Transcription of Cultivate Your Life Podcast Episode 022: 1 Simple Way to Grow Your Faith

Episode 022 of the Cultivate Your Life Podcast was released on July 17th, 2019. Listen here!

Lara: Growing your faith can feel complicated. Does reading the Bible intimidate you? Maybe you’ve tried before and you felt completely overwhelmed. You’re not really sure where to start. You’re worried that you’re not going to understand it because, okay, you don’t have a degree in theology and it’s a really big book. I have one unique and effective thing you can do today to finally get into the Bible and really grow your faith. No perfection required. Let’s talk.

Lara: You know all those things you’ve always wanted to do? You should go do them. The things that last longer than you. The things that run deeper and are more thrilling than skydiving. The things that make you come alive. Welcome to the Cultivate your Life podcast where each week we talk about how to uncover what matters to you in the big picture and start acting like it today. Whether you’re feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or in need of some refreshing truth today I’m Lara and you are in the right place. Let’s cultivate what matters together.

Lara: Okay, so before we kick off our time together today, I have some very important messages to deliver. Now, I don’t know if you had this when you were in elementary school, but back in the day in elementary school for me, you could pay a dime on Valentine’s Day and some other kid from another class would deliver a Valentine to one of your friends. Now they probably don’t do this anymore, but I just always thought it was so cool. So you could pay a dime to this person and they would run off to another class and burst in and it was like a singing telegram. So in the spirit of singing telegrams and classroom messages, love notes in lunchboxes, I thought we’d just have a little fun today just because.

Lara: I have some virtual love notes. So Sam. Sam is eight years old. Hey Buddy, your mom Gail, she’s pretty awesome and she told me that you love listening to the podcast. I just think that’s so cool. She told me that you said my voice is really soothing and maybe you’re in the same camp as a few other friends here who say I sometimes like Bob Ross. I really don’t know about that. He beats me by a hundred points in the soothing voice department. But anyway, Sam, you rock, buddy. Because your mom, she says that you’re doing a great job vacuuming. This must be a spiritual gift. I also, Sam, really enjoy a good vacuuming session. I know how you feel bud.

Lara: And Ellie, your mom says you’re doing a really great chap reading so high fives. Oliver and Sam, your mom, Ginger, she wanted me to tell you that you are doing a great job showing kindness. I wish I could actually right now the be with both of you and look in the eyes and I don’t know … Give you a lollipops or something mom approved. I don’t know. But that is just so awesome. Way to go guys.

Lara: All right, Sadie and Sage, your mom Sara really likes alliteration with your beautiful names, and she also really loves that you are so kind to each other and I’m proud of you too. So high fives for kindness. Oliver, Sam, Sadie and Sage. You guys need to be buddies. The kindness crew is in the house.

Lara: Madeline and Avery, you’re awesome. Your mom said that you are helping her a ton this summer. That’s pretty cool. I thinking being a good helper is one of the best things that any of us can be no matter our age and I hear you guys got straight A’s in school this last year. I hope you’re doing extra cool summer fun for that. That is just awesome.

Lara: Okay, I have a personal note to send out to Casey and Matt. Happy anniversary guys. Today’s your anniversary! And Meg and Sam too, happy anniversary you love birds. I just love you guys so much.

Lara: Okay. Lilly, your mom Sydney, she put a little special message in my ear. She said that you may or may not have a birthday tomorrow and that might deserve a little fun in just a second. But before we get to that, you have some birthday buddies this week. So a happy birthday to my dear friend Randy Smith. If you have ever watched the video on Lara casey.com/book you’ve seen my dear friend Randy in the kitchen with me. I love Randy so much and Evee, happy 12th birthday. I hope I got your name right. If I didn’t, you can pronounce my name wrong too, and it’ll be okay.E-thee, Ee-vee, either way your name is beautiful. Happy 12 years of life from your awesome Mama Yolanda. I hear that you are also an amazing artist.

Lara: So guys, there’s so much to celebrate today. So many good things, so many sweet messages. My kiddos wanted to sing Happy Birthday to anybody that has a birthday today, including Lilly, Randy and Ee-vee, or Evie, whichever it may be. You deserve to be celebrated today. Are you ready for a little fun from my kiddos? Here we go.

Grace: Happy birthday to Evee, Lilly, and Randy.

Josh: [crosstalk 00:06:06] Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, cha cha cha.

