Blogger and Bible journaler Amanda Davis realized God wasn’t a big part of her daily life—and she was ok with it until she woke up to the havoc it wreaked in her family. Now, she is passionate about waking others up to the action behind the devotions and wants you to be, too.
QUESTIONS WE TOUCH ON IN THIS EPISODE:
- Quiet time with God?
- Has your relationship with God changed?
- The importance of including God?
VERSES FROM PRIDE’S MANY SIDES
Colossians 3:17, Galatians 6:9, Proverbs 13:11, Proverbs 13:20, Ephesians 6:10
QUOTES FROM PRIDE’S MANY SIDES
“The vulnerable moments of the moments that have the chance to bless others the most and bring them back to Christ the most, because I’m going through a similar season because I own my own business.”
Michelle Watson, The Pantry Podcast, S02E09
“All things are possible in Christ. We can move forward. We can put the things behind us say, you know what, today he is going to become my focus again. That’s where I need to be. And that, and that’s what I’m hearing and what a beautiful story.”
Shea Watson, The Pantry Podcast, S02E09
“I really found myself in kind of a dark place. No one would have known it. I was in church every time the doors were open, there was a smile on my face. I looked happy. I sounded happy. I was leading worship, but I wasn’t close to God anymore. More importantly, I really wasn’t like, I didn’t, I didn’t really want to be. And I had fallen into this place where I was pretty much saying, you know, I’ve got this, I’ve got this God it’s okay. You can stay in your box and I’ll go to church, but I’m going to do my own thing here. But I started to feel more and more empty and I knew something had to change.”
Amanda, The Pantry Podcast, S02E09
Check out Amanda’s blog, Devotion in Action and her children’s book, The Very Best Plan (affiliate link)!
Annotated Transcript
Shea: I mean, I think today’s exciting. We are going to hear from some dear to me and special. So I’m going to let you introduce her though, because I think this is just awesome. I think everybody’s going to have to be able to glean something off of today. It’s going to be encouraging. People are going to be able to just hear something and say, you know what? It’s not impossible. So I’ll just leave it there.
Michelle: Chatting with Amanda Davis. Who’s best known for her blog, devotion and action. And for adorable children’s book, the very best plan. She’s an awesome wife and mother devoted member of her local churches, worship team, kids, ministry design, the list goes on and on, but the most important thing she’s, Shea’s super sweet cousin. So welcome, Amanda.
Amanda Davis: Thank you. I’m so excited to be on here with you guys. Yeah. We’re, we’re really excited when we decided to do a podcast, you were like the first or second person we thought of. We’re like, she’s got to come on.
Shea: Come on. And I’m going to be honest. I’ve always wanted to just sit down with Amanda because we all live separate in our family. And so the only times we ever get to come together, our family reunions, Christmas time, and I’m telling you, there are a lot of people. And so they’re really just sit down and dig into something or really ask some questions that I’ve always had on my mind. I haven’t always been able to present themselves. Right. So today we have this opportunity to sit down. It’s awesome.
Amanda Davis: Yeah. Yeah. You may not know this about Shay’s family and my family, but we’re loud. Like a lot of us. So when they get together, it’s like constant noise from the noise. Yeah. It’s a great, that’s a work.
Shea: But we love them We love, we love them. Yes.
Michelle: Why do you have all of the things that you have going on going on? What has motivated all these awesome things?
Amanda Davis: A few years back, well, you know, way, a few years back, I got married. I’ll tell you a little bit about, um, I am in my forties back in 2000, right before 2000, I met my husband in college and then we got married and then, you know, my son is now 16 years old. My daughter is 12 going on 22. And I have this family and three years back, I really found myself in kind of a dark place. No one would have known it. I was in church every time the doors were open, there was a smile on my face. I looked happy. I sounded happy. I was leading worship, but I wasn’t close to God anymore. More importantly, I really wasn’t like, I didn’t, I didn’t really want to be. And I had fallen into this place where I was pretty much saying, you know, I’ve got this, I’ve got this God it’s okay. You can stay in your box and I’ll go to church, but I’m going to do my own thing here. But I started to feel more and more empty and I knew something had to change.
