9 to 5 Faith Podcast: Episode 3

Paige C. Clark 0:36
Paige C. Clark and you’re listening to the nine to five faith podcast. All right, welcome, everyone. I am Paige C. Clark, and I’m here with my friend Rose. Rose, how are you doing today?

Rose Jordan 0:49
I’m good. How are you?

Paige C. Clark 0:50
Good. Now, tell us a little bit about you what you do what your nine to five is.

Rose Jordan 0:58
Alright, so a little about me, I, I live in Texas, I have a husband been married almost 29 years, and we have a 28 year old. What I do? Well, I show people around my amazing town. And I help them to see why they would want to visit Mineral Wells, Texas. So technically, my job title is Director of Tourism.

But my pattern of that job is to help people fall in love with Mineral Wells.

Paige C. Clark 1:26
What’s your sales pitch? They’re like, why should I visit Mineral Wells after this? Well,

Rose Jordan 1:32
I’ll tell you, we are. We’re straight up in outdoor destination. So if you love the outdoors, we have three state parks in our county, which is rare? Well, no, I think it’s much less than rare. I don’t think it’s ever happened before. We’ve got 30 plus miles of hiking and biking trails, and we’ve got the brass at big brass has river running through the state of Texas. So we just have all the outdoor things that you could want to do. And we are shifting back to our roots as a wellness destination. So we were known in the 20s as the place to go for all the famous people. If you wanted to come feel better because of our water interested.

Paige C. Clark 2:06
Okay, I was gonna say like, are there like hot springs

Rose Jordan 2:09
or something? We do. So you can do baths here back in those days. They were bath houses everywhere,

Paige C. Clark 2:14
right? Yeah. Yeah, fine. And how long have you been working in that job?

Rose Jordan 2:20
But four and a half years. And then before that I was on the Tourism Council for like three years and then got hired on to staff.

Paige C. Clark 2:25
So you’ve been doing it for a while? Absolutely loving it? I do. Yeah. Yeah. So um, I always like to start off like with what your week looks like. Because I realize like, everyone’s week looks a little bit different in like, how they practice their faith and then like fit work into it, or the other way around? How do you fit your faith into your work.

Rose Jordan 2:52
So on a normal week, on Sunday, the week will start out as on a normal week, my job time is 830 to five, Monday through Friday. That’s in theory, when you’re the Director of Tourism, a lot of it is after hours building relationship with tourism partners and go into an events. And on top of that I’m also the film liaison. So if you come to our community to film a project, I’m your point of contact. So that might mean I end up spending eight hours with you driving you around my county to help you find locations. So if if it stays true till 830 to five, typically, it’s I’m getting up early, most days, you know, at around 630. And so I spent a little time just kind of doing a brain dump to make room for hearing God. And then I’ll just spend time you reading scripture journaling, you know, kind of whatever that looks like in the morning. I typically so you’re seeing me here in my studio, which is a couple of blocks from my office. And so this is generally where I come on my lunch break, to paint to write to just spend time with God. Right now I’m researching Christian meditation. And so I have notes. And so for me, that’s part of, you know, my spending time with God. For the last few weeks, I have actually been fasting and Kevin communion in the mornings. A lot of times if I feel like Holy Spirit’s trying to teach me something specific or transform something in me specifically, I’ll use that as the focus. So like in the morning, I’ll start out with communion. I’m reading through some scripture, and then I’ll fast until usually around one o’clock and the reason I do that is because I can use those hunger pangs. As a reminder, almost like an alarm clock. I’m hungry. Oh, this is my reminder to pray for whatever it is holy spirit is trying to shift in me. So sometimes I have to use hunger to remind me to think about God and what Holy Spirit is doing in my life. So Right. So yeah, that’s kind of a general. You know, in addition to that, so my husband and I, we sold our house So we bought an RV just so we can be part coasts that are one of our state parks. So we have duties there. And you know, that’s a lot of fun and we love that. But yeah, there’s, it’s it’s a lot I technically my job is 830 to five but right, it’s very rarely so.

Paige C. Clark 5:14
Yeah, yeah. And I mean, you you said something there that was like, Oh, that’s a good idea of like, just brain dumping everything to make room for the Holy Spirit. Yeah, that’s really powerful i think i opinion of like, a really easy way because like I always like to say like my love languages is lists. Yeah, me too. Like, I love lists. If you if you want to make me happy, give me a beautiful list. And so like as as a way to kind of start off the day of just like dumping everything out to make room for the Holy Spirit. So you work in office is out, like in an office with others? Yeah, in general,

Rose Jordan 5:55
like a lot of my job requires me to be out meeting with mentors and partners, whether it’s restaurants or hotels or whatever, so I’m out doing things with them or building relationship with them or, you know, stalking my information racks around the county. But But generally, you know, a lot of minus sitting at a desk. So yeah, yeah. Working with my visitor center.

