Season 3 Episode 16: His Mercy Is More

Can We Talk?
His Mercy Is More - Episode Description

It’s been a wild ride lately, with the heavens opening up just as we were about to get our hands dirty in the garden—talk about timing! But every cloud has its silver lining, or in my case, every bird “blessing” is a sign of good luck, right? This week, we’re inviting you into our world of contrasts and reflections, as we wrap up an incredible fundraising marathon, overflowing with gratitude. But it’s not all been smooth sailing; I faced a surprising challenge as I closed a book mid-narrative, honoring my own tastes over the pull of ‘writer’s guilt.’ Meanwhile, Kayla shares her steps on the road to recovery after her hip injury and we both buzz with excitement about our upcoming Disney escapade. And for those who can relate to the late-night symphony of a noisy sleep machine, I’ve got a tale that ends with sweet, silent slumber.

Our hearts are full as we recount the success of our latest fundraising efforts, reaching a milestone that seemed like a distant dream just weeks ago. The joys of a 103% goal completion, combined with the intimate moments of spiritual closeness and the recognition of life’s little mercies, have left us humbled and reflective. Self-acceptance is a dance, and we’re learning to move to its rhythm, discussing the often complicated relationship with societal expectations, body image, and finding grounding in something greater than ourselves. Joined by our friends Adam and Tricia Reed, we delve into the power of tiny blessings in daily life, and we’re throwing a trivia prize giveaway your way—because who doesn’t love the chance to win a cozy coffee mug and some cheerful stickers? So grab your earbuds, get comfortable, and join us as we share this rollercoaster journey through life’s ups, downs, and everything in between.

His Mercy Is More - Transcript

0:00:00 – Announcer
We go together like Peas and Carrots. The Peas and Carrots Podcast, sharing life from our piece of the vegetable patch, Brian and Kayla Sanders.

0:00:11 – Kayla
Welcome to the Peas and Carrots Podcast.

0:00:13 – Brian
I’m Brian and I’m Kayla. Welcome to this week’s edition of how does the garden grow… peas and carrots. You get it.

0:00:20 – Kayla
Oh Okay, it took me a sec, sorry, okay, here we are, all right. Well, right now it doesn’t because I haven’t planted anything, because all it’s done is rain, but bitter party of one. So here we are Anyway.

0:00:41 – Brian
Bitter party of one. Your table’s ready. Bitter party of one, and we have a special tonight on spaghetti, okay.

0:00:51 – Kayla
On a more positive note, what’s up in the world of peas and carrots? Actually, it’s what came down on the world of peas and carrots as I walked this morning. Oh yeah, you and a bird. We’ll leave it here. We’re going to keep this PG. As I was walking my mile, a bird blessed you this morning. Yes, right, it here. We’re going to keep this pg. As I was walking my mile, a bird blessed you this morning.

0:01:07 – Brian
Yes, right on the front of your shirt. Yes, I wasn’t wearing a hat, so I’m thankful. I’m a little thankful. I have a gut that it hit that, because that sticks out and it didn’t hit me on my head. So, yeah, it’s first time in my life I’ve ever been blessed by a bird. It happened to me at the beach.

0:01:25 – Kayla
Yeah, I was so mad. I was just minding my business reading my book and bloop, and it even hit your chair. Yes, it was nasty. Well, seagulls put out a lot. Okay, let’s stop. I’m just saying it’s a wrap.

0:01:40 – Brian
It’s a wrap.

0:01:41 – Kayla
Our fundraising season is done.

0:01:43 – Brian
It’s a wrap.

0:01:43 – Kayla
Our fundraising season is done. Yes, it officially ended yesterday, thank you Lord, and we’ll share our results here in just a few minutes. But we have seen the goodness of God.

0:01:53 – Brian
Yes, we have. We certainly have Thank you, I did something for the first time.

0:02:00 – Kayla
You did. Okay, so technically you did two things. For the first time, you actually picked up a fiction book, which I encouraged you to do, so I’m kind of feeling like I went up in flames on this, but you gave up on it.

0:02:15 – Brian
I actually read half of it. You did.

0:02:17 – Kayla
I read and out of kindness to the author we are not going to share the name but it just wasn’t for you, and this was the first time I’ve ever seen you set down a book.

0:02:26 – Brian
Because I have what’s called writer’s guilt, Like because I’m a writer, I’ve written two books and, like, I know the pain and the creativity and the hours and the work it takes to write a book. I know all that, yeah, but I got. This is a 400-page New York Times bestseller and I’m really I got this is a 400-page New York. Times bestseller and I’m really. I mean I read 200 pages of this and set it down.

0:02:53 – Kayla
I mean books need to move faster than I think. You might need to flex your muscle a little more. On fiction, though, I’m going to get another book for you to try again.

0:03:00 – Brian
No, I’m not reading. No frou-frou thing.

0:03:03 – Kayla
I don’t think I said frou-frou, I used the word fiction, okay.

0:03:07 – Brian
So calm it down. Well, you also read all that murder stuff.

0:03:10 – Kayla
I’m not going to make you do that yet. Okay, so Yet. So I started a new habit. The last couple of weeks I started walking a mile a day, really During my break. Really I thought I would miss running. So this was part of my hesitation, other than the fact that I’m just lazy and I kind of thought, well, this is going to make me feel me because I used to love running, but on my breaks I’ve been going and like walking near work and there’s this cute little church that I walk by and I go into the neighborhood and then I come back. I’m really enjoying this. And not to belabor this, but an update on the hip after the fall down the stairs, I think it’s really helped with that.

0:04:01 – Brian
It’s healed.

0:04:01 – Kayla
So my hip is well and I think the walking is only doing.

0:04:06 – Brian
We got a Disney trip in about three weeks. Do not fall, you’re welcome.

0:04:10 – Kayla
Okay, okay, just felt that you are picking up a new sleep machine at the day of this recording. Can I say hallelujah and amen.

