"Rest for my soul in the Lord" with Dr. Evonne Thompson

In today's episode, I'm honored to introduce my guest  Dr. Evonne Thompson, author of "Can you sleep like this? In the rest of God." I'm excited for you to listen to our conversation today on rest, obedience, worship and prayer as they all come together to truly find rest in God. I pray this episode will bless you.

Meet my Guest:
As a speaker, teacher, and author, Dr. Evonne is known for leading high-impact events. Complementing her theological experience and MA in theology, Dr. Evonne is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and MBA graduate from Regent University, allowing her to positively impact diverse communities through her professional work. After completing her doctorate from United Theological Seminary, she launched Elici, which combines her gifts as a consultant and Fortune 200 professional with faith.

​Dr. Evonne lives in the Chicago, Illinois area, and is passionate about local ministry efforts and volunteering. She works as a Director at the University of Chicago, as well as a Spiritual Director for Contextual Ministries students at United Theological Seminary. She serves on the Executive Council for United Way of Metro Chicago’s Women United, as well as other Chicago ministry organizations. She loves God, prayer, worship, family, friendship, fellowship, and laughter. When resting in God, she enjoys traveling, hiking, reading—and a favorite dessert.

Website: www.elici.org

Transcript

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Hey there friends, my name is Ann Calvillo and welcome to Her Scars Tell a Story podcast, a safe space for women from all different walks of life and different backgrounds coming together to share their stories of God's redeeming love. So grab your cup of coffee and journey with us now. Hey there, friends. Welcome to Her Scars Tell a Story podcast. I'm your host, Ann Calvillo, and today I'm with my guest, Yvonne Thompson. Yvonne, welcome to this podcast. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here. Thank you. I've been looking forward to this day. Um, I know you I know you have a message on rest to share with our listeners it's one that I've been anticipating as I myself was just in a season of rest. So I'm really looking forward to hear, your points and just what the Lord's been sharing with you on this topic. Yes. Thank you. Definitely. Since the Lord gave me this, this has been a message that I, he wants me to continue to amplify, especially with all the things that are going on in the world today, a focus on rest, the principle of rest, as well as spiritual wellness. Yes, and so I also want to say that you are an author. Yes. Correct? And so can we show the listeners your book? Yes. So I have written a book um, it's called, Can You Sleep Like This in the Rest of God? It's available in English and also Spanish. I'll let you pronounce it in Spanish because I won't do it justice. So it says, Puedes dormir así? That is good. Oh, en el descanso de Dios. I love that. So, yeah, finding rest in God, right? Can you find rest in God? So you're here to tell us. You're here to tell us what that looks like. And I appreciate that. Thank you. Yes, thank you. So Yvonne, tell us a little bit about yourself. Right. So my name is Dr. Yvonne Thompson, and I lead a ministry called ELECY ELECY. org is where that can be found. And this ministry focuses primarily on the principle of rest helping believers to find rest and balance in order to achieve a kingdom lifestyle that's purposeful, focused and balanced um, particularly as it relates to. A spiritual wellness, whole wellness having sound and balanced mental wellness. That's a lot. And tell me, so what does that look like in a life of a believer? Getting rest? Well, it's definitely a process. One of the things, if you don't mind me using my book as a reference, one of the things, so for me, my personal experience as it relates to rest, relates to just being a corporate professional. I'm working in the marketplace and working as a consultant where I had to travel significantly and also as a single parent and working in ministry and just juggling all these different things and working significantly by. seventy to 80 hours a week. Traveling, sometimes I would have clients on the East Coast and then I would work with the client all day and then get on a red eye flight and fly to the West Coast for a client that I had in California. And be on that red eye flight, not sleep, get up, shower in the airport, get off the plane, shower in the airport, and go straight to the client. And so this is a lifestyle that I lived for a significant amount of time, and I found myself Feeling ill and starting to feel sick. And when I began to ask the Lord, you know, what was the problem in terms of pursuing him? Why I was starting to feel sick, but even just always feeling drained, always feeling mentally overwhelmed. He began to speak to me about the concept of rest and. This was not all in the same period, but it was something that I was mulling over and then I started to just kind of pull back related to my time trying to get a handle on my health. And then I happened