Hey friends! I'm so glad you're joining me for another heartfelt episode of Nourished to Bloom. Today we're diving into a question that whispers quietly but persistently in so many of our hearts:
What does it actually look like to say YES to God as you write the next chapter of your sacred story?
If you're in that "middle motherhood" space—not a new mom, not an empty nester, just somewhere beautifully in-between—you may feel a gentle nudge toward something more. A little more stillness. A little more curiosity. A lot more questions.
If you've ever wondered what God's invitation looks like in this season… and how your daily YES can shape the direction of your life… this episode is for you.
Today, we turn to Mary—the first disciple whose courageous fiat, her "let it be done," literally changed salvation history. She wasn't superhuman. She was a real woman, living a real life, with real fears and unknowns. Yet her YES opened the door for God's plan to unfold.
And here's the beautiful truth: your YES matters too. Right here. Right now. In the holy in-between you're living.
✨ In This Episode, We Explore:
- Why Mary's story isn't just for Advent—it's a blueprint for every woman navigating transitions, restlessness, or identity shifts.
- What "fiat" really means and why it's far from a passive yes.
- How God's invitations rarely show up when life is neat and organized—but instead arrive in the messy middle.
- Why your next YES might be small and unseen… or bold and life-changing.
- How every surrendered YES becomes part of God's bigger story.
- The sacred meaning behind the word "BEHOLD" and how it teaches us to notice God doing something new.
- A comforting reminder: You don't need the whole story to say yes to the next step. God simply asks for openness, honesty, and attentiveness.
🌟 Ready to Discern Your Next Yes?
If today's conversation stirred something in you, don't miss these next steps to help you listen deeply, reflect intentionally, and step into your next chapter with peace—not pressure.
Writing the Next Chapter of Your Sacred Story A gentle, prayerful companion filled with prompts, reflections, and space to hear what the Lord is inviting you into.
🌿 Join the FREE Live Mini Retreat
December 10 at 11am Central (via Zoom!) A quiet, reflective space to hear God's voice, uncover the next yes in your story, and set Christ-centered intentions for the New Year. I can't wait to journey with you. 💛
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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So last week we started exploring what it means to
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write the next chapter of your sacred story. Especially
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as a woman in that middle motherhood
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space. You're not a brand new mom anymore. You're not quite an
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empty nester. You're just kind of right here in the middle
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of your life. You have a little more space, maybe a little more
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time, a little more silence. And it's bringing up
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a lot more questions. And so today we're going to
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continue that journey by looking at one woman who rewrote
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the entire story of salvation history with one
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simple, courageous word.
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Yes. Fiat.
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Let it be done. Yes, Lord, I'm
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yours. We're talking about Mary,
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but we could just as easily be talking about you. But
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we're talking about Mary as a real woman, just like you are in
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a real home, living a real life filled with
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real unknowns. A woman who felt maybe the same way
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you do. Fear, confusion.
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Disruption, change. And
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she still said yes. Her
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yes. Open the door for your yes.
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And so today, I want to help you see what that means for you
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as you begin writing this next chapter of your
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sacred story. Welcome to the Nourish
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to Bloom podcast where your faith meets your health. I'm your
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host, Kara Trachta, a registered dietitian and certified Catholic coach,
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and I'm here to help you cultivate a deeper connection with your body, your
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spirit, your and the nourishment that sustains them both. In
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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 of
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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. Join
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me as we journey together towards a more holistic approach to wellness, one
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that honors the wisdom of your body as God's creation, the
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teachings of our faith, and the unique purpose you're called to fulfill.
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You were made to bloom, to come into
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full beauty and health in order to bear good fruit for the Lord with
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your life. So if you're ready to nourish your body, feed your soul,
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and bloom into the best version of yourself, then you're in the right place.
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And I'm so happy you're here. Welcome to Nourish
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to Bloom, where every day is a sacred invitation to
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thrive. Hey there. Welcome back to the Nourish to Bloom
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podcast. So happy to be spending some time here with
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you this week. I don't know about you,
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but I get to this time of year and it's so crazy.
