Conversations With Cinthia

Do you find it easier to take care of others (or of your business, your ministry, your hobbies, your pets...) than to care for yourself?  Sometimes our own well-being falls to the bottom of the priority list, despite the fact that God has given us responsibility for self-care.  In the long run, neglecting or harming ourselves, however unintentionally, can sabotage all our other goals, too.  Cinthia looks at five areas for self-care: physical, social, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual.  Join Cinthia to look at what self-care really means and why it matters, as well as what you can practically do about it.

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Do you believe that God can do a new thing in your world, something only He can imagine?  How can you participate in that, or even stay out of the way?  Sometimes we have trouble perceiving and taking hold of what He's doing, but still He does it!  Cinthia has been discussing practices to help make this year the best it can possibly be.  This episode focuses on the fact that God is already at work in 2020 and that He wants us to go with Him in this.  What does it mean for us as mistake-making humans to learn how to cooperate with the creative miracles of God that are happening in us and all around us?  Despite continuing to heal and guide us through the fallout of the past, God is not stuck there.  He's doing something new.  Join Cinthia to explore how to join Him in the new things He's doing.

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How many years have you spent trying to control the external world so you can feel better inside?  Or majoring in things that should be minors?  If you've been with us for a while, you know that Cinthia loves to spend January preparing to make the new year great.  There will be lots of things in 2020 that we can't control, and they may not all be good.  But what if you were to make this the year when you change the way you relate to yourself and, by extension, to the world?  Join Cinthia in learning to make new beginnings any time we realize we need them; this is how we seize the day!

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Happy New Year!  Some of you may be greeting 2020 with excitement and fervor, while others may bring discouragement, loss, or longing for previous years.  Some go in with determination to meet resolutions with 100% faithfulness, while others avoid setting goals they could potentially fail to meet.  How can we approach 2020 with hope and helpful tools?  Cinthia explains that both resolutions and hindsight become destructive when we use them for self-condemnation, but that vision-casting and getting closure on the past can help us begin this new decade with direction, purpose, and freedom.  Do resolutions and new beginnings excite you but fizzle quickly mid-January?  Do you assume you won't make more progress this year than you have before now? Join Cinthia to look at what it means to cast vision and live each day as the beginning of a new year.  

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This time of year, we focus a lot on gifts --- buying them, wrapping them, giving them, receiving them -- and on Jesus, Who is God's Gift to the world.  Perhaps the enemy is hoping you'll miss another piece of the picture: the fact that you are a gift, one God meant to give to the world on an ongoing basis.  What would it mean to follow Jesus in living as a gift?  Would it involve sacrifice?  Joy?  God made you completely unique and intentionally placed you in this time and place.  Being the best version of yourself means allowing God to give through you in ways only He could have imagined!  Join Cinthia to explore what it means to live as a gift that keeps giving.

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Are you trying to motivate yourself to do something for which you have no real vision?  Motivation and inspiration can be an uphill battle when we try to work ourselves up to do something that doesn't fit, or when we keep sabotaging ourselves in other ways.  Learning to manage our own internal worlds frees us to pursue the passions God placed inside us.  Also, if you liked yesterday's quotes, you'll love the ones Cinthia shares in this episode, including one from Dr. Seuss!

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Do you believe in what you do?  Do you have faith in your ability to do it?  Cinthia explores what it means to live out the passions inside us wisely and what it takes to keep going.  Get ready to figure out what helps you and identify your own personal kryptonite when it comes to staying motivated and inspired.

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We all know forgiveness is important, but how does it really impact us when we carry grudges against others, ourselves, even God? Cinthia explores physical, emotional, and spiritual implications of withholding forgiveness.

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David, the psalmist, asked God to teach him to number his days correctly so that he could gain a heart of wisdom.  Today Cinthia shares something she does every year on her birthday and how the practice helps her value the time God gives her.  Minutes are precious; minutes are powerful.  History can change direction in a minute; lives can be forever altered.  Minutes are gifts.  Still, none of us (other than Jesus) uses all our minutes to the fullest.  What do we do with the minutes we regret, and how do we more fully utilize the minutes to come?

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There are times when life disintegrates into a living nightmare.  Lora Jones experienced this.  A pastor's wife and mother of two children, 11 and 14, Lora woke up in a car accident that took her husband, her son, and her daughter within a matter of hours.  In her new book, Song of A Wounded Heart, she describes the miraculous experience of hearing God sing to her, even as she was trapped in the van and gripping her husband's head in her hands.  She describes how, in the days and years to come, she clung to God but struggled with Him at the same time, grappling in agony with the tragic reality He had allowed.  If you have faced grief or feared it, if your dreams or loved ones have ever slipped away from you, if you have struggled to accept the gift of life when it seems so much less painful to die, Lora's story is one you have to hear.  

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