Mrs. PIE

Renewing Your Spirit: Embracing Strength and Clarity Through Decluttering and Faith

• Shelley Jeffcoat • Season 3 • Episode 73

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Ever felt like you're just drowning in clutter—both the kind you can see and the emotional mess you feel? You're definitely not alone. In a down-to-earth chat with my good friends Makisha and Tanya, we talk about the real change that comes from clearing out our minds, souls, and living spaces. Plus, we touch on some exciting events coming up in November and December that are perfect for revisiting your goals and celebrating your achievements. And don’t forget about our ongoing Care Kits campaign to help fifth graders at the International Academy of Smyrna with essential hygiene supplies—every bit of help counts!

Sometimes, we all struggle with imagining that God might get as tired as we do, projecting our human limits onto the divine. This episode peels back the layers on what it really means to draw strength from a higher power, highlighting the importance of both patience and attentiveness. I open up about my own treks through weariness and how embracing meditation and gratitude has lit my way. This talk is packed with down-to-earth advice on handling stress and fostering your physical and spiritual health. Whether you’re surfing a high or seeking a hand to hold, there’s something here to boost your mood and rejuvenate your strength.

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no-transcript, wonder what it is that I play in the background. It's called. So it's just called Silky Music. You can find it pretty much everywhere, but you know, I was thinking right before I got on.

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Good morning everybody on Facebook, linkedin, youtube, good morning to the folks who are going to listen to us on the Audible platforms. I always mess this up, y'all. So I just want to take a quick second and just say thank you. I know there's a lot of folks who listen, not watch, if you will. So the folks on Audible and Spotify and iHeartRadio and just about wherever you get your Audible version, your audio version of a podcast, hey y'all. So I am so grateful. Thank you, lord, for showing us another Thursday, for bringing us here, and some of us are coming here filled with joy, some of us with anticipation, some of us with eagerness, some of us are just grateful. Some of us have bellies full, lord, god, just happy and excited for what the day is going to bring, and some of us are hopeful for what you're going to do for us. Some of us are standing in need. So I pray that over the next 20 minutes, lord, that you'll use this time. I yield my time to you, lord, so that you could speak to us and encourage us and show us how to get through this day, how to get through this next week, these weekends, all the things that we have going on, and thank you for blessing us with this space, thank you for every person who's been watching, listening and supporting. I pray that they will, in turn, go bless somebody else. All right, amen. All right, good morning everybody. I'm going to try to be good and watch the chat. I do have a few community announcements, if you just allow me, really quickly. We have a lot going on.

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Last night we had a really good program called Declutter. It was a podcast. I think y'all know I do podcasts, really. You can watch the replay on Mrs Pi YouTube. Good morning Audrey. Good morning y'all. You can watch the replay of Declutter.

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We talked about decluttering in three ways emotional decluttering we talked about you know, whether you're letting go of your baggage or you're just burying it. We also talked about spiritual declutter and all the noise and all the things that's coming at us and you know even that sense of guilt with saying no, you know, when it comes to things that we do in service and serving. And then we talked about physical decluttering, so the things that you need to do in your space and you know really, you know really leaning in on, you know, having a when you have a cluttered space, your mind tends to be cluttered too. So we really talked about, we shared this, we shared some tips of myself, and two of my friends, makisha and Tanya, were here last night. So go back and watch the video. There were so many jewels dropped and I really thought that, yeah, this is some of the things that y'all I wish I knew many, many years ago, things that we learned and we shared with everybody. So go back and watch. It's called Declutter and it's on the YouTube channel. It's in other spaces also, but those of y'all who are going to listen on Buzzsprout or any other audio version, y'all have it there too. So please take a listen and share it. Like it, love it, share it with your friends. Don't be selfish. Share it with your friends.

