1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,440 Well, hello and welcome to our time together on the Live Out Loud podcast. 2 00:00:07,440 --> 00:00:14,080 I'm your host, Kim Kirkfleet, curator of the space, ellieandtheboys.co over on Instagram. 3 00:00:14,080 --> 00:00:17,040 I'm a mother to four full of life children. 4 00:00:17,040 --> 00:00:22,400 I'm a wife, a home-schooler, a homemaker, and someone who is just walking through life 5 00:00:22,400 --> 00:00:26,560 experiencing one day at a time just like you. 6 00:00:26,560 --> 00:00:31,840 I am not here to tell you how to live your best life or how to live at all. 7 00:00:31,840 --> 00:00:37,600 I am here for conversations and to get us thinking about how to do life as best we can 8 00:00:37,600 --> 00:00:41,040 with the wisdom we have gained through living this life. 9 00:00:47,120 --> 00:00:52,640 All right, good morning and welcome back to today's recording, which I tried to do yesterday 10 00:00:52,640 --> 00:00:57,360 and I kept getting interruptions from the kids, which were absolutely fine because 11 00:00:57,920 --> 00:01:01,520 one of my kids came and called me quickly as I was recording. 12 00:01:01,520 --> 00:01:02,720 He's like, mom, you have to come see. 13 00:01:02,720 --> 00:01:08,640 So I ran outside to see and he wanted to show me this beautiful sunrise, I mean, sunset. 14 00:01:08,640 --> 00:01:12,800 And it was, the sky was brilliantly alive with colors. 15 00:01:12,800 --> 00:01:17,120 And then on the other side was this beautiful rainbow. 16 00:01:17,120 --> 00:01:20,880 And I thought it was so precious that he wanted to share that moment with me. 17 00:01:20,880 --> 00:01:25,040 So I welcomed the interruptions, but here we are again today together. 18 00:01:25,040 --> 00:01:29,760 And I'm hoping to get this one recorded and finished so we can just enjoy the next few 19 00:01:29,760 --> 00:01:35,760 minutes together. Episode number one, the idea of living out loud. Let's go. 20 00:01:36,640 --> 00:01:41,920 Have you ever read a story about someone who is truly inspiring, where you almost can't even 21 00:01:41,920 --> 00:01:46,480 put the book down because the pages are full of moments lived in an all out way. 22 00:01:46,480 --> 00:01:52,480 We are just pulled into these heroic stories where people overcome their circumstances and 23 00:01:52,480 --> 00:01:57,360 then the ones where the underdog wins or where someone stands up for justice, 24 00:01:57,360 --> 00:01:59,280 even when they're the only ones fighting. 25 00:02:00,160 --> 00:02:04,240 We have a book that sits on our school bookshelf and we like to read it occasionally as part 26 00:02:04,240 --> 00:02:05,760 of our morning collective. 27 00:02:05,760 --> 00:02:11,840 And in these pages we find stories like Cory Tin Boom and Martin Luther in the 1500 and 28 00:02:11,840 --> 00:02:18,000 Helmut Hübner from World War II and then George Mueller and Wesley Powell who fearlessly 29 00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:20,080 explored the Colorado River canyons. 30 00:02:20,960 --> 00:02:25,440 And then we take stories that we read that we just want to sit and watch them on our screen 31 00:02:25,440 --> 00:02:27,440 because they are truly inspiring. 32 00:02:27,840 --> 00:02:31,520 We take the book of Shackleton and his crew from The Endurance. 33 00:02:32,080 --> 00:02:36,480 They faced circumstances that most of us would never be interested in facing. 34 00:02:36,960 --> 00:02:38,160 I know I wouldn't. 35 00:02:38,160 --> 00:02:42,880 The idea of living on a waste Iceland for a couple of years before seeing another human 36 00:02:42,880 --> 00:02:49,600 being outside of their own party and having to sleep in disgusting sleeping bags and soaked 37 00:02:49,600 --> 00:02:55,120 through no food, eating blubber for days, I am not interested in that. 38 00:02:55,120 --> 00:03:00,720 Yet I find myself wanting to read more and more of the book because the lessons of leadership 39 00:03:00,720 --> 00:03:04,720 and teamwork and endurance are heavy in the pages of the book, 40 00:03:04,720 --> 00:03:08,800 which happens to be the same name of the book, The Endurance, and if you haven't heard it on 41 00:03:08,800 --> 00:03:11,600 audio or read the book, oh it's so good. 42 00:03:12,240 --> 00:03:17,440 And then there are these stories like Elizabeth Elliott and all the things that she faced in 43 00:03:17,440 --> 00:03:23,280 her life after she lost Jim Elliott and her husband when they were living in South America 44 00:03:23,280 --> 00:03:28,800 and how easy it would have been for her to step back into her comfort zone, into what she knew, 45 00:03:29,280 --> 00:03:30,640 but she didn't. 46 00:03:30,640 --> 00:03:36,240 And her books are so intriguing and interesting to read because of the way she lived life. 47 00:03:36,560 --> 00:03:39,760 All of these stories have a common thread running through them. 48 00:03:40,080 --> 00:03:44,720 Every person in those books, the books we cannot put down and that we have to keep reading about, 49 00:03:45,360 --> 00:03:48,240 lived life in a way that is bigger than themselves. 