Afleveringen
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This week on I Choose My Best Life, Wanda McKnight Brock helps us fill our wellness tanks back up.
Connect with Wanda on Facebook.
I Choose My Best Life Podcast is one of the Top 20 Christian Women Podcasts
I Choose My Best Life
Books: Colorful Connections, Sacred Rest, Come Empty, Set Free to Live Free
Connect with Saundra:
Twitter: @DrDaltonSmith
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Kimberly Woodhouse joins us this week to share simple ways everyone can start on their journey toward health.
Register for free to join A Million Miles with Kim.
Get your copy of Welcome Home: Our Family's Journey to Extreme Joy.
I Choose My Best Life Podcast is one of the Top 20 Christian Women Podcasts
I Choose My Best Life
Books: Colorful Connections, Sacred Rest, Come Empty, Set Free to Live Free
Connect with Saundra:
Twitter: @DrDaltonSmith
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/drdaltonsmith
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrSaundraDaltonSmith
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Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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Debbie Ryan joins Dr. Saundra to discuss how choosing a health partnership can improve your physical, mental, and financial health.
Learn more about how Christian Care Ministry can help.
I Choose My Best Life Podcast is one of the Top 20 Christian Women Podcasts
I Choose My Best Life
Books: Colorful Connections, Sacred Rest, Come Empty, Set Free to Live Free
Connect with Saundra:
Twitter: @DrDaltonSmith
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/drdaltonsmith
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrSaundraDaltonSmith
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Donna Kincheloe shares ways we can choose to improve our spiritual tool kit and live with more joy.
Connect with Donna on Facebook and Instagram.
Get your copy of A Life Just Like Mine: How God and Nursing Turned Past Pain into Present Peace.
I Choose My Best Life Podcast is one of the Top 20 Christian Women Podcasts
I Choose My Best Life
Books: Colorful Connections, Sacred Rest, Come Empty, Set Free to Live Free
Connect with Saundra:
Twitter: @DrDaltonSmith
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/drdaltonsmith
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrSaundraDaltonSmith
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This week on I Choose My Best Life, Nicole O. Salmon helps us choose courage and confidence through unboxing who we were created to be.
Download Nicole's 3 Myth Busters and Prayer For Moving On HERE.
Get your copy of Courage and Confidence A Bold Guide to Unboxing Who You Were Created to Be.
I Choose My Best Life Podcast is one of the Top 20 Christian Women Podcasts
I Choose My Best Life
Books: Colorful Connections, Sacred Rest, Come Empty, Set Free to Live Free
Connect with Saundra:
Twitter: @DrDaltonSmith
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/drdaltonsmith
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrSaundraDaltonSmith
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Lee Ann Mancini joins Dr. Saundra to explain how parents can prepare the ground of their kids' hearts to receive the seed of God's truths.
Connect with Lee Ann on Facebook and Instagram.
Get your copy of Raising Kids to Follow Christ: Instilling a Lifelong Trust in God.
I Choose My Best Life Podcast is one of the Top 20 Christian Women Podcasts
I Choose My Best Life
Books: Colorful Connections, Sacred Rest, Come Empty, Set Free to Live Free
Connect with Saundra:
Twitter: @DrDaltonSmith
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/drdaltonsmith
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrSaundraDaltonSmith
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Stephanie Rousselle joins us this week to share how we live our best life when we define success as a life intentionally lived in delight for the glory of God.
Check out the Gospel Spice podcast.
I Choose My Best Life Podcast is one of the Top 20 Christian Women Podcasts
I Choose My Best Life
Books: Colorful Connections, Sacred Rest, Come Empty, Set Free to Live Free
Connect with Saundra:
Twitter: @DrDaltonSmith
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/drdaltonsmith
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrSaundraDaltonSmith
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In this episode, Sarah Frazer helps us see how life's plot twists and interruptions are actually the ways in which God is working.
Connect with Sarah on Facebook and Instagram.
Get your copy of I Didn't Sign Up for This: How to Rest in God's Goodness When Your Story Shifts.
I Choose My Best Life Podcast is one of the Top 20 Christian Women Podcasts
I Choose My Best Life
Books: Colorful Connections, Sacred Rest, Come Empty, Set Free to Live Free
Connect with Saundra:
Twitter: @DrDaltonSmith
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/drdaltonsmith
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrSaundraDaltonSmith
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Rachel Miller joins Dr. Saundra to discuss honoring our unmet longing while not becoming a victim of it.
Download Rachel Miller's Prayer Guide for Unmet Longing.
Get your copy of When It Hurts to Hope: Honest Conversations about Living with Unmet Longing.
I Choose My Best Life Podcast is one of the Top 20 Christian Women Podcasts
I Choose My Best Life
Books: Colorful Connections, Sacred Rest, Come Empty, Set Free to Live Free
Connect with Saundra:
Twitter: @DrDaltonSmith
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/drdaltonsmith
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In this episode, Danielle Cobo joins us to share ways to break through roadblocks standing between achieving our goals.
Check out Danielle's Unstoppable Grit Podcast.
Get your copy of Unstoppable Grit: Break Through the 7 Roadblocks Standing Between You and Achieving Your Goals.
I Choose My Best Life Podcast is one of the Top 20 Christian Women Podcasts
I Choose My Best Life
Books: Colorful Connections, Sacred Rest, Come Empty, Set Free to Live Free
Connect with Saundra:
Twitter: @DrDaltonSmith
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/drdaltonsmith
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrSaundraDaltonSmith
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Dieula Previlon shows how God meets us on our trauma-healing journey to remind us we are seen and known.
Connect with Dieula on Facebook and Instagram.
Get your copy of Does God See Me?: How God Meets Us in the Center of Our Trauma-Healing Journey.
I Choose My Best Life Podcast is one of the Top 20 Christian Women Podcasts
I Choose My Best Life
Books: Colorful Connections, Sacred Rest, Come Empty, Set Free to Live Free
Connect with Saundra:
Twitter: @DrDaltonSmith
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/drdaltonsmith
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrSaundraDaltonSmith
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Cody Andras takes us on a journey to envision what it looks like to be one who walks with Jesus by your side.
Connect with Cody on Facebook and Instagram.
Get your copy of Jesus By Her Side: Finding the Nearness of God Through the Eyes of the Women in the Gospels.
I Choose My Best Life Podcast is one of the Top 20 Christian Women Podcasts
I Choose My Best Life
Books: Colorful Connections, Sacred Rest, Come Empty, Set Free to Live Free
Connect with Saundra:
Twitter: @DrDaltonSmith
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/drdaltonsmith
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrSaundraDaltonSmith
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Dr. Tim Elmore joins me on this episode to help us identify leadership qualities in ourselves and those around us.
Connect with Dr. Tim on Facebook and Instagram.
Get your copy of I Can't Wait.
I Choose My Best Life Podcast is one of the Top 20 Christian Women Podcasts
I Choose My Best Life
Books: Colorful Connections, Sacred Rest, Come Empty, Set Free to Live Free
Connect with Saundra:
Twitter: @DrDaltonSmith
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/drdaltonsmith
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrSaundraDaltonSmith
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Janet McHenry helps us discover our unique prayer personality and begin our journey to an authentic lifestyle of prayer.
Take Janet's Prayer Personality Quiz.
Get your copy of Praying Personalities: Finding Your Natural Prayer Style.
I Choose My Best Life Podcast is one of the Top 20 Christian Women Podcasts
I Choose My Best Life
Books: Colorful Connections, Sacred Rest, Come Empty, Set Free to Live Free
Connect with Saundra:
Twitter: @DrDaltonSmith
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/drdaltonsmith
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrSaundraDaltonSmith
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In this episode, Erin Warren helps us to live a life of feasting on truth and daily releasing prayers of faith.
Connect with Erin on Facebook and Instagram.
Get your copy of Everyday Prayers for Faith: Finding Confidence in God No Matter What.
I Choose My Best Life Podcast is one of the Top 20 Christian Women Podcasts
I Choose My Best Life
Books: Colorful Connections, Sacred Rest, Come Empty, Set Free to Live Free
Connect with Saundra:
Twitter: @DrDaltonSmith
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/drdaltonsmith
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrSaundraDaltonSmith
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Brant Hanson shares how we can choose to find joy and dance while living in a world that sometimes appears to have gone mad.
Learn more about the work being done at CURE International Children's Hospitals.
Get your copy of Life Is Hard. God Is Good. Let's Dance.: Experiencing Real Joy in a World Gone Mad.
I Choose My Best Life Podcast is one of the Top 20 Christian Women Podcasts
I Choose My Best Life
Books: Colorful Connections, Sacred Rest, Come Empty, Set Free to Live Free
Connect with Saundra:
Twitter: @DrDaltonSmith
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/drdaltonsmith
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrSaundraDaltonSmith
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Danielle Brooks joins me on this episode to share how we can choose to amplify our freedom in life and business.
Check out Danielle's Amplify Your Income Resource Guide.
Get your copy of Profit & Proof.