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We have a couple of events coming up, one in November, one in December. You can find the information on graceandgritmediacom. These are free events, so these are just our check-in points. We try to have some kind of check-in or a live event every month. So in November this is on a Wednesday night, wednesday November 6th, I believe it's 8 pm Eastern Standard. You have to register because it's a Zoom. So you'll be able to join us, me and my friends, on a Zoom and we're just checking in.

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Y'all, we started this year leaning into SOAR. So if you're one of those men or women and you had resolutions or goals or whatever it is, maybe you did a vision board. We're doing our check-in in November to see where you are, to try to get you over the line. So come anyway, like even if you, you know you feel like, oh, I messed it all up and I'm nowhere on track come and get encouraged by the rest of us who are we're killing it. Okay, come out, come out and get encouraged. And then the same thing in December. Then we're going to celebrate. You know our year together and what did you accomplish this year? Maybe you didn't meet all your goals, but we're going to celebrate. We're going to celebrate to get together. The last thing is actually not the last thing.

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The other thing is we are still running a campaign called Care Kits and this is where we're trying to pull together some supplies hygiene supplies for our school here in Georgia called International Academy of Smyrna. We were really blessed at the beginning or earlier this year we were able to run a campaign like listen, I'm not, you're not giving the money to me, okay. So we have an Amazon wishlist and it's on graceandgritmediacom, and when you donate there, you literally are buying these supplies. So the hygiene supplies are things like toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, personal hygiene things for fifth graders so that it fills a little bit of a gap when they go on holiday break. And I'm really excited. November 1st is when we're going to deliver our supplies, so there's still a little bit of time if you want to donate. That way, I'm so excited, excited we're gonna be able to to uh send all of the supplies to this. We'll thank you to the three praying sisters because, uh, our prayer line, our phone line, we're really the ones who sponsored the care kits this time. So thank you to the 3ps. Y'all know who you are for for, really, you know, supporting our, our kids, all of our kids, our community kids.

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The last thing is, we got our phone line today. It's Thursday, so if you need, you know again. You know, maybe take a quick 30 minute break on the job, you know, maybe book the time and, you know be out of office and you know that's when you like, have your snack or whatever. But come and join us on the phone line at one o'clock or seven o'clock PM, eastern standard time. You can see the number scrolling on the screen. And every Thursday it's free y'all. So we just dial in and we just come together and we pray with each other.

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This month of October we're focusing our prayers for single parents. So if you're a single parent, or you know a single parent, or you're supporting a single parent, you want to pray for a single parent, come on out. And if you have other prayer needs, you can also drop it in the chat. Whenever I come on here I do actually read the comments. So if you drop a prayer, I do take it back to the Thursday prayerful line. All right, I've done all of my community notices, all of the things have been said, and now I'm going to jump into our study for this week, which is renewed strength.

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So again, you know I started out by talking about kind of where we all are. We're in the end of October. I can't believe that we only have like this week and one more week and that's it. That's it y'all. So you know, at this point in the month, if you've been kind of go, go, go, you know, if you're feeling just a little bit tired, we're leaning into renewing our strength when things you know feel over, if it maybe feels overwhelming for you or maybe you're just looking for a renewal. You want to find hope, you want to keep moving forward with God's help and so regaining our energy and renewal. While we're waiting, some of us are waiting on God for different answers. Answers Right. Energy and renewal. While we're waiting, some of us are waiting on God for different answers, right. So this I want to really encourage us to find rest and renewal in God, especially when you're feeling tired or overwhelmed and all the things.

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So I'm going to share my screen and the scripture that we're going to go into today is in Isaiah 40. Why am I sharing my screen? Because I want you to study with me. I don't want y'all to think I'm making this stuff up, okay, I need you to have not only a prayer life, but I want you to have a study, real study that goes alongside of it. All right, all right.

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So Isaiah 40, verses 28 through 31,. Obviously the A Shelley version, the ESV version, and I'm going to read it out. It says have you not known, have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary. His understanding is unsearchable. Verse 29, he gives power to the faint oh, I think that's me and to him who has no might, he increases strength right Now.