0:04:26 – Brian
Because at the beginning of fundraising season I guess the first or second night of fundraising season- the motor decided to start dying.

0:04:35 – Kayla
So this is all I’ve heard for six weeks, as your motor is.

0:04:44 – Brian
Interacting with my breathing. That’s what it’s doing, and so we’ve had everybody loves Raymond playing at night. All kind of things, trying to drown it out what I liked is when I got up to pee at one o’clock Golden Girls was on.

0:04:57 – Kayla
Oh, my word, that was pretty good.

0:04:59 – Brian
TMI. Oh, but there we go. I’m sure the people on this podcast, the people listening, go pee.

0:05:06 – Kayla
Okay, some of us use the word potty, oh, but all right.

0:05:09 – Brian
Okay, potty, wow. Okay, this is where we are. This is the end of five weeks of fundraising. Six, six, my filter’s a little broken.

0:05:20 – Kayla
Not to be clarifying or anything, but Not to be.

0:05:26 – Brian
We got to get to the next segment.

0:05:31 – Kayla
Life is a series of ups and downs. That’s a given. We all know that there’s no perfect day. You’re not promised anything, but I am not sure that we have ever seen a season as wild as the past three months.

0:05:48 – Brian
Yeah, there’s a spiritual principle here. If you listen to the episodes where we talked with our friends Adam and Tricia Reed, we actually talked about this spiritual principle and I told Kay this morning I’d like to dedicate a segment of our podcast back to this principle. Again, it’s a principle that I call tiny mercies. Okay, because when there’s so much stuff going on, that’s bad. Yeah, I have to look for the good. Because here’s my thing If you’re constantly hearing the bad, it’s going to bring you down. Or if you constantly focus on the bad, guess what it’s going to do to you? Yeah, it’s going to bring you down. So you got to look for the good. For me, when you’re going through bad things, when you’re walking through the valley of the shadow, don’t just focus on that. Look for where else God is working and remind yourself of that.

0:06:45 – Kayla
We’ve hinted at this in other ways. When my dad passed away you know that I went through a very hard season. I developed a habit of keeping a gratitude journal.

0:06:55 – Brian
Hmm.

0:06:56 – Kayla
This is kind of like a living breathing gratitude journal, and I still do that to this day because we all trend toward the negative. There’s just so much of it in the world. Tiny mercies, seeing them, accepting who they are from, keep us from just drowning in the negative. So we’re going to walk through some things that have happened.

0:07:23 – Brian
In just the last five to six weeks.

0:07:26 – Kayla
Yeah.

0:07:27 – Brian
So first of all, probably one of my I mean, he’s one of my best friends in the world. He’s my executive assistant. He’s navigating the house fire.

0:07:37 – Kayla
Yeah.

0:07:37 – Brian
His house caught on fire.

0:07:38 – Kayla
And every week comes with a new layer to it. Yes, now they’re okay, nobody got hurt. The house is yeah, his house caught on fire, and every week comes with a new layer to it.

0:07:41 – Brian
Yes, now they’re okay. Nobody got hurt, the house is being cleaned, so there’s that, and then.

0:07:48 – Kayla
We have a sweet friend who she suddenly lost her dog and then learned on the heels of that that she was going to need a biopsy after a mammogram that showed some concerns.

0:08:01 – Brian
Then we had the sudden loss of a team member at PAR. He was a friend. He was on our future leadership team, which meant I interacted with him a lot as a mentor.

0:08:13 – Kayla
You two basically texted daily.

0:08:15 – Brian
Yes, I loved him. He was like a son, he was like a younger brother and just pouring into him and the Lord took him home. I mean 44 years old, I was just crushed.

0:08:30 – Kayla
We have a friend who lost her mother-in-law and within days of that she lost her aunt.

0:08:34 – Brian
Yes, we have a friend whose daughter was also in a car accident. Everybody’s listening to this right now and going. We are not getting around the Sanders for the next few months. We are going to avoid y’all.

0:08:48 – Kayla
We have a friend who’s walking a relative through dementia.

0:08:52 – Brian
And then your grandma passed away.

0:08:53 – Kayla
Yeah, we lost my grandma, and one of your best friends lost his dad.

0:08:57 – Brian
Yes.

0:08:58 – Kayla
And I mean there are things that forgive us if we have not highlighted it. That is just the icing on the cake of what has been going on behind the scenes.

And at the same time now, this is not to belabor this point we’ve been in a fundraising season which is it’s exhausting and it’s a spiritual attack at times, because you’re putting God’s message out there 12, 13 hours a day and you’re asking people to worship him with their money, and the enemy does not like that, and so it’s a given. We know that hard things are going to happen during fundraising season. This one has just felt to use one of the kids’ terms it’s felt extra, I mean.

0:09:45 – Brian
What’s that More?

0:09:47 – Kayla
A lot.

0:09:48 – Brian
Okay.

0:09:49 – Kayla
But even so we have seen so many tiny mercies.

0:09:55 – Brian
The Lord’s protection of our friends and the provision as they almost literally rebuild their home, I mean the Lord’s taking care of them.

0:10:03 – Kayla
Yeah.

0:10:04 – Brian
And provided, and I will try to help him focus on that too.

0:10:09 – Kayla
on the good, the reminders. Yeah, we got news that the biopsy that revealed some issues. None of them are invasive carcinoma and all of them are benign. We’re thankful for that so thankful.

0:10:25 – Brian
A team of 65 people that’s poured out love, even as they collectively grieve so many losses. This team fundraised through grief. They fundraised through all these different. It’s been like a pinball machine getting hit here, hit here, and yet they kept moving forward.

0:10:42 – Kayla
The resilience.

0:10:43 – Brian
Yes.

