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Clare Smith

Training Body & Soul

Temple Talk (GMG Guest Post) and a Local Conference!

March 12, 2014

Hi friends! I have been going through the Good Morning Girls study on being intentionally focused and it has been such a blessing to me over the past couple months. This week, the focus has been on our health and Angela graciously had me on to guest post about it! Please be sure to check out the post as I discuss the struggle and stewardship of the Spirit of God in our bodies!

Body Talk: The struggle and stewardship of the Spirit: Guest Post on goodmorninggirls.org (with peak313.com)

Also, those of you who live locally to me (NE Ohio), I’ll be leading a workshop at a wonderful women’s conference and I’d love for you to attend!  Our main speaker is Karen Ehman from Proverbs 31 Ministries, and we have a great list of workshops to attend! (I’ll be talking in detail about finding your health “sweet spot”!) Check out the pamphlet below! (My friends Courtney from Women Living Well , Janelle from Comfy in the Kitchen, and Ruth from The Better Mom will also be attending!)

If you come, let me know so we can meet!! (Click here for the pdf for specifics and registration! Location: First Friends Church in Canton, OH)

Workshop Topics:

Clare Smith
TITLE: Finding your Health “Sweet Spot”!
Frustrated in your health journey? Can’t figure out why you don’t have the success and peace about it that you so desperately desire? You aren’t alone and chances are, you are just confused! In this workshop, we will walk through the process of finding out how you can find your “sweet spot” with your health, taking into consideration your season of life, resources, and passions! (There will be an open Q&A time at the end for any other health related questions that you may have!)

Laura Foote
TITLE: Welcome Home Beautiful: Discover Your Unique Decorating StyleThis seminar is designed to inspire women to tap into their own inner beauty and God-given strengths and gifts to create unique and beautiful spaces where they can feel and express love. Learn a few simple creative strategies to decorate and accessorize your home inexpensively and with what you already have.

Laurel Notturno
TITLE: PastAmore!Visit us in sunny Italy and learn the ins and outs of making fresh pasta with Chef Amy! You will learn the history of pasta, receive information about the variety of pasta shapes, and receive recipes for your future creations. Buon Appetito!

Michele Williams
TITLE: Finances, Sex, & MarriageThis seminar will focus on two topics seldom discussed in the Christian world- finances and sex. First, you will learn strategies for you and your husband to become better team mates in the area of finances. Secondly, you will learn ways to build greater sexual intimacy with your husband and, thus, improve you and your husband’s sexual satisfaction

Mandi Johnson
TITLE: Clothing Yourself with Grace
Join me for an encouraging session where we’ll learn practical ways to nurture a Christ-based confidence within ourselves and finally stop saying, “I wish I could pull that off”! You can pull that off, and have lots of fun with your wardrobe! Let’s talk about being kinder to ourselves while enjoying the clothes we put on- and the bodies that go underneath!

Mary Yost
TITLE: Destination: Your Child’s Heart
Hey Moms! Rest easy! Jesus is the Author and Perfecter of your faith…and your child’s faith too! Let Him take care of their heart transformation while we tend to nurturing them in His Name. Come glean (and share!) some helpful resources and out-of-the-box ideas that are designed to build relationship with your child and to create an atmosphere where hearts are open to Jesus.

First Friends Women Conference Pamphlet

 

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Filed Under: Featured, Good Living Tagged With: real life, spiritual 6 Comments

About Clare

Comments

  1. Angela says

    March 12, 2014 at 11:59 am

    Love having you on Clare!:) Thanks for always sharing such a balanced approach to taking care of our bodies in a God honoring way! 🙂 Love what you are doing here at Peak313! Have fun at the upcoming conference with Karen, Ruth and Courtney! Much love!

    Reply
  2. Ashley Kelley says

    March 17, 2014 at 9:14 am

    I love following your blog and all the others you mentioned. I grew up in Jackson Township, North canton, and went to Faith Family Church. I am very familiar with First Friends church too. My brother and I played baseball there as kids! So cool that you live there. Wish I still did to attend the conference. But, alas, I have married and moved away. Maybe next year. 😀

    Ashley
    http://Www.laughingwithashley.blogspot.com

    Reply
    • Clare says

      March 18, 2014 at 7:25 am

      Love it, Ashley! Small world!!!

