Faith mom, what if the reason you feel so exhausted is because you're trying so hard to be a good mom. Romans 8:6 reminds us to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Today on Faith Mom Mentor, we're talking with Brett Coleman, a faith-based leader, former hospital CEO, and author of Wisdom That Leads to Soul Rest. Brett shares how slowing down, seeking God, saying no, practicing gratitude, and choosing biblical wisdom can help busy moms find true soul rest and lead their families with peace and with purpose.
Brett, welcome to Faith Mom Mentor. Ann, I am honored to be on the show. I know you don't have a lot of, , guys that get to speak to the ladies, so I appreciate you giving me the opportunity. Well, we are glad you're here and glean- to be able to glean from your wisdom. So before we jump into the book, would you share just a little bit about your faith journey and what led you to write Wisdom That Leads to Soul Rest?
How, how has your journey shaped your understanding of biblical wisdom and the importance of spiritual rest? Yeah, I'd love to. So I grew up in a Christian home and, , married a great godly woman who's, , been a... , we're gonna be married 35 years here coming up. We have kids that are 31 and 29. , But about 12 years ago, I heard about the practice of going on a sabbatical three times a year, and me and a friend did that, and we started doing it for almost, I guess, nine years, 10 years.
And I'd went on my 25th mini sabbatical, which you might call it a retreat. , It starts Saturday night and ends Tuesday morning. And, , after I did 25 of those, I came home and I'm like, "Man, these are so powerful. I, I don't know that... I've never heard anyone talk about this or even preach on or anything."
I'm like, "Someone needs to write a book about this." So I went on the back porch, and I started dictating, and I came up with, in literally, like, three hours, probably every topic that I talk about in the book. , It was gonna be... The book was gonna be 25 lessons from 25 sabbaticals, but so much of what I'd learned was as a, as a spouse, as a parent, and, , as a business leader.
As a hospital CEO with over 1,500 employees, I'd learned a lot of leadership management lessons, and I wanted to write a book that was faith forward, but that was something that would be, I guess you might say, a little bit seeker sensitive. And so, , that's what I did. You mentioned a moment ago that you were a CEO of a hospital, that actually you were leading two hospitals, I think, if I understand correctly, yet you regularly stepped away for these short sabbaticals, and you said you had 25 of them.
, How often did you have them, and what did these intentional pauses teach you about God, leadership, godly wisdom, and soul rest? Yeah, I wanna say the first thing to think about is, number one, these are intentional pauses. They're planned. We do three of them a year. S- we kinda use Exodus 34, where it says, "Three times a year you will come meet before me."
So that's kind of our basis for that three times a year. But, , you only... only you know your potential or your ability to do a vacation versus a sabbatical. So don't feel any guilt if you can only do it once. But I want to emphasize this is a total pause. It's, it's a stop. It's not... It's a cease. If you look up the word sabbath, it's really cease from working.
So unlike slowing down, which is something different, this is a total, , stop. And I think the... one of the main things I learned is- , counterfeit money, if you go to a banker, they're not gonna, they're not gonna look for counterfeit money. They're gonna look at real money, and they deal with real money so often that when they see counterfeit money, they automatically recognize it as counterfeit.
So when you do these sabbaticals and you experience absolute true peace, and you realize what the baseline is, you get away from adrenaline, maybe you get away from caffeine, you get away from some of the things that are maybe stressing you out, turn your phone off, get away from TV, social media, all those things.
You start experiencing and learning what true peace is so that when you have to make decisions, you make them based on that as a benchmark. You have to have a benchmark for total peace. And so that's probably one of the best lessons that I learned, , during the sabbaticals is how to experience real peace.
And I think about sabbaths are something that like, they're like pulling back a bow. , You're pulling it back, but when you release it, that arrow's gonna go further. So you can actually be in charge of, , one little child or 100 employees and experience the ability to go further. You'll have more...
You'll become from a more rested. And the Bible teaches this over and over again. If you look at, , the Jewish Sabbath, it started at sundown. So rest begame- began with rest. So they slept. That was the first thing they did to, to spend time with God. They didn't spend time with God in the morning and then rest.