to go on a fast for quite some time. It was an issue that I was dealing with in my life. I went on a 40 day fast. And at the end of that fast, the Lord gave me the word rest. And from that word, I began to press in a little bit more. And he told me to write a book. And so during the pandemic I, I had the opportunity because this was a significant time ago, but I never had the time because of always working juggling ministry and other things that I was involved in. So during the pandemic, I was trying to focus on my dissertation. from my doctoral program and to publish that. But due to certain circumstances, not being able to get the interviews that I needed for case studies, he brought back to my remembrance the principle of rest and the fact that he had shared for me to write a book in that regard. And so I began to to sit down and focus on that. And what I found was that the principles that I had learned and gained from that time of just working as a consultant, juggling sometimes 70 plus hours a week on top of being a single parent and doing ministry, how a lot of things were tied together related to the principles that he began to share with me and reveal to me from the word and so all this, while you're what I call the hamster wheel of life, right, yes. And that can be very draining and exhausting. You said you started to feel ill your body It takes a physical toll on your body. Yes, right when we're doing doing doing When we are meeting those deadlines when the demand is high on us, and we have to produce and we have to perform, and that wheel just keeps spinning, but we find ourselves still going to church. So ministry on top of that, right? Still involved in the different ministry assignments that you have, still remaining faithful to the Lord. Yet, you're running on E. Tell us what that looks like. Yes, one of the things that I found in terms of when you are running, running, running, because we actually live in a performance culture. And that performance culture is not just limited to our work environment. It can fall over into our church environment, family environment, especially. Whatever culture that we grew up in, the concept of, whether it's doing other things around the house, doing with cooking, cleaning, making errands sometimes we can be so focused on Bye. Doing, doing, doing, that there's never a time for ourself. So you say, what does it look like? You have your day job, marketplace job, whatever type of job that you might have. You could even be a stay at home parent and it's still the same principle. You're working all day, most often Monday through Friday. You might have ministry. Commitments that are then in the evening time and then even though we might say we're off on Saturday and Sunday, a lot of us, if we have families, we have all of our errands and things that we do on Saturday, cleaning the house, groceries you know, whatever, making errands, all these things. So then when the weekend comes, we still haven't had any time to shut down or to turn off. And if we have children, then we have our family obligations, taking our children, whether it's haircuts or school activities, school events. And then if we're involved in ministry, then when Sunday comes, we're going to church not just to worship, but we have ministry obligations that we're trying to fulfill on Sunday. So then the weekend comes, we're still doing all these things that may not be non job related, are still work related. We're still doing work. And so there's never that opportunity to actually have time for ourself to shut down, whether it's adequate sleep, whether it's some type of self care. And so there's this continuous cycle where we're constantly on the go. And a lot of times, it also diminishes. It's our ability to spend time with the Lord. And that was one of the key things that I found that when the Lord talks about rest in the Bible, it started in Genesis, a principle of rest from a physical perspective, but as you trace it through scripture, he builds on it and then it becomes where there's a link between physical rest and spiritual rest. That is so good. I just think about how even when you're not working, even at night when your mind is still, your mind is still working, there's a difficulty in disconnecting, from the work environment, from the tasks that we have to do, from our responsibilities, And when you mention spiritual rest there's a, quite a few scriptures that come to mind. What are some that come to your mind? Well, there is one that comes to mind in Ecclesiastes, which I may mess up by trying to say it verbatim. In Ecclesiastes, it talks about one handful of rest is better than two hands full. full of strife and chasing after the wind and sometimes when we talk about the performance culture or being productive, work, work, work. We try to accomplish so many things in a day or in a certain timeframe, but the reality is. The longer that we go, the more that we try to produce, the actual utility or value that we're gaining from that productivity diminishes. So if I start, you know, early in the morning, six, seven o'clock, whether it's, you know, doing the laundry, trying to cook, and then I start