Paige C. Clark 6:14
Yeah, with other people. Because it is a little bit different. I asked, because like working from home is like way different than like working in person with other people even like meeting like doing meetings. Yeah. Because like, you don’t get to you don’t get that interface a whole lot.

Rose Jordan 6:31
Yeah. And I prior to come into this job. I had been work at home entrepreneur. So yeah, like, I know that life too. And it is a totally, it’s harder, I think in that life to shut down work and shift over to home because work is at home. So yeah,

Paige C. Clark 6:47
yeah, for sure. And I found like one thing that before COVID, my husband, he was always he always worked from home because he works for himself. And then like after COVID Now I’m just like, full time at home too. But one thing that like he and I have had to kind of get in the habit of is like letting our office space be our office space. Yeah. And then everything else, like when we leave our offices for the day, we’re leaving our offices, and we’re leaving our work behind. Yeah. And kind of transitioning to a family like this

Rose Jordan 7:24
makes that really hard because you’re going to carry it from the office over to your life. And it’s Yeah,

Paige C. Clark 7:29
yeah, yeah. And especially for you too, with with working outside of regular hours to my first job was a little bit above and beyond your regular clock in clock out hours. So how do you navigate that and like, you know, kind of, kind of go with the flow and trying to like, stay in some kind of rhythm with God.

Rose Jordan 7:55
Yeah, you know, I’ll tell you, I am a type A. So like, I’m a planner, and I’m very task oriented. So I’m like thinking things through and like you, I want my list. In fact, I can show you on Sundays, I sit down with God and I just kind of ask Holy Spirit, you know, what am I focusing on for the week? And then then I kind of plan out the areas of my life. So I’m gonna I was it helpful for those on a podcast, but like, this is my, this is my week. So I’ve got Monday. And then on Monday, what are my goals for my health and wellness? What are my goals for creativity and spirituality? What are my goals for my ministry that I have? So I that’s a big piece of it. But I also include on this list, the thing that I’m supposed to be whatever it is that the Holy Spirit wants to be focusing on, it’s on there. So every time I’m looking at my to do list, I take a glance down at the thing that that I feel like Holy Spirit has, is wanting me to focus on for the week. So that’s a part of it. But in general, honestly, it’s just the key is being an intentional, you’re intentional with the parts of your life that you can plan and that are predictable. But you’re also intentional in preparing for if you know you’re gonna have random crack times or random, you know, waiting times or just random bits of time that you never know what they’re gonna happen, then you’re preparing ahead of time. How can I fill that time with God? If I plan for it now so that when it comes how can I you know, that’s a big piece. So for me, it’s all about it’s just being intentional.

Paige C. Clark 9:25
Yeah. Yeah, that’s awesome. And like planning, planning for the unplanned bubble, I guess. That’s exactly expecting the unexpected but like also like planning for that implantable or like, I think it can be something as simple as like, having podcasts queued up in case your commute gets longer having you know, nine to five faith queued up or other podcasts that you listen to, that are life giving or my husband every morning when he’s on a he walks our dogs every morning. He just listens to sermons every morning or just kind of how I mean those things in your back pocket. So like, when Yeah, plans do change. Yeah,

Rose Jordan 10:05
I actually teach something called the Virtual Bible caddy. So to have Okay, here, here’s my, well, again, we’re on a podcast, but that’s okay. The video is getting posted too. Okay, good. So this is my actual Bible caddy. It has a couple of different versions of a Bible. It has journals, it has, you know, my colored highlighters. It has, you know, notepads, it has all the different things so that when I’m sitting down for some time with God, like all my stuff, and if we’re going to travel, I just grab the whole thing and go, Yeah, but I, one of the things I teach is creating, and this is a really great way to prepare for those unexpected gaps of time is that you create, you can create folders on your cell phone, right, so I have a folder, I don’t know how easy it will be to show. But I have a folder on my cell phone. That’s called Bible caddy. And so I have a couple of Bible apps, I have some of my favorite podcasts. I have some devotional apps in here. And then I have like some Bible study app. So anything that I might could use to just help me point my heart toward God for a few minutes, is in this little folder called Bible caddy. And so then if I’m suddenly in a long wait line at the grocery store, I can either get frustrated with the line or I can decide that that’s a really great time to pull up my Bible caddy. So that’s, that’s that for me that’s preparing for the stuff I can’t prepare for.

