On today's episode, we're going beyond are we growing spiritually?

And we're going to talk about are we faithfully stewarding the gifts God has given us and he's entrusted us with?

Are we sharing them with the world?

Because that is what he's calling us to do beyond growing spiritually.

Welcome to Faith Filled Living, the podcast for women who want to find joy again, grow closer to God and rediscover the woman he created you to be.

I'm your host, Kristin Foulsch.

Each week you'll find encouragement, honest conversations, biblical perspective, and practical tools to help you experience more joy, purpose and peace in everyday life.

Because the woman God created you to be is still there.

And it's never too late to come alive to the life he created you to live.

Okay, let's dive right in.

So the reason I'm sharing about this topic again, because I, I did an episode maybe a month and a half ago on a similar string, if you will, a similar through line.

But here's what happened.

This week I made a couple salad dressings because I have, in the last couple years I've just basically made all my own salad dressings, Aioli's and things like that because it's so hard to find one, good tasting salad dressings in the grocery store.

Two, most of them have preservatives and ingredients in it or seed oils that I prefer not to have.

And then three, the healthiest ones are usually super expensive.

I mean, like astronomically expensive.

So I've been making my own dressings and I have a couple that are showstoppers.

I mean, they're not mind specific.

Other people make them, but whenever I make them, people every time ask me for the recipe.

So I've gotten good at just making simple, basic dressings because the key is having fresh ingredients.

So this week I made two new dressings.

One, I was taking a, actually three new dressings.

I was taking a, what do you call it, a southwest salad or Texas caviar to someone's house.

And usually you use red wine vinegar, maybe a little olive oil or red wine vinaigrette.

Well, I didn't have red wine vinaigrette, so I decided to make it and it was good.

And I was like, you know what, okay, I'm going to try to make another dressing.

So I ended up doing a grapefruit white balsamic vinaigrette.

And the reason that I made that is because I had a white, I'm sorry, I had a grapefruit white balsamic vinegar So I used that in the recipe, and the recipe was delicious.

I mean, you could put it on anything and it would make it amazing.

But I decided, besides making some for myself, I made two small jars for two of my friends because I had bought that vinegar when I was down on a girls weekend in North Carolina.

So I brought it to my friend that invited us on the trip and then to one of my other friends that was there.

I'm sorry, that was there the year before, but not last.

Not this year.

So I took it over to them.

And then, I guess two nights ago, my girlfriend, one of them texts me and says, oh, my gosh, that dressing is amazing.

She said, literally, you need to bottle it and sell it.

I would pay you for it.

And I laughed.

And of course, I thanked her.

And I was like.

As I thought about it, I thought, wow, how often do we just disregard the things we do, even if they're things that other people do that are opportunities to serve?

And that's what I want to get into today.

Are we so focused on what's missing from our gifts, our talents, or what we have at this moment that we forget what God's already given us to show up and serve the world?

Now, serving the world, we can do that, in a sense of it's just helping other people, right?

It's using our gifts and talents in the world and also, of course, showing people what it means to be a Christian.

But then in other cases, God has given us these gifts and talents to further the kingdom, but often to also help us have, you know, another revenue stream, if you will.

And why do I say that?

Well, the Bible has several examples, many examples where someone was struggling financially, and then they use their gifts to provide for themselves or their families.

So I want to dig into that today, and I want to get to the root of why do so many of us, especially women, we start thinking things like, well, I don't know.

I. I don't know if I'm qualified or what if nobody wants this or, no, I'm too old now.

I'm too young.

I don't have the experience.

Someone else already does this.

My neighbor does this, or I'm not ready, or this isn't really a thing.

Right?

Like, this isn't a skill anybody would pay for.

This isn't knowledge anybody would pay for.

This isn't a product that anybody would give me money for.

How would I do it?

Okay, so let's dive in.

All right, So I shared with you that one example about my salad dressing.