my. Job work and then after my job work, I might be working on ministry work And I'm pushing myself pushing myself to stay up till 12 1 o'clock in the morning to get things done Most often it's going to take longer to accomplish that because we're tired. We're drained. We're mentally Exhausted then if we were to just stop Yeah Go to bed or relax and then start again the next day and be fresh when we try to accomplish something else So what do we gain out of R. E. S. T.? What do we gain out of it? Well, there are two things. You know, as I shared, there's the physical perspective, and also spiritual. So I'll start first with the physical. In the Bible, in Genesis, you know, the Lord, he established the precedent for the principle of rest. And there are some, like, you know, denominations that have looked at this, and it's a part of their denomination, as far as what they practice. So I'm not talking about anything related to a denomination, or doctrine. It's literally just the principle of rest. And so in Genesis, when the Lord says that he rested on the seventh day and Genesis chapter one, it talks about how he did all these various activities, creative activities, and then in. Genesis chapter two, it says that he rested from the work that he did. And I chuckled to myself when I read this because I'm just like, okay, well in Genesis chapter one, he created the world and he spoke it into existence. And I'm like, okay, well how much energy did that actually take to just speak it into existence? But then it still says that on the seventh day, he rested from the work that he did. And not only did he rest from it, it also says that he blessed it and sanctified it. So in chapter one, he said everything that he created, he said it was good. But when he rested, he said it was blessed and sanctified it. And then the concept of rest from a physical perspective continues to progress in scripture and Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers. And then they call it the Sabbath. And it's given as a law to the children of Israel, where six days that they were supposed to work, and on the seventh day they were to rest. And in that regard, he established it first for himself, but then he rolled it out as a law that they had to follow. And when you look at the Ten Commandments, In the Ten Commandments, there was only, I think, one or two, memory fails me now, but there was like one or two commandments that were punishable by death. And keeping the Sabbath, not keeping the Sabbath was one of them. And so when I looked at that and reflected on it, I was just like, wow, that is so powerful. That not to say that it's a license to, you know, commit murder or to do these things, but those things weren't punishable by death. But if they did not keep the Sabbath, that was punishable by death because he said to keep it. And so even as you look further in scripture. He says, not only were they to rest, not work, they weren't till supposed to till the land that even on that day they're supposed to reflect. They were supposed to remember and it was supposed to be a day of worship. Hmm. And so from that physical concept, he was trying to teach them. a principle about taking a break. And most often, you know, people say, Oh, it's just the Sabbath to worship the Lord, to worship God. But even from a medical perspective and scientific perspective, and I talk about this in detail in the book, how, when you take a break consistently a day a week, how it gives us a positive benefits for our body. That when people work, work, work, and they don't take consistent breaks or vacations, that is detrimental to our health. It causes hypertension, high blood pressure, high cholesterol irritable bowel syndrome, different things, our ability to, Think clearly to meditate our memory, short term memory loss. There's a host of different things that are impacted when we don't have adequate sleep or. Do not routinely take times to, to rest and even and I quote different statistics and medical research about it as well that tied back to scripture. And so God in his infinite knowledge, who is omniscient with all his knowing, like we don't have to only rely on medicine and science, but it's all tied together. Yeah. And even some business articles, they even say the credibility. Of taking, they don't use the word Sabbath, but the credibility of taking a day of rest. What do you say to the individual that says, you know what, I'm just wired this way. I can multitask. This gives me energy. When I'm multitasking, when I'm working, this is just who I am. How do you encourage someone like that to find that time to rest? Well, I mean, I'm one of those people. I'm one of those people. And one, I think as we get older, we begin to feel the impact of that type of lifestyle. But I think it's important to recognize some things as Christians we do out of obedience. And it's a matter of trusting and obeying God that what he sets out and what he sets outlines as a principle is the better way. And so the children of Israel, even if they had capacity or if they had the ability to till the ground, till the land or to work the land. They had to just obey God and trust that