In this quick update I share 4 tips that revolve around a Bible verse I have learned by example which have helped me move forward while moving on to my new project: starting Women Warriors of Light. I also share about a giveaway I have going on right now. More details below.

As I have started working on my new project, starting my women’s group called Women Warriors of Light there is a Bible Verse that has come to life as I have experienced setbacks and yet been given the guidance to know how to overcome the obstacles placed in my path.

Bible Verse

Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. ~Hebrews 12:1-2

4 Principles to Succeed when Upping Our Game

Lay aside every weight
Lay aside every sin (including distractions) which so easily beset us
Run with patience the race set before us
Focus on Jesus to help us do all of the above and move forward with faith.

Giveaway

I also share about a giveaway I have going on. You can see more about that here:

https://kingsumo.com/g/mzfa4b/deluxe-christian-womens-package-giveaway

Transcript of today’s episode

Tamara Anderson 0:03

Have you ever felt like you're hitting obstacles when you're trying to hit a big new goal? If so, you're not alone. I'm going to share with you some quick tips today that I have learned over the last couple of months as I have been launching a new company and share with you some personal examples as well as give you an update as well as an opportunity to enter a giveaway where you will win over $450 in items with my new women warriors of light group. Stay tuned.

Tamara Anderson 0:42

Welcome to stories of hope in hard times, the show that explores how people endure and even thrive in difficult times, all with God's help. I'm your host Tamara K Anderson. Join me on a journey to find inspiring stories of hope and wisdom learned in life's hardest moments.

Tamara Anderson 1:07

Hello, and welcome to an update version of the stories of hope in hard times podcast. I'm your host Tamara K Anderson. And oh, my goodness. First of all, thank you to everyone who has reached out since I finished my podcast in January. Thank you for the sweet comments. I feel so blessed to have been able to connect with so many of you on a personal level. Over the last four years as I've been doing this stories of hope in hard times podcast.

Tamara Anderson 1:35

And as I promised you when I did that last episode, I would give you periodic updates. And so today, I wanted to just share with you some quick updates on how I'm doing as well as share with you for tips that I found to help me succeed, as I've kind of been upgrading to a new level, which is starting this women warriors of light company and I am so so excited for it. But I also have to talk to you about some obstacles that I've faced along the way.

Tamara Anderson 2:08

One of the most common questions I've gotten from friends, and from even some of you who I've never met is Tamra, how has it been, you know, stopping the podcast, how's that felt? And there really was some grief involved and just changing from podcasting every week to now focusing on other little goals and trying to get this women warriors of light group started. It has been a more difficult transition than I imagined it would.

Tamara Anderson 2:42

So I've learned a lot about the word patience. And that's really one of the things I wanted to talk to you guys about today. There is a Bible verse that has just kind of been rolling around in my mind that I feel really describes kind of what I've been feeling and some of the things, some of the four things that I've been going through the last little while.

Tamara Anderson 3:12

So let me let me read this Bible verse to you. It is found in Hebrews chapter 12. And it's verses one and two. And I'm going to start halfway through the verse that says, Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily be set us. And let us run with patience, the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Tamara Anderson 3:53

Now, I'm going to start back where I started at the beginning of that verse one. And one of the first things that were taught is that we're invited to lay aside every weight. And one of the things that I found, as I've tried to kind of upgrade to this new company that I'm starting and everything like that, is that there were some things holding me back.

Tamara Anderson 4:22

And I remember one particular day, when I just felt like there was a weight on my chest and I know I've talked about that feeling before and sometimes it's hard to discern. Okay, what is this? Wait, is it something stopping me? Is it something I need to get rid of? Is it something that maybe from my childhood, a perceived belief or something that I've got in there, that what is it that's holding me back? And as I prayed and kind of journal about that weight, one of the thoughts and impressions that kept coming to my mind was that I needed to go see a friend of mine who's a counselor.

Tamara Anderson 5:00

I will be honest with you guys I've visited with her before and she is absolutely amazing. I love her to pieces. But there was a prideful side of Tamara that's like, Tamara, you can do this on your own. Why is it that we do that? You guys, we think it's like God tells us what we need to do. And we're like, oh, no, God, I'm good. I can do this all by myself. It's like, we're a two year old, telling our parents that, no, I'm good. You know, I know, you told me what I need to do. But I'm really just going to do this all by myself. And I'm sure God kind of rolls his eyes at me sometimes and is like, Well, you asked me what you should do. And I told you now, you need to kind of swallow your pride and do it or ignore me, you know?

Tamara Anderson 5:49

And so finally, after praying about it, I thought, you know, Tamara, God gave you an answer, you need to just go and talk to your friend. And, and so I did, I set up an appointment with her and I went, and we had some really good conversations about some of these weights. And, and we found out that some of the weights that were holding me back were beliefs that I had had since I was a child. And and these things these preconceived notions from when I was so much younger, seven and eight years old, and I watched my parents go through some really hard things. Were holding me back, they were weights. As it talks about here in Hebrews, Let us lay aside every weight, sometimes things that are holding us back are beliefs that we've had in our mind from childhood.