0:10:44 – Kayla
And the care. Yeah, we have both seen. Now this is something you and I talk about a lot and we could spend an hour just on this. Prayer comes easy to me. It’s hard. I love to pray, but it’s been a growth process for you.

0:11:01 – Brian
For years.

0:11:02 – Kayla
You find studying and reading easier.

0:11:04 – Brian
Oh, it comes like a second nature, I feel like.

0:11:06 – Kayla
Talking to God is just. It’s a constant for me, and yet we have both seen a deepening of that.

0:11:13 – Brian
In the last two or three months, the Lord’s turned my heart. Now I still read, I still study, I still love it.

0:11:19 – Kayla
Yeah.

0:11:22 – Brian
But I also find myself throughout the day I’ll just be praying. I’ve never been like that before, Never. I will still do my main prayers in the morning, but throughout the day I’ll just be praying and I’m like, who am I? Now? That’s not bragging on me, it’s that. That’s a tiny mercy the Lord has given me during this season, he’s changed your heart. Well, you needed changing.

0:11:46 – Kayla
There’s been a true slowing down. We’ve had to choose rest at times and we have found peace in the simplest of things. It’s not been anything grand or epic that has given us joy. It’s been the little things.

0:12:00 – Brian
We have a church family that’s continued to bless and grow us, and Bible study classes and sermons reminded us again and again of who he is, no matter how life is. I was texting with our pastor the other night and this is just another tiny mercy. And it’s also hilarious. I got a new book on theology and so I just took a picture of it and I texted it to him. And what does he text me back? A picture of a Dr Seuss book. In other words, you’re reading that and I’m reading this. That’s hilarious.

0:12:32 – Kayla
Absolutely hilarious. We had had a really tough day. It was just. Leadership comes with its own level of drama, but this day just had about three days worth. On our drive home, there was a beautiful rainbow. Reminder of a promise, and it was a reminder of a promise, and it was as if God was whispering I’ve got this, and it was just. It was a very sweet moment. A friend left random flowers on the front porch.

0:13:04 – Brian
Nobody does that for me. I don’t get random flowers.

0:13:07 – Kayla
Oh, OK.

0:13:08 – Brian
Well, you got to enjoy them I found that sweet for you that during your grief, your friend.

0:13:14 – Kayla
Oh, it was.

0:13:15 – Brian
it was beautiful, just showed up with the just left him on the front porch.

0:13:18 – Kayla
And I enjoyed them for like two and a half weeks. I just I didn’t want to let them go.

0:13:24 – Brian
A fundraising season that went from four weeks to six because of the loss of a team member, and yet the Lord blessed us with 103% of goal. Who would have thought? I mean, I’m sitting here, blown away.

0:13:38 – Kayla
Knowing what people are having to spend for groceries and gas, and there’s all the things. There’s graduation parties, there’s end of year this and end of year that, and for people to say, oh, I want to support this ministry, Absolutely wild.

0:13:53 – Brian
I’ve also felt the closeness of the Lord in this season. I mean, I don’t say that lightly, because most of the times I don’t feel him, and that’s normal life, but he has been near to us in the last four to six weeks.

0:14:09 – Kayla
Yeah, it’s nothing to shake off. When you feel a peace that is unnatural, when you’re going through hard thing after hard thing and you see the Lord’s goodness in giving you peace, even for moments of the day. I hope you can stop and say that’s God, Because we’re not wired for that as humans. We just aren’t.

0:14:36 – Brian
I’m also thankful for the kindness of friendships.

0:14:39 – Kayla
Oh, my goodness, yes, we have had so many text messages and cards, and a friend even took the time. This blew me away. She had some wind chimes inscribed with my grandmother’s name, and so when I see them and the wind blows, it’s to remind me of her and the Lord’s goodness. People have gifted us plants and I’m going to do my best, y’all, to keep them alive. Don’t get your hopes up. Y’all Stop. We’ve been given meals and, yeah, it’s just and not just us. I have seen this play out for team member after team member. I’ve seen our church do this for loved ones in our church that are going through hard times or in different seasons, and this is what it looks like. This is what the tiny mercies look like when life is tough.

0:15:36 – Brian
So again, here’s the spiritual principle when you’re going through stuff, even on days when you’re not, keep a little folder or keep a journal and write down the tiny mercies, write down the good you see, don’t just focus on the negative stuff you’re going through. Turn your head and look and see where else he is working, what you’re learning about him, what you’re learning about yourself, and that will actually encourage your heart to keep on going.

0:16:05 – Kayla
It will. It’s twofold. I will say this when you are able to reframe your thinking and see his mercy, you also become a person that shows it to others.

0:16:18 – Brian
Amen, so keep hope alive. Look for the tiny mercies. Well, this is your topic. You’ve been bringing this up.

0:16:32 – Kayla
I have and, okay, I’m going to be brave because this comes with. First of all, it comes with a confession. I was getting ready for church a couple of weeks ago and it was one of those weeks where I had not planned well. I did not get my outfit together.

0:16:49 – Brian
the night before. When have we planned? There’s that.

0:16:54 – Kayla
I was trying to get ready for church, I was trying to put an outfit together. Everything I tried on it was either too tight or it was uncomfortable, or I just it didn’t feel appropriate for the weather and I had a little bit of a meltdown, and you didn’t know it at the time. But I mean I had a mini meltdown because I was just so irked with myself and with this phase of life.

0:17:22 – Brian
And I’m downstairs watching Meet the Press, thinking you know, everything’s fine and I, just I am that person. This phase of life.

0:17:26 – Kayla
I’m downstairs watching Meet the Press, thinking you know, everything’s fine and I, just I am that person, and please don’t roll your eyes if you’re listening to this. For 45 years of my life, the number on the scale was exactly the same. It may have fluctuated one or two degrees, but I had this crazy metabolism. I could eat anything. Now, if I sniff cake, I gain three pounds.

