Have you ever felt like you're barely holding it all together—wondering if you're strong enough to keep going, or if maybe you should just let go of that dream God placed on your heart because it's starting to feel too heavy?
In this episode of Nourished to Bloom, I'm sharing what perseverance really looks like as a Christian woman—and I'll be honest, it's not about hustling harder or pushing through on your own. I'm diving into what I call holy perseverance—a Spirit-led kind of strength that comes from the gift of fortitude, not from self-reliance.
This one's especially for you if you've ever...
✨ Left a career and felt like you lost your identity ✨ Felt pressure to always be more or do more ✨ Wondered if your worth still holds up when your life doesn't match the world's version of success
I know those feelings because I've lived them.
I'm opening up about my own story—from being the overachiever and "most likely to succeed" to facing the hidden, quiet seasons of motherhood where the external applause faded and I felt like I had no idea who I was anymore. But God used those very moments to rebuild me—one grace-filled step at a time—and to reshape my understanding of what it really means to live with holy boldness.
🛡 In this episode, I'll walk you through: 🌟 How my identity got tangled up in performance—and what happened when it all unraveled 🌟 The difference between worldly perseverance and Spirit-filled fortitude 🌟 What it means to put on the armor of God (Ephesians 6!) and actually use it in daily life 🌟 Why fortitude isn't about surviving—it's about thriving in your calling 🌟 How to take the next right step—even when you don't feel strong, certain, or "ready"
If you've been feeling weary, burned out, or unsure if you can keep going… this is your reminder that you don't have to do it alone. God doesn't ask us to muscle through—He invites us to lean in and let Him strengthen us with His Spirit.
🎧 Tune in now to Episode 69 and discover how the gift of fortitude can change how you live—mind, body, and soul.
🌼 This week's challenge: Take a quiet moment and ask yourself: Am I living for the world or for the Lord? What's one small but bold step I can take to move toward the life God is calling me to?
👣 Maybe it's letting go of people-pleasing 🙏 Starting your day with prayer 💬 Saying "yes" to something that feels scary—but deeply right
You don't have to have it all figured out. You just have to take the next faithful step—with Him. 💛
Thanks for being here, friend. Take that bold next step, and I'll see you back here next week for more encouragement on your faith and wellness journey!
Join The Nourished to Bloom Community: www.community.karatrochta.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/karatrochta
The Nourished to Bloom Podcast Show Notes: www.podcast.karatrochta.com/shownotes
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If you've ever felt tired from trying to hold it all together, if
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you've ever doubted your place or your purpose, or even
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if you've been tempted to give up on something God has placed on your heart,
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this episode is for you. We are talking
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about what holy perseverance really looks
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like. Not hustle, not striving, but the kind of
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supernatural strength that can only come from the Holy
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Spirit and the gift of fortitude. I hope
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you'll join me as we continue our Summer with the Holy Spirit series where we're
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exploring the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit and how they show up in our
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everyday lives as Christian women. So grab your cup
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of coffee or. Take me along on your walk and let's really talk
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about it. What. What it means to live with this idea of holy
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boldness, being able to stand strong in your identity
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and keep showing up for God even. Even when the
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world is just trying to weigh you down. Welcome
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to the Nourish to Bloom podcast where your faith meets your health.
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I'm your host, Kara Trochta, a registered dietitian and certified
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Catholic coach, and I'm here to help you cultivate a deeper connection with your
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body, your spirit, and the nourishment that sustains them both.
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In a world filled with noise and confusion about food,
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health and body image, this podcast offers truth and healing from
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a Christ centered perspective. Together, we'll untangle the deep
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roots of diet culture and discover what it means to truly
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care for ourselves through joyful nourishment of mind,
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body and soul. We're here to dive into the transformative power
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of intuitive eating coupled with the rich teachings of our Christian faith.
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With every episode, I'll be cheering you on, offering insights,
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inspiration and practical tools to help you heal your
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relationship with food and embrace the beauty of your body as
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a temple of the Holy Spirit with confidence and
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courage that can only be found in Christ.
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Join me as we journey together towards a more holistic approach to wellness,
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one that honors the wisdom of your body as God's creation,
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the teachings of our faith, and the unique purpose you're called to
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fulfill. You were made to bloom,
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to come into full beauty and health in order to bear good fruit
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for the Lord with your life. So if you're ready to nourish your body,
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feed your soul and bloom into the best version of yourself, then
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you're in the right place. And I'm so happy you're here.