And, like, I said, it's straightforward and it's simple, but it tastes really good and it's a little bit different.

And the funny thing is, in the last couple of months, besides, you know, the podcast and then workbooks and working on a devotional and things, and besides sometimes working with women or doing workshops, I have been thinking about trying to do more actual products, like physical products from my garden, for a couple reasons.

One is I really like being outside and I like that as AI is taking over more things, I like that we can go back to the basics.

We can go back to being, you know, people that share and give and trade and, you know, yes, sell too.

So I had been thinking about products that would be more shelf stable.

I mean, not shelf stable, like products that I could sell that aren't going to be perishable.

So I was thinking more about different spice blends and things that I think are just a little bit different and just make anything you're making, like a dip or a rub, just, I mean, next level.

So anyways, I haven't done anything with that yet, but I've been thinking about it.

So when my friend made that comment, it just was like another light bulb moment.

Like, why am I holding back?

Why am I waiting?

Just because that hasn't been what I've worked on.

If I come up with a flavor, whatever it might be for something, why not just start putting it out there, even if it's not for sale?

What if I just start giving it to more people and getting feedback?

Right?

That's market research anyways.

So what it was is I thought, oh, my gosh, I'm doing the same thing.

I'm thinking, oh, well, I don't, I don't have.

I don't have, right?

Is what I keep realizing I'm saying in my head, well, I don't have the jars right?

And if, of course, if you're going to sell food products perishable, and especially then often you have to have your kitchen, you know, checked by health inspectors.

So I'm thinking like, there's so many hurdles and this isn't really my primary focus.

But then again, why wouldn't I try, you know, maybe not this moment, but why wouldn't I move towards that or find out everything about that?

And I wondered, are many of you there too?

Are many of you praying to God that you are.

You're calling to him, you're asking him, like, God, you know, I'm looking for more provision, Lord, I'm looking for what's next, Lord, how are you going to use me?

Is it selfish to make money from my gifts?

Right.

Maybe you're wondering one of those questions.

And if so, then I hope this episode will encourage you and it will give you the confirmation you need to move forward with something that you've been holding back from or that you've.

You've not even let yourself dream about what else you could be doing or something on the side you could be doing.

Okay, so we're going to talk about, do you already have a gift or a talent or something that you do or make in your hands that you're not using yet to serve others?

And so first, I want to share with you the scripture 2 Kings 4:1:7, and it's about the widow's oil.

And like I said, I've shared this.

This episode, or I'm sorry, I've shared this scripture before.

But basically, the widow.

I'm going to pull that up now.

Okay?

The widow, basically, her husband has just passed, and she says to Elijah, your servant, my husband is dead.

And you know that he revered the Lord, but now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves.

Elijah replied to her, how can I help you?

Tell me, what do you have in your house?

And Scripture goes on to say, your servant has nothing there at all, she said, except a small jar of olive oil.

Elisha said, go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars.

Don't ask for just a few.

Then go inside and shut the door behind you.

And your sons pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put oil it to the side, to one side.

She left him, shut the door behind her.

And her sons, they brought the jars to her, and she kept pouring.

When all the jars were full, she said to her son, bring me another one.

But he replied, there is not a jar left.

Then the oil stopped flowing.

She went and told the man of God, and he said, go sell the oil and pay your debts, and your sons can.

And you and your sons can live on what is left.

This is one of the best examples in the Bible of that.

We often already have the means right in front of us to be provided for.

Because here's the thing, sometimes we're praying to God for provision.

We're praying to God to help us out of a financial drought.

But sometimes we stop at prayer instead of taking action, right?

We stop at prayer instead of saying, wait, how might I help myself in this situation?

Because God's already lined it all up.

God is probably saying to us, it's right there.

It's right in front of you.

So the first question is, what are we missing?

Because we're so focused on what we think we're missing, right?

Financial abundance or means or a product or a skill.

Guess what?

Every one of us already has those things right in front of us.

