036: What are you pursuing: God or self?
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Show Notes
Are your daily actions drawing you closer to God—or further away? In this raw and heartfelt episode, Lauren shares a personal update about her health struggles, home renovation chaos, and the lessons God has been teaching her through it all. What started as a year of “pursuing” growth turned into a season of pruning, rest, and radical trust. Tune in to hear how stress, striving, and misplaced priorities collided with divine discipline—and how God used Scripture to realign her heart.
If you’ve been feeling overwhelmed, overextended, or unsure of what to chase next, this episode will remind you to pause and ask: What am I really pursuing?
Links From This Episode:
✨ Scripture Type – Bible verse artwork that inspired today’s episode
✨ Full show notes at anchoreddecisions.com/36
Bible Verses Mentioned:
📖 1 Timothy 6:6–12, 17–19
📖 Proverbs 3:5–12
📖 Psalm 34:14
📖 2 Timothy 2:22
Key Points:
🔑 The word “pursue” was Lauren’s word for the year—but God showed her it first requires fleeing the wrong things.
🔑 A year-long renovation and months of health issues forced Lauren into a slower pace, where God revealed what truly matters.
🔑 Scripture shows us that pursuit is active—it requires action, intention, and discipline.
🔑 When we seek godliness first, God provides what we need—even in uncertain seasons.
🔑 God sometimes uses discipline to realign our priorities—not to punish, but to guide us back into His care.
Your Action Step for the Week:
📝 During your quiet time, journal through these questions:
What do I need to flee from right now?
What is God asking me to pursue instead?
Are my actions leading me toward righteousness—or toward self and stress?
Let the Holy Spirit guide your next steps.
Connect with me on social media:
www.instagram.com/anchoreddecisions
www.facebook.com/anchoreddecisions
Check out my website and decision guide shop:
www.anchoreddecisions.com
www.anchoreddecisions.com/shop
Transcript
What Are You Really Pursuing?
What are you really pursuing, and is that thing leading you closer to God or further away? Is it kingdom building or is it self-building?
Today’s episode is going to be short and sweet. It’s not something I had originally planned to be part of my podcast, but it’s something God has been laying on my heart—and something I was exploring even just today in my Bible study. I thought I’d do an episode.
I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted an episode. That’s partly due to some health issues, which I’ll get into, as it ties into this whole message today. But I really want to focus on what we are pursuing—and whether those things are of God, or of self and the flesh.
So stay tuned as we dive into this topic.
Intro: Welcome to the Anchored Decisions show. I’m your host, Lauren Black—the world’s biggest overthinker turned decision coach, all by the grace of God. Now I’m on a mission to help you make easier decisions, discover God’s will, and live with purpose. Tune in weekly to hear real-life decision stories, expert insights, and faith-based strategies to help you navigate your decisions with confidence. So ditch your pros and cons list, and learn to make better decisions without asking your mom or losing another night of sleep. Let’s go.
A Quick Life Update
I feel like I need to give you a life update because it’s so relevant to what we’re talking about today—pursuing godliness and righteousness.
Excuse me if this is very raw and rough. I am not scripting this ahead of time. I’m trying not to do a ton of editing. Usually, I cut out filler words and parts where I mess up a sentence. I’ll re-record a few times until it’s perfect. Today, I’m all about “done is better than perfect.” So give me some grace.
We've been working on our kitchen since November. Renovation mode actually started in August when we first started tearing apart our floors and putting in new flooring. Might have even been the end of July when my husband started tearing out the old floors. I know our flooring guy started laying the new floors in August.
So it’s been a long time. If you’re listening in real time, it’s June of 2025. We started this almost a year ago.
Who knew it was going to take this long? Not us.
My husband has been doing a lot of the work himself. We’re working almost as the general contractor—subletting just the things we need help with. We subbed out the floor prep work, including the self-leveling concrete. We hired out the plumbing. We’re redoing our kitchen and took down a wall between the kitchen and living room. That part we did ourselves with the help of my dad (who’s a contractor), my brother (an engineer), and my husband (who’s super handy).
We moved the sink from a peninsula to a new island. For the main kitchen cabinets, we hired out the installation. But for the most part, everything else has been on Josh. He even replaced both AC units, ran the new ductwork, and learned everything he didn’t know from YouTube.
It takes a long time when you’re learning as you go, but that’s just the way Josh is. He trusts himself over subcontractors, especially after past issues—and we hoped it would save us money. A million trips to Home Depot later, we’re not quite sure it actually did. But really, I think it did.
Needless to say, it’s been dragged out.
Health Battles & Gut Issues
We took down the wall in November, which meant my pantry was moved into the dining area. We removed the peninsula in February or March. Took all the cabinets off the walls.
Since November, my kitchen has been disrupted—and since February, it’s been super disrupted. My microwave is in the foyer. My toaster oven and air fryer are in the hallway. We didn’t have the right electrical circuits, so we kept tripping breakers trying to run the microwave and air fryer at the same time. So I had to space everything out. It just took forever.
In the meantime, starting at the end of January, I began having health issues. Of course, I put off going to the doctor for two months, hoping it would get better. I did annual bloodwork and ordered a food sensitivity kit online. Went to my primary care doctor—they did some tests. Inconclusive. Got referred to a GI doctor. Still inconclusive.
Finally, I went to a functional medicine doctor. This was mid-April by the time I saw him. He ran more labs—those took 3 to 4 weeks to get results—but they finally showed what was going on.
I have a gut imbalance. My bad bacteria levels were high, my good bacteria levels were low. I had what's called leaky gut. The gut lining is thin, which allows nutrients to escape so you’re not absorbing them—and lets bad bacteria into your bloodstream. I also had poor digestion.
My doctor said this is often caused by stress. Gee, I wonder why I was stressed lately…
Going on antibiotics can also throw off your gut. I had a sinus infection the same week I was a bridesmaid in my cousin’s wedding. My childcare fell through last-minute. I was also running my January prayer challenge and prepping to relaunch my podcast and launch a workshop. All while in the middle of renovation.
It was just too much.
The Stress Diet
At the beginning of March, I started a super restrictive diet—Low FODMAP. Very basic: no sugar, dairy, gluten, onions, garlic. Half the fruits and veggies were off-limits. It definitely helped. I started to see some improvement.
But it was hard. I had to cook two meals every time—one for me, one for my husband and kids. They didn’t want my plain food, and I couldn’t eat what they were eating. That added more stress.
My doctor also started educating me on all the unhealthy ingredients hidden in foods—seed oils like canola, corn, vegetable oil. Even some “healthy” or organic brands use them. And everything has sugar—even Ritz crackers and Goldfish.
So I stripped my food down to the basics. If it just had corn and sea salt, I was in. It was hard at first, but now that I’ve been on this diet for a while, I feel so much better. My gut is healing. The inflammation is going down.
Forced to Slow Down
My doctor said if I didn’t cut back on stress, I wasn’t going to heal. I couldn’t stay on this diet forever—it would eventually lead to malnutrition. So I had to focus on my health. I had to take time before eating to do breathing exercises and get