Show Notes:
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith: Welcome everyone. This is Dr. Saundra and you're listening to I Choose My Best Life. Today we're chatting with Danielle Brooks, who's going to help us be able to choose to amplify our freedom and get to a place in our life and our businesses where it does not feel so stressful. So Danielle, I want to thank you for joining us and welcome you to the show.
Let me have you begin by sharing a little bit about yourself and the type of work that you do.
Danielle Brooks: Hello, Dr. Saundra. Thank you so much for inviting me and allowing me to be on your platform. So, a little about myself. I am a mom of four kiddos who are under seven years old, and I've been married for nine years to my college sweetheart.
And I've been a virtual CFO for the past 11 years. So, we help small business owners with their accounting, bookkeeping, and payroll all across the country.
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith: Excellent. And that's perfect for this time of the year with everybody thinking about getting all their taxes and all their stuff together. So, I would love to go a little bit deeper into how you tend to work with small business owners.
Now, for you, I know this has been a journey of learning how to create freedom and flexibility in your life. What inspired you to start sharing that with other business owners?
Danielle Brooks: What inspired me to create freedom and flexibility for small business owners was truly my mom. She had been in business for seven years. Before I started helping her grow her business, and she had not had a vacation, she was working a whole lot more than I felt like she should at that point in her life.
And I honestly just wanted to help her. And so she asked me to help her with sales because I came from a sales background. I used to work for ExxonMobil in a sales territory role. When I asked her for her financials, because all my sales meetings started with the finances, she ultimately didn't have clean financials to present to me. She didn't have a profit and loss statement. She didn't have a balance. She didn't know what her numbers were. And so I ended up creating her financials from just basically creating all her accounting and bookkeeping system. Then, there is a time tracking for her staff.
Ultimately I was able to help save her over 40 hours per month. Within a year of working with me, she and my dad took two weeks off, and they went to Italy and Rome. they really just wanted more freedom for their own life at that stage in life. And she didn't really know how to do that because she had grown this business beyond where she had planned and was literally going week to week payroll to payroll and was just truly, I feel held hostage by her business and staff that she created for herself.
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith: This is such an important topic for those who are business owners and entrepreneurs, and getting in when you first start off with the business, you're so motivated to see the business succeed. But I think sometimes it's easy to get to a point where you don't realize that you have become hostage to your business, that you've gotten into a place where you can't take time off, and you can't move with freedom within your company and have that flexibility in your life. And I know that you, as a business owner, have dealt with this as well, wanting to find that level of, I don't like to say, balance. I oftentimes say harmony. And one of the ways you found that to be possible is by hiring the right people.
Can you elaborate on the importance of hiring the right people and how it improves business operations and can lead us to a place of freedom as an entrepreneur?
Danielle Brooks: Yes, I feel like so many people that start their business journey by themselves, the solopreneur, they've done everything in the business from what took place on the back end to the sales on the front end, and they're so used to know about all by themselves that once the business continues to grow, they don't honestly think about how to remove themselves from the business process.
And so I, I encourage small business owners to, from the very beginning, start putting processes in place, document how you do what you do. Before you even hire the first person, eventually, you can start letting some of those things go. And so I honestly encourage people to make a list of all the things they do.
You'll start without even knowing it, building out a job description, and then truly look at where it's taking the most time and effort for you to basically do whatever is taking the most time and effort from your business and your life, that's usually where I start to encourage people to look to hire.
And so for me, when I first started my business and it's taking care of the accounting and bookkeeping for small business owners, the bookkeeping portion took a lot of my time and energy. At that time, my business had grown with my family, but as a business started to pick up beyond helping my mom, I had two kids, and I'm over here trying to take care of like at least three things.
At that time, I had three clients where I was in their accounting bookkeeping at night while taking care of the kids throughout the day. My husband worked full-time. And so I looked at where all my time was going, and there really was the bookkeeping. So my first hire was the accountant to start releasing some of the bookkeeping responsibilities so I could focus on the strategy and consulting.
I needed clean financials, but I didn't have to produce those myself in order to provide a strategy for my clients.
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith: Yeah, I think that's a hard one. I feel for a lot of entrepreneurs and business owners because when you may know that you need to hire someone, I think oftentimes the thought process is I don't have enough revenue to be able to bring in teams, or they're afraid of the responsibility of having these people that are on payroll.
What are some strategies or insights that you would share with them on how they can identify new revenue streams or even leverage existing ones to be able to have the freedom to do this and to get those right people on the team?
Danielle Brooks: So one thing I like to always encourage you when they are, of course, hesitant to hire, it's just like when you're as far as managing other financials, that there's always the investment comes before the return, you're going to have to invest money into the stock market before you see your return. And I feel like you have to invest time and energy in your team before you ultimately see your return and the freedom they're going to provide for you.
And so where I first start is having, once again, a clean bookkeeping system to determine how much money you're making and how much money you're spending. So we can, before you hire someone, make sure that you actually have the income to bring someone on, that you can actually afford to pay for somebody.
But then there may be a point where, hey, at the very beginning, you may be paying out more than what you're bringing in initially, but they're freeing up the time for you to now go out and sell and be the face of the business. So I would look at what, that's where I'm saying what's usually taking the most time from you and then focus on handing those things off to give you more time and energy to now grow the business, whether it's the sales side, producing the product that you're selling, but where I usually encourage people to have a clean bookkeeping system first to figure out.
How much it's costing you to run the business and then how much money you're making to ultimately determine how much you can afford to pay somebody.
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith: The other thing about that is, oftentimes trying to make sure that you have time for some of the things that you want to do. I feel like that's a big part of the flexibility that we're looking for.
And the freedom we're looking for is proclaiming our time so that we're able to go to our child's soccer game or dance recital or whatever it may be, having some time freedom to be able to do those things. What are some practical strategies that you've incorporated within your own life to be able to build in some rest routines?
Danielle Brooks: So as the family has continued to grow, I honestly, I lean on my calendar a lot in order to block out the certain time that I'm going to spend with family, a certain time I'm going to be working. And I would also like to encourage, of course, a small business owner, usually, hey, when you first get started.
You're looking to just make money from anywhere. And you might be taking on more work than you should because you have this income goal. But a lot of times, when you just stay focused on and get really great at delivering a certain service, then the income can grow a lot faster than when you focus on one area versus having your focus spread out across a lot of different areas.
When I first started my business, I was speaking from experience. So, I didn't start out only doing accounting bookkeeping. I have always loved photography. I've been creative. I used to do graphic design. I did all these different things, but my income did not truly grow until I niched down to truly focus on one type of service.
And I did that also because, like I said, it was the freedom I was looking for in my life. I recognize being a photographer. That for the different people I was helping out they want me to be a photographer on the weekends. I want to spend time with my family on the weekends. And so that time blocking, when I looked ahead at my schedule and what I wanted for my life, I had to then focus on what was going to fit inside of the ideal life I wanted.
I wanted to be at home with my family on the weekends. I wanted to also have a general, like normal, work day so I could be with the kids when they get off from school. So I really had to determine what type of business was going to fit into the lifestyle that I wanted.
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith: That's so important. I think that basically comes back to defining what success looks like for you.
Because it's easy to look at someone else's story and be like, Oh, they're so successful. But if their success is keeping them out of the house all the time, and they're on the road all the time, and they're not able to do some of these things that are important to you, you really have to define success for yourself and look at your own priorities.
Look at the things that move your heart in that really are the reason why you work and the reason why you want to have a business and have revenue and income and all those things coming in. So I'd love for you to share a little bit about maybe a success story that you've seen within your own work, where someone was able to amplify their freedom through applying some of these things that you've talked about.
Danielle Brooks: Yes. So I have a client of mine who's been applying for a few years now that came because they wanted additional assistance on really increasing their profit in their business. So we are also a profit-first certified firm. When he first came to me, he was paying a bonus for his team off of the top line.
Basically, it is the amount of money that came in. His team had a certain amount of money he was paying out, but it didn't take into account the amount of expenses the company had. Therefore, he was paying out money before he actually accounted for how much it cost him to run the business. So I helped him put a profit strategy in place for his business that allowed him truly to have more freedom.
Also, when he came to us, he took care of the bookkeeping on his own. So, hiring us gave him an entire day back that he was spending in the office, and he was now able to take care of more clients. He's an eye doctor, and the amount that he pays us in one month, he's able to make back in a day.
And so that's where I've been able to provide the freedom for him to continue growing his business, but also increasing the bottom line. So now his team has a profit in a bonus structure that didn't wasn't there initially. And now the team is actually making more money on a bonus. The company is making more money in profit, and he has more time and energy to spend working when he wants and also taking time off as needed.
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith: I think that's what every business owner wants, that ability to scale and to grow on that level without the stress, really, because that's what it boils down to, the stress of growth. It sometimes, I feel, keeps us from actually being able to expand to the level of what our business is and whatever.