And right now, there's no waiting needed.

Okay, so the first thing is the widow is focused on debt, but God and his.

I mean, Elijah was focused on the oil.

So the first question is, what gifts or knowledge, experience, relationships or passion have you overlooked in your life?

Friends, I have definitely done this.

And I. I'm going to be honest, I continue to do it to some extent.

Yes, I'm building some things as you know, for one of them is this podcast.

But where am I, where am I doing exactly that?

Where am I focusing, though, on.

No, I don't know if I could do this other thing or sometimes I sabotage myself this way.

I think, well, I'm already doing things over here, so why would I then splinter myself and do this thing over here?

But God never said we're going to be doing just one thing or that we have to have means, right?

Or to serve people in just one area.

I have interviewed several pastors who, they do many things right.

They might run a business, they run a ministry.

They are also pastors and their fathers, and they're, they're doing lots of things.

And in some cases, several of them have multiple businesses because they stepped in and took action when they saw the opportunity that was right in front of them.

And it was.

God was blessing.

Okay, so the next point is God often multiplies what we use.

And so we're talking about the widow's oil, the five loaves and the two fish, right?

That became much more food.

David's slang.

He was able to do more than you would have expected.

And there's so many other examples in the Bible of that.

So God repeatedly, repeatedly starts with ordinary things and makes it more, right?

He multiplies because his math is not our math, it's kingdom math.

The next thing is our gifts often solve and should solve someone's problem.

Your story or your creativity, your teaching ability, your guidance, what you've already walked through, your organization ability, your hospitality, your writing, right?

Or your marketing ability, your copy editing ability, your baking ability, your encouragement.

Someone else needs it.

And I think we also do this.

We minimize and we downplay things.

We just have lived in a culture that I think we, especially us women, we often say, no, no, it's like it's not a thing it's nothing.

It's nothing.

But we've got to stop doing that because we only continue to serve the kingdom in greater ways when we actually acknowledge that we can use this thing.

Right?

And here's the thing.

Maybe you worked, walked through something really hard.

Maybe you've struggled with something with your children or you had to come up with a system to make things work right, without kind of going stir crazy or getting to end the day and being like overwhelmed.

Maybe you've walked through, you know, a significant other passing.

Like there's so many things.

Maybe you've lost your job or you reinvented your career, but all of those things you can now you're ahead of someone else.

Not saying you want to be.

You can help someone else walking through what you've already walked through.

And now you're beyond, you're past them.

Maybe you encourage them because you've been through what they've been through and now you know what it's like to be where they're at right now.

So I think that's it.

We have to stop thinking that our abilities and our gifts and our experience and what we've walked through don't matter, because they do.

I've had, over the years, I've had so many interviews on one of the two or one of the main two podcasts I have.

And one of them was a dad where he had two very high level special needs kids, like with serious medical problem, you know, challenges.

And his son, I don't remember if he was a teenager, but he ended up passing away.

It was pretty extreme circumstances and 24 hour care was needed and hospital bed and there was nothing that they could do, obviously.

Like they tried to, you know, save him, but it was, it was just not doable.

But now he, he goes and he speaks about and he's written about the experience and what's helped him.

And then how has he been getting through this grief even with a son that was so sick for most of his life?

So once again, he's using his story and his encouragement of what he walked through to help other people.

He's created a community to help other grieving parents, especially other grieving parents with children with very high level medical needs.

Right.

And care.

All right, the next scripture that I want to share with you is.

See, it's Exodus 35, 30 through 35.

And basically it talks about how God has given us all these gifts and creativity.

So I don't know if I'm going to read all of it, but basically Moses is talking or explaining that the Lord's chosen Bezalel, son of Yuri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah.

And he has filled him with the spirit of God, with wisdom and with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills to make artistic designs for working gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood and engage in all kinds of artistic crafts.

And then he goes on to explain that he's also given it to several other people.