Paige C. Clark 11:24
Right? Oh, yeah, it’s such a fun idea. I might start that. I love that idea. It’s really, it’s really cute, especially like the physical caddy like yeah, I’m gonna, I’m probably gonna do that after this podcast, or is, um, so in talking through, like, how do you let me say this? How do you like interact with like, your faith community? Whether it be like your church or like a Bible study group? Or what? How do you interact with them? Or like, how do you sustain that with such like, an unpredictable schedule?

Rose Jordan 12:02
Yeah. Well, very seldom do I have to miss church, you know, Sunday or Wednesday. On the rare occasion, it’s because if I do, it’s because I’m working with a film crew. And when they’re here, it’s like, all hands on deck, right. But usually, I’m able, even if they’re filming on a Sunday, usually I can go to church. So I’ll tell you, I absolutely love my church, family, our community, our church, our, our community, at church, we’re really just kind of gonna go into the presence of God, but not just for ourselves, but for our whole community, for all the churches in our community, like, we love all the churches in our community, and they’re a part of us. And so I love that I am, I’m on the worship team, and on one wednesday MONTH actually lead the team. So that keeps me focused, you know, on, especially that week, and really focusing in on hearing, okay, what are we doing, you know, Holy Spirit, what are we gonna do Wednesday. So, so, Sundays and Wednesdays are pretty much non negotiable. Like, it has to be really important for me to miss that, aside that, aside from that, you know, I have, I have kind of a tribe of women, you know, that are my, they’re my kind of my prayer team. Like when things are crazy, right. They’re the ones that I touch base with. Now, none of them live in my town. So we all do it by text, or by Facebook Messenger or whatever. So I do have that group. And then I have a core group of, you know, women here that I’m really close to, most of them are at my church. And then I just kind of tried to, I’ll be honest, if I didn’t have to, if I didn’t have to do like Facebook for my job, I don’t think I would have have Facebook at all, except that I do have my fixed community there. And so that’s kind of my online community of women where we’re just kind of learning this devotional life thing together. So again, it’s really the same thing. It’s deciding, like, what’s most important, and what’s not negotiable, and then figuring out you know, just being intentional with the rest of it, like, if you can’t do the rest of it every day, like, how can you build that into your time, even if it means adding it to your list? Because like, I don’t believe God wants to be an item on our to do list. But He knows our hearts if we’re doing it, just to check it off and say we did it right. That’s not pleasing to Him. But if we’re doing it because we just need the reminder because we’re reading hard and fast doing life right now. And there’s a million things to do and he knows the reason we’re putting on the list is just to remind ourselves to point our heart back to him. I you know, I do believe that pleases Him. So it’s whatever. Yeah, knowing yourself well enough to know and be honest, like, what do I really need? You know how what’s going to remind me to point my heart back towards God. So

Paige C. Clark 14:57
yeah, that there’s so much there that I Want to go on but I think like, I think adding it to the list, like, if you I was texting a friend the other day, and I sent her just like a picture of one of my lists, and I was like, please don’t judge me that I have washed my hair on my list. Okay, doesn’t mean I’m gross and I don’t shower. But also sometimes I need just like a little like light bulb to remind me Hey, set aside enough time to go watch your hair.

Rose Jordan 15:29
Yeah. Because probably tomorrow you’re not going to be able to so if you don’t do this today, you gotta get good.

Paige C. Clark 15:34
Right? And yeah, I think I think that’s also like, how how adding adding God to your list if you’re a type A like us. And I also think like, God created our personalities. Like he created some of the some of us to have the gifting of organization and structure and I can’t there’s there’s a, there’s a spiritual term for that, that I

Rose Jordan 15:58
not able to place right in the street of Yes, but yeah, that’s

Paige C. Clark 16:02
what it is. Like to be more administrative. And so I don’t think that God has a problem being on our list, because I say like, if I don’t see it, it’s not in my brain. Like if I don’t hold things in my brain for the sole purpose that it’s written down. Yeah, on a piece of paper somewhere.