Whatever area and talent God's given us to be able to stretch it, to be able to grow without fear. So with yourself, one of the things that you have done and you've been able to do is to really invest in your team at a high level. I oftentimes brag that you were one of the few employers who brought staff with them to our rest retreats, and so I'd love to hear a little bit more about why you feel like it's important to not only yourself be taken care of and nurtured and well rested, but also for your team to be taken care of and nurtured and be well rested.
Danielle Brooks: I love that you asked me that question. And honestly, it just makes sense to me to do as much as I can. I want to create a safe, happy, healthy environment for my team as well. And I feel like most employers want you just to deliver the products. And then you have your life separate, but I truly feel as if you're talking about that harmony. I don't know about the whole work-life balance, but there, I feel like there's a need for harmony between your work and your life.
And if things are not well at work, then it typically bleeds over into not being well at home. And so I honestly would love to, as much as I can, create a safe, happy, rested environment at work so that my team is happy, healthy, and rested at home. And so that was, I feel, one of the main reasons why I wanted to bring them to the rest retreat.
One, I saw that was the second retreat I had been to, and I saw how rested I was when I first left for the first time. And I felt like that would be, honestly, just a blessing, a gift that I could give my team. I feel like if you are able to show up while at home, you can continue showing up while at work as well.
We can ultimately produce a better service and end product for our clients when we are happy and healthy whole people.
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith: Yeah, and I think it really just showed great leadership because, one of the things that I find that, that is really the catalyst that people don't. I appreciate personal leadership in growing a business.
There's a level of personal leadership where we, as leaders, if you're the owner of the company, you are the leader. You have to take responsibility for not only the revenue but also for the culture of your company. You're taking ownership of how your relationships are within the company and being able to determine that there's a certain culture that you want within your organization and then following whatever the next steps are.
Same as you would follow a financial plan, following those next steps to make sure that the culture rises to a higher level, even as your revenue rises to a higher level. I know right now that a lot of people are fighting to get all of their tax stuff aligned for their bookkeeper or accountant and all of those things.
Share a little bit for the person who may not even know the difference between a bookkeeper and an accountant. How do we even know who we need in the process of getting our finances and our business in
Danielle Brooks: order? I'm so glad you asked that question. Yes, most people come to our company wanting us to help them with taxes, and we actually don't do taxes, but we do everything that you need to have an order for tax time.
So it's seamless for your tax accountant. So, the difference between a bookkeeper and an accountant, I like to explain that the bookkeeper really is just they're just the reporter. Their job is to document everything that happened in your bank, making sure it matches what happens in your bookkeeping system.
The accountant typically will provide additional insight and strategy based on what those financials are. And it's possible to have your accountant do the bookkeeping, but it's not usual that the bookkeeper is also providing the strategy and accounting. So there are also tax accountants that provide that accounting view strategy, and they also do your taxes.
But our company, as a CFO, is providing the strategy and the analysis based on those financials,
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith: Based on your expertise, where do you see the biggest opportunity to empower small business owners to achieve their own definition of success in their businesses?
Danielle Brooks: I think the biggest opportunity is one taking a step back and defining, as you said previously, what success looks like for you.
And it's going to be different for everybody. Be okay with looking within yourself. Then, own what success looks like for you. And one thing is you mentioned, as far as bringing my team to the rest of the street, one thing that I didn't realize as it comes to growing a business that, Oh, I now am going to be a leader when it comes to growing a team.
That wasn't something that just made sense to me initially. I was just like, Oh, I've got a bunch of work that I can't handle. I need help. And I didn't realize that I was going to also be a leader in the midst of growing a team. And so with that. I still continue to hone and change. I feel like a little bit about what success looks like for me.
So be okay with whatever it looks like for you. It's maybe different than the next person who may not have kids, or even if you do have kids and you want to travel and bring your kids with you, or you want to be at home. I just encourage people and all my clients. When they first start working with us, I ask them what their goals are for the next one, three, or five years.
So that we're all moving in the same direction, I want to help them. Get to wherever it is. They see they're supposed to go wherever God is leading them. We are a team here, but be okay with defining success for yourself and then making the right next step to get there.
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith: Danielle, how can people get in touch with you to learn more about you and your services?
Danielle Brooks: The easiest way is to go to our website: pearlbc.com. You can go to our contact page if you would like help with our services; I also have a book coming out a little bit later this year that provides more insights and examples of how we've helped other clients amplify their freedom.
And there are also additional resources to help people really still continue to amplify their freedom, but you'll find all that on our website.
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith: And you have a free resource. Is that correct?
Danielle Brooks: Yes. So they're a free resource. If they go to our website, it'll be at the top there. And it's really; I feel what's a tool, a resource guide to help the small business owner that is starting out potentially by yourself, but how to continue to just take the one step in order to release some of the things that are taking up your time and energy on a day to day basis to provide that freedom for you.
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith: Excellent. Then y'all, I want to thank you so much for joining us and helping us understand how we can choose to amplify our freedom within our businesses. Until next time, everyone live fully, love boldly, and rest intentionally.
I Choose My Best Life Podcast is one of the Top 20 Christian Women Podcasts
I Choose My Best Life
Books: Colorful Connections, Sacred Rest, Come Empty, Set Free to Live Free
Connect with Saundra:
Twitter: @DrDaltonSmith
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/drdaltonsmith
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In this episode, Dr. Tope Keku joins me to discuss how we can choose to trust God when we face bitterness, unforgiveness, and resentment in our relationships.
Take Dr. Tope's Healthy Marriage Quiz.
Get your copy of Weathering Storms: Finding Treasures in the Ruins.
Show Notes:
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith: Welcome everyone. This is Dr. Saundra, and you're listening to I Choose My Best Life, where today we're going to be chatting about trust in our marriage. How do we get over hard situations? How do we keep staying faithful to the one we said yes to? And I have with me today Dr. Tope Keku, who is a certified life and marriage coach, as well as an author, speaker, and Bible teacher.
To help us with this journey so that we can stay faithful, even during times of difficulty. Tope, welcome to the show.
Dr. Tope Keku: Thank you, Dr. Sandra. Thank you for having me
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith: here. I know most of the time when someone writes a book or goes deep into a topic, there's usually some backstory to it. So I'd love for you to begin by sharing a little bit about who you are and your journey in this topic.
Dr. Tope Keku: Okay. So a little bit of a back story about me is that I am a child of God. And I'm passionate about helping women find their way out of these terms of life. And how did I get to this place? A little bit is that I am from Nigeria. Originally, I was born and raised in Lagos, Nigeria. I grew up in a Christian home, always known the Lord since I was a child, I've always known the Lord.
But at age seven, I gave my life to Christ. And this will make sense in a minute. So I just need to give you a little bit of this backstory so you can understand where I'm coming from. I gave my life at age seven, was raised in a Christian home, and always had a relationship with the Lord.
There's never a time that I can remember that I haven't had a relationship with the Lord. One thing that sets that relationship about is that when I was four years old, I started to have dreams and visions, and I would share them with my parents. And when I shared those dreams and visions my parents did, I didn't understand what they meant.
But they would. Take it seriously. They would help me. And this kind of taught me to nurture that. So that became what began my relationship with the Lord one-on-one. And then seeing my parents for us to model that. Daily living in faith was a backdrop to where I am today as a Christian and as a child of God.
Now, fast forward to my marriage. My husband and I came to the U. S. from Nigeria. We went to school here. Both of us went to graduate schools here. And we got involved in the American life. Just, the good old American life taking care of family, running daily, working hard, trying to make ends meet, all of that.
But we lost something vital in relationships. And that's connection. We lost that. And so as we lost that, that became then a bone of contention, a lot of arguments, a lot of back and forth, and just the peace was out the window. And so, for me, where my comfort is in the Lord. So that's why I needed to give you that background.
So I went back to the Lord. And I said I don't understand what is going on here. And because we had hit this crisis point where it was constant tension, I decided to leave for two weeks. And as I left for two weeks, it wasn't just, I'm done. I'm out of here for me. It's, I want to gain clarity. My heart is always towards the Lord.
What do you want to do here? What are you doing here? And so, while going away for two weeks, I was fasting, praying, reading the word, listening, and asking the Lord a lot of questions. And in that process, he began to show me what would happen. What would happen? If I trusted him, and the question he asked me was, will you trust me?
And you might say, did you hear him audibly? No, I didn't hear him audibly. I didn't hear audibly, but he came to me again. The way he speaks to me is in dreams. He came through two dreams. The first dream was in that dream. I saw a road. It was a paved road. It looked beautiful. But then suddenly, there was a big break in the road.
And it was, I was like, how am I even going to cross? So I'm standing there thinking, how will I get to the other side of this? This is terrible. This is a mess. And then suddenly, out of nowhere, I saw these big, heavy trucks coming, and they began to fill in the roads. They began to repair it. And then I woke up.
And when I woke up, I said, Lord, what does this mean? Are you trying to tell me that you will repair my marriage? If I will trust Jesus, what are you saying? I still didn't get a clear answer, but I had a sense that this was where he was bleeding. And then, if that wasn't enough, he showed me in his second dream, what again, where his heart is in all of this.
