[00:00:00] Speaker A: This is the Morning Journey Rewind with Mark and Brittany. Never miss a moment.
[00:00:04] Speaker B: This week on the Morning Journey Rewind, Brittany's daughter Stella gets her school pictures back. The Dodgers win the World Series, and dark chocolate is supposed to help your memory. Also, Britney may or may not already have her tree up. And you may have heard of friendsgiving, but probably not like this.
[00:00:21] Speaker C: Britney's daughter had her first school pictures taken. This was, what, a couple weeks ago? And you've got those back now?
[00:00:27] Speaker D: I do, yeah. I was so excited because, you know, first school pictures, kind of a big and so sure enough, the teachers had told me she did a good job, but you just never know. And so there's like 11 photos and there's 10 of her individually, and about probably eight of the 10 turned out really, really good.
[00:00:44] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:00:44] Speaker D: And then you get to the class photo and I mean, I know it's hard to get a bunch of kids to smile at the same time. No one in the class photo is smiling except for maybe one child and the teachers.
But you have to have the class photo because it's like the first. The first preschool photo.
[00:01:02] Speaker C: I think those are always hard to get, especially at that age. You know, at her age, it's hard to get the kids to everybody smile or not make a face or be distracted.
[00:01:12] Speaker D: I was very thankful that they took multiple and gave us multiple of her individual photos because, you know, a lot of times in school pictures, they take like three and they pick the one they think is the best and you get, like, one photo sent home. So to have, like, multiple to pick from was really, really nice. I'm. I'm overall very proud of her for smiling.
[00:01:30] Speaker A: Your day starts with encouragement. The morning journey with Mark and Brittany.
[00:01:34] Speaker C: Saw some of the highlights of the Los Angeles Dodgers celebrating their World Series win with their fans. Yesterday they had a big parade in Los Angeles.
[00:01:43] Speaker D: Yeah, crazy win that they had to come back in, like, the 11th inning to, like, win it. Hitting a home run to win. And so, yeah, congratulations to them on that win and winning the World Series back to back years in a row, which is, like, surprising, I think. I don't know a lot about baseball, but I feel like that doesn't happen very often.
[00:01:58] Speaker C: It doesn't. So it's kind of an exclusive group when you can do that. Athletes, though, they have such a platform to reach people with whatever their message may be. Before the World Series, some of the Dodgers players were interviewed by a reporter, and they were asked about their faith in Christ. It was Clayton Kershaw who played in his final World Series, he's retiring Mookie Betts and then Tommy Edmond.
[00:02:21] Speaker D: Yeah. And here's what they had to say about their faith in Jesus and how their identity is in more than just baseball.
[00:02:28] Speaker E: My last thing is my favorite Bible verse. It's whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as you're working for the Lord, not for men. It's Colossians. And that's what I've tried to do. Just work at it. Just work at it and love it.
[00:02:38] Speaker F: Considering all the ups and downs in your career, how evident is God's grace in your life?
[00:02:43] Speaker G: Oh, it's huge. I mean, just for me, moving to short and then praying a lot of prayers on wanting to be a successful shortstop. Right.
Especially in his image. But he really just answered all the prayers. I mean, he answers everyone's prayers. As long as you have a relationship with him, you talk to him, you come to him with everything. And I did. And he's definitely led me this far.
[00:03:09] Speaker F: Yeah, he's my Lord and Savior.
Not only that, also my teacher. I try to, you know, study scripture each day and kind of learn more about Jesus every day and kind of model my life after him. And, you know, my performance in the game or whatever's happening isn't my identity, but rather, you know, as a disciple of Jesus. So, you know, that's definitely the foundation of my life. And, you know, it's, you know, it kind of makes me who I am.
[00:03:37] Speaker D: I love that. And I feel like a lot of times for people who play professional sports, if they don't have that relationship with Jesus, that becomes their identity. And then when they get injured or they retire, they. They kind of spiral and don't know what to do with themselves because they don't have that foundational relationship. So good to see there for sure.
