177 - For the One Wishing Joy Was Authentic This Thanksgiving
The Uncommon Normal with Twyla Franz
Release Date: 11/26/2024
180 - How to Find Your Way Through a Silent Midnight
The Uncommon Normal with Twyla Franz
Sometimes you go looking for a word of the year, and sometimes it finds you–like a cat who adopts you first or a word nestled into Ann Voskamp’s Sacred Prayer journal that stills your heart. And you know, without scouring word lists or weighing options or praying long for clarity, that the Hebrew word korban is your one word for 2025. Links mentioned: 1. Get 200 Word of the Year ideas PLUS monthly reflection sheets to amplify your growth . 2. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up 3. Read the...
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179 - What to Do When a Word of the Year Finds You
The Uncommon Normal with Twyla Franz
Sometimes you go looking for a word of the year, and sometimes it finds you–like a cat who adopts you first or a word nestled into Ann Voskamp’s Sacred Prayer journal that stills your heart. And you know, without scouring word lists or weighing options or praying long for clarity, that the Hebrew word korban is your one word for 2025. Links mentioned: 1. Mary Demuth’s 90-day Bible reading . 2. The five songs I played most in 2024: 3. Get the Songs I Play on Repeat Playlist from my . 4. Subscribe to 5. Get 200 Word of the Year ideas PLUS monthly...
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178 - How to Go Gently Into the End of the Year
The Uncommon Normal with Twyla Franz
How’s this for a trade? Your never-named aloud fears, your residual shame, your tucked-deep message of unworth, the lists you haven’t completed, the names you’ve called yourself inside your head, the band-aids over old scars–for the deepest inhale of grace that makes you feel light and lovely from your nose to your toes. Links mentioned: To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up Read the written version of this episode
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177 - For the One Wishing Joy Was Authentic This Thanksgiving
The Uncommon Normal with Twyla Franz
Maybe you’re just not feeling it this year, but you’re wearing the smile anyways. You wish it could feel authentic. I see you holding so much extra. Extra and also less, for there’s loss and disappointment and deeply-set worry scrunching lines in your brow. It’s a lot under the weight of amplified expectations and hold-your-breath prayers and silent wishes that everyone could at least pretend to be happy. Joy seems like a novel idea. If only it could be produced with decor and Thanksgiving fixings. If only it didn’t feel fair-weathered and immensely fragile. Links mentioned: It’s...
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176 - How to Slow Down 101 for Quick Learners and Multitaskers
The Uncommon Normal with Twyla Franz
I’m better at learning things fast—as if beginner to expert overnight is a goal worth pursuing. But the things that take grueling-slow learning and moment-by-moment surrender, those are the harder lessons to learn. The ones most worth learning. Links mentioned: It’s not too late to join the #ReflectJesus challenge! Grab the challenge prompts and I’ll pop into your inbox the rest of the month with daily prayers to help you and I reflect Jesus like a mirror. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up Read the...
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175 - How to Cultivate Happiness That Hinges on Honesty
The Uncommon Normal with Twyla Franz
We give self-talk its own category and unreined license to belittle and badger. Under labels like inner critic, perfectionism, and people-pleasing, these self-directed lies appear safe. But maybe we’ve normalized lying to ourselves about who we are and what we’re worth. Perhaps we’ve underestimated the impact of repeating self-condemnation and sharp comparisons, of setting inhuman standards of perfection, of marking our success (or lack of) with effort and efficiency rather than character and surrender. And we feel scarceness, smallness, purposelessness, and discontentment in place of...
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174 - This Is What God Actually Sees When He Looks at You
The Uncommon Normal with Twyla Franz
Set out to reflect Jesus like a mirror and you come face-to-face with your list of what you lack. Your squabbles and squeamish fears, your flat-out insecurity and sneaky pride. The features you’d change. The less-thans and not-likes and labels confirming your unworth. Links mentioned: It’s not too late to join the #ReflectJesus challenge! Grab the challenge prompts and I’ll pop into your inbox the rest of the month with daily prayers to help you and I reflect Jesus like a mirror. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up ...
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173 - How to Navigate Mountains, Enneagram Differences, and Elections
The Uncommon Normal with Twyla Franz
I find what works on a mountain also applies to our relationships with our Enneagram opposites and how we approach an election. Links mentioned: Discover your Enneagram number and how it helps you love your neighbors well . To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up Read the written version of this episode
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172 - How to Find Light Amidst Darkness & Joy in the Mess
The Uncommon Normal with Twyla Franz
David finds himself in a spot many of us do today, sandwiched between the ugly and awful repercussions of a severed relationship with God and the invitation to find oasis in the here-and-now as we wait for full glory. Links mentioned: Check out . Get the weekly story to cultivate year-round, ripple-effect gratitude! Take the gratitude challenge! To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up Read the written version of this episode
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171 - How to Find With-Ness When You Feel Alone
The Uncommon Normal with Twyla Franz
With-ness. Could there be a word that sits closer to the tender heart of God? It strikes me while praying for North Carolina, Chaing Mai, and Florida how God’s promise to join us as we gather in His name (Matthew 18:20) reveals His desire 1) to be with us and 2) for us to be together. Links mentioned: To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up Read the written version of this episode (choose hurricane relief, any other specific need, or simply where it’s most needed). (located in Boone, NC and providing...
info_outlineMaybe you’re just not feeling it this year, but you’re wearing the smile anyways. You wish it could feel authentic.
I see you holding so much extra. Extra and also less, for there’s loss and disappointment and deeply-set worry scrunching lines in your brow. It’s a lot under the weight of amplified expectations and hold-your-breath prayers and silent wishes that everyone could at least pretend to be happy.
Joy seems like a novel idea. If only it could be produced with decor and Thanksgiving fixings. If only it didn’t feel fair-weathered and immensely fragile.
Links mentioned:
-
It’s not too late to join the #ReflectJesus challenge! Grab the challenge prompts HERE and I’ll pop into your inbox the rest of the month with daily prayers to help you and I reflect Jesus like a mirror.
-
To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up here.
- Read the written version of this episode HERE.