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For over 25 years Proverbs 31 Ministries' mission has been to intersect God's Word in the real, hard places we all struggle with. That's why we started this podcast. Every episode will feature a variety of teachings from president Lysa TerKeurst, staff members or friends of the ministry who can teach you something valuable from their vantage point. We hope that regardless of your age, background or stage of life, it's something you look forward to listening to each month!
Cailah Garcia: Hi, friends. Thanks for tuning into the Proverbs 31 Ministries podcast where we share biblical truth for. Any girl in any season. I'm your host Cailah Garcia, and I'm here today with my friend and co-host Kaley Olson. What's up girl?
Kaley Olson: Hey Cailah.
Cailah Garcia: Hey,
Kaley Olson: nothing much. Okay. Um, I do wanna tell our friends listening what they're gonna hear, but I had a funny moment.
Cailah Garcia: Okay. Tell me
Kaley Olson: something funny popped in my head and I was like, our listeners need to know this. Okay. When you started at Proverbs, and I heard your name, Cailah Garcia, which just rolls off the tongue, right? Uh, we have this onboarding software. Yeah. And the way that you input your name. Populated it. Oh my gosh. To Cailah Garcia. Garcia Lopez.
Cailah Garcia: And so yes, I had like 15 names at this point.
Kaley Olson: So sometimes when Cailah walks by I'll be like, look, there's Cailah Garcia, Garcia Lopez, but it's really just Cailah Garcia.
Cailah Garci: It's really just Cailah Garcia.
Kaley Olson: But if I had that many cool names. I would use all of them too.
Cailah Garcia: I know. Thank my husband. He's the coolest.
Kaley Olson: Anyways, guys, well, today we're gonna hear a brand new guest to the podcast. Her name is Sharon Jayne. She is a well-known author and speaker and bestseller of several books, but she is not a brand new guest. Mm-hmm. To the ministry. In fact, she's been serving with Proverbs 31 in some capacity since the very beginning and has a perspective on the top.
Of gratitude that I think will both be a breath of fresh air and a tender perspective shift that you need as you head into your day. I know this conversation is going to bless you and I cannot wait. Mm-hmm. For you to hear it. Mm-hmm.
Cailah Garcia: Honestly, Sharon's way of storytelling is such a gift. Mm-hmm. And some of you might. Listen and think I have a story that others need to hear too. And God's done something really special in my life and has worked in these really incredible ways, but I just don't feel qualified to share it. Yeah, I'm not sure where to get started. If that's you, I wanna acknowledge that stirring that God's placed in your heart and lean into it, even if it's unpolished.
In fact, um, my team and I have put something together special for you. It's called Unpolished. A journal just shaped. The story God is telling you to share. Mm-hmm. And this resource is a free downloadable journal that will help you take the small steps forward that God's calling you to take, and giving you the opportunity to do it without the pressure to be impressive.
Mm-hmm. Or the pressure to be ready. Mm-hmm. We're here to help you take those small steps forward. Mm-hmm. And you can download it today using the link below in our show notes.
Kaley Olson: All right, Cailah, let's head on into our conversation.
Cailah Garcia: I can't wait
Kaley Olson: With Sharon Jaynes. Okay, well welcome to the show, Sharon. I always got a little tongue twisted there. I'm gonna be, that's gonna be kind of hard. How are you today?
Sharon Jaynes: I'm doing great. How are you guys?
Kaley Olson: We're so good. We're so glad. Take a little pause in our normal Wednesday. Yeah. Out of our normal workflow to just. Get to record a podcast episode. Yay. And it's with you today. We're in person.
Cailah Garcia: How special.
Kaley Olson: I know. I love it. Um, okay guys, before we even get started with this episode, I have to acknowledge that having you Sharon, on the show is a bit like having P 31 history.
Sharon Jaynes: Yes.
Kaley Olson: Well, preserved you. Look, you're, I mean, I wish everybody could see you. Sharon's a beautiful, beautiful lady. But honestly, if our listeners don't already know, this P 31 has been around for over 30 years now, which is a long time.
And Sharon. You've been a part of this ministry in some capacity? Pretty much that entire, entire time from the beginning. Crazy
Sharon Jaynes: back in the back in the late 19 hundreds.
Kaley Olson: I know, I know. But I mean, well, Cailah and I were both born in the 19 hundreds too.
