"The Power of Faithfulness in the Mundane" by Carol Myer

Our prayer is that you will be filled with the knowledge of His will, strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power.

Welcome to Strength to Strength Sisters, and thank you for joining us today. My name is Marielle Frost, and I'll be moderating our call today. Our topic is the power of faithfulness in the mundane, and our speaker today is Carol Meyer.

Carol is a mother of 6, and she lives in Haiti with her husband and family. She's been there for about 10 years, and they serve primarily with New Horizons Ministries and GTH Gospel for Haiti. She hosts many people who come through her home, passing through Haiti, as well as fellow missionaries who need a reprieve. And she says she is passionate about making her home a haven for all who enter, and she delights in making ordinary food a feast for the eyes and making everyday moments a celebration.

After Carol speaks, we're going to open it up for a time of question and answer. I'll have more instruction about that when the time comes, but for right now you can just feel free to relax and listen. You can turn on your audio—uh, rather, your video if you would like, but you will not be recorded at all unless you do speak. You can just keep your audio muted.

Okay, Carol, I think you can go right ahead. Okay. Welcome. I am very humbled and honored to sit here with you all today, and count it a privilege to share with you what God is showing and teaching me.

Although this subject is not new for me, God is—has done a lot in my own heart through just this studying, and I find myself, in my own neediness, through digging deeper. So I don't come from a place of attainment, but rather of learning and growing and being stretched.

Before we start with our subject, I'm going to tell you a little bit about myself. First of all, I'm a born-again child of God. I was born and raised in Pennsylvania. I'm the oldest girl of 6 children.

Hospitality and open doors were a strong point in our home. As far back as I can remember, I had a longing to live in Haiti. Around the age of 15, I was privileged to take my first trip to come here, and I left a big piece of my heart here.

During the next few years, I visited Honduras, Kenya, and came back to Haiti two more times, and Haiti definitely had my heart. Around 2002, I walked into an event in a grocery store, which was in an unfamiliar area to me, but I just stopped by out of interest's sake. Little did I know that that day the man at the register who checked out my groceries would become my husband. During the time after that, he actually started attending our church, and I realized that Haiti was nowhere on his radar. He hadn't even ever been here, but he was passionate about serving God and being faithful with the store where he was working that his parents owned.

He bought the store in 2003, and in 2004 we got married, and the store we—the store that he owned—became our mission field as we served in the community. Missionaries who came in and had grocery needs, tragedies that happened in the community, we would do fundraisers for, and our customers became our friends, especially the older people who just needed someone to listen to them. Jess would often take their groceries out for them and just stand and talk in the parking lot for a long time. At Christmas time, we would go caroling for them, and they became our friends.

Later, faithfulness would lead us to go into prison ministry, which ultimately led us to adopting our first and oldest child, a journey that has required special faithfulness to this day as we parent a child affected by drugs, nicotine, alcohol, and who functions with autism spectrums.

In our first year and a half of marriage, we took a trip to Haiti to visit a friend of mine, and Jess—Jess was excited about it because there was a boating project that he could help with. And so we came, and during that trip, he felt very clearly that someday God would bring our family here to live.

During the next 10 years, God asked quiet faithfulness from us. There was no leading for us to move here, but we served in the store day after day, did yard care for our in-laws, pursued another adoption that ended up in a dead end, and just raised our growing family.

During this time, we also made a lot of trips in and out as we helped out with a mission here and taking care of some children while their caretaker would go to the States for furlough. So we were in and out of the country quite a few times. But in that time, God also very clearly showed Jess that we would not move anywhere until we were debt-free and our house was paid off.

Our lifestyle changed, and we were learning mundane faithfulness in a new way as we began to simplify, prioritize, and buckle down, recording every dollar we spent and budgeted with a cash budgeting envelope system. We saw the benefits of faithfulness much sooner than we expected, and soon our debts were paid off as well as our house. We made our last house payment on a Wednesday, and the following weekend we had planned to go to a Haiti benefit auction. And while we were there, somebody we had never met but who was there as well on a mission board asked us if we had ever considered living in Haiti.

