33 God Cares About Your Nutrition: Why Energy Starts with Faith-Filled Self-Care

• Are you running on empty, trying to care for everyone else while your own tank is bone dry? 
• Do you feel like you know what Scripture says but can't seem to make it move from your head to your heart? 
• What if the answer to having more energy for your kids isn't another therapy to add to the schedule—but actually learning to nourish and rest your own body first?

In this episode, Bethany Thomson, a registered dietitian, certified Christian life coach, and soul care practitioner, shares her powerful journey from complete burnout to restored wholeness. Through walking her own stormy seasons of caregiving, trauma healing, and physical depletion, Bethany discovered that true sustainable health requires addressing the whole person—body, mind, and spirit—all from a foundation of rest, not hustle.

Connect with Bethany:

• Website: ingrainedliving.com
• Instagram: @ingrainedliving
• Facebook: Ingrained Living
• Podcast: Nourishing Her Midlife Rest: Body and Soul* Bethany has updated her podcast title since we recorded the episode this summer. 

Resources Mentioned:

• Bethany's list of quality multivitamins (available on her website)
• Her "Planting Trio" approach: three intentional daily actions for sustainable momentum
• Immune calming program based on food sensitivities testing
• Group coaching on "Rooting Ourselves in Rhythms of Grace"

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Connect with the host: Elyse Scheeler

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Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed in this episode are those of the guests and hosts and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Speaking Life Into Motherhood. None of the advice or discussion on the podcast is medical advice. Always consult with your medical provider before using any supplements, essential oils, or therapy methods.

Transcript

Elyse Scheeler (00:00)
Welcome back everyone. Today I am so excited to welcome Bethany Thompson to the show. She's a registered dietitian, certified Christian life coach, and a sole care practitioner who gently guides weary women towards wholeness. Through her practice in grained living, she offers a restorative blend of functional nutrition, grace-filled coaching, and story honoring support, especially for women who feel physically depleted or so tired after years of caregiving, chronic stress, or deep healing work.

A mama five who's walked through her own stormy seasons of caregiving, burnout, and rebuilding, Bethany creates a safe and sacred place where women can slow down, feel seen, and begin again, body, mind, and spirit. Her podcast, The Engrained Living Pathway, invites listeners into the same space of healing and homecoming, one rooted in rest, not hustle. Welcome, Bethany. I'm so excited to have you on the podcast today.

Bethany Thomson (00:56)
Thank you, Elise. I'm so glad to be here.

Elyse Scheeler (00:59)
So can you just tell us a little bit more about yourself? And I know we had kind of talked a little bit before recording that you are also a Christian mama of some kiddos that have had additional needs along the way. So tell us a little bit more about that and kind of what brought you to the place that you are right now.

Bethany Thomson (01:14)
Yes, so, yes, I'm a Christian mama of five children. We were talking, I have teenagers now, which is kind of strange to feel like you're not in the midst of the little ones that are so high need and high touch. But we have five children, but four of ours were born within five years. So my oldest was not yet five when our fourth was born. And the Lord just gave them to us very quickly. But it was a crazy time in there.

We had a long break and then we have our youngest, who is four now. So the oldest is 16 and the youngest is four. so we're kind of on both ends of that parenting spectrum. We're getting one ready to launch. He's starting his own business and the other one is not yet reading and still learning to listen to his body to go potty. you know, but it's a sweet time to see them develop. But my children have had what I...

Elyse Scheeler (02:00)
Mm-hmm.

Bethany Thomson (02:09)
haven't often named well as their own individual, special and unique needs because it's kind of hard sometimes to say, yeah, my kids have needs too. We've walked through journeys with very severe dyslexia and we're still in the middle of that with a few of my children and then executive function challenges, speech impediments in need and therapy that we were juggling for that, trauma that we've experienced as a family and some of my children individually, we've walked through those healing roads.

And I didn't even realize how much my own story and my own journey would impact my children, as I've learned through generational trauma. had a lot of unresolved childhood trauma that I was dealing with that I believe impacted my first four children significantly. So we had a lot of healing work to do even with their guts and food sensitivities and things like that that we've had to help their bodies calm down and reset and rebuild some of that.

