Ep 92: Reimagining Your Life With God When You Feel Stuck In Survival Mode

Feeling stuck in survival mode as a Christian mom?

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Transcript

There was a season in my life where I lost the ability to imagine anything good in the future. Not because I didn’t love God, not because I wasn’t praying, but because I was exhausted. Heartbroken and I was trying to hold everything together for my kids. After my husband decided to leave overnight, I had become a single mom and.
What I didn’t expect was that I wouldn’t just lose a marriage, but I would lose hope. I would lose the ability to picture anything beyond survival. I couldn’t imagine joy again, I couldn’t imagine peace in our home. I couldn’t imagine what family would even feel like. I couldn’t imagine holidays that.
Didn’t hurt. I couldn’t imagine laughter around our table. I couldn’t even imagine a future that wasn’t just managing crisis after crisis after crisis. Maybe you’ve never walked through divorce, and I hope you haven’t or you never will.
But if you’ve ever walked through burnout, betrayal, disappointment, or just the slow erosion that comes from constantly pouring out as moms do, then you might know. Then you might know what it. It feels like to stop imagining that anything could ever be different. You’re just trying to cope to function, to survive.
Well, somewhere in the middle of that season, for me, God gave me. Just this one simple thought. It wasn’t a five-year plan. It wasn’t clarity about my calling or a divine revelation about my purpose. It wasn’t even a step-by-step strategy. It was just like a glimmer. I could imagine my kids building healthy relationships someday.
I could imagine them learning how to ask for help instead of hiding in shame like I had learned. I could imagine them struggling with humility
I could imagine them having tools that. I didn’t have as I began to imagine that future for them, something. Shifted in me because if that future was possible for them, maybe I could begin to reimagine what family could look like in that here and now, even though life definitely was not turning out the way that I had planned.
And beloved, that small picture, that simple thought of what might be possible. It became a doorway. You see, renewal, this renewal that we’ve been talking about the last few weeks rarely begins with the clouds parting and a clear vision of what it’s all about. It usually begins. With being awakened in the quiet moments of rest, those moments where we have to learn to give ourselves permission.
Hey friend. Welcome back to Mom to Mom mentoring and if this is your first time with us, welcome. I am so glad you’re here. My name is Misty Hughes and I am a transformational coach and speaker who. Deeply passionate about helping [00:04:00] high achieving Christian moms move through seasons of transition into the lives that are aligned with who God created you to be.
Because here’s something I’ve learned over the past 20 plus years of coaching and leading women. Transformation doesn’t begin when you finally get your act all together, it begins when you start to see differently. And so many of the women that I work with, they love Jesus. They’re leading their homes, leading teams, building businesses, raising kids.
They’re doing all the right things and typically doing them very well, but they feel disconnected with joy. They’re unsure of their purpose in this season, and. They might be quietly stuck in survival mode, moving at a fast pace towards burnout. This four-part podcast series, has been all about helping you move.
Out of that place, rhythms of Renewal, it’s where we trade survival mode for spirit led living, one rhythm at a time, helping you return to the pace, peace and purpose God designed you for so that you can. You got it, shine. Isaiah 43 says. Forget the former things. Don’t dwell on the past.
See, I’m doing something new Now. It springs up. Do you not perceive it? That word perceive, it literally means to notice, to become aware. In Psalm one 19, David says it this way, as a prayer to God, he says, open my eyes that I may see wonderful things from your law. Oftentimes our desire to see what God is doing, to have desire awakened becomes another place that we just start striving.
But Mom, what if we paused right now, right here, and just invited the Holy Spirit to open our eyes. Even Saul before God changed his name to Paul was doing all the right things, but he still had no vision of who God was or what his divine purpose was. God had to literally remove the scales from his eyes.
Now, if you’re ready to be awakened to notice God in new ways, just agree with me. I’m gonna pray. Father, open the eyes of our understanding that we might see wonderful things in the world around us from your world. Show us what you’re saying. Teach us what you’re doing. Awaken our heart to understand how you’re moving in our lives.
Beloved Father, renew a right spirit within us. In Jesus’ name, amen. Sometimes the first step toward the renewal that we long for is simply stopping, pausing, resting to ask God to help us see again. Now, here’s something I’ve noticed over the years about how you beloved mom survive. Because I was there in the trenches.