They rested first, so they could truly enjoy their time with God. The same is true with how He created the universe. On the sixth day, He created man. On the seventh day, He rested. On the eighth day, in, , Genesis 3:15, He sends them into the fields to work. So work was before the curse. So it was man, rest, work.
It's not working to the weekend like that old Loverboy song, everyone's working to the weeken- , working for the weekend. Yeah. It's working from the peace, not to the peace. Yeah. And, , everything about the universe, ebb and flow, breathing in and out, your heart beats and then it rests- Your sodium channels in your cells, when they fire, any muscle, any nerve, once it fires, it has a period where it can't fire again.
It's got a refractory period where it has to stop and be still. And really, this, , be still and know that I'm God. Yeah. That's great. Many Christian moms feel like slowing down means falling behind. How can you reframe this? How, how did stepping away... Because you were a busy CEO. You had a lot on your plate.
How did stepping away and resting actually make you more effective, more creative, more peaceful, like you were talking about? What, what can moms learn from that when it comes to Christian motherhood or faith-based parenting and leading a peaceful home? Yeah. I think that stepping away is a s- is a faith-based dec- decision.
So any time you do something that God asks you to do, it can be scary, and it takes courage. And you have to trust God that during that time, He's gonna multiply it back. So if you spend time with God, if you give money to the kingdom, He multiplies that back. No... The Bible says He's a debtor to no man, and so...
Or a woman, in this case. So He is not a debtor to us, and so He multiplies that back with creativity, with ideas that you might not have had. He might provide resources. You can journal and ask him, like, "What should I do about this situation? How should I handle this situation?" And just speak with him. And quite honestly, one of the things, and, and it's interesting, I'm, I'm learning now that I've, I've embarked on a one-year sabbatical now.
I, I, , quit my job in January of '24, and talk about scary. That was scary. , And I, I'm not saying that, that's not something that the book says, "Hey, you gotta do that." That's not, I don't wanna put that on anyone. But, , , one thing that I learned is that when I was going on sabbaticals and I was working, I was sleeping, like, 10, 12 hours a day 'cause I was so just exhausted and everything.
And now that I'm on the one-year sabbatical, I sleep just my normal seven hours. And, , so y- you realize, , how, how exhausting it is to raise a family, to, ... And I don't think any job is more stressful than the other. Honestly, I don't. , If you're in charge of, , keeping a bathroom clean and someone makes a mess in there, that's stressful.
And if you're in charge of making sure that you make budget for the month, that's stressful. God, th- there i- your body doesn't know that, like, hey, this is supposed to be more stressful than that. Yeah, that's so true. And a mom is probably thinking, "Yes, I need some sleep. How can I get this done?" So what is a mini sabbatical, and how can- a Christian busy mom realistically take one in the middle of family life, work, ministry, Christian parenting responsibilities?
What are some practical ways that you could help a mom take- Yeah ... one of these mini sabbaticals? Well, , there's seasons, and, , all seasons will pass. And, , you wanna enjoy the season you're in, not wish it away. , Celebrate, , kids don't keep, and, and those, and those sort of things. So, , the intentional pause takes intentional planning, and so I'm planning my sabbaticals a year out.
I just booked, , a place for October of 2027. So I'm planning way in the future so that I can save money if I need to, so that I can schedule airfare, so I can have dog sitters or whatever I need. , I s- I have dogs, so I don't... A- at, at this point, my kids are 29 and 31, so I, I still have to plan dog sitters.
And so, , you have to plan all that in advance. And what we do is you, you can do a sabbatical alone. You don't have to go anywhere. You don't have to spend any money. , I do honestly believe that you'll benefit from doing it with someone else, and I do believe that you'll benefit from leaving your house, and it'll be a lot more fulfilling.
, But what we do is, so let's say it's just four or five of us that are going, maybe your, your Bible study group You do dinner Saturday night together, a celebration, a time of fellowship. You w- , , we eat high fat, high protein, stay away from the sweets and carbs as much as possible right before you start a fast.
And then Saturday night's our last meal. We go to church on Sunday, and then we meet at a campground Sunday night. And, , in our situation, our campground, each person has their own room. I think that's a super big asset, but there's been times early on where we didn't all have our own room. So you can make a-- you can make anything work if you want to.