So it's been a rewarding journey, but it is not been an easy one.

Elyse Scheeler (03:05)
Yeah, absolutely. So tell me a little bit more about your ingrained living and how it sounds like all of these experiences that you had have now led you, right, which is amazing to be able to help and support other mamas.

Bethany Thomson (03:18)
Yes, well, I started out as a very traditional dietician. I worked in the Children's Hospital. live in Nashville area, so Vanderbilt Children's Hospital, working with families of children who have chronic diseases, and I absolutely love that. But I wanted to stay home with my children, and so I let my license retire, and I didn't think I'd ever go back into the world of nutrition. And I also was just very conventional in my approach to nutrition. So when I was first pregnant with my first

few kids, I knew nothing about like the holistic natural world of things. I was more on what to avoid in terms of foods and trying to stay away from things versus nourishing my body. And I really feel like that impacted a lot of my pregnancies and I didn't even realize it. But it was during the time that I was trying to find answers for my own family, for my husband, who had significant ⁓ gut stuff going on. We thought maybe does he even have some cancer? And the doctors like, we don't know what's happening. Why we can't get your iron levels up.

And I had a very close family member who struggling with significant autoimmune disease. And I started digging for answers. And I kind of stumbled into the world of functional medicine and started getting answers. And I decided, oh, well, I want to share this with more people. So I went back and took my registered dietitian exam again. I got all my credentials back in order so I could start doing things. a little bit at a time, I started seeing people's lives turn around with an approach of what's going on underneath? How do we nourish the soil of your body? How do we help your

your body calmed down and feel rested and restored, all in the middle of not realizing how much my own health needed attention as mama. So, you we usually start off trying to take care of everybody else. And then it was about a year into that of launching Engrained Living and I found myself sitting in a doctor's office at a pulmonary specialist because I felt like I could not catch my breath. I couldn't breathe. I was exhausted. My periods were coming every two weeks and I was not

Elyse Scheeler (04:48)
Hmm.

Absolutely.

Bethany Thomson (05:09)
not in perimenopause season yet. It was not time for that. My hair was falling out, my skin was a mess. I felt really down and hard to get out of bed sometimes, not motivated. I would have to take a nap every day. I was just, I was burned out, was crashed, depleted. I'd had four kids within five years and so I did not know my nutrient reserves were low and that kind of thing and.

Elyse Scheeler (05:12)
Mm-hmm.

Bethany Thomson (05:30)
So I sat and was trying to find answers. I mean, I was looking for answers for myself by this point, because when you can't breathe, it finally is like your body's saying, okay, it's time stop. And I went through all the breathing pulmonary function tests and he looked at me as I was sitting on the edge of that exam room table and said, you know, I mean, I can't find anything wrong. It's just probably stress. that... ⁓

was the most disheartening thing to hear because I thought, what in the world can I do about stress and I can't breathe? So I took a little bit of a different approach trying to find a natural chiropractor and some other people and they too could not help me. So I finally decided, well, maybe I should try the approach using my own clients, right? That's brilliant, but I had not done that yet. Yes, so I had some labs run and

Elyse Scheeler (06:12)
Isn't it funny that that's like the last thing, right?

Bethany Thomson (06:19)
Lo and behold, I came out with pre-diabetes, which was...

It was earth shattering to me to hear that because I thought I was dealing with hypoglycemia or like low blood sugar crashes. I had extremely low vitamin levels and I forgot a few other things, low iron, so low minerals and so many other things happening in my body that I had no idea what was going on there and I hadn't even been tested. I had gone to specialists and they hadn't even evaluated some of the basic things. So.

Started my own immune calming program that I use with my clients based upon blood work for food and food chemicals sensitivities. My body started to find rest and safety. Within about two weeks, my energy was returning, my focus, I could breathe. I realized there were some common foods that were triggering me to feel like I was needing air and I couldn't breathe well. I didn't realize how messed up my digestion was until afterwards I was like, ⁓ okay, I haven't.

Like I've actually been absorbing things. think it's not all coming out. I'm absorbed. So I started getting back on track and I found my health.

