S E25: Episode 25 | ADHD-Friendly Advent Day 2

Speaker: It is day two of our ADHD friendly advent study.

Speaker: You are not behind if you missed day one.

Speaker: No one is ever behind.

Speaker: That is the entire point of this.

Speaker: If you are new here.

Speaker: Hi, my name is Rachel.

Speaker: I am an ADHD er and I help women

Speaker: with ADHD seek, find and live

Speaker: the abundant life that Jesus

Speaker: offers to us and we are doing an

Speaker: advent study during advent

Speaker: season.

Speaker: It is free.

Speaker: You can hit, follow, subscribe all of the things.

Speaker: There's also a free workbook that goes along with it.

Speaker: You can find the link to that in my bio.

Speaker: With that said, let's get

Speaker: digging into the scripture for

Speaker: today.

Speaker: But before we do that, the song for this week.

Speaker: So each week of advent, we will

Speaker: be going through a different

Speaker: like Christmas song or hymn that

Speaker: is impactful.

Speaker: And this this week's song is oh come, oh Come Emmanuel, which is

Speaker: one of my absolute favorites.

Speaker: I really like the version by

Speaker: Josh garrels, I think is his

Speaker: name.

Speaker: It just screams Christmas to me.

Speaker: So pause this.

Speaker: Go listen to the song O come, O

Speaker: come Emmanuel and then come back

Speaker: here.

Speaker: I am also on day like thirteen of being sick.

Speaker: So please excuse my voice.

Speaker: And I've got like all kinds of honey in my tea right now.

Speaker: All right, go listen to the song and then come back here.

Speaker: Now that you have listened to

Speaker: the song, let's go ahead and

Speaker: read the scripture passage for

Speaker: today.

Speaker: We are in Luke one, verses one through seven.

Speaker: Inasmuch as many have undertaken

Speaker: to compile a narrative of the

Speaker: things that have been

Speaker: accomplished among us, just as

Speaker: those who from the beginning

Speaker: were eye witnesses and ministers

Speaker: of the word have delivered them

Speaker: to us.

Speaker: It seemed good to me also,

Speaker: having followed all things

Speaker: closely for some time past, to

Speaker: write an orderly account for

Speaker: you, most excellent Theophilus,

Speaker: that you may have certainty

Speaker: concerning the things you have

Speaker: been taught.

Speaker: In the days of Herod, king of

Speaker: Judea, there was a priest named

Speaker: Zechariah of the division of

Speaker: Abijah.

Speaker: He had a wife from the daughters

Speaker: of Aaron, and her name was

Speaker: Elizabeth.

Speaker: And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly

Speaker: in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord.

Speaker: But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both

Speaker: were advanced in years.

Speaker: And this is a story.

Speaker: We've all heard the Christmas story a million times, right?

Speaker: But the goal here is to kind of

Speaker: strip away those preconceived

Speaker: notions that we have, kind of

Speaker: take away those opinions that we

Speaker: already have of the story, and

Speaker: allow ourselves to see it with

Speaker: fresh eyes.

Speaker: And that starts with asking God to give us fresh eyes.

Speaker: So if you look in your workbook, I do have the prayer that I

Speaker: personally use when I'm starting my quiet time to kind of invite

Speaker: God in, ask him to strip away, you know, my own voice, bind the

Speaker: enemy so that he's unable to interfere, and just kind of

Speaker: focus myself on the spirit.

Speaker: So like I said, the link to that is in my bio.

Speaker: Go download that.

Speaker: And I would definitely recommend kind of taking a moment to like

Speaker: rest and center yourself and kind of just settle before you

Speaker: dig into Scripture or Bible study of any kind.

Speaker: There is also a journaling prompt for today, and that is so

Speaker: Elizabeth was living righteously, and yet God held

Speaker: back from her her heart's desire, which was a child.

Speaker: So is there an area of your life right now where you feel like

Speaker: God is holding back, or he is absent from your life?

Speaker: This passage, I'm the one who

Speaker: put this together, and yet I

Speaker: still got like a lot of value

Speaker: out of this, um, and kind of

Speaker: like going through and actually

Speaker: reading it and trying to, like,

Speaker: take away from the fact that I

Speaker: wrote this.

Speaker: And yet I'm like going through it.

Speaker: I was really struck by the fact that barrenness in the Bible is

Speaker: much more complicated and much more socially impactful than it

Speaker: even is now.

Speaker: Like, obviously, there's a lot

Speaker: of social implications even now

Speaker: for married couples who don't

Speaker: have kids.

Speaker: You know, I had the unfortunate experience of having someone ask

Speaker: me, so when are you an ex-husband going to have kids?

Speaker: As I was actively miscarrying?

Speaker: There's a lot of societal

Speaker: implications with being

Speaker: childless.

Speaker: Um, even just the decision to be childless is just not accepted

Speaker: by a lot of society.

