Sweet Grace For Your Journey

Episode 160-Why Worry?

What problem has you up at night fretting about how to fix it? What thoughts keep tumbling around and around in your head? What do you worry about? To me, the most debilitating thing about worry is it keeps me stuck in an endless cycle of rehashing and rehashing whatever problem I am thinking about. I hate being stuck so that makes me worry all the more.

If we had no problems, we’d never worry. So, worry starts with problems we are trying to solve but don’t have the solution to. However worrying about our problems, doesn’t get us anywhere. It only makes us feel worse and doesn’t change anything. It is the precursor to stress and other negative emotions. 

Worry can harm us mentally and physically. Mentally it can lead to anxiety, fear and depression. Physically it can elevate stress levels, lead to exhaustion and weakened immune systems. Maybe the biggest thing worry does to us is to keep us from living our lives as whole, healthy and happy people. When we are worrying, we are missing all the great things happening in our lives all around us.

Overcomers Academy link: https://TeresaShieldsParker.com/overcomers/

One-on-one coaching link: https://TeresaShieldsParker.com/one-on-one-freedom-coaching/

Episode 159-Pretentious Much?

Some emotions lead us places we don’t want to go. If a person has even a little bit of pride, likely it won’t stay small. If pride is not dealt with, it will introduce a bolder and more arrogant emotion called pretension into our lives. 

Pretension is what leads us into strongholds and then to addictions. In this episode I tell you what pretension is, why it is dangerous and how God wants us to counteract it.

You’ll also learn in eight steps how strongholds are created and how they are broken. 

Overcomers Academy link: https://teresashieldsparker.com/overcomers/

Episode 158-Ditch the Pride

Being prideful is not just an attitude. It’s also an emotion God hates. It’s the emotion that He wants us to ditch. The great thing about this is, He tells us exactly how to do that in His Word.

Pride is said to be the foundational emotion on which all other emotions which lead to sin are built. Pride says, “I’m number one, the best. No one can do things like I can.” It is this worship of self that God doesn’t like. It can lead to greater sins and is a huge emotion we must deal with on our journeys.

To acquiesce to another, whether God or another person, means we must accept their point of view or suggestion. This is something many have a hard time doing. Saying, “You’re right” and “I’m wrong,” just doesn’t seem to be in our vocabularies as humans or we think if we say that we will seem like wimps.

Learn the tools God gives us to counteract pride on this episode.

Overcomers Academy link: https://teresashieldsparker.com/overcomers/

Episode 157-Emotion and Spiritual Truths

Growing up I saw the adults in my family exhibiting emotions I never wanted to have. As a child I thought eating candy and cookies and other desserts helped keep my emotions in check. I didn’t realize that what it did was anesthetize all emotions, both good and bad. 

What I finally came to realize is that God gave us emotions to enable us to understand our lives a little better. He gave them to us to warn us when things are falling apart. I had to learn to embrace my emotions instead of eating them away. 

It’s vital that we realize that God has the spiritual truths we need to manage and understand our emotions. We should have the same heart-cry that David did in Psalms 139:14 TPT, “Give me an understanding heart so that I can passionately know and obey your truth.” God’s truth is what we should crave and long for, not the foods we think are helping us avoid emotions we don’t like. We must learn to see our emotions as helpers given to us by God.

Overcomers Academy Link: https://Teresashieldsparker.com/overcomers/

Episode 156-Invited to Life

I’ve been scared to death, but thankfully I have also been invited to life. I much prefer the latter. 

Halloween scared me to death when I was a kid. There were things I both loved about the holiday when I was a kid and things I hated. Of course, I loved the candy. But I hated the scary houses with spooky music and adults dressed in devil costumes. I braved it because I knew they gave out the big-size candy bars.

The origins of Halloween may have been Christian at one time, but to me the overemphasis today on evil costumes, scary stories and haunted houses has taken the day out of the realm of being Christian. 

Most of the time, though, even alternative Christian events still have what I consider the biggest reason we should be afraid of Halloween. They still give away lots and lots of candy.

In 2021 Americans were said to spend over $10.14 billion dollars on candy for Halloween. This year that’s expected to rise to $10.6 billion. That’s over 600 million pounds of candy given to the most vulnerable of us all—our children.

Sugar Addiction Quiz link:  https://teresashieldsparker.com/sugar-quiz/.

Episode 155-Hungry for the Right Thing

In 2017 I wrote a Bible study called Sweet Hunger, Developing an Appetite for God. It includes stories from the Bible that have to do with food and how they apply to helping us develop an appetite for God. 

This topic is important to all of us because we must be spiritually hungry to grow in God. Proverbs 18:15 TPT says it this way, “The spiritually hungry are always ready to learn more, for their hearts are eager to discover new truths.”

Recently I came upon several Biblical stories I left out of Sweet Hunger. 

As you listen to this episode, I’d like you to think about this question. What are you hungry for? No, not physically but spiritually.