Elyse Scheeler (07:16)
Mm-hmm.

Bethany Thomson (07:22)
Restored and I had a lot more energy to continue helping women and I loved that approach I was pouring a lot of myself into this functional nutrition and restoring with the integrative approaches and you know, I four little kids building my business and My health got to the point where it was the best it had ever been and my numbers were beautiful Everything was in that optimal range not just normal and I was honestly starting to go ahead and work with therapists to for emotional health and I

I learned to kind of tune into my needs and I felt like, ⁓ this is a beautiful time. And two days later I found out I was pregnant with our fifth child. And ⁓ yes, my body was healthy, yes. And the Lord took us on a journey that I never expected. So this was in the middle of COVID. We'd been in lockdown for a few months and everything came to a screeching halt.

Elyse Scheeler (08:00)
Cause your body was healthy and it was like you're finally not stressed anymore. Yeah.

Bethany Thomson (08:15)
Scretchein Hall is as well-nourished as I hadn't been in my body. I was also almost 40. And we were dealing with some caregiving for my mother-in-law who was dealing with dementia and some of those kind of things. And we didn't realize it at the time, but during my pregnancy, she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. And it was very aggressive. And she passed away three months after our son was born.

So we were in the middle of deep caregiving with that. And then she passed away. And after the birth of our fifth child, I developed postpartum preeclampsia. And it did not resolve like it should have. I was on medication for the first time in my life. And so it seemed like, you know, we had gone through, I had gone through a stormy period in my life. And then I was going to this beautiful stage of feeling like I was, I was healing and then all of sudden another storm. So that one took a lot longer to resolve.

There was grief that came tangled up in so many unexpected ways, things I can't even go into with that deep grief. the middle of it, I also realized I was doing some emotional work myself and realized that my story from childhood impacted my health in far different ways than I ever realized. The things had been buried very deeply in me that I had not even had the strength to name yet.

But once I started working a little bit more with myself and getting more stable nutritionally, because there are a lot of things that you can do with that postpartum preeclampsia, I got to a point where I was able to address some more of that emotional health, do some deeper story work with myself. And the Lord brought about some deep healing that I thought I never even realized it could be possible for my life. So I had done the physical piece, but it was that deep emotional work that needed to go along with that.

And I think given my body what I needed from a physical standpoint enabled me later to be stable and secure and safe to receive that emotional healing. And then eventually even the deeper spiritual healing that I didn't realize I needed to know Jesus as a tender shepherd, to know our heavenly father is that one who is a lover of our soul, whose gaze is safe and whose presence is so attuned to us.

So the Lord brought me through some deep healing season and it was about four years. It wasn't a quick season. And I love it. My children had a lot to where a lot of their needs rose up too. So they're clamoring for my attention. And I even went through a period of time where I felt like I was in emotional ICU. My body kind of shut down. I didn't realize it at the time I had Epstein-Var virus that was reactivated. did not have a lot of strength to care for anyone else.

And I look back, I wish I could have, but I was just kind of trying to hang on. But the Lord again brought me through that season again. And after that time period, I have experienced a season of growth and renewal. And it also came with a refocused direction because during that storm, I had to shut down my business completely. I had no emotional energy to help anyone else. And I told my husband, I don't know if in-grain living will ever revive. I had been speaking about

Elyse Scheeler (10:55)
Mm-hmm.

Bethany Thomson (11:19)
Rest is the foundation of a sustainably wholesome lifestyle. We have to live from rest. I was speaking these things, but I didn't even realize in my own soul how much I needed rest and how I needed to wrap my mind around that concept of what does rest look like in my body, in my emotions, in my story, in my relationship with God. What does rest really look like? So as I've kind of come out of that and I've been in a rebuilding phase, first I had so much energy, I just started kind of

like a wild garden growing in lots of different directions. wanted to restart my business. wanted to, I wanted to start a netzi shop. started watercolor painting. So many things I had energy for afterwards and I thought, we're to do these things with our new farm that we bought. Cause I didn't say this, what we uprooted our family from our family farm or my husband had lived for generations. And we replanted about an hour and a half away in a home that had significant renovation needs. And then we had a flood in the middle of that, that kind of destroyed everything again. So

Elyse Scheeler (11:56)
Yeah

Bethany Thomson (12:16)
It was just this, it was kind of a chaotic, but I started having a vision of what my life would be like and also a vision of wanting to help women from a whole woman's standpoint, not just nutrition, but like, what if I could help them with everything? What if we really addressed the whole person perspective? Because I didn't speak a lot to the spiritual component and emotional component when I first started business. I was kind of shy about that, even though it mattered so deeply, I didn't want to turn anybody away.