And we said, "Yeah, we have considered it, but that's about it." And so we did not want to try to make things happen, and we just were going to wait and see where God would take it. And so we left there, and a few weeks later we had a call from the mission board asking if they could meet with us. And a short time later, we were packing, selling, and giving away everything we owned, including our house and business. One step at a time, we said goodbye to the life we had known and stepped out in faith. The last 10-plus years have held joy, beauty, cross-cultural challenges, tears, pain, and a lot of stretching, growing.

There have been some beautiful experiences that come with living in a Caribbean island, but there are also many, many normal mundane days. A quote that is really special to me and just really speaks a lot of the message that I want to share today is this: "A great many persons are always signed for opportunities to minister to Christ, imagining some fine and splendid service with which they would like to render. Meanwhile, they let slip through their hands the very things which Christ would like them to serve him. True ministry to Christ is doing, first of all, and well, one's daily duties."

And so we are going to just look a little bit into what faithfulness is, and you're going to also hear me using faithfulness and stewardship pretty interactively. Interactively, yes. Interchangeably, I'm sorry. So, first of all, let's look at who we are and to whom does our faithfulness belong. We must be deeply and fully aware that we have nothing, not even the breath that we breathe, because of anything that we have done. As daughters of the King, we are His servants, and we are stewards of every good gift that He has given us. The applause of heaven is ours when we follow what the board talks about in Ecclesiastes 9:10, that whatever our hands find to do, do it with all of your might.

And whatever you do in word or deed, do it in the name of the Lord Jesus. In light of God's faithfulness and mercy to us, servanthood in His kingdom is simply our reasonable service. Now I'd like to read Romans 12:1. "And so, dear brethren, I plead with you to give your bodies to God. Let them be a sacrifice, holy, the kind He can accept. When you think of what He has done for you, is this too much to ask?

Who is more worthy than He who has given His life for us?" As a steward, we must know what our values are. This is crucial because once we know what our values are, our decisions are largely already made. It narrows our choices, and it sets a course. If we do not intentionally set our values, we will, by default, revert to what is easy, self-gratifying, and reap the reward of insecurity, frustration, overwhelm, and chaos.

Establishing our values must begin with aligning ourselves with the truth of God's word, not our feelings, but the truth of God's word. And we can ask ourselves some questions too. What can I contribute to this event, to this day, to my family? What can I—what do I want to be remembered by? How do I spend my time?

Does this decision align with God's word? Are my husband and I in agreement? Does this bring peace or add chaos? What will the long-term consequences be? Am I stewarding well, as in laying up treasures in heaven, or am I gratifying myself and my flesh?

The Bible talks of the requirements of a steward. "Moreover, it is required of those that have been given a trust that they must prove themselves faithful." One of my favorite passages in relation to this subject is Matthew 25:14-29, and I want to actually just take the time to read that. Again, the kingdom of heaven can be illustrated by the story of a man going into another country who called together his servants and loaned them money to invest for him while he was gone.

He gave 5,000 to one, 2,000 to another, and 1,000 to the last, dividing it in proportion to their abilities, then left on his trip. The man who received the 5,000 began immediately to buy and sell with it, and soon earned another 5,000. The man with 2,000 went right to work too and earned another 2,000. But the man who received the 1,000 dug a hole in the ground and hid the money for safekeeping.

After a long time, their master returned from his trip and called to them to account for his money. The man who had entrusted the 5,000 brought him 10,000. His master praised him for good work. "You have been faithful in handling this small amount," he told him, "so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Begin the joyous tasks that I have assigned to you." Next came the man who had received the 2,000 with a report. "Sir, you gave me 2,000 to use, and I have doubled it." "Good work," his master said. "You are a good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over this small amount, so now I will give you much more." Then the man with the 1,000 came and said, "Sir, I knew you were a hard man, and I was afraid you would rob me of what I earned, so I hid your money in the earth, and here it is."

But his master replied, "Wicked man, lazy slave. Since I knew—since you knew I would demand your profit, you should have at least put my money into the bank so I could have had some interest. Take the money from this man and give it to the man with the 10,000.