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Welcome to Nourish to Bloom, where every day is a sacred
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invitation to thrive. Hey there.
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Welcome back to the Nourish to Bloom podcast. So happy to be spending
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this time with you during your week. I hope that
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you are off to a great start for your week as we
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are celebrating the 249th birthday of
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the United States of America. And so I hope that as your week
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continues, that you have a blessed and safe Fourth of
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July. But for now, we're going to
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concentrate on our Summer with the Holy Spirit series and
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talk about the Gift of the Holy Spirit of Fortitude.
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Now, I will be the first to admit that fortitude is the gift
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that I probably feel like I need the most in my life.
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I don't always feel brave. As I've
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gotten older, I tend to have maybe some more insecurities
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than I did when I was younger. I don't always feel
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strong or sure I can question myself more than I
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used to. And perseverance, that
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is a hundred percent not my natural default, especially
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when things tend to get uncomfortable or unclear.
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But over, gosh, probably the last five
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or so years, God has really been reshaping my
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understanding of fortitude and even what it means to
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persevere and all of this in ways that have
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radically changed my life. And so that's why I'm
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so excited to kind of talk to you about fortitude this week and
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share a little bit of exactly how the gift of
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fortitude has shown up in my life and allowed me to grow
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in perseverance in a very different way
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as I'm, you know, getting closer to 40 than what life
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looked like when I was in my 20s and how it's really
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been a gift that I didn't really know that I
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needed. And looking back, I can fully admit it
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wasn't a gift of the Holy Spirit that I asked for asked
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for. But God, in all of his goodness and glory,
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recognized that it was something that I really needed in my life. And I'm so
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grateful that he poured this gift out upon
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me because I wasn't always this way.
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I didn't feel like I always had these insecurities or was unsure
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of myself because growing up I was
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that overachiever. I was the people pleaser. I
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checked all of the boxes. You know that list, right?
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Make good grades, be involved in extracurricular activities,
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go to a good college, get a job, get married, buy the
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house, have the kids. And I really thought that
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that's what success looked like. I really thought
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that I had it all figured out, that I checked every
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box and I really had this desire to be seen as someone who
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had it all together it was this image that I wanted to
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portray to everyone around me. And I can still
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remember being voted most likely to succeed in high school.
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And at the time, really felt like a compliment.
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It felt like a challenge. It felt like people looked at me and said,
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oh, Cara is going to have it all figured out,
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right? But now I can honestly say sometimes
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it feels like it was the worst thing that could have happened to me because
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it really planted this seed that my
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worth was really wrapped up in performance, that my
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worth was really. And my happiness and all
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sorts of things was wrapped up in how people perceived
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my success and how people perceived how I was living my life.
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And that if I just kept doing all the quote, unquote right
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things, then life would unfold exactly the way that I
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wanted it to, right? The way that the world said, if you do all of
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these things, if you check all of these boxes, then you've made
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it right. You, you'll be happy, you'll be successful,
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you'll be worthy, all of those things. But then, as it usually does,
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like real life happens, we started a family
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and I stepped away from my career to stay home with our
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children. And it was a hundred percent the right decision.
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But suddenly it's like all of those external
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markers of success disappeared. The
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titles, the paycheck, the accolades, the productivity,
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right? There isn't someone who walks around your house and pats you on the
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back and says, like, great job for being able to handle that toddler
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tantrum, or, you know, you changed that diaper in
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record time, right? That all, all the things
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that marked success just went away. And
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so in so many ways, I felt like I had kind of lost myself. I
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didn't know who I was. In that phase of life, I wrestled
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a lot with uncertainty and resentment, like I
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wasn't just doing enough anymore. And
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I loved my kids deeply, and I have zero regrets staying
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home. But I also battled this. This
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pressure to be more, to prove
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that I still had it, that I was still worthy, that I was still
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successful. And it's really, at
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that point when this tower of worldly success
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started crumbling, I didn't really know who I was
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or what I was really supposed to be doing. But
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thankfully, God and in all the mysterious ways that he
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works, he used this as an opportunity to
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rebuild me. It was like, I look back and it was beautiful. It's like
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all of these things needed to happen in order for that
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invitation for the Lord to come in and work in my life. Because
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prior to that, I was so transfixed and so
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Motivated by what the world said I should do, that
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I didn't really have room to
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think about or invite God into whatever it was he was
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asking me to do. But he began rebuilding me
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slowly, intentionally, and honestly, in a lot
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of some really unexpected ways. And I know I've told
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the story before, but I stumbled upon intuitive eating through
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a Black Friday online continuing education course,
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mostly because I needed the hours to keep my credential. And if
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I'm being honest, I secretly hoped it might help me lose a little bit
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of the baby weight. But what I didn't realize was that it would really become
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something that I can look back now and see as, like, a divine
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disruption, that when I took that course, it
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disrupted so much of
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my belief system, so much of how I thought
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the world work, of how it should
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work, all the things that we had been fed and
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conditioned for so much of our lives. So I really see it
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as like, this divine disruption in my life. It was the beginning of
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God doing much, much deeper work and not just healing my
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relationship with food and my body, but healing my
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identity, which is honestly what I really, really needed.