Rose Jordan 16:23
Exactly. Yeah. You know, another thing too, for me is, oh, anchor habits. So let me think of an example. I think it actually had some that I was going to share. Okay, so anchoring habits. So one of those would be like using a hunger pain to remind me to pray, or, I do have, I have two alarm set on my phone one is 1221, that’s my husband’s birthday, every day at 1221, my phone goes off, and it just reminds me take a second to pray for whatever’s on your heart, then I have the other one that set for 148. And that’s for John 148. And that’s where my, the the community like that’s where that comes from. At 140. A, my alarm goes off, it’s just a quick reminder for me to pray for, you know, for my the community, the FIE community and how I’m serving them. And then, you know, like Sunday check ins, you know, I mentioned I’ve got, I’ve got so this is me setting up, I’m gonna get a little bit closer and voted. And so like one color is health and wellness. One color is my spiritual personal life. One color is building relationships, whatever I want to do this week to be intentional about sowing into my relationships. And then yeah, yeah, the colors for fig. Well, part of anchoring is that on Sunday night, when I’m doing this, I’m not just making a to do list person, I’m asking Holy Spirit, like what is what is my focus for the week? And then, you know, what is ahead of me? You know, all the things that I don’t know, that are coming, you know, there’s a film crew coming on such and such day that I’m not ready for, right, so you help me plan my week? Well, just because I’m not actively reading my Bible. When I do. That doesn’t mean I’m not spending time with God, I’m actively spending time with God in the act of planning out my week. And so the more that I can anchor habits, to, you know, anchor those, those sort of practices or movements, like remembering to pray, because I feel a hunger pain, the more that I can anchor those habits, then throughout the day, I’ve got habits I’m doing all day long. So if I’ve got different practices of planning my heart towards God, anchored to a practice, you know, all the times, but with God, it’s just really, with the Bible in my hand. So

Paige C. Clark 18:34
right, right, yeah, for sure. And I think too, like finding anchor habits that you wouldn’t regularly dismiss. So like, yes, phone alarms work for you thought alarms wouldn’t work for me, I dismiss those so fast. But also, like I always wear my Apple watch. So like, if I set my watch to go off, that would probably do it more than an alarm because alarms are associated in my brain with waking up and I don’t want to wake up and yeah, I want to turn it off. So some of

Rose Jordan 19:09
the other things would be like, if you, you could do you know how we used to do those little note cards and we put a verse on it. We’ll put that with your toothbrush and toothpaste. So while you’re brushing your teeth, you’re reading scripture, right, that’s anchoring a practice of pointing your heart toward God with something that you’re already going to be doing anyway. Yeah. Anywhere that you can do that and anchor to your habits that you’re already doing. Yeah. Use that as something to point you back towards God. Like, that’s how we, Scripture says that we’re in prayer all day, like it’s all that we’re all that. That’s how it’s not that we’re on our knees all day, right? That we’re constantly throughout the day, pointing our heart back towards God in some way. So the more of those kinds of things that you can do. I’m not sure it does. Siri wants to talk, she doesn’t understand. But the more of those different things that you can do to just tie your regular habits into a reminder to turn towards God, eventually it becomes natural. Yeah. But when you’re trying to build that relationship with him and build that consistency and constancy, and always, you know, being aware of him, then that’s when you start finding the habits that you can tie to a practice. So

Paige C. Clark 20:28
I love that. The other thing that you said earlier that I wanted to dig deeper on was the non negotiables. And making things non negotiable. Because I do feel like, I mean, you can blame my generation of the millennials, but we have millennials and Gen Z’s have have a kind of some notoriety for being rather flaky, and for backing out, and I think just the era of technology has made that a lot easier to back out on, on tasks, on commitments on whatever it is. So what are some ways that like, you make the things non negotiable? Like is that? Do you have accountability in that? Do you set that up with your husband? You know, did it look different when you’re a kid was at home? Like you dig more into that?