Amanda Davis: I started feeling, God, really drawing me back and saying, you know, something’s gotta be different that you, this is not working for you and it’s not working for me. And so we’ve got, we’ve got to make a change here. And as I kind of was thinking about this process and, and I didn’t know how to get myself back into consistency because I have, I, I had been, you know, very, very consistent in a devotion lifestyle, reading the Bible and really studying and praying and spending the time with him. I guess the busy-ness of kids, it kind of took over and I stopped. And so he kind of led me. I mean, it was totally the Holy spirit because I wouldn’t have thought to do this, to start this blog devotion in action. And the whole premise is to put our devotion to God, into action in our everyday lives.
Amanda Davis: It’s like Colossians 3:17 that says, and whatever you do in word, indeed do it in the name of the Lord. Jesus. So giving thanks to the two guy, the father who called him that scripture, that idea of being Christ centered in whatever you do. Like it’s all about him, the vacuuming and the discipline of the children and the meals and the grocery shopping and the going to work. It’s all about him. And so I wanted this blog to be kind of like a wake up call to me and to help anyone else who felt the same way that they wanted their busy lives to be centered around Christ rather than putting him in a box on Sunday. So that’s how the blog started.
Shea: It has been a few years, but it’s been a good years, right? I mean,
Amanda Davis: Absolutely. It’s been revolutionary. I would have slid into like this I’m too busy to spend time with God, but because I had the blog and I was going to do devotional posts, I stayed in the word to be able to push out the content onto the blog. And, and so it kind of pulled me back. It kind of roped me in when I would have veered away. It’s like an accountability partner. Yeah, absolutely.
Michelle: So what led to the adorable board? Okay. Have you ever experienced the perfect storm of God’s opportunity and his inspiration? This is how we got the board book.
Amanda Davis: Perfect storm.
Michelle: How the podcast happened.
Amanda Davis: Yeah. There you go. It’s like, well, so, okay. So I homeschooled my kids and I have the entire time. And so I, a lot of our curriculum comes from a certain Christian publishing company called master books. And I’m a part of their Facebook group. One day we’re sitting at the table, the kids are working on their schoolwork. This thing pops up on the Facebook group. Hey, moms of master books, we’re going to have a contest. We’d really like to have a preschool board book. That’s about God’s biblical design for marriage. I was like, okay. I don’t even know how to write a preschool board book, like click here for more details. So I clicked for more details and I mean, seriously, the kids are sitting across the table, like working on the work. They said how many words to write and that they wanted it to rhyme.
Amanda Davis: So I sat there at my computer and I just started typing and I got done. I’m like, I might send that in. That’s not too bad. Hey, kids, listen to this, tell me what you think. And so I read it to them and they’re like, that’s not bad. Mom whats that for, I was like, well, they’re having this contest. They’re like, send it in or what can happen? What’s the worst that can happen. They’ll just tell you no. Right, right. They were supposed to announce the winners a few months later and it came and went and I thought, well, I just missed the announcement. I missed two, one, you know, no big deal. And then like a month and a half later, I start getting these Facebook notifications. Congratulations, Amanda. Congratulations. We’re so proud of you. Yeah. You want, you know, talking about it said that I had one and they were like, we had so many submissions that it took us way longer than we expected to choose a winner, but we’ve chosen, you know, Amanda Davis to be our winner. And they got an illustrator. We went through an editing process and they published my book.
Shea: Awesome. Such a Galatians 6:9 moment. You know, it’s where you’re waiting and you know, he’s like, don’t grow weary. And then all of a sudden it’s like a reaping. I didn’t even know that things, things you learn.
Michelle: I mean speaking, so mom brain, right. And you mentioned early on how you had gotten into this rhythm, but then the day to day with kids had just without you realizing it made everything, take a turn that you hadn’t really anticipated. What have you learned from how that’s affected this? And what could you tell parents that are going through the same thing?
Amanda Davisda: I noticed that I was becoming an angry mom. I was more angry than I had been before. I’m typically a smiley, joyful person who’s upbeat. And I was becoming more and more stressed and more and more angry. It’s a direct result of not being in the word of God every day. Cause you’re not drawing. You’re not drawing your strength and you’re not drawing your peace from God’s word and from his presence at that point. And you’re trying to do it all on your own.
Amanda Davis: And we know we can’t, there’s no way we can’t do it in our own strength. And I’m also, I have a bit of the introvert in me and I never would have known it because sometimes you don’t know what you need until it’s not there anymore. And then, then I had year upon year of constant human interaction. Constant. The kids are always there. I mean, I’m a homeschooling mom. And then, you know, my husband comes home from work and he is very quality time oriented. Like let’s sit together, you know, which is great for relationship, but terrible. If you’re like, I just want to be away from people. Right. And so that kind of wore on me because I wasn’t, I wasn’t refilling my tank at any point. I was just having to give out all the time and trying to do it in my own strength without getting irritated and frustrated was a problem. So when I got back into the word of God, I could see that I could handle those frustrating, stressful moments better.