what he set out was the best way because there was no reason for them not to go out on the seventh day, but because he said it and he established it as a law, that law was teaching them something that they needed to obey. So we may not always understand and what we want to do because we feel that we're wired that way or made that way He still sets out a principle of a better way And so it's really for us just to obey and again not as a doctrine or as a law But as a principle, just like, for example, people may feel like, Oh, I love the Lord. I love the Lord so much. And so maybe they feel like they don't have to pray as much or they don't have to go to church as much and all these things. But at the end of the day, even if we love the Lord, because we love him, then we should have a desire to obey him. Yeah, that's good. And so I'm thinking right now that, rest being the key point, in our Sabbath, resting in the Lord. Now what does that look like? So we talk about all the benefits of rest. We talk about the blessing of rest and how God commands us to rest in him. Right. What. does that look like on a Sabbath? Right. So first of all, I want to share a Sabbath may not be the same for me as for you. And sometimes people limit the word Sabbath to like Sunday, but a person can take a Sabbath and it can be a Wednesday. So a Sabbath in my mind and how I would look at it, and I talk about it as well. It's a time of rest and rest means ceasing from work, not just our job work. But ceasing from all the hustle and bustle of activity, of errands, of, you know, running around doing the laundry, cooking, those things that may not be a job that we get paid from, but it's still work because it's taking a lot of sustained effort to do it. Now, for example, if you're a person that loves to cook, then potentially that may not be work for you. I cook to eat. So it's work to me, right? So a Sabbath involves taking time for self, you know, taking time for self could be taking your children to the park. It could be going out with a spouse or a loved one, going for brunch, maybe watching a movie. That personal aspect, but also the spiritual aspect, the spiritual aspect that we're not neglecting to spend time with the Lord. So spending time with him, whether it's reading the word, listening to worship music, praying just being still. meditating upon the word, maybe sitting outside and just taking in nature and just thinking about the goodness of the Lord. A lot of times when we talk about Sabbath and self care, self care does not have to involve an activity. Self care and being still and Sabbath can involve being still, just being still along with our thoughts, along with reflecting on God, along with thinking about the Lord and reflecting, remembering how he's been so good, reflecting on his, his goodness. And I think it's something that we as believers don't do much of. Because even when we go to church on Sunday and there's nothing wrong with it, it's great praise and worship, but being still before the Lord. I mean, that's when you asked about scripture, that's a key scripture that I share on is be still and know that I am God. And when we don't have those times of solitude, times of stillness, times of reflection, meditation, remembrance. It impacts our ability to discern, to spiritually see, to spiritually hear what the Lord is wanting to do and how he's wanting to move. Because a lot of times we're so busy and active and Listen to this, listen to that, going here, going there, that he's wanting to just speak to us and sometimes we can't hear him because of all the activity that's going around. And, and I can totally relate to that. I was very distracted and I mentioned, I just came out of a season of nine months of, I would say, rest. You know, I had been on that hamster wheel of life. And I felt like I was burned out. anD so. The Lord kept me in that season. I like to say that, Reset that word reset is what happened in my life And he gave me that word in the in those nine months was reset and I'm doing a reset in you I want you to work from a place of rest How's that possible? It's possible when we learn As you mentioned, to be still when we learn to quiet ourselves, our mind, our thoughts, and say, God, I'm here and, and I know you're present with me and taking that time to just really let God minister to your heart. There have been times where I've just sat in silence at first initially that was awkward. It was scary too. It was like, well, what is this? It's uncomfortable. I, I didn't, I didn't know what to do with it. But after practicing it, I learned to be still and I learned to hear from the Lord through it, through his Holy Spirit, through his word through moments of just quiet prayer with him. Like you said, you mentioned nature walks that that's something big for me. I can just see the grandeur of God, in what he created in his creation in the wind blowing in the leaves being tossed, it's beautiful to see him and know that his presence is with you, and so rest for me was a time of reset. Rest for me was a time also of refreshing, I was refreshed in my spirit. I felt that as if the Lord was pouring into me. It also became