Lara: Oh, but there’s more. Julie. She has a message for sister Jessica. Jessica, you are navigating motherhood with grace, faith, and joy and your amazing sister, who I work alongside every single day and I love her also very much, she said that she loves you and she looks up to you so much.

Lara: We could just do this all day together because a little kindness, a little encouragement, you never know how your words are going to affect somebody else’s life. You never know. A kind word spoken can change the course of someone’s direction forever, so right now, if you did not get your special message here live on the podcast, I encourage you to pause the podcast right now and send it. Send that text message, send that email, send that carrier pigeon, get some balloons and confetti out. Just go out and celebrate the people you’ve got right in front of you. You never know how it’s going to change their lives for the better.

Lara: All right, we’ve talked birthdays and celebrations. Now let’s talk some Bible. So it is the second half of 2019. Here we are in July right now and 2020 is coming and you’re looking back at this year and okay, you’re feeling a little blah about some things. Just a few things, maybe. Maybe a lot of things. But one of those things is that you wish you had been more consistent in your faith. Maybe it’s in Bible reading or prayer or, like me, in trusting God over your worries.

Lara: You want a fresh start no matter what day of the year it is. You want it. You want a fresh start with your faith now so that at the end of this year, you know you lived it well for the things that matter. You’re craving something deeper than what’s just on the surface. Something deeper than just getting your to do’s done every day and many times those don’t really all get done and you, at the end of the day,[ are feeling like the only thing that’s done.

Lara: Faith, however, can feel complicated with the rest of life swirling around you. One of my biggest goals every year is to grow my faith and specifically it means reading what I think is the best life, motherhood, goal-setting, business relationships book of all time. The Bible.

Lara: Now we’re reading and praying through the Bible is my number one goal and little by little I have made some progress. It has not all been perfect this year. But it didn’t need to be. I’ve learned a thing or two along the way. I’ve done the Bible in a year, I’m on my third time now. Yeah. I’ve done it twice before and I’m doing the Old Testament only this year. Just taking it a little slower than I have before. But I have learned a thing or two along the way, especially in the times I’ve been tempted to jump ship or skip a day or 10.

Lara: Have you felt that? Whether it’s reading the whole Bible or just reading a chapter, have you been tempted to jump ship? Let me just stop right here. If I would have heard someone’s goal of reading the whole Bible on someone else’s podcast several years ago, I would’ve felt so far away from that. I had trouble staying focused on even a single verse of the Bible each day, much less reading the entire thing. Like what? Does the idea of reading the Bible, even just little bits at a time intimidate you? Because I know that feeling so well. Perhaps you’ve tried before. You started a plan and you lost interest. It got too complex. You landed somewhere in the middle of Job and you’re like, “What in the world is happening in this thing?”

Lara: So now you’re here and you really want to grow your faith, but you’re just not sure how to do that and finally follow through. Maybe you’re worried, like I was, that you won’t get anything out of the time you put in because it’s such a big, complicated book, right? Let me introduce you to something for us, for you and me. The people that feel like they don’t have a degree in theology. And if you do, this will still help you. Okay. I know some of you, you are very well versed in all the verses. But maybe you’re like me and you feel like I don’t know it all. I don’t have it all together. My faith has been not a straight path, but more of a zig zag path. Has that been the same for you? Or maybe, maybe, this is all brand new to you and that is great too. You’re in the right place.

Lara: For a long time I would think to myself, Maybe I’m not good enough or maybe I’m not reading my Bible enough or mature enough as a believer. Maybe. Maybe I’ve just been too bad. And that’s why I’m not getting this. I’ve made too many mistakes. I’ve messed up too much. Maybe God isn’t listening.

Lara: I felt like I didn’t get it and I never would. But, but there’s a great but here. That sounded funny. There’s a great butt here. Yeah. Yep. We’re going to edit that out. All right. Here we go. Back to the Bible. From great butts to Bible. Let’s get back on track.

Lara: Maybe we won’t edit this out. Because you know sometimes you just need a laugh. But really there is actually a great … I’m going to say alternative. There’s a great alternative here. God showed me that faith is not about my ability to perform, to do it perfectly. I don’t and you don’t.

Lara: We don’t have to be perfect to have faith, I don’t have to have grown up in church, I didn’t, or have done all the right things, didn’t do that either, or have quiet time every day, nine is pretty loud, to have faith.