Cailah Garcia: Yeah, we were.
Kaley Olson: There are these memes going around that they will not the me, it's like a video, and they'll ask you what year you were born and if you were born and you say 19 and it doesn't let you finish, and all of a sudden Jurassic Park dinosaurs, come on the camera.
Feel like we're just embracing this middle age of life, which is great. Yes. But Sharon, um, I thought it would be fun before you go into your teaching for you to share a little bit about the early days with us and maybe something someone would be surprised to know about P 31 history from like 25 or 30 years ago.
Sharon Jaynes: Okay. Well, 30 years ago I was here.
Kaley Olson: Yeah, yeah. Email, so yeah, email was barely thing, right?
Sharon Jaynes: Have didn't, no, we didn't have email.
Cailah Garcia: grassroots marketing. We love it.
Sharon Jaynes: Yeah, we had a, we had a newsletter. It actually started out as the Proverbs 31 homemaker. How about that?
Kaley Olson: There we go.
Sharon Jaynes: And then we had this little newsletter, and we would meet at each other's homes and have mail night.
Okay. Now. Let me clarify that.
Kaley Olson: Can please clarify.
Sharon Jaynes: Yes. Yeah. We decided we should change it to mailing night. But um, yeah, but we would get together and fold those little newsletters and yeah, take 'em to the post office. So we Proverbs 31 homemaker. Then it changed to Proverbs 31 Woman magazine and then the internet. Got crazy. It did and everything changed. It did. So that's when we started, um, the devotions. Mm-hmm. And, you know, we thought, I don't know if this will work or not. You know, I don't know. Email, I don't know about this email thing. And
Cailah Garcia: Proverbs always on the forefront leading the way, honestly.
Sharon Jaynes: Yeah. So we were, and that was, that was quite something thinking of going from mailing night to Yeah. You, what happens now?
Kaley Olson: Yeah. Honestly, there's something that sounds really refreshing. Yeah. About just gathering together and putting something. Together with your hands. Yeah. We don't do that very often. We use our brains on a lot. I know.
Cailah Garcia: Should we bring it back? I think we should bring it back. Maybe if you're listening.
Kaley Olson: Hey, you know, if you're listening to this and you lemme just say to receive it.
Sharon Jaynes: No, no, no, no, no. Lemme just say no. No. Don't even think about it. Absolutely not, ladies. No, don't sound romantic using a typewriter, but no. Yeah,
Kaley Olson: I was just gonna say, if you're listening and you actually used to receive the
Proverbs 31 homemaker by mail. You should DM me at Kaley Olson on Instagram. I wanna know, I wanna know where you are.
Cailah Garcia: Honestly. Let us know
Kaley Olson: in the world today and if you still have some, 'cause we have some here at the office.
Cailah Garcia: We do, and there's a we a wall and they're so beautiful. We have a wall of them. It's such a moment. They have like little, when you walk, little,
Kaley Olson: little recipes and activities to do. I love it. Like I need that in my life right now, honestly,
Cailah Garcia: bring it back.
Kaley Olson: Okay. That was fun. Okay. Well, Sharon, I asked you to come on the podcast a few months ago after I heard you share a message on having a heart of gratitude in a local community group I'm a part of, and I was like. More people need to listen to this message and I know the exact group of people who need to listen to it. And it's the Proverbs 31 podcast listeners, and so I'm excited to get to hear it again. I'm excited for my cohos, Cailah to get to hear it for the first time. I'm so excited and for our listeners all over the world to get to hear it. So Sharon, I'm gonna turn the mic over to you.
Sharon Jaynes: Well, first I wanna say it was so. Nice to just be able to drive over here today. I agree. You know, I live right around the corner, so that is great to drive. And I don't know if you've been paying attention to the news, but there's so much in the news now about flying.
Mm-hmm. Yeah. I mean, there's delays, cancellations, reschedules, and you know, it's just so nice to drive somewhere.
Kaley Olson: Yeah, I agree.
Sharon Jaynes: But, um, I remember one particular flight, y'all when I was, um. I had spoken at a place in Pennsylvania. Mm-hmm. It was on a, a Friday before Easter. So Good Friday, and I was flying home from speaking at a prayer breakfast.