50 00:03:48,560 --> 00:03:51,920 The common thread through all of them is that people who were facing life, 51 00:03:52,080 --> 00:03:54,160 they were facing it in an all out way. 52 00:03:54,560 --> 00:03:59,520 They weren't holding back, but they were living a common thread through them. 53 00:03:59,520 --> 00:04:01,600 They were living all out. 54 00:04:01,920 --> 00:04:06,240 And that is the idea that I want to talk about today on this podcast with you, 55 00:04:06,720 --> 00:04:12,400 about the idea of living out loud and what that really means and bring it home as we take inventory 56 00:04:12,400 --> 00:04:18,480 of our next year and we're looking at New Year's resolutions or making goals, making plans and our 57 00:04:18,480 --> 00:04:19,600 dreams and our hopes. 58 00:04:19,840 --> 00:04:24,800 I think there's even something powerful in how we think about these things, how we make resolutions 59 00:04:24,800 --> 00:04:31,680 and how we set goals because I can often look at my list or look at the things that God has called me to 60 00:04:32,320 --> 00:04:35,040 and think they are so much bigger than I am. 61 00:04:35,040 --> 00:04:35,920 And we are right. 62 00:04:36,480 --> 00:04:38,080 They should be bigger than we are. 63 00:04:38,080 --> 00:04:39,920 They should scare us in some way. 64 00:04:39,920 --> 00:04:46,720 If it is a God size dream, it should scare us because I cannot accomplish it on my own. 65 00:04:46,720 --> 00:04:51,600 But whenever I decide to just live out loud, it is me saying, 66 00:04:51,600 --> 00:04:58,880 okay, I am going to step into whatever this thing that scares me is and I'm going to go for it. 67 00:04:59,520 --> 00:05:03,920 Even though I have been using this phrase for several years now, 68 00:05:03,920 --> 00:05:09,920 I really want to fully step into it in this next season, the idea of living out loud. 69 00:05:09,920 --> 00:05:13,680 And in a way, it's kind of become a small joke in our own home. 70 00:05:13,680 --> 00:05:18,240 Whenever I am standing at the top of a cliff with the kids waiting to jump in and I'm not 71 00:05:18,240 --> 00:05:23,920 making them a mind to go for it and jumping into those swirling river below me and my husband will 72 00:05:23,920 --> 00:05:25,760 say, what about living out loud? 73 00:05:26,480 --> 00:05:28,560 And we use it jokingly in ways. 74 00:05:28,560 --> 00:05:34,480 But the truth behind that is that so often in life, we are okay with staying in a comfortable spot. 75 00:05:34,480 --> 00:05:40,400 We would rather conform to these small spaces that we have already outgrown by making ourselves 76 00:05:40,400 --> 00:05:48,560 fit the confines of what was instead of just stepping into the unknown where growth can happen. 77 00:05:48,560 --> 00:05:54,400 We sat around with the kids on New Year's Eve and you know what's amazing about living on the West Coast 78 00:05:54,400 --> 00:06:00,560 is the fact that you can watch the Times Square midnight countdown and the ball drop live well 79 00:06:00,560 --> 00:06:05,360 before 12am. You don't even have to stay up till 12 with your kids and you can all watch it. 80 00:06:05,360 --> 00:06:10,720 We watched it in our living room and had the best time and then we can all go to bed at a decent 81 00:06:10,720 --> 00:06:16,480 time. We don't have to wake up extremely tired and if you are a parent over 30, you know that 82 00:06:16,480 --> 00:06:22,480 it's important to get in bed at a decent time. Anyway, we had gathered together as a family in 83 00:06:22,480 --> 00:06:28,480 our living room sitting on the floor on the couch and just had a special moment together of looking 84 00:06:28,480 --> 00:06:33,360 at the next season and then we took time to pray over the next season together. 