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Like, we just finished Thanksgiving. Advent started and I feel like it
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came out of nowhere, even though it always comes like this.
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And then it's just like the next three weeks are just chaos. I
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was talking with my sister this morning and she's like, kara,
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we have three weeks of dress up things for school.
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I'm like, yeah, I know, it's kind of crazy, three weeks.
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And I said, you know, you don't have to say yes to all
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of them. And she's like, yeah, I know. But then sometimes I
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feel like I'm not a good mom if my kids aren't the ones who are
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dressed up. And I get that. Right. We kind of all feel that.
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And what's interesting is that we see start to say
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yes to kind of just everything
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and anything that would make us
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seem like we have it all together, that we are, you
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know, the perfect mom. Our kids want for nothing, like trying
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to save face. But it's so interesting because when we start to
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do this, we don't leave
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room, we don't leave energy, we don't leave
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emotional and mental space to be able to say
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yes to the really big important things
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that we are being called to say yes to.
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Have you ever thought about that? And so maybe
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you're like I was a few years ago. You have spent
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the last several years pouring everything into your kids. Whether
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you were home full time or you work from home, or you're
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juggling part time hours, maybe it's still kind
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of navigating this post pandemic landscape
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because you've left a job during that time or you
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realized that the career or whatever your degree
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was in before you had kids is not what you want to go back to
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or pursue. You're just kind of in this
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in between because
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your primary focus has been on making sure that everyone else is okay.
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But now you are maybe feeling something stirring inside
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of you. You're kind of noticing that you have these pockets of
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quiet moments where the house is still.
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And while in that moment it may seem like, oh yeah, let's binge watch
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Netflix because the kids are out of the house, or I can read a book
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or I can finally do this organization project. The reality is
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that that's really not fulfilling. And
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so these questions start to appear that really maybe you
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haven't had the time or the emotional capacity to
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ask up until this point. And
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that's that holy in between that you find yourself in.
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I want you to think about this. It's kind of a place where Mary was
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when Gabriel appeared. She was just living her
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ordinary life. She was engaged to Joseph,
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so I would imagine they were planning a wedding. She was
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faithful in the small things. I mean, we can think about it. You know, Gabriel
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appeared to her in her home, and she may have been doing the
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dishes, she may have been sweeping the dirt
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floor. She may have been mending something or cooking
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a meal. She wasn't expecting anything dramatic,
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and she definitely wasn't expecting this big divine
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assignment. And yet, in
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that ordinary right where she was in the middle of
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her home, it's exactly where God announced something
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new to her. And so
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I think the Lord may be doing the same thing for you.
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He's whispering your next chapter. When life is
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giving you this space to be able to hear him.
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Right. Maybe it's coming while you're folding the clothes.
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Maybe it's coming while you're cooking
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dinner. You just have this little nudge on your heart
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over and over again. And it's this invitation
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from the Lord to something new,
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to something maybe a little bit different. And
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so I want to take a moment, and I just. I love.
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I love this Advent time of year because I feel like it's
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such an invitation for us to slow down, to
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really be able to prepare and connect and grow deeper with the Lord.
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And it's so counterintuitive to what the world is inviting
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us to, the chaos and consumerism. And
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so I want to just read the
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Annunciation because it's such a beautiful thing to reflect on. There's
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so many beautiful words and
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encounters and exchanges that happen. So we're going to read Luke, chapter
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1 26:38. In the sixth month,
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the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named
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Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was
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Joseph of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary.
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And he came to her and said, hail, full of grace, the Lord is with
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you. But she was greatly troubled at the saying and
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considered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel
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said to her, do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found
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favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in
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your womb and bear A son. And you shall call his name Jesus.
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He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.
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And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and
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he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom
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there shall be no end. And Mary said to the angel,
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how can this be, since I have no husband? And the angel said to
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her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High
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will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called
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holy, the Son of God. And behold, your kinswoman Elizabeth, in
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her old age, has also conceived a son. And this is the sixth month
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with her who was called barren. For with
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God, nothing will be impossible. And Mary said,
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behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be done
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to me according to your word. And the angel departed from
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her.