[00:03:52] Speaker A: Your day starts with encouragement. The morning journey with Mark and Brittany.
[00:03:57] Speaker C: I got excited because I saw there was a study out that says if you eat chocolate, it can improve your memory. So I thought, oh, good, I've got an excuse to eat another candy bar.
[00:04:06] Speaker D: No, it has to be dark chocolate. Do you like dark chocolate?
[00:04:10] Speaker C: It's okay. It's not really my favorite.
[00:04:13] Speaker D: See, I love dark chocolate, but I also. And I ate a lot of it last night and I feel like I don't remember anything any better.
[00:04:19] Speaker C: So you're disproving the theory?
[00:04:22] Speaker D: I don't think it helped me at all. But it says that really effects happen within the hour, your critical window. So it transfers your short term memory into Long term storage within the hour after eating dark chocolate. Okay, again, I don't think I remembered any more from eating dark chocolate last night than I did not eating it.
[00:04:39] Speaker C: Maybe you just need to eat a lot of it.
[00:04:40] Speaker D: Maybe. And maybe I need to be more conscious of it. Like, maybe I need to remember when I'm eating it that it helps my memory and maybe that'll help.
Maybe.
[00:04:49] Speaker C: Maybe I just kind of channel surfing through the radio.
[00:04:53] Speaker A: Families are catching on and I'm like, wow, this is pretty cool to the best way.
[00:04:56] Speaker D: But now this is the only thing.
[00:04:57] Speaker A: I listen to now to wake up.
[00:04:59] Speaker D: My style of everything is starting to change.
[00:05:01] Speaker A: It's the morning journey with Mark and Brittany.
[00:05:03] Speaker C: I think I mentioned this before, that a house in my neighborhood has been decorated for Christmas since like mid October.
[00:05:11] Speaker D: Oh, yeah, you did say that.
[00:05:12] Speaker C: Yeah. But now I know that somebody is not that far behind.
[00:05:16] Speaker D: Well, our yard is not decorated and our house is not decorated. But my husband and I have compromised. We took down all the other stuff this weekend and I let him put the Christmas tree up.
[00:05:26] Speaker C: You literally go from fall party right. To Christmas decorations.
[00:05:31] Speaker D: Nope, nope. Just the tree. The tree's not decorated. It's just up. Just the tree. I put all my fall Thanksgiving stuff back out.
[00:05:39] Speaker C: Christmas mode is well underway.
[00:05:41] Speaker D: It's a weird juxtaposition for sure because I have a Christmas blanket on like one of the, like the recliner. And in the chair is a hello fall pillow. Okay, so it's a little confusing, but it's just the tree. That is our compromise at our house. Cause Phil would decorate the whole house and the yard and everything right now. And I said no.
Thanksgiving gets passed over.
[00:06:00] Speaker C: Oh, I know. Yeah, you're here.
[00:06:01] Speaker D: Can we just take a moment to.
[00:06:02] Speaker C: Blew right through it.
[00:06:03] Speaker D: Can we take a moment to be thankful and like, celebrate Thanksgiving?
[00:06:06] Speaker C: So you are in Christmas mode.
[00:06:08] Speaker D: I have compromised with the tree. Just the tree, Mark. Just the tree.
You know, that's. That's what happens. You gotta compromise sometimes. And so just the tree is up. But I mean, it is pretty. I will give him that.
[00:06:21] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:06:22] Speaker A: Start on a positive note. You're on the Morning journey with Mark and Brittany.
[00:06:27] Speaker C: Thanksgiving is coming up. Great time to get family and friends together. Enjoy some turkey, some stuffing. Or you could switch it up this year. Maybe try something different.