Shea: So what was that come to Jesus moment that day? You know, when you say that, you know, you start to realize, you know, that things weren’t quite right, but usually there’s that like, trust me, I know all of a sudden there’s this day and it’s like, I better open my Bible. You’re in the church and it’s still a bottom. It’s still like, it’s still a rock bottom. You’re on your own foundation. That’s crumbling away. So do you remember that specific day or was it just the time period?
Amanda Davis: It was a time period, but I also, I mean, you could say the day that mommy snapped because, Jasmine, Judah has always been very self motivated. It goes off and does his thing. He just, he’s a great self motivated learner. Jasmine, she’s very intelligent, but she’d rather have the social interaction. So she makes you sit there with her. So she was having trouble with math at the time and, and it felt like she should know, it felt like I taught her this like a million times. And doesn’t God feel that way. Some way about us sometimes about us, right? How many times, you know, but I didn’t have the mercy or the patience of God on that day. And I was like, you have already learned this. We have already done it. And you knew how to do it two days ago. Why don’t you know how to do it in her little face, just fell and tears start streaming down her face. I thought, who have I become? What is, who is this person? I don’t want to be this mom.
Amanda Davis: And I realized something drastically needed to change.
Shea: Thank you. Thanks for sharing that. That’s people can recognize that and say, Hey, you know, there’s no turning back. You know, you’ve heard that before, but there is in Christ, in Christ. All things are possible in Christ. We can move forward. We can put the things behind us say, you know what, today he is going to become my focus again. That’s where I need to be. And that, and that’s what I’m hearing and what a beautiful story. You know, I think that sometimes people would sit there and say, Oh, it’s such an embarrassing story, but you know what? These are the stories, the testimonies that God has given us to build others up and say, you know what? You’re okay. You’re okay. Cause that’s what he’s telling us.
Michelle: The vulnerable moments of the moments that have the chance to bless others the most and bring them back to Christ the most, because I’m going through a similar season because I own my own business. You know, there’s the shop, there’s the blog. And then there’s the creative side, which is right now, the bread and butter where I’m designing for clients. And then we have the podcast and then I have a one-year-old and then I have a husband and then we have home renovation. And then, and then we have COVID, you know, and it’s like one, it’s a Testament to God gives you what you need to hear when you need to hear it. You know, this, this zoom call could have happened a month from now, but it happened today. But it also makes me think of this verse in Proverbs, because like I always say I’m Proverbs girl, Proverbs 13:11.
Michelle: And it says wealth from get rich, quick schemes, quickly disappears wealth from hard work, grows over time. And I love to read the word and replace wealth. Not like everyone thinks monetary wealth, but we live post Christ actually walking this earth. So our wealth is eternal and is the spiritual storehouse kind of wealth. It’s not always money, but what are the get rich quick schemes of our day to day going to church, but not reading the word every day and saying, yeah, I’ve got this. That’s the quick, like I can get through this quick. It’s a checklist kind of life. And the wealth we get is like quickly. It just slips through our fingers like water. But when we do the hard work of reading the word every day, cause it is hard work. Even if we enjoy it with all these other things, calling to us, with babies, crying and kids needing to learn and people needing dinner and the floor wanting to be vacuumed and clients needing work. You know, it’s, it’s these things that it’s hard to set aside a time for God, even if that’s all you want to do in the same way, that it’s hard to set time aside for your spouse. If even if it’s all you want to do, but that’s what grows over time. That’s where the fruit gets born, that you know, is going to last and actually sustain you.
Shea: Those, I got this moment and you know, those actually hold us back because we sit there and say, I’ve got this. And the pride comes in. The swelling comes in and we’re no longer at his feet. We’re no longer at the base of his throne of grace. We’re sitting there in our own taking on his position. And like what I’m hearing between this, in this conversation is beautiful. It’s like, because honestly this is a season right now. Um, if we were going to be open with Michelle hearing, you taught what you’re saying right now is actually a Holy spirit moment in our own lives. And it’s beautiful. Yeah. I think that, you know, this is what this is about. This is what Christ is about. We come together because we can all learn from one another.