So it was pretty early in the day. Post supposed to be a quick hour and a half flight home. Easy peasy, but it was Easter, so it was very crowded. And then the crowd started rolling in and, you know, crowded airports and storm clouds. That is not a good combination. Yeah. So there were delays and there were cancellations just lighting up the board and my flight was delayed six times.
Oh wow. And can I just say, I was not happy at all and finally around 9:00 PM we did take off and I thought, well, you know, an hour and a half I'll be home. So I closed my eyes and I went to sleep. But about an hour later, the pilot came on and he let us know that because of a storm that was passing through Charlotte, we were gonna have to land in Greensboro, which was about 90 miles away and waited out.
And of course they said sorry for the inconvenience. Right? They always do. Mm. So we landed in Greensboro and waited and waited. And waited. And then I noticed the flight attendant and the pilot were deboarding the plane with their luggage. And that is not a good sign. No. So about 10 30, there was another announcement letting us know that unfortunately the flight crew had now logged in too many hours and they would not be able to continue to flight to Charlotte.
Oh my gosh. So they secured vans for us to ride in the rest of the way. And of course they said. Sorry for the inconvenience. So they put us in groups of nine and then we waited and waited. We got our luggage and waited and waited. Finally, the vans came and um, we piled into the van. And y'all, the air conditioner was broken?
No, the heat got stuck and the, oh my goodness, on position would not turn off. The temperatures rose, the windows fogged up. We were miserable. Mm-hmm. And at this point, I'm having this one-way argument with God. I don't know if you had those before, but you know, he wasn't. Caring what I was saying so much, but it was a one I thought, okay, an hour and a half I'll be home.
Almost there. So, we started chatting. I was talking to this woman in front of me with her daughter named Beth. They were going to visit daughter number two in Charlotte. And I got to know them a little bit. And then daughter number one, Beth, she was tracking our progress on her cell phone, and she turned around and she said, um, we're passing Statesville.
How much longer do we have? And I said, Statesville, we're going the wrong way. So, our hour and a half van ride turned into a three-hour van ride. No way did I mention I wasn't happy. Oh my gosh. I mean, you know, but now I'm flat out mad. Y'all flat out mad. But um, then the, remember I said the windows were flogged up?
Well, then Beth's mom turned around and she drew a smiley face on the window, and I thought. What in the world does she have to be smiley about? I mean, I don't see anything smiley about this entire situation. So, we finally arrived in Charlotte sometime around midnight nine. Oh, my goodness. Dripping, wet, exhausted passengers.
We climbed out of that van to breathe some fresh air, and I turned to Beth and I said, you know, y'all have fun with your sister this weekend. I know it'll be great. And then she said. Oh, we will. My mom just found out that she has cancer for the second time and it doesn't look too good. We're gonna spend a weekend together.
Just the three of us simply enjoy each other. Mm. Because, well, it might be our last, well. Hmm and I turned and walked away, and she didn't see those tears that were filling my eyes. And I looked back at the van's window, which still held the picture of a smiley face drawn by the hand of a dying. Woman. And you know what?
All of a sudden those little inconveniences that seemed to fill up that day seemed rather petty. Mm-hmm. And God reminded me of all that I had to be thankful for.
Mm-hmm.
See, storms are gonna come in life, aren't they?
Yeah.
And it's just our perspective in that storm that will determine whether we grumble and complain.
Hmm.
Or we open our eyes and thank God for all he's done for us and given us, including every breath we take. Well, I slipped in the car with my very precious patient, husband who'd gone back and forth to the airport all day, and I gave him a kiss. And you know what I did? I drew a smiley face on the window.
And for our time together today, I want us to look at just one word, and that is gratitude and the difference it can make in our lives. See, when we look at life through the lens of gratitude and speak, words of gratitude, God comes into view. We see him, we hear him. We detect his fingerprints on our darkest days and our brightest days.
And if there's anything that will shut our eyes and miss God's working in our lives, it's in gratitude and grumbling.
So before we get into this, let's just define gratitude. Wester says it's a feeling of appreciation for a kindness or favor received. Now, the opposite of gratitude. We might think, of course, it's in gratitude, but you know what?
I think it is? I think the opposite of gratitude is entitlement. We think we're not receiving what we deserve, so we complain. Now in Hebrew, there's a term for gratitude. This is not in the Bible. It's not a biblical term that shows up in the Old Testament. It's a current Hebrew word. I'm not gonna try to say it with my southern accent, but it means recognizing the good.