[00:06:37] Speaker D: Yeah. This is so crazy. So you've heard of friendsgiving and like, friends coming together and like everybody bringing something and having like a Thanksgiving meal with your friends, but I've never, like, seen it done like this before. Instead of the traditional meal. My friend Cassie and her friends. I didn't even know you could do this. They rented like, like Japanese hibachi.
[00:06:58] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:06:58] Speaker D: For their yard and set up like the table and everything and had all the fixings and they had a chef come out and cook like just like if you would go to like a wasabi or like a koda or something like. And cook in front of them for their friends giving.
[00:07:12] Speaker C: I think that's a great idea.
[00:07:13] Speaker D: I think so too. And I also like that food better than I like turkey.
[00:07:17] Speaker C: Is that right?
[00:07:17] Speaker D: And so I'm like, this sounds like a really good idea.
[00:07:21] Speaker C: Yeah, I love it.
[00:07:21] Speaker D: But like who do you contact to rent like the hibachi for your house?
[00:07:26] Speaker C: You gotta find one of.
[00:07:27] Speaker D: I don't know if Private chef, like.
[00:07:29] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean the restaurant. I know that when my brother in law did that for. Not that, but he did something similar for my sister for a birthday. There was an Italian restaurant where they used to go to and he talked with the chef and he had the chef come to their house and made a whole Italian meal.
[00:07:46] Speaker D: Wow.
[00:07:47] Speaker C: They're at their house for the birthday. So.
[00:07:49] Speaker D: Yeah, that's pretty cool. Yeah. So I guess maybe just talk to the chef and see. I mean they wheeled a whole like hibachi grill out there and everything. Like it was impressive.
[00:07:57] Speaker C: That's cool too. And you're doing it outside, which is nice too.
[00:08:00] Speaker D: Yeah, right? I think I need new friends like this Sounds like the best friendsgiving ever.
[00:08:05] Speaker A: Good company makes for a great day. The morning journey with Mark and Brittany.
[00:08:10] Speaker C: We all love a good story. An author that can draw us in, make us feel like we are actually living in the world where the characters live. What if that experience though was real? Well, that's what you'll be a part of when you join us for the compassion experience that's coming up November 21st through the 23rd at Parkway Church on the mountain. We really encourage you to be a part of this. You'll see the poverty that so many children face each day and how you can help.
[00:08:37] Speaker D: Yeah. The journey will be there on Friday the 21st. We hope to see you there. It's really a cool experience because they have taken a tractor trailer and transformed it to recreate the lives of Kiwi in the Philippines and Jonathan in the Dominican Republic. It's free, it's family friendly. Each story only takes about 15 minutes to complete. If you want to go, they do ask that you register. You can do
[email protected] and the first 50 that register will receive a free hoodie.
[00:09:01] Speaker A: Uplifting and encouraging because you need it now more than ever.
[00:09:06] Speaker C: You betcha.
[00:09:06] Speaker A: The morning journey with Mark and Brittany.
[00:09:09] Speaker C: We got to meet Cassie. She was the winner of one of the guitars that we were giving away during October for pastor appreciation month. And Cassie came over from Wytheville. She and her husband, they drove over, got to meet them and got the pictures with her of holding her guitar. These are these guitars. We've been collecting signatures all year of different journey artists. And so she had her guitar out and we got a couple of pictures with her and then really got to learn a little bit more about the Hope Center.
[00:09:38] Speaker D: Yeah, Hope center ministries and all the girls there wrote about how amazing Cassie is. She's their recovery pastor and really helps them. It's a one year recovery program, get on track after they've been through some of the darkest places in their life and they all had amazing things to say about her. And so she's so deserving of the win there and just so cool because she sings to them sometimes during their recovery meetings. And so now she has a new guitar to do that with them. And so we're just so excited for Cassie and for what's next for the Hope Recovery center as well. And so congratulations to Cassie and yeah, we're excited to see what happens next.
[00:10:12] Speaker A: Start on a positive note. You're on the morning journey with Mark and Brittany.
