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0:00:36 – Speaker 1
As many of you know, our home base is Texas, we’re in San Antonio and we just lived through some kind of crazy stuff down here.
0:00:47 – Speaker 2
Yeah, we had this huge snowstorm that we were all excited about.
0:00:50 – Speaker 1
Okay, wait, wait, hawaiian girl, wait. You cannot say huge. We had three to four inches. Okay, People like for me, like in your right, that was, it was not huge.
0:01:02 – Speaker 2
We had this tiny snowstorm that everyone was excited about, because we thought, you know, we never get snow, We don’t get super cold temperatures. We were going to build the snowman and do all the things and it turned into what did? they call it snowmageddon, something like that. I heard it referred to as snowvid. Snowvid, that too, Yes.
0:01:25 – Speaker 1
Snowvid, the apocalypse like all the stuff. So what happened here in Texas if you haven’t seen on the world news, which it’s been everywhere, but just to fill you in So our electricity could not keep up the power grid here in Texas And so they started rolling blackouts, and I was one of those affected by the rolling blackouts. The problem with the blackouts it was crazy. It wasn’t handled like a normal blackout. So it started out great. We were like had power for, i would say, 20 minutes and then we would be off for 45. And then it would just continue that way. That was okay. But then after like 12 or 14 hours of that, our electricity would pop on for a minute or 90 seconds and it would go off. So it would come on and you would think, okay, we got to get up, we got to get all the stuff done, and then boom, and it literally felt like and that went on for hours like on off, on off.
0:02:23 – Speaker 2
Oh, that plays with your emotions, right.
0:02:26 – Speaker 1
That’s what I pictured. I pictured somebody turning a light switch on and off with our minds and our emotions, because that’s how it felt. Yes, like it was an emotional toll. Yes, i don’t mean to be dramatic, but it was kind of crazy.
0:02:42 – Speaker 2
Well, and then the water kicked in. You know, not being able to have water is a whole other level of frustration.
0:02:48 – Speaker 1
So this is something that I never even thought about until this past week is the water um pump. They need pumps to operate the facilities and there was so many issues with backup generators and the power grid. Nobody had water, so we’re out of electricity and water and one night we were huddled by a homemade you know fire in our fireplace with firewood. It was seven degrees. So i know you guys Up north in the united states are laughing at me right now, but but seven degrees in texas is nuts. Like to give you perspective, we’re recording the show in a day when it’s like almost eighty, so this is like normal.
0:03:27 – Speaker 2
This is just freezing in texas. I’ve got on a sweater. Yeah, it was. It was a weird experience, you know, and everyone experienced it differently. We need to definitely be honest about that. Half the people i know lost power for a little bit, didn’t lose water or lost water and then, like us, were on an emergency grid so we never lost power or water. And then some people, like you, lost power water for days at a time. So it was just a strange experience overall and very frustrating and a little bit scary and Overwhelming to go through. That when you’re expecting it just be the small, you know, fun little break in the weather and it turned into this whole other thing well, and some of you may be wondering if you didn’t have water and you didn’t have electricity.
0:04:11 – Speaker 1
You know how to do your toilets. Well, i’ll tell you what my neighborhood did and my neighbor taught us how to do this. They were like get buckets and put snow in your bathtub. That will eventually melt Once you know if it can get warm enough inside the house, and then you fill your toilet tank with the snow water And what you’re like? it was a whole. I felt like little house on the prairie, like one day, every day, we would wake up and i’d be like gather your buckets. Okay, kids, we’re gonna have an assembly line. Today i’m gonna try and get some more firewood. Like that’s how i feel.
You have a whole new appreciation for life in the pioneer days, right so now that we said this up for you, it really does go to show to you how much we live in a bubble and how much were spoiled.
You know it really does and it was awful, and i know that people lost their lives over it. i mean, people were found frozen in homes and i think that’s where the frustration was, as the electricity kept going off, i just kept thinking about these poor people that maybe didn’t have blankets or didn’t have a fireplace like we did, and how are they staying warm? and And there have been people found and so you know i just it angers me so much to think about that. but for us, as our family, once we got over the hump, i was like okay, as soon as we got electricity and water again, it was like okay, back to my to do this, like i have a long to do list and i missed a week of work. i had to cancel everything because i had no power. you know, i was just trying to flush my toilets with snow.