a time of creating. That came in months after initially starting my season of rest, where now. Because I believe my thinking became more focused and clear that then this whole creative aspect of myself that I thought I lost as a kid. You know, people would say, I can do this and I can, and I'm like, no, I don't have that creativity in me. That's just not my thing. I was pretty surprised when I began to start being creative again and tuning into the Lord. Tuning into his voice taking time to, get rid of the chaos, the distraction. And I want to say this, that doesn't mean you're going to leave the planet to get that. Right. We have to make room for that. We have to be intentional because I feel like so many things try to rob us of that time with God. And we know that the enemy. The enemy wants to keep us distracted as well. Heard someone say, well, that's just idle time. No, it's not. No, it's not. If it's well spent with the Lord, it's fruitful. It's fruitful time. It's precious time. It's time that we spend in the Lord's presence and get renewed, I think right now the question that I want to ask is for people that have been brought up in the church to believe that, You know still time is idle time, because you're not working, you're not putting your hand to the plow, you know, all these scriptures that back up that whole work aspect and work is important and we are called to work. But what do you say to the person who says, no, rest is idle? It's so funny. The person who wrote the forward to my book Dr. John Ruth and he. He's no longer with us, but he was a professor at Regent University, and that's what he highlighted in the foreword, is that this is something that's not taught in the church, and that even what you just said is how he grew up, you have to work. And I'll even point to the scripture that he says in here. From the four word where he says Proverbs 6, 9 through 11, how long without sleep or sluggard when thou arise out of that sleep, yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep. So shall thy poverty come as a robber and they want as an armed man and that a favorite hymn was work for the night is coming. And it was emphasized that Jesus did not waste his time sleeping, but he spent his nights praying and so should we. But the Bible provides balance on rest and sleep and balance. And in that regard. I still think it ties back to obedience and at the end of the day, the word specifically says be still and that's not the only scripture. There's a number of scriptures that talks about being still that quiet time before the Lord and even like, for example, Elijah, when he was having. Some trouble mentally and emotionally and he was looking for the Lord to speak to him the Lord like he thought that it came in an earthquake or Forget the other example, but there's like two or three instances where he was thinking the Lord came to speak But the Lord wasn't in those big Demonstrative acts he came in the still quiet voice the rustling That he came very quietly and it's the same thing as Christians. Sometimes we miss God because we're not being quiet. We're not in that quiet place. And, in this day with the ponderance of the prophetic and the supernatural and miracle signs and wonders, sometimes we can get away. From the quiet time, but even when you look at the benefits, for example, of sleep, the way God designed us when we sleep, it's the time where our cells are regenerated. It's the time where our muscles are revitalized. Like there's this whole restorative process that's taking place when we sleep. And so to me, that aligns with what's happening in the spirit realm when we're still before God, when we're taking time to rest and be still in his presence, like our perspective is renewed our spirit, our soul, our mind will emotions are refreshed to revitalize will bring restoration to any type of weariness that when we're still before him, Allowing the word to penetrate our hearts, allowing the word to penetrate our mind, our will, our emotions, refreshing our spirit, that whole reset. That's what's taking place in that time of being still is that he's resetting us. One thing that I also took away from this whole season of rest was that God cares for my soul. See, because when I'm busy and I'm doing, there's no time to be present, there's no time to reflect. There's no time to do that inventory of ourselves, when David says, Lord, examine my heart, believer's life that we take time. To see God examine my heart. And when he shows us what's going on in our heart, take time to tend to that. Take time to tend to your soul. Take time to, allow God to minister to your heart. Take time to be honest, real, and open with God. Lord, I'm tired. Lord, this is what's happening to me, God. And I need you. See, those real honest cries, those real honest prayers, God hears them, when we take time to really sit with him, and just say, God, this is my heart. King David says, pour out your heart to God, it's not just about surface level relationship with God. God wants Our hearts, right? And he gets to the soul of who we are, the depths of us, right? And that requires time of rest so that God can search us so that