Giving Your Best Life
Join Stephanie Jones aka Giving Gal, as she chats about “Giving Your Best Life"! In each episode, she shares intentional ways to give to yourself and others, how giving and gratitude changes your life and ways to go after living your big dreams and accomplishing goals.
Giving Your Best Life
Episode 102: Navigating Life's Distractions: Finding Focus and Faith in a Buzzing World (Part I)
Have you ever found yourself scrolling through your phone, losing hours meant for more meaningful pursuits? On this episode Stephanie will peel back the layers of everyday distractions, drawing wisdom from 1 Corinthians 10:12-13 and the story of Martha and Mary in Luke 10:38-42.
We delve into how the modern world's temptations, from the ping of a notification to the demands of daily chores, can sidetrack us from our life's true calling. As we unravel the ways in which even the most wholesome activities can become detrimental distractions, you'll be equipped to discern between what's truly essential and what's merely a diversion for God has for you.
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Hey friends, it's Stephanie here with Giving your Best Life and another Bible study, and today I want to jump into distractions. So maybe it's what is distracting you or who might be distracting you. And I want to start with a couple of Bible verses. So if you have your Bible with you, that would be great. There's going to be two. First one is 1 Corinthians, 10, 12 through 13. And it says so, let the one who thinks he is standing be careful that he does not fall. No trial has overtaken you that is not faced by others, and God is faithful. He will not let you be tried beyond what you are able to bear, but with the trial will also provide a way out so that you may not, so that you may be able to endure it. Also, different versions of the Bible will use the word temptation that's probably the word that we hear or even temptation or trial. So I want you to think about that.
Speaker 1:I look at distraction as a temptation often. I was looking up the synonyms for the word temptation and this is what it says Allure, appeal, decoy, seduction and trap. Also attraction. Temptation, decoy, seduction and trap um, also attraction. So it means to draw attention. So a temptation draws our attention away and I like to think of like isn't that what the devil does? Like we're trying to live out what God has called us to do, we're trying to step out in faith, and then there's all these things that are like replace that word temptation that seems appealing to us and so we turn our eyes away. We turn away, we're being tempted, we're being seduced and a lot of times we get trapped in those things. So what are some of the things that can be a temptation, that can lure us away from really how we are called to spend our time, spend our hours during the day?
Speaker 1:I think one everybody talks about it is our phones. They are such a temptation, it's like they're constantly there tempting us all the time. I had a friend spending the night with me the other day and she was working on the counter and I noticed that her phone was like on another counter, plugged in, and I said, oh, there's a plug-in, like right where you are, and she's like no, I want it over there. And I thought good for her because like that phone phone and she didn't say this, but I'm just thinking for myself is a lot of times I'll have to move my phone away. We have to move away from the things that are tempting or distracting us because we can't focus on what, what we're trying to do. Um, the other thing is, if you look at what is on the phone so a lot of times for me it's just distracting is I get so many text messages and just friends or people wanting stuff, or people with questions or clients or whatever, and a lot of those things are good. But when we're trying to focus on something like today, when I'm trying to prepare for the podcast is I can't have my phone near me because all these things will be popping up. You know all these notifications that pop up.
Speaker 1:But also within that phone, what distracts us is social media games, applications and I'm speaking to myself is there's a lot of times I should be working on a podcast, writing a newsletter writing, working on a book, working on client stuff, and it's so easy to think, oh, I'm just going to quickly check Facebook, or I'm quickly going to check Instagram, or I'm going to play one little game, and next thing, you know, it's like 30 minutes have went by and you're like what? What the heck? That was a temptation, that was a distraction, and then it traps us from away from doing the things that we're supposed to be doing. These could also be sports, television, netflix, food I think I've talked about this in the past is food can be a temptation for me, but a lot of times it is a distraction for me doing what I'm supposed to be doing. So if I'm sitting at my desk and I'm supposed to be writing and it's like it gets to a hard part or maybe something I don't want to work through on the paper, it's like I'll just get up and go get a snack. Okay. And even books. I know of people that will just use books as a way to escape, not deal with reality, not deal with what they have to do.
Speaker 1:And honestly, I had something recently happen my role was eliminated at the company that I work for and I got laid off. Now I'm going to talk about that a lot more later. There's so much. It's a good thing, it's something that I prayed for, but what I realized and why I was really praying about when I was supposed to leave and that sort of thing is it had become a distraction. Even you know, it was a good, good job, but it had become a distraction of doing what God has called me to do and how I'm supposed to spend my time here on this earth, and so some of the things which I want to read this next verse, because some of the things that I listed, they can be good things, like our jobs, can be a good thing until the point that they start to become a trap. So for me and my job, one of the big traps is money. I had a well-paying job and so it was easy to stay in the trap of money.
Speaker 1:But I want to take you to Luke, chapter 10, verses 38 through 42. And it says Now, as they went on their way, jesus entered a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him as a guest. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to what he said. But Martha was distracted with all the preparations she had to make. So she came up to him and said Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do all the work alone? Tell her to help me. But the Lord answered her Martha, martha, I love today because, as I was preparing for this, this was one of the verses that when I was doing my research that popped up, and it uses the word distracted, but Martha was distracted and can you like now, looking back, hindsight's, 2020, we're like can you imagine if Jesus is in your house, like I would pray, that I would be Mary and sitting at his feet and listening and learning and loving on him?
Speaker 1:But we have that opportunity every day. We have that opportunity to pray and be in communion with our heavenly father. We have that opportunity to be in scriptures and like this book is alive and to learn from him. And a lot of times we are not because we are distracted by all these things of the world. And you know, I love that Jesus is like that's not important. None of this is important, and so I think this is just a great example of, you know, I love that it uses the word distracted and there's always this comparison of Mary and Martha, which I don't think is a good thing. This is just a little snapshot of, you know, of Martha in this one part of her life. This isn't everything. You know. She tends to be defined by this, so we don't want to be defined by that, but it is good to kind of call out this black and white of what Mary was doing and what Martha was doing.
Speaker 1:I have decided to so this doesn't get super long break this down into three parts. I really wanted this to be the basis of a couple of strict scriptures. Looking at the things that are temptation, distract us, the verses. I really challenge you to not only look at these verses but, um, you know, get go to the bible, read the full chapter that these verses are in. I'll put in the show notes, um, you know, it's first corinthians 10 13, and then luke 10, 38 through 42 is to read the full chapter. Feel free to go and look up some commentary around these.
Speaker 1:But also over between now and the next one I release, which I think I'm going to do, a part two and then a part three.
Speaker 1:So part two is going to dive a little bit deeper on the things that distract us and pull us away from what God's calling us to do, and then part three is going to talk about people that might be distracting us, which for me, I have started to prepare a little bit, but that seems a little bit difficult when we talk about people.
Speaker 1:So I've written out a prayer that I just want to pray for you, and if you want to pray this also, that would just be fabulous. Heavenly Father, I want to be following the path you are leading me. I desire to take a step of faith into the calling you have for my life. But, lord, forgive me, I am weak, I am distracted and I am tempted by the world's pleasure. Father, would you convict me of my distractions, the who, the what, the things that in my life are getting in the way of what you would have me to do and how you would have me to spend my time on this earth? Father, I just want to thank you for your daily, minute-by-minute grace. In Jesus' name, I pray Amen. Thank you, friends. I hope you enjoyed this episode of Giving your Best Life.