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Verse 30 says even youth shall faint and be wary, and young men shall fall exhausted. So at this point here I just want to, you know, call out real quick, expect, listen. This is something that, especially for older, older folks, or boomers or older, my old, my older friends and family, that that's listening and watching, that you know young people are tired too. You know it doesn't have anything to do with age, and I think sometimes we mistake. You know someone having a high energy, with them being able to sustain it. Young people are tired too. So I love that.

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He says in even youth shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted. And the promise in verse 31 is they who wait for the Lord shall renew your strength. So we're gonna break that down a little bit. Though they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be wary. They shall walk and not faint. So, lord, I ask that you will now open up your word and give us your wisdom and understanding. Give us wisdom to understand what we are reading Now. Give us knowledge so we can see clearly what you're showing us and that every person, under the sound of my voice, that you will speak to each of their hearts and their situations so that they, lord God, they will get what it is that you have for them out of this word. Thank you, lord. All right, so now I want to talk a little bit about power to the faint and to him who has no might. He increases strength, I guess in the teaching world.

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Right, I'm trying to start sharing some other resources with you. For those of y'all who wanna do like Bible study not just read the scripture, don't shave all right, but there's some people who watch our videos and they wanna go deeper into study, all right. So for those of y'all that wanna go deeper into study, what you're seeing on the right side of my screen, I use Bible Gateway. Okay, this is the paid version. Is it paid version? Yeah, it is, I think so. So Bible Gateway, and then you can use the.

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I use the expositor commentary, all right, it'll make sense when you go there and you'll know what I mean. But I use these commentaries, commentaries. This expositor commentary was written by I think it was 29 different preachers and it is, it doesn't it just it just exposes the word, it just breaks it down, but it doesn't give you like the Holy Spirit meant to say, blah, blah, blah. But I think it's really interesting sometimes when you, when you see, when you kind of break the word down in this way so that you can, you know, get a different context around what it is saying, and sometimes it helps you understand the timeline and things like that. So what you're seeing on my screen is also just the commentary that's associated. So that's my teaching moment. So Isaiah 40, 27 through 31,.

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It talks about. It says this is the prophet's majestic view of God. It came in from the inaugural vision and it's talking about how it's brought bare on the people's despondency, right. It talks about the name Jacob and explains that it suggests the unworthiness of the chosen people. It talks about Jacob himself. He was also in exile, right? So to kind of bring it back to where we are, some of us.

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When we talk about being exiled or separated, even in a spiritual way, being separated from not just physical things Some people I meet, they feel like they're exiled away from their goals and their dreams and desires. It's totally. They've been set away from it for some reason. They feel like it's a punishment. They can't meet the need. You know what I'm saying. So they're exiled away from joy because of the things that have happened and things like that. So that's just another context.

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It talks about the language that's being used here, that we're reading in Isaiah 40, suggests that the people were bringing God. We do this, listen now, we do this. They were bringing God down to their level. Thinking him either forgetful or tired, perhaps because of their long history of folly, seemed to be never ending. That's really important. So now, understanding that we do that, we tend to look at God as this source who gets tired, like we do, and so some of us are just reluctant. Like is he even going to hear me? What does when I ask the Lord to increase my strength? What does that mean and what does that look like? So when we talk about power to the faint and to him who has no might. He increases strength. What does that strength look like? So an example of God increasing strength for me is sometimes it is physical exhaustion.

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Now please don't hear what I'm not saying. I'm not saying, like you know, you go, you work yourself out to the bone, you exhaust yourself. Then you pray and God just magically gives you strength. You know you have to you still have to do the things physically to take care of your body, your, your, your health, so that you are building up your strength right, so that you are eating right, you're you're. You know if you're having, if you're going through a lot of stress, you're finding different ways to relieve and release that stress. You know, part of my stress relief is watching cleaning videos on YouTube. I know it's crazy, but I really enjoy it OK. Or you know finding, you know, spending quality time with my friends and family. That reduces my strength. So there are different ways, physically, in the natural, that we can increase our strength. Right, but power to the faint.