So don't feel like, "Hey, I can't do all these things." It's all-- These are what I do and what I've done, but use them as guidelines. , Then on Sunday night, we get together about 5:00, and we just-- everyone, maybe someone who hasn't been on sabbatical before, so we just talk about the timeline and why we do it and, , experiences and share maybe, , examples of things that have happened in, in prior sabbaticals.
And then we gather around a, a campfire in groups, because sometimes we'll have like 40 people on sabbatical, and so we'll, we'll break up into groups of seven or eight with maybe like five campfires. And what we do is the, the first night, the question is, if you remember, there were two blind men that were standing on the side of the road, and they found out that Jesus was walking by.
So they started yelling, "Jesus, Jesus, come here," ? So he walks over to them And you'll see this is so consistent in the Bible. He almost always makes them speak out loud what they need. It was probably actually very obvious what they needed and what they wanted when he walked up to them. But he went up to them and he said, "What do you want?"
And they're like, "We want to see." And so that's something that we do the first night is speak out loud what you want to get out of sabbatical. Why are you there? What's on your heart? What's on your mind? And this can help other people. I call it take a penny, leave a q- or take a, take a quarter, leave a penny.
, You're gonna give your emotional baggage to other people. They're not gonna take the same emotional baggage home that you have with it because they're not emotionally attached to your situation. , But they can pray with you. So you're dividing your need. You're splitting your need up in half, and you're taking someone else's need, and you can go pray about that.
And, , so when they share their need, it helps them, and when you share your need, it helps you. And then after the campfire on Sunday night, we go into a time of solitude and silence, meaning we don't talk to each other. You can obviously talk out loud to God or sing or whatever you wanna do. You can rest, you can journal, you can read a book, you can listen to music.
Whatever you feel helps you feel peace and, , best with God. So we do that all day Monday. And so Monday night, we come back to the campfire about 6:00 pm, and w-we talk about where did you see God? Where did you experience God? Did-- Is there anything that God's asking you to start doing that you haven't been doing?
Is there anything God's asking you to stop doing? Are there people that God's asking you to invest more time in? Are there people that God's asking you to... Maybe those relationships aren't healthy, and you need His help extracting you from those relationships. And so we share those with each other, and sometimes advice comes out of that.
Sometimes prayers come out of that. A-and it's just a time of just, again, taking the need and, and most of the time, people have-- are shocked how much they've gotten out of the last 24 hours, how amazing it is to be in God's presence out in the middle of nowhere after you've shared your heart and maybe tears have flowed, , and, and you've released some emotional hurt and, and this is a time, , where you can share the, the victories and concerns that have happened during the day And then the ne- we leave the campfire and we go back to our time of solitude and silence.
But then Tuesday morning, we break our fast. And, , my wife is like, and my sister have, have both said, , sometimes females with hormones or, , people that have diabetes or on certain medications can't fast. So if you can't give up food, give up something you can give up. And, , , any fast, , the Bible does say when you fast.
So I think there's kind of a recognition that fasting is a normal spiritual discipline for Christians. And, , so I, I do encourage that. I think it's one of... It's one of the most powerful things, because after a 60-hour fast, which is what this would be, from Saturday night to, to, , Tuesday morning, your hormones and your enzymes get reset.
, I don't know of anything in the Bible that is addictive, physically addictive, that doesn't have just a cold, hard stop to it. , , The Bible talks about, , abstaining from sex for seven days, basically, and it talks about abstaining from food. All these things can become addictive, and I think the pattern the Bible shows is that you have to cease from the stresses and the, , physically addictive, , just normal dopamine and things like that by doing nothing.
And quite honestly, we have to... This is something I think we can teach our kids, is like on our Sabbath day, the normal weekly Sabbath, how to just be bored, because quite honestly, part of that is learning to not have those endorphins and dopamine and everything constantly flowing. Oh, that's so good. What you've described in this sabbatical, in this mini sabbatical, is a soul rest, and I want to talk with you more about that and more about one of the chapters in your 📍 📍 book.