And in that second dream, I saw a big body of water, and in that big body of water, there was a big snake. If you know me, I do not like snakes. I don't know about you, but I do not like snakes anywhere. This snake was huge. It was huge around like a truck. It was as big as a truck, and it had many colors and many layers to it.
And this snake was moving, you know, when they say as slow as molasses? This snake was moving ever so slowly, coming towards me. And I was like, Lord, please make it go away, make it go away. And then suddenly, it turned ever so elegantly, if you can say something like that, ever so elegantly turned around and started moving away.
Then my son came and threw a rock in the water, and the snake again did that like he was going to turn and look towards me, but then changed his mind and then just continued to go away, and then I woke up, and I was like, Lord, wow, what are you saying? And then I heard again in my spirit, not audibly, but in my spirit, will you trust me?
This situation is bigger than yours. It's not even about you. But will you trust me to walk with you through it? My word didn't say that you would not have any trouble. It didn't say that you will not have trials. It said that even though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death. I will walk with you.
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith: Amen. I love how you bring in your relationship with God and even how you process with God because I think sometimes we forget to inquire of the Lord in our situation, so I love how you bring in the dreams and just how he speaks to you. One of the things I think that's so important is, I, there's Most of us who are married have had those moments in our relationship when hard stuff happens and when it happens, depending on kind of our own personality and how open we are to correction and to being able to listen to how Holy Spirit is leading us. That can sometimes play such a big role. When you talk about trusting God, what does that mean to you Exactly.
Dr. Tope Keku: Wow. Trusting God is fundamental. It's trusting God means I believe that He is who He says he is, that He will do what He says He will do that even if I have my doubts and my questions, which of course I did have, so I will not lie to you, I had a lot of questions, but it's bringing them to Him.
And one of the things that really helps me is David. David in the Psalms. Look at Psalm 13. David is not sugarcoating what he's feeling, what he's thinking, what he's going through. How long, Lord? How long will you forget me here? And so if David, who is the man after God's heart, could Ask those fundamental questions.
It gave me freedom. I found freedom in the Psalms to be able to come to the Lord with my questions. Lord, I've worked with you for a long time. I've known you. I've served you. I've done all this. Why are you still letting all these things happen? Why is all this going on? What are you doing here? But then the Lord brought me to this place.
You're asking the wrong question. So good. It's not why. Ask me what I am doing in this situation.
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith: I Want to go deeper into that because you talk about, when all of this was going on with your marriage, you took a moment to step back. Which, some people will say you should stay put and try to work it out.
But I think there's some wisdom sometimes in putting a little bit of separation so that you don't keep escalating the toxicity. Sometimes, you have to work on yourself for a minute before you can work on us as a couple. Yeah. So, when you took that time to step away, what did God show you during that time?
And how did you progress after he asked you that question? Do you trust me?
Dr. Tope Keku: Yeah, that's a very good question. While I was going away for those two weeks, I reached out to a really good friend. I don't have a lot of friends, but I do have a few close friends.
So, I reached out to one particular friend that I know. I can trust her with this situation, and I can trust that she hears the Lord's will. So I reach out to her, and I say, Hey, listen, here's what's going on. Do you mind praying along with me? And whatever the Lord tells you, do not lie to me.
You come back and tell me what you're hearing. And so half that time, while I was fasting and praying, she was also fasting and praying along and praying. And then she called me one day. She says, talk by, I'm not hearing that you should leave your marriage. What I'm hearing is you should stay put and trust the Lord.
So that was confirmation. So I, then I thanked him. I said thank you for sharing that because you just confirmed what the Lord's shown me, and this is how he's shown me. And then the next part, once, once I got that confirmation, it was like, okay, I'm staying put. Now, Lord, what, how do we go from here?
And then the Lord began to show me it's not even about my marriage. You think you know what the problem is, right? Many times we think when we're married, we think, ah, here's the problem. I'm not the problem. The Lord did an about turn-up, bringing a big floodlight into my own issues and my own gaps.
And one of the key things was I didn't know who I was. I was living according to who I profess to be. I didn't know my identity in Christ. And he began to show me layers of bitterness, layers of unforgiveness. All of this nasty stuff that we had to admit about ourselves. He began to show that. And so the marriage took a back seat.
It was; he was going to work on me first. And whatever he was going to do with the marriage was not of consequence right here. We're going to deal with me and my issues first. And then we can talk about anything else. So that began my journey of me. Finding my identity, rediscovering my identity in Christ, and embracing it.
So, it's been a journey of discovering my identity in Christ, embracing forgiveness, cultivating intimacy with him, and having gratitude and hope. Every day, having hope. And I can expand more on those key treasures that he showed me during that time.
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith: That's so good. I think so often you're absolutely right.
When something like this happens, and we're in a relationship with other people, it's so easy to look at them and say they did this and this, they're wrong here, and God, fix them. God works on their heart. It's easy to look at. Like you said, we're shining the spotlight on them.
And we resist that, that need to actually look at ourselves and reflect on our own part in the situation and how we're actually helping to perpetuate some of the problems. And it's so needed. I think sometimes we rush into relationships; none of us like to be alone, so to speak. So I have, I sometimes fear that.
Especially when I'm sitting, and I'm talking to single friends that they want a spouse or they want a family. Sometimes I feel like we rush into relationships before we actually do the self work that needs to be done. And I feel like a lot of marriages have run into that problem because you find the person before you've actually found yourself, before you've actually taken the time to actually get that identity confirmed in your heart.
I want to address something that I think. Most of us would have an issue with, when God says, trust me in a situation, it's usually because we're not trusting him in that area. So there's some resistance and hesitation and a little bit of pulling back because of, maybe because of fear, maybe because of past experiences, I don't know.
How did you overcome that? Because for him to say, trust me, there had to be some trust disconnect initially.
Dr. Tope Keku: Yeah, so to trust him didn't mean that I didn't trust him on my own level. Trust is in layers. So, we trust in layers. When we first get to know someone, we cannot trust him a little bit.
And then, the more we get to trust them, the more we get to know them, then we can begin to trust and think about. the 12 disciples and the three that were in Jesus's innermost circle. He trusted all the 12, but then he brought this into his inner trust. So what I sensed the Lord was inviting me into is that place of deeper trust in him.
Not that I didn't have the truth, but to come deeper into a place of deeper trust in him. And, in that process, trusting him was going beyond just Checking off the box. So, performance was a key thing for me. Oh, we've done that, right? But trusting him meant I had to let go of the performance. I had to let go of, and I'm checking off the box, but coming truly into a place of sitting at his feet and being willing to listen, willing to allow him to show me new things and embracing those new things that he's showing me about myself, about himself and about myself.
Where he's at work in this situation and what he wants to do in the future.
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith: I love how you described that it's not that you necessarily didn't trust him, but he was taking you into a deeper level of trust, a deeper level of intimacy and relationship. And that's such a great kind of visual picture of the relationship that Jesus had with the disciples versus those.
Three, who are in a deeper level of relationship with him. So I want to get some details about some of the key lessons and revelations that you learned during this journey about yourself and about your identity in Christ.
Dr. Tope Keku: During this journey, I learned that I am a caring person, but everything is always conditional.
My love was conditional. If you did this for me, then I did this for you. If you did that and that, that has no; if you know that the Lord loves us unconditionally, that has no place in his kingdom. And so he's winning me off of that. And he showed me that my identity is not in my performance.
He helped me to see that my. What am I doing at two separate things? My who is secure in him. I don't have to stride. I don't have to all of this running to get the American dream chasing after the wind. I didn't need all that. I just needed to know who I am in him, and everything else that I do flows out of that.
So, my identity as a child of God is that I am loved beyond measure. I'm beloved by name. I am forgiven. I am redeemed. I am blessed. I am, I am approved. So I don't need to seek other people's approval. Oh, if I do this, or if I do that for them, they will like me. If I do this, there's no people-pleasing in this kingdom.
Be secure. He taught me to be secure in who I am in him. And for me, this is a daily battle because the enemy knows this is my struggle. And so, one of the things that I learned during that time was that the Lord took me on a journey for three months. I studied every day, Ephesians one, verses three to 14.
And I read that out aloud. I wrote down those. Key points on a note card stuck on a wall in my bathroom, and I still had those in my bathroom. I dress up in them every day, even this morning. I affirm to myself that this is who I am. And so that, for me, is a place of security. And then everything else that, if my identity as a mom is threatened, my identity as a wife is threatened, my identity as a colleague, as a friend, as whoever is threatened.
Those can be threatened, but this stays. And without getting to this, a lot more that I could ship, but without getting to all of that, every identity that I ever thought was my identity, all of those have been shaking. Marriage and finances have been shaking. Work has been shaking.
What else? Health has been shaking. Any identity that, anything that I could just put my identity in, they've all been stripped, including homelessness. And so that for me has helped me to stay secure in this and to know without a shadow of a doubt, I am loved by the father.
