5 Habits and a Simple Bible Study Framework Every Woman Should Know

Jennifer Parr (: 00:00

Hey, friend, welcome back to this space, this treasured space where we talk about redefining success and redefining success, not by the world's way, but redefining success and what it means to win in a way that honors God. And this way looks different from the world around us. With that being the theme and the heart behind this podcast today, we're going to talk about daily habits, habits that help you win. Why are habits important? Well,

Habits shape us. And a lot of times when we talk about success, it's hard to talk about being successful without habits being connected to success. And I don't know about you, but whenever I listen to podcasts or I read books about developing healthy habits, I sometimes feel anxious and overwhelmed afterwards because it's a list of all these things that I have to do that I don't feel prepared to do. This list that we're going to talk about today, which I'm just going to share five things

is going to be different. These five habits are habits that will shape you when no one else is watching. These aren't habits that you're going to see talked about a lot in books or podcasts. It's counter-cultural. But learning these rhythms, learning these habits has helped me transform my life. And I'm so excited to share it with you today. I've also received feedback from you all that you're loving these downloads.

that complement the episodes such as the winning women way. I created an invisible load inventory download. And so today I also have a download that will help you win, especially with your spiritual growth. So you'll want to stick around until the end so you can get that downloadable resource. So grab your coffee, grab your matcha for the non-coffee drinkers, grab your water, grab your journal. I think you'll need that for this episode. Just find a quiet place and let's dive into five.

5 healthy habits to help you win as a winning woman. So before I dive in, I want to share that these habits have nothing to do with your status. These habits have nothing to do with how much money you make. These habits have nothing to do with your title, your career, what you do outside the home or inside the home. These habits have nothing to do with your relationship status. These are healthy habits that are not about hustle.

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or not about perfection, but these are habits that are going to stretch different muscles that you may or may not have stretched before. And the first habit is searching for the truth. I know you're like, how is this a habit? Well, this is a muscle that I have been flexing a lot lately. It's not a habit if you're looking for the microwave answer to things. This is a habit that is going to encourage you to research, to dive deeper.

And that takes time. So, for the truth means that you're not being led by trends. You're not being led by feelings or even just what's popular or what culture says. But you're taking the time to search for the truth. A few areas that I've had to do this for is trends, specifically beauty trends for women. I've also had to practice and flex this muscle for food. Food that I grew up eating. Y'all know that I'm from West Africa. I love...

Traditional Nigerian, Sierra Leonean dishes, all African dishes I love. But the more that I've read what's in some of the food that I put in my body, and this is not just in West African dishes. Most of time, this is coming from the Western world, the US, and the things that are in our foods. It has helped me change the way I shop, change the way I cook, change the foods that I bring into my home and cook for my family. Another area that I have had to flex this muscle in is with politics.

I usually don't like to discuss politics, but this is an area that I have had to flex this muscle of aligning with values and morals that support my personal convictions and support my spirituality. And so those are just three areas for me that I've had to flex this muscle of searching for the truth and not just going with what is popular. I remember someone telling me once that there's a difference between knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge.

is the information available to us, whether that comes through data, whether that comes through research or just experience. But wisdom is knowing how to use that knowledge. I want to be wise. Being wise takes you to a different level. There's so many scriptures about wisdom in the Bible and Proverbs is filled with them. And one of the verses is Proverbs 31 26 where it says, she opens her mouth with wisdom and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.

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Wisdom is the goal, not knowledge, but being wise. Have you ever met a wise person? I could sit and just listen to them all day. Before we had our first child, I remember reading all these books that prepare me for motherhood. Y'all, nothing prepared me for motherhood. None of those books, none of those articles, they were nice to have the information, but the reality of the situation that I was in, whether that was our baby not sleeping,

or figuring out if I should use a bottle, how long I should breastfeed, or when I should start introducing foods. That was just based on experience, which made me wise in this area over time. And so the goal should be wisdom. As a winning woman, you want to grow in wisdom. And one of the ways to do that is to flex that muscle of continuously searching for the truth and not just going by what your pastor says.

by what the world says, by what your favorite celebrity says. But what does God say about it? And I'll share more about how to do this later on in the podcast. So the next habit that I want to encourage you to flex in this season is to put on a fresh apron. I told you all these were going to be different type of habits, right? Putting on a fresh apron just simply means you're open to new things. I feel like a fresh apron symbolizes readiness.

Whenever I put on a fresh apron, which I really only have one apron and I don't always wear it, but when I put that apron on, I feel like no matter what I'm about to make or get my hands dirty with, it's going to turn out great. Whether that is in the kitchen or it's in the garden, I put on that apron and I feel like a whole new woman. It's almost like a cape. This has nothing to do with putting on an apron so that you can be in the kitchen. It just means you have a posture that symbolizes readiness.