But Faith Mom, if you're looking for more faith-based parenting content like this to encourage you on your Faith Mom journey, be sure to like, subscribe, and follow along. Now, brett, one of the chapters in your book is called Learning to Lose.
What happened that helped you realize that losing can actually strengthen relationships? How, how does this principle reflect godly wisdom? , , There's 23 chapters, and I think there's something in all of them that maybe we need to be ri- reminded of or hadn't heard or something like that.
Learning to lose is like my lifetime achievement badge, because I grew up so incredibly competitive, and I wanted to win in sports, I wanted to win in cards, I wanted to win anything I could win in, and, and in life. And sometimes, if, , your spouse, your husband may see, , money as, , a way of keeping track of the score, and that's a way some people look at winning is like, "The more money I make, the more I'm, the more I'm scoring."
And so that's one of the things that happens. My wife and I were married, and we were having our, , just maybe a, a normal, I think, , early... It was like we'd been married maybe a couple years, and we're having a normal little tiff. And, , I'm a logical person, and I think she's probably more emotional than I am.
I think that's safe to say. And, , she said, I made this great argument. I was winning, winning, winning, and she said, "Do you wanna be right or do you wanna be happy?" And you know what? That was a really hard question for me to answer at the c- at the time, 'cause I kinda wanted to be right. But luckily I didn't say that, and I realized...
At, at that time I didn't supervise any- m- anyone, and later on I supervised more and more people. And what I saw is people who always had to win, if you win every debate, you lose every relationship. And that's what I saw, is people that had to always win, they ended up divorced, they ended up, their partnership broke up.
They ended up, , getting sued by their patient because they didn't have the, ... W- losing is kind of an emotional intelligence skill. And so yes, you want to strive for win-win, but sometimes you have to settle for win-lose because it's the best thing for the relationship, and it may be what your s- what your spouse or what your employees need to see.
But she kinda took it to the next level, because, , a few years later there was the normal, I, I just call them the normal paper cuts of life. , It's like pick up your socks, and it's like, "Hey, we're five minutes late." And I call those like the normal paper cuts of life, and they're the things that people complain about day to day in their marriage because they're just little irritants, , little sand that's rubbing in our shoe.
Yeah. And, , I got this idea. I don't know where I got it from. I don't know if I got it from the radio, from a book, but I said, "Instead of us complaining every day, how about we make a list of everything that's bothering us, and we'll give it to each other once a week. And so we won't say anything day to day.
Day to day is gonna be happy-go-lucky, but during the week we'll just, one time a week we'll give the list to each other, and we'll do it Wednesday. We'll do it Wednesday at 7:00 AM." 'Cause that seemed like the best day to l- to just ruin a day. , So we're going through the week and my wife starts complaining about something, and I'm like, "Put it on the Wednesday list."
And I kinda giggled, , 'cause I knew she couldn't say anything 'cause we'd both agreed to this. And later on she did something and I'm like, "You're doing this." She's like, "Put it on the Wednesday list." And she, , she kinda like was starting to like it too. So Wednesday morning comes and I'm rushing around, and I hadn't made my list.
I hadn't written anything down. And on the table was my wife's list. It said on the outside, "Wednesday list," and it was an 8½ by 11 sheet of paper folded in half. And I'm like, "Man, she's a lot better at details than I am , so I'm gonna get r- I'm gonna get killed here." So I open up this list and it says, "I love you for providing this family.
I love you for being a great dad. I love you for being a great husband." I j- it's like 10 things why she loves me. And what she was doing was losing on purpose. And this is a powerful, powerful message that I re- I learned, and it taught me those two, those two things, do you wanna be right or do you wanna be happy, and losing on purpose, taught me how important it is to not win at any cost, because that cost will probably be a relationship.
That idea is so important for Christian parenting, especially during the middle school years. , Moms need to learn that practice because they are constantly helping their kids get it right. Yes. And so having a regular, rather than nitpicking, as we could say, having a regular session once a week, for example, where you sit down and the, the child is not taken off guard- Yeah
but is ready to receive what the, what is coming, the feedback, and also things that the child could say, "Mom, this really gets on my nerves when you..." and then whatever that is, and have a honest dialogue. Yeah. So when, when the Christian mom, , who wants to be Spirit-led- Mm ... when they need to prove that they're right or prove a point How can they better adjust that?