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith: Oh, that's beautiful.
And you had to work through some things. I know there were five specific areas that you mentioned, including bitterness and unforgiveness, resentment, anger, and communication. I'm sure there's somebody who's listening right now who has either walked. They went through similar journeys and are still in that healing process within their marriage.
Or there might be someone who's married right now, who's thinking, you know what? I don't know if I need to go away for a couple of weeks, a month, or somewhere in between there, but I need out. What are some strategies and insights that you have that address these issues of our own heart that need to be mended to help improve our relationships?
Dr. Tope Keku: I think the key is to do that work with the Lord, not to, yes, the marriage may have problems. Yes, you may have relational issues with whatever, but leave that alone for a while and just focus on yourself and the Lord. Lord, where am I with you? Where are we at? How is our relationship?
Because when that vertical is settled, then all the other horizontal relationships will fall in alignment. And so it's going to the Lord, getting that identity, securing him, embracing that identity, and then the forgiveness of the resentment, the bitterness. I would be honest. It doesn't go away in one day.
So unforgiveness was a key thing. I have both resentment and unforgiveness. And every day, I would say, I can't do it. I just can't. I can't forgive. There's no way I can do this. This is too hard. And one day, while I was running, I saw a vision of Jesus Christ on the cross. I was coming up this hill, and I saw that picture.
I was like, ah, and it broke my heart because I could see myself as one of the ones who put him there. And if he did that to redeem me, then who am I to say I can't forgive? And so I just said to him, Lord, I ask your help. Help me to forgive. I can't do it. Help me to. I surrender my need to be right. I surrender my need to fix this.
Help me to forgive. And it didn't happen overnight. But slowly, the bitterness, the unforgiveness, went away as I kept asking him for it. And one thing I would say, how do you know that you're no longer resentful? You're no longer harboring unforgiveness. When you think about whatever the issue is that is creating the crisis, you.
If you no longer have any emotional triggers, then you're forgiven. You're forgiven the issue. It does not register on an emotional scale.
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith: We're chatting with Dr. Tope Akiku. She is a life and marriage coach and the author of a devotional book titled Weathering Storms, Finding Treasures in the Ruins.
Tope, I would love for you to share a little bit about your book and just what readers would find when they dive into this devotional.
Dr. Tope Keku: My book, Weathering Storms, was written to help women, so it captures some of the things that we've talked about. It's a 90-day devotional, and it was written to help women who are going through life's storms to get a heart for God in their situation.
They will find. Devotions that help them to take hold of their identity. Devotions that help them to deal with forgiveness. Devotions that call them to deeper intimacy into their secret place with God. Devotions that help them to cultivate gratitude on the journey. And then devotions that help them to embrace hope.
To always expect that something great is going to happen.
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith: Yes, I know Toby has a real heart for helping women find their identity in Christ, renew their confidence, and help build those relationships back up so they can have those full lives in Christ, those John 10, 10 lives. So, Tobe, I want to make sure people know how to connect with you and learn more about your book and your other resources because you're also a speaker, and you do quite a bit of training as well with courses.
Dr. Tope Keku: Yeah, so people can find me on my website at hidden treasures and riches.com. They can also find all the resources there for the podcast, the coaching, speaking, and course courses as well. I have a free offering for your listeners today. If you wanna find out the health of your marriage, I have a quiz, a healthy Marriage quiz.
It's at hidden treasures and riches.com. Forward slash quiz.
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith: Excellent. And I'll be sure to include the links to your books as well as your website and your freebie, the quiz. I think that's something all of us would benefit from just seeing where our marriages are and what we can do to help make them and ourselves stronger.
Toby, I want to thank you so much for joining me, and I'm going to give you the final words today before we close. If someone's listening right now and they are just in that place where they are struggling with any kind of relationship. What encouragement do you have for them?
Dr. Tope Keku: Today, if you're listening and struggling in your relationship, I want you to know that there is hope.
God loves you powerfully. He loves you personally, and he loves you passionately and never loses hope. Embrace your identity in him. Get alone with him. And lastly, get in a community of believers, people who are going to help you along this journey. It's not meant to be a journey that you go through alone.
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith: Until next time, everyone, live fully, love boldly, and rest intentionally.
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Caris Snider shares how we can choose to find sacred pauses even in the car line while waiting to pick up our kids.
Connect with Caris on Facebook and Instagram.
Get your copy of Car Line Mom.
Show Notes:
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith: Welcome, everyone. This is Dr. Saundra, and you're listening to I Choose My Best Life. Today, we are going to talk about how we enter the presence of God, even when we have a lot going on, especially if you're a mom with kids and you're transporting them all over the place. I have Caris Snider with me today, the author of a new devotional called Car Line Mom. I want us to talk about that because I feel like there are certain seasons in our lives where it seems impossible to break away and find time for God. But there are always opportunities. Caris, thank you so much for joining me.
Caris Snider: Thank you for having me today. I'm excited to be here.
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith: I Want to start just by learning a little bit about you. You wrote a book. With a title that I adore because it brings back so many memories of sitting in that car line. I just want to know a little bit about your background. Tell us a little bit about who you are and your family.
Caris Snider: Absolutely. So, I am a car line mom. I have two daughters. I have a daughter. We are in high school. We have entered into that season of life as well. She's a ninth grader. And I also have a daughter who is in fifth grade. So we have a teen and a tween if you will. So we are absolutely in the car a lot going and coming.
My husband and I, Brandon, have been married for 19 years and we live in the great state of Alabama. I have practically literally lived here my whole entire life. So if you hear that accent, everyone, yes, I am. It's that Southern drawl, if you will. But we love living here. We even have a little mini golden doodle.
He's a part of our family as well, but I graduated from the University of Alabama with a child development degree. Over the past few years, I have been speaking and writing and just sharing my own journey with moms and with teens and with any generation that needs to know, Hey, your faith and mental health go together.
God cares about it. And there is hope. And so to have this opportunity to write about it, to encourage our moms who are feeling stressed and overwhelmed, I am just thankful how God, never wastes anything and how he's brought everything together. For good in my life. So that's a little bit of me and who I am and what I do.
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith: I really wanted to speak with you because I feel like you, you truly get it. And I think that for a lot of us when we approach motherhood, we approach it with a can-do attitude, which is good. We need some of that to be able to persevere, but we also, I find, sometimes we. Almost forget in the process as we're nurturing other people that we have to be nurtured as nurturers of ourselves.
We have to keep that part of ourselves that can reflect on our own needs and the places where we need to be restored and where we need to seek help and assistance. There was a study that you mentioned from a 2023 state of Motherhood survey. And it said that it revealed that the top source of worry for mothers is mental health concerns.
Share a little bit about why that's concerning.
Caris Snider: I think that's concerning because mothers are aware of this mental health crisis that we have going on, not just for our Children and our teenagers, but for ourselves. They are struggling to find those safe places where they can talk to you about what they're struggling with and what they're going through.
I think, for our moms for all of us. We put this expectation of perfection on ourselves to get it right. When those sweet babies are put into our hands, we leave the hospital to know all the answers, to know what to do, and we just don't know. And then we put ourselves on the back burner and we give everyone the steak, the mashed potatoes, the good salad.
And then we give ourselves the leftovers, and moms are seeing. This is not working. They are feeling exhausted. They are feeling burnt out, and they are wondering, is God mad at me? Did he get it wrong? Am I the right person for the job? And so the concern that we are seeing that moms have for their mental health, knowing there's a problem that they are feeling anxious.
They're fearful, with all the things going on in the world, that they're isolating themselves away; they don't have that community. I am grateful that we are seeing the problem, but our moms are also saying to themselves, what are the solutions? What can I do? Because they do not want to operate in this way anymore, they want to take care of themselves, they want to take care of their mental health, but they don't know, they don't know what to do, and they don't know what the solutions are.
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith: Yes, and that's what I want us to talk about during this time together because I feel like when you know that there's a problem and you don't know what to do next, that can sometimes be even more stressful and I wanted that particular survey even talked about nearly half of the mothers are currently seeking some type of assistance or therapy with over 32 percent of them reporting anxiety as the area of Concern.
And I know anxiety is a topic that is near and dear to your heart. You've written quite a few other books actually about anxiety. What has been your own personal mental health journey?
Caris Snider: Yes, about 11 years ago, anxiety and depression almost took my life. I was a master of the mask. My husband and I, at that time, were worship leaders at our church.
I had a successful business going on within my home and my daughter, who's in 9th grade now. She was living her best toddler life then, man. Everything on the outside. side looks great and looked perfect, but I was being crushed by the weight of the anxiety on the inside feeling; my heart would race, or I would feel breathless, and I would have those thoughts, those what ifs, you know, the worst case scenarios playing out in my mind that would paralyze me.
In my own life, I was also in a season, if I was being very honest with you, where I didn't think anxiety and depression were real. And if anyone came to me wanting help and advice, my advice would be to pray harder, try harder, do more, and suck it up. And those are not. Those are not healthy things.
