Ep 113: Renewing Your Imagination In Seasons Of Survival

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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 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 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.

[00:03:35] Misty: Welcome back to Mom to Mom Mentoring. Now, whether this is your first time or your 50th, I am so glad that you pressed play today. I’d like to invite you to grab your coffee or whatever it is you drink as you’re listening to your favorite podcast. Find a chair or lace up [00:04:00] those walking shoes. Let’s have a conversation together.

Mom to Mom Mentoring is a weekly podcast that offers soul-nourishing wisdom for Christian moms who are looking for more peace, more presence, and more purpose in the middle of everything that is pulling on you. Motherhood asks a lot of you. and this podcast exists so you don’t have to carry it alone without support, and without a place to…

You got it, just breathe. I’m Misty Hughes. I’m an ICF-certified life coach, and for over 25 years, I’ve been walking alongside of women who desire to move from overwhelm into God-aligned rhythms. I’m the founder of an international ministry. I am the developer of the Rhythms of Life framework. I am a mom, and my favorite title is Grammy.

Now, if today’s conversation is stirring something in you, I would like to invite you to grab my free Rhythms of Renewal mini guide. It’s going to walk you through simple practices, simple experiments to help move you out of that place of striving and overwhelm into that space of walking with the Lord, learning to lean on Him, and trusting His rhythm of renewal for your life.

Now, today we are going to revisit one of the conversations that’s nearest and dearest to my heart, and that you’ve actually said is near and dear to your heart, too.

 It’s about what happens when survival mode becomes the only mode you know, and what it looks like to let God reawaken your imagination to the possibilities. And one step further, how to let God actually carry those possibilities so that you don’t become the one that is striving to keep hope fresh and alive before we get into it, I wanna tell you something is shifting around here in the Mom to Mom Mentoring podcast studio as well In the coming weeks, this podcast is going to sound a little bit different

I’m bringing another voice alongside of me for the next season because some seasons are better when you partner with someone else than when you try to do it alone

I’ll share more next week. But for now, let’s get into discussing what reimagining your life with the Holy Spirit looks like and what it can do to help build resilience and renewal in you

[00:07:10] Speaker: 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. [00:08:00] 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. 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, 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 [00:12:00] 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 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.

 if that’s you, I want to invite you to download something that I’ve created just for this journey. It is my free Rhythms of Renewal mini guide. This episode is really just the beginning. It’s the start of establishing your own rhythm of life, One that keeps you renewed in God in a way that you need for the season of life that you’re in, not someone else’s season.

You can grab the guide for free, and you’ll find the link right in the s- show notes, or just go to mistyhughes.com/resources. You’ll find the guide there. There is so much goodness in the show notes this week, so be sure to take a look at all of the resources that are available to support you on your journey

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.

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 there’s one thing I would like to invite you to carry away from today’s episode, it’s this

[00:15:19] Speaker: Your imagination is not something to correct or shut down sometimes those small wouldn’t it be fun if are actually the Holy Spirit’s invitation to imagine the possibilities with God. They’re an invitation for God to speak the dreams of his heart to you

Why not let yourself imagine again?

Now, if this stirred something in you, would you do two things for me? First,

Share it with a mom friend who is struggling in that place of lost hope herself, and download the free [00:16:00] Rhythms of Renewal mini guide. It will give you the tools that you can use to begin to open up the space of your soul to let God come in and reawaken your imagination. Oh, I guess three things. One other thing, go over to Facebook.

Join our Facebook group, Christian Moms in Business and Ministry. It’s where we continue the conversation and have a space to share the challenges and what God is doing in our lives

Now, whether you’re in survival mode or just biting the bit till you can get through to the end of the week, I wanna tell you this: God has not ran out of the future He promised you. God is full of possibilities

He’s not finished with writing your story, and He is patient and kind With every slow, small step that you make toward the future He has written for you, and believing that it is possible with Him and in Him

Matthew 11. You are here to bring out the God colors in the world God is not a secret to be kept. He’s writing his story so that you can shine with the glory and the goodness of his name in you

You don’t think He’s gonna hide you under a bucket, do you? No. He’s putting you on a lampstand. He’s placing you on a hill so that you can truly shine

 When you let God restore your imagination, you give others around you, your kids, your partner, your community permission to allow God to encounter them in their imagination as well. You give others permission to shine too

 Next time, we’re continuing this season of renewal and revisiting some of the best-loved episodes of Mom to Mom Mentoring. And I’ll be sharing more about the new voice and the new rhythm of Mom to Mom Mentoring

I can’t wait for you to meet them I’m Misty Hughes. This is Mom to Mom Mentoring. Now, go shine

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When you shine, you give others permission to shine too. ✨