But most of the women who were working with me were Christians because they wanted to steward their bodies well and we talked a lot about that one. So in this newer season, I was looking for some way to not be so scattered. So I think you would, we talked a little bit about business coaching or hiring a coach and I decided I'm going to have some help in this one. And part of my healing process was learning how to reach out and ask for help from someone else that is community based.

for some people that might be a professional for someone else, but I had some coaches who really spoke into my life and helped me kind of build a scaffolding and I call it a trellis for my growth. So I had something to sustain me because you know, there going to be some more storms that come I'm sure. This is not the end of it, but I wanted to root down more deeply for myself and this was kind of what was born out of that is something I've led a few women through individually, but I'm...

going to do more of a group approach to rooting ourselves in rhythms of grace and how that looks like to support our health in a pace that's not frantic, that it's just race-based, based upon our season. Because we are going through different seasons of life, and we're not always going to be in a season where we can grow a lot. Maybe our season is just trying to survive as a mom of kids who have very demanding needs. Maybe it is a series where...

season where someone can start a new business or go back for further education and that kind of thing. So I've developed what I call the planting trio and that's just three intentional actions that we take every day and I write those down I use a special planner for that one to help me anchor myself in intentional actions that are gonna move me forward so I don't feel like I'm just in motion but I have momentum.

Elyse Scheeler (14:31)
Mm-hmm.

Bethany Thomson (14:32)
And not ruin that down versus having this endless to-do list where I would just brain dump everything I thought I might want to do for a day. Sometimes I wouldn't even always write it down. distilling that to three actions for a day. So I can say, I have done enough. And I can rest in that. I mean, it's hard to say I've done enough when you feel like there's always more I can do. There's always more my family needs. There's always more my business needs. There's always more.

that I need personally. So that has brought about sustained growth for me in one direction. It doesn't mean my business is just booming yet. I'm hoping that it will be continuing to grow, but it means that I feel steady and supported in that growth. And so that's kind of where my story is right now, and I'm happy to talk more about what's on your mind.

Elyse Scheeler (15:04)
Yeah, I love that.

Yeah,

think one of the things that I'm curious to know about, is that the moms that I have been talking to really talk about how they don't feel like they have the energy to take whatever the next step is. I'm curious to know how did things change for you? So thinking maybe not business, but thinking as like a mama.

Once you regain some of that energy, how did that positively impact your relationship with your kiddos or maybe your ability to be able to support them with whatever the challenges were that they were facing?

Bethany Thomson (15:48)
One of the things that I feel like when I felt more stable in my body, I wasn't constantly reacting to my children. I could be proactive and I could even help them regulate themselves. So we talk a lot about regulating our bodies, listening into our bodies and what they need. And also when I had more energy physically, it so much impacted my emotional energy. So I had more space for them.

And there are a lot of times where my children will trigger things in me that are deep things that they have no idea what they're triggering, but it's there. And so I feel like when I did regain that energy with simple steps that I've learned every day, and we can go into that a little bit more, that I was able to even prioritize, okay, what do they need for their own health and healing? So I'm not frantically trying to fix everyone, because that is something that we can approach health

Elyse Scheeler (16:21)
Mm-hmm.

Bethany Thomson (16:42)
even the very good natural and holistic approaches that we learn are out there. We are frantically trying to fix versus approaching things from a place of rest and discernment and wisdom knowing there may be some really good things but it may not be our season right now. And so when we have the energy ourselves to think through that one and we're not just going on fumes and frantically grasping for solutions, we can be in more intentional about

What do we prioritize right now? Even if there may be a therapy that would be really good for a child or a test that would be really good for them to take for us to figure out more of what's going on, is it the best thing right now? And I feel like we're just more grounded in ourselves when we have come to that place of rest in our bodies.

