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 110: How Mushroom Hunting is Like Following God's Calling for Your Life
As Stephanie wandered through the forest, the serenity of mushroom hunting became a profound metaphor for pursuing our calling. In this episode, Stephanie weaves together lessons from Proverbs 3:5-6 and Ephesians 6:11.
Our journey doesn't end with finding focus amidst life's distractions, it's also about the enduring virtues of patience and persistence. Stephanie shares anecdotes from the quiet underbrush of the forest and beyond, illustrating the incredible power of gratitude in transforming our daily experiences.
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Hey friends, it's Stephanie here with episode number 110 of Giving your Best Life, and I came up with this episode and I got to say I know I've done two episodes on distraction and I will get the third one done, but I had to get this one out because it was timely. It was on my mind and the last couple of years that I have went out mushroom hunting, um, I've had similar thoughts of like, oh, I should do a podcast on this, I should write a blog or something. And I never do. And this year I've been out, I think, three or four times and the same thought hits me. So that is why I'm recording this episode on basically how mushroom hunting is like following God, and maybe that'll give you a little chuckle. I would love to hear from you if you go mushroom hunting, if you'd love to eat the morels that people find.
Speaker 1:But I'm going to have a couple of verses and my first one just kind of overarching one of my favorite verses I know it's a life verse for many is Proverbs 3, 5 through 6, which is trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean or rely on your own understanding. Acknowledge him in all your ways and he will make your path straight. Him in all your ways and he will make your path straight. I always think of this verse when I'm outside, when I'm on a trail, when I'm getting off of a trail. You know there's, I just love it. So I wanted to start out with that verse and I really challenge you. I know that I do this often, but chapter three is kind of long and it goes 35 verses, but it is a great chapter, I know so much. We just focus on that three, five and six. But today I went back up and I read three through 12, which was amazing and just so much wisdom, as always. And if you go to 13 through 26, it's blessings of obtaining wisdom. And then 27 through 35, wisdom demonstrated in relationships with people. So, anyways, just a good chapter to read. So just don't focus on the one verse. But okay, let's get to this.
Speaker 1:I went out to mushroom hunt and, as I was preparing for this, the first thing that I thought of is, whenever I go out to mushroom hunt is I change my clothes because I want to have long sleeves on long pants, there's sticker bushes, there's ticks, and so I always change my clothes, which reminded me of what Ephesians 6.10 says, or actually Ephesians 6.11. And it's clothe yourself with the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. And if we look at what that is, if you go to verse 14, and again I encourage you to read this whole section, it's 6, 10 through 20. But 14 says stand firm, therefore, by fastening the belt of truth around your waist, by putting on the breastplate of righteousness, by fitting your feet with the preparation that comes from the good news of peace and, in all this, by taking up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, with every prayer and petition. Pray at all times in the spirit and, to this end, be alert with all perseverance and petitions for all the saints. I just love that. So I love like thinking about, as we go out, as we pursue our calling that God has on our lives is making sure we're putting on the armor of God because the evil one is going to try to attack us. We are going to have resistance and we wanna be reminded and be clothed in that full armor of God so we can stand against the evil one and we know where our strength and power comes from. So that was like my first thing, before I even head out the door, I change my clothes so I'm prepared for what I'm about, ready to take on mushroom hunting.
Speaker 1:The second thing is is before I even, like, get in the woods, get in the trail, fear hits me and it's I see this so much, either with clients I'm coaching or just people who I know who want to do something whether it is the calling God has on their life or a goal is fear will overtake them before they start. So for me, if you've been following along, you know I got bit by a spider that almost killed me from an infection, but even more than that is, I have battled Lyme disease and ticks so, and I had acute and chronic Lyme, and so before I go out, I just have this fear in the woods of, well, what if? And you know there's all these what if? Statements that come when we're pursuing our calling. They're usually we're thinking on the negative side. What if I get bit by a tick? And what if that tick has the bacteria that we would consider or kind of fall in the scope of Lyme disease, which is multiple bacterias.
Speaker 1:So a lot of times, before we even take a step of doing what we think God is calling us to do, we start with excuses. We start with fear. Let's remember that in the Bible, over 365 times, it says do not be afraid, which is why I started with the armor of God, because what does it tell us to do? Verse 18, six, verse 18 in Ephesians with every prayer and petition, pray at all times in the spirit. So we want to pray as we're going through, as we're stepping out in faith, and this is not just praying once Lord, protect me, lord, give me wisdom, lord, give me guidance, lord, take away any fears. I have any anxieties, any worries. We know that that is not of you, but we want to be doing that every day, even multiple times a day, as we pursue our calling. We want to be walking hand in hand with the Lord as we're going down this path of our calling.
