Conversations with Cinthia

Is Your Past Still Haunting You?

The past is powerful.  If we use it for self-abuse, it can deprive us of so much that God wants for us in the present and the future.  Cinthia explains that God does not give us the ability to remember our pasts so that we can self-flagellate, but so that we can learn and repair.  God gave us time for a reason.  If remembering your past still feels like waking up only to find the nightmare was real, join Cinthia to explore how to use your memories in the way God intends.  You can't rewrite history, but you can redo things in the present and create a new future for yourself and, often, for those you failed.  Don't miss this episode.  The present and future are gifts.  Don't let the past steal them.

F.E.A.R.: False Evidence Appearing Real

Are you afraid of the wrong things?  In a world that tells us both to be fearless and to worry about everything, sometimes we shrink back from risks God wants us to take -- while taking risks with things God wants us to value and protect!  Cinthia discusses the difference between confidence and arrogance, what it means to take our cues from God the way a child who trusts a good parent would do, and how to deal with the reality that we will make mistakes.  If fear ever gets in your way, join Cinthia for a look at whether the things you fear really deserve to be limiting your life.

Loving the One Others Love

How would it help your loved ones if you took better care of yourself?  Would they worry less?  Find you more patient and pleasant to be around?  Toss their plans for the rescue mission they're planning for the day you finally crash?  For our purposes, "self-care" doesn't mean self-indulgence or treating luxury as necessity; it means taking basic care of yourself, the way you would do for a pet, a child, or any person who cannot perform basic tasks for their own well-being.  It means eating well, exercising, resting, drinking water, managing your own thoughts, etc.  As much play as "self-care" seems to get on the Internet these days, lots of us still struggle with taking care of business, family, ministry, pets, friends, the car, the yard, the house, and a thousand other people and things... but neglecting the basic boundaries and tasks that would maintain the bodies and brains God has entrusted to us.  Join Cinthia for an honest look at whether you are maintaining yourself well enough that relationship with you is a positive experience for others.

Happy New Year, Part 6: Don't Worry

Have you ever wondered why your brain picks the thought trails it does, especially the ones that involve worry or negativity?  Cinthia explains this today -- your brain is trying to help you -- but also encourages us to re-work this, noting what worry and negativity do to our bodies and lives.  If you like learning about the brain and how to help it function well, you will love this episode.  In order to have the best year possible  and be the best versions of ourselves, we have to remember... worry and peace cannot coexist!  This is about so much more than false positivity.  Join Cinthia to explore how to reduce your Eeyore tendencies in 2020.

Happy New Year, Part 5: Live in Love

Love sounds great, doesn't it?  We all love love, we want it to make the world go round etc. But would you say you live in love, moment by moment and day by day?  What would that even look like?  Cinthia explains that this is exactly what God does with us and what He wants to do in us.  Still, love is confusing on earth, starting with the fact that something so wonderful can feel terrible at times; just look at the cross.  It can be painful, making us want to avoid love.  Yet, if we want 2020 to be the best year possible, we have to start by aligning ourselves with the agenda of the One Who will be running the universe this year.  He is Love, and coming to know Him involves learning how to love.  Join Cinthia to explore where to start, why to keep going, and how to think about the things that get mixed up with love but aren't the real thing.

Happy New Year, Part 4: Caring for Yourself in the New Year

Do you find it easier to take care of others (or of your business, your ministry, your hobbies, your pets...) than to care for yourself?  Sometimes our own well-being falls to the bottom of the priority list, despite the fact that God has given us responsibility for self-care.  In the long run, neglecting or harming ourselves, however unintentionally, can sabotage all our other goals, too.  Cinthia looks at five areas for self-care: physical, social, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual.  Join Cinthia to look at what self-care really means and why it matters, as well as what you can practically do about it.

Happy New Year: A New Beginning, Part 3

Do you believe that God can do a new thing in your world, something only He can imagine?  How can you participate in that, or even stay out of the way?  Sometimes we have trouble perceiving and taking hold of what He's doing, but still He does it!  Cinthia has been discussing practices to help make this year the best it can possibly be.  This episode focuses on the fact that God is already at work in 2020 and that He wants us to go with Him in this.  What does it mean for us as mistake-making humans to learn how to cooperate with the creative miracles of God that are happening in us and all around us?  Despite continuing to heal and guide us through the fallout of the past, God is not stuck there.  He's doing something new.  Join Cinthia to explore how to join Him in the new things He's doing.

Happy New Year: A New Beginning, Part 2

How many years have you spent trying to control the external world so you can feel better inside?  Or majoring in things that should be minors?  If you've been with us for a while, you know that Cinthia loves to spend January preparing to make the new year great.  There will be lots of things in 2020 that we can't control, and they may not all be good.  But what if you were to make this the year when you change the way you relate to yourself and, by extension, to the world?  Join Cinthia in learning to make new beginnings any time we realize we need them; this is how we seize the day!

Happy New Year: A New Beginning, Part 1

Happy New Year!  Some of you may be greeting 2020 with excitement and fervor, while others may bring discouragement, loss, or longing for previous years.  Some go in with determination to meet resolutions with 100% faithfulness, while others avoid setting goals they could potentially fail to meet.  How can we approach 2020 with hope and helpful tools?  Cinthia explains that both resolutions and hindsight become destructive when we use them for self-condemnation, but that vision-casting and getting closure on the past can help us begin this new decade with direction, purpose, and freedom.  Do resolutions and new beginnings excite you but fizzle quickly mid-January?  Do you assume you won't make more progress this year than you have before now? Join Cinthia to look at what it means to cast vision and live each day as the beginning of a new year.  

Be The Gift That Keeps On Giving

This time of year, we focus a lot on gifts --- buying them, wrapping them, giving them, receiving them -- and on Jesus, Who is God's Gift to the world.  Perhaps the enemy is hoping you'll miss another piece of the picture: the fact that you are a gift, one God meant to give to the world on an ongoing basis.  What would it mean to follow Jesus in living as a gift?  Would it involve sacrifice?  Joy?  God made you completely unique and intentionally placed you in this time and place.  Being the best version of yourself means allowing God to give through you in ways only He could have imagined!  Join Cinthia to explore what it means to live as a gift that keeps giving.