Tamara Anderson 6:37

And I'm not a trained psychologist or counselor, or licensed social worker. And even though I've been able to process a lot of things on my own, I really don't think I could have figured out what these weights were that were holding me back, if I hadn't gone and talked to a friend and had her help me process them and kind of look at my younger self and, and tell my younger self, that's okay, and forgive my younger self, and forgive some of the notions that I believed that weren't true, especially with regards to God and him expecting me to run faster and harder than I was able to work hard every day. And if I didn't do that I didn't have worth.

Tamara Anderson 7:21

And so that was the first thing that I really had to kind of overcome and learn to upgrade, so that I could succeed with women warriors of light, or began succeeding. The second thing that's mentioned in these Bible verses, so we have lay aside every weight and then and the sin which doth so easily be set us.

Tamara Anderson 7:46

Another thing that I've noticed the last couple of months is because I want to start this group that helps women become stronger in their battles against Satan, in these winding up scenes before the second coming, in inspiring them and teaching them to put on their armor of light that guess who doesn't want me to succeed? Satan. And so I feel like he's just throwing everything at me the last couple of months. And so I've noticed that when we try to upgrade and do something new and better, especially things that are going to add more light, not only to our lives, but to others lives, that Satan doesn't want that to happen, and he'll start throwing things at us. And I noticed that some of the tactics he used on me, were maybe even little simple ones, like, trying to get me to forget to pray, or don't read my scriptures.

Tamara Anderson 8:43

I remember there was one day in particular, I just got up later than usual. And I think it was about noon that I went, Wait, did I say my morning prayers and read my scriptures today? And I was shocked, because that's like one of my go to habits like, I just do it like clockwork. And I was like, Oh, I didn't. And it kind of shocked me, I think I was like, Wait, what is this? And he just distracted me by keeping me busy with so many other things that I wasn't doing the things necessary to get my armor up and shielding me and protecting me.

Tamara Anderson 9:17

And so often when we're trying to hit these higher goals that are requiring us to step up, maybe farther and higher than we've ever gone before. We'll find these obstacles, beliefs that are holding us back are other things that are holding us back that we need other people's help to process or maybe Satan's throwing everything but the kitchen sink at us will have struggles that will hit us that maybe we've never dealt with before or children who need help or family members who need help and their distractions. And so those are two of the things that I've noticed these last couple of months that I've been struggling with.

Tamara Anderson 9:59

The Next thing that is mentioned in Hebrews 12 is, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. And this one, guys, what is it about patience? I don't know, I thought I had patients before I had kids. And I've quickly learned that that's not the case that I've become so much more patient and understanding of a person, ever since my kids were little and every task I seem to get that's helping me move upward and forward. It requires more patience. And I remember when I was a little girl, my dad said, with any like, project that you that I was going to do with regards to building something, or constructing something out of wood or fixing something in the house, he always said, take the time that you think it's going to take in your mind. So if you think, Oh, this project is going to take me two hours. And he said, take that time and multiply it by at least two, maybe three, or four.

Tamara Anderson 11:13

And I found as I've gone through life, that that doesn't just happen with little projects that I'm doing to fix things around my house. It happens with big projects, like starting women's groups and stuff like that, that, like, for example, starting a simple website. I was like, Oh, I'll get on there. It'll take me a couple hours. And I'll be good, I will have just basic homepage, something like that, you know, and then 6, 7, 8 hours later, I've got okay stuff going. And all the sudden, I'm trying to link my domain name, which is www.womenwarriorsoflight.com. Back with the new site, and it's not letting me and it took me like a week to figure out how to solve that problem.

Tamara Anderson 12:04

And so sometimes, I would get impatient with myself that I was setting these goals and say, oh, yeah, I can have that done on Thursday. And then Friday would come and on glitch would come up and Saturday and Sunday and Monday. And it's taking some of these actions that go with starting this new group or just taking me longer than I thought they would. And so I've had to remind myself to be patient. I love how it says and let us run with patients the race that is set before us. Not getting too anxious, not getting down on myself, when things don't go as fast as I thought they would, in my mind, kind of like my dad said, but giving myself the grace that, okay, it's taking longer, I'm just gonna have to be patient and let the people who are working with me know to be patient with me because I'm working as fast as I can. But it's not getting done because there's dominoes that need to fall one before the other. So that's the third principle.