Like, w- what can they do instead of, , just constantly berating their child or constantly criticizing? The best advice that I didn't get when my kids were, , tweeners, and I wish someone had told me because h- honestly, I think, , this is a power... I don't know if anyone on your show's ever seen, said this, I'd be curious.
But a teacher told me the best time you can let your f- kid fail is seventh and eighth grade. Mm. Because if they get an F in the class, if they don't get the homework done, if they don't do what they're supposed to do, if they absolutely fall on their face, it won't go on their transcript, it won't a- affect their college, and that might be the lesson that will help them.
So sometimes, and, and I think we were guilty of this, we wanted to protect our kids from all failure when they were in that age. And so a lot of the nitpicking is because what the consequences are if they don't do it, and if they don't obey, and if they don't follow through. And honestly, maybe the best thing is to let them suffer the consequences.
Yeah. Because if they, if you save them all the time when they're eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, they will not learn the lesson, and it will have a much higher cost when they learn it at 18, 19, 20, 21, 22. That is absolutely spot on. That is so true, and we as moms want to protect and shield our children. We want to...
Some of us want to think that what we are seeing in our kids is not real. Like, they, they didn't do that, and that's not them. That's not who I know them to be. But we really do need to wake up and look at the evidence, and we need to let them handle their own consequences of the decisions that they're making when the outcome of the consequence wouldn't be as severe, I think is what you're saying- That's right
as we wait until later. Yeah. In, in your book, you share a story about riding your bike across Iowa and learning about gratitude and the Red Car Theory. Yeah. What happened, and how can gratitude reshape the way we see hard seasons? , , number one, Red Car Theory, a- and it's been... it's actually has another psychological term.
There's a c- it's basically observance. So you're going through, you're driving to work, and literally if you wrote down everything that you could think of that you see while you're going to work- It could be a thousand things. I mean, you see the concrete, you see the signs, you see the trees, you see birds, you see other cars, you see stoplights.
And so there's so many things to observe that we eventually start kinda checking out on about 99.9% of them, and we only observe a super small fraction of what we see. But what happens is, let's say you buy a new or you're thinking about buying a new red truck. Well, all of a sudden you're looking at every red truck.
I like that color red. That color red's too bright. That color red's too dull. , That looks-- I don't like that color red, and I don't want my tires jacked up like that, and I don't... ? so all of a sudden, you're looking at every red car that you see because now you're focused on that. This is the way gratitude works.
So what you're doing is retraining your mind. And so what you do is, at the end of the day, let's say you write down five, ten things that you're grateful for. Thank God for my family. Thank God for my kids. Thank God for money to pay my house bill. Thank God that I have a house to live in, ?
And then the next day, maybe do that again, and let's say you can't use the same five. Well, your mind subconsciously, not consciously, subconsciously starts looking for things that you can write down that night. Because quite honestly, you might not have anything right now. You may be so wore out and so soul spent that you don't feel like you have anything to be grateful for.
And so when you start focusing on the gratitude things, your subconscious mind starts focusing on the gratitude things. And science has proven that if you'll do this just for I think it's seven or ten days, it will make a difference for six months. That's how powerful it is. And so I was on, ... , the other thing about gratitude is I go on this bike ride across Iowa.
It's about five hundred miles for seven days, and I was honestly, I was not as prepared as I should be. And, , I had a decent bike, and it had me down on my hands, and I had this little tiny seat that's about, , four inches, , wide by about four inches long. And, , I am having fun the first day.
I'm excited. I, I think this is great. This is what I took a week of vacation to do, seven days riding a bike. I can't believe how lucky I am. Well, by the third day, my body hurt in so many ways and so many places, and it was not a pretty picture. And when I got ready to get on the bike on the fourth day, I had this place that was-- this company that was moving my, my, like, sleeping and my, my luggage from town to town so that I wouldn't have to, , carry it on the back of my bike And the sign had probably always been there, but I just saw it, and the sign said, "If you're not having fun, lower your expectations."