Speaker 1:The other thing that I'm reminded is a lot of times, the majority of times, our fears are unfounded. Most of the things that we fear do not come true. So I remind myself when I am out in the woods is that, stephanie, you were in the woods for 40, some years, before you had anything bad happen to you. Now, obviously, I had a couple of bad things happen in a short span of time, like two years but I had to remember the majority, overwhelming majority of the time, the probably thousands of times I've been in the woods, been hiking, whatever I'm doing, nothing bad has happened. So we always have to remember, you know, kind of put things in context, in perspective.
Speaker 1:The other thing now my husband will probably never listen to this because I doubt he listens to the podcast, but when we're out mushroom hunting my husband is always going first. He's usually ahead of me. Sometimes I can see him, sometimes I can't. He's making a way. He's kind of going and finding where we need to go and I was like well, that's like God, not that my husband is God, but like, isn't that? Like? Sometimes we feel like we can see God and is very clear of what he's calling us to do and we're in lockstep. He is clearing that path and then other times you're like God, I can't see you. I'm not hearing from you, did you turn a corner? But what I know in being in the woods with my husband is he's always near me, he is always close and at any time I yell out for him, he is immediately there and he responds. And so it was just this great picture of walking out in the woods, of like my husband leading the way, and it's like, oh, that's how God does in our life. And even when I can't see him, he is always there. He never leaves me in that woods by myself. You know, oftentimes he's coming back to get me, sometimes he is encouraging me, you know, but I was like it's such a great picture of God is, even if we can't see him, he is always there. He is always guiding and leading our path.
Speaker 1:The other thing that I have learned during mushroom hunting and how it's like pursuing our calling is patience, patience, patience, patience. The other thing, when you're out there is like you don't even know if you're going to see any mushrooms. You don't even know if you're looking in the right spot. So there's a lot of like what is even going on here? But you know you're like where you need to be, but it takes a lot of patience. It takes a lot of slowing down and just going. Okay, I'm going to keep taking that one step forward. I'm going to keep searching and that's how I feel it is with our goals is, a lot of times, what I see is people want quick results, or they want God to answer them immediately, or they want fill in the blank as it relates to pursuing their calling, and sometimes it is months, years, decades, as it relates to us kind of finding or coming to the point of like, oh my gosh, we actually got to this point of where we thought God was calling us.
Speaker 1:So remember that our calling requires patience. It oftentimes requires perspective or changing our perspective. So a lot of times when I'm mushroom hunting is I will not be able to see a mushroom if I am standing up and walking. A lot of times, again, this is where patience is. I will have to change my perspective. I'll squat down and look slowly around and oftentimes, by just changing my perspective is when I will see a mushroom, I will find a mushroom. And so I think that's a lot of times too is.
Speaker 1:I heard this the other day in a talk and I don't have the notes in front of me, but it just came with me as it was, like a lot of times, god gives you a vision and that vision is for your calling and you're walking down the path. But then when you get, or when you're in, you know, like this calling it looks very different than what you thought it was going to look like, and that's how it is with mushroom hunting. You have to change your perspective and so just remember, that is sometimes our calling doesn't look like what we think it's going to look like. God might change it. God often has a different vision than what we originally see or the path that we originally go after.
Speaker 1:The big thing, too that I see when I'm out mushroom hunting and it is 100% when you're going after your goal or you're pursuing your calling is distraction. Now, you know that I've recorded two episodes on distraction, but when I'm out there, I will see little flowers, I will see deer tracks, I will see deer paths that I want to go to. The other day we were out and I was like, oh, look at that deer, it looks like a little tiny house but it's like a little deer blind out there. I was like, oh, I'd like to go over there. There'll be holes that you have to pay attention to, or you'll like fall in and, you know, twist your ankle or whatever.
Speaker 1:There's just like all these distractions and the whole time it's like, well, I'll hear my husband say, stephanie, just focus, stephanie, focus, like we're out here. Or I'll even have to remind myself Stephanie, focus, you're out here to find mushrooms, not to look at flowers, not to go down deer paths, and that's how our goal is, is when we're, you know, going after. That goal is we're constantly have to remind ourselves is what are we doing? Because there's so many distractions, and distractions is from the devil. The devil does not want you doing whatever it is you're trying to accomplish, whether it's I always like to use book because I write books and I see how that happens.