And then also he says, or Scripture says, the ability to teach others.

And that Scripture finishes with, he has filled them with skill to do all kinds of work.

And then he gives the example of as engravers, designers, embroiderers in blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen, and weavers, all of them skilled workers and designers.

Why do I bring this up?

Well, it's because God's basically showing us.

He gives us wisdom and understanding.

He gives us knowledge, crafts, craftsmanship and creativity.

He isn't just.

We aren't just building beautiful things which those matter, right?

God is in the business of showing us beauty every single day all around us.

But also that our creative work is worship, right?

Doing work that matters is worship.

Our skills serve God's people, or they could be.

And then our gifts meet practical needs, right?

It's things that people need.

Even my salad dressing, if someone's going to buy salad dressing anyways, and I don't know what I'm going to do with this, right?

But my point is people need it.

And if it tastes good and it makes them want to eat their vegetables more, or whatever it is, that's a good thing.

Especially if I can pair it with, you know, a uplifting message, a Christian message, or just having a conversation with someone or encouraging someone to start something that they've been afraid to start.

So you see, everything we do comes back to how can I serve others with my gift, my skill, my talent, my product, whatever it might be.

Okay, the next point that I want to make is our purpose and provision can work together, right?

Okay.

So.

And it's not obviously just about money.

Money isn't the main thing here.

It's serving others.

Now, money often follows solving meaningful problems or serving others.

And we shouldn't feel guilty or, or shame in earning income while we help others.

And some examples are, Paul made tents, Lydia sold purple cloth, Obviously, the widow sold the oil.

And let's see.

Oh, even Proverbs 31.

Woman bought fields, planted vineyards, traded goods, generated income for her household.

You guys, that's the perfect example right there.

Proverbs 31.

Look how many different things the Proverbs 30 woman, 31 woman was involved in.

So whenever we're not certain or we wonder, should I really take this thing on?

Can I really serve others with my experience or my story or my gift or my encouragement or my product, go back and read Proverbs 31 and look at what all she did for her household.

And Scripture consistently shows us that women are creating value.

Of course we create value in so many ways, so much, so many times.

It's caregiving and relationally, which is absolutely important.

But we are good at so many things.

All right, the next point is steward what you already have.

Don't wait for more confidence or more time.

Don't wait for more followers.

Don't wait for more money.

Start where you are right now.

God often multiplies movement.

Like I said, we can't keep waiting on him when he's already put in front of us and in our house the exact thing that can help other people and can solve a problem.

It can encourage other people.

And it might just be the thing that's going to bring forth more financial ability or, you know, or at least help us run our households or have a little more in our bank account so we can breathe a little easier.

Often God's already provided provision, but he's waiting for us to see it and then act on it.

And I want to remind you, this also a good example of why we're told not to hold on to what we already have out of fear is the scripture of the talents.

But here's basically it.

The servants who invested what they had received were entrusted with more.

The servant who buried his gift out of fear lost the opportunity.

Fear often varies purpose, you guys, that if you need to be reminded that God's asking for us to be bold and to act and just to say, I'm going to try it.

I'm going to put myself out there because I know that this is going to help someone else.

Go back and read the parable of the talents.

But then as I talked about the widow focused on what she lacked, Elijah redirected her attention to what she already possessed.

God multiplies what we already have.

And God didn't simply hand her money.

And that's the thing.

I think some of us mistaken prayer for like, oh, God, you know, change my financial situation or change my purpose.

Like, what am I supposed to be doing in this next season or in the season I'm in.

But no, he wants to multiply what we're moving towards.

He wants to multiply when we act and when we step out of fear and then actually say, you know what, Lord, I'm going to trust you.

I'm going to try this, I'm going to do this.

And it's when we participate that we often then see the provision.

And I would just remind you that so often I think we overlook our gifts or knowledge, our wisdom, creativity, relationships, experience, recipes, teaching ability, hospitality, encouragement, or artistic ability that God's already placed in our hands.