Rose Jordan 21:19
So yeah, it really depends on a couple of things like, what is the thing that you’re trying to make non negotiable. So for example, something that I really am trying to be more consistent about, and if not yet, have not yet felt? The urge. Or perhaps I’m resisting the urge to make it non negotiable. But I want to be better about honoring the Sabbath about keeping the Sabbath. Yeah. Because I know as this type a person that is going, going going, and I have a dozen different hats that I’m wearing. And they’re all you know, and I don’t do anything halfway, I do try to do everything with excellence. And I try not to, I’m not about perfection and people pleasing, but I am about completing what I say I’ll do, and there’s a lot. So, you know, try not to over commit would be one. But because of that, I know that if I don’t take if I don’t keep the Sabbath, that it’s a gift to us. Because he knows people like me, need to be told take the day off. And so if if I came to the point where we’re going to call it non negotiable, but we’ll just say just take a step back from non negotiable and say, I really am trying to be more consistent about that. Then if I say it’s non negotiable, I am not going to work on Sundays. Well, first off, what does that mean work? Does it just mean I’m not going to go into office? Or does it mean, I’m not going to do regular household things? I’ve recently heard who? Oh, Emily P. Freeman, interviewed. I can’t remember. Did you hear the one about the Sabbath? And she talks about it’s a really good one I sort of didn’t even think about that. But the the woman that wrote the book about Sabbath, she talks about, actually in Scripture, Sabbath is communal, it’s meant to be together with your people. So it’s not that it’s not the intention that you go into your hidey hole. And you do nothing but read Scripture all day, right? But but if I’m trying to make that my non negotiable, or at least I’m trying to make it more consistent. Like, what does that mean for me first, and write it down so that you can hold yourself to it? Yeah, because at least if you’ve got it written down, even if you’ve not told anybody else, you have something to hold yourself accountable to it’s not as great because you’ve already dealt with it. So I mean, first off, is decide what does that actually mean to you? What are your actual parameters there? And then, you know, we’re calling it non negotiable, obviously, on a Saturday, you know, things happen. But what are my boundaries? What is Holy Spirit saying, this is for your good, this isn’t? Because I’m trying to want you to check it off a list. This isn’t about keeping a wall. It’s none of that it is Holy Spirit. What do you what do my boundaries need to be for my own good?

Paige C. Clark 24:12
And what can you control in that? Exactly? If there’s a lot of things that fall outside of our control, like might pop up, there might be emergencies or, or what have you. Like, I work in social media and not so much in this position that I’m in now. But when I was in positions before, I would be getting texts in the middle of the night saying like, hey, you need to go deal with this. And so like, I’m like, Okay, that is outside of my control, but like what is inside of my control? And like part of that for me, is because I work in social media. I volunteer for social media at my church, which includes moderating their live stream. Yeah, has that I don’t care if I’m on a Sunday, or if I’m on a Saturday, but please don’t put me on both because I need aid A day where I am not working in social media. Yeah. And that’s kind of like the boundary that I’ve put up for myself of like, just give me a day. I’m happy to serve otherwise, but I need a day where I’m not working.

Rose Jordan 25:16
Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, I mean, it really is just I think it’s, obviously you don’t want to try to have a whole bunch of non negotiables. Because it’s not realistic, and you’re just gonna set yourself up for failure. Right. But when you feel the urging of the Holy Spirit like this, is this important? Like it really is this important? This is my non negotiable, like, right? Then you can actually ask him, Okay, but what is this mean? And how do I set that up? And if it needs outside accountability, then he’ll directly and that to like, I don’t have anything right now that I feel like, necessarily needs that for me, but, but I think if it is something that is in that, like, he’ll lead you?

Paige C. Clark 25:57
Yeah. Yeah, for sure. So drawing back a little bit to like your job and what you do, what ways does your faith show up or not show up with like, what you do on your day to day? Whether it be like interactions with your co workers? Or like, how how you act? Or how you, you know, how do you, like, minister to the people around you? If you do, yeah, you say more about that.

Rose Jordan 26:27
So what when I first hired onto the job, it was very clear to me because no one they should know, hi. I was not even remotely qualified. It was very clear. In fact, when I went to, you know, had given him a resume, and they said, Okay, come in and want to meet with you. There’s that one for Taylor.

Paige C. Clark 26:49
Do you want to do you want to go and pray? I will respect that.

Rose Jordan 26:53
Oh, good. Oh, good. And your blessing? Actually, yes.

Paige C. Clark 26:58
And so anyway, we sign off, I’ll remind you.