I’ve been there in the trenches with so many women, and I’m here with you now because I get what it feels like to. [00:08:00] Feel that you are all alone in those deep places where the enemy is coming at you from all sides. You’ve probably learned how to function. Without hope. You’ve learned how to keep going without clarity, without margin, without joy.
You’ve learned how to survive without imagining anything different. And when someone says, what do you want? Or What could God be inviting you into, you freeze. It happened to me this past weekend. I was doing what I love to do. I was inviting women to dream around the dinner table, casual conversation. I wasn’t saying, Hey ladies, let’s make a five-year plan.
But I asked them to think of something that they wanted to do in this year, 2026 that maybe they’ve never done before. What are the possibilities? And I saw it again. I saw that blank stare. I saw tears starting to, well, up to the surface. I heard the excuses, oh, I’m not the visionary in our family. Perhaps it’s because imagining feels irresponsible.
Dreaming might feel indulgent. Desire feels dangerous, maybe. It brings shame and you think, shouldn’t I already know God’s will? Well, reimagining what we’re talking about today is not about figuring it all out, it’s about giving God permission to help you see differently before you. Live differently. It’s about opening our heart and our mind to possibilities that God may be doing something and inviting him to speak to us about what that is.
Now if this series has been helpful to you, this Rhythms of Renewal series, make sure you follow Mom to Mom mentoring on your favorite podcast app because you don’t wanna miss what is coming next. I’ve got some incredible interviews with some incredible mom mentors that you are going to want to hear from.
Now, I’d like to give you something to. Think about trying this week. It’s not a plan. It’s not even a decision. It’s just a simple awareness. When something life giving crosses your mind a thought like. Hmm. I wish we could, Hmm. I miss win this. I wonder what it would be like or Here’s my new favorite.
Wouldn’t it be fun if don’t correct those thoughts? Don’t shut them down. Don’t dismiss them. Don’t call it unrealistic. Just write it down. Make a note of it. Allow yourself to. Hold it for just a moment because sometimes your imagination is where the Holy Spirit is whispering the dreams of God’s heart to you.
I’ve always viewed my imagination as a gift from God, a holy meeting place for me and my beloved maybe. Just baby. He’s waiting there in the recesses of your imagination to show you something wonderful. And if you’d like help walking through that, you can download the renewal guidebook from the link in the show notes.
 there’s a simple [00:12:00] journaling prompt. In the guidebook for this exact practice. Now, you might be listening to this series and thinking, Misty, this is good, but I don’t just want information. I want. Transformation. I want the abundant life I’m promised in the word of God.
Well, if that’s you, I want to invite you to join the wait list for my upcoming 12 week group coaching cohort. This is for women who are ready to take action, who truly want the support and that accountability, who want to walk along other like-minded women on the road to renewal. And for those women who are ready to grow and become more of the woman that God created you to be, when the doors open, those on the wait list who register will receive a special discount. You can find the link for that. In the show notes as well. There is so much goodness in the show notes this week, so be sure to take a look at all that is available to support you on your journey.
Well, the wave of loss, disappointment, betrayal, burnout. It may have come, maybe you’re feeling it right now, like you are going under for the last time, but there’s an invitation to imagine. That comes with that wave. It is an invitation for joy speaking from the midst of the wave. And if there’s one thing that I want to invite you to take away from today, it is this.
You do not have to figure out your future. Just take time to notice what God may be inviting you to see differently. Isaiah reminds us God is doing a new thing. Psalm one 19 reminds us, we can ask him to open the eyes of our understanding. And Mama, when you allow God to restore your imagination, when you begin to receive his.
Renewal. When you step out of survival mode and into spirit led living, you shine differently with more splendor and radiance. And oh mama. When you shine, you give others, your family, your friends permission. To shine to and the world, it becomes a brighter place. If this episode has encouraged you, would you share it with just one friend who might need permission to imagine again and leaving a review does help more kingdom minded moms find this space and this message of hope.
Until next time, beloved, may your eyes be opened to the new thing that God might be inviting you into. I’m Misty Hughes, and this is Mom to Mom mentoring. Now go Shine.
Okay. next, this conversation will help you begin imagining what renewal might look like in your real, everyday life. ✨