[00:10:18] Speaker C: You can be a part of a global outreach that not only brightens a child's Christmas but also has eternal impact because the child hears about God's love for them. It's called Operation Christmas child and you can get involved along with the journey.
[00:10:32] Speaker D: It's easy to do. You can just go to myjourneyfm.com for all the details. But we are a pickup and drop off location so you can come get a box, fill it up and bring it back. November 17th starts national collection week. And so we would love for you to get involved. I mean, simple things such as dental floss, toothbrush, a comb, hygiene items, or a fun toy like a yo yo make all the difference to these kids and they get to hear the gospel of Jesus and know that God sees them all over the world because people like you give. So if you want to get involved, all the details
[email protected] from the alarm.
[00:11:03] Speaker A: To the workplace, helping you start your day.
[00:11:06] Speaker C: I'm on my way to work.
[00:11:07] Speaker A: It's the morning journey with Mark and Brittany.
[00:11:09] Speaker C: There is a great concert coming up at the Salem Civic Center. This is going to be a fun night. It's Crowder along with Zach Williams, and that'll be November 20th.
[00:11:19] Speaker D: What a dynamic duo. I think, like, I couldn't put together two better people who have done so much in the Christian music industry. And so they are coming together on November 20th in Salem. If you want to go. We're giving away tickets right now via our website. You can just go to myjourneyfm.com and get signed up, and you just might win.
[00:11:36] Speaker B: You guys always make me smile.
[00:11:38] Speaker A: The morning journey with Mark and Brittany.
[00:11:41] Speaker C: Well, it's that time of year where people start making their Thanksgiving plans, where they're going to stay, what they're going to eat. Well, they plan, prepare the meal, and an increasing number of people are saying, no, we're not gonna do that. We're gonna order our meal. About 37% of Americans now order Thanksgiving dinner.
[00:12:00] Speaker D: I've gotten really lazy, like, the last few times we've hosted. Like, I think the first time we ever hosted, we made everything. And that was stressful. And so now I'm like, why make it when you can order it? And it's probably better. It's definitely less stressful. So we always. We order our turkey and our Mac and cheese from someone. We order our ham and some veggie side someone. I order pies and bread from somebody else. Like, the only thing I'm making is I'm making an apple pie with apples that we picked.
I might make some apple butter. We'll see. But I'm buying the bread. Like, not making the bread because I can't make bread. And then I'm making mashed potatoes because I love, like, my mom's mashed potatoes. So I will always make mashed potatoes. But that is it.
[00:12:41] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:12:42] Speaker D: Everything else I am buying.
[00:12:43] Speaker C: Well, you know me. I'm not cooking.
[00:12:45] Speaker D: True, true.
[00:12:46] Speaker C: I'm not cooking.
[00:12:47] Speaker D: I'm not cooking anything.
[00:12:48] Speaker C: That's why they make stores.
[00:12:49] Speaker D: Exactly.
[00:12:50] Speaker C: And that's why we have restaurants. But I did this a couple of years ago because it was one of the Thanksgivings where we weren't going to my sister's house, and she cooks everything.
So I was just having Thanksgiving with my folks. They were just getting over, like, colds, and so I told my mom, I said, don't make anything. So I ordered our Thanksgiving meal, and it was great.
[00:13:11] Speaker D: Yeah, there's some places you can order the whole thing. And it just. It's so easy. It's so convenient. The only problem is, like, you still have to time the reheating of everything because A lot of it has to be cooked in the oven, so you still have to, like, manage the oven times. But that's so much easier, in my opinion, and less stressful. And then everybody's happy. And if the food tastes bad, guess what? It's not your fault.
[00:13:31] Speaker C: We're just gonna worship, we're gonna be.
[00:13:34] Speaker D: Encouraged, and we're just gonna be together.
[00:13:37] Speaker A: That's the idea. You're on the Morning journey with Mark and Brittany.