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So beautiful, right? I think there's so many parts of it where we can,
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you know, it's not going to be the exact same, but where we can take
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the name Mary out and put your name in,
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right? The Lord says, behold, this will happen in your life.
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Nothing is impossible for God.
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We see that Mary was troubled and confused
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and unsure in this moment in
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time, but she was also open.
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Her yes wasn't passive and it wasn't blind and it
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wasn't effortless. Her yes was really this
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posture, a way of holding her life
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for God to present it to God, to say, let it be done
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to me according to your will. And I think
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it's something that we can really use
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as a blueprint as we write this next chapter.
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And Luke shows us this posture in kind of three steps.
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Step number one. Mary shows up to the moment.
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She listens. She's attentive. She
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doesn't run away from the discomfort or questions.
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Number two, she asks the honest question, how can this be?
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Your yes to God doesn't demand perfection.
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This next chapter doesn't mean that you have to have it figured out
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from point A to point B. But just
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being honest with the Lord and being open to him
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and knowing that the next thing doesn't have to be your forever
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thing. And then number three, she opens her
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hands. She surrenders, saying, let it
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be done to me according to your word.
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Now, if you think about it like this is the moment that
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changed everything. Where would we be
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without Mary's yes? Because her yes opened the door
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for Christ to enter the world. Her yes opened the door for
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redemption for you and for me. Her yes
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opens the door for your yes,
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your ability to say yes to God in your life right here, right
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now. And
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so I think it's just take a moment and think about that.
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God has a plan and he's, he knows this plan.
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He's known this plan from the beginning of creation for Mary's life,
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for your life, for my life. Mary was created at that
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moment in time specifically because God needed her to be
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in that moment. He needed her yes then, just like he
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created you for this very specific moment in history.
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And he needs your yes now.
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The yes in the small day to day things that we're doing, to do it
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with love and joy. The yes in
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the big things that are maybe scary and uncertain.
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But we can use Mary as, as this an
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example of how
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to say yes. And then what does this
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mean? What does your yes mean for your next chapter?
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So I want you to hear this clearly because I think we get it in
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our heads that everything has to be perfect. How many times have we
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said, well, someday I'll do this, or when this happens, I'll do this?
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But God's invitations rarely come when life is
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perfectly organized.
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They present themselves when you're in a transition, because transition
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means vulnerability. It means an openness.
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It allows for curiosity. It comes
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in moments of restlessness because the God, because the Lord
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is inviting you to say yes to something that will
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bring a sense of being settled.
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Like, have you thought about that? When you say yes to the Lord, when you
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have, you know, said yes in the
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day to day things, when you've said yes to the big things, it brings some
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certainty. It brings this sense of being settled. There's
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this calmness even in
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those, I don't know what's next moments,
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just like Mary, she didn't know,
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but she trusted. And so as you think about your next chapter,
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maybe what you're focusing on in the new year, instead of asking
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things like what do I want to accomplish? Or what should I fix or
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improve? Maybe it's a shift to asking, lord, what are you inviting
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me to? What's this next chapter you are trying
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to write in my life look like? What does
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saying yes look like for me right now? And you might
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find that your yes might be something small. Maybe it's
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and I say small, but this is really not small because it's kind of everything.
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But maybe it means growing in spiritual
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discipline. It might be something that's
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quiet, might be something that is not flashy or showy.
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It might be simply being open and creating space for him again.
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Or it might be something bigger. It may mean
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Serving in a ministry, creating a ministry, creating a business,
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going back to a career. It might mean
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rediscovering your identity or starting something new.
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Maybe it's letting something go or healing something that's been
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held too tightly for too long. But whatever it is, I
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want you to know that your yes matters and that your yes
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impacts the history of the kingdom of God,
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because your yes becomes part of God's story. And
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the world needs your yes. I want
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to go back to the Scripture and the
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Annunciation, because one of my favorite things in reading
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it is really digging into the word.
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Behold. Gabriel says to Mary,
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behold. And by the end of this
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encounter, Mary says, behold, back to
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God. And I
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want to just kind of dig into what behold means. Because her yes
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wasn't just acceptance. It was. It was attention. It
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was. It was yes, Lord, and. And saying
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behold, like, I agree, because behold can mean, like, pay
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attention. Don't miss this. God is doing something new.