That was the the we. the goal for the week was keep everybody alive yes, it’s and pets alive, priorities, right. we had a hamster and a bunny that we didn’t know if we’re gonna make it. thankfully they did, but it was a whole situation, right. And so i remember that first day back at work and i was like okay, so think what i have water, think what i have electricity, the sun is out, the birds are chirping, you know, it’s almost seventy eighty degrees back in texas, again, life is normal. so let’s go, let’s hit the ground running. And i pick up my list and i look at my computer and i just was so depleted, so depleted, and i remember thinking to myself How many times do we run from crisis to crisis to crisis And we just never stop to like process what happened? And it was in that moment like I texted you and I was like listen, i’m canceling everything for today. I need a minute, like I need a minute because I am really struggling over here.
0:06:48 – Speaker 2
I think our longing for normalcy sometimes pushes us into a space where we skip the process of healing and walking through what we just went through, like mentally, and we think, okay, i want everything back to the way it was, but there’s a process to doing that, and I think we skip that. And then we end up wondering why we’re tired and irritable and not feeling well, and I think that’s what God was speaking into your spirit in that moment, like hold up, lady, don’t just jump right back in. There’s some things that need to happen.
0:07:21 – Speaker 1
Well, you know, I think our culture says pull yourself up by your bootstraps and push through and keep moving, And all of that is good, good stuff. I mean, of course we can’t get stuck and in wallow, Of course we can, But I think sometimes we do need to just stop and take it all in. And as I was thinking about this, God kind of showed me this in four steps that I wanted to share with you, and it really has helped me. And I know we’re talking about you know like me, emotionally recovering from this winter storm, but if you really think about it, these things can apply to you. Found your child watching pornography and you just don’t know what to do. Or you know you’re contacted by another mom in panic mode because a kid is struggling, And you know it’s just worth in taking all of this really difficult stuff all day long And we’re just running from crisis to crisis And it’s not good for us mentally.
0:08:15 – Speaker 2
Well, and I think this year, this past 12 months, has been a whole another level. The normal type of crises that we deal with have been escalated because of COVID and school changes and all of that, and so I think we’ve stayed in this heightened mode of anxiety and stress. And then you add on these other things and it’s just a lot, yeah.
0:08:36 – Speaker 1
I agree, kim. And so let me tell you these four steps. I want to get through them really quick. The first thing is just pause, just take a minute. You know, like on that first day back at work when I realized I needed to just breathe for a second. That’s okay And I know my, my internal dialogue was your week, you know, and myself talk, and I had to get over that because we’re all human and we all need time to just pause and take a minute for ourselves. That’s okay And it’s healthy.
0:09:09 – Speaker 2
It is, and I think a lot of times other people see it and then I mean, even I was like you need to take the week off and just breathe and take a minute. But we’re hard on ourselves, you know, a lot of times we’re willing to give that advice to others but not extend that grace to ourselves, and I think that’s an important step Pause, breathe, don’t jump right back in.
0:09:30 – Speaker 1
And that’s a word there, kim, because I do think I would have told you to take a break. Oh yeah, you know I have trouble telling myself to take a break. Mm-hmm, that’s a real word. Okay, number two process what happened on that Monday morning getting back to work, i kept thinking did we really just live through that? It was almost like my brain couldn’t catch up with what had just happened, and then I would turn on the news and hear the devastating stories of people dying And I just couldn’t even process it. You know that that a power grid failure caused all this.
0:10:01 – Speaker 2
Yeah, Yeah Well, and like you said before, whatever it is that has just happened, you know whether you found something on your kid’s phone or you’ve gone through a stressful situation at work. whatever it is, that processing step I think is so important mentally for you to walk through what happened and process it with someone else, whether it’s a friend or your spouse or a counselor. Saying it out loud and talking it through really helps our brain find resolution and closure and be able to move forward.
0:10:32 – Speaker 1
Well, and in this processing thing, you know, i think about mamas who I’ve talked to recently and we’re all struggling really, in the sense of we feel overwhelmed by parenting screens and parenting, all the things that come along with it. But if we can take this step and process it, then we can really define the problem Okay, what is happening and what do we have control over and what do we not have control over And then we can kind of actually take a logical inventory of what we need to do and how we need to address it, instead of just running on emotions and anger and frustration. And I think this is why this process step is so important. Oh, invaluable.
0:11:13 – Speaker 2
That’s a really great point.