What ability or skill, or if you will, what is your oil that God has already given you, but you have not done anything with it?

What are you holding on to, where you're afraid to share or show other people?

That can change your life and it definitely will change other people's lives because you'd be serving them.

You'd be solving a problem.

Problem.

And remember, even creating art in whatever form that is, that is serving others.

Because first of all, you're putting beautiful things in the world and you're doing it by partnering with God.

You're doing it because someone else needs that.

I mean, how many of us.

I don't know about you, but I love art on my walls and flowers in my home and looking at beautiful things, it lifts my mood.

It.

It does so many things for us, right?

And so we have to remember whatever.

The thing is, my mom's an artist.

She makes art.

She sells art, right, to people all around the world.

And she sells it for a very high dollar when she, when she sells her art, because that is what she lives off of.

That is her income, right?

That is the way she's provided for now.

It also reminds you not to give up because no one said the first time you take, you know, go for it, it's going to work out.

That's not how things work.

Just like my salad dressing example.

It's not that I heard the comment, I'm going to go sell it tomorrow.

No, everything's a process.

Everything is inputs.

And so you're not looking for a home run immediately.

God never said, just because I put it in front of you and you can use it doesn't mean that immediately it's going to become, you know, this thing where tons of people, you know, hear your story or you speak in front of a group or that you make a ton of money, right?

Because part of it is our growth and getting prepared and ready for the things to come.

But I will share this with you.

I was reading, I've shared about Bob Latic.

I think that's not how you say his name, but he and his wife have a podcast and then they have an Instagram account called seedtime.

But they, they basically help people learn biblical financial lessons, right?

And how to, how we can have.

How we can use and have more money and then also give more money to the kingdom.

Well, I was reading this.

They have a book and they had a book publisher, but when they first came out with the book, I think three months in, the book was not doing well, right?

Like, the publisher is about to pull the plug.

Like it was, it was not what you want, right?

Whenever you start anything, believe me, I've been there with the podcasts and other things, you hope for fast growth, but often that's not how things work.

We see the people that show us those things, but that's the minority.

That's the, you know, 10th of a percent of people that have extremely fast growth like that.

Most of us have to work and put in the time for things to grow, right?

Just like our garden.

It takes time and it takes effort and it takes continued inputs, right?

Which is the things the soil needs and the water and the sun.

But what I was going to get back to about that book is he goes on to say, bob says, but what we decided is that, no, you know, it's not about the number of books, it's not about the metric.

Which I can relate to this because I have to be careful not to focus on what my metric is for podcast listens or downloads or.

Or whatnot compared to other people's podcasts, whether my number is good or not good or it's great one day and not as good the next day.

But he goes on to say, when we went back to it, we remembered God never said that you need to reach a certain number of people.

God said, be faithful, be consistent in each person that gets that book.

That is your job.

Right?

Be faithful to that.

So he.

They decided to start selling the books themselves.

And then every time a book was sold, they would pray over the book and then they would ship it out.

Well, fast forward a while.

And they, they shipped a lot of books and they've done really well with their book.

And the point is, is it's because they stopped worrying about how fast the book became successful or had the right number of sales, and they just stayed faithful with offering their story and offering their knowledge about learning the biblical ways of finances.

And how do you spend and save and then have more.

And that is such a gift that they're giving to people, right?

And that's what they talk about, that's what they do.

And it is blessing so many people.

But I share that to remind you it doesn't mean whatever you have to offer the world is going to be fast or quick or that you're going to know all the steps today.

But what I'm saying and what God's telling us is be faithful in moving forward.

And if you need more examples of this.

I love Mark Batterson's books.

He's a pastor in D.C. washington, D.C. his books are amazing.

I've read most of them.

Not every one of them, because I think he might be up to 40 now, but he often talks about in his books that before the prayer was answered, before there was a big movement, he took one tiny step towards the dream that he had, right for how God wanted him to do something.

