The Christian Habits Podcast

Dana K. White: How to Declutter and Get Organized Do you feel overwhelmed by the task of getting organized? Does a simple glance around your home or office tell you that clutter is taking over your life? If so, my podcast interview with Dana K. White from A Slob Comes Clean (links below) will offer helpful advice about how to tackle these projects without stress.

What We Discussed on the Podcast

* Coming to terms with our own unique clutter threshold
* The Container Concept
* Accepting the reality of the limited space we have
* How decluttering and cleaning are not the same things
* What the layers of a clean house are
* How Dana’s method is different than minimalism
* How to change our goals about our spaces
* The Visibility Rule
* How decluttering is a lifelong process

Resources We Talked About on the Podcast

* James Bible Study
* Dana’s new book: Organizing for the Rest of Us
* Another of Dana’s books: Decluttering at the Speed of Life
* Dana’s website: aslobcomesclean.com

About Dana K. White
Dana K. White is a Wallstreet Journal bestselling author, blogger, podcaster, speaker, and (much to her own surprise) a decluttering expert. In an attempt to get her home under control, Dana started blogging as “Nony” (short for anonymous) at A Slob Comes Clean. Dana soon realized she was not alone in her housekeeping struggles and in her feelings of shame. Today, Dana shares realistic home management strategies with her signature humor and a message of hope for the hopelessly messy through her blog, weekly podcasts, and videos. Dana lives with her husband and three kids just outside of Dallas, Texas. Learn more at www.aslobcomesclean.com.
How to Listen to the Podcast

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Asheritah CiuCiu: Growing a Prayer Habit In this interview with Asheritah CiuCiu, we discuss how to grow a prayer habit using the REST method from her new book, Prayers of Rest: 365 Prompts to Hear God’s Voice. If you find yourself struggling to make prayer a daily habit, Asheritah offers many helpful ways to cultivate this powerful discipline in this episode of the Christian Habits Podcast (links below).

What We Discussed on the Podcast

* How to make a prayer habit stick by learning, fostering and practicing it
* Praying through hard emotions
* How distracting thoughts can actually become prompts in prayer
* How developing intimacy with God takes time
* How what we believe about God influences our prayers
* Written prayers vs. spontaneous prayers
* How to stop talking and begin listening in prayer
* The REST prayer method: Recite God’s goodness, Express your neediness, Seek His Stillness, and Trusting God’s faithfulness
* Praying through scripture

Resources Mentioned on the Podcast

* My previous interview with Asheritah: Overcoming Food Fixation
* Asheritah’s newest book: Prayers of Rest: 365 Prompts to Hear God’s Voice
* App that Barb referenced: Reimagining the Examen (free app available on both Google and Apple app stores)
* Asheritah’s books: Full: Food, Jesus and the Battle for Satisfaction, and Bible and Breakfast

About Asheritah CiuCiu
Asheritah Ciuciu is a bestselling author, national speaker, and host of the Prayers of REST podcast. She is the founder of One Thing Alone Ministries, an online ministry that helps women all over the world find joy in Jesus through creative and consistent time in God’s word. Asheritah grew up in Romania as a missionary kid and studied English and Women’s Ministry at Cedarville University. She is married to her high school sweetheart and together they raise their three spunky kids in NE Ohio. Asheritah is the author of several books, including the best-selling Advent devotional Unwrapping the Names of Jesus. Her writing and speaking has been featured on Focus on the Family, Revive Our Hearts, Moody Radio, Relevant Magazine, Proverbs 31, and MOPS International. For more information about Asheritah, her books, and writing/speaking ministry, visit www.asheritah.com.
How to Listen to the Podcast

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Joshua Becker: Overcoming Distractions to Live a More Meaningful Life In Joshua Becker’s new book, Things that Matter, he talks about eight common distractions that keep us from living a meaningful life. I visit with Joshua about two of those distractions—the pursuit of leisure and the pursuit of happiness—on today’s episode of the Christian Habits Podcast (links below).  Joshua Becker is a former pastor and the founder of the influential Becoming Minimalist blog, where he has been helping millions find more by owning less for the last 15 years.