0:17:49 – Brian
That’s not true. It is it’s not true?

0:17:52 – Kayla
I sniff cake. So it was just. It was this moment where I, just I was so frustrated because I have a closet full of beautiful clothes that I felt like were just haunting me, closet full of beautiful clothes that I felt like were just haunting me, which led me into a spiral of well, this is your own fault because of this, this, this and this. But then I had to take a step back and remind myself of some things. Loving ourselves, even when we don’t like certain aspects, is crucial to remembering whose we are. God doesn’t define any of us by the way we look, or by our weight, or by how many goals we’re crushing.

0:18:35 – Brian
This is a huge hurdle for me. I’m trying not to get emotional because I have struggled with my weight since I was a child. Yeah, I have been on. I’ve been on over probably over 200 diets in my time, my lifetime member of Jenny Craig. I don’t go there anymore.

0:18:53 – Kayla
Do they even still exist?

0:18:54 – Brian
Yeah, you go online. Oh, okay, but this is a huge issue for me because this is really personal. Every day, in my prayer app, I actually ask forgiveness for my size and I ask him to forgive me for being this large, because I feel like it’s a sin for me to be like this.

0:19:16 – Kayla
Oh mercy.

0:19:17 – Brian
So I appreciate your words that we have to love ourselves, even though there may not be certain aspects of ourselves that we don’t like.

0:19:25 – Kayla
Yeah, and that’s hard to do. It just is Because we can easily become our own critic.

0:19:33 – Brian
Every day. Now let me say this there’s nothing wrong with pursuing a healthier us.

0:19:39 – Kayla
No, because we’re both doing that. Yes, yeah.

0:19:43 – Brian
But you’ve got to pursue Christ more yes, then you got to pursue Christ more yes, then you have to pursue that. So, because I can’t believe, I’m going to say this you’re not a number on a scale you’re not I feel like I am yeah but we’re not and my appearance and certain things I mean the aesthetic of our home or the life’s comforts that we’ve acquired.

0:20:09 – Kayla
None of that sits higher than our image in Christ. And so, yeah, it’s. Am I seeing the needs of those around me as I see my own goals and desires? Am I accepting again whose I am, rather than the conditions that I’ve put on being seen as good and yeah, and fitting into this mold of society? That, yeah, which lends me to this, and this is the whole thing that I’ve been chewing on for the last few weeks. It really matters the voices we listen to. Not everyone needs to cold plunge. That’s this big trend now where everyone’s doing these cold plunges or detox or drink a gallon of water every day.

0:21:02 – Brian
Is a cold plunge, like where you jump in the ice water.

0:21:05 – Kayla
Yeah. I ain’t doing that well it’s. It’s this big trend right now, but it’s not necessarily safe for everyone jacket I’d give it a go but also, just because I may embrace minimal minimalism in some areas of my life, it doesn’t mean that everyone has to, and there’ll be other areas where I don’t so, but here’s the thing.

So this is kind of two-sided and I may sound like I’m contradicting myself. When we do refuse to hear from others because we don’t want to feel challenged or perhaps gifted a perspective that can help us to learn and grow, then we’re limiting ourselves, because this is why it is so important to assess the voices that are yours.

This kind of builds on the whole boundary thing we talked about last time, but you need people who are speaking truth to you. So this is not saying that no one gets to have a say, but you have to be the one to decide what you take away from that. And if you block everyone out and say, well, no one’s going to tell me what’s good for me or what’s bad for me, and I’m just going to put on my blinders, because, truthfully, one of the best things I did was listen to a trainer who helped me to believe that I could accomplish things that I never would have dreamed I could, and helped me overcome a sugar addiction and helped me to focus on specific goals, but at the same time, I’ve had to find my own way on a few things like something as silly as okay, this is how much water I should drink today. But we live in a world where so much messaging is coming at us.

0:22:53 – Brian
Everybody.

0:22:55 – Kayla
And there’s this bent towards and I’m just being real, I had to even check myself there is this bent towards secular messaging that is drowning out biblical truth and what Christ would tell us to do in relationships and in taking care of the temple that he’s given us, which is our body, and various other things. And so, yeah, it’s a lot more to unpack, but yeah, y’all, don’t forget this Our bodies, they are complicated.

0:23:26 – Brian
In the relationship that we have with them, and even the people that, like you, adore, like I’d like to be like that person, there’s things about their body that they hate. Yeah, they absolutely hate. So find your best path and walk. It’s all I can say. Is that wisdom, or is that?

0:23:43 – Kayla
Oh, absolutely, and I love what a friend shared with me several years back. What if we take a moment to appreciate all the seasons that our bodies have carried us through? What if we think about all the ways that our bodies have cared for us in good and bad times?

0:24:03 – Brian
We haven’t given up yet that get you.

0:24:09 – Kayla
Yeah, that got me.

0:24:12 – Brian
I can tell you this I’m out of summer and fall. I think I’m in winter.

0:24:15 – Kayla
Stop Seriously. If we take a step back and think about all that our bodies have done to serve us, maybe we would be a little kinder to them.

0:24:29 – Brian
I will try, I’m going to promise. Oh, I know.

0:24:32 – Kayla
Well, this is hard for all of us.

0:24:34 – Brian
It could carry a little bit more ice cream, and I’m sure that there’s going to be another meltdown when I need to put an outfit together.

0:24:41 – Kayla
Well, let me know, so I’m not down there, clueless watching Meet the Press outfit together.

0:24:42 – Brian
Well, let me know, so I’m not down there clueless watching Meet the Press. Hey, thanks for listening to this week’s edition of the Peas and Carrots podcast and, by the way, we’d like to send you a Peas and Carrots coffee mug.

0:24:55 – Kayla
Yes, and Cute little stickers.

0:24:58 – Brian
There’s a How’s that go. Cute little stickers.