Books Link: https://Teresashieldsparker.com/books/

Overcomers Academy Link: https://Teresashieldsparker.com/overcomers/

Episode 154-Wonderfully, Fearfully Made

Did you know that you are fearfully and wonderfully made by the God of the universe? He tells us that in Psalm 139:14 AMP. “I will give thanks and praise to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.”

In Psalm 139:14 I see six reasons why we were created in the first place and those reasons spell out the word, HIGHER: heart-felt, intentional, gifted, healthy, exceptional and respectful.

God created each of us with a HIGHER purpose than we even have knowledge of. It’s like His secret that He’s revealing to us a little at a time until we are able to wrap our brains around the whole enchilada. We’re talking about that today on the podcast.

Overcomers Academy Link: https://Teresashieldsparker.com/overcomers/

For free resources, check out the free tab at:  https://TeresaShieldsparker.com

Episode 153-Why God Hates Excuses

Why does God hate excuses? It's a real basic reason. It’s because He wants the best for us and many are going to be surprised when they expect to arrive at heaven only to not be allowed entrance. 

I am not saying this to scare you. I am saying it to make sure we are following what He wants us to do. I dearly love to read the tiny epistles of first, second and third John because they were penned when John was older and wiser. 

1 John 2:28 MSG tells us, “And now, Children, stay with Christ. Live deeply in Christ. Then we’ll be ready for Him when He appears, ready to receive Him with open arms, with no cause for red-faced guilt or lame excuses when He arrives.”

I don’t want to feel ashamed and guilty in Jesus’ presence. I want to run into His arms and bury my face in Him for all eternity. If we have accepted Christ as our Savior, are continually repenting of any sins we have done, are turning from them and wanting to follow God with every pore of our beings, we should be looking forward to the great eternity that awaits us. 

If we are scared about His return then we should have a conversation with Him sooner rather than later. He wants the best for you always.

Overcomers Academy link: https://teresashieldsparker.com/overcomers/.

Episode 152-God Doesn't Care if I'm Fat

God doesn’t care if I am fat. He wants me to enjoy my life. He wants me to live, love and be happy. Food makes me happy so I’m just doing what He wants me to do. There are things in this excuse that are true and things that are false. This is true of every excuse and it’s why we make excuses to begin with. They are pretty little lies filled with stuff that makes us think we are doing the right things when we aren’t.

While it is true that God really doesn’t look on our outward appearance, He does care about our health. When I weighed over 430 pounds God still loved me but He was very concerned about me. He knew I was unhealthy and going downhill fast. Many I know, in my family and among friends, have died of heart issues. A heart issue was the thing that caused the cardiac surgeon to stamp an expiration date on my body and that hurt really badly. He gave me five years to live if I didn’t lose weight and keep it off. 

That’s the bad news. The good news is that was 22 years ago. By changing what I ate and still eat, I extended my life by 17 years and counting. 

When God sees us, He sees our potential. He also sees the real probability for us to ruin our potential. I was doing a really good job of that. When we follow God He promises to help us with whatever is giving us a run for our money. For me that was the fact that my weight was causing me to be unhealthy.

I share how God turned that around for me and how He can do the same for you. 

Overcomers Academy link: https://Teresashieldsparker.com/overcomers/

One-on-One Coaching link: https://Teresashieldsparker.com/one-on-one-freedom-coaching/

Books link: https://Teresashieldsparker.com/books/

Episode 151- Don't Rock the Love Boat

Don’t rock the love boat is what a lot of wives are thinking when their husband brings them home candy like he always does. She’s afraid of telling him she is not eating sugar anymore because it might hurt his feelings.

How can she guard herself against indulging without hurting her husbands feelings. I give six steps towards that goal on this episode.

1. Have a Conversation and a Plan
2. Have Healthy Food You Can Eat
3. Change Your Mindset
4. Engage in Constant Renewal
5. Have Pleasure Without Sugar
6. Make a Choice

Under #5 I list 20 things you can do to get pleasure or calm your emotions without eating sugar. I promised to have the list here and in a post on my page, https://www.facebook.com/TeresaShieldsParker.

1. Orgasm with your loving and committed spouse
2. Consistent exercise of all types
3. Healthy meditation on the Word of God
4. Balance between moving and being still
5. Listening to Christian music
6. Prayer, silent and vocal
7. Listening to Christian podcasts on subjects you are interested in
8. Eating food so you can taste the real food
9. Cooking healthy foods
10. Dancing 
11. Walking in the garden or being outside
12. Listening to inspirational talks (and spiritual messages)
13. Enjoying a hobby you can get lost in
14. Reading a good book
15. Gardening
16. Arranging flowers
17. Being with people, puppies, kitties that you love
18. Journaling
19. Writing poetry, short stories and books
20. Arts and crafts, drawing, painting

Marigold Bars Link: https://www.marigoldbars.com/?ref=12. Choose one of the primal bars for the lowest sugar. 

Overcomers Academy Link: https://teresashieldsparker.com/overcomers/