Elyse Scheeler (17:24)
Absolutely. And I think when I work with moms and work with families, too, one of the big things that I talk about is we're not going to worry about where you're supposed to be or the super mom that you want to be. We're not going to worry about, you know, where your kid is supposed to be academically or ex-wifey. We're just going to worry about what's next. Can you imagine what it would feel like if the next time your child had a meltdown, you didn't also feel like your skin was crawling?

Right? So then what's next for you? Maybe that next step is doing something, you know, like what you're providing and looking at that functional nutrition and understanding that those steps that it seems like we're taking, because moms don't want to take care of themselves, As you're good example for that, you know, what does that look like? And what does that feel like to be able to support your kiddo in that moment rather than, like you said, reacting? I just had another nutritionist on too and

Bethany Thomson (18:06)
Mm-hmm, yes.

Elyse Scheeler (18:20)
I would love to know what would be maybe some first steps. So if you have a mom who's coming to you for some coaching and she's overwhelmed, she's exhausted, she doesn't know what to do, she doesn't really feel like she should be a priority because her kids are a priority, but maybe she's listening to our podcast and she knows that she should and she's ready to take some first steps. What are the first things nutritionally that you suggest? Maybe a couple...

simple steps or something that you would suggest if she's just coming to you to begin with.

Bethany Thomson (18:50)
Yes, so first of all is starting in the morning for the first thing. And that is making sure that we're hydrated in the morning. So if that means you get up first thing and you get a glass of water, or if it's too hard to remember that, maybe the night before you can pair brushing your teeth, if you can remember to brush your teeth, with preparing your glass of water to go by your sink in the morning. When our bodies are not hydrated well and they're not fed well, we don't feel safe

ourselves and I know we remember that a lot with children who have trauma they need to feel safe in their bodies and that steady supply of blood sugar but we can forget about that as moms. So starting off with hydration because a lot of times

being what I call under hydrated, not necessarily dehydrated, but under hydrated. And that is going to drag our energy down and we don't even realize it. So our blood becomes more thick and sticky and it doesn't have a chance to go deliver the nutrients along the route that it needs to. And just a glass of water can be enough to wake us up. Sometimes we need a little pinch of sea salt or some lemon or some coconut water in there, but starting with hydration, that's a very important step to take.

Secondly, I'd say when you wake up within an hour of eating, and if it's hard to remember this, sometimes I have to set my timer and just say, hey, Siri, set stopwatch so I can see, or set timer for one hour so I can remember, okay, one hour. I've got a one hour window in which I need to eat.

And I need to eat something that's sustaining. So you may have already talked about this before, but I don't think I can emphasize enough. Sustaining with protein. And I really try to emphasize that because that's, think a lot of times where I would miss out, I'm not a meat lover. I don't love protein. And so sometimes for me, it's figuring out what are those protein foods that I can eat. You know, a boiled egg is gonna be better for you than a bagel.

Sometimes we can we can focus on what's optimal because I do try to get to the point eventually where we're getting about 25 to 35 grams of protein in in the morning But if you can't get there, what's one thing that you feel like you could eat in the morning? You know, even if it looks like leftovers from dinner and I'm picking up some some chicken that I've grilled and I'm just I'm starting with that a little bit and maybe some berries it does not have to be complex It doesn't have to be involved but protein is gonna help your body's adrenal glands

feel safe and feel supported early in the morning. Then I also like to add in some sustaining carbohydrate. I like to call that like the slow burning carbs. So that might be roasted sweet potatoes or berries are great. I usually have blackberries almost every morning because those are just easy. Those aren't going to spike your blood sugar up and make it drop down really low. It's going to help set us up for a nice even day. So having that sustaining carbohydrate and then I add in some type of nourishing fat.