Speaker 1:But let's say you're pursuing a new job opportunity or career, or you want to go back to college, or there's a training that you need, there's a ministry that you want to start. I have a friend right now who is trying to start a ministry and it's just like she's not making much progress because she's distracted by so many other things. So just think about the distractions in your life. What do you need to be focusing on? What do you need to get out of your life? The other thing is fear can creep up along the way, so when you're in the calling. So at the beginning I said, fear can stop us from even taking that first step, from even getting out the door. But also fear comes up a lot in the middle of us pursuing our calling. I'll give you an example While I was mushroom hunting a dog, my neighbor's dog came out and he was barking and he probably wasn't going to do anything.
Speaker 1:But if you didn't know, I have a phobia of dogs and so I hear him barking. I see him coming down the trail. Now guess what happens? What do I immediately do is I yell for my husband, and that was the right thing to do. So think about when you have this fear that overcomes you as you're pursuing the calling. Working on a goal is pause and pray, cry out to your father. I'm scared, come, help me, come, be with me, come. You know like my husband just came and he, like, talked to the dog, slowly, walked it back to the house. Neighbor came out, you know, but it was like that was a great of fear creeps up when we're out there, when we're doing the work, and we just have to cry out to God and switch, because we are not supposed to be fearful. That fear is not of God. We can't have a fear of God, which that is like reverence and respect, but we should not let fear prevent us from doing what he has called us to do.
Speaker 1:I talked about patience, but also I noticed like sometimes we will go out there, we don't find anything, and that might be boring. And accomplishing our goals or pursuing like it can be a long journey, it can take a long time, but what I found is, as we keep showing up, we keep showing up, we do the grind every day and you just keep trotting along, trotting along. Guess what happens is we always find a mushroom. It may not be the first time, may not be the second time, but we always find a mushroom. Also is think about the tools that you will need. The first like maybe two times we went out this season is there were a ton of sticker bushes and I was like why do we keep coming out here and dealing with these sticker bushes? So the third time we went out is I took clippers. I took a tool with me that made it easier, and so you might think of God.
Speaker 1:What is a tool that I need? God and people can be tools for us. God, maybe is there someone that can help me, maybe someone's been here and done this and they might be able to help me. They could be a tool. Maybe there's a training. You guys know I do coaching, I have fabulous clients and I'm walking alongside with them and I'm just a tool to help them pursue and do what God has called them to do. Did I say maybe a training, a class, a course? So, figure out, is there a tool that I need to pursue the calling that God has had on my life?
Speaker 1:I got to thinking about this also and, you know, while, within the compass of this and you know, part of giving your best life is gratitude, within the compass of this, and you know, part of giving your best life is gratitude, is I like to to practice gratitude before I go out. Um, you know. So I'll be grateful for the weather. I'll be grateful that, um, not only do we have our woods to look at, but our neighbor allows us to go on his property and and look for mushrooms. So, as you start your journey, if you're just in the beginning, you haven't taken that first step, maybe you're at the fear stage and hopefully I've just like helped you navigate the fear stage is start with gratitude and whatever that is for your situation If you're in the middle of it.
Speaker 1:So when I'm outside in the middle of mushroom hunting, it's I'm grateful for. You know, sometimes it's I didn't fall in a hole that I saw. It's grateful when we have success. You know, it's like when we find that first one, oh, I'm grateful. I found one. And we had a time that we just went out once and we or we only the whole time my husband was out is he only found one and we ended up giving it away. So along the journey sometimes is it's not about you, it is about what you can give to other people and the gifts and how God's using you to make someone else's day.
Speaker 1:And you might be thinking, stephanie, you only gave that person one mushroom. Well, one, that's all we found, but two. As an older gentleman, we've given him in the past, we've given him mushrooms. But my friend was coming over and she's like you know, my stepfather, he loves those. So I was like, well, this is all we can find. So at least we gave him one.
Speaker 1:And then think about when we get maybe to the end, or like for me. I know I'm always grateful when I get to an end of a book or maybe a class that I was taking or a training For me. When I'm out there at the end, it's like I'm grateful for time I got to spend with my husband, I'm grateful for being outside, especially when we've been cooped up all winter time, and I'm always grateful when I come in and I don't have a tick on me. So think about ways that you can practice gratitude. I hope maybe you found this fun and you see the correlations of mushroom hunting and following the path that God has you on, and this is just another way to think about how you get to giving your best life.