Amanda Davis: Absolutely. I loved what you said about this, how we’re storing up that eternal wealth. Because day by day, devotion is so much better than five hours on Sunday, right? It’s so much more valuable. Yes. That day by day devotion, it’s sort of, I don’t know anybody listening plays the piano, but 15 minutes a day is so much more valuable than two hours right before your lesson. Right? You can’t do it. You can’t advance. If you are just trying to cram it in because you’ve got, it’s gotta become a part of you and it needs time to become a part of you.
Michelle: Right? Imagine thinking you only need to eat all the calories that you need in a week in a single meal once a week, like right. One, it wouldn’t all fit. Like it would not all fit. You’d be like, it would be coming out your ears. And on top of that, you’d feel utterly sick and not want food again for a week.
Shea: His portion can be your portion. Right.
Michelle: So I love that. I love that. That’s great. Um, so you, you, so you said that, you know, this has completely changed your life, devotion and action. Just the mindset of having this action behind your devotion has completely changed you. How have you seen it? Change your kids? Oh, this is really interesting because I think that, that, that idea of daily going after something, that’s how we parent too. You can’t teach a child once and expect they’ve got it for the rest of their lives. Right. You know, it’s a continual, it’s a come walk beside me, come talk with me, come do this. And you’re, you’re putting in these little chunks of time, little bits of wisdom that are building up over time and becoming a part of them, just like we were talking about with our devotion with God. It’s like, we’re, we’re the kids in that scenario and he’s our parents.
Amanda Davis: But then when we’re interacting with our kids, we’re the parent and they’re the kids. So we are giving them wisdom and they are interacting with us. And I’m, I’m at that point where my kids are a little older, we need to start seeing some independent following of God, like Judah waking up on his own to read his Bible and to pray. And before he goes on about his day. But that doesn’t mean that I’m done. You know, I’m still having discussions with him, things like that. They both subscribe to the blog and read mommy’s posts, even though they’re not really, you know, designed for them. Jasmine, my daughter is very artistic, very creative. And I think one of the things as a parent to, to really kind of key in is that each one of your children is different. And so she really latched onto the idea of Bible art journaling, which is something I do and highlight on the blog.
Amanda Davis: It’s really kind of getting into the word of God, then creating art out of that experience. So we have Bibles that are journaling Bibles that are specifically for that purpose, where we get out all the art supplies, reading scripture. And then what kind of picture comes to your mind and create some art on the page, right there on that page to remember that verse and what God was teaching us. But there’s also times where, you know, it’s just, I’m taking her, him to TaeKwonDo. And in those few moments where it’s just the two of us, maybe you bring up a deep topic. That’s gonna, you know, you’re only going to talk about it for five minutes and you joke around the mess the rest of the time. But it’s that moment to go. When the rest of life is going at a fast pace, those moments can be lost if we just ignore them or let head stay in screens or, you know, turn on the radio. But we can, we can kind of redeem those moments, make them real life changers in our kids.
Shea: Amen. Amen. At this point, I have to get a shout out to your son, Judah brother. Thank you for liking the podcast. Thank you for following the podcast. That’s another gleaning moment for your mom to put in her little arsenal. He’s listening to other things and we really appreciate you, brother.
Michelle: Yeah. It’s so cool to like, look at the Instagram and see that, you know, five minutes after I’ve posted something, he’s liking it for the pantry. You guys. I mean, I I’m like, okay, we have a younger audience having Kyler and their friends.
Shea: Yeah. But that’s awesome because that’s, you know, that’s, that’s the discipleship progress, you know, that’s how we disciple. Um, I know that’s a big word for, for kids, but that’s really what it becomes because you have the reflection of Christ and now you’re putting it down. And you know, as you grow through your relationship, it sounds like a discipleship as you grow, you know, they come out and you learn each other and they don’t really know what’s going on yet. And then all of a sudden they start to figure out, Oh, this person loves me. They care for me. And then you get into that portion where you start to build them up and then comes the rub where, you know, they get a little older. They’re like, oh, what do you know? Well, I know too. But eventually like, what you’re saying now is it sounds like it starting and, and he’s getting to be 16. So there’s still some time there. But eventually it starts to balance itself out into this beautiful relationship that we see all the time, because why Christ is at the time,
Michelle: Right? It says in Proverbs 13:20, still in proverb walk with the wise and become, when I read about homeschooling, a lot of the write ups are from people who were homeschooled. One girl’s testimony stands out. Cause she said, you know, I loved being around people who already knew peer opinions. Weren’t the most important thing. I loved being around people who already had the priorities that get you somewhere. And I wasn’t surrounded by those that, that equally don’t have it figured out. And we’re all just kind of learning from each other. Although none of us know it. And I think even if you don’t homeschool, they do have time with you outside of school. I went to public school, Shay went to public and private school and we right.