Lara: This is one of the reasons why the good news to me is so good because we don’t really deserve any connection to God, but he gives it to us anyway. Sometimes I think I actually, a lot of the time I think, I stop and I think, “Lord, why me? Why did you choose me to believe in you? Why?” And maybe you’re feeling the same way. You feel like I don’t know where to start. I don’t deserve this. I’ve been too bad.

Lara: There’s really good news. Maybe you have no idea where to begin with faith and it all feels overwhelming. Maybe you’ve been at this faith thing for years, but you feel like something is missing or maybe things are great and you just want to keep that momentum going. Well wherever you are, this one simple and powerful practice that I’m going to share with you today will change everything.

Lara: I have three little kiddos. They’re actually not that little anymore. I feel like our grocery bill climbs by the second, but with three smaller children under the same roof as my business with work and marriage, I’m sure both of us could list a whole host of things that we are responsible for during the day.

Lara: With so many things, the one thing that has helped me to get into the Bible is the simple act of writing out scripture. Yup. That’s it. Writing out the actual words of the Bible, just copying them. You can try it yourself today with your own journal, a scrap piece of paper, or you can get one of our brand new Write The Word journals that just launched today. No matter what path you choose though, the best part is you’re going to be getting into the Bible and it’s so simple and it’s so effective.

Lara: I’m going to give you three pieces of insight that are going to help you to write out scripture and to keep it simple and to teach you how it can change your faith. So number one, writing out the word, it means that there’s no fluff. So there’s no videos. I’m not saying videos are bad. You know I like a good video. There are no videos, no devotionals, no Bible studies, no study guides. All those things are fantastic tools. But for me, what has been most effective in certain seasons of my life is just letting the words speak for itself. And I think that that, maybe you felt this way too, that can be super intimidating. We want the guides, we want the videos because we feel like we need someone to just guide us there. And you know what? The Lord can also do that.

Lara: He can also do that for you verse by verse. So try it. Let the word speak for itself. Even if you don’t know the whole story around the verse, even if you don’t know everything about it, just start with the word. Just the pure word. Psalm 1:19-105 says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet. And a light to my path.” I need a good lamp for my feet and a light to my path. You need that too? Cool.

Lara: So number one is just get into the word. Writing the word helps you to get into the word, directly in there, no fluff. Number two, you know I love this one. Is the power of handwriting makes you do something about what you wrote. I’ve been doing a lot of research this year on the power of handwriting.

Lara: Your goals for instance, and researchers Pam Mueller of Princeton University and Daniel Oppenheimer of UCLA recently published a paper showing that digitally typing information makes people process that information more shallowly. So let’s put that in layman’s terms. That means that doing things on an iPad, on a phone, typing it, means it doesn’t really sink in very well as opposed to paper. Goal setters’ brains are working to digest that information, to summarize that information and capture the heart of the information.

Lara: To me, that’s the most important point is that when you write something down, your brain is already starting to summarize it and take it in and memorize it. You’re capturing the heart of what you wrote. This in turn promotes understanding and retention, which leads to action. So when you write the word of God in your own messy handwriting, something happens to your brain. You start making decisions about what you’re writing as opposed to typing it digitally or just reading it and then forgetting it five seconds later.

Lara: When you write scripture, it gets into your heart. No distractions. It’s just you, the word, and your pen and paper. And that’s one reason why I love it so much because I can get easily distracted and that’s why I started doing it. At the time I had two brand new babies and a growing business, two businesses. We had still had Southern Weddings at the time and I felt so distracted during the time that I was trying to connect with God. I really wanted it. I wanted to know the Bible more and yet I could not get my brain to focus on a single sentence of the Bible without my head going off to, “Who am I feeding next?” Which is very understandable and many seasons of life, but just give it a try. See if the act of writing the word in your own messy handwriting doesn’t change something for you.

Lara: Literally writing God’s word has been faith transforming for me and only takes a few moments to make a big impact on your faith. Little by little, word by word, your faith will grow. I think that all of us can believe this, at some time we believe that we have to have full knowledge of God and a perfect track record and that we have to be spending all of our day reading the Bible and doing nothing else in order to have a faith. And that’s not true.

Lara: Little by little, word by word, your faith will grow. Another Psalm 1:19 favorite is, “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” I have hidden your word in my heart. Researchers just told us how to do that in a better way. I love that. The intersection of research and scripture, it’s good stuff. So number one, get into the word .no fluff, just try it. Number two, use the power of your messy handwriting and then it’s gonna make you do something about what you wrote. You’re going to capture the heart of that information just in the act of writing it. Number three, little by little, word by word, it adds up. Where do you want to be when you’re 80?