And the de- the deal is sometimes we have these expectations that maybe aren't realistic, and so we think life is gonna be at a nine all the time, and every time it's a seven, we're not having fun, and we're disappointment- and we're disappointed, and we're discouraged, and we're frustrated, and we're angry, and maybe we're yelling and all these things I think anyone, the longer you're alive, the more you realize life might be a nine on average, but it's not a nine every day.
And so if you're not having fun in your season, lower your expectations, because certain seasons are harder than other seasons. Oh, you are so true. You are speaking to the heart of a mom, for sure. And, , and a word that is so significant in a mom's vocabulary she has a hard time saying is the word no, and you also talk about the power of the word no.
What insight did you gain about, about no that most people miss, and how can that help moms lead their homes with greater peace? Yeah. There's two, two sides of the word no, and most everyone's gonna think of Side A, but they may not think of Side B. So Side A is saying no, and the professional askers know how to make you feel guilty, know how to add pressure, and all the things that m- , maybe even stroke your ego like, "Oh, you'd be the only person that can do this.
You'd be so great at it. , We really need you." If you'll say no, if you'll go through your calendar and look and say no to two to five things, you might change your life. It might give you the time to go h- take the intentional pause. It may give you the time to go back to school, to get a job, to do... paint a room, to work on your car, anything that you can say no to, and it's gonna be hard, 'cause people make it hard to say no.
They really... That's, that's their job. Your job is to just be resolute and just maybe seek a third party to help you and say, "I, I really need prayer around saying no to this person or this situation or extracting myself to something I said yes to," because here's the big idea, too. It's always easier to go back on a no.
It's really hard to go back on a yes. And so when you say yes to something, it can be painful, and, , we've all said yes to things that we regret and that we wish we would've said no to. Be really careful and selective with your yeses. Make sure your spouse and everything... And I've always found that when me and my wife, when we...
when we're thinking about something, if we both hear a yes, that means go for it. If we both hear a no, that means don't do it. If one hears a yes and one hears a no, that means wait. And so that doesn't mean yes or no. That just means wait. So I don't say, "Oh, I'm gonna outvote you because I heard yes and you heard no," or, "You're gonna outvote me 'cause you heard yes and you heard no."
It means wait. And so that's about saying no. But the other side of that coin is hearing no, and a lot of people don't think about the power of no when they hear no. Some of you have a no wound. You've heard no in situations that makes you very aggressive and are very emotional when you hear no again and you take it very personal I'm, I was kind of that way.
So when I would have a project at work, and I'd done a lot of research, and I'd done a lot of background, and I got a no, I got pretty frustrated. And, , , the good thing about hearing no is it makes you pray more. It makes you look for scriptures you can stand on. It makes you reevaluate your position.
It makes you reevaluate the cost, the timeline. So there's all these good things that come out of hearing no, but you have to emotionally deal with it correctly so that you're not taking it personally. Like, they said ... They didn't say no to my project. They said no to me as a person, 'cause they don't like me, and they're not for me, and they have something that
So all these stories we tell ourselves when we hear no, we have to deprogram ourselves, 'cause sometimes people are just saying no. And maybe that means get a better pitch and get a yes, and maybe that means go back and examine your motive and see if you're asking for what you're asking for with the right reasons, 'cause maybe God's trying to protect you from something.
I wanted this, , big construction project when I was at my job, and I kept on getting no, no, no. And I, I kept on making a better pitch, more prayer. I was not a happy camper. And I was kind of getting a little bit ornery. Let's just say it that way. And, , I, I ... What ended up happening was, , it went for a vote.
It didn't get approved, and I ended up going to another hospital. I got a promotion. I applied for another hospital. But the Lord said to me when I was fighting that no, he ... The same thing he said to Saul on the road to Damascus. He said, "Why are you kicking against the goads?" And I, I don't, I didn't know what that meant, so I looked up goads, and they are these pointy sticks that they point, put at the bottom of a ox cart.
And a little ornery ox would kick against the cart like, "Hey, I'm not going this direction. You're not the boss of me," ? And it didn't hurt the cart. It hurt the ox. And so what God was saying is, "You're kicking against the cart, and you have to submit." And this is God ... That was God's way of telling me, and I learned, that sometimes his nos are nos for a reason in a season, and it might be a yes later on.