Don't you love that? Mm-hmm. Recognizing the good. So today I want us to look at three benefits of speaking, words of gratitude, and the first one is that gratitude. Aligns our perspective with God's perspective now, as we've already seen in my story about the flight debacle. See gratitude changed that lady's perspective and ultimately it changed mine.
Paul wrote in one Thessalonians five 18, give thanks in. All circumstances. Mm-hmm. Now notice the Bible doesn't command us to feel thankful in all circumstances. Mm-hmm. But instead, it says to give thanks in all circumstances. And when I begin to praise God in a difficult situation, even if I don't feel like it, my perspective changes.
And sometimes I don't see God in the tragedy I'm going through. Mm-hmm. Or the irritation, but I can praise him because I know he's there.
Cailah Garcia: Yeah.
Sharon Jaynes: And gratitude changes that lens through which we see the circumstances in our little slice of time. You know, I love stories by Corry 10 Boon. They've been around for a long time, but, but she was in a concentration camp in World War II.
And she and her, Betsy and her, she and her sister Betsy, were in barracks 28. And they had straw mats, crowded, filthy conditions, nauseating, stench. They were starving and fleas. Fleas were everywhere. And um, Cory was just fighting the nausea, the wreaking straw, and the fleas biting her. And she said to Betsy, I just can't live in this place. And then her sweet sister, Betsy, she said, well, we must remember the Bible verse that we read. It’s very day, which is one I just read, give thanks. It all circumstances. Corey's like can't do it. I cannot give same. I cannot not give thanks. I don't really like the Betsy's of the world either.
Cailah Gracia: I'm like, Betsy, please gimme a moment.
Sharon Jaynes: Okay. Right. But Betsy said, okay, let's think about it. We're together. Mm-hmm. It could, it could be that we had been separated when we were put in this camp, so we're together. We can thank God for that. We snuck in a Bible, which honestly is very miraculous. They snuck in a Bible and she said the place is so crowded that when we read the Bible, other people can hear it. And then, um. She said, but the fleas, I, I just don't know about the fleas. And Corey's like, I'm drawing the line there. I'm not thanking God for the fleas. Well, one day she'd been outta the barracks looking for firewood, and she came back in, and Betsy was just grinning from ear to ear. And Corey said, well, you look extraordinary, please with yourself today.
And then Betsy said, you know, I found out, while we have so much freedom in our barracks, the guards won't come in here. You know why? Goodness because of the flea, my, because of the fleas. So, Corey said, okay, I'll praise God for the fleas. Mm-hmm. See as you praise God for who he is, and thank him for what he's done, even if it's difficult, your perspective of him grows larger and your problems grows smaller. On many occasions in the Psalms, especially in those earlier Psalms, when David was being chased by Saul, he starts out by complaining about his circumstances. But more often than not, about midway through the Psalm, he begins praising God for who he is and thanking him for what he's done. Lemme give you an example in Psalm 42:2.
David writes My soul, thirst for God, for the living God. Where can I go and meet with God? My tears had been my food day and night. See, he's very discouraged. You can just feel it in his words. Mm-hmm. So distressed himself. But then in verse five he goes, why are you downcast? Oh, my soul. Now, who's he talking to?
Kaley Olson: Himself.
Sharon Jaynes: Himself. Yeah. Why are you downcast? Uh, my soul. Why so disturb within me. Put your hope in God for I will get. Praise him, my savior, and my God. And you know what happens? He starts to feel better. Suddenly he's feeling better. Life is so bad. After all, his problems grow smaller, as his perspective of God grows larger.
Cailah Garcia: Wow.
Sharon Jaynes: Now here's something we can notice. He didn't wait until God changed his circumstance or solved his problem. Or tried to make him feel better, he started praising God right in the middle of it. And when we stopped complaining and grumbling and begin speaking what I call God's love language of gratitude, our perspective will change. So, number one, gratitude aligns our perspective with God's perspective. Hmm. Here's another one. Gratitude ushers you into God's presence. Now, right in the middle of my Bible, when I open it up, it says Psalm 100. It just always opens up there and it says, enter his gates with Thanksgiving. And his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his holy name. You know, there's nowhere that we can go that's away from God's presence. We know that. Right? But we can certainly feel far from God. Okay. And when we feel far from God, praise and gratitude mm-hmm. Will bring us back and awaken our senses to God's presence in our lives.