Things We Discussed on the Podcast

* How removing distractions from our lives enables us to realize our fullest potential
* How the pursuit of money, possessions, accolades, leisure, fear, and past mistakes hold us back
* Two types of distractions: internal and external
* The specific distractions of leisure and the pursuit of personal happiness
* How serving others helps to overcome the victim mentality
* The idea of retirement is found nowhere in the Bible
* How to transition from lives of self-centeredness to lives of service

Resources Mentioned on the Podcast

* Things that Matter: Overcoming Distractions to Pursue a More Meaningful Life by Joshua Becker


About Joshua Becker
Joshua Becker, author of Things That Matter: Overcoming Distractions to Pursue a More Meaningful Life, is also the bestselling author of The More of Less, The Minimalist Home, and founder of Becoming Minimalist, a website dedicated to inspiring others to find more life by owning less. The website welcomes over 1.5 million readers each month and has inspired millions around the world to consider the practical benefits of owning fewer possessions. He is also the creator of Simplify magazine and founder of The Hope Effect, a nonprofit organization changing how the world cares for orphans. He’s a contributing writer to Forbes and has appeared in dozens of media outlets, including Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, CBS Evening News, and “The Drew Barrymore Show.” Joshua and his family live near Phoenix, Arizona. For more information, visit BecomingMinimalist.com.
How to Listen to the Podcast

To listen or subscribe on Google Podcasts: click here 
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Amazon Alexa: To listen on Amazon Alexa, say, “Alexa, play the Christian Habits Podcast.”

When You Can’t Make Yourself Read Your Bible – 9 Tips Do you ever have a hard time making yourself read your Bible? Or do you start out reading, only to find yourself reading the same passage over and over again because you can’t make yourself concentrate?

I spent twenty years of my Christian life struggling to have a daily quiet time. I’d do fine when I was in a church Bible study but when I was on my own, I just didn’t have the discipline to read my Bible. And even with church studies, you’d often find me rushing through all the lessons one hour before class!
Back in those days, I would have loved to have someone take me by the hand and help me develop a daily quiet time habit. Following are some of the things that helped me develop a now 20+ year daily quiet time habit.
Tips to Help You Become Consistent with Bible Reading

Remember your why. Authors of books on goal setting tell us the first thing we need to do is know our “why.” In other words, why do we want to develop this habit? Take a minute and write down as many reasons as possible of why you want to develop a Bible reading habit, then refer back to that list each morning you don’t feel like reading! Here are some reasons I thought of: to grow closer to God, be conformed to His image, find insight for current life, see how Jesus lived life, learn from other believers’ stories, store up truth to combat the world’s lies, gain comfort and strength, find good verses to memorize and meditate on, gain counsel for everyday life. For more ideas, check out Psalm 119!
Start small. Habit experts tell us our best chance of developing a habit is to start small. So instead of saying, “I’ll read my Bible for one hour a day,” set a smaller goal. 15 minutes a day, maybe. Or even 5 minutes a day. Whatever you think you can make yourself follow through on. You can always up the time after your habit is established.
Don’t be a perfectionist. Because I’m not a perfectionist when it comes to quiet times, it surprised me when women told me they feel they need to spend at least an hour in quiet time for it to be legitimate. I often spend an hour in quiet time, but if I felt like I had to, it might make me procrastinate or skip my quiet time! Try to remember that your Bible reading time is relationship-with-God time. And all amounts of time are good!
Find something that engages your mind. This was one of my problems back in my can’t-make-myself-read-my-Bible years. I read through the whole Bible after becoming a Christian in 7th grade, but then I wasn’t sure what to do next. I thought, I’ve already read the Bible. Now, what do I do? Well, obviously the answer was, “Read it again!” but at that time, I’d lost my motivation to read the Bible again. When that happens to you, look for a Bible study that will engage your mind. One that makes you think. I actually wrote the questions in my new Bible study on James during one of my own quiet times when I couldn’t make myself focus on the Bible. I love Bible studies that make me think, whether they are topical or a book-of-the-Bible study.
Focus on fellowshipping with God rather than checking “read Bible” off the list. If you view your relationships with people as duties rather than fun times to be with them, you won’t want to get together with them. It’s the same with Bible reading. If you view it as a duty, rather than time to fellowship with God, you won’t want to do it. Take time when you’re reading to visit with God about anything that pops up in your reading. I like to read small portions of Scripture each day so I have plenty of time to think about it, see how it interacts with my life, and talk to God about it.
* Don’t feel like your Bible reading has to be in t...