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Look at this with wonder. And you're being
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invited, invited into your own behold moment in this
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next chapter. You've had these moments
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before, right? I think. I think this is this
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moment. And this next chapter is one of the most difficult ones to
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navigate, because when you were in high school and you were
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thinking about what's next, it was maybe college or career,
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but it was kind of like, you know, college, and you got
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into college and like, yes, Lord, I'm doing that.
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But you're. But your yes
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aligned, like, with what you wanted, right?
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And then maybe the next thing was marriage. And so your yes
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to that vocation aligned with what you wanted.
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And then maybe children came and your yes, Lord, I will
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be a mother also aligned with something you wanted.
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But I think we get to this point and because we might not know what's
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next, we might not know what we desire,
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we worry that our yes isn't going to align with what we
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want. Because I think many of us might not know what we
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want in this next chapter. But this is what this
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invitation is, that there's this. There's something God
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is doing in you right now, even if you don't fully understand
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it yet. And that's why I created
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the free guide writing your next chapter and the mini retreat to go
00:18:05
along with it that I'm hosting on December 10th. And it's really not
00:18:09
to add another task to the chaos
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and you're already full life, but it's really more of an invitation
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to help you slow down enough to notice
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what the Lord is inviting you to.
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Because the truth that Mary shows us is that God's plan for your life
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unfolds over a lifetime, not just a
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single afternoon, and that you don't need the whole
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story to say yes to the next step. I don't think Mary
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could have imagined what her whole story was going to be when she said yes
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in that moment. And your yes, big or small,
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is enough for what the Lord
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needs. He just needs you to say yes.
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So as you step into writing this next chapter, you don't
00:19:00
need to feel ready. You don't need to have all the
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clarity. You just need to be open, to be
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attentive and honest and be willing to
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say, lord, let it be done.
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I hope today's episode stirred something in you, maybe
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a new perspective to think about what this next chapter is
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going to look like, maybe what this, your New Year's
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resolution, will look like. And so if you felt the Holy
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Spirit nudging you, whispering something new, I want to invite you to
00:19:33
take a next step. The first one is to download the
00:19:37
free guide writing the next chapter of your sacred story.
00:19:41
It walks you through just different discernment questions. It gives you
00:19:45
space to really be able to sit in
00:19:49
quiet and reflection and hear what the Lord is inviting you to say
00:19:53
yes to. And then I invite you to join
00:19:57
me for the a free live mini retreat on
00:20:01
December 10th that's taking place online via Zoom
00:20:04
December 10th at 11am and it's going
00:20:08
deeper into writing this next chapter. It's
00:20:12
going to take what you've gotten from the guide and it's going to help you
00:20:15
kind of narrow it down and figure out next steps. And
00:20:18
so it's a guided, prayerful space to
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help you listen to the Lord, to help you further discern your yes,
00:20:26
maybe set some goals as you begin entering the New Year
00:20:30
from a place of intention and peace, not pressure.
00:20:35
So you can find the links to both of these, the free guide and the
00:20:38
registration for the the mini retreat in the show
00:20:41
description, click the links and go
00:20:45
and download it. It's an instant download and then sign up for the
00:20:48
registration. So just remember as you
00:20:52
navigate this Advent season, this time for preparation,
00:20:56
this time for growing closer to the Lord, your
00:21:00
story is sacred and your next chapter is already
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held in his hands. He is the divine
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author and he is really just asking you to
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pick up the pencil and write. And like Mary,
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your yes, even the smallest ones makes room for Christ to be
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born again in your life and
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in someone else's life. So thank you again for spending this time
00:21:27
with me. I pray that this episode continues to give you
00:21:30
courage and clarity and hope as you listen for God's invitation
00:21:34
in your life. Remember, beauty held is the same seed. Beauty shared is
00:21:38
the flower. It is your time to bloom. I hope you have a
00:21:41
beautiful and blessed week. And I can't wait to see you at the mini
00:21:45
retreat. So be sure to sign up. We'll talk soon. Bye.