      Would love to meet you!
      Clare

      Reply
  3. Jennifer says

    March 17, 2014 at 1:14 pm

    The conference sounds wonderful. I would love to hear theses seminars but live in Ga. Will they be available online later or are you all doing the same seminar closer?

    Reply
    • Clare says

      March 18, 2014 at 7:25 am

      Hi Jennifer-
      Unfortunately they will not be online, nor will the conference be anywhere else.

      Sorry!!
      Clare

      Reply

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Let your complicated, challenging, nuanced situati Let your complicated, challenging, nuanced situation(s) be what forms you. Let it build you into the person God is bringing you to be. It’s not the ability to live life unscathed and perfect that creates a beautiful soul. It’s the ability to feel the heat and pain and come out more tender, authentic, and loving that makes you a person who is set apart for use. A person like this is refreshing and that person absolutely is you. #abeautifulpurpose

(Quote not my own)
I’ll keep this short because I want you to read I’ll keep this short because I want you to read the poem. We can bring our burdens many places nowadays- friends, Instagram, Facebook, text, to gym, to work, to sleep.. you get the point. But let’s make sure we bring our burdens first to Jesus. After the week.. month.. year.. many of us are having, there’s no better time to do this than now. #sweetunfailingrefuge

(I found this tucked in an old book at my family’s 100 year old farmhouse that we were selling this summer 🤍)
•My house was a mess with everyone being home to •My house was a mess with everyone being home today
• I only had ingredients for one batch of soup
• I don’t drink alcohol on Mondays
• Hubs had the sink totally apart in the middle of a project
• The kids were in and out of our deep conversation

Sometimes the quick stop to say hello turns into a therapy session with dinner and wine. Everything was stacked against me – so I thought- but the mayhem is often beauty and normalcy to the person’s life who is spinning. Sometimes “the plan” goes off track... but it’s not off track in God’s eyes.

Living life knowing that the minutes of your day are not yours but for God to use to encourage and be there for people who are hurting changes everything. It changes who you marry. It changes how you spend your money. It changes what you do with your time. Dinner portions may not be what you planned but God always finds enough to fill those who come to His table to be loved on and heard.

If I know one thing – it’s this. People are hurting right now. Some things are private and some are public. What would it look like if our homes became safe places for people to land? For our hearts to enter in the pain? For our embrace to provide the temporary relief needed? We can be people who talk about bringing the kingdom here on earth or we can be people who do what we can with the little we have to be the hands and feet of Jesus. 🤍
I’ve been on a “physical” comeback over the I’ve been on a “physical” comeback over the past few weeks. Between an insane December, Covid recovery, Ohio winters, and the mere fact I don’t have the bounce back that I used to (#thisis40) it’s been a slow go for me to get to feeling where I feel best physically. It’s been discouraging to say the least and I feel like I just turned a corner last week. 

While a lot truly was physical exhaustion, it was more of a mind game I was playing. I had to be my own #hypeman and tell myself to keep chipping away at the goal. I had to tell myself that the only way to the end was through it…no shortcuts. Just time and steady work. I often dismissed the small wins I had because I hadn’t hit the finish line. Well that thinking wasn’t helping me and one day had the “aha”that while I wasn’t yet at the goal, I was BETTER.

Each of us have something in our lives where it’s not what we want. We are on the path to achievement but it sure ain’t there yet. It can be with some of the obvious things such a health or financial goals but I see this often with people regarding relationships. The marriage, friendship, child or community in which we live falls just short of “perfection” and so we just settle instead of putting in consistent, hopeful work, which allows room for the Holy Spirit to work. 

I just want to encourage you to keep chipping away because while things may not be what you want, they can be better. In fact the way we reach what we want is not by snapping our fingers and it magically appearing but by a process or journey which involves ups and downs, straight stretches of boredom, and then finally a renewed energy as you see the end in sight.

What have you given up on achieving because it hasn’t come to fruition in the time you wanted? Remember… things can be BETTER. And that counts for something. 🤍
I was recently telling someone my journey or where I was recently telling someone my journey or where I am today in regards to what I do for a living... the crazy road I’ve travelled over the last 10 years to get me here. It’s changed a lot and if you’ve been here online with me, you have seen it! If you would have asked 18 year old Clare what she saw herself filling her days with at 40 years old, it would be about 5% of what I’m doing. Goodness...none of this was even around when I was 18!

