Episode 23
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Abbie: Welcome to your daily bread with co hosts, Abbie Stasior and Hannah Calhoun. We're here to be your weekly source of spiritual nourishment, guiding you to find food freedom in a deeper connection with Christ.
Hannah: As we explore the intersection of faith and nutrition, these bite sized episodes will help you heal your relationship with food and your body through practical advice, biblical wisdom, and heartfelt encouragement.
Abbie: And as a disclaimer, we are not pastors, but passionate registered dietitians and sisters in Christ, offering our insights to support you on this faith filled journey to a healthier, more fulfilling life. Join us by taking a seat at our table as we break bread and allow God in to break the chains of diet culture.
Hannah: This week I'm going to be reading from Proverbs 31 verses 10 through 31. A wife of noble character, who can find. She is worth far more than rubies. Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value.
She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life. She selects wool and flax and works with eager hands. She's like the merchant ships, bringing her food from afar. She gets up while it is still night. She provides food for her family and portions for her female servants. She considers a field and buys it.
Out of her earnings, she plants a vineyard. She sets about her work vigorously. Her arms are strong for her tasks. She sees that her trading is profitable, and her lamp does not go out at night. In her hand, she holds the distaff, and grasps the spindle with her fingers. She opens her arms to the poor, and extends her hands to the needy.
When it snows, she has no fear for her household, for all of them are clothed in scarlet. She makes coverings for her bed. She is clothed in fine linen and purple. Her husband is respected at the city gate, where he takes his seat among the elders of the land. She makes linen garments and sells them, and supplies the merchants with sashes.
She is clothed with strength and dignity. She can laugh at the days to come. She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue. She watches over the affairs of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children arise and call her blessed, her husband also, and he praises her.
Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all. Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Honor her for all that her hands have done and let her works bring her praise at the city gates.
There's a lot there. There's a lot. I'm feeling a little inadequate over here.
Abbie: Honestly, me too, and I'm going to expose myself right now. This is my third time reading Proverbs 31. I know we're called to be Proverbs 31 women. I hear about it a lot, but I haven't spent that much time studying it. It's like, I really need to do a study of it.
Um, I definitely have a lot more to learn from this for sure.
Hannah: Yeah, and I joke that I am feeling inadequate. It's more convicted and feeling like inspired like yes I want to be a Proverbs 31 woman.
Abbie: Yeah,
Hannah: you know and recognizing right now. I'm kind of not not a hundred percent You know, I'm not checking all the boxes, I'm checking a couple.
Right, which
Abbie: will we ever be a hundred percent? Probably not, but that's the sanctification process and, you know, working towards that. But I feel like where you're feeling convicted can be a good place to start. And I also think, you know, with all my clients, I always say, Hey, let's start with a win. Let's start with what's going well.
So I think if you're reading this, listening to this right now, and you're like, Ooh, like I feel far away from this type of woman. You're not starting from ground zero. Give yourself some credit and acknowledge what you are already doing well before diving into here. My opportunities for growth.
Hannah: So true.
So true. And I'm just thinking of, I know in all of our other episodes, we really emphasize, you know, the balance for lack of a better word and, and self care of like rest and adequate hydration and adequate, you know, nourishment and movement. And I'm thinking about this woman who wakes up while it's still dark and she's, she gets dressed for work and she's just.
Ready to take care of her household and to make wise conscious decisions like with the investments and everything like All the wisdom does not I don't see this as like a burnt out woman. This is an intentional Woman who you know if she's waking up while it's still dark I'm sure she went to bed early.
Abbie: That's
Hannah: what I'm
Abbie: telling myself. Oh yeah, absolutely. She definitely has rhythms of work and rest. And I think we've mentioned it on previous episodes, but you don't get burnt out from doing too much. You get burnt out from doing too much on empty. So if you don't have rest, then you're not going to be able to show up for work consistently like a Proverbs 31 woman is called to.
Hannah: Yeah, so this is a woman whose, whose cup is, is full. And because of that, she can pour into her family and her household. And so it's just really, really nudging me to continue to ensure that my cup is full, whether that means I need a snack and some rest or some, some extra time with, with God. Yeah. Be aware of what will fill your cup so that you can be this Proverbs 31 woman.