For the man who uses well what he has given, shall be given more, and he shall have abundance. But from the man that is unfaithful, even what little responsibility he has shall be taken from him." As each servant presented themselves and the way that they handled their master's money, the feeling of dread and shame that came upon the last servant must have been so difficult. It was clear to him. He knew that there should have been a profit. Never once were the others praised for the amount of money that they had returned, but always they were praised for their faithfulness.

Faithfulness will never be grown in the spotlight moments or when we have big enough of an amount to steward. Rather, it is grown in a million small ways. Many, many of the heroes we look up to in the Bible had very unknown, lonely, and difficult growing seasons of faithfulness before they had their big tests. One of my favorite examples—and there's a lot that we could look into—but one of my favorite is Esther. Imagine how afraid and alone she must have felt as an orphan girl to be taken away from her family, from her homeland, and placed in, you know, living with her uncle and all of that, and then being taken into the palace, away from the normal, simple life that she had.

I feel like she just must have chosen such trust and faith every day as she navigated unfamiliar and unknown days. But when she was called to make a decision that would save an entire nation, she was prepared. Her values had already been set, and she made no compromise.

She didn't become distracted by the glamour, the prestige, or what it would cost her. She simply did the next right thing, just like she must have done many times before.

Our faithfulness requires discipline. Faithfulness is impossible without being disciplined. I would like to introduce you to a Greek word, sophron. It means to have a sound mind, a sensible mind, a self-controlled mind. A sophron person limits his freedom and ability with proper thinking, demonstrating proper restraints on all the passions and desires of his heart. It speaks of one who voluntarily places limitations on their freedom.

A sophron lifestyle begins with a sophron state of mind, a way of thinking that affects everything about how we live. A sensible, controlled life. As I go throughout my day, I can ask myself, and use this word, is my—is this thought that I'm having from a sophron mind? Is the task that I'm taking on of a sophron mind? Is the amount of time on my phone that I'm—the way that I'm using my phone a sophron choice? The way that I'm speaking, is it sophron? Is it sound mind? Is it sensible? Is it self-controlled? How am I managing my time?

Stewardship requires ownership. How can we steward our gifts and talents unless we acknowledge and name them? This is not a proud, boastful declaration, but rather a confident acknowledgment coming from a joyful servant. I have a mental picture of someone who is diligently out to bless first their husband, then her family, and eventually her community with her gifts. She uses her talents to bless and enable others. She applauds those who have gifts different than her own and is quick to notice and applaud them, while also having a teachable spirit in the areas of her weakness.

Recently, I was feeling frustrated because I felt like I was the only one that was heading up ladies' days and doing—orchestrating different get-togethers and retreats. And Jess and I have seldom had the opportunity to attend a couples night that we haven't initiated and pulled together. So I thought, you know what, if I just sit back for a while, maybe someone else will do it.

Well, nobody really did. And what do you know, I got a message asking if we'd consider doing a retreat. And so my heart did a little twist. I'm like, "Why me again?" But I was able to just process that and think about it, and I knew in my heart that I can do it. It wasn't a matter of if I could. It wasn't a matter of if I want—like to do it. It was more that I was looking for return, maybe, or input in my own life from the places I shouldn't have been. And through the help of a mentor, I realized several things. Our vision and mission is to serve, with excellence, to other missionaries, to enable them through acts of service for their own spaces and provide a place for them to be refreshed.

Gently, I was reminded that both Jess and I have been gifted the ability to plan and organize events. My eyes and heart had forgotten just how many ways we had been poured into through other sources, and in the middle of setting up expectations, I had ceased to be faithful in my own calling.

I should say, in our own calling. In stewarding our gifts, when I project expectations on others, I'm bound to be disappointed, and my lack of faithfulness does—and I lack faithfulness. My lack of faithfulness does not activate the Holy Spirit in someone else's life. Rather, my faithfulness can be the very encouragement that someone else needs to step out and exercise their own gift that they may have been intimidated to try.