Speaker: My husband and I have been asked when we're having more children

Speaker: and we're like, well, we're not.

Speaker: And also we can't, but that's another story for another time.

Speaker: But back in those days, not having children was not just,

Speaker: hey, you don't have kids.

Speaker: Children were your retirement plan.

Speaker: If you did not have kids, you had no one to take care of you.

Speaker: When you kind of aged out of being able to care for yourself.

Speaker: There also was, you know, the

Speaker: absolute heartbreak that comes

Speaker: with not being able to have

Speaker: children.

Speaker: I have friends who are wrestling with infertility and it is just

Speaker: a completely brutal experience.

Speaker: I even remember being so afraid to tell a friend of mine who had

Speaker: been wrestling with infertility for years when I had become

Speaker: pregnant because I didn't want to hurt her.

Speaker: It's just an absolutely heartbreaking experience.

Speaker: And number three, we do still see little bits of this with

Speaker: illness here in today's society, but especially back then, being

Speaker: barren was seen as punishment for having done something wrong.

Speaker: It was kind of believed that if

Speaker: God chose not to give you

Speaker: children, it's because you had

Speaker: done something to exclude

Speaker: yourself from being eligible to

Speaker: have children.

Speaker: And so barrenness was not just seen as a health issue.

Speaker: First of all, it was always blamed on the woman, and it also

Speaker: was seen as essentially a sign of moral failure.

Speaker: And so these all were things

Speaker: that Elizabeth and Zechariah,

Speaker: but mostly Elizabeth as this

Speaker: was, you know, a system that

Speaker: very much looked down on women

Speaker: and put the brunt of the

Speaker: childbearing, um, responsibility

Speaker: morally and otherwise, onto

Speaker: women.

Speaker: But we see that she is carrying

Speaker: an incredibly, incredibly heavy

Speaker: burden.

Speaker: And for me right now, my husband

Speaker: and I have been in a season of

Speaker: uncertainty really since before

Speaker: we met.

Speaker: Um, and he is in a season right now of looking for a job.

Speaker: Um, he was let go, I believe, unfairly, but that's another

Speaker: story for another time.

Speaker: Um, from the job that he'd had

Speaker: for almost ten years and has

Speaker: been hunting for a job for

Speaker: months now, and it's been it's

Speaker: been brutal.

Speaker: The job market is brutal right now.

Speaker: And most recently, there were

Speaker: three really solid opportunities

Speaker: that looked like one or even

Speaker: two, or possibly even all three

Speaker: of them are going to come

Speaker: through.

Speaker: And on the same day they all fell through.

Speaker: And so we have been in this

Speaker: season of waiting and wondering

Speaker: and hoping that God's gonna

Speaker: provide, knowing that he will

Speaker: provide, but maybe not in the

Speaker: way that we would prefer for him

Speaker: to.

Speaker: And it's just been really difficult.

Speaker: And so, you know, going through

Speaker: this question today, I wanted to

Speaker: be open and share about what I'm

Speaker: feeling right now and that I am

Speaker: in a season where it doesn't

Speaker: necessarily feel like God is

Speaker: absent.

Speaker: I'm very confident that God will provide.

Speaker: He has always, um, even when it hasn't looked how I would hope

Speaker: it looked or how I had planned for it to look.

Speaker: You know, I married my high school sweetheart when I was

Speaker: newly twenty years old.

Speaker: I had a baby, had my whole life

Speaker: planned out, and then became a

Speaker: single mom quite literally

Speaker: overnight when my son was four

Speaker: months old.

Speaker: So it's safe to say that, you

Speaker: know, I had my life all mapped

Speaker: out.

Speaker: I remember being very prideful

Speaker: about the fact that I had it all

Speaker: figured out.

Speaker: I had a wonderful husband, I had a wonderful extended family.

Speaker: I had this whole life mapped out and everything was coming up

Speaker: roses for me.

Speaker: We had enough money.

Speaker: We had a really nice house that I just absolutely loved.

Speaker: I had this baby and we were

Speaker: planning for another one, and

Speaker: then it was all completely

Speaker: ripped away.

Speaker: And honestly, as brutal as it was, it was the best possible

Speaker: thing that could have happened to me because it showed me that

Speaker: I am not the one in control.

Speaker: And it broke something in me that very much needed to be

Speaker: broken in order to allow God to really be the Lord of my life.

Speaker: And it still feels like that

Speaker: season is ongoing of just

Speaker: uncertainty and refining fire,

Speaker: really.

Speaker: And so wherever you are at right

Speaker: now, if you are struggling with

Speaker: a similar season, Um, I can

Speaker: absolutely relate.

Speaker: And you are in the right place.

Speaker: This is not me coming from a place of, like, nothing wrong

Speaker: has ever happened to me.

Speaker: And so I know God is good.

Speaker: Like I'm still in a season where it's a conscious choice to go,

Speaker: okay, God, I'm gonna trust you.