we can allow him to search us. We can allow him to examine us and hear what he's saying to us. That was huge for me. That was huge for me and even healing from past things that because I was so caught up in work and in that hamster wheel of life, I was ignoring. I was just kind of sweeping under the carpet, like it'll go away, God, you're good. It's going to go away. But it wasn't, but it wasn't until I took time to rest and tend to my soul and care, you know, allow God to care for me and my soul. Right and receive that care from the Lord. That was really important to me What would you say to that to to the soul care that God wants to do in us when we rest? That's so good and such an important thought and point because that's like my whole focus as a part of my ministry is ministering to the soul. Because a lot of times when we accept the Lord, you know, like, okay, we have that down. We accepted him, we get baptized, we get filled with the spirit, but there's still so many aspects of our mind, of our emotions that need to be tended to. And in the book, I talk about four ingredients. And one of them is. fervent prayer, which is different from just prayer. Yeah. Fervent prayer is the pressing in and seeking the Lord and the ability to be transparent and vulnerable. Because a lot of times when we say, Oh, you know, I prayed for you, or I prayed and I asked God, it's This surface level where we're not actually seeing God as a, our friend, a close friend, a personal friend, an intimate friend of who we can be completely transparent and vulnerable with the things that potentially we don't want to tell anyone, the things that are good, the things that are ugly, the things that are even nasty and Lord, I have these areas in me. Maybe I'm struggling with some things that You know, he's the one that we can turn to for that. He's the one that we can cry out to for that. And like, I believe in inner healing. I believe in counseling. I believe in deliverance. But there's something also to be said for that fervent prayer of crying out to God for all the things that. are whether it's mentally or emotionally that we're struggling with, that's attacking us, the thoughts, sometimes evil thoughts that we might have because of environments that we grew up in, that even though we accepted the Lord as our personal savior, we're still tormented by thoughts. I mean, maybe we grew up in an abusive home. Maybe we were the abuser and we're still struggling with things. Even though we are now a Christian and so there's healing, there is victory, there is a process of restoration that God wants to bring to each of us. Maybe your story may not be as tragic as someone else's, but at the end of the day, that fervent prayer, one of the ingredients, worship. We're another ingredient that when we're basking in the presence of god and we're focused solely on him that even in the midst of worship, he begins to bring healing. He begins to bring restoration. He begins to touch those areas of our heart of our soul that maybe we squash down from when we were a child and then when we're in another ingredient being still. And the Word of God is another one. All these things work together. It's like there's no chronological order. But when we're putting them all in practice and putting them all in place, that's how he begins to speak to the areas of our soul. And we can't neglect the word of God, you know, a lot of times, I mean, these things are great listening to podcasts, listening to the word on Sunday, but we still have to have some personal accountability where we're actually taking time to read the word and allowing the word to penetrate our heart, penetrate our mind. Penetrate, speak to our emotions, because at some point in time, we can't always respond emotionally. Yes. We can't always respond how we feel. God is concerned about how we feel. But So, as we mature and grow in him, practicing, incorporating, not just practicing, but incorporating this as a lifestyle, begins to minister healing, restoration, and growth, development in our soul. Yes. That's good. And I'm, I'm so thankful you brought up worship because again, going back to my season of rest, worship was key. Worship was key when there'd be moments where I'm in my living room and I'm just raising my hands and I'm worshiping and the Bible says in spirit and in truth, When we can just be before God, we can just be no striving, no performing, none of that because that doesn't matter. God's looking into our heart. This is a time where I say, God, be Lord of my life, be Lord of my heart, be Lord of my emotions, God, be Lord in my mind, God, and we invite Him to that place, god doesn't force his way in, when we say yes, Lord, and we just begin to worship him. Worship is a lifestyle. We can worship Him anywhere. Magnifying the Lord, lifting Him above the circumstances, above our emotions. Our emotions are a gift from God. I believe that they're a gift from God, but we need to learn to be led by his spirit, not by our emotions, he uses our emotions, he listens to us and he cares for us but we are not to be led and governed by our emotions. His word tells us to be led and governed by his