Rose Jordan 27:04
That’s funny. So when I first heard on it, so I gave the resume. And then he said, Okay, I want to meet with you. And I printed off the job description. And when I went in and sat at his desk, and I knew them because I was on the Tourism Council, so I worked with the chamber, in that capacity, and I knew the person that was interviewing me, and I said, Okay, now before we start talking, you have these qualifications. And I don’t have that one. That one, that one or that one. It was just like, so when he told me that, you know, after, after I was hired, and that newspaper came to do a feature that he was like, he tried to talk me out of it. I did, because I wasn’t qualified. But be warned. Yeah. I tried to tell you. So honestly, they hired me for my passion. So because I just I love our community, we’ve always been one of those. We’re a small town. And so we’re kind of a stepping stone for most usually, it’s a kid Kevin out of college gets their feet wet here, and it goes on somewhere else. I’m here. This is my, this is the first time I’ve ever looked. So God’s got me here. But I knew it was very clear that this was an assignment from God, this wasn’t about a job. And so a lot of times, that will mean, especially in the early days, it still happened some but especially in the early days, I had a 30 minute commute now it’s it’s only 15 minutes, but that commute was me praying about whatever it was in the city that he you know, whatever I felt was on God’s heart. I was praying Yes, and or whatever I thought he was, you know, it was on his heart for mineral oils. And so there’s that I’ve actually had some really cool opportunities, like with the film crews that have come through and, you know, just kind of some of the different people that I work with and events, I’ve developed some amazing relationships with some of the people that serve in our community, which it helps it’s a small town but it really is a great community of people and so in the people in the tourism industry here are absolutely amazing. And so I’m able to connect and work with them and pray for them. And you know, if somebody comes to mind, whether it’s somebody that community or not, you know, as somebody pops into my head, if at all possible, I take a moment and just text them, hey, I’m thinking about you. How can I pray for you? Or hey, you know, you popped in my head, is there something going on? Or, or I felt like God said this about you. So like, that’s one is just, if you hear it, you know, try to do if you can, if somebody comes into mind, try to do something with that right then same thing on Facebook, like if you’re scrolling Facebook, and somebody says, hey, I need prayer. And most people are doing prayer or sending prayers up or I’ll be praying. I actually if at all possible, if I have the time will stop and just pray right there in the comments. Like yeah, whatever’s on my heart for that, because I don’t, I don’t want to have said that I prayed and get busy and forget. I want to actually just go ahead and do that. I did. But I’ve also, you know, built some great relationships with people Outside our committee like the production crews are, one time we had an actor come through that. I have no idea how it happened. But we just kind of started communicating. And he has spent, he doesn’t live here, he spent many hours on the phone, my husband and I, we’ve just been able to minister to him and pray for him. And when he’s transitioning, and he’s moved to another state are doing things, like he’ll call and check in with us and just ask for prayer. And, you know, I have a location scout that that I’ve been working with for the last year and a half on like the Yellowstone Bass Reeves 1883 those films. And I’ve gotten to know her. And so we just check in every now and then hey, just checking in, how’s it going? And so, I got has just given me lots of opportunities to minister to people, even if it’s not speaking God, to them, it’s just speaking life into them. You know, because like, like, my new some of them, it’s clear, they’re not Christian. And that doesn’t, that’s not my problem. My, my, my job is just to speak life into them and to speak love into them. So God is He just gives me lots of opportunities to do that, you know, with people that are passing through, it seems especially with the the film, you know, the production companies, which is, which is a lot of fun. But yeah, you know, and at work, I’ll be honest, there are many days at work that I’m so I’m a one person tourism department, in a town that is busting loose with tourism right now. And it’s amazing, and it’s exhausting, right. And so I have to get real intentional about not letting myself get bogged down in the heaviness of it because it gets overwhelming. I mean, just real honest, it gets overwhelming, but a lot of times, so people will send either a text or they’ll Facebook message or they’ll send an email, and they’ll just kind of be cheering me on or praying for me or whatever. I’ve learned to actually print those out. And my best friend who now lives in Missouri, she does paper crafting, okay, something of hers around. But she one time she paper crafted a really pretty envelope. And it lays open and it has a sticker, something went on. It’s always funny, she’s just funny. I kept that envelope, and I haven’t mounted to my computer monitor at work. And every time somebody sends a text or prayer or something, or says hey, you’re doing a great job, and I will print those off, and I’ll stick them in my that envelope. And so on the days that get really heavy, I can just pull those out as reminders of you know, there are people that are praying for me, there are people that I’m impacting and serving and they see it even if right now I don’t feel it. So sometimes it’s just pulling, you know, kind of pulling some of those things out. But, and I don’t even for a second want it to sound like I’ve got it all like I’m perfect at remembering to point my heart towards God all day long, right? Seriously, I don’t like please, if you’re listening and watching, please don’t think that there’s anybody in the world that actually is doing all the things that we’re sharing with you perfectly, right their ideas. And if you can grab on to one or two of the ideas that from each podcast, you hear like, that’s great, but don’t look at us thinking that we’re doing all the things perfectly. Not even.