Lara: I have a story for you. So there is a handwriting quote that I wrote many years ago, seven and a half years ago, right after Grace was born and I’ve told a little bit of this story before that I felt super frustrated at that time. I felt all the things that you and I talked about in the beginning of our chat here together today. I felt like, “Man, I just messed up too much in my life. I’ve tried to read the Bible and I just don’t get it.”

Lara: I felt also a lot of comparison because I heard so many stories about my grandfather and my great aunt Rose and all these people in my family that, and Rose in particular, who would read the Bible every year and there was a story told at her home going celebration where the preacher said “Yes, she would come to me every year and tell me how much she grew more in love with scripture every year and that she would read the Bible through at least once a year.” And I thought, why can’t I do that?

Lara: I just wanted it, but I just couldn’t figure it out. So during that season of having Grace, brand new mom, I felt this frustration. It was like this wake up call of, “Wow, I’m responsible for caring for this little life. And more than anything, I want her to have a good example and me as a mom of what it looks like to live a life of faith. How am I going to do that, God?”

Lara: I just kept hearing, “Just read my word. That’s it. Just don’t make it complicated. Just read it. You don’t have to know everything about it. Just read it.” So one night, late in the kitchen, I wrote this down. You know all those things you’ve always wanted to do? You should go do them. Just don’t make it so complicated. Just go do it. And I was writing that about reading the Bible for the first time.

Lara: That’s what I wanted to do and I set out to do it and did I do it perfectly? No. I set out to do it in a year, ended up doing it in a year and a half really imperfectly, and I didn’t know everything about everything I read. But you better believe my faith grew. Little by little word by word, it added up. Where do you want to be when you’re 80?

Lara: I want to look back and know that I cultivated the hearts of our kids. I want to know that I did my very best to be a living example of the Bible for them and that also includes the imperfection and the saying, “I’m sorry.” And showing them my weakness and showing them how much I need God. I want that. And so in answering that question of where I want to be when I’m 80 it led me to step into the unknown and to step into something that felt super uncomfortable, that I felt imperfect in and I just kept going little by little, by little by little.

Lara: Have I convinced you yet to give this a try? It’s really so simple. You don’t even need all those research facts. Just know that I am not a Bible scholar. I’m just a girl whose life has been totally changed by real grace and if that sounds like something you want, the word has it. It does. Little by little verse by verse, I can sink into your soul and change you.

Lara: This is not in my notes. You ready for this? I just have to stop once again to acknowledge the fact that I am not the same person I used to be. It blows my mind. I’ve often wanted to, even just looking at the look in my face of 15 years ago or 10 years ago, I’ve often wanted to just pull up a picture and do a before and after. You know, people do those things for various things?

Lara: But you can see it. You can just see in my eyes how completely different my life is. In fact, okay, my friend Gina, hey G, she sent me a vox. You guys, Voxers back. Did you know that? It used to be a thing and then it wasn’t a thing, and now all my friends use it. But she sent me a message on Voxer and she said, “Lara, I just saw your recent hiking trip and I had to tell you, I can’t believe that’s the same you.” Gina’s known me for all these years. “I cannot believe how much God has changed your life.”

Lara: And I do not say this to toot my own horn because I did not do any of this. But you know what I did do? I did take small steps forward in his direction, and this might be your small step forward that changes everything for the course of your life. This might be it.

Lara: Matthew 4:4, “Jesus answered them and said, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Now as you hear that, don’t get any perfect pictures in your head. I’m just going to keep reigning us in. Just keep reigning us in. Because a lot of times I hear faith talk and my ears turn off. I’m like, “Yeah, no, I’m not going to be perfect at that.” I’m just going to remind you again, just like I’ve reminded myself for all these years, you don’t have to be perfect. You just don’t.

Lara: God doesn’t need you to be perfect ’cause you know what he does need? He just needs a willing heart. That’s it. He just needs your willing heart and I want to know are you willing to do something fun with me in August? I have an invitation for you. Are you willing to spend 31 days doing something super simple, writing out scripture, to change your faith? Maybe this year has not gone like you thought it would. You have tried to refresh and restart and reset and it’s just not happening. I can’t think of anything better than getting into the Bible to do it.