Those were not the best things for me to say. And I found myself in the bottom of the bottom wing, maybe a hundred pounds with the weight of the world on my shoulders, thinking that I was hopeless, worthless, and useless, and God couldn't use a mom like me. God couldn't use a woman like me, but at the bottom of that pit, I'll never forget feeling like God just whispered, look up.
And when I looked up, there were helpers. There was a counselor and a doctor, and my church family was there, and I wasn't alone, and I began to realize, Hey, anxiety is very real. Depression is very real. These mental struggles that we face are real, and we're not alone. They are happening to adults and teenagers and our children all across the world.
So we need to bring light to the darkness. I began to realize then, why are we in the faith community not talking about this? Why are we not championing The idea that God has given us practical skills that are connected to his word, connected to truth? And when we can put action and truth together, that gives me chills to think about how powerful that is.
And so that began me on this journey of wanting to learn to study and how to talk about it in a way that we can all begin to practice these healthy, practical action steps that can really be life-giving and life-changing for us. As long as we go through this process it is a process. And I have people ask me all the time, are you free?
Do you ever have anxiety or depression anymore? And I wish I could say yes, but there, I still have days, and I still have moments, but I've learned God has equipped me with what to do when those moments in those anxious thoughts try to come in and steal my life. I'm learning now how to push through instead of trying to push away.
Does that make sense?
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith: It absolutely does. And I'm so glad you said that because I think that's a misconception that people have: You arrive at some point in time, and you never feel any of this stuff. And that's not reality. I'm a mom; my oldest son is actually at the University of Alabama in his sophomore year; he just went there.
And so you can imagine when you release your first child into the world. You're gonna have some thoughts that hit your head because they are not in your. They're not in your back pocket anymore where you can know everything that's going on. And so I think it's wisdom to realize that you're gonna have these waves where things come at you.
Life happens. And the tools that you mentioned, that is, I think, is the key. Truth in action. Understanding what the truth is you believe that you can ground and solidify your faith on and then what are some of the practical action steps you can do. So for yourself, what are a couple of scriptural references or even specifics from the Bible?
Maybe it's not a specific scripture. Maybe it's just a concept from the Bible that you have grounded yourself within the truth.
Caris Snider: Yes, I think of three specifically very quickly. First of all, on the anxious thoughts, I go quite a bit to Philippians 4:8 to think about what is instead of what if. Those what-ifs want to loop in our minds, and everybody's what-ifs are different.
So when those anxious thoughts are coming when we go to remind ourselves, what is true? What is holy? What is pure? What is excellent? What is praiseworthy? Let's think about those things and practice shifting those thoughts. That's one thing that helps me take those thoughts captive and replace them with truth.
Second, it is this idea that we need community. Friends, you are not meant to live a life alone. Galatians 6:2 says we are to bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. So, that idea that we have to be isolated that is a lie of the enemy. We need to be surrounded. We need those arm bearers.
When we are going through those difficulties, that'll hold us up and say, hey, I got you. And then, when it's our turn to be the arm bearers for them, we can return that favor. And then the third is gratitude, man. Gratitude is so powerful. When we think of those good things in our life, when we look to those things that we can be grateful for and thankful for, not that we're ignoring the situations and pretending that everything is fine, but choosing to focus on the good.
I'll never forget. I was in a school, and we were. Practicing some of these coping skills together and gratitude is one we do. While I was in an eighth-grade class, a young man raised his hand to say what he was thankful for, and everybody was just waiting for him to say something funny to get the class riled up.
And he said, Hey, Caris, I'm grateful for the foster family I'm with right now because they're nice to me. And the whole class, you could see, they were like, okay. We understand what she's trying to tell us. So gratitude is powerful. Community is powerful, and changing those "what if thoughts" to what is again?
This is a process that I go through things that I cling to on a daily basis to go to those tools because I don't want to live in a place of anxiety and depression. I've been there and done that, and it doesn't get to steal my life anymore. So let's all work through these things together and practice these things and imagine a dream and vision about what my life could be like if I tried this on a regular basis.
How could it look different in seven days, 21 days, a year from now?
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith: Anxiety and depression do not get to steal my life. I love that when we're looking at some of the action steps that someone can take. I feel like this was where I was just so impressed with your new devotional, Car Line Mom, because the thing that we often hear and that I, I myself, said for many years, I don't have time.
I'm so busy as a mom. And you know what? There is some bit of truth to that. There's a lot of stuff that if you're working from home or if you're homeschooling, the day gets filled up with all the things. There's so much that we need to do to make sure everybody's where they're supposed to be, make sure food's on the table, make sure there's food in the kitchen to put on the table.
So many things, what, if we looked at this in some type of stepwise approach, what would you say would be step one, two, and three that a mom who's looking at her life and she's saying, Caris, I don't know, girl, if I can do this. I don't know if I have time for a devotional.
Caris Snider: I really love that question. And I'm giggling as I think about the rest of my day that I have ahead as a mom of all the things that we have to do. So if we're talking about this, man, we are friends. All of us as moms are coming together here, a couple of steps that I think we could take number one, instead of looking at it in the big picture, let's look at it in the moments, what moments do you have where you can pause and read a devotional, spend time with God, go to God in prayer. When you're in that car line, when you go there for just a few extra minutes, pause in that moment and give that to the Lord, open up that devotional book, if it is car line mom or your Bible or the Bible app.
So number one, let's give it a moment and look at it in that way instead of big chunks. I think that can be helpful. Number two, look at your time. Can you get up earlier in the morning? Are you in a season where you can do that? Are your children where they're a little bit more independent, and so you're not having to stay up late to rock a baby to get up in the middle of the night?
You're going to have to give yourself grace in there. I think that's part of that moment as well. Give yourself grace because these seasons are going to change. If you can get up early. If you're going to bed, maybe a little bit later because you've gotten everyone asleep, take that time when you're going to bed a little bit later to just pause again at that moment to give it to the Lord.
I think that's going to be helpful for us as well. I think, too, for you as a mama, what are the expectations you're putting on yourself? We have to acknowledge this. That's a powerful thing. Are you expecting perfection from yourself? Are your expectations unrealistic? And if they are, let's shift out of that.
Let's put a realistic expectation on yourself. What is doable for you as a mom right now in this season? Are your children in a lot of activities? Are you involved in your church and the PTO? Look at your schedule and put doable expectations on yourself. And finally, and I hope this gives somebody freedom today, Say no.
Where can you say no? Those two letters are so powerful, and they can change a lot of things in your life. No is not a bad word. It is a powerful word that God's given you because you're saying no to all the filler things, and you're saying yes to all the God things that he has for you. So where are you saying yes to please others to fill your schedule where you can finally say no and nope?
That doesn't fit right now for this season, it might fit for another season. But right now, my answer is. No, and that's okay.
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith: Yes. No is okay. I feel no is the most underused word.
Caris Snider: Amen
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith: We really need to practice it more often. Start with just practicing saying no to a couple of things just to get it back into our vocabulary.
I think hustle culture is just the real thing. It's something that it permeates not only. The business world, but it permeates the family now. So I would just love your insights on how you feel hustle culture is affecting just the quality of motherhood, our ability to enjoy it and to embrace it.
Caris Snider: Amen again to that. So hustle culture is telling us to go do this. This is how you are a successful mom. And the difficult part that I'm personally seeing with that is the goalpost move. And then you, it just adds more hustle in there, and it's I got no hustle left, man.
I don't know where to fit anymore in. And so it's always trying to please to achieve. And the great thing for us to remember is that God. And he is already pleased with us, not by what we do, but because of who he is; he made us, he said, we are fearfully and wonderfully made. And the hustle is taking away these opportunities for us as moms to just stop and see our children.
Being children, it is not just affecting us, but now it's trickling down into our kids, and they feel like their schedules have to be filled. They feel like they've got to constantly be doing things. And I think this plays into why our children are feeling so anxious. There's no rest in there. And I know you could speak great greatly to that, but.
They are feeling that pressure to constantly be doing, constantly be moving, and that's not what God wants for us. And I think something that I have been convicted about with the hustle culture is to put margin in there. We have to have margin in our life and our schedule. If you read a book, there's a margin in the lines for your brain and your eyes to take a break and process what you're doing there.
There are margins in good, healthy businesses, and in our finances, there are margins in our clothes. We need margin in our lives. We need those opportunities where we can have those pauses, and we can have those moments as a family and with our kids to just see that it's okay not to do all the sports and not do all the things to just pause.
And so I think if we will embrace the culture of pause and stillness that can push that idea away that we have to hustle, that we have to do all the things because then we're seeing that we're walking in the way that God truly wants us to walk. And I think there's more, there's peace there.
I think our moms want peace. Don't you? I think that's what they, that they really long for. And when we can put in a culture of pause, that can help them bring in peace. What do you think about that? I totally
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith: agree. I think that a culture of pausing, resting, reflecting, being still on purpose. I think that is how we recapture the joy of parenting, recapture motherhood, recapture marriage if we're going to expand it throughout the entire family.