Paige C. Clark 33:16
Not even close. Yeah. And so I think like, I’m just processing for myself, like the things because one of my next questions would you kind of answer but I’ll give you the chance to like add anything of like, how do you have the energy for God? At the end of the day, like that’s something that I struggle with a lot, because yeah, I got health issues. And now with the job I’m at, currently, it’s a little bit better, but like previously, and other jobs, it was like an energy suck. And at the end of the day, I’m like, I go from my car to bed. And there’s nothing in between there. Yeah. And so like you said, like have your non negotiables you know, have those things that trigger being intentional. Is there anything else you’d want to add on to

Rose Jordan 34:06
that? Yeah, you know, I’m too I have some health things. And I actually have this kind of weird thing that was starting to happen to me the other day I haven’t had in a long time. But when I go and go and go for too long, my adrenal system shuts down and I am just like, sick, sick, sick. The last time it happened. I was down for 12 weeks. So I have learned to watch that but but I have learned over the last probably year that I do far better. I have far more energy and I’m able to wake up in the morning if I go to bed early. So if at all possible. I can go to bed between 830 and nine, then it’s easy for me to wake up at six o’clock in the morning without an alarm. I can get up and I’m awake and I could spend time with God. The thing is, it’s kind of a cycle. So if you can just get yourself in this figure out what that time Yeah, and I’m not saying you need to go to bed at 830, right, you get what that is for you. Yeah, that gives your body the rest it needs. So that then you can wake up, you can spend the time with God because it’s the, it’s the start of a cycle, then you start to find your day goes better, you have more energy, you feel better, because you spent time with God doesn’t mean you’re not going to be tired. But it also changes your attitude. You’re rested, and you have had time with God. And so I have learned that if I’m starting to get a bad attitude about things, I need to really pay attention to my thoughts, and I really need to pay attention to am I getting sleep? And am I eating properly? Like, right? It’s just, it’s getting real. And I think, you know, on 40 It’s just, I didn’t even realize I snoozed it, just turn it off.

Paige C. Clark 35:56
Okay, Siri, Siri clearly has something to say.

Rose Jordan 35:59
Yeah. Don’t forget the figs, Mando fried things. So yeah, it just, sometimes we just have to make some hard choices to get ourselves started. And then once we can kind of get into a good rhythm, it gets better, but but then we also life hits and things get overwhelming. And you know, I have a late event and I can’t go to bed at 830. And I don’t even make it to bed till midnight. Right? Then I’ve got to really pay attention the next day to Okay, first off, I’m going to have grace with myself, I’m going to be tired, I’m not going to wake up at six. And just to be real honest. And on that day, I probably won’t spend time with God in the morning. But the other habits that I’ve created throughout the day, just helped me to point my heart back toward him throughout the day. Right. So it’s having grace for the times when you don’t get to control. But yeah,

Paige C. Clark 36:51
yeah, that’s awesome. And yeah, I totally agree of dislike. My best times I know there’s like morning, morning birds and night owls. And I definitely am a person who wakes up early and like feels early. And I’m like, yeah, like, I’m really like, my best writing happens in the morning. I clean the house the best in the morning. Yeah, like, yeah, I am. And so just like getting into that routine, where you wake up early, or well, where I wake myself up early and like, get going in a way that’s you know, gonna be glorifying to God, that’s, that’s really important as well.

Rose Jordan 37:31
Well, and I think part of it too, is knowing, you know, the season you’re in. If you’ve got kiddos, it might be the you may be at night owl. But if if in the evenings, you can’t get time alone, instead of constantly trying to go against the grain of your life. By insisting that at night, I’m gonna have time alone and then being angry and frustrated every time the kiddos just disrupt like you’ve set yourself up for failure. Yeah, so you’re gonna have to get real honest about the season wife and I don’t have kiddos at home. I have a 20 year old he’s gone. Gone. He’s not home with me. Right. And so. But, you know, I said earlier that we bought an RV to go be Park hosts. Well, if you’ve ever been in an RV, there’s nowhere to get away from the other person in your house. Right? Yeah. So I have to get up early. Because my husband is great. I love him. But he he keeps forgetting that I’m trying to read I’m trying to just chatter away. So I mean, you sometimes it’s just a matter of knowing like this, this is the season of your life. These are the people in your world, you can either stay constantly frustrated with them because you’re trying to go against the grain, or you find a way that works.