I'm going to shift a little bit to some practical ways in my own life that I have—that I have practiced and try to practice faithfulness now. And I want to just be clear: I am still working on these things. It doesn't—you can form a habit, but as soon as you—a habit is never like you can't put it on cruise. You have to keep practicing it and maintaining it, or you will lose out.

As young ladies, wives, and mothers, we all find ourselves in mundane days. We want to be doing big, important things for the kingdom of God, but our realities are often doing very normal, mundane tasks. Maybe you hold an 8-to-5 job, the same thing every day, or maybe you clean for a job, and there's the same houses to do over and over. Many of you are moms of young children, and it feels like all you do is prepare food, clean up, do laundry, maybe you homeschool, and you're just trying to keep everything going.

Maybe you're in your afternoon years, where you find yourself struggling to maintain the airport of your home while your teens and young adults land as they come and go. Or maybe you're in your sunset years, and you find yourself in the quietness you wished for in younger years, but you no longer have the capability to physically pursue tasks that you once did, and you wonder if you're useful.

Wherever you find yourself, let me assure you: there is no load of laundry, sink full of dishes, dirty room to clean, meal to cook, book to read to your child, lawn to care for, or job to go to. Nothing that cannot be holy work. Anyone can do these tasks, but when they are done with joy and excellence, with the attitude of doing it as unto the Lord for His glory, everything before us becomes an invitation to practice the presence of God. We have nothing to fear, nothing to prove, and we can bring joy to the most mundane days.

I would just like to insert here, and I don't really have this written in my notes right here, but I feel like we too often separate what we think is missionary work or holy work from everyday mundane tasks. And I think that there is—we should not separate it like that. Everything we do can be a sacrifice of praise and—it can be mission work. It doesn't have to be—we don't have to label things or have, like, certain categories for what we do.

I also cannot emphasize enough the importance of little things. If you think they don't matter, try sleeping with a mosquito. Try leaving out the baking powder the next time you bake cookies, or ignoring the battery level on your phone. Little things are big things. Without the little guy pushing back the airplane at the gate with his little cart, your flight is not leaving. Without someone doing the mundane job of hauling trash, your streets will become a dump. Don't ask me how I know that.

Without a rudder, a massive ship cannot be maneuvered. Little things become big things. A seed becomes a mighty oak. A grain of sand the shore, and a drop of water the ocean. Ernest Yibo said, "A car with a small hole in its tank, unattended, to it shall see the fuel draining little by little, and shall be left in the middle of a long journey." So is life. Mind a small thing.

And right here, I'm just going to pause a little bit to share a personal struggle that I find myself in. Often, when someone asks where I'm from, their eyes light up, and they think, and the questions that follow usually indicate that they have already elevated me in their eyes, and they think that I have a life full of adventure and glamorous stories. To be sure, I live in a different culture, and I have experiences that are different than what some of you do in the US. Today I left a missionary camp. They're camping for the weekend, and I came to the place where I'm doing this call on a moto. Most of you probably didn't take a moto today to go anywhere.

Little trail. But in many, many ways, my life is very similar to every mother's. I do a lot of teaching, training, laundry, dishes, cleaning, a lot of food preparation. I homeschool, and our family is not a church planting doing—it's not church planting or doing children's ministries or holding Bible studies. Our house is very central to a lot of missions, and while we're supported in work for two missions primarily, we serve about six or seven other missions besides. What does this look like in real life? It means that I might make a meal and have beds ready for seven people, and then serve them breakfast before Jess takes them to the airport.

And then we—I say we because my girls help a lot—wash the beds right away in the event that we might need them for the next night. It might mean I make a quick lunch for someone Jess picked up that morning before he takes them up the long, rough mountain trail.

My husband travels a lot, and on any given trip, he may end up being away for the night unexpectedly, and I need to carry through with keeping the house going. We see many people come into our courtyard in a given day, maybe dropping something off or picking something up. Sometimes my life feels very mundane. It doesn't feel like a missionary life. But many years ago, God spoke very clearly to us: we serve God by serving others. We may not be interacting with natives like some missions, but our role of servanthood to the missionaries is very important. Because if we serve them and they can go refreshed from our house, they can serve other people better.