So, gratitude aligns your perspective with God's perspective. Gratitude ushers you into the presence of God and helps you feel closer to him. And then the third one, which I really wanna talk about more today, is gratitude affects those around you. Here's something we need to understand. Gratitude is infectious. It's so contagious and it spreads like wildfire but so is in gratitude. Grumbling, mumbling, murmuring. I can't say that. Grumbling and murmuring complaining. Easy traps to fall into. Very contagious. Someone grumbles and the next thing you know, you're grumbling. Think about it happens all the times and it spreads to everyone around us and it's so rampant in our culture today.
But you know what, it's always been that way. Let's take a moment and look at, um, the Israelites in Exodus. Think of all that God had done for the Hebrew nation out. They brought; he had brought him out of Egyptian slavery. He'd parted the Red Sea. They crossed over on dry land and then when the enemies came, God called the water back and drowned the enemies and the Israelites. Got on the other side of the Red Sea and they had a big throw down party. I mean, Miriam led 'em in a dance and they were so grateful. Praised God for about a minute they got to a place called Mara and the water was bitter. And what did they do? They grumbled. It says in Exodus 15:24. So, the people grumbled against Moses saying, what are we to drink?
Well, God taught Moses to throw a piece of wood in the water. It became pure and they drank, and they were so happy. Thank you, God. For about a minute. A few days later, they got hungry and rather than praying about it or talking about it, they grumbled. It says in Exodus 16:2-3 in the desert, the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to him, if only we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt. There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out to this desert to starve this entire assembly. Oh, for the good old days you hear that. Oh, for the good old days when we were slaves in Egypt, right?
But I love Moses' response. He said, who are we that you should grumble against us? He said, you will know that it was the Lord when he gives you meat to eat in the evening and all the bread you want in the morning because he listen to this, he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we? You are not grumbling against us, but against the Lord. So God gave them man in the morning and quail in the evening, and they were happy. For about a minute. Then they traveled to another area and again, they got thirsty and again they grumbled. And um, Exodus 17:3 says, but the people were thirsty for water there and they grumbled against Moses.
And they said, why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us in our children and livestock die of thirst? Then God of course told Moses to hit the rock. Water came out, they had water and they were happy again for about a minute. But then they got to the promised land. And then they heard that there were giants in the land. And what did they do about that? They. Grumbled. And rather than believing the promises of God, they looked at the problems of man. And they grumbled. Yeah. Now this is so key right here. It says in numbers 14:2 all the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole assembly said to him, if only we had died in.
Egypt or in this desert, why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to die by the sword? And then this is so key, y'all. In numbers 14:29, it says, finally, God said enough. It says in the wilderness, your bodies will fall. Every one of you 20 years old or more. Who has grumbled against me. And you know, when I would read that story, I always, in my head, I thought, well, they didn't get in the promised land because of unbelief. And that is true, but right here in this verse, it says that you're not getting in all of you who grumbled. Against me. And I wonder sometimes our grumbling. Can keep us out of our own personal promise land. And I think it can.
Now, how do, how do you think the grumbling started? Well, I think personally that one person, probably a woman, sorry to say it, one person came out her for tent one morning, got the man and said, you know what? I am sick of this manna. And then her neighbor said, picked it up and said, ah, sick of it too. And then the next person and the next person, and the next thing you know, you've got 2 million people complaining in a sea of ingrates just wandering around the desert for 40 years. And God posted that, do not enter on the door of the promised land. And I don't know about you, but I do not want to be that person. Now, this is an important sentence here when you think about it. In Gratitude is a casual despising of the sovereignty of God. I'm gonna say that one more time. In Gratitude is a casual despising of the sovereignty of God. We're basically saying when.
