it, and you were bought at
a price. That is the scripture that really brought me
back to crisis. We're bought at a price, and Jesus
laid it down for us, and it's important that we

(54:12):
honor him and for me and many others, and you too.
You've got a busy life and we have families to raise,
and we want to do things to the best of
our ability. And we say in Revelation wellness the body
is for ability, not for vanity. All the positive side
effects that come with working out, you know, maybe we

(54:35):
lose weight, we have increased energy, but and we may
look better as well. Those are positive side effects of
working out. But we're really moving because we have work
to be done. We have work to be done. I mean,
I'm on my feet like all day making snacks and
meals and cleaning the house that never ends. It's like that,

(54:59):
you know, pushing the boulder up the hill and coming
back down. Parents can relate to that so fitness is
absolutely like paramount to our daily lives as Christians. And
I do think people are waking up too, and I
do think that we're seeing a lot of manifestations of

(55:21):
people that don't know christ. I've been very convicted myself
about my testimony and that when I had my moment.
And again, I'm an elder millennial, so I grew up
without being all over the internet. I didn't have to.
You know. Now the younger generation they have, so they
lived through a lot of media saturation, and they're seeing

(55:45):
things every day and being influenced by so many things.
And I do thank God that my entire youth was
not like broadcast on the internet, so I would And
that's another health thing right there. We're not supposed to
be seeing everything that we're seeing all the time, like

(56:06):
God's the only one that's omnipotent and all powerful, and
so it's not healthy for us to constantly be taking
in media. So I just say that to encourage someone
to guard your guard your heart, guard your eyes, your ears,
and really steward that too, because it matters what you're
taking in in that way. It's not just like our

(56:26):
food and our and our hydration, but the media intake
and let God lead you in that. You know, let
God lead you in that. What that looks like having
to lay things down sometimes, But I love that your
ministry exists. I'm so grateful that revelational wellness exists. We're

(56:49):
praying into some really wonderful things in the future. There's
a great strength made simple program happening right now that
people are walking through. I'm walking through it with a
small group and it's been so beautiful. But uh, yeah,
it's it's good stuff, Alex. I think that the body

(57:12):
of Christ needs needs, it needs to move, you know,
where his hands and feet. We're not just a mind,
you know, a mind art and it's easy to just think,
think and talk and not move.

Speaker 2 (57:31):
But well, the body of Christ are his hands, and
his hands can hold on when others would let go.
And the body of Christ is his feet, and those
are the feet that can travel far without getting very tired.
It makes me think of as you were speaking. I
don't know why this was echoing in my mind because
it almost sounds irrelevant, but it's not. And it's a

(57:53):
passage from Isaiah that says our God is the everlasting God.
He never grows weak or tired. He gives power to
the weak and strength to the powerless. And even the
youth will grow exhausted. But those who trust in the
Lord will find new strength. They were so high on
wings like eagles. They will walk and not grow weary.

(58:14):
They will run and not faint. And I think, I think,
as as we're speaking here and as we're coming up
on our time, because I want to make sure that
I have the opportunity to pray over you and your
family and your ministry, as as we come up on that,
I just I feel on my my heart with everything
that's going on in the world right now, there are
so many individuals who want to come to Christ. They

(58:36):
want the truth. They want something real, not the not
the new ag mask. They want something that's that's deep
and rooted in truth and rooted in in well, rooted
in the Gospel, rooted in something real that that maybe
they haven't heard of or haven't understood, but but that
through a practice in health and fitness, that that's something

(58:57):
that I believe what you're doing in yours, I hope
that's what we're doing in our ministry. We're introducing individuals
and we're ministering to the body of Christ to become
as strong and as stewarded as it was meant to be,
so so that God's kingdom can be done here on
earth as it is in heaven. So so can I

(59:18):
pray over you and what you're doing, Stephanie. I've enjoyed
this so much.

Speaker 3 (59:22):
Thank you so much.

Speaker 2 (59:24):
You've got to thank you.

Speaker 3 (59:26):
Yeah, no, thank you for sharing sharing that scripture. I
was praying with some ladies earlier this afternoon and I
shared that one. We shared a lot from Isaiah today,
So that's confirmation right there. That's a good one.

Speaker 2 (59:38):
That is.

Speaker 3 (59:39):
Thank you for praying. Thank you for having me on Alex.
This was a great, great talk, and I pray that
it blesses blesses people.

Speaker 2 (59:47):
Same.

Speaker 3 (59:48):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (59:48):
Let's let's pray, Father God, thank you so much for
this day. Thank you for the opportunity to sit down
with my sister Stephanie, and thank you for the hard
work that she's doing in her in her own mind
and her own body, among her children and her husband
and in her community. Lord, I pray that you would
bless her with grace, give her an extra measure of

(01:00:09):
wisdom and an extra measure of energy. As she is
a mom does so many things. I pray that she'll
be able to pour from a full cup. And I
also pray Lord that what you're teaching her and I
and your body of believers, your church, your bride, I
pray that that represents you well in the world. Help

(01:00:31):
us to be those who speak to stewardship and not vanity.
Help us to be those who set good examples and
are also blameless before you and before unbelievers, so we
can spread you to every end of the earth. And
that it's real and powerful and healing. We pray these

(01:00:51):
things in Jesus' name. Amen.

Speaker 3 (01:00:54):
Amen.

Speaker 2 (01:00:55):
Thank you so much, Stephanie, And to the listeners guys,
thank you so much for jumping on to the Faithful
Fitness podcast. You guys know what I'm gonna say next.
This has been Coach Alex van Hounten. Until next time,
train hard, but pray harder.

Speaker 1 (01:01:11):
Hey, if this episode helps you, jare it with someone
who needs to hear it, and don't forget to subscribe
and leave us a raving review so more people can
find Faithful Fitness. Oh and my Dad's new devotional is
almost out now. You can grab a copy for yourself
and then join our free community at Better Daily by

(01:01:34):
clicking on the links in the show notes below. We
all have a cross to carry, but it's lighter when
we do it together, so check out both links in
the show notes. Don't be a big well bob, just
do it until next time. Don't forget Train hard and
pray even harder.

Speaker 2 (01:02:00):
A school