Lara: There’s nothing that’s going to change your life more than that, so I hereby cordially, with much joy and exultation and all the fancy words, invite you to join me to do the fresh faith challenge starting August 1st. Just go to freshfaithchallenge.com. It’s free. Sign up. This is going to help you to make the most of this second half of the year, no matter how it started. We are going to spend 30 days writing the word together.

Lara: So here are three easy ways you can sign up and tell your friends because this is a whole lot of fun with friends. We had a blast last time in January. It changed so many people’s lives and I met a lot of new friends too and that was really fun. So here are three simple steps to sign up for this. Number one, get on the list. We’re going to send you a fresh faith challenge kickoff email as we get closer to the starting line. So go to freshfaithchallenge.com

Lara: Number two, you get to choose how you are gonna write the word. You get to easy options. You can do it the DIY way or the convenient way. You can use your own scrap paper or a journal or whatever you have or get one of the brand new Write The Word journals. Each volume has preselected scriptures for you and it makes it super easy. We’ve basically taken all the guesswork out for you. You’re not going to have any questions. You just open it up and get to it.

Lara: I’m going to use the right the Write the Word garden edition that just launched today. I’m so pumped about it. If you want to join me, grab a copy of that volume and if you want to do this as a family, guess what? There’s a brand new Write the Word For Kids. So this is kind of a cool thing. We have a brand new Write the Word for Kids fruit of the spirit edition and there is a brand new adult Write the Word fruit of the spirit edition.

Lara: So what a cool way to step into the new school year and set a brand new rhythm and habit alongside your kiddos. Do that together. You really can’t choose wrong. We have eight new volumes, five of which have been totally redesigned and refreshed and three brand spanking new volumes that you’ve never seen before. They’re limited edition, but you really can’t choose wrong. Just choose one. It’s the word of God that you’re going to be writing. So it doesn’t really matter which one you choose.

Lara: And number three. So number one, get on that email list, freshfaithchallenge.com number two, get your Write the Word journal, and number three, join the cultivate your faith Facebook group. This is optional. If you don’t use Facebook, more power to you. But if you do, here’s a really cool space that is a life giving space. There’s so many women in there that can’t wait to meet you and I’m going to be in there too.

Lara: It was a ton of fun to do this in January and I’ve been begging the team to let us do it again. And here we are. I can’t wait to meet you and I really can’t think of a better way to start a new season ahead. I’m excited to dig in to the word with no fluff and cultivate our faith together ’cause you can keep feeling like faith is far too complicated and never cracked that Bible open. Or you can open those pages and find a flourishing life. So where do you start?

Lara: I want to give you a Bible verse to try writing out. We, in a couple episodes ago, we did the same verse together and I’m giving you the same verse again on purpose. Number one because maybe you missed it and number two because there is power in repetition. Try writing this verse out. Philippians 4:6-7.

Lara: “Do not be anxious about anything.” Ooh, you need those words? Let’s say that again. “Do not be anxious about anything but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God, and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” That’s Philippians 4:6-7.

Lara: So you can go onto bible.com, you can use the free youversion app for mobile devices, grab an actual physical Bible, open it up to Philippians 4:6-7, grab your scrap piece of paper, or if you have a Write the Word journal, use that right now. Just start now and write out that verse.

Lara: And now you know that no matter what your track record has been with faith or what experience you’ve had in the past, just keep it simple. Start somewhere. Start by writing out the actual words of God and see if using that messy handwriting doesn’t change you. Now you know that you don’t have to be perfect to have a flourishing faith. Now you know the power of handwriting, how it helps you to capture the heart of the information you’re writing and it helps you to stay distraction free so you can really focus on the words that you are reading and writing.

Lara: And now you have some verses to start with. A really simple start because you and I both know good things grow from small seeds planted. Write out Philippians 4:6-7 and watch your faith grow. If you want a way to write the word without any guesswork, get one of our new Write the Word journals cultivatewhatmatters.com. Write the Word journals get you right into the Bible with no fluff. It is super simple. You just do three things. You open up your Write the Word journal, you write out the preselected scripture, and you feel your faith grow. No perfection required.

Lara: Well, we had some fun together today. We learned about some simple ways to get into the word. No perfection required. We had some fun sending some really encouraging messages out to many of you and you guys are the best. You really are. Marissa, who I’ve worked alongside for almost 10 years now, she is in charge in our office of pulling some of your reviews from iTunes for me to read on the show and I have a really hard time choosing them because you guys are just so encouraging.