Abbie: And what I'm picking up is that especially in the morning with her morning routine, she's very intentional. How often are we waking up and we're pressing snooze a bunch of times, and then we get up and we're like, Oh, we have so many things to do. I got work emails to answer. But I feel conflicted because I probably should like do some quiet time or, Oh, let me make a cup of coffee.
Oh, wait, let me go brush my teeth. Like all over the, Oh, should I go work out this morning? Like we're all kind of all over the place. Like, no, you need to wake up and already have a plan. Know intentionally what you're going to do. And when I'm talking with clients, I describe it as like, you need to choreograph your morning routine.
You need to visualize and see yourself in the foot pattern. walking around your house so that you're not starting upstairs, then going downstairs to start the coffee and then going back upstairs to make the bed and changing your workout clothes and then go up and down, up and down all over your house.
No, be very intentional about what you're doing because. You lose a lot of energy, time, steam in the transitions in your mornings. Like I see this proverb 31 woman being very intentional. She has a plan, she's executing it and she's very, um, intentional about what she's doing from one thing to the next.
She's very efficient. So I think there might be an opportunity for, um, everyone listening and for us to, to tighten up on our morning and evening routines. and think about how could we just have more of a seamless morning eating routine and have more intentionality with it.
Hannah: That's so real. And, and I'm also noting, like, it doesn't say, like, she drags, like you were saying, snoozes the alarm 15 times, drags her feet out of bed, groans and says, I can't believe I have to do all this for this family. You know, like, it's not with the spirit of, like, groaning and, like, not again, you know, another day.
I feel like we can, we can get like that, you know, because our cup is empty. Yeah. Because we're burnt out, because we're fatigued. And, and I love that you said, like, have, like, choreograph your morning and evening routine. And, I mean, it sounds like her whole household has a routine. And, and how secure will the household feel, the children, the husband, whatever, like, when there's that routine?
Abbie: Hmm. Yes. Yeah. And that predictability, there's so much in life that we can't predict, but if you could have that routine, that grounds, not only you, but like the whole family. Oh, that's so good. And if children, most things are caught, not taught. So if you are running around like a chicken with its head cut off and you're, it's very chaotic in your household, that, that energy, that chaotic energy is going to rub off.
On your child, they're probably going to be more prone to anxiety and just feeling stressed later in the day and maybe fearful of certain things. So if you could have that calm collected energy, that's just more organized. I'm not saying that there's never going to be a morning where things are a little chaotic, but for the most part, if that is your norm, that things are just organized and things are routine that is going to rub off on them.
They are more likely to feel calm, cool, collected, and have good routines and feel grounded as well. That's good. Yeah. Um, I also think that in order to get up early, have a morning routine, like most people keep snoozing in the morning because they're tired. So it's more of an evening routine issue. If you struggle to get up in the morning and do a morning routine, it's an evening routine issue.
And in my experience, you know, it normally stems from one of three things. Number one, most people are eating or drinking too close to bed. And we're not saying that 7pm you need to stop eating. No, it's not that. But if you're eating or drinking within an hour of falling asleep, like, food is energy. Food is fuel.
So, you're waking your body up. You're waking up your digestive tract when really we should be resting and digesting. And not waking ourselves, not giving ourselves more energy, not waking our brain up. So if you're eating or drinking too close to bed, that can impact your ability to fall asleep. And then that impacts your ability to wake up well.
Um, so about an hour before you want to fall asleep, we want to You know, maybe like just have water, you know, limit what we're eating and drinking. Um, so there's not a specific time, but about an hour before you go to sleep, most people will be on electronics before they go to sleep or falling asleep to TV.
And that impacts our sleep as well. Or they'll go from working, shutting their laptop and then trying to go to sleep. And they're staring up at the ceiling, wondering why they can't fall asleep. Like you didn't allow yourself to wind down. You need some time to relax your mind, unplug from electronics, things like that.
So tangibly, that's where I would say people should start with this. If you want to have a better morning routine, you need to look at your evening routine, clean some things up because it will be easier for you to wake up in the morning.
Hannah: Yeah. And I just even want to note, like maybe even people who are doing some high intensity exercise, like right before bed, that amps me up.