There is a song that I often, often think about as I go throughout my days, and it says, "Someone made the sandals that Jesus wore. They made them so His feet would not get sore. Do what You can do, and He will never ask for more." Someone made the sandals that Jesus wore. I'm pretty sure that the sandal maker was—I picture him to be a little old man in the back corner of a shop. Maybe it was hot and dusty, and he maybe just had a few simple tools, but he did his best to make the sandals that he knew how to do well. And he did them to the best of his ability, and they served the King of Kings.

And so it is the same for you and I. I am not on front lines doing big, important things, but I can create beautiful spaces, I can serve food with intentionality, and I can keep our home going so Jess can do what he needs to do. We all have an important job to do.

Some of the practical ways that I have just listed that come to my mind, and they're in no order of importance or—they're in no certain order. But just ways that I have found to keep my days, because they can be very unpredictable, but things that help me to be able to serve a lot of people that come in and out, and to be able to kind of have a flow and keep a rhythm going.

These are things that work for me. There's lots of right ways to do the same thing, but this is just things that have worked for myself. I keep daily rhythms. Children and most adults thrive with a schedule. Guard your time in your home. Keep your best yeses for your family. Get up and start your day before the children are up. Pick up all day long. And teach your children to put things away when they're finished using them. One of the biggest secrets to housekeeping for me is to do things before they need done. A job frequently done never becomes a mountain, and if you do it before it needs done, it enables you to always get to do it instead of having to do it.

Cultivate a love for what needs to be done.

Simplify, simplify, simplify. While minimalism may evoke stark, empty places in your mind, I would like to reframe minimalism to this, and I quote Joshua Becker. "Minimalism is the intentional promotion of things we most value, and the removal of everything that distracts you from them." As I steward the house and home that we have been given, I am intentional to keep our stuff in check. I want our home to be a haven for my husband, children, and fellow missionaries. I love to create beauty and calm, and I am careful to evaluate the value of our stuff. Am I serving it, or is it serving me? Does it have a place to belong? Less stuff is less clutter, less decisions, and it all equals to an easily tidied home.

Keep white space. While a social life and fellowship is important, we have found that you must guard your time and your yes. We simply cannot do everything, be everywhere, and burn the candle morning and night if we want to be faithful stewards. Lisa Turcus says, "The decisions we make in the mundane moments determine the schedules we keep. The schedules we keep determine the life we live, and the life we live determine how we spend our souls."

Our souls long for calm, orderly, joy-filled days, but the enemy of our souls knows that a busy, harried life full of desire for more stuff, more activity, will only keep our hearts restless and from the peace that we crave.

Invest in your health. This does not have to be expensive. Go on a daily walk, even if it's only half a mile. Drink water. Eat whole food, and keep your meals simple.

Be grateful. This is probably one of—another one of the most things that I am very passionate about, and my husband is as well. But does anything really benefit you more, or lift your mundane more than a grateful heart? It is a tradition in our family that every morning, before we eat breakfast, whether we have 7 or 10 visitors, we go around and say something that we're thankful for. And we can't have any repeats, because there are thousands of things every day that we have to be thankful for. If you live with your cup half full, look for the goodness of God all around you. You will be amazed at what it does for your heart.

We can all focus on what we have been given, or else what is withheld. One attitude or another becomes a daily way of life.

Do not be weary in well-doing. Galatians 6:9 says, "And let us not get tired of doing what is right. For after a while and due season, we will reap a harvest of blessing if we do not get discouraged and give up." This is a promise. Sometimes when life looks big to me, I literally focus on today, and sometimes if it looks really big, I focus on the moment. The next hour, what do I need to be doing right now? What is the next thing that I need to be doing? And it's often not very hard to identify that. Maybe it's throw a load of laundry in and wash the dishes. Maybe it's to sit down with a child that's struggling, or maybe it's just to get out to school and get school started.