When we are grumbling and complain, we don't like how God does things. We don't like how he's doing things, and we think we could do it better. And end gratitude is so contagious. But here's some good news. So is gratitude. Now I wanna go back to the airport just a minute. Um, another day I was going to New Jersey, and I was in the airport, and, you know, people aren't particularly friendly in airports. Your eyes are looking straight ahead. You've, you're, mm-hmm. Got a purpose to walk to your gate. You've got these overstuffed bags rolling behind you, just trying to get where you need to go. But before I went to my gate, I stopped in the restroom. I am so glad that I did y'all because it was the most joyful place I've had in a long time. There was this, uh, restroom attendant there, and her name was Gretchen and she was the hostess for this little privy here. She had on a silly little hat on her head, and she had whimsical feathers that were wavering on top and a little vest with her name on it. It was Gretchen and she had a Mardi Gras. Beads and a little spray bottle and a cloth, and she welcomed people into her home, into this restroom. And a woman in a green jacket came out of a stall, and Gretchen swooped in behind her. And squirt squirt squirt with a disinfectant. And wipe, wipe, wipe with their cloth. And then she said, right this way, madam.
This one's ready for you. Come on in and let y'all, with all the poise of a valet, opening the castle doors for A person of honor, Gretchen welcomed each woman as if she was the most important person of her day. Mm-hmm. And she kept doing this time and time again, and I stood back and I just watched this five foot five bundle of joy wiping. Toilet seats cheerfully inviting our next guest into the pristine stalls and see Gretchen had this effervescent sense of joy. Wiping toilet seats. And it seemed to come from, uh, a deep seated heart of gratitude. She had a job for one. She was Eastern European and she got to live in America.
She was so grateful and that gratitude spilled over to every single woman who left her station. I mean, women came in, they were weary and worn out. And they left with a skip in their step and a smile on their face and some lingered. I mean, they washed their hands just a little bit longer if as if they wanted to just soak in a bit. More of that joy before facing the world. And on the counter there was a tip jar and it was full of $1 bills. And I don't think those tips were for wiping the germs off the toilet seats. I think it was because they were thankful that she had wiped the doldrums from their hearts and those frowns from their faces. And for some strange reason. Maybe cause I'm a southerner, I just wanted to give her a hug, and she didn't mind at all. I even took a picture of her to remind me about being thankful.
And, and what I would've considered a difficult situation. Yeah. And she reminded me just how contagious gratitude and joy can be and how desperately I want to be a carrier of that gratitude. So, let's review again, gratitude aligns your perspective with God's perspective. Gratitude ushers you into God's presence and gratitude affects those around you. Mm-hmm. And not only does gratitude affect those around you, but it also makes people want to be around you. Want to be around you. So how do we become that portrait of, of gratitude and joy? Well, how do we become a woman that other people wanna be around? I'm gonna say that too, but how do we become a contagious carrier of gratitude? I think it comes with prayer and with practice. For example, when the steak is tough, thank God I can afford a steak.
You know, when the bed is hard. Thank God I have a bed and a roof over my head. When the gas is expensive. Thank God I can own a car. Did you know that if you own a car, you're among the top 10 to 15% wealthiest people in the world.
Kaley Olson: Wow. Wow.
Sharon Jaynes: When service is slow, thank God I can go out to eat. Here's one when you're cleaning up after your family, thank God you have a family to clean up after. Or a roof over your head. I believe that speaking words of gratitude, it will grow with practice. Paul wrote this in Philippians 4:11. He said, I have learned, keep underline that word, learn in your Bible. I have learned how to get along happily, whether I have much or little.
I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. And then he read a little further down in verse. Eight and nine. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true. Whatever's noble, whatever's right, whatever's pure, whatever is lovely. Whatever is admirable. If anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received, or heard from me, and here's the key. Or seen in me, put into practice. Hear that practice put into practice in the God of peace. We'll be with you. And we pray and we practice. And we practice. And we practice. Mm-hmm. Hey, now lemme give you two, um, two little exercises that you can use to apply this in your life.One is to get a rubber band and put it on your wrist. Hey, I wanna make sure that that rubber band's tight. Don't get a loose one. Now get one that's kind of tight. Put it on your list. And as you go through your day, every time you say something negative or complain. Pop the rubber band. Now here's nothing better yet.
Do it with your kids or do it with a friend. Get them to do it with you. And if your friend didn't pop her rubber band, when she says something negative,
Kaley Olson: Sharon, get it spicy.
Sharon Jaynes: I know. And I'm telling you, I give you permission and then to go and pop her rubber band. So think about doing that. Here's another one. This very simple. Put five pennies in your right. Pocket. Then as you go through your day, praise God, thank God, and move that penny as each time you do it into your left pocket. Now, if you grumble and complain, you gotta move that penny back to your right pocket. Mm-hmm. So the goal is by the end of the day, have all those pennies of gratitude moved from that right pocket to. Your left pocket. So that gives you some something to work toward.
