Episode 102: Melanie Shankle | Embracing Your Ordinary

Surviving Sarah

I was so happy to have Melanie Shankle join me on the show again for Episode 102. Many of you may know her as Big Mama online. She is an author, speaker, wife and mother. You may remember her from Episode 50 where we chatted about friendship.

This time, she joins me at the table to talk about small things. You see, she wrote a book called Church of the Small Things which talks about learning to love the ordinary life you have. Do you feel like you aren’t doing enough or that what you are doing matters? If you’ve ever answered yes to those questions, then this episode and her book is for you. In this conversation, we talk about enjoying your ordinary life, how God uses ordinary and how to be faithful where you are.

Takeaways From Our Conversation:

• This message about ordinary really struck home with me. One of my takeaways, was the idea of being faithful where you are. God put me in this season with these roles for a reason. I want to be like the mother of the boy who had the fish and bread. Doing the tasks that seem insignificant matter. So this week, I want to look around at my ordinary and ask God to help me see the beauty.

• How can you start to find contentment your ordinary life? It begins by recognizing that as chaotic as it can seem, all of this is all fleeting. It can all change. It starts with a perspective change.

• Stop waiting for you life to begin. Take stock of your life. I bet all of what you have that is chaotic is what you prayed for. Stop comparing what we have to what we thought we wanted or to what others have.

• Sometimes we can struggle with thoughts like "Am I enough?"; "Does this life matter?"; "My life isn’t glamorous." But you never know how God will use those simple acts of faithfulness. Get up and be faithful to do what is in front of you. We can feel like a beige person driving a mini van, but the daily faithfulness matters. We can make an impact when we just love the people around us. We start to think that the big things are what are noticeable, but its really the little things.

• This can be a great season of ordinary. "Don't underestimate how God is using all of those little things.” Are you going to trust God with what you have right now? Before you go further in the journey, you have to be able to trust God with what you have now. God is preparing you for the bigger things in the small things.

Thank you for following along life with me. I love being apart of your day. And as always, I hope this show helps you survive a little easier.

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