So one time he bought something like a map of this area of D.C. where they already had.

They were renting, like, their church space at the time.

Now they own many property properties in D.C. that are serving the kingdom and growing.

You know, God's.

The things he's doing in that area, all these programs and everything.

But I share that to say that sometimes it's just going and doing the research or try, you know, being creative and trying something new, like that dressing that I made.

I just said, you know what I know the basic recipe for?

I know the basic way to make a dressing, right?

The recipe.

What.

What inputs do you put in that make a really good dressing?

So I just took that concept and then I just created my own ingredients, you know, And I'm not saying no one else has ever made that dressing.

What I'm saying is I didn't go online and just find a recipe in that case, of course, I do follow recipes.

But I got creative and I love being creative, actually, if you're creative in the kitchen or you're creative with your hand or writing, or maybe you're creative with systems, right?

Like organizing.

But when we get in that zone, you realize, like, wow, I feel, like, lighter.

I feel excited.

But something awakens within you when you do that.

And it can be in the most simple way.

Maybe you bake bread.

I definitely bake sourdough bread.

Sometimes I haven't done it in months, but I go through those seasons and then I love when I come up with a variation of a recipe I really already like.

That might be a small thing, but it excites me Right.

Or you make a delicious butter.

And just to be clear, I'm not just all about food or recipes.

I mean that is an area I like.

But I like many other ways to be creative.

My point is when you just get curious because I think curiosity is an underrated muscle that we need to use.

So get curious, go learn.

Like, you know what, I've always admired this other, this person, what they do or like, how do they, like how do they do this or where do I even start or what might I want to do and then go follow somebody or go to a farmer's market.

Like, what are they doing?

How are they setting up?

How are they showing up?

Ask them how did you get into this?

Or like what license do you need?

Get curious, start asking questions because.

Or just start sharing.

Share your story with a friend.

Share it at your church.

Start a Facebook, you know, free Facebook page, whatever it might be.

Or just join a community that already exists of like minded people of what you're already going through and serve.

Give to that community.

But then when the time's right, share your story or your encouragement, you see all of these things build on the next thing that we do or that you know, the first step then helps us take that next step.

And so what I'm saying to you today is God's inviting you into using what you already have in front of you to provide for you.

And he's also using it so that you can step out in more purpose.

You can serve the kingdom.

And by doing so we are strengthening how many more people get to see who God is and what it means to follow Christ.

And at the end of the day, that's what it's about.

So friends, I just, I hope this episode encouraged you and I would love to invite those of you that this episode really spoke to today.

Head on over to Kristin Fitch.com creators and because one thing I've been working on is a free resource but also starting a small community of people that want to say, all right friend, what are my gifts?

What are my talents?

What can I say yes to?

And if that's you, then I want to help those of you serve others.

And if you are interested in creating meaningful income, but especially lasting impact, then let's walk into this together because it's faithful creators.

So right, that is going to be called Faith Field Creators and I'm so excited about it.

But if you go to kristenfitch.com creators I'm going to have a free download there for you to get you started.

And just thinking about this, right?

So it's going to have some questions, one of which is write down what are the five gifts God has given me and what is my oil that I have right now that could be multiplied to serve other people or to solve a problem.

So friends, I would love for you to go grab that freebie.

Like I said, KristenFitch.com creators and I just hope that today's episode will plant that little seed in you.

Or if you already had a seed planted about this, it will be the water you needed, the encouragement you needed to let that seed sprout and see the light, see the opportunity, put that light bulb moment inside of you.

Like my friend with a comment about the dressing, I hope today's episode will be that for you.

So until next time, I hope you have a wonderful week and I'll see you back here.

If you enjoyed today's episode, if you could leave a rating review on Apple Podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts, it helps the show get discovered by more people so that we can continue to uplift and encourage people in their faith journey as well as all of the other parts of their lives.