Paige C. Clark 38:47
Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Man, you wear so many hats. It’s impressive. So, kind of going off like Okay, so we talked about, you know, adding in just these kind of like, you know, anchors throughout your day. What are some of the spiritual disciplines or discipline that you have a hard time kind of implementing because of your work and your many hats?

Rose Jordan 39:13
Yeah. Honestly, the hardest one for me is time dedicated to just praying, like, set apart from everything else and just praying. I I don’t I don’t beat myself up for it. But I also know that throughout the day, I’m talking to God anyway. But that deep intercession like that travailing and I don’t think that necessarily we’re supposed to travail every day. I think travailing is when there’s something heavy. But But real time focused on just intercession. I really, honestly it doesn’t happen unless you know, I’m with a group and that’s our, you know, we’re intentionally praying for something Yeah, I’m not great at that just dedicated intercessory time.

Paige C. Clark 40:04
Yeah, yeah. And for me, it’s also like, especially with like my writing and, and if I want any kind of focus time, I can’t be at home, I have to get out of the house. Studios. That’s what your studios for because I like I’m sitting at my office right now and I go doing my office is so messy. What’s that pile of clothes over there? like, Yo, I need to take out the trash like, I don’t know if it’s like backwards, but all my whiteboard, it says clean office right there. Because I have a little bit of shiny object syndrome, and I will get distracted. And so like, for me when I really want that time with God, I have to get out of the house, whether it be in nature, or a coffee shop. Like it doesn’t matter where I’m at. I just need to be away from my life. Yeah, I’m in normalcy, but also working from home. There are some days where I don’t go outside. Like, I hate to admit that. But like, I like how I didn’t step foot outside today like, Yeah, that could be a problem. So yeah, definitely setting aside that time that can be that can be a struggle. And yeah. Well, thank you for sharing that with us. Because I think that I think that sometimes people think like, everyone’s kind of got it down. And you’re the only one who struggles and that’s like, Yeah, true. Yeah, no, no, no one has it all together. So, in wrapping up for our listeners out there, what is one thing that they can do this week, this month, as a takeaway from our conversation, to help build their discipline or their faith practice into their life?

Rose Jordan 41:51
Yeah. So before I give a tip, I’m going to say first off, you know, know that not know that not know that God knows the season that you’re in, and he knows the challenges that you have, he knows the people around you live, in fact, he put them there. So rather than try to work against them and fight against that grain, he knows Holy Spirit can help you find a rhythm and a practice to work with your life the way that it is right now. Give yourself grace. Don’t try to compare to what others are doing, or what others say you should be doing. That’s that’s like my first like, no, that first like, Let’s get your mindset right first. Yeah, but practical tips. You know, one would be I shared the virtual Bible caddy. And then another one would be, you know, setting the alarms. And I actually, you know, when I was kind of thinking about this interview, I realized those are both parts of a 10 day do something challenge. So I’m giving you the link, there’s extra 10 things there. 10. Super easy, super quick, a lot of times fun. Well, you know, if you just pick one of those 10 things to do for the next two weeks, like you will have already invested in your relationship with God. So, so like I said, You gave me the link. Yeah. And it’ll be in the show video. It’s got it’s got a YouTube video to walk you through it, or you can read it. So

Paige C. Clark 43:18
yeah, awesome. Awesome. And those will be in the show notes too. And I think too, like, I am a very, like, action oriented person. And so it’s like, Give me something to do. Don’t just tell, don’t just tell me that. Like, you can have faith in a full time job too. Because like, we all know that there’s people do that every day. Let’s like give people like, practical takeaways. And so yeah, I’m really excited to share that resource with our listeners. Rose, thank you so much for joining. Yeah. Where can people find you on the interwebs?

Rose Jordan 43:51
Okay, so I’m, I’m most active in the Facebook group called beneath the fig tree fix community, or YouTube, and it’s just beneath the fig tree. I’ve got the website beneath victory.org or Instagram, Facebook or beneath victory. Honestly, I’m not super active on the Facebook page or the Instagram page. It’s just

Paige C. Clark 44:14
not there. So that’s alright, so the Facebook group or the YouTube channel? Yeah.

Rose Jordan 44:18
Those are the places that are most active. Yeah.

Paige C. Clark 44:20
Awesome. Awesome. Rose. Well, thank you so much for joining us, and we’ll catch you next time. Please. Great. Thanks for joining us. If you liked what you were listening to make sure you subscribe and hit those five stars and we’ll catch you on the next episode.