0:25:02 – Kayla
She loves. I love the stickers. She does so the first two folks to go to our website, which is Peasandcarrotspodcast.com.

0:25:10 – Brian
When you get there, what do you look for?

0:25:12 – Kayla
Look for the trivia button. Okay, and you answer this week’s trivia question, which is “what is a tiny mercy in your life?” So go to our website Peasandcarrotspodcast.com.

0:25:28 – Brian
Click on the trivia button and what’s this week’s question?

0:25:31 – Kayla
What is a tiny mercy in your life?

0:25:34 – Brian
Yeah, answer that question. We’ll send you a coffee mug and some cute little stickers.

0:25:41 – Kayla
You can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Just search for the Peas and Carrots podcast. And hey, you can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Just search for the Peas and Carrots Podcast.

0:25:47 – Brian
And, hey, you can also search Peas and Carrots Podcast wherever you get your podcasts, or visit us at our website peasandcarrotspodcast.com. And when you do, please don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast. And, by the way, what are those stickers again, what do you call them? They’re cute and little.

0:26:05 – Announcer
For more about the Peas and Carrots Podcast and to reach out to Brian and Kayla, visit peasandcarrotspodcast.com. Life’s not perfect. That’s why God gave us friends like Melody and Candi. Check out QuirksBumpsandBruises.com, or search Quirks, Bumps, and Bruises wherever you listen to podcasts.

 

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Season 3, Episode 2: Hello, Self!

Hello, Self! - Episode Description

Join Brian and Kayla on a journey of self-discovery and acceptance as we march into the new year. In this episode, they focus on the beauty of acknowledging our strengths and embracing the aspects of ourselves that need no change. B & K open up about skills and personal strengths that they are committed to refining, and they invite you, their listeners, to reflect on the positive traits you’re proud to carry into 2024, amidst all your goals and aspirations.

Brian and Kayla also share light-hearted updates on their new nutrition plan, puzzle-working frustrations, and travel-related anxieties inspired by a true, spine-chilling incident aboard an Alaskan Airlines flight. Get ready to laugh with B & K and be inspired to embrace goodness in 2024.

 

Hello, Self! - Transcript

 

0:00:00 – Announcer
We go together like peas and carrots the Peas and Carrots Podcast, sharing life from our piece of the vegetable patch Brian and Kayla Sanders.

0:00:11 – Kayla
Welcome to the peas and carrots podcast. I’m Brian and I’m Kayla. Welcome. How are you? Pretty good, awesome yourself, great, we are ten days in On a new nutrition plan. Oh how’s it going for you?

0:00:30 – Brian
Well, I’ve been on a diet ten days. Anybody want to fight we’re?

0:00:33 – Kayla
not on a diet. It’s a new eating plan.

0:00:36 – Brian
I’m on a new eating plan ten days. Anybody want to fight? What’s that? Tell you? I don’t like anybody oh, mmm and disclaimer.

0:00:47 – Kayla
We are not going to become those people who it’s nutrition and fitness.

0:00:52 – Brian
That’s all we talk about. I love food and I love to cheat with food, so Well, I’m not gonna lie, it’s more Eos last night. I did Google Bojangles menu today and their chicken is all allergen free for me.

0:01:04 – Kayla
Oh well, that’s not happening. Dream on, dream, big dream on, dream on. So what else is up in the world of peas and carrots?

0:01:15 – Brian
Well, now I want fried chicken moving on okay, we mentioned last week that we are now working puzzles and y’all.

0:01:26 – Kayla
The hardest puzzle a.

0:01:28 – Brian
Batman puzzle. It is the hardest during puzzle I’ve ever worked my entire I actually. I actually get angry like I have to walk away.

0:01:38 – Kayla
It’s not accomplishing the whole relaxation thing.

0:01:41 – Brian
It’s hard.

0:01:42 – Kayla
Yeah but I’m not a quitter. We’re about a fourth of the way through this puzzle. Why something we were half? No, we’re about a fourth and we’ve been at it for a week.

0:01:51 – Brian
I am so depressed right now.

0:01:53 – Kayla
You’ll be all right. Really, it’s Batman of a way.

0:01:58 – Brian
That’s one of these weird puzzles where they say it’s a Thomas Ken Kate, when I think a Batman, I don’t think a Thomas Ken Kate, and when I think a Thomas Ken Kate, I don’t think a Batman. So there’s something strange going on there. You feel better.

0:02:14 – Kayla
No, as this airs, we will be with our entire PAR team. Yeah, and what is that? Why do we? In January and July we typically all come together, yeah what every January we do, what’s called vision week the whole team comes together about 50 55 people.

0:02:37 – Brian
Par is a ministry that spread over five states or so. Yeah, team members in all those states and we get together twice a year and we’ve got a lot of new team members.

0:02:51 – Kayla
We do which is exciting.

0:02:53 – Brian
Everybody’s gonna be working on a text to do a reset where? We cast the vision anew.

0:02:58 – Kayla
This is who we are. This is why we do this.

0:03:01 – Brian
We hear everybody’s annual plans as far as, yeah, the teams and stations and there’s some good ones this year.

0:03:07 – Kayla
I’m excited.

0:03:08 – Brian
It’s. It’s gonna be fun. So yeah, there’ll be games. I think we’re going to see a movie together as a team, so yeah, fun times.

0:03:20 – Kayla
We’re in a new year. I think we have all finally agreed on that. We’ve embraced the fact that 2023 is gone gone but there’s so much chatter about a better you, and in truth, we should all be open to growth. That’s just a fact, but perhaps there are some things about us that we don’t need to change.

0:03:42 – Brian
Now, before we get deep in this, we just want to make one little caveat here for everybody. We are not saying that Christ doesn’t change us, that he’s not at all.