Oh yeah, me too. You know, so. Yeah, there's like the eating like a huge meal right before bed and or going and doing a super high intensity Exercise right before bed or maybe like it's rowdy and there's a bunch of people in your house And it's like okay bye good night And then you're like laying in bed with your eyes wide open like, you know there have to be those those boundaries with other people and boundaries even with electronics And then some sort of rhythm around and schedule, like Abby said, choreography around, like okay, I know when I'm, when I'm gonna be exercising, and maybe you exercise after work really late because you don't have energy to wake up in the morning, but maybe once you clean up your evening routine, like Abby was saying, then maybe you will have more energy in the morning, and then you can exercise in the morning.
You know, so, so all of this is kind of like, like a snowball. You see, like, we can, we can create this big snowball of, of poor habits or maybe self sabotaging habits, or we can have a snowball of, of energy promoting habits, health promoting habits, self care promoting habits. So it's really, it's really up to us.
Abbie: Absolutely. And you operate with other people from that You're going to have so many like better connections, better relationships, more, better work productivity if you're operating from that place. And that's going to allow you to respond to things versus always be reacting. If you have, you feel calm, cool, you feel rested, calm, cool, collected.
You have filled up your cup first. So then you have something to pour out. And if you're calm, you're going to be able to. Respond to people in a way that, that you want to. And I love how this verse also talks about, um, clothing ourselves, clothing, other people making garments, because, um, We need to think about how are we clothing ourselves?
What are we clothing ourselves with? And also how are we clothing the other people around us? And this isn't just an actual. garments and clothes, but, um, in, in other things as well. So I was reading in a devotional journal by Charlotte Gamble, and it spoke to this exact thing. And, um, she said, sometimes I hear people complain about what their partner looks like.
And they will say things like, I don't like my husband's attitude, or my husband is just too moody, or he always lets me down. At times I have to reply, but how have you dressed him? Has your criticism made him wear that moody wardrobe? Has your anger made him clothe himself in a wardrobe of defensiveness?
I wonder sometimes if we need to ask ourselves, do I not like what he's wearing because I dressed him that way, put pressure on him, covered him with criticism and doubts? You may not like how that looks, but you also may have to be honest about where those garments came from. Hmm that's convicting
Hannah: Very convicting that's convicting and not even just for our partners, but for our kids Are we clothing them in criticism?
And that's why we're like you always disappoint me. You never take the trash out, you know, whatever it may be You never pick up your socks You know that could also apply to husbands and partners whatever wives husbands and you know Like even for ourselves, like how are we? How are we clothing ourselves?
Are we clothing ourselves in self criticism and self hatred? I hate my stomach. I hate my arms I hate this about me like that is that is not It's what we are called to do. And so we want to make sure we're clothing ourselves in garments of competence, of honor, respect, reminding ourselves that, you know, we're image bearers of God, we're housing the Holy Spirit and the people around us are as well, you know, our, our husband or our children.
This is so good.
Abbie: Yeah. Yeah. So it's just something to be aware of as well with I think it's easy to hone in just on with this first. Like morning routines and the work and the hustle and things like that. But, um, yeah, I think the clothing piece is also something to sit with God about, um, because we also have a personal responsibility to like, it's not like if somebody has a bad mood, that's not all on us, but I think it's also important to not assume that has nothing to do with us.
So I think it's a both and.
Hannah: Wonderful. Very good to consider in like our quiet time, uh, with God as we, as we strive daily to, to be pleasing to him and to approach others with, with grace.
Thank you for joining us on this episode of your daily bread. We hope you found inspiration and practical guidance to nourish your body and soul. Remember the journey to a healthier relationship with food and a deeper connection with Christ is ongoing and we're here to support you every step of the way.
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As we conclude today's episode, we encourage you to take what resonated with you into your quiet time with God, allow God to reveal to you any changes that you can make for his glory, trusting that you are fearfully and wonderfully made in his image. Stay tuned for our next episode where we'll continue to explore how God's word helps us heal our relationship with food in our bodies Until then may you find both physical and spiritual nourishment and may you be filled with his peace and joy.
God bless