spirit. Right? And so for a believer worship is so important and vital, especially in seasons of restlessness. Find time to worship, worship in the word. I love that you, you prayer, the word, worship. These are our foundations, right? We, we can't stray away right now. There's all these kinds of messages out there, even in the Christian world, you know you need to do this. You need to do that. You know, stick to the foundation. Stick to the foundation to the heart of God, that has been key right now for me. Yeah, no, I wholeheartedly agree. There's all these methods and guidelines and instructions to do this and do that. And they all may have their, their place, but at the end of the day, it, it's the word, it's worship, it's fervent prayer, being still, and meditation, a declaration of the word. Yeah, it, it's We'll be successful just practicing those things as a lifestyle. Yeah So Yvonne I want I want you to tell us where we can find your book for if somebody wants to purchase it Where can they find it and purchase your book? Thank you for that. It's actually available on all booksellers. So Barnes and Noble, Amazon anywhere you can buy books, it's available primarily on Amazon. If you buy on Amazon, please leave a review. Yes. So, and you also do a live podcast or a virtual podcast. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Yes. Thank you. So I have, and you were a guest, a lovely guest a few months ago, but I have a podcast called Live Exceptionally and it It tackles some of these things around the soul, mental wellness we've talked about stress, anxiety, but how to effectively navigate these life issues, soul issues, and to come out victorious. So it's live exceptionally and it's shown live on Thursdays on YouTube at 8am it's just 30 minutes but it's also available on all podcast platforms, but it's shown by video live on. YouTube. Okay. And then I'll attach the link when this episode is released so that the listeners and the viewers can, you know chime in and listen to your podcast. So who do you invite? Like, what are your guests, you know, what does the panel look like? Or yeah. So basically I, I of course pray about the, the topics and sometimes I tie it to. things that are relevant that are going on. So for example, September was self care is self care awareness month. So I've, I've been focusing a lot on like mental wellness. As I said, like stress anxiety last week's focused on sleep. So when I have those topics, I just try to reach out to people that I may know, but now I'm starting to expand and ask for referrals. If people know of specific, either professionals or ministry, people who are cognizant or knowledgeable about the particular topics that the Lord gave me to discuss. Wow, that's wonderful. And you do sometimes you do events as well, correct? Yes, so I actually have a annual women's retreat in May. In May 2024, it's May 17th through the 19th. And it's called Release, Refresh, Renew. And this is a time for women to come together and release, refresh, and renew. And so we have guest speakers, we have worship, and then we also have topics again around just how to navigate some of these things that so many people struggle with. And I don't think regardless of how strong we are spiritually. we still need time to get away. We still need time to take a break. And when we're pouring out, especially as ministry leaders, we need to be poured back into. Yes. And so there's fun and food, you know, it's, it's a, a weekend that is. It covers all those things, fun, worship fellowship, and just getting together and just, just getting out of one's environment. So the past few years we've had it at a hotel. We may go to like a retreat type center next year, but it's the same concept. Where we're just spending that time together in beautiful surroundings. So if people want to take a walk, if they want to be still or just, you know, just have time to themselves, it's a time for refreshing. I am interested. Great. Yeah, I totally am interested and I know a few ladies that would also be interested. So when that time comes, we'll definitely get that information out to the listeners. And so I think one of the last things that I want to touch base on. And, and this is because I know a lot of women who want to rest, they really desire to want to rest and spend time with the Lord and, and grow there, but they just don't know how to initiate. Like, how do I start this? Can you give us a couple tips on that? Yes, that's so good. I think we first have to practice it physically first. And then make sure we're practicing it spiritually. One of the key things that I encourage and I'm still working on this is to plan for it. And like if you have a calendar, if you have a diary or a planner or schedule that you keep or even some people just have notepads that they do their things to do for the week and just. Every week plan for it and maybe it's not a full day. Maybe it's just, you know, two hours or three hours that I say, okay, this week I'm just going to, you know, watch a movie or I'm going to take go to lunch with a friend or I'm just going to, you know, read a book and then build from there. But the first thing, you