How to Navigate Life Change (Even if You’re Not Crazy about the New Life) Are you in the middle of a big life change? Or still adjusting to an old life change? Change can be difficult, even when it’s positive. Yet so many life changes don’t feel one bit positive. Here are  just a few of the life changes we go through:

* A move
* Change of occupation: new job, loss of old job, career change, beginning college, etc.
* Engagement or marriage
* Divorce or separation
* Natural disasters and pandemics such as Covid
* Death of a loved one
* Serious illness, disease, or injury
* Children leaving home
* Retirement of yourself or a spouse


Since I’m experiencing my own life change at the moment (my husband just became a travel physical therapist and we’ve left our home of 30 years to travel around the country doing physical therapy and writing), I thought it might be helpful to do a podcast/blog post on how to navigate major life change. Following are a few things I’m trying as I enter this new season of life.
10 Tips to Navigate Life Change Well

Recognize that it’s hard. So often we say things like, “I shouldn’t be feeling this way,” or “Buck up, Buttercup!” And while I’m a big fan of that latter phrase, it’s helpful to realize that it’s not surprising that we’re struggling. Even a happy occasion like marriage can cause adjustment problems. We’ll do better if we admit to ourselves that yes, this is an adjustment, and yes, it’s hard.
Have realistic expectations for the process and give yourself grace. If you recognize it’s hard, you’ll be more likely to give yourself grace. Beating yourself up for not adjusting quickly enough isn’t helpful. I’ve found that if I have realistic expectations for how long something takes—whether it’s a task on my to-do list or an adjustment to a new situation—I’ll be less likely to get worried, depressed, or beat myself up.
Work on making this new life the best life possible—put time and effort into it. Often, we complain about how hard life is, but we do nothing to change it. Instead, we expect it to get better over time. While this does sometimes happen, we’ll have much more success if we put some effort into making it better. The rest of these tips will give you ideas of how to make the best possible life.
Brainstorm ideas to make life better. When you’re in a new situation, you’re not an expert at that situation. Instead, you need to learn how to be joyful in this new life. Take a list and brainstorm different ways to make it better. Talk to a friend, mentor, or loved one. Visit with someone who’s been in this situation to see how they handled it. Then circle a few things from the list to try.

Join a support group or get involved in a community ASAP. When we moved to our first travel assignment in Santa Fe, the first thing we did was to find a church. We tried two churches in one day and found one we loved. We visited with people in the church, and I mentioned that it was hard to leave our community in Hamilton, Montana. This led to one couple inviting us to a home group and now we have instant community–a group of wonderful people to fellowship with. If your life change is traumatic, look for a support group in your area of others who are going through a similar trial.
Dwell on the good. My tendency is to dwell on the good of the old life and the bad of the new life! This is not helpful! It’s easier to dwell on the good if you have a positive life change, but it can be incredibly difficult with a traumatic life change. That said, God can bring good from any situation. A bad situation is a perfect “opportunity” to develop a thankfulness habit, grow closer to God, and practice dwelling on the good...