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We think now about what's happening with our hearts and what's happening with our minds, and feeling weary, feeling like I'm just tired y'all. I'm so exhausted with all the things that's going on around me. Right, lord, where are you like that kind of asking for help? And it says that those who they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. So what does wait for the Lord? Look, I'm going to stop sharing my screen and just we just going to chat, okay, so, waiting for the Lord? You have a situation you've gone before the Lord, you've kind of presented your case through prayer and there's a period where you're waiting to hear from him. Yes, no, you know, you know, go here, do that, whatever, right?

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This waiting period for me is probably, probably the most difficult, because this is kind of where people lose their faith, right? So if you don't have a relationship with the Lord and you go to him and you ask, you know, for example, I know I talk to a lot of folks, I'm on the business channels, I'm on LinkedIn, so a lot of folks in business. We're at the end of October, we're in fourth quarter, and this is when people are trying to close business. Right, you want to do everything before it's December because you got to go, right, you got to close business, right. But there's some things that maybe you're waiting for and in that waiting period, sometimes people panic because they're not hearing what they want to hear, whether it's from a customer or from a colleague, your boss, right? Maybe you're in that waiting period of trying to. You're a student waiting for your grades, all the things.

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So this waiting period can get really stressful, really really quickly. So before you get to that point where you exhaust yourself emotionally and you feel like giving up, like where are you, lord? I've been waiting for this job interview. I've been waiting to hear from my boss about this promotion. I've been waiting for these finances to pay the bill. I've been waiting for my parents to get well. I've been waiting for a health report to get well. I've been waiting for a health report.

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But before you get to that point, the encouragement is that you are relying on God to strengthen you. So it's not and again it's not like a genie in a bottle where you just go and you physically wear yourself out. So an example of this is before I came on. I'm tired. I've already had. It's Thursday, but Thursday for me is like Saturday, because I'm already working literally every day. My only period of rest is like a few hours on Saturday afternoon and a few hours on Sunday. For real, that's my resting period. Every night is booked. All day I'm working, I'm just always going. So, before I came on, physically I was tired, but also spiritually I was tired because I'm always pouring out Right, so I know I was talking to people who y'all do the same thing, so I'm also pouring out. I'm an encourager by nature, so I'm always pouring out into other people, and I was tired.

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So what did I do? You know, listen, lord, I'm about, I'm about at my limit, you know, and I need this, I need your strength. So what it looked like for me receiving strength on them, I paused, I paused, y'all, and after I made that prayer, I just waited for a moment. Right, I wasn't like asking him. You know, lord, give me your strength and mount me up like eagles. And then you know, boom, we're at it. I paused for a moment and some of the things that started out loud. I wanted to hear again. This is where meditation comes in. You pray, but you got to listen. So I pulled back and I was waiting. Now, while I was waiting, I was actually playing some soaking music. I was doing things right, I was listening to a gospel song. So I was listening and waiting to hear.

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And while I was doing that on my heart, the Lord started to show me some things you know, to remember, to be grateful, to be happy to, you know, be filled with joy, and you know he started to bring back, like all the great things that happened for me yesterday. He started to play back, you know, my home and y'all just being able to have technology to come on. This morning, I talked to a few of my friends about how great God is, and you know, my home and y'all just being able to have technology to come on this morning to talk to a few of my friends about how great God is, and you know, he showed me the blessings that I had. It was just a reminding, reminder, right. And so I started to be built up in strength, in my emotional strength, right. I started to feel like, yes, you know, this is a good day ahead of me.

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He started to play back his words and promises to me, right, all things are working together for my good, right. So as he started, this is again listening, right. So, as he started to play those things out and that's a part of the strength, that's his strength, right, that's what he does, right. And so, instead of me bringing God down to my level, thinking you're going to be too busy and too tired to hear my prayer. Right, it's the total opposite.