Speaker: There's constantly stuff going on.

Speaker: I swear my therapist will get on our our calls and go, all right,

Speaker: lay it on me.

Speaker: What happened this week?

Speaker: Because it's always just insane stuff that's going on.

Speaker: And it's it's a lot of it is very, very heavy stuff.

Speaker: So all of that to say I am wrestling in this season right

Speaker: now, like Elizabeth is in these verses of, okay, God, I don't

Speaker: know how you're gonna provide.

Speaker: It looked like you were gonna provide.

Speaker: And then that was taken away.

Speaker: So I don't know what the future is going to look like, but the

Speaker: entire purpose of advent is that we have hope.

Speaker: The entire purpose of advent is anticipation of something

Speaker: incredible and wonderful, and God being so beautifully

Speaker: glorified through, even through an incredibly dark season.

Speaker: And think about it, Israel was

Speaker: in an incredibly dark season,

Speaker: even after Jesus was born and

Speaker: had his ministry and was

Speaker: crucified because they were

Speaker: still under oppression by the

Speaker: Roman Empire.

Speaker: So unfortunately and fortunately, our redemption does

Speaker: not always look like our troubles, just going away.

Speaker: We serve an incredible God, a God who understands that our

Speaker: lives are multi-layered and we truly function best when he is

Speaker: the Lord over all of our lives.

Speaker: And so redemption and release from the refining fire in one

Speaker: area does not always mean that that is the case in all other

Speaker: areas of our lives, or that difficult seasons are all going

Speaker: to end just because we see redemption in one area.

Speaker: So with that, I would love to

Speaker: invite you to go download your

Speaker: workbook, read the passage for

Speaker: today for yourself, listen to

Speaker: the song, and then just kind of

Speaker: sit in God's presence and allow

Speaker: him to show you what he has for

Speaker: you today.

Speaker: And once you've read the passage, uh, and done your

Speaker: journaling prompt, I would encourage you again to just sit

Speaker: with your eyes closed and listen to the song.

Speaker: I love kind of the juxtaposition of these very hopeful lyrics,

Speaker: but also this very melancholy sound in the music.

Speaker: It's very, very interesting and I feel like it paints a really

Speaker: beautiful picture of, you know, what Israel was going through at

Speaker: the time, what we are going through in our own lives and how

Speaker: there can be so much sorrow.

Speaker: But God has so much hope.

Speaker: My my son, who's four, we were all kind of messing around.

Speaker: We have a couple ukuleles.

Speaker: Um, and so this past weekend, my

Speaker: four year old had the ukulele

Speaker: and was just kind of like

Speaker: strumming it and started kind of

Speaker: like softly singing and just

Speaker: like sang for like three

Speaker: minutes.

Speaker: It was the cutest thing.

Speaker: And he finishes up and he looks

Speaker: at me and he goes, that song was

Speaker: about hope.

Speaker: Jesus is hope.

Speaker: And it was just this moment

Speaker: where my heart completely

Speaker: exploded.

Speaker: It was so sweet.

Speaker: But it's like, yes, Jesus is our hope.

Speaker: And even in the absolute darkest

Speaker: seasons, whether this is purely

Speaker: a joyful Christmas season for

Speaker: you, which I'm very glad for

Speaker: you.

Speaker: If that's the case, or whether this joy of the season is mixed

Speaker: with a lot of darkness from your own personal life, you are in

Speaker: the right place.

Speaker: We know that we can find our hope in Jesus and I am glad that

Speaker: you are here.

Speaker: So again, head over to my bio.

Speaker: You can download the free workbook.

Speaker: This is a study that I'm doing

Speaker: completely for free, but if you

Speaker: would like to buy me a coffee,

Speaker: the link to do that is in my bio

Speaker: as well.

Speaker: So make sure you hit follow so you get updates.

Speaker: There will be another video tomorrow with that day's work.

Speaker: How I have it set up.

Speaker: It's not structured.

Speaker: You can choose to kind of go through the work in one day if

Speaker: that's how you prefer to work.

Speaker: There is a suggested schedule.

Speaker: I'll kind of scroll through the workbook here on the screen so

Speaker: you can see what it looks like.

Speaker: There's a suggested schedule if

Speaker: you are more of a structured

Speaker: person.

Speaker: If you are, I highly envy you.

Speaker: Um, but it is.

Speaker: It is designed to be accessible for everyone, not overwhelming.

Speaker: Just to add a little bit of food

Speaker: for thought, add some scripture,

Speaker: and add some celebration into

Speaker: your daily life here in the

Speaker: advent season.

Speaker: So again, it's specifically designed for people with ADHD or

Speaker: who have chaos in their brains, because that is definitely me.

Speaker: Um, but make sure you download the workbook.

Speaker: Share this with a friend who needs to hear it.

Speaker: Buy me a coffee if you feel so

Speaker: inclined and I will see you

Speaker: tomorrow.

Speaker: Bye.