Tamara Anderson 13:06

The fourth principle is in the beginning of chapter 12, verse two. And I love this one it says, Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. And I love this because it takes whatever we're trying to do, and puts our focus right on Jesus Christ as a perfect example of laying aside every weight, because he took upon himself the cross, and the sin which does so easily be set as now. He didn't get into sins like we do. But because he suffered and bore that cross, He gives us the hope that we can be free of our sins, and looking to where he is that the right hand of God knowing that because he is there, we can be there someday to and that he can help us run that race of upgrading our lives and improving our lives and setting aside our sins and the setting aside every weight that seems to come upon us, and and he can help us get where we want to go, which is ultimately back at the right hand of God right beside Jesus Christ. So keeping that focus riveted on him, What would Jesus do? How can Jesus help me do this kind of yoking myself to him?

Tamara Anderson 14:28

And it's been quite a learning process for me these last couple of months as I have transition from podcasting to building this women's group, and it's going slower than I'd like. But I've been blessed with five amazing college interns who've been helping me start up with social media. And I have to tell you guys that these college interns have been absolutely so fun and fantastic to work with.

Tamara Anderson 14:57

And one of the things that they said they said Tamara Uh, let's do a giveaway. And so I was like, Okay, sweet. Let's do a giveaway so that we can get more traction online on Instagram On Facebook. We just got the YouTube channel up and running this past week. And I just wanted to let you guys know that we're doing this giveaway. And as you share, and you follow on Facebook, on Instagram on YouTube, that you will get more entries into this. And so I'm sure you're wondering, well, Tamra, tell me what you're giving away.

Tamara Anderson 15:33

And so I'm here to show you some of the things and this giveaway is going to be running through March 28. So we're running it for two weeks. It actually launched yesterday, on March 14, then it's going to be running through the 28th of March. And we are giving away. This is a beautiful Minky blanket. And for those of you who don't know what that is, that is a super, super soft blanket. It's like a $250 value. And it's a beautiful cream color with a waffle pattern in it. So that is a beautiful gift.

Tamara Anderson 16:09

The next thing I'm giving away is a Stanley Cup. There it is. And this is a tumbler so it has a built in straw that you can kind of fold down I noticed a lot of the Stanley Cups had a big straw poking out. And I liked this one because it collapsed. It's a cream colored cup with a handle on top. And it's just a beautiful cup. And that's probably worth about 50 bucks. It's hard to find a beautiful neutral color.

Tamara Anderson 16:39

The next thing I have is a $75 Lululemon gift card. And I'm super excited about that, because I know a lot of women love Lululemon.

Tamara Anderson 16:51

And so that is another big gift that we that we have going another gift is a copy of my book Normal for Me. And I'm so excited to give that away as part of this giveaway. It's my journey from grief to peace after two of my sons were diagnosed with autism. In fact, if you have any child with a disability, you can order this free on my website, just follow the links in my store and you can get that another gift is five copies of my mother's might booklet This is an awesome gift for Mother's Day coming up. It's an award winning booklet. It's a super short story. And it's awesome. It's it's great for moms who are feeling especially worn out and exhausted or any woman who's feeling worn out and exhausted and like God doesn't see them and isn't answering their prayers. And it's kind of a modern parable of a woman learning those principles that God sees her and knows her and loves her just like he saw the widow giving her last two mites.

Tamara Anderson 17:52

The final thing is it's this beautiful fine art print of a woman wearing the armor of light. And it says on the sides here the sword of the spirit, the helmet of salvation, the shield of faith, feet shod with the preparation of gospel peace. And it's it's it's a beautiful piece of artwork, it's framed, it's ready to go. And I'm so excited to share that with you guys.

Tamara Anderson 18:21

So this awesome giveaway, it's about $450 worth of things. And you can enter by going to my personal profile Tamarakanderson.com, on Facebook, on Instagram, on YouTube. And or just look for women worries of light. And you will find it there. You can also go to the website women warriors of light and enter the giveaway from there. We'll have links to it on the website there that you can find. And I'm just gonna apologize in advance. The website isn't where we want it to be yet, but it's coming and it's getting there. So be patient with this is we're under construction. But follow us because we are doing amazing social media things and have been for the last couple weeks.

Tamara Anderson 19:14

We've got mental health Monday that we're doing. We're doing tips on Tuesday. We've got things on Wednesday, Thursday, fitness Friday, we've got tips on Saturday, and then Sunday is always a Bible verse. And so I will invite you to follow us we've got reels that are going up and YouTube shorts that are going up. And so just general, awesome tips for women. And just what the idea and motivation that we can get through the challenges that we face.

Tamara Anderson 19:49

And I'm also going to be doing a survey coming up where I want to find out what are some of the struggles that you're having because one of the things that we're going to do with this women's group is to bring in experts, and have them teach us and coaches how to handle those challenges that we're facing with a perspective of faith. And so, follow us join the women warriors of light group, I'm so excited to be sharing this content with you. And making it a part of women's daily lives because we need each other life is really, really hard. And as we work together, and inspire and motivate each other, we can overcome the challenges that we face. So that is just a quick update...

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4 Tips to Succeed When Upping Your Game