0:03:53 – Kayla
No, no, this is. This is in reference to if you are feeling the pressure to have all these new Intentions for 2024 and if you do, that’s great, we celebrate you, we cheer you on. But if you are and I’ve spoken to several people who are sitting here I’m limping out of 2023 and I don’t even know what’s up at this point from down.

0:04:20 – Brian
So I don’t think you’re the only one. I talked to one of our leaders this morning and he said be, I’m coming in to vision week with probably the lowest amount of fuel I’ve ever had.

0:04:31 – Kayla
Yeah and so, as I’ve talked with friends and and just listened to people, 2023 was hard, yeah, and so our gift is we want to make a little bit easier for you, and one way we can do that is let’s think together for just a minute. We, as humans, are so quick to focus on the negative. I watched this amazing video not long ago and it was actually I think it was a Dove commercial, and they asked as in women.

0:05:04 – Brian
Yes, they asked when?

0:05:05 – Kayla
well, dove does a whole line of beauty products. And they asked women To name one thing that they would change about themselves.

That’s women, women, this okay and it was so negative in every case. And then they asked little girls, no, and the contrast Between what the women said and what the little girls said was just Incredible. So it got me to thinking, rather than focusing on what’s not so great about us. Yeah, and again, we’re not playing a naive game here, where you never have to face areas where you need to grow. But what if we asked you what are three things that you love about yourself and Don’t see changing in 2024? And again, if you are focused on growth this year and you are chasing hard after some goals, get?

0:06:06 – Brian
it. Well, I think it’s okay to have both exactly hundred percent.

0:06:10 – Kayla
But we also know people who they’ve been so down on themselves for the last few years and it’s I mean as we record. This is January 11th, so a lot of goals and intentions have the wagons burning as we speak or it’s in that shoes. But how would you answer this? Be so, let’s, let’s give people an example of things I’m not gonna change. Yeah, what’s your first one?

0:06:37 – Brian
I’m gonna say this I, when I look at Brian, these are the good things. I have the gift of Leadership you do. I am going to continue to lean into that and lead the organization because that’s what you’re built to. That’s what I’m built to do, so that’s a good thing. Yeah, one from you.

0:06:55 – Kayla
Well, I have the gift of Organization y’all cannot hang on.

0:06:59 – Brian
miss Kayla, I love you. Uh-huh y’all the way the woman relaxes. Mm-hmm is she organizes a closet or the pantry, or Can I just say baby, I love you. That has never once crossed my mind and that’s okay. Okay.

0:07:18 – Kayla
I love organizing, I love attention to details, I can fiercely tackle clutter, take the emotion out of it and get rid of stuff that is just clutter in our home, and I love to design processes and systems that simplify life. And so I’m not getting rid of that.

0:07:41 – Brian
Okay, go on getting rid of stuff, but let me just say this I love seeing that in you.

0:07:47 – Kayla
Yeah.

0:07:47 – Brian
Cause it’s something so foreign to me, Like I’ll sit there and I’ll go what’s going on.

0:07:51 – Kayla
But when we got married, I even streamlined your closet for you, didn’t I? And you went. Well, this just makes better sense. You used to. Let’s stay on the positive design. Let’s stay on the positive.

0:08:04 – Brian
And I have, like all the shirts you even streamed line and threw away my wonderful pink blanket.

0:08:08 – Kayla
Okay, back to so, number two. What would you say? We’re going to move on from that. The people are not here for that.

0:08:17 – Brian
Yes, they are threw away. One of my favorite blankets and I didn’t have a hole in it though A huge hole.

0:08:24 – Kayla
So yeah, in my defense.

0:08:26 – Brian
I love reading, yeah, and I love having books everywhere.

0:08:31 – Kayla
And we do have piles of books and I’m okay with that.

0:08:34 – Brian
And that’s not going to change.

0:08:35 – Kayla
Yeah, I love hosting. I pride myself on others feeling comfortable and welcome in any space we share.

0:08:46 – Brian
You do love to host.

0:08:47 – Kayla
I love surprising and delighting guests when they visit us.

0:08:52 – Brian
I mean, you delight in having people over I do and having the little fruit tray and the little meat tray. You, just you delight in that. In the games and yeah, you, you and the comfort foods and yeah that is your and you want everybody to be at comfort ease. I love seeing that. That is a true gift that you have, and I’m like y’all are here, okay, what time you’re leaving. Here’s a bottle of water. Why don’t y’all come back whenever you can’t stay long?

0:09:22 – Kayla
You’re that person that would have the balloons leave at nine.

0:09:28 – Brian
There’s actually a door mat that you can put inside your house. Yep, that says leave, we’re not getting that door mat. I ordered it the other day. Oh well, amazon returns Next for me. I love to laugh, I love to be happy.

0:09:43 – Kayla
Yeah.

0:09:44 – Brian
And I try to fight against the gloom.

0:09:48 – Kayla
Yeah. So, Well, your role naturally presents a lot of negative situations. Really, what you deal with people? You deal with 50 people on any given day and people can be drama sometimes no, yes. You fight really hard to find the good.

0:10:06 – Brian
Well, and I love to laugh and I know this sounds stupid, but I love to be happy. So I’m going to continue to try and this may sound counter, but I’m going to lean into that and I’m going to fight to see the positive. I’m going to fight to see the happy. I’m going to fight to lean into that because I can easily be pushed toward the other side. I can easily lean toward like hopelessness. Okay.

0:10:34 – Kayla
Yeah.

So you at 51 and a half-ish. I’m comfortable with who I am and how I look. I’m not averse to gray hair. Now you know that for a season this really bothered me. I would look in the mirror and I would still see my chestnut brown hair. And then someone would send me a picture and I would go who is that? Because it was such a stark difference. And now I’ve embraced it. I’m too cheap to spend a bunch of money coloring my hair. Here’s my thing. It’s a lot of work. I don’t have patience for that, but I’m OK with. I mean, I’ve worked hard to take care of my body the last year.