It symbolizes that you're about to get your hands dirty. A few areas that I would encourage you to put on a fresh apron for is your work life. Whether you work inside the home, outside the home, or you're not working at all, God could be calling you to rethink your capacity. God could be calling you to rethink your work environment. God could be calling you to lay something down or pick something up. But without having that posture of readiness, then you could

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Be limiting yourself because you aren't ready for what God is taking you in that next season. Another area for this is Bible study. How do you put on a fresh apron for Bible study? Well, that is reading those hard books or those boring books, as I would call it. I know it sounds bad to call books in the Bible boring, but there are some books that I have skipped over just because it's repetitive, like numbers. But when I put on a fresh apron,

It gives me a different perspective that every name listed is meaningful, meaningful enough for God to document it in the Bible. And another area that I've had to put on a fresh apron for literally is growing our own food. I have started a few gardens and none of them have survived. This Texas heat is a whole different type of heat, but I can't blame it on the heat. I know there's skill to gardening.

My goal is to just learn how to grow our own food. And so putting on a fresh apron also minimizes the limiting beliefs. Putting on a fresh apron silences the messages that I can't do this or this is too hard. It doesn't mean it's going to be easy, but at least you're open to it. The third habit that I want to talk about is one that I've talked about a lot on this podcast and that is surrendering.

Surrendering is one of those words that sounds nice, but it's very hard to do and society has made it seem like surrendering is also a weak posture. Surrender isn't passive, but it's very powerful and it's not just surrendering that makes the habit difficult, but it's surrendering daily. It's living your life open-handed and not close-fisted. It's trusting God and trusting being obedient to God and knowing that that act

alone will bring you peace even when you don't know the outcome. I have to surrender my ego all the time and apologize to my husband. I have to surrender my ego and apologize to my kids. I didn't grow up with my parents apologizing to me so this is a whole new thing for me. These are just a few ways that I've had to surrender daily but it's a muscle that I'm literally flexing every day. It's a habit that I'm creating

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because Luke 9 23 says, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. When Jesus says this, he doesn't say take up your cross monthly. He doesn't say take up your cross annually or quarterly. He says daily. And I think what makes it even harder is when we try to do this by ourselves, when we try to rely on our own strength. I'm excited to share a method that has helped

this step be a little bit easier of what surrendering daily looks like. And I will share that at the end of this episode. The fourth habit is to serve others. Now, this is a healthy habit to develop just in general, but if you're single, this is a very healthy habit that I think actually makes you more attractive. When I speak to single men about what they're looking for in a woman, and even my husband shared this about traits that he liked about me, and that was a woman with a servant heart.

A woman who serves others doesn't just build herself up, but she lifts others up. You serve from overflow and not obligation. And the reason why I think this has become very attractive is because it makes you not look self-centered. It makes you not look like you are all about yourself, but that you care about others. I think this muscle is healthy to develop because having a servant heart is a posture that reminds me of Christ.

And it's a trait that takes the focus off of you and onto others. People feel loved around people who have servant hearts. People feel cared for around people who have servant hearts. And when I think of Jesus, that is one of the best characteristics about him is that he had a servant heart. So the habits that we're developing are searching for the truth, building that muscle to not just settle for what the world says, but search for the truth.

It's also important to flex that muscle of putting on a fresh apron and doing hard things. And the third habit is surrendering, but surrendering daily. Not your will, but God's will be done. We just talked about serving others and the final habit is the most important habit that has helped me grow so much in this season. It actually makes me emotional when I think about it because any type of success that I have in my life, I owe it to God. I have felt so loved.

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and cared for by Him. And the only way that I have grown spiritually is by studying God's Word. Many of you could be listening to this, and if you're a believer, you know that you hear this all the time. Study your Bible. What exactly does that mean? Especially if your mom who doesn't feel like she has the time, especially if you're a working woman who also is probably navigating a lot on her plate. But what if you were just never really taught

how to study the Bible. Or if you open the Bible and you just feel like it causes more confusion than clarity. Sometimes I open the Bible and I read scriptures and I get absolutely nothing from them. And that's how I knew that it was time for me to come up with a system to learn how to study the Bible so that I could grow deeper. And that's I want to share with you. But here's the thing. I made it super simple. Three steps.

And of course, since this is the Winning Women podcast, the acronym is WIN. I created this method because one, it's simple. It's only three steps. Two, you can do this whether you have five minutes or 15 minutes. And it's also something where if you have little ones, you can teach them how to study the Bible as well. You want to start by taking a verse or maybe you're reading a chapter or a book, but break it down and just start with a verse out of that chapter and read the passage slowly.

Read it prayerfully. Sometimes I read it twice because the first time I'm just reading it, but the second time it makes a little bit more sense. But the W stands for what does the word say? And this is simply an observation step. So what you're doing is you're reading the passage and you're asking yourself who is speaking in this passage? Or what exactly is happening in this passage? Are there any repeated words that you observe? Are there any commands that you observe?