Kaley Olson: I love that. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. Wow. Sharon, I feel like, um, like any teaching on gratitude Is always a little bit of a kick in the rear end. Right. For me. I don't know if you in the best way that way, Cailah, I, yeah. In the best way, but, and then too, whenever you brought up the last verse about Paul
Sharon Jaynes: Yeah.
Kaley Olson: When he writes Basically, he has the guts to say. Do what I did. I thought, Ooh, oh man, Paul, like
Cailah Olson: you're really speaking to me right now.
Kaley Olson: I know, I know. Because would I, if I saw someone going around doing what I did, right, would it be a mirror that I was happy and grateful to look into? Or would it be a mirror that I Kaley was happy, be grateful to look into. Um, but Sharon, I know we have a plethora of different life seasons, right. Of people listening. Right now I'm thinking, you know, there's a mom who might have just done drop off, or there's a mom who might be At home and maybe the baby's napping right now, and she's like, right.
Listening to this while she's doing the dishes. Or maybe there's a woman. I think about my mom, there was a season of her life where she was, um, her mother's caretaker while she had Alzheimer's. Things that she had to do on a daily basis, I cannot share on this podcast because they're, you would it, it would burn your ears. And I think about the seasons in our life. In my life. I have two very small boys. There's other people like my mom who are in really tough seasons caring for people who might be walking into an everyday going, I've got either a diaper on a toddler or a diaper on my mom. Yeah. Or I'm going into work and I am.
I'm full of people who complain and I feel like even if I try, like it's not gonna make any difference. And they're going, they're hearing your message and they're going, okay. I know I need to do the rubber band thing. I know I need to, I know I need to. I'll get the pennies somewhere.
Sharon Jaynes: that's right. There's a shortage.
Kaley Olson: But what. What, how would you encourage those ladies who are going like, wow, this is great, but I just need to, I need a little bit more to my heart right now.
Sharon Jaynes: Right? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. You know, I think of a, a verse in job 40 verse four. Uh, it's not my life verse, but it probably should be. It says. He says, I will put my hand over my mouth.
Kaley Olson: Wow.
Cailah Garcia: Wow. I love that.
Sharon Jaynes: But, um, it just sometimes, rather than coming in with a positive comment on the tail of everybody else's negative comment can be a little irritating. Yeah. But sometimes just silence is a good thing when you're. When you're in a group like that. Um, I, I've been, now I, my father had Alzheimer's too. And, you know, I'm much older than you, so I've, I've had a lot of struggles that have gone through, um, life and, um, let me speak to the woman. Right now taking care of family first. Um, there's so much that we can grumble and complain about. 'cause being a mom is hard. Yeah. It is so hard. And I remember one day when, when I was, um, mopping the floor in my kitchen and I'm, I'm telling you, y'all could think of a terrible person, but, but I was complaining again. Right. Complaining again and being very grumpy about it. And, um. Thinking about, you know, I'm cleaning this floor and nobody cares, nobody appreciates it, and I'm gonna clean it today.
It's gonna be dirty tomorrow. Why do I even bother? Um, just that kind of attitude that, that mom attitude. Um, and then right in the middle of that, you know, God actually, um. Prompted my heart and I started having these thoughts and these, these new thoughts came into my mind. You know what, if I was blind and I couldn't see the, the patterns on the floor or the spilled juice by the refrigerator doors, suppose I was.
Deaf and I couldn't hear the, the sound of the mm-hmm. The soap bubbles or the, the mop being pushed back and forth. Suppose I was in a wheelchair and I wasn't strong enough to stand upright and grasp the wooden handle in my hands. And suppose I couldn't see those footprints. And then suppose I didn't have a home or a family to clean up after. And you know what happened when those thoughts came in my mind? I stopped grumbling and I wasn't saying the grumbling out loud. I was doing it in my head, but I started speaking this out loud. Thank you, Lord, for the privilege of mopping this dirty floor.