How to Avoid (or End) an Emotional Affair Our hearts are deceitful and in this age of technology, it is easier than ever to begin sharing your thoughts and deep feelings with someone other than your spouse. If we aren’t careful, we can begin to become emotionally dependent on someone outside of our marriage. In today’s podcast, Barb visits with her friend, Trish, about how to avoid (or end) an emotional affair.

What We Discussed on the Podcast

* What exactly is an emotional affair?
* How an innocent friendship can morph into something more
* Questions to ask ourselves about interactions with the opposite sex
* Tips for setting boundaries about your relationships with others
* Tips for how to avoid getting into an emotional affair
* Helpful ideas about how to end an emotional affair

Resources We Talked About on the Podcast

* Barb’s upcoming James Bible study

How to Listen to the Podcast

To listen or subscribe on Google Podcasts: click here 
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To listen or subscribe on Stitcher: click here 
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Amazon Alexa: To listen on Amazon Alexa, say, “Alexa, play the Christian Habits Podcast.” 

How to Achieve Your Goals – 10 Tips Do you ever set goals and fail to reach them? I used to do that all the time. The only goals I completed each year were my recreation goals! Over the years, though, I’ve learned some tips to help me be more successful with reaching goals. On today’s podcast, we’ll discuss ten tips about how to achieve your goals this year. I’ve asked my friend and fellow podcaster and writer, Dr. Melanie Wilson, to help me with this podcast as she is the master at completing goals!

Melanie Wilson is a Christian psychologist turned homeschool mother of six.  She is also the author of a fascinating book called A Year of Living Productively. For one year, Melanie made a commitment to try a different productivity strategy, app, or program each week. In the book she shares how it went that week and what she liked and didn’t like about each of the productivity strategies.
Following are the tips we’ll discuss more fully on the podcast:
Tips to Help You Achieve Your Goals

* Develop a routine.
* Make it easy.
* Make a plan for dealing with obstacles.
* Find ways to make it fun
* Keep your why in front of you.
* Let go of perfectionism.
* Be a good coach to yourself.
* Renew your mind when necessary.
* Gain support.
* Conquer procrastination.

Resources We Talked About on the Podcast

* Melanie’s routine kit
* Barb’s decision making sheet (Click on the link, then scroll down to “Resources Mentioned in the Book.”)
* 45 Bible Verses for Procrastination
* Melanie’s book: A Year of Living Productively 
* Melanie’s blog: homeschoolsanity.com
* Melanie’s podcast: The Homeschool Sanity Show
* Freedom from Procrastination
* Renewing of the Mind Project

How to Listen to the Podcast

To listen or subscribe on Google Podcasts: click here 
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To listen or subscribe on Android: click here 
To listen or subscribe on Stitcher: click here 
To listen or subscribe on Spotify: click here 
Amazon Alexa: To listen on Amazon Alexa, say, “Alexa, play the Christian Habits Podcast.” 

To Give Advice or Not Give Advice? 6 Rules to Follow To give advice or not to give advice? That is the question. In the past I used to answer that with, Of course I should give advice! Why wouldn’t I give advice?! Well, I have since learned a few reasons why I shouldn’t!