Lara: Miranda in Alaska. She said, “I have been wanting to write a review for a really long time.” She said, “After I listened to your first episode, I called my sister and I said, it’s like talking power sheets.” I just love that. She said, “I can hardly control my excitement. Seriously. Thank you Lara for the fun, the encouragement and the truth. I can’t imagine my life without you and listening and sharing your episodes is always a highlight of my week. You inspire me in so many ways in my life is much different now.”

Lara: So many other things. I always feel uncomfortable reading stuff about myself, but I appreciate all those thoughts. More so, I just thought it was cool that you said this is like talking power sheets. That’s neat and I can’t imagine my life without you either Miranda in Alaska. I’m sending love right back to you.

Lara: Vicster555. I love this one. Are you ready? She said that it’s actually Ari’s rapping at the end of the episodes that got her to leave a review. Yes, yes, yes, yes. She said, “So it’s your husband’s wrap at the end that got me to leave this review. Your story is amazing. I’ve been struggling and this podcast and Bible study has helped me immensely.” And you said you are recommending it to your friends. That is just awesome. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.

Lara: So friends, thank you. You’re very generous, seriously so generous, to take time to leave five star reviews on iTunes. This is just a joy for me every week to be here and plant seeds of faith in your life. And in turn you do the same in mine. And I want so many women to have this free encouragement and to know that they don’t have to be perfect to cultivate an intentional life.

Lara: Okay, breaking news to interrupt the closing of our episode. There are more love notes to pass on to various people and here they are. And my friend Amy Ray, hey friend, Brooklyn, you have an awesome mom and I’ve known her for so many years and she wants to tell you happy birthday. Happy Sixth Birthday, Brooklyn. Your mom says that she’s so proud of you for becoming the sweet girl that you are and I’m so proud of you for that too. I love you guys so much.

Lara: This is the sweetest message. So Katelyn has a message for Tyler. And Tyler, Caitlin wants to tell you that you are growing good things and she’s ready to meet your baby. You guys, congrats. I think there’s a baby on the way and that is really sweet.

Lara: Juliane, hey, hey girl. I actually don’t know you but I think I can say, hey, hey girl on this podcast, right? But Juliane, your actual real friend Christina, she is very grateful for you being such a thoughtful and encouraging friend.

Lara: And Gracie. Gracie, your mommy Carrie, she wants you to know that you are so precious and that she is blessed beyond measure for the gift God gave her in you.

Lara: Brooke wants to tell all the moms out there. You are doing a great job. I echo those words. Moms, you’re doing a great job and this is so sweet, Journey of Jess 29 on Instagram, she said, “To my four year old son Abe, I love your kind and gentle heart. Love you. Sweet boy.”

Lara: Ah, the best. Okay, Crystal, your sister Amber wants to tell you that she is so thankful for your friendship. Shout out to Mallory, who is Jenna’s prayer warrior and role model. Guys, this is cool. This is just neat to see a window into the people that matter most to you.

Lara: Well, I can’t help leave my own love note now. Sarah and Grace and Josh and my amazing, amazing husband who shall rap for us momentarily. You guys are the bees knees. You’re funny. We have a funny family and I’m really grateful to be your mommy and your wife.

Lara: That was fun. You know, sometimes I get a wild hair and I just feel like the world needs a little encouragement and like I said in my recent power sheets goals, I want to spread joy around like manure, encouraging young things to grow and there we go. Spreading manure like crazy.

Lara: But you know it’s true. It’s true. When you spread a little seed of joy, it does grow. It grows and grows and grows and the words we speak have power in people’s lives to change them for the better. But what’s even more powerful is the word of God that you plant in your soul, in the soil of your soul. It will grow and flourish not just in your life but in the lives of everyone around you.

Lara: You guys are the best and I hope that I get to meet you in person at Cultivate Your Year Live on December 9th. If you want more details on when tickets are going to open up again, you can go to cultivateyouryearlive.com. You can get all the show notes for this episode and many more cultivateyourlife.com and now a word from my husband.

Ari: Cultivate your life with my wife, Lara Casey Isaacson, we’re not quite done, and this is the outro you didn’t know. Now just don’t forget to rate it and review it. Rate it and review it. You can do it. You can tell your friends to listen in and subscribe to be notified when a new episode drops. Cultivate your life with my wife, Lara Casey. Is that okay, babe?