Shea: None of them, neither one of them did
Michelle: We made it out alive. The Lord found us, right. We, we came to him, but we, as parents can still sit and be like, how can we walk with our children in such a way where our own storehouse is full of the Lord and they walk along with us. So they also start picking up these same traits. You know, I have friends who were inspirations when I first came to Christ because they were Christians in school because their parents didn’t just love God on Sundays. And the rest of the week barely bring them up. God was at the table with them. And he was the main route of conversation. When there was a problem, the advice was rooted in the word, when there was a joy, there was praise rooted into that celebration. I love what you’ve been saying on that regard. Certainly homeschooling is not for everyone.
Amanda Davis: It’s something that God has really blessed in our family and we love it, but we’re not militant homeschoolers saying that everyone exactly done. Like we’re not that way. But, um, but I will say that it does provide a lot of time. Yeah. So there’s this expanse of time when you are with your kids, teaching your kids, may reading books with your kids or talking about history with your kids, where God can bring up scriptures that were wisdom from the Bible that you can share with them. It brings up concerns in their lives. It’s like in, in this vast space of time, things are gonna come up naturally that I think when you don’t homeschool, you can, you can intentionally integrate into your life with your kids. Right. But you have to work a little bit harder at it because you don’t have that expansive time. Right. Which goes back to that verse about, you know, the heart, the wealth from hard work grows over time and it’s a little harder work, but it’s what, it’s an investment. It’s so valid.
Shea: So then with all of that thought, I’m going to ask you a question because how would you talk to somebody else about getting up every morning and doing Ephesians 6:10 and putting on the full armor?
Amanda Davis: That’s a great question. Um, I would say that there are so many tools to help you nowadays, you know, Bible apps like you version, you know, you pull it up, you have a plan. It gives you a reminder in the morning. But with all of those tools, you have to put your feet on the floor. You have to take some action because nothing ever changes from the way it is until you do something. And I think as Christians, we get into this mindset that says, we’re going to pray and God’s going to do everything. And that’s not a kingdom principle. Kingdom says, yes, pray, keep praying. Don’t stop praying. I pray, pray, pray, but I’ve told you to do something already, right? Get up on your feet and get to action. And I will bless the work of your hands. Amen. I’m not going to bless you sitting on your behind. I’m going to bless the work of your hands. Like that. Getting up in the morning is part of the work of our hands that he can bless because it’s part of diligence and it’s discipline.
Amanda Davis: He blesses that. So when we get up and we take action and we read the Bible verse from the new and, and we praise him for the day and we asked for his help and that he would be there. And then as we’re vacuuming or going to work or talking to our kids, the word is in our mouth. You know, we’re rehearsing that out loud and we’re praying while we load that dishwasher, you know, praying while we fold the laundry, you know, over our kids or over our husband, then that is a Christ centered life that God can just pour out the blessings on. And that’s the kind of household that you get. Kids who are starting to go into their own individual time that they are looking for God, because they’ve seen mom and dad talk about God during the day. And this is a, the center of our lives, not just a peripheral part of it. Amen.
Michelle: It’s important to keep God at the center and in your pantry, everything ingredient, God.
Shea: God, I know I can, I can have all the ingredients, but if I don’t put them together, I’m not getting the cake. I mean, it’s right there. And that’s why I love your title, devotion and action. It puts a action in there that says, Hey, look, here’s a devotion, but there’s action behind it. And I love that. I love that. I love your journaling. I love your book. I love how your book addresses sin. That’s actually pretty cool for the age that it was that it was put out for. Keep it real from the, from the, yeah, say that again. Keeping it real from the roots.
Amanda Davis: That’s awesome guys.
Michelle: Thanks again for joining us for the super special episode. And remember, you can check out Amanda and then remember to rate, review and subscribe to the pantry podcast. You can always do prayer requests. You can support us by buying awesome merchandise and you can let us know what you think on the pantry podcast.com and on our Facebook page. So till next time, bye.
KEYWORDS: GOD AT THE CENTER, WORSHIP, PEACE, BIBLE TIME, SEEK HIM.