For starters, too much advice can hurt relationships. On our end, we think we’re giving wise advice to help people be safe and happy. But on their end, they often feel like we’re trying to fix them. This makes them annoyed with us and hurts relationships.
Unsolicited advice can make the recipient feel unloved. Again, we’re trying to keep them happy and safe because we DO love them! They on the other hand feel like we’re focusing on something negative in them. That can make them think we’ll only love them if they’re perfect.
Unsolicited advice also hurts relationships when we give the same advice over and over. This makes people not want to be with us because they’re tired of getting advice!
Finally, unsolicited advice can hurt relationships with our adult children because it’s seen as a lack of respect. We think, I need to tell them this so they don’t make the same mistakes I made! They think, Mom (or Dad) doesn’t realize I’m an adult!
So how do we break free from giving too much advice when it’s something we just do without thinking?
Well, let me give you some advice about that…
How to Decide if You Should Give Advice or Not
In this blog post (and podcast episode), I want to share an acronym I’ve made that’s helping me know when to give or not give advice. I’ll warn you ahead of time, though. Usually I decide I shouldn’t give advice after asking the questions!
I call the acronym SPIKER. Think of a person standing at the volleyball net, jumping high to shove the ball down the other side of the net and take out the opponent. That’s how advice often feels to the advice-receiver. We think we’re giving a nice gentle lob over the fence to help them have a better life, but they think we’re pounding them with advice. This acronym will help you evaluate what you have to say so see if it’s worth giving.
With the holidays coming up, it seemed like the perfect time to share this acronym as many of us will be surrounded by people we want to give advice to!
SPIKER Acronym: 6 Questions to Ask Before Giving Advice
Ask these questions before you give advice. If you have adult kids coming home for the holidays, think about what kind of advice you may want to give them while they’re here. (Yes, I know it’s already running through your mind!) Ask yourself these questions before they get home. Or better yet, each morning before they wake up!

* S – Sure – Are you sure you’re giving the right advice or is there a possibility you’re wrong or you’ll find out one day that this was bad advice?
* P – Profitable – Will it be profitable? In other words, how likely are they to consider taking your advice? (This is especially helpful to think about for unsolicited advice.)
* I – Important – Is it important? Or are you wasting your advice-giving-currency on things that aren’t that important?
* K – Knowledge – Do they already know this?
* E – Edifying – Is it edifying? Will this build them up? Or will it make them feel like you think there is something wrong with them that needs to be fixed?
* R – Repeat – Have you said this before? How many times? (Most people don’t want to hear the same advice more than once or twice.)

If you’d like to hear some examples of this acronym in action, check out the podcast episode. (Scroll down for links to listen to the podcast or click the player at th...

How to Plan a Productive Day with Polly Payne Do you struggle with productivity? Do you find that you often have trouble getting through your to-do list? At the end of each day, do you feel discouraged that you didn’t achieve more? If so, you’ll want to listen to today’s episode of the Christian Habits Podcast, where I interview Polly Payne, the CEO of Horacio Printing and the creator of the Dream Planner. Polly shares many helpful tips so that we can productively focus our energy on what matters most each day and finally conquer that to-do list!

Things We Discussed on the Podcast

* How to win the day rather than letting the day defeat you
* How to simplify your focus by using the “Top 3” strategy
* The importance of planning your “Top 3” the night before
* Two phone tips to help get things done
* The Five Block System
* A helpful tip to transition from your morning routine to work block
* How remembering your “why” is so helpful to your productivity
* The “Planning Fallacy”
* Start small and give yourself the win

Resources Mentioned on the Podcast

Dream Planning Podcast with Polly Payne
Shop at Horacio Printing
 2022 Dream Planner
 Soap Bible Study
Systemize Your Life Podcast with Chelsi Jo
* The Pomodoro Method
* Finish by Jon Acuff

Polly Payne is a southern girl from Alabama who moved to NYC to pursue her dreams. She left her successful career in advertising to run Horacio Printing and share her Dream Planner with the world. She has sold over 35,000 Dream Planners around the world and raised over $65,000 to fight human trafficking through her partnership with A21. Last year, she hosted the Dreamers Summit which featured Christine Caine, Alli Worthington and DawnChere Wilkerson as guest speakers! Polly now lives in Chattanooga, TN with her husband and daughter and has a little baby boy on the way coming New Year’s Day! 


How to Listen to the Podcast

To listen or subscribe on Google Podcasts: click here 
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To listen or subscribe on Stitcher: click here 
To listen or subscribe on Spotify: click here 
Amazon Alexa: To listen on Amazon Alexa, say, “Alexa, play the Christian Habits Podcast.”