I've recently enjoyed walnuts or chia seed to kind of vary that a little bit one. And those are also going to have some of your omega-3. So that's the chia and the walnuts are. So that's a nice bonus. Add that in there. That also gives you a little bit of fiber if you're having berries or sweet potatoes. And that can help just help you feel grounded early in the day. I know it's not easy. your kids are waking you up, if you haven't slept well all night long, to think about fixing yourself a breakfast could be the last thing that you want to think about. And all of a sudden you look up and it's

1130 and you haven't eaten breakfast yet. So that might be having something that's super easy to grab if it's a prepackaged shake or if you know you have dinner leftovers and you don't mind eating them cold and pulling out of the refrigerator or if you have somebody else helping you, if it's a spouse or if it's an older kid who can help you out with some breakfast, say, hey, can you double that and make it for me? Or you do some make-ahead breakfast. I think that really sets the stage for us for a more grounded day.

We're not running on the fumes from last night. So setting up for yourself up for breakfast with a good amount of protein in there is going to be important.

Elyse Scheeler (22:34)
Yeah, I think that that's great. I know that this is something that like I vary on and when I notice that I get into routines of like doing my gluten free waffle and not having that, I feel the low, right? Like the spike and then the low. And then I'm craving stuff and I need a sweet sugar or I needed my sweet coffee or something later versus when I'm, you know, having my chicken sausage in the morning and, you know, doing some of those things or like I put ghee in my coffee.

and protein powder in my coffee sometimes too. And like, if I don't do that, then I notice that, you know, throughout the day. And I think that if our main concern, maybe not main concern, but like if we can't get past being exhausted, like then how are we going to do anything else? Right? And so having that one thing, and I think that that seems like very reasonable, right? Like mommy, mommy, mommy, mom, all you have to worry about.

is having breakfast. Like you don't have to worry about walking 25,000 steps and you know having a salad every meal. Just worry about breakfast for the next two weeks you know or whatever it might be and just that to me even like as I'm listening to you that feels safer in my body like okay I can make that change. I just I love everything you're saying and I'm gonna make sure I have a better breakfast because I definitely had waffles today so.

Bethany Thomson (23:39)
Yes.

Great.

Elyse Scheeler (23:52)
That's my advice. So then the other part of the coaching that you do is being rooted and really looking at, know, I think we haven't talked really about like a little bit about like your relationship with Jesus and those types of things. So tell me a little bit more. So once that mom has gotten, you know, a little bit of a foundation and is feeling better and, you know, starting some of the nutritional things, what are some of the ways that you support her spiritually and emotionally as well?

Bethany Thomson (24:18)
Yes, so after we've kind of reached that grounding point and we can add in the, I might add in that little third part of if you have time for some supportive nutrients, I like to start with just a basic good quality multivitamin. I have a list of those on my website and access to those and probably some magnesium in there too. doesn't help. It doesn't hurt to have that in there. Little extra supportive nutrients that your body's going to be depleted in. kind of not going to hurt to have that foundation. But.

Elyse Scheeler (24:38)
Mm-hmm.

Bethany Thomson (24:45)
From a spiritual standpoint, I don't like to just use scripture as a band-aid for us.

Just to throw out Bible verses when we're really hurting because that's where I've also been wounded in the past in my own life and my story is a lot of spiritual healing as well. So I don't like to create a lot of lists of rules and regulations for women. Now we're gonna go ahead and jump into full-fledged Bible study, know, that you've gotten, you know, a little bit more stable. This is where, Lord, you need to meet me in my story right now. And is this listening with my child to audio version of the Bible? Because I love to listen.

That's how I'm kind of being aware of how we learn is going to be important. If you're a really visual learner, having something that you can put maybe by your sink or in the bathroom or wherever you're carrying your kids or in your dashboard or on your phone wallpaper to return to some anchoring truths. So I really like to emphasize what are some truths that you need right now to anchor you. Let's listen in to where you are in your journey that's going to be supportive of you.

Elyse Scheeler (25:23)
Mm-hmm.