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And through that journey, God began to peel back these. These
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layers that I had, I had built. Like, I talk about this a
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lot with clients, talk about belief systems. It's like a Jenga
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tower. And there's all those little individual blocks that make up that
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Jenga Tower. And we have to take each one of those blocks
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out and we have to analyze it. We have to look at that
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thought or that belief and say, do I still believe this anymore?
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Is this what God would want me to believe? Is this thought
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divine? Right? And a lot of times we have to
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pull these out so that tower will fall so then we can
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rebuild the something that's even stronger, right?
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And so that's kind of what was happening is, is that I was taking out,
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I was taking this Jenga tower apart and. And having it crash,
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but allowing the Lord to rebuild something different. And he
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invited me into this process, into something deeper. And I really began
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to see just how much of my life had been built around
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what others thought of me, of what others thought I should be
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doing, what would make everybody else happy. What would have people look at me
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and say, kara, that was the exact right thing to do. You it
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all figured out instead of
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who he had called me to be, who he has created me to be.
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And it was a slow and sometimes
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painful process, but it really awakened something new in me.
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And I look back and I really like to call it this idea of holy
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boldness. It was this, this
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radical change to desire and to begin living
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my life in a radically different way. It sparked a deep
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desire to, to be different, to do different
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from what the world was saying and do more of what Christ
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wanted. It was like this, this fire had been lit
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inside me to want to live my life
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and in the way that God was calling me. And you
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know, if I'm also being honest for a lot of my life, and even
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I probably still wrestle with it, but the word
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perseverance is just a word that I really do not like
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it. It's just a word that sounds so forceful
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to me, like pushing through,
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striving, grinding it out. But when we talk about
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perseverance with our Christ centered perspective, that's
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not the kind of perseverance God asks from us. That's
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the world's version, right? This, this version
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of, you know, just pushing through,
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grinding it out, like never resting. Just
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give it your all, right? And really the world's version
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of perseverance is actually rooted in self reliance,
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that you can do it all and that it's all on you.
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Whereas God's version of perseverance is really rooted in
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relationship, right? That,
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that's where this gift of fortitude really steps in.
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It's not the hustle and grind kind of perseverance that the
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world tries to portray and put upon us. It's not
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the pull yourself up by your bootstraps approach that leaves so
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many of us burned out and bitter. But instead it's the
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Lord inviting us to rely on him, to walk with him,
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to receive his strength when ours runs out.
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And that's that heart of fortitude. It's really this idea
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of having this supernatural courage
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to keep going when you want to give up, to keep
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believing and having the faith that God is going to provide,
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that God is going to be there with you even if you don't know
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the way, how to do whatever it is that he's asking you.
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And it's not because you're strong enough. It's not because you
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know exactly what to do, but it's because he is strong enough and
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he knows the way. So fortitude as a gift of the Holy
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Spirit is not about pushing through in your own strength. It's
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really about relying on his strength. When you're tired,
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when you're ready to give up, when things feel
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hopeless, it's about staying faithful. When you feel
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lost or uncertain, it's about trusting that God
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is still at work. When everything feels hidden,
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it's less about powering through and really more about
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surrendering that you have
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enough courage to let God
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be God, right? Having the courage to be who
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God created you to be, to do what he created you to
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do, to be able to have this ability to
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overcome any fear and be willing to take
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risks as a follower of Jesus Christ, to want to
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100% live your life for the Lord.
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And when I was sitting and I was writing
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this podcast episode and I was thinking about fortitude,
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it's almost like. Like I said, it's a supernatural courage. It's
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almost like you are just supercharged, right? You
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just are filled. And it's this. I can't even describe what
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the feeling feels like in your body, but it's just like you almost just have
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this undeniable strength that you are going to,
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like, run through walls in whatever it is that you're asked to. And you
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don't know how you're even capable of doing this, right?