But just do the next right thing. Galatians 6:4 says, "Let everyone be sure he is doing his very best. For then he will have the personal satisfaction of a job well done." Something I would like to highlight in that verse is to do your best. Don't compare and to think about what would someone else do, or how would they do it. But do your best.

Live in the moment. This is something that has really, really been important to me in the last several years. I feel like sometimes for my children, I've watched them look forward to the next furlough that we're going on, or the next big event that we have coming. And in the middle of that can be several weeks, and they literally miss out on the joy of today.

Constantly looking forward to the next big thing robs you of the joy that the gift of today is. If you have ever lost a loved one suddenly or tragically, and I have, you know the ordinary days are gifts. Notice the little things, the peace that is in your community.

And for us, that's a very real reality. We can drive an hour and a half, and that is about the line that we can drive to, and after that, it's pretty much a guarantee that we would be kidnapped by gangs or held hostage—taken, like, held up, or whatever. And so while our community is very peaceful and not very far away, it's very different. And so when we wake up in the morning and it's quiet, and the birds are singing, and there's mojos traveling past our house, and market is open, we're grateful.

Because it might not always be like that. The fresh, clean air, the options that you have, the abundance. Water is flowing into your house. Dependable electricity. His goodness is everywhere, every day, and sometimes we totally miss it because we are not living in the gift that is called the present.

In conclusion, I want to encourage each one of you in your journey. Take the little steps of faithfulness for where God has called you in every day. If you cannot run, walk. If you cannot walk, crawl. If you cannot crawl, creep. But keep moving. Do not be weary in well-doing, for in due season you will reap if you do not think. And my desire for every person who is listening to this today is that we would all be able to hear the words for which the accumulation of our life of faithfulness will be rewarded. The grand applause of heaven. Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.

Thank you so much, Carol. That was full of good nuggets, really good advice, and I found myself saying, "Wow, I need to up my game on some of these," and yeah, just felt really blessed. We are going to open it up for a time of comments and questions, and you can do that two ways. Those of you that are tuned in, you can turn on your video and unmute your audio and share directly with Carol. Or if you would feel more comfortable leaving your video off, you can type something into the comments and we will read it to Carol, and she will answer.

So while you're thinking about that, I—yeah, I just want to say there were so many things that stood out to me, but it just really reminded me of a quote from Oswald Chambers, which I can't quote exactly, but he talks about how our faithfulness in the mundane things are really the touchstone, or what proves what our character is.

And so much of life, whether we're in Haiti or just in Ohio, as I am, or wherever we are, it's those everyday common tasks and how we meet them and the cheerfulness with which we can serve those around us that, yeah, shows our character. And I just really, really liked some of your questions. You know, "How do I want to be remembered? Do I want to be remembered as a cheerful giver, somebody who stewarded my giftings well without having a bitter attitude because other people aren't doing the things that I'm doing, or with pride, or whatever? You know, am I stewarding, or am I gratifying my flesh?" Thank you so much for bringing those points out.

That was really good.

All right, let's open it up. Is there anyone else who has a comment or a question for Carol?

Thank you so much, Carol. It was very interesting, and you gave me a lot of thoughts to think about for my life. I was wondering—Mario mentioned one of those questions, like four values in—like the truth of God and the values we have to question ourselves.

I was wondering what are the other questions, because it led me too fast, so maybe you can say them again. Sure. And that had to do with establishing our values. So we can ask ourselves, "What can I contribute?" And that could be applied to any event or just to the day. "What can I contribute to the day? Or to my church family?

What do I want to be remembered by? How do I spend my time?

Does this decision align with God's word?

Are my husband and I in agreement?

Does this bring peace or add chaos?

And what will the long-term consequences be?"

Thank you very much. That's good. You're welcome.

I have a comment here in the chat box. It's not a question. She just wants to make a comment here. It says, "Thank you so much for this talk. It was such a blessing. It is something that I have been needing to hear. Just last night I was praying that I would learn more to live in the moment and not complain. This is an answer to my prayer. It seems life is so mundane, but I need to remember the joys and blessings in the moment where God has placed me. Will keep you and your family in my prayers with you living in Haiti."

Thank you.