But he may be trying to protect you from a promotion at work that would wreck your family or get you in a situation where you were around relationships that were bad influences. You don't know why he's telling you no, and as we all know as long-term Christians, God doesn't always explain himself . Yeah.
That is, that is true. And I often say as I ask people for project help or something like that, - No is the answer to questions. Yeah. You can say no when, and a lot of times we as moms might want to consider how to help our kids say no as well. Mm-hmm. Not no to us, but if, but if they do feel like they need to say no to something that we've asked, then that would give a great opportunity for a conversation.
. , And that sort of thing. But as a mom, to find her soul rest, no needs to be part of her vocabulary. I think that's what I hear you saying. Yeah, and I, , as a kid, my mom always let me use her as an excuse. So your kids need to be able to say, "My mom won't let me." Mm. So give your kids, ... My mom always said, "When in doubt, don't" And, , so you can always say, teach your kids to be, don't make a spur of the moment second decision.
Like, let me think about it. Let me check with my mom. Let me get back to you. All those things that delay, , because a lot of times people are asking out of convenience. They may not even remember they ask, or they won't ask a second or third time, and they may have an alternative that, that's, that makes it so they don't even a- need to ask.
So a lot of times I'll say no, and I'll see if they even ask a second time. And, , I did that. I was asked to be on a board, and it's a ministry that I, I absolutely love, and I ... But I, I was afraid that I didn't have the time, the bandwidth. And so I said no, but I kind of in my heart, I said, "If they come back a second time, Lord, I know that I'm gonna do this because it's, m- that means you're gonna provide the bandwidth and that it's really, I need to help these guys from a strategic standpoint."
, And they didn't come back a second time, so I'm like, " Okay, God." But God always uses things like that to teach us lessons or to help us, and that's what I really love about your mini sabbaticals. I think it really gives a reset, a hard, fast reset, a rest for the mom. And like you mentioned earlier, it does take planning.
It does take forethought, and it does take a support community. Moms that can't leave their kids at home that need childcare need to have an arrangement for that, , in order to, to have that care for herself to be able to take that mini sabbatical and come back like that picture of the bow where you pull it back, and it's able to go further because- Exactly
she got rest and got restored. Brett, for the Faith Mom mentor community listening, especially Christian moms seeking that godly wisdom for Christian moms, how can they connect with you, learn more about your book, Wisdom That Leads to Soul Rest, and access the resources that you have available? Sure. , I have 📍 a website, sabbaticaltaker.com.
, It's kind of based on the idea that we can all be and all should be sabbatical takers, and I believe that sabbatical could be daily, weekly, or like I'm doing, three times a year. , So I'm a big, I'm a big believer in a daily sabbatical, just sitting down and to having five minutes of quiet time. And, , so that's available at www.sabbaticaltaker.com.
And then I've ... The book's on Amazon. I've actually done the Audible, and I, I went in the studio and recorded it myself. So, , if my voice drives you crazy, read the book. If you, if you like it, then it might be the best way. I love that. And thank you for being here, Brett. Faith Mom, what a beautiful reminder that godly wisdom still works today.
Whether you are navigating Christian parenting, middle school parenting, or simply trying to create a more peaceful home, God's wisdom remains timeless. Sometimes the most faithful thing we can do is pause, listen, surrender, and let the Lord lead us back to life and peace. If you are feeling overwhelmed, remember this: soul rest is not something you have to earn.
Through spirit-led motherhood and a heart willing to seek God's direction, you can experience the peace he promises. Your home does not need a hurried, exhausted version of trying to hold everything together. Your family is blessed as you walk in biblical wisdom, practice the spiritual rest, and parent from God's truth.
I'll 📍 place all of Brett's contact information and resources in the description, so be sure to check there. And I encourage you to connect with Brett, explore his resources, and consider how an intentional pause might help you seek God with f- fresh clarity. Until next time, Faith Mom, keep seeking the Lord, nurturing your family's faith, and walking in the life, peace, and soul rest he gives.