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But when I thought about fortitude and I kept thinking about this, I really
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kept having this image of armor, right? That fortitude
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gives us that strength to not let the outside
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world beat us down, to not let the outside world get to us, right? So
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it's almost like this internal strength. And so I kept thinking about it being
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like armor. And when we look at
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what the world perceives as armor, right?
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The world teaches us to armor up with productivity, with
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certain appearances, with applause, with
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recognition. But the word of God calls
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us to something else. And in
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Ephesians 6, it tells us to put on the armor
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of God. And when we look at this, the armor of God is the
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belt of truth, which is reminding us who we really are
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in Christ. It's the breastplate of
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righteousness, guarding our hearts with integrity and grace.
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It's the shoes of peace, helping us walk steadily, even
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on rough terrain. It's the shield of faith, being
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able to deflect lies, doubts and accusations,
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the helmet of salvation, protecting our minds
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from lies, fear and despair, and the sword of the
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Spirit, the word of God, which empowers us to stand
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strong in truth, right? So we are called
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to put on the armor of God. And the ways that we can
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kind of practically put on this armor is things
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like having a holy headspace, being able to have
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mindset work to help you identify lies from the
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enemy, to really,
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like I said, create that holy headspace where you are able to recognize
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God's truth and lies of the enemy and be better
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able to inform your free will with what God's truth is.
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It's about having an identity deeply rooted in Christ. It's
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having a strong prayer life, participation in the sacraments,
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and then knowing your unique mission. And these are all ways
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that we can practically work on suiting
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up with the armor of God. But it's that gift of
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fortitude that allows us to wear this armor,
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to not just believe in it, but to use it. Right?
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So it's. When we talk about this, this life of living
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for the Lord, it's a combination. It's a. It's collaboration and it's
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co creating with things that we do, the way that we live
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our lives, the choices that we make, the tools that we have, the
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practicality of this, along with God's
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grace. And that's what allows us to step out in
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that holy boldness, right? So this armor of God is
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that combination of us doing these things to suit up daily
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with the armor of God and then having that gift of
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fortitude be an internal armor for us to
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use this armor so we can step out in holy
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boldness. It gives us that holy grit to keep showing up
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in. Even then the world says it's not enough. It gives us
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the. The what gives us
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that strength that we need to not let the world
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bring us down. Right? But to keep taking the next step and the next step
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and the next step that the Lord is inviting us to. Right?
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I mentioned earlier in the podcast that I had battled with this pressure
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to be more, and now there's.
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It's very different. When the Lord did this work where it was like this
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invitation, this nudge, this kind
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of restlessness to do more, to
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know that he created me to do more. Right? And
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that's really how that gift of fortitude has shown up in my life.
00:19:17
To be able to step out in holy boldness and share a
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message that's radically different about nutrition and wellness
00:19:24
and body image than what the world is saying. To be able to step out
00:19:28
in holy boldness and help more women be able to
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have a identity rooted in Christ and be able to
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discover their unique mission and purpose,
00:19:40
right? So if you're in a season where you feel like you
00:19:44
maybe don't know who you are, you've lost yourself. If you
00:19:47
are struggling with what success really means anymore,
00:19:51
if you're tired of trying to constantly
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meet society's ever changing
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status and steps and process
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and all these ideals because they're constantly changing.
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If you feel like you're showing up every day but you're still falling
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short, I want you to take heart that God is with
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you. And that the Holy Spirit wants to pour out this
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gift of fortitude over you right now
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to give you that courage to overcome any of
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your fear so you can boldly live for the Lord. And you
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don't have to do it alone. And you don't have to do it perfectly.
00:20:33
You just have to take the next right step.
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And maybe that's taking a moment to evaluate what your life
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looks like. Are you living for the world? Are you living for the Lord?
00:20:45
And what's the first step that you can take to start that shift
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away from what the world is calling you to do
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and move closer to what the Lord is calling you to do to be able
00:20:56
to step out in that holy boldness? Thank you
00:21:00
so much for joining me on today's episode of the Nourish to Bloom
00:21:04
podcast. If this has resonated with you or you know someone
00:21:08
who else who needs to hear the message about stepping out in
00:21:11
holy boldness, please share the podcast. And
00:21:15
like I said, I hope you you have a beautiful and blessed week, a safe
00:21:19
Fourth of July. And remember, beauty held is the seed,
00:21:23
beauty shared is the flower. It is your time to bloom. I'll see
00:21:26
you right back here next week. Until then, take care and we'll talk soon.
00:21:30
Bye.