Thank you for the health and strength to hold this mop in my hands and to wrap my fingers around the handle. Thank you for the sight to see the crumbs, the dirt, the spilled juice. Thank you for the sense of smell to enjoy the clean, fresh scent of the soap in the bucket. Thank you for the many precious feet that will walk through this room and dirty it up again. And Lord, thank you for the privilege of having a floor to mop and a family to clean up after. So that hit me. That is a simple way to change that grumbling and to praise. Wow. Now, I don't want you to think I succeeded that all the time. Yeah. But I did. That day and it made such a difference in my attitude.
Now let's fast forward and think about your mom taking care of her mother with Alzheimer's. And my, my dad had Alzheimer's too, so I know a little bit about mm-hmm. About what you're talking about. But, you know, all through life we've had tragedies in our life. We lost our second child and there's so many more things. My husband was just diagnosed with something that, um, is very scary. And, and I have a, I have a choice. With that diagnosis to say, why me and grumble about how our circumstances are gonna change. Right? Yeah. How our life is going to change. But in, in being grateful, instead of saying, why me? I've learned to say what now?
You know what? Now Lord, life is going to be different from here on out. Until we go to heaven. Yeah. What now? And Lord, help me to be grateful for the time that we have had, for the time that we will have, even though it's gonna look very different and help me not get caught up in the grumbling and complaining right. Of how life is gonna be different and not like how I thought it was going to be. But show me Lord. Ways that I can be grateful every day. Right. For the small things there might not be as. Bigger things now, but there will be small things that I can be grateful for.
Kaley Olson: Yeah. Yeah. That's so good. And then looking up and just going, okay, whoever I lock eyes with is my assignment for that day. Right. And that changes. Okay. Cailah, what you got girl?
Cailah Garcia: I just wanna say thank you Sharon. I think everything that you shared with us today really stuck with me, and I love what you shared here at the end. Why me? And shifting that to what now? I think it's so easy to get caught up in that place of discouragement. That place of trying to see how God's moving, trying to see him and his hand in this moment. But I think when we shift our eyes from the problem, and we shift our eyes, and we shift our perspective to the presence mm-hmm. Of God in those moments. Everything changes. Everything changes. Yeah. And we experience the power. Of God in that moment. And I think that's what draws us to gratitude. Because we can't help it. Because he's so good. And I love, I love this conversation. And it's really challenged me today. So as I just sit in this moment together, as we sit in this moment of just reflecting back on this conversation, I just wanna encourage the woman listening to, to sit, to sit in this conversation, to sit in this moment and to think about. Everything that God has done, how far he has brought you, and to know that he's not done yet. That he's still working, that he's still moving, that he still wants to do something deep and meaningful and powerful through you.
Kaley Olson: Yes, I agree. Amen. I agree. And just imagine if we all. Go about our normal days after we listen and after we sit and after we soak it in. If we have about, I don't know, 45, 50,000 people who listen to this podcast episode, like what could God do through right? That many women who walk into their day embracing a heart of gratitude. So a little differently than, um, than going in and crumbling and. Part of what everybody else does. So I love that. Thank you for wrapping up that way.
Cailah Garcia: Yeah.
Kaley Olson: Alright, friends, we are so grateful, um, to have gotten to learn from you on the podcast today, Sharon. Yes. You sharing, and for those of you who'd like to hear more from Sharon mm-hmm. Or maybe if you listen to her today and you were just like, yeah, my, my life is really hard right now and I don't. But I'm having a hard time with the story God is writing in my life. Yeah. Um, I wanted to tell you about her bestselling book titled, when You Don't Like Your Story what If Your Worst Chapter Could Become Your Greatest Victory? And we've linked that for you in the show notes below.
Cailah Garcia: And, for those of you who've loved listening to Sharon and felt something inside of you, say. Maybe I can share the ways God has worked in my life with others too. We've created a resource for you that I'm really excited about. It's called Unpolished, and it's a journal experience to help you walk through the moments God has. Rewritten your story. Or maybe he's in the middle of still writing.
And we wanna encourage you and help you step forward in faith knowing that you don't have to be perfect to come before God. You don't have to have the right words or know exactly what to say, but he is doing something powerful in and through you. And when you open your hands. And you step forward with confidence into the throne room, he can do something powerful through you.
So I'm really excited. I hope you'll download this resource. I hope it encourages you, and we are so excited for all that God's going to do through this conversation today.
Kaley Olson: I agree. Well, that's all for today. Friends at Proverbs 31 Ministries, we believe when you know the truth and live the truth, it changes everything.