[00:13:41] Speaker C: So Brittany the other day was telling us that they have already put up their Christmas tree in their house.
[00:13:48] Speaker D: That's our compromise. I won't decorate anything else, but the tree is up. And then yesterday I went to Hallmark. My dad's birthday is this weekend, and I just went to get cards for him for his birthday. I ended up buying, like, a Grinch blanket and a little Max toy for Stella. And then they have one of my favorite things out. They put them out at, like, Valentine's Day and Easter, and then they come back at, like, Christmas time. They're the chocolate covered marshmallow treats.
[00:14:13] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:14:13] Speaker D: And so they have, like, dark chocolate peppermint for Christmas. They have dark chocolate raspberry, and then, like, the dark chocolate, like, regular ones.
[00:14:19] Speaker C: So see, you're already. You're already celebrating Christmas.
[00:14:22] Speaker D: I'm not, but I did buy these, and I took them home, and my husband was like, for someone who doesn't celebrate Christmas till after Thanksgiving, you bought a lot of Christmas stuff. And he said, and I better not see you eating those treats till after Thanksgiving, because these are Christmas treats. They clearly have, like, Santa and ornaments on them. And he's like, so until after Christmas, you better not be eating those. And I was like, that's like a whole month. I have to wait to eat my treats.
I have also eaten a Christmas tree cake.
[00:14:47] Speaker C: You've already started.
[00:14:48] Speaker D: It's a problem.
[00:14:50] Speaker A: From the alarm to the workplace, helping you start your day.
[00:14:53] Speaker C: I'm on my way to work.
[00:14:54] Speaker A: It's the Morning Journey with Mark and Brittany.
[00:14:57] Speaker C: Several years ago, I was going through a devotional Bible study, and it had a component in there. So you would read the scripture, look through the study, and then there was a writing component where you could just write down what you learned and your thoughts about it. When I first started, I thought, well, I'll just do the study and read the scripture. I won't do the writing component. But then I decided, no, I'm gonna go through. I'm gonna do the whole thing. And so I got a notebook out, and then I would do that each time Each day write my thoughts down. So just kind of kept a journal about that. And it's amazing how much that stayed with me as opposed to if I had just done the reading portion of it.
[00:15:36] Speaker D: It's true, like when you write stuff down, even I remember studying in college, if I actually hand wrote the notes in class, I was much more likely to remember that. And it says now that writing 15 to 20 minutes a day can actually boost your mood and can improve your anxiety and depression more than like double people who don't write stuff down. And so for me, I don't write 15 to 20 minutes a day. That's a lot of time to like, dedicate to writing. But I have a prayer journal that I've had, I mean, different journals over the years, but I've been doing that since I was probably like 12.
[00:16:06] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:16:06] Speaker D: And I think that helps mostly because it's prayers, but also because I can look back in it, which is the good thing about writing is you have like, physical copies. You can look back and see like the Lord's faithfulness over the years. So I think writing is a huge way to not only like, remember things, but really like, hone your skills and just practice like, good things too.
[00:16:25] Speaker C: I know, like, people that have been successful in business or or in whatever career that write those goals down and then how to achieve the goals. They say that they are much more likely then to accomplish the goal if they hand write it down on a piece of paper and then the kind of their action steps, they have much more success at achieving their goal.
[00:16:49] Speaker D: Yeah, it's a great visual reminder. And I think handwriting, it is so much better because a lot of times you think, oh, I'll write for 15 to 20 minutes, I'll just type stuff. But there's something about getting physical paper and a pen and writing stuff down. That's why I really like handwritten cards too, because the effort is so much more than just typing it. If you type a letter, it looks the same as if anyone typed a letter. But seeing the handwriting and especially stuff in your handwriting really, I do think makes a difference.
[00:17:15] Speaker A: Thanks for catching up on the morning Journey Rewind podcast with Mark and Brittany.