I think it's such; there's such wisdom in what you've shared, and I'm so excited about your new book. We're chatting with Caris Snider. She's the author of Car Line Mom Devotional. And Caris, I want to conclude with this. I would love to just hear your heart to a mother who is maybe even sitting in the car line right now, listening to this, thinking this is all I do all day.
I cart my people from one spot to another. I'm the unpaid chef, cleaner, cook, driver, all the things. How do I get back to a place of just me and God?
Caris Snider: I think about her, I just imagine maybe if she's sitting in her minivan or a car and there's goldfish in the backseat, and there's sweatshirts in the trunk and all the equipment, and maybe she's looking over at her passenger seat with all of her books and her, maybe her purse and her phone is sitting there and her snacks.
I just see her with tears running down her face, just wondering, have I failed? Have I let Kai down? Have I let my family down? Am I up for this job as a mom, and can I just say to you? Yes, you are. God did not get it wrong. He does not make mistakes, and the way that He brought the children into your life, however, that looks, whatever that journey was, He knew exactly what He was doing, and He called you, and He created you for this.
I think of Ephesians 2:10. He created good works in advance for you to do, and Mama, you are in the midst of doing a good work. And I just want you to know that God hears you, he sees you, and he loves you. And he thinks of you as his daughter, and he's right there with you. So just take a moment now, pause, pour your heart out to him, pour your requests out to him, and just ask him for his help to help you. Get in his word to help you take those moments of pause to shift out of hustle and to move in a new way of living a new way of being a mom and being all that he's called you to be and to walk in his grace today. Amen.
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith: Amen. Caris, I want to make sure everyone knows how to get in touch with you, learn more about the work you're doing, and get a copy of your new book.
Caris Snider: Absolutely. You can find me. I like to hang out on Instagram and Facebook at @carissnider, and I'd love for you to join us on my website and my email list family. That's my name as well, carissnider.com. All my books are there. And if you want a quick place to find Car Line Mom, head on over to carlinemom.com.
And you're going to be able to find it there and all the things, and I would love to just get to know you and just be a part of your journey.
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith: So wonderful, Caris, to have a chance to chat with you, and we will link to your book, your website, and your social media within the show notes so that people be able to get a copy and begin their own journey of getting closer with God every day.
Thank you so much for joining me. Thanks for having me. Until next time, everyone live fully, love boldly and rest intentionally.
I Choose My Best Life Podcast is one of the Top 20 Christian Women Podcasts
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Books: Colorful Connections, Sacred Rest, Come Empty, Set Free to Live Free
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Christine Trimpe helps us crush our carbohydrate cravings, decrease our sugar consumption, and improve our overall well-being in this week's episode of I Choose My Best Life.
Get Christine's FREE Crush Your Cravings Wellness Guide for Christian Women.
Show Notes:
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith: Welcome, everyone. This is Dr. Saundra, and you're listening to I choose my best life today. I have Christine Trimpe with me, and we're going to be talking about how we get our health and wellness back on track this year by focusing on improving the way we eat. And a big part of that is getting some of the unnecessary, over-processed sugars out of our lives.
Christine has an amazing story and journey she's been on with God. She has lost over 100 pounds and now helps others do the same to get their health back on track. Christine, thank you so much for joining me. Let me have you begin by just sharing a little bit about your background. And how did you come into this type of work?
Christine Trimpe: Hello, Dr. Saundra; thank you so much for hosting me today. I'm overjoyed to be here. I am what I call an accidental author and an accidental speaker. I had no idea that God had this story in store for me. But he did take me on an amazing journey of a health and heart transformation, starting back about seven years ago on the side of a mountain in Colorado.
I had been living morbidly obese for about three decades at that point. I tried to climb up a trail with my husband in the beautiful Rocky Mountain National Park, and I ended up gasping for breath, and I just could not go another step further. And that was really my turning point, my story of where I finally began the process of surrendering all of my cravings, my fleshly cravings, everything that was separating me from God's best for my health and wellness.
So that's where my turning point started.
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith: I love that you're just very honest about that. I started because I was trying to do this walk and basically couldn't because of my weight. I think a lot of people have been in that situation, whether it's trying to chase grandkids or on vacation, and you're trying to do something, and you're like, wow, this seatbelt on this plane's not quite fitting anymore.
There are so many times when we can be in those moments where we just don't feel comfortable in our bodies anymore. However, I think just about everyone's had a time when they've tried to lose weight. And so, how was this time different? I'm sure that wasn't the first time that you thought about your weight or losing weight, but something had to change this time to end up with a hundred-pound weight loss that you have kept off.
Christine Trimpe: It was definitely time for me to start taking back control of my health and all of those years, those 30 years. Of course, I had tried dieting. I tried everything: counting calories, eating less, and moving more. And at one point, I was even in a hospital-based program where I was only drinking liquid shakes.
I do not recommend it; looking back, that was a very bad decision, but yeah, I had tried all the things. When I look back on that moment on the side of the mountain, I just remember gasping for air and feeling so defeated and humiliated that my husband continued up the path, and I told him to go on without me.
I was fine sitting on the side of the path, but I did have tears welling in my eyes when I contemplated my circumstances. And I can remember just saying, God, I want to feel better. At that point, I had already given up hope that I would ever live at a healthy weight because every time I approached a healthy weight, something would happen. I would jump on that yo dieting rollercoaster again, and I would gain the weight back, and then I would also gain what they say about 10 pounds more than what it originally started at.
So I just, at that point, I wanted to feel better. I didn't want to be sucking down air, and that path wasn't that strenuous; it was a hike that most average people can do in that park. Yeah, I just said; I cried out to God silently through weld tears in my eyes and just said, I want to feel better.
I want to feel better. And I didn't have any expectations at that time. But now, when I look back on it, I know that was the key. That was the turning point that completely changed my life.
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith: I think that's such an important point because, very often, we get caught up on the numbers on the scale.
We get caught up on clothes sizes, and those become the focus. And so it's not so much about our well-being or health sometimes. Sometimes, it gets very focused on superficial things. And so I think that heart change to, Oh, it's not, I don't just want to look good for my Child's wedding or whatever it is.
I want to feel better. I want to enjoy my body. I want to be able to do activities and not feel pain and discomfort and all those things afterward. What are some of the first steps you took when you had this shift? How did you begin this process?
Christine Trimpe: The very first thing I did when I got home from Colorado was finally going to call a sleep doctor.
I had been putting off calling a sleep doctor for years because I knew if I went and had a sleep study done, I was going to be coming home with a CPAP machine, and that just sounded dreadful to me. But I really, my heart went out to my husband, bless his heart. He was so kind and compassionate with me on that trip because, apparently, in the elevated mountain setting, my snoring got really bad, too.
So, he did make sure to point that out. And so, since I felt bad for him too, I was partially doing it for him, but I knew I had begun. At that point, I was already studying our hormonal health and the impact of hormones on our entire health, especially in relation to my obesity. And I knew that sleep was so important to our hormonal health.
And I thought that's a good place to start because I'm so exhausted daily. If I could sleep better, maybe I could start. Step by step, taking back control of all the things in my health that I needed to set up that sleep study. Sure enough, I came home with that CPAP machine, and As dreadful as it sounded at the time, I am so grateful for that machine because it definitely changed my health for the better
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith: Yeah, that's a good point.
I think many people do have some ideas of, oh, I could never, as far as a CPAP machine. However, I think a lot of people don't realize just how drained they are. Because of their poor quality sleep, when they feel exhausted and you feel depleted within your body, it has a tendency to make you crave things that will boost up their energy, which has a tendency to be those things that are sugary or caffeinated, those things that aren't always the best options for your health all the time.
And so being able to identify if there's underlying actual medical reasons. While you're feeling some of that fatigue and exhaustion, it is very important to identify first. So absolutely. I think for anyone who's starting a health journey at the beginning of this 2024 year, that's coming to make sure that you get some initial evaluation.
Make sure your thyroid's good. Make sure there are no underlying other issues that are adding to some of the symptoms. And then, after you had that initial kind of checkup with your sleep doctor, what were some of the dietary changes? Where did you start with a nutritionist? Did you start with a specific program?
How did you begin changing what you were putting in your body?
Christine Trimpe: I actually didn't start with anybody because, at that point, I was so frustrated and exasperated by all the things that hadn't worked for so long. Actually, at the same time I got diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea, I was having painful ovarian cysts.
This all happened in the fall of 2015. I had an abdominal and pelvic ultrasound ordered. And yes, I had an ovarian cyst, but they also discovered a fatty liver. So, I was diagnosed with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. And my gynecologist, I think she was expecting that because I was more than a hundred pounds overweight.
So she, she didn't really poo it, but in my mind, that wasn't her focus. She was more concerned about the cyst. So I went home and started researching why did my, why is my liver full of fat. And that's when I went down all the rabbit holes of learning more about your hormonal health and how it impacts everything, your entire health and wellness.