0:11:23 – Brian
Oh, except for the stairs that hit you.

0:11:25 – Kayla
Yeah, that’s not going too well, but that’s OK. So yeah, here we are Gray hair and all.

0:11:32 – Brian
I have one more I’d like to add as a bonus. I love doing life with Miss Kay. That makes me happy.

0:11:39 – Kayla
We have some grand adventures planned this year.

0:11:41 – Brian
We do, and I want to continue to do adventures and stories and make memories, so those are things that I’m not going to change.

0:11:49 – Kayla
Yeah. So we would encourage you, take a hard look at your life and ask yourself, even as you’re struggling with things that maybe God is convicting you of and that’s OK that we’re not going to sit here today and share the things that he’s challenging us on and there are some but what are a couple of three things that you really love about yourself? They define who you are or what you find delight in, and maybe chase hard after those this year.

0:12:20 – Brian
That’s good wisdom, miss Kay. Breaking news Now. Miss Kay, I want to ask you a question.

0:12:28 – Kayla
Literally breaking news.

0:12:29 – Brian
I want to ask you a question what would you do, how would you react, if you’re on an airplane and the door blew off? I mean, you’re up at 25,000 feet and the door blew off the airplane. This just happened.

0:12:46 – Kayla
OK, we’re being brutally honest. Yes, I would probably miss my pants and cuss. I am sorry. That is as real as I can get.

0:12:58 – Brian
What can?

0:12:58 – Kayla
Brown do for you. Oh stop, it would just. That’s the least of reactions I would probably have.

0:13:07 – Brian
Because you know, as soon as that door blew off, they say oh my gosh. They said nobody stand up. Well, let me just say first, I’m going to need to potty break, I am going to have to get up.

0:13:17 – Kayla
I think that’s going to take care of himself.

0:13:19 – Brian
I’m going to aim my high and end toward that open door. Ok, that’s what I’m going to do. She’s gone, oh my gosh. Ok. Second, I’d probably scream like a girl Uh-huh. Ok. Third, I’m probably going to say some words that a Christian Presbyterian shouldn’t say.

0:13:39 – Kayla
Well, I’ve admitted that OK.

0:13:41 – Brian
I’m just. I’m just saying Cause you’re at 30,000 feet.

0:13:46 – Kayla
I’d be wanting you to hold me.

0:13:48 – Brian
I’ll be honest I would hold your hand but you look to your left and you can see Aunt Thelma’s farm below you at 30,000 feet and there’s nothing between you and that farm.

0:14:01 – Kayla
In case you all do not know what we’re referencing. There was an actual breaking news story Alaskan Airlines flight, a panel blew out of the plane because a bolt was loose. The kid sitting next to it sucked the shirt off his body.

0:14:18 – Brian
Okay, now think about that.

0:14:21 – Kayla
I did, and this is I told you, this is why I sit with so much travel anxiety, fear, irrational, irrational is based on things like this.

0:14:34 – Brian
I’m just saying that little fingers are her as a tap in that table right now.

0:14:38 – Kayla
It’s just terrifying. And my dear friend Shelly, her husband works in the airline industry and she said, oh, you wouldn’t believe the other things I said.

0:14:49 – Brian
And I’m never going to know. I don’t want to know.

0:14:51 – Kayla
I don’t want to know.

0:14:52 – Brian
But there was on a flight one time where they had duct tape on a wing. They had a fuel leak. I remember that and I actually took a picture of it and I’m like I mean, I didn’t realize it till he’s up in the air and I’m like, well, this could end badly. Hope nobody’s smoking and throws a cigarette after lights his own fire.

0:15:07 – Kayla
Yeah.

0:15:08 – Brian
That was a joke. That went over. That just okay. Irrational fears about traveling for me getting sick away from home. Years ago I went on a guy’s trip from the cemetery. You had a kidney stone, I had a kidney stone, yeah, and it was.

0:15:23 – Kayla
I had to call her doctor at like three in the morning and ask her to translate.

0:15:27 – Brian
I did not want to go to a doctor in Italy with that kind of a problem and not be able to speak.

0:15:34 – Kayla
Yeah, English.

0:15:34 – Brian
Okay, yeah, so there’s that you.

0:15:37 – Kayla
So we did. We talked about irrational fears that surface when you hear of things like this. And so one of mine. I’m just keeping it real. This is the kind of news I’m not here for. I can deal with delayed flights, no in-flight surface cramped seating. I’ve actually had someone pass out drunk on me on a flight.

0:16:01 – Brian
Okay, and I was, it wasn’t me. Okay, it wasn’t me.

0:16:06 – Kayla
We were in one of those situations where it was a three-seater and the guy to my right passed out and I was terrified that he was going to get sick on me at some point. And you kept telling me, pushing back the other way. I’m like I’m afraid to move him, so I’d push him. But I just have this fear of someone being ill in my space and there’s nowhere I can go.

0:16:35 – Brian
So Fears for out flying for me, people being rude or disrespectful to you or me. We boarded a flight one time and I’m a larger man. I have to have a seat belt extension, yeah, and we asked, and we don’t fly this particular airline anymore because of this thing, and she says, gosh she threw it at you, she threw it at me and she made a comment like all you fat people need these extensions.

0:16:59 – Kayla
Yeah, and I worry about. Will our luggage arrive at our destination?

0:17:05 – Brian
I worry about that because not everybody sells my size clothes.

0:17:09 – Kayla
Well, it may not be easy to get clothes regardless, so I just I do worry about that. I’m sneaking around, I worry about, will we miss a flight?

0:17:19 – Brian
I don’t worry about that. They’ll get me on another one.

0:17:21 – Kayla
Well, hopefully, but how long are we gonna have to camp out in the airport?

0:17:24 – Brian
So a big one of mine is I have a CPAP machine. Yeah and I stress continually that is it gonna break, as I’m taking it through the airport and on the plane.

