One of the thoughts I wrote was “We can’t be loved until we are seen + known…

And I was thinking through why in our humanity that is something we often times resist as much as our soul yearns to be seen and know

We cover ourselves and hide.

I think one reason we can do that is similar to some thoughts I shared in last week's episode… we are afraid that who we are will be judged and not measured up.

And when we are talking about being known and seen by other humans…there’s a good chance that you will experience both of those things.

We are officially welcoming the season of Autumn this weekend. 

 I love the correlation between the natural seasons and the seasons of life. 

 I’m pretty sure that most of us have a preference as to which natural season is our favorite. I’ve always thought about and talked a lot about seasons but creating this seasonal journal this past year has me diving even a little deeper.

 And some of that deeper has come from the feedback I’ve received from some of you as you’ve walked through the seasonal journal.  I’ve heard from several of you how you have experienced a season this year that wasn’t a season you particularly love and you found yourself walking through it differently as you intentionally allowed yourself to be present in it. You intentionally showed up differently looking for the beauty of the season…and were pleasantly surprised to find it.

 So that got me thinking…

Genesis 3:6-10

These verses are always so sad to me…

Reading how they hid from God.

And sad because I can see how we can still do that today…

The enemy of our souls is always looking to kill steal and destroy us.

And that plays out in many different ways in each of our lives.

The accuser plays on our weaknesses and is relentless with distractions to keep us from living the life we were created for.

The greatest ploy and plan is no different than that we read in the book of Genesis.

A plan to clothe us with shame and separate us from God.

Susan passionately shares why she has created The SHE IS AWAKENING Seasonal Journal. With the release of the 3rd journal for Autumn Susan spends time in this episode sharing heartfelt thoughts of what journaling has done for her and how her connection and relationship with God has grown through it.

When she’s not smiling at blank pages pretending to write, Dawn is a speaker giving talks about 
cancer, joy, female empowerment, and direct sales, podcast host of the upcoming Porch Ramblings 
with Dawn Barton, and the founder of the Retreats at Trinity. She’s living the sandwich-generation 
dream with her husband, daughter, parents, mother-in-law, and too many animals to count in 
Cantonment, FL..

The autumn season is all about allowing things to fall away in our life… which can be scary and painful…but what I found as many of you have as well… the falling away opens up the space for new beautiful and needed future growth.

Hey hey!! I am so glad you are here 

Can you hear the excitement in my voice?!? I’m a hugger and I’m feeling some major hugger energy right now so if we were actually in person and you are a hugger then you would be feeling pretty uncomfortable right now haha but for real I am so excited to be back here on the pod and starting season 8!!! Can you believe it ya’ll?!? So exciting!!! So I am sending some major feel and big hugs your way today!!! 

I think I've mentioned this before either here on the podcast or in an email (if you aren’t receiving emails from me and would like to be the first to hear from me about anything new or what is on my heart then email at susan@susanbeth.com and we'll get you added it to the fun) and I’ll add that in the show notes too so you don’t have to hold that info in your brain the whole episode.

Even though I was working and finishing up artwork and writing for the Autumn Journal besides the podcast I took a break on a few things for the month of August. One of those was Instagram. Besides popping in to check out any cuteness that my daughters might have shared of the grands. Scrolling for the most part ceased and I’ve got to say. It felt nice… and refreshing for my soul and my nervous system ;)

8 years ago this Fall I recorded the first episode for the She Is Podcast. 

I actually started the podcast as an audio resource for a membership community I had started and when I decided to go a different direction with that community, the podcast remained.

My intention from the start has been to encourage you to fully surrender,  step into, and intentionally Stand in the life God designed and purposed you to live. 

So the morning of day 2 my husband and I were sitting with the 2 oldest and were talking with them about how intentional God was when he created them. And how incredible it is to be a woman. How God took from Adam's side to form her goes to explain the meaning of the word that GOD originally spoke when referring to woman. 

He called her “ezer kenegdo” which means alongside, or counterpart. We talked about why I have the word EZER tattooed on my wrist… to remind me that the root word for ezer is a rescuer or an ally a warrior that is a skilled companion and partner.

In a world that is trying to equate being a female to wearing a dress and makeup. I want to make sure they understand that God has a reason he designed us the way that he has. And it has nothing to do with our personality or style preferences, but everything to do with our purpose.

As I was writing these thoughts and prayers out I found myself writing a thought that immediately popped into my mind…

Eve was living in scarcity when she believed a lie.

I then wrote out a question ///What lie am I believing that is altering my destiny?

Here Eve was living in paradise and scripture tells us that the God of everything that was and is came and walked with her and Adam and yet …

Instead of standing fully in the abundance of all that God is she found herself in a scarcity mindset that opened her up to believing a lie.

Having a scarcity mindset over an abundance mindset can play out on many different levels in our lives.

In our humanity and desire to control entering this rest can be challenging.

We can have this never-ending need to feel productive…

Even in our relationship with God.

We can sometimes think the more we ‘do’ the more we will experience and bring to life

Yet, the mystery is the beautiful dance we must learn and get in rhythm with is ‘the being’

You are worthy of rest

And you are loved. Before you ever do one single thing. 

Sometimes it takes a sabbath for us to remember this truth.

So here I am purposely wading through puddles walking barefoot through a parking lot ….basically living my best life. (haha)

And I’ve got to tell you… it felt good.

It felt good to instead of getting frustrated and resisting getting wet

I walked straight into it and chose to follow whimsy and get wet!

So you can hear me saying I’m excited about moving into this next season thinking wow it must be nice to just flow excitedly from season to season connecting with God and journaling about how he is working in your life haha

Here’s the truth that I want you to hear. I haven’t “felt” excited...

I’ve continued to feel stretched in my life and felt tired and questioned what even matters YET!!! And here’s the really important part I want you to get…

And yet I have been excited about entering summer because that is where I have set my intention and my hope and my heart.

But I didn’t stop there…because I do know that my thoughts are just the starting point. 

I intentionally put action to faith.

I say it often and I’m saying it again…we make things so much harder than they have to be…

You were God’s idea.

He has a plan and purpose for your life… to bear fruit in the world he has placed you .

And that happens naturally when we are in a relationship with him.

No striving... just being.

What a beautiful sacred space to live in.

It’s no secret if you’ve been around here long that I love Matthew 11 and I love how it reads in the Message Bible.

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

This scripture is one that I literally take in so slowly line by line

Statement by statement…

Just breathing in this message that Jesus shared when he was physically walking here on earth is such a life-giving invitation to real living.

I talk a lot about rhythms here on the podcast and in life, we have these rhythms between work and rest. I was thinking the other day when I was writing for the summer journal about how seasons are like rhythms….

Seasons are a beautiful, miraculous dance between work + rest.

Just this week I was talking to my husband about how God had so incredibly confirmed something I was working on with the Summer journal. As I walked him through the steps and events that were all so supernaturally threaded together. I told him it’s such a weird mix of blown away and normalcy (kind of like that word supernatural that I just used.

Because it’s so are you kidding me that just happened to this is life being led by his spirit. 

I was starting to say that I feel like I’m experiencing a lot of growth this season and ask if you are too but then I was reminded that we are always growing or maybe I should say we always have the opportunity to grow. 

Grace for the growing…

That’s what I want to encourage you with today

Grace for yourself 

And grace for others.