Bethany Thomson (25:46)
And I like to start small. So I'm looking at teaching a Bible study on the book of 1 John. I love the book of John. I love John as a writer. ⁓ 1 John's a very small book. So oftentimes, I'll put things on repeat because it takes me so long to absorb. So we might listen to the same chapter over and over and over again. But that just means we soak into it. We marinated that. And so I like to help women kind of think through, what is something that I can kind of put on repeat right now for myself? What are some truths that I need to anchor in? How do I listen and description more?

And it may not be reading and really digging deeply into a lot of passages at the moment, but I think the more we hear and maybe the more we read the same things, the Lord can speak to those and bring those up even in times where we might not even think about it. So there's been often times I've listened to something on repeat and then a completely different part of my life, the Lord has brought those back to my mind. And when I needed that, the Holy Spirit has prompted me with small truths like,

God is light and Him there is no darkness at all. That's been a very comforting truth in my heart as I've worked through my own seasons. And having time for reflection, I feel like is even more important than having time for just taking in a lot of information. So I wanna think more about reflecting upon what we do know about God and what are some truths about Him that we know that will anchor us right now. So oftentimes we'll reflect upon what are truths that you know about God to anchor you in the season and how can we apply that to

your real life situation. A lot of women I work with are very spiritual.

They love the Lord so much. They know scripture. They've been in tons of Bible studies. But a lot of times they'll tell me, Bethany, I can't feel that beyond my head. It's really just kind of stuck right here in my head. It really doesn't affect anything else. So I'm spinning on the inside. can't settle down. But I'm looking over at my Bible and I'm reading all the scriptures, but it's not connecting. And they feel like there's something broken there. And there's a lot of shame because they feel like they can't fix themselves even then they know scripture.

So I want to help women connect knowing that they are a whole person and God cares about all of them. He cares about what you're eating for breakfast and how you're tending yourself during the day and tuning into your needs as a mama and listening with your child, that that's all holy.

versus beating ourselves up because we haven't made it through the latest Bible study and we can't, you know, we can't leave our kid because nobody else would be able to care for them well and we can't attend Bible study and, you know, it's, we can start to get down on ourselves when we're not doing enough or we're not praying enough or we're not memorizing enough versus approaching even our faith from a place of rest. So that's where I've been a lot of just.

even in a walk noticing creation and letting that be a time to express praise of the Lord and kind of nurture that relationship with him.

Elyse Scheeler (28:39)
Yeah, I think that that's so amazing. for me, like hearing what you're saying, and I think like even in my own personal experience, like we can be coaches. Hold on one second. I need you. I need literally five minutes. Okay, well go in your room. Give me five minutes, Thank you. It won't honey. There's a fly in the house and dear. Okay, gonna reset. So even in my own experience,

like as a coach is that we still need coaching because it helps us to reflect and like that was a keyword for me as you were saying it because I think

We don't realize how much we're doing until someone asks us a question and we go, well, I'm doing this and I'm doing that and I'm doing this and I've done this and then, and not even just doing, but how much I've grown because sometimes I think as moms, don't give ourselves credit for that spiritual growth. And you know, it's just not enough. It's not enough. But then once you are talking with someone and reflecting on that and maybe hearing your own words reflected to you, it kind of can create that, my goodness, I have really come a long way.

no, I'm not where I want to be, but I'm continuing to grow in that relationship with Christ. I'm continuing to grow in my relationship with my husband or with my children or whatever it is with stewarding my body. And so having that opportunity to be able to reflect with someone I just think is wonderful as well. We're going to get ready to wrap up here. Thank you so much for your time. Can you remind our listeners where they can find you online or where they can get in touch with you in regards to your coaching?

Bethany Thomson (30:04)
Yes, I'd love to connect with you at.

ingrainedliving.com. That's my home. That's my haven on the internet. And on social, I'm on Facebook at ingrainedliving. And on Instagram, I'm at ingrainedliving. And the ingrained living pathway podcast is available. A link on my website or anywhere that you listen to podcasts. But I just want to remind women something I said most recently on my podcast is that we acknowledge the longings, like you said, Elise, Elise, what, where we want to be. That we celebrate

the growth and that is so important and that we rest in the grace of enough.

Elyse Scheeler (30:40)
Yes, amen. Thank you so much for your time today.

Bethany Thomson (30:43)
Thank

you. You take care.