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And so what then started happening is when we talk about, you know, they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength and shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. So, so, naturally for me now I because I have now this, the seed of hope and the, the, the joy like you ever have this happen to you, like, even as tired as you are, there's a moment of joy Like you can't explain, like you know, you just get these, the bursts of joy that come to you. You know those moments that you just like happy, just like what was that about, right? And so, as you start to just pull back, so you pray, you pull back and you listen, and he starts to replay all of the good things that are happening in your life. And yes, I know that there are losses and death and debt, and all the things, right, hurt, and all the things, all the things, all the things that are happening. But just for a moment, I'm just encouraging you to just pull back and pray. Lord renew my strength. So that's the prayer that I have Lord, renew my strength. And as he starts to do that and sometimes it requires y'all for you to disconnect so that you can be renewed we're so tied in and tapped into everything. Yesterday I was in the office and by the time I got to my car I was so overcharged and overstimulated that I had a rough time in the evening. By the time I get home I was so overstimulated that I had a tough time y'all for real. So I needed time to calm down and then be renewed, right? So that's the encouragement I have renewing your strength.

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For those of y'all if you feel like I'm just tired of it and I just feel like giving up, if you just need a word this morning to just encourage you, just hang in there, don't give up, Take a pause. Sometimes we got to prioritize what we've got going on. We don't have to do all of the things. That's something I shared at the beginning of this week that, listen, we're not octopuses Y'all, we've got two arms. Some of us have to prioritize. What was it at the beginning of the week? What's the one thing that you want to do well this week? And just focus on that one thing so you don't burn yourself out, you don't break yourself down. Focus on one thing. Maybe your thing is I'm a three thing person, so I think about what are the three things I want to accomplish this week and then, when I've accomplished it, then that's it, I move on to the next week. Don't burn yourself out. So I hope this encouraged you.

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Again, we were in Isaiah 40, verses 28 through 31 in the ESV version. Again, I want to encourage you to read the expository commentary if you want to go into deeper Bible study. For those of y'all who are, you know, if you're studying to be in ministry or you're just looking for more teaching, that's another resource. But, lord, I just want to pray now for every person who has listened and watched us, whether it's today or next week or next year, lord God, that whatever they stand in need of that, you'll bless them. For those who are feeling weary and tired in any way, especially spiritually, for those who are waiting to hear from you, I pray that you will just give them a burst of joy, just to let them know that you are here and that you are real to them, and that you know that there's still joy in the waiting. I thank you, lord, that you are renewing our strength and our minds. Lord, god and Father, I even ask for those who need the resources and the encouragement to take care of themselves physically, lord God, that you open those doors, that you'll send help for them, you'll give them the resources so that they can take care of their bodies and their minds, not just their hearts and their spirits, lord God. So I thank you for this day. I thank you for Thursday. I thank you for the joy. I thank you for the blessings. I thank you for every person under the sound of my voice who's getting a good news report today. They've been lifted up. I thank you, lord, for everything. Amen, all right, yes, audrey, prioritize things and people for real, for real Y'all. I hope that helped you. I hope that blessed you. I will be back next Thursday.

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We have a phone line one o'clock, seven o'clock today, as I mentioned. If you go on the Mrs Pi YouTube channel, you can see all the live prayer sessions. We do Monday, we do Tuesday. I come back on Saturday. I touch in on Sunday. I'm always around y'all. But if you do have a prayer request, please, please, drop it in the comments. I do read them, I do pull them together and we actually do pray for people. I know we're getting prayer requests on the Grace and Grit Media website as well. We do actually pray for people. We bring it to 3PS, that's that's three women that I have working with me for me. Alongside me, 3PS is Three Praying Sisters. It's a program that's a part of Come Out of the Wilderness prayer ministry that I lead, so so we do actually pick up your prayer requests and God bless you. I love y'all. Have a good rest of your Thursday and please be kind to yourself and your friends and your neighbor and your colleagues and your boss. All right, see y'all later. Have a good one.