Today, we are talking to my husband, Jacob Redmond.  In this conversation we're touching on how each of our personal  narratives are different, and how within your marriage it is important  to connect and talk back through the seasons. Which is exactly what Jake  and I are doing in this conversation.

Jake and I share some of the seasons we've been through, and the ways God was working upstream all along.

You'll hear:

• Why we moved, and the story I've never told that influenced that decision.
• How our narratives of the same story differ.
• Some ways our faith journeys are unique and intertwined, at the same time.
• The reason Jake says we should all play a little more, and take off our busy badges.

God's word stand's alone. 

Guides can teach you and bring you safely to the edge or through the forest, but they cannot make the jump for you. The journey is yours, and yours alone, but taking the journey with pathfinders who are willing to come alongside you can always help us remember who God is.

Ultimately, Jesus is the guide we are all seeking. After all, it was he who said,

“Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take real rest. Walk with me and work with me – watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” Matthew 11:28-30

Can you think of some thoughts that choke out the potential for growth?

What about thoughts that were planted long ago, but they are trees towering over you telling you what to think of yourself but when you look at the tree or thought, you realize it is dead and withering?

What then, do you do when you find thoughts that are new seedlings? Waiting, quietly and patiently to be tended and nurtured?

This week, we are going to move from talking about our emotions to examining our thoughts. So far, I have been trying to help you un-link emotions from thoughts, because I believe that emotions are meant to be trusted. But today, we are going to discuss how thoughts aren't always true.

I'll guide you through what that looks like in our Sacred Garden, and I'll share four questions from Byron Katie that will help you navigate those thoughts.

After publishing the episode, “Safety for your Emotions”, I found I needed to go a little deeper into a practice that I touched briefly on in that episode. So, we are going to lean into this practice of reflection.

This practice can be summed up into four movements:

1. Choose a memory.
2. Uncover what was left unsaid.
3. Validate your feelings.
4. Seek God.

If this is something you'd like to go deeper into, I created an image to help you remember the steps.

If you feel safe to share on social media, please tag the show on Instagram @wildernesswonderpodcast and use the hashtag #thetruththatcannotbeseen

Wilderness Wonder is going to be moving to a different release day every week. Wilderness Wonder will be releasing on Monday mornings now, instead of Wednesdays. Next week, October 18, we’ll begin this shift, and we will be back in full force with our next episode about emotions.

This season we’ve been developing the idea of our Sacred Garden, our one-acre plot of land in our soul. The space where God and you reside together.

Today, we’re going to sit by the river, and we’re going to build a safety net for our soul.

We will, together, destroy and overthrow kingdoms in our hearts that were built by expectations, traditions, and society; and not built by God. Instead, we will build up and plant new ideas, ideas in line with God’s grace.

Emotions are signals trying to give you information about survival.  Information about things you should or should not respond to. Why did  God give us these feelings? And who is God in regard to them? What I’d like you to learn is that your emotions are God-given responses to the stimulus around you, part of our image-bearing capacity for the creator of the world, and that is exactly why we need to learn to stop suppressing our hard feelings.