know, I feel like there is. Merit and why God established it as a law so that as a law, it was something they had to do as a part of their life and then hoping that When, down the road when grace comes, that is just something that they practice as a part of their lifestyle. So to be disciplined, a habit they say is established by doing it for 25 plus days. So just planning for it, scheduling it. And then in that time that we schedule planning to spend time with the Lord. And like most of us, we might have daily devotions. But like trying to schedule some time where there's this quality time that we're setting aside routinely Where we're just spending it with the Lord, you know, I what came to mind a couple episodes ago I had a guest on who was talking about You know, her 30 day challenge is to go for a walk for 30 minutes every day. What if we make this a rest challenge? What if we go into a rest challenge where Thirty minutes of my day. I'm going to set it aside just to rest in the Lord. Whatever that looks like. Right. Like you said, physical maybe first, but then growing in that praying as you're praying, allowing God to minister and to show you what that's going to look like every day. Yeah, no, I think that's good. One thing I wanted to ask about the physical, because so many people have trouble sleeping. And with that, some things that we can change or tweak to enhance our ability to go to sleep. And also when we fall asleep to stay asleep and often people fall asleep with the tv on and so they say three hours before bedtime that we should stop working. You know, some people take their work to bed, they're working in their bed, things like that. So at least three hours before bedtime we stop working. Two hours before bedtime, I might have these reverse three hours and two hours, we stop. Being on our, our, or stop eating and then an hour before bedtime, we turn off our phone because a lot of times, even if we're not watching TV, we're all scrolling on our phone, not realizing that the blue light. From the phone and the blue light from the TV those impact our ability to fall asleep and to fall asleep and to sleep well so to stop eating at a certain time because also And someone just I was speaking at a woman's conference last month and one of the other Guest speakers she shared this about the holes to stop eating a couple hours before three hours before bedtime because Our body, it needs to start digesting the food. So when we're sleeping, if we're eating up until the time we fall asleep, our body is focusing on digesting the food as opposed to going through that restoration process with our cells and our organs and muscles. So if we eat, if we stop eating earlier, prior to bedtime, Then when we sleep, our sleep on our body is only focused on what it's supposed to do while we're sleeping versus our digestive system. See, and there's things that we don't even know, right? Exactly. Our body's like a, God designed such a beautiful machine, right, where the, the body's made to restore itself and heal, even heal itself, right? You cut yourself a couple of days later, that cut's gone and your skin's healed again. Right. And, and that's how he's created, but in order to do that. We need to rest. We need to find time to rest. So Yvonne, I just want to thank you for being here as my guest today, my special guest today. This has been wonderful. Thank you for sharing the wisdom that the Lord has given you this message on rest. I'm grateful to have you on this podcast. And my prayer is that. The listeners out there those that may be, you know, struggling with rest, those that may be on that hamster wheel of life, it's okay. It's okay to be still. It's okay to find your rest in the Lord. It's okay for a reset. You know, don't wait till you're burnt out. Don't wait till you're like, God, I just can't anymore. Right. Take time pray fast, you know, all the things, all the spiritual disciplines that you mentioned, Yvonne, we can use them. Toward preparation for rest. Right? Right. And so again, I wanna thank you and if you have any last words for our listeners, please, thank you so much for allowing me to share. This been, this has been a pleasure. And I just feel like it's such an important message for this time and season. So I just bless all the listeners. I just pray a blessing of rest, a blessing of being able to rest, not just physically, but rest spiritually. That even in these times that you will look to the Lord as the author and the finisher of your faith. That our rest is in him, that we can rest in him. We don't have to be overwhelmed by anxiety or stress or frustration or fear or depression, but that the rest of the Lord, the rest of the Lord, he has ordained us to rest. And it's a blessing that he has given us. And so I just bless everyone that rest would be our portion. Thanks again, Dr. Yvonne Thompson. Thank you all for listening to today's episode. I pray that you will continue to be blessed through this message and as the holidays come, the hustle bustle comes, take time to rest in the Lord. Take time to be still in Him. God bless you all and thank you for listening to this episode of Her Scars Tell a Story.