0:17:36 – Kayla
Just try to be very careful and baby that and.

0:17:40 – Brian
It’s in a bad I don’t get so when we get to our hotel, the first thing I do you always plug in your CPAP always hook it up, make sure everything works, works right.

0:17:49 – Kayla
What if someone loses their mind and does something stupid mid-flight? I always worry about that.

0:17:55 – Brian
I was on a flight. This is back when we lived in New Orleans. We had a radio station in New Orleans, one in Atlanta. I used to fly the red-eye flight out of New Orleans to Atlanta every other week. I got on the that flight that particular morning and a woman Five, six rolls up, started screaming yeah, and this is before we took off, and she started beating the wall like taking her fist, and the cops came on and escorted her off.

0:18:22 – Kayla
But what if that’s mid-flight? I mean, it’s just I wonder, I mean they. They’re trained in how to well, they’re trying.

0:18:28 – Brian
I mean, here’s my thing. Why can’t you hit her with like a tranquilizer?

0:18:31 – Kayla
Oh my gosh.

0:18:32 – Brian
Okay, I’m serious. What’s wrong with that? Put her tail out till we land on the ground. You think that’s wrong to me?

0:18:39 – Kayla
I mean I wouldn’t say wrong, maybe a little harsh, but okay, I often worry about what if we have severe turbulence.

0:18:49 – Brian
You went through severe turbulence.

0:18:50 – Kayla
I did. I was coming back from you and I had been.

0:18:54 – Brian
Atlanta to New Orleans on a vacation.

0:18:57 – Kayla
We got as far as Kentucky and learned that, due to a hurricane, they were not going to be able to fly us into New Orleans, so we stayed in Atlanta. And then what they said once the Quote whether clears, we will resume flights and at that point you and I was staying in you were staying in Atlanta for work and I needed to fly on to New Orleans.

They made clear that once the flights resumed, I would need to take the first available flight. Well, the storm had not completely cleared the area, but they were resuming flights. They felt it was safe. Um, that is probably the worst flight I’ve ever been on. The flight attendants were seated the entire time. There was no Moving around the cabin. It was. The pilot was coming on about every 10 minutes to assure us that they were expecting it to be a bumpy ride and it was terrible. I have never been between the plane shaking and just the pressure that we felt Going around the the storm. I was very glad to be on land.

0:20:05 – Brian
Uh, also, we had been to turkey to do the seven churches of revelation tour. On the way back you had a wisdom tooth get impacted. I did and that was awful.

0:20:19 – Kayla
That was not a fun experience.

0:20:20 – Brian
We took off normal. When we landed, everything was fine. I did.

0:20:24 – Kayla
It was funny looking, but it was a horrible, it wasn’t bless your heart.

0:20:28 – Brian
So yeah, in the event, the next day we took you to the dentist. So yeah that’s a. That’s the only health issue I’ve ever seen on a. I mean, I’ve never been sick on a plane, have you? I mean other than that, don’t say that I’m not saying that out loud.

0:20:40 – Kayla
There’s always the first time. So yeah, so okay, I’d be really good moving forward if we could keep all the panels on the planes and you know, just calm down.

0:20:52 – Brian
And okay, one of the thing about another airline declared after that.

0:20:56 – Kayla
We won’t name any names. They were inspecting all of their planes that fit that category.

0:21:02 – Brian
They found loose bolts on several doors.

0:21:04 – Kayla
And I went. Brian were never flying that airline, so One last fact about this, about this goody the door that flew off the Alaskan airline.

0:21:14 – Brian
Uh-huh, an iPhone flew out. Yeah fell 16,000 feet. It did not crack the screen.

0:21:21 – Kayla
You just had to say that, didn’t? You had to get that in there, I think the the person who found it.

0:21:27 – Brian
It wasn’t on a lock screen.

0:21:29 – Kayla
Oh, Steve Jobs would be so proud.

0:21:30 – Brian
He would, he would I just, I find that kind of stuff in me. But it landed in a bush and they say that’s what saved it. It landed in a bush so anyway, hey, thanks for listening to this week’s broadcast, and we have for you A mug and a pack of stickers.

0:21:47 – Kayla
We’ll give away to two people.

0:21:48 – Brian
Okay, two people.

0:21:50 – Kayla
And thank you to all of our friends who answered last week’s question. Yes, but Kimberly answered last week’s question the first two people to go to our way. We had someone else as well, I think in my email but Answered this question correctly.

0:22:05 – Brian
Okay.

0:22:06 – Kayla
What is one thing that you’re holding on to this year?

0:22:12 – Brian
that you like that you like about yourself.

0:22:14 – Kayla
That’s a good answer.

0:22:15 – Brian
So what’s one thing you’re gonna share with us?

0:22:17 – Kayla
something that makes you new, uniquely you okay.

0:22:21 – Brian
So here’s the deal we want you to answer that question, and if you do, you’re going to win a coffee mug and go to our website, which is peasandcarrotspodcast.com. When you get there, what do you do? Look for the trivia button click it and you answer the question.

0:22:34 – Kayla
What is one thing that makes you uniquely, you that you love about yourself?

0:22:39 – Brian
If going to answer that. You can go to peasandcarrotspodcast.com and you click the trivia button.

0:22:46 – Kayla
You can search the peas and carrots podcast wherever you get your podcasts, or visit our website again. That’s peasandcarrotspodcast.com. When you do, please don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast.

0:22:57 – Brian
You can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Just search for the peas and carrots podcast.

0:23:03 – Announcer
For more about the Peas and Carrots Podcast and to reach out to Brian and Kayla, visit peasandcarrotspodcast.com. Life’s not perfect. That’s why god gave us friends like melody and candy. Check out quirksbumpsandbruises.com, or search quirks, bumps and bruises wherever you listen to podcasts.

 

 

 

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