I look back and see all the twists and turns. All these tiny moments and conversations. Many open and closed doors. Things that I thought were just random or not a big deal, but in hindsight, they were a huge deal. I appear to be a very type a “has her stuff together and a plan” type girl but the truth is, I am (was) taking everything day by day.

All I know is that everything I stepped into prepared me for the next thing. Many times I didn’t even know it! But I look back often and am like, “ohhh, God, I see what ya did there!” 

My encouragement to you is this- no matter what age you are- trust the path you are on. Let peace be your guide... not some assumed plan an “expert” or author told you. Sure- be wise with your time. Put in the work with diligence wherever your feet may have you, but be open to the nudges of where to go.

Maybe I’m crazy but living a life of faith in God is one of the most exciting and fulfilling things. I don’t know what He has for me in 5 years let alone 1...and for whatever reason, that thought alone gets me up and helps me live with a holy anticipation. I trust Him.  I live less with resistance to the unexpected now. God is indeed preparing you for what he has prepared for you. What a loving Father!
We all know this but it’s so easy to forget. Rem We all know this but it’s so easy to forget. Remember that seeds are buried and “in the dark” before anything springs forth. Our journeys in life can often feel like that. Do the daily work. Tend your “heart garden.” Time is on your side. And when it’s time...it’s time. 🤍

“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” Galatians‬ ‭6:9‬
A few years ago I was the speaker for a women’s A few years ago I was the speaker for a women’s retreat in the Chicago area. I just finished a session & a lady ran up to me asking if she could ask me a few questions. She was early 50’s, striking in appearance… fit & confident. She started telling me that she resonated with my health/fitness message & wanted some encouragement on starting “this late in life”, but as we continued talking, her demeanor changed & tears started to fill her eyes.

She told me that was she was struggling with something that had been weighing on her since she was 18…the decision to have an abortion. The tears were streaming down her face, the clear guilt she carried from it weighing heavy on every part of her beautiful stature. Not many knew about it. Her current husband did not…many friends did not. She felt it was keeping her from this life she saw that was just within reach. The more she sat in silence, the heavier the chains felt. She needed to speak and I watched the tears fall like visible chains.

We chatted a little longer, prayed & hugged, & as I walked away I couldn’t help but think of many women I’ve encountered with this same story but I would’ve never known. Walking through life seemingly fine, yet carrying a deep wound inside, questioning every bit of her worth and ability to make a difference. Heartbreaking. 

If you relate to that woman, I want you to know that you are loved & seen. Your past, as hard as it has been, has formed & shaped you into the woman you are today, & a woman that God greatly desires to use. He wants your broken, fragile heart. He will bind it up and heal it. He will walk with you in the shadows. He will lead you beside still and soul-quenching waters. There may be many words you can attach to your situation but there is one more powerful than all that I want you to keep remembering…RESTORATION. Jesus is renewing and reviving something within you that will bring light to yourself & others.

For the rest of us who may not have this as a part of our story, let’s remember that we are walking amongst those who have & that we are to be healing arms, not ones of judgement & legalism...but ones of compassion & grace. 🤍 DM me if you need prayer!
This came up on my Facebook memories and I just fe This came up on my Facebook memories and I just feel it’s always applicable! There is always something in our lives that if we could just “get our hands on” would work to our favor. We dream about what it would be like if we got that thing/person etc. We think about the 2 tweaks that need to happen for it to occur. We pray about it. Perhaps obsess over it.. sound familiar?

But we also start to resent our current lives. We stop living in what God has fully given us. We live everywhere but the here and now and alongside that dream of yours comes a side dish of anxiety and sadness. So then we get our hands in it, perhaps without God’s “OK” and then we see a mess unfold. We’ve all been there. If only we had waited. 

This is the grind of living in reality. We are pulled from living what is before us into living into a dream we have deep within. Here’s the cool thing. We don’t have to choose.. reality or dream. It’s not an either/or but both/and. We can live fully here while also giving energy to our hopes. The difference is how tightly we hold into those things and how much they get elevated in our hearts.

If you are here this morning I just want to encourage you that you aren’t alone! I truly believe with everything I am, that God works for the good of those who love Him and have been called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28) I believe in His sovereign timing. I believe that the work He started in you (and everyone else in your life) will be completed. (Phil1:6) Keep praying, stay faithful to where you are now, walk in the “peace path” and hold onto Jesus. He will lead you. 🙏🏻
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