85 00:06:33,360 --> 00:06:41,280 As we were praying, I was listening to the kids talk about thank God for the last season that 86 00:06:41,280 --> 00:06:46,800 we were in and where he had brought us and what he had done and the blessings that he poured out 87 00:06:46,800 --> 00:06:54,160 on us and his mercy and grace and on and on and it was beautiful to hear their hearts behind them 88 00:06:54,720 --> 00:07:00,880 and then to hear them cry out to Father God to just take us through the next season well. 89 00:07:00,880 --> 00:07:08,000 And I was just again overwhelmed at the thought that God has given us life for today. He has given 90 00:07:08,000 --> 00:07:17,120 us a chance to live in this moment today. In 2024, here we all are and as my turn came around to pray, 91 00:07:17,120 --> 00:07:26,000 I asked for boldness for this next season for every one of us to step into life with boldness, 92 00:07:26,000 --> 00:07:33,200 into our relationships, our conversations, our interactions, our daily moments with a boldness 93 00:07:33,200 --> 00:07:39,680 that is just beyond us and that is what living out loud truly is, is just living this life 94 00:07:40,320 --> 00:07:45,760 with a boldness that is not our own. It's living in a way that is bigger than ourselves. 95 00:07:46,480 --> 00:07:53,600 And as one of my sons put it when we were praying together was God help us live life with you because 96 00:07:53,600 --> 00:08:00,080 we cannot live it alone. We cannot do this on our own and it comes back to when we do step into 97 00:08:00,080 --> 00:08:06,240 living out loud and living with boldness it is saying I'm not enough. I cannot do this on my own 98 00:08:06,240 --> 00:08:13,840 but I want to step into everything that God has for me. And so as we look over the promise of this 99 00:08:13,840 --> 00:08:21,840 new season, the new year, as we take inventory of the next year and write out our hopes and our 100 00:08:21,840 --> 00:08:27,200 dreams and maybe some of us make resolutions or maybe we find a word that speaks to us, 101 00:08:28,000 --> 00:08:34,960 I hope that we are open to what is to come. Saying I will live out loud invites just an 102 00:08:34,960 --> 00:08:43,040 openness to stepping into what God has before us. And this openness comes with a willingness and this 103 00:08:43,040 --> 00:08:49,040 willingness has to be there because so often God calls us to things that are way outside of our 104 00:08:49,040 --> 00:08:54,960 comfort zone. I mean hello we're sitting right here doing this podcast something that is so 105 00:08:54,960 --> 00:09:01,280 outside of my comfort zone into what seems normal in our little world but I have found that living 106 00:09:01,280 --> 00:09:08,560 out loud allows me to say yes to more opportunities than saying no to them. It would be so much easier 107 00:09:08,560 --> 00:09:15,120 to say no but I can say yes because of the mindset that I'm in the openness that I have allowed 108 00:09:15,120 --> 00:09:21,280 to be in. And I don't want to forget that not all things are big some things are small like talking 109 00:09:21,280 --> 00:09:27,120 to the person in line behind me at the supermarket or writing a small note to my child to put on 110 00:09:27,120 --> 00:09:33,920 their pillow. I have to be willing to say yes to the things that will be set before me and before 111 00:09:33,920 --> 00:09:39,840 I know it I am going to be living in an all out way. Have you ever seen your kids interact in a 112 00:09:39,840 --> 00:09:45,280 group setting and you can tell whenever one of them is holding back but because you know their 113 00:09:45,280 --> 00:09:50,640 character and personality you just want them to fully shine and to show everything they are and 114 00:09:50,640 --> 00:09:57,600 not hold back. I have to think that that's how God the Father thinks about us. He created us in such 115 00:09:57,600 --> 00:10:05,200 a beautiful way and whenever I hold back I am not allowing what he created me to be to shine forth 116 00:10:05,200 --> 00:10:14,000 and and I think that he would say just go for it put yourself out there live boldly because I am 117 00:10:14,000 --> 00:10:20,480 living through you I am going to shine through you and that's just what I want to live out loud 118 00:10:20,480 --> 00:10:27,760 to live this life fully so that at the end of my life there was nothing left on the table. I took 119 00:10:27,760 --> 00:10:34,960 it all just fully expectant as to what God was going to do with my small attempts knowing that 120 00:10:34,960 --> 00:10:40,320 he was going to carry me through. I want to live with intention for the kingdom of God 121 00:10:41,040 --> 00:10:48,080 and so as we start this next season together let's stand up in boldness and go for it whatever 122 00:10:48,080 --> 00:10:53,120 that looks like for you because it will look differently for each of us but if we all live 123 00:10:53,120 --> 00:11:09,040 out loud we can impact the world around us in a much bigger way.