And as you notice or as you observe it, you write it down. You write down the characters, maybe you're writing down actions, you're writing down promises or warnings that you hear, but you want to write down what the Word says. Now, the next step, which is the I, stands for internalize the truth. So you're writing down what the Word says in the first step, but now it's time for reflection. This is reflecting on what the passage reveals about God's character.

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or maybe what God is sharing about your own life through this passage. A good question to ask yourself as you are reflecting on God's Word, and that is, what is God showing me personally through this? What stood out and why did this stand out? There are some scriptures that I have read in some seasons that mean something completely different in other seasons. And so you may want to ask yourself, how does this passage speak to my current or past situation?

And that this is a lot to write down, no worries. I have all of this in downloadable resource so you can download this and fill it out later. So the first step is to observe the text. So write down what does it say? That's what the W stands for. What does the word say? And the I is to internalize the truth. In order to internalize and reflect on it, you have to ask yourself, what is God showing me personally through this? And that leads us to the third and final step and that is

how to apply this to your life. This is the transformative step because you don't want to just stop at observing what you're reading and you also don't want to stop at just reflecting, but take it to the transformation step. Like what is God showing you about how you can walk this out in this season or today? Or what is the next step? A shift or is there an act of surrender that needs to take place? And for this step, I always encourage you just to

Be specific, make it actionable, something that you can do. And so Bible study can be broken down to just three steps. You can do this with any passage in the Bible, and that is to observe, reflect on it, and apply it. But if you forget, then you've got the Wynn acronym, which is W stands for what does the word say? That's the observation. The I is to internalize it, just reflect on the word.

And then the N is the next step of obedience. This helped me simplify my Bible study. And so those times when I opened up the Bible, I didn't even know what to do with what I was reading. I wrote down these three steps and it has made it so much simpler. And so I pray that this helps you with taking that next step, flexing that muscle to study the word, to grow spiritually.

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The only way that we will be able to grow spiritually is to read the love letter that God wrote for us. His truth is in the Word. You won't find it in the world. You only find it in the Word. And this step applies to all the other habits that we talked about. In order to search for the truth, you want to search for the truth not in the world, but you want to search for it in the Word. Put on that fresh apron when you are reading the Bible.

That means be open to those hard chapters, be open to those books that aren't as exciting or poetic. then surrendering daily, remember that step that I talked about? The only way that you can surrender daily is not by trying to lean on your own strength, but surrendering daily is surrendering to God's will for your life, not your will for your life. Studying the Word of God has truly, truly transformed

how I show up and how I win in this season of life. And so if you weren't able to write that down fast enough, no worries. Once again, you can click the show notes and download this resource so you can use whether you have five minutes or 15 minutes of time. And so I pray that this win Bible study method is a guide for your personal time with God, whether you have a few minutes or you have quite a bit of time.

Whatever it is, it will help you stay consistent and grow spiritually, even in these busy seasons of life that we are all in. I also pray that these habits that we talked about in this episode are not habits that you plan to master overnight. These are rhythms. These are rhythms that you want to return to daily, weekly. Sometimes I have to revisit my rhythms annually because I fall off. But just take it one step at a time.

And remember, these are new muscles we're flexing. Like these habits are not habits that are talked about often. And so we're flexing new muscles, we're using new muscles that maybe we haven't used before. Or maybe we're using these muscles and they just need to be sharpened up a little bit. So show yourself some grace. You're doing a great job. Keep flexing those muscles of searching for the truth. Keep putting on that fresh apron so you can do hard things with grace, with strength, and with heart. Be ready to serve.

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Serve others and know your impact goes beyond the spotlight. But also remembering that surrendering has to happen. And it happens daily. So lay down the need to control. Lay down the need to take over and choose trust instead of just striving and control. And I pray that as you study God's Word that you feed your spirit with truth.

Even when life gets full, even when life gets crazy, even when the world is noisy and loud, God's truth should be your place where you can find truth no matter what. I'd love to pray for us before we close. Lord, thank you for every woman listening today. You see her heart, Lord. You know her desire to grow. And thank you for blessing every quiet effort that she's making to walk closely with you, especially in this season.

That is probably why she's here. That is why she's listening to this episode. So thank you for leading her here. And I just pray that you help her build habits that honor you, Not habits out of pressure, but...

from a place of peace and purpose. Lord, remind her that she's already loved, she's already chosen, and already enough, especially to you. And Lord, teach her the ways to surrender, not just surrendering, but surrendering daily, to show up to do hard things, to seek your truth, and to serve with joy. Let these habits draw her closer and deeper into your presence. In Jesus' we pray, amen.

Thank you for tuning in today. pray that you flex these new muscles in this season and download the win Bible study method so that no matter what muscle you're flexing, you are at least striving to grow spiritually and you have an easy, easy, easy method to help support you along that journey. We are in this together. We are growing together. We're surrendering, surrendering daily together. We're redefining success together.

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I'm so glad to be on this journey with you. Thank you for tuning in. Go win and make God proud. Bye for now.