0:11:15 – Speaker 1
So three is collect yourself. So we have one pause to process and three collect yourself. Now this is where where I feel like self care is really important. So for me, what did it look like on that Monday when I was like I got to take a day, i got to have a minute? What really fills my cup is reading scripture. I mean, for a week I wasn’t reading scripture because we had no electricity and I was just trying to survive, right, and so my whole mental health was kind of spiraling a little bit. I needed to read scripture. I went on a run. It was beautiful outside and it was just so nice to breathe in fresh air and see dear you know running in the background. I mean, it was just that’s what my soul needed. I sat on my back porch. You know just small little things that don’t cost money but that fill my cup and fill my soul.
0:12:08 – Speaker 2
And that looks different for everyone, and I think this is a great conversation to have with your spouse or with your family about what are those things that we can do easily, you know, not big things like go on a spa retreat. Things that you can do in a moment, that don’t necessarily cost money, that you don’t have to plan, that fill your cup immediately and have that as a list, whether you write it down physically or you can bring it up from memory quickly. You need to know what those are so you can tap into self care right when you need it. I actually was texting with a mom during all of this and one of the things hampering her from moving forward was she was still watching a lot of news and she was still plugged into social media, and she said, as soon as she turned all that off and just had some quiet space to process and collect herself, it really helped her greatly, and I find that with myself too, i have to unplug in order to process and move forward.
0:13:07 – Speaker 1
Yeah, you’ve got to pause, you’ve got to process and you’ve got to collect yourself mentally, emotionally, physically, all of those things. Um four, move forward in God’s strength. It is so important that we don’t get stuck in a pit. You know, we don’t want to be wallowing in self pity. We do have to move on.
And I heard a pastor years ago and he said something actually while I was going through a miscarriage. The grief was just overwhelming And I was listening to his sermon and he said there is no one who hasn’t gone through what you’ve gone through. And I go back to that often because you know, satan often wants me to feel like nobody understands. Oh yeah, nobody can even relate to everything that I am juggling right. And anytime I hear those words come out of my mouth, i immediately feel kind of selfish and I think about what that pastor said.
I know everyone’s circumstances are different, for sure, but at the same time we do have to remember like God knows what’s going on, he sees everything and he’s got us. And I think once we can put that logical perspective on it, we can move forward in a healthy way, not just in a push through and oh my gosh, this is awful kind of way, but more in a productive. All right, i feel better. Now let’s go conquer this task kind of thing and be obedient to, you know, doing the work for the Lord and just moving forward in what we’re called to do, in our jobs, in our homes and, you know, in our churches.
0:14:51 – Speaker 2
I think that’s really important and it’s real easy to get stuck and it’s real easy to feel like, oh my goodness, i just cannot move on. And I think if you find yourself in that space, then go back, go back to the pause, go back and process a little bit more, spend a little more time on self-care and collecting yourself and pray that God shows you when you are ready to move forward, because sometimes we go through those steps too quickly and it’s just not time And God needs to do a little work on our hearts.
0:15:21 – Speaker 1
You know, it’s so funny that you say that, Kim, because, like when I was collecting myself, i realized that this whole thing made me more aware of the fact of how not in control I am. You know, in a minute, life can change for all of us because of somebody’s failure, because of an attack, because of whatever right. I mean, we saw that with 9-11. The world changed in an instant with that. And I think this was just another like reality check that you know you’re only in control of so much And because of that reality, it created some anxiety in me.
I’m not going to lie, and as I was going back to scripture, you know, one of the things that I kept going back on as I was reflecting was, no matter what would have happened, even if it would have gotten worse for my family, like God wasn’t going to leave my side, even if in the moments of if we had a death in our family because of what happened last week, i know that there’s a promise of scripture that God’s not going to leave me. And I love Psalm 287 because I just think it speaks volumes. It says the Lord is my strength and shield. I like the strength part, but he is my strength and shield. I trust him with all my heart. He helps me and my heart is filled with joy. I burst out in songs of thanksgiving. I think that’s just such a great reminder that we may not be in control, but God is our strength And if we trust in him, that is peace and joy, and those thoughts will flood our mental and emotional health instead of all this fear and anxiety. That’s such a beautiful scripture.
0:17:05 – Speaker 2
It just makes me smile hearing it All right. So, thinking back on these four steps that God gave you, they truly are applicable to any kind of stressful situation Or trauma that you might be going through. Number one pause. Number two process what happened. Number three collect yourself. And number four move forward in God’s strength.
Transcribed by https://podium.page