I have a question.

Hi, Kathy. Hi. Carol, this is a personal question, so if you prefer not to answer it, that's fine. But I wanted to ask if serving on the mission field—and you have really no choice but to be faithful because you have to constantly be prepared to serve others. You're a missionary to the missionaries, and thank you for the work you're doing. But have you ever, on the mission field, gone through times of depression, and in that depression, how do you personally stay faithful to the daily tasks and to your work?

I think I can answer that for you, because I have had times where I'm just like, "I am tired," and I just feel done. But I think remembering our vision—like, "Why am I here? What am I called to do?" I say, "I." What are we called to do? And who am I doing it for? And sometimes I think that the weariness comes because I lose a vision of—so I think weariness comes when I take my eyes off of Jesus and I start thinking, "They don't seem very thankful," or, "They haven't said very much," or, "I don't—you know, they haven't—did they really appreciate that?" And so then I become inwardly focused, and I forget, "But you know what?

It doesn't really matter who says thank you. It doesn't matter if it seems unappreciated or overlooked. But really, who am I doing this for?" And my husband is really good at helping me with this, and he is very strong in it. That we are doing this for the Lord. And so if we do not—if people around us—and I know they appreciate it, but if, you know, if you have times that you think, "Oh, you know, it just feels like we're doing the same thing," and do you—is it just taken for granted? It's like we're doing it for the Lord, and He sees, and that's really what matters. And so I feel like bringing my vision back to that, and keeping my eyes focused on, "Who am I doing it for and why?" really helps me to just, like, center myself again.

Excellent.

There was a couple of things I wanted to talk about. I had a couple of questions. Okay. So I was curious, just for—I loved what you said, because I know that I can definitely tend to procrastinate on things, and my husband has told me that many times. Like, if you would do something before the deadline, it would really be helpful for stress, for a lot of things. Anyway, and I love that you said, and it amuses me, "Do things before they need done." And I was just curious. I'd be like, I'd love a practical example of that. Like, yeah, just, yeah, practical.

Well, I'm a pretty practical person, so I will also just say upfront that I—so while some of my friends, a lot of my friends might struggle with, like, needing the energy to go do their jobs or to, you know, keep after their house, I'm a pretty motivated person, and it takes—I need to learn to sit down as much as some other people need to learn to get up. And so I—if, like, I have the energy and I have motivation, but sometimes it doesn't—like, sometimes your strengths can also be your weaknesses, right? Yeah. The first practical thing that I think of is just—sometimes I'll hear my friends talk about the mountains of laundry, and, like, one thing they did today was the laundry.

And it's something that I honestly don't—I can't quite relate to, because I—and this is very practical, but I do laundry every single day. I don't have a dryer, so I can't—if I get behind, it can get bad. So I do a load of darks and a load of light and white every day, and I never have a mountain of laundry. Now, sometimes, I mean, if I have lots of guests and lots of beds, you know, to do, I might have extra laundry. But it's just one way that I try to stay ahead of everything.

Another way is I love to keep house. I love to maintain our home, and I clean pretty thoroughly every week. But then if I get to a week that is just like, "You know what? We don't have time for this," I can skip things and nobody will ever know because I did it thoroughly the week before. So does that answer your question? Yes, it does. That's—I love that.

I can definitely relate to that. I just thought that was so neat. I was like, "I'm going to remember that one." I think it also kind of gives me a little bit of a—I don't know if dopamine hit is the right word, but—or would be the right—maybe that's a little strong. But it's kind of empowering to actually do it before it has to be done, because then I'm like, "Oh, I get to do this." You know, I don't—it's not like I have to do this or else, you know? That's right. It's like, you're kind of on top of it. And maybe you could even, like, make for a better attitude instead of, "I have to, I get to," you know, and then stop.

Yes. Yes. Yeah. I've been very blessed and encouraged. I feel like I've been struggling a lot with being weary and well-doing. We are living in the city, and we have a big family and a small church group, and just—sometimes I'm just like, "I just want to go in my house and close the door. I don't want to talk to the neighbors today." And anyway, I just feel like it's been very, very encouraging. And praise the Lord. I also wanted to ask you about the—which is interesting because I actually just discovered Joshua Becker, and—but I wanted—if you wouldn't mind repeating that quote about minimalism.