One of the things, and I can't pinpoint, Where I was, but I was reading some nutritional information online and I remember reading that sugar is a major hormone disruptor. And I was like, oh, wow. Okay. So then I really had to evaluate. The first thing I looked at was how I was starting my day. And every day, I was starting my day with, again, to help with that caffeine boost.
But I was starting my day with several cups of coffee that were more. Sugar-flavored creamer than coffee. That's how I started my day, and after doing that research, I decided to quit coffee cold turkey because I couldn't imagine drinking coffee without the sugared creamer.
And so that began my quitting sugar journey. And I credit this entire journey to the fact that I did decide that I needed to eliminate sugar from my diet. So that I could begin balancing my health my hormones, and also reverse my fatty liver disease. That was my main focus at the time.
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith: Now, when you say limit sugar, I think with there being so many different dietary plans and ways of eating that are out there now, some people are thinking, does she mean keto? Does she mean paleo? Does she mean the Whole 360? What exactly are we talking about with eliminating sugar? Did you eliminate all carbohydrates? Did you eliminate just refined white sugars? What did that look like?
Christine Trimpe: I went on an expanded journey because I did commit when I quit that coffee; I did commit a couple of weeks later to stop eating any type of dessert. So, anything made with white sugar or brown sugar.
Then, I decided that I was no longer going to eat the candy that was sitting around in the dishes in my office. I worked in a corporate office. Junk was everywhere. So, I committed to eliminating that. And I just gradually, step by step, started getting the white, sweet sugars out of my diet. And at that time, I did that for about ten months.
And so I was no longer eating sugar and sweet stuff. I was doing really well at that. I wasn't missing it. As soon as I eliminated it from my way of eating, I would say about three or four weeks into it, I realized I was no longer craving sugar. So those went away. And so I was really happy, but my weight loss was really slow.
And so, eventually, I did a little bit more research. Then I had an aha moment when I read something, and I realized that the things that I was still consuming—my typical diet of filling up my plate- were 65 - 65 percent carbohydrates. I was still eating bread, potato, and pasta. And even if I was eating whole wheat pasta or whole wheat bread, I realized that those were converting to sugar in my digestion.
And so the day I read that was the last day I filled up on bread, potato, and pasta. And then that's when the weight loss really happened for me. I started losing weight drastically at that point.
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith: Yeah, I think that's so important to help people to see that. Oftentimes, in this process of getting off of some of the carbohydrates and cutting back on some of the sugars, there is a stepwise approach that most of us have to take. The standard American diet has lots of carbohydrates in it.
And so to decide, Oh, I won't do sugar anymore. I'm going to get off of everything. Your body's going to have something to say about that. You're going to have headaches, and you're going to have some other symptoms, withdrawal symptoms, and detox symptoms. And when you're approaching something like that, to be able to go in a stepwise approach.
Maybe starting with the desserts, as you mentioned, starting with sugary sodas. If you do a lot of sweet tea, I live in the South, so everybody likes their sweet tea. Maybe give up the sweet tea first and then desserts, and then move over into things like potatoes and rice and all those other things that happen to have bread that have a lot of carbohydrates in them as well.
Now, how would you say you feel now that you're living a, as you term it, sugar-free lifestyle?
Christine Trimpe: Physically, I feel amazing. Within a couple of weeks, I'm giving up the bread, pasta, and potato, too. I started feeling like my brain fog lifted, and I started having more energy. I remember my husband looking at me once, saying, who is this person?
Cause I was cleaning out closets, cleaning junk drawers, and just doing chores around the house that I never had the energy to do before. And so physically, I felt amazing emotionally. I felt clearer. And then spiritually, what I love to say is that this lifestyle for me is sugar-free because my spiritual walk with God didn't change until I was sitting on the side of that mountain.
And I had lived as a casual Christian for so many years. But when I came home, and I got that CPAP machine, and I started sleeping better, I began picking up my Bible for the first time in my life as a Christian, the first time in my life every day. And I have not put that thing down. So the freed part for me is not only Not eating sugar.
So, I follow a sugar-free diet, but the freedom for me is like how God has completely flipped the cravings of my heart. My passion is for being satisfied and satiated in his word and just using scripture to balance out my health and wellness and what he has called me to. So yeah, the freed part is all about the freedom.
Freedom in my physical health, freedom in my emotional health, and freedom in my spiritual health are completely transformed.
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith: And now you do a lot of work with other Christian women who are in a similar situation to what you were in on that mountain, helping them get their health and wellness back on track as a Christian health and wellness coach.
What does your coaching technique look like for someone who maybe is hearing us right now and says, you know what? I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired. I know that I can feel better than this. I want to feel better than this. This isn't just superficial. I don't just want to look good in my clothes.
I want to be able to have the energy, stamina, and health to do the things God's called me to do. How would you work with this person?
Christine Trimpe: I love how you mentioned earlier about a step-by-step approach because I do have a plan, and it's very much formulated on the journey that I went through because I can't imagine I shout out to the people who can go ahead and quit cold turkey and all those carbohydrates from their diet, but they are going to experience those side effects that you mentioned. But I love a step-by-step approach. I say that these small habits build and deliver big results. And I love to see the women that I coach find a sense of accomplishment and have some victories in these little habits that they're building.
So yes, my coaching approach includes that step-by-step approach. And I do guide them through step by step. Let's set some boundaries. From day one, we'll learn about what sugar does to your body. And we're going to edify ourselves through God's word. We're going to build up our spiritual walk as well because we really can't do this on our own.
That's what I learned, and I have 30 years of dieting, the rollercoaster, and I never invited God into that process. I felt like I could do all of this on my own. It was my problem. It's my responsibility, but God has so much more in store for us when we get to that turning point in our lives where we can surrender this part of our journey to him.
So yeah, step by step, I have a plan. I have a program that's called the Sugar Freed Me Weight Loss Solution. And it's a 13-week journey together. Which psychologists say is about 90 days. Psychologists say it really takes about 90 days to start having this lifestyle transformation intact so that you can feel good about it and keep moving forward.
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith: What about the person who is hearing all of this, but in the back of their mind, they're thinking, but every now and then, I want a dessert, birthdays pop up, anniversaries come around, every now and then, you want the donut, you want the whatever, does this mean you never get to have sugar ever again?
Christine Trimpe: One thing I discovered personally for myself is that there are sugar substitutes. And I actually enjoy the sugar and flour substitutes like almond flour, coconut flour, stevia sugars, things, erythritol, etc. So I have desserts that I like to make. And since my taste buds have changed, that sweetness is Satisfying to me, but one of the hard and fast rules that I talk about in my coaching is that we have to know our limits, and does that mean I'm never going to eat a piece of birthday cake again?
No, I can eat a piece of birthday cake. I ate a piece of wedding cake at my daughter's wedding, but I knew I was at that point in my commitment with my health and wellness journey in what God has for me in my health and wellness journey; I knew that I had overcome so much in that battle and that I still say I'm a recovering sugar and food addict because I feel like I'm never going to be full.
I healed and recovered from that until I got to heaven because it's every day I wake up to this commitment, but I can have a piece of cake because I don't go on a sugar binge when I do something like that. But now, some of my coaching clients, if they're honest with me and they share with me where they're at in their journey, and they feel like they're going to go on a sugar binge, then I would definitely recommend to them to have their own like low carb dessert made with stevia or erythritol, coconut flour, things like that.
Things that aren't going to send them on a sugar binge. But yeah, everybody has to know their limits. Some of us are, my, struggle much more with emotional eating habits and going on a binge, a sugar binge, for one. A piece of cake could result in a sugar binge that lasts three months, and then you're right back to where you started.
So, we all have to know our limits, and how do we do that? We pray about it. We journal about it. We're honest with ourselves. We have accountability. We have support. We join a community of women who are facing the same situations. And yeah, know your limits. That's an important part.
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith: That's wisdom in that. And I know you do have a community called the Crave community where other women are going through similar journeys, and they can come together and have some fellowship and support in that process. I also want to make sure people are aware of a free guide you have called Crush Your Cravings, the ultimate wellness guide for Christian women.
We've been chatting with Christine Trimpe, and I want to make sure you know how to get in touch with her if this is a journey you must be on for this new year. Christine, how can people reach you?
Christine Trimpe: I would love to connect with your audience, and I have a free gift for them. A guide called Crush Your Cravings. As you mentioned, it is the ultimate wellness guide for Christian women. Find the link below for the show notes for that. I'm happy to send that to you and get acquainted with you in your own sugar freed journey to health and wellness.
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith: Excellent. Thank you so much, Christine. This was so beneficial. And I know so many women will benefit from that free resource. Until next time, everyone live fully, love boldly, and rest intentionally.
I Choose My Best Life Podcast is one of the Top 20 Christian Women Podcasts
I Choose My Best Life
Books: Colorful Connections, Sacred Rest, Come Empty, Set Free to Live Free
Connect with Saundra:
Twitter: @DrDaltonSmith
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