Yes. Now, this is where my paper and pen probably gets me in trouble, because I have to look for all my— Yeah. It's okay if it takes a while. Okay. Sure. Okay, it's here. "Minimalism is the intentional promotion of things we most value and the removal of everything that distracts you from them."

Did I read it too fast? "Minimalism is the intentional promotion of things we most value and the removal of everything that distracts you from them." I got that. Thank you so much. Yes.

There's another request here in the chat box for you to repeat something, Carol. So while you're looking through your notes, could you— Yes, and I have it ready. I saw it. Okay. Could you find and repeat the song, "Someone Made the Sandals Jesus Wore"? Sure. And if there'd be a way to post that later, I'd be happy to send it to you, Mario. Like, it's a really good song. Someone made—okay. "Someone Made the Sandals Jesus Wore. They made him—they made them so his feet would not get sore. Do what you can do, and he will never ask for more. Someone Made the Sandals Jesus Wore."

There's also a few comments here about washing beds right away. It says, "Carol washes the beds right away rather than wait till they need to be done." And someone else that I call can only say, "Amen to washing beds right away. It prevents so much stress." And here's a question. It says, "Any practical tips on simplifying your home with little children?"

Probably simplifying and organizing is another passion of mine. I love to take a cluttery pool space and just bring life to it. I would say do with less. It is amazing. And it kind of comes back to doing laundry every day. You really do not need many clothes. I will also say that because I live in a country where it's warm all the time, that does make a difference. But really, it doesn't take a lot of clothes to live. And when it comes to things like toys and things, I found that it takes so little. And the less that you have, the more creative your children will become. The less toys that you have, the more they play with the ones they do have.

And it's so easy to clean up. And so sometimes I have done, like, I'll say, coaching moms who have come and said, "Can you help me minimalize my house?" And online, I will just help them, you know, on the phone to do that. But usually, to just start with, get rid of a bunch of stuff and put it in a tote. If you don't—if you can't part with it, put it in a tote and put it away and leave it there for, like, three months. And as far as toys, like, if in three months you want to swap them out, the children will feel like they're new, and you can just keep a few rotating.

And it keeps, like, the clutter down, which just—all around. I feel like having less things, whether it's toys or clothes, pretty much anything, you can focus on what you do have that way. And it also just simplifies your life in, like, so many ways. The room is easier to clean. The children don't find it overwhelming to clean up.

I've noticed that when children have a lot of toys, they tend to—they empty everything, and then they hardly know what to play with. Where if they have just a few, they tend to focus on what's right in front of them.

And so I would just say, "Do with less." And the other thing is, if in three months you don't miss what you put in a bin, don't even open it. Just take it to the thrift store and say goodbye. It's so freeing.

I would definitely second that. Just the less that you have is so much better, especially when it comes to toys and things like that. I was listening to a talk by Elizabeth Elliott, and she was talking about how doesn't everyone have utensils, and you have a utensil tray. So why isn't your little child sorting the utensils instead of having this special toy that sorts the blocks, you know? And I thought that was great. But ever since then, I get my little children to sort the utensils after they come out of the dishwasher. It's great. And I know it's definitely not as good as I would do it, but they're learning. Yeah.

One thing I want to say, Carol, you know, in the verses in Matthew 25 about the men with the talents, and you pointed out that they were praised for their faithfulness and not the return that they—or the money that they made.

And that—I don't know if I've ever really noticed that before, and that's beautiful. I feel God lately really pressing on my heart, "Just be faithful in the things that you're doing right now and this time in this season." And always, of course. But there's been different times where faithfulness—that I need to just be faithful—is coming up, and your talk is perfect timing. And then you mentioned that as well in that parable. So thank you for bringing that out. That's really, really amazing, because sometimes you think that you're not doing enough or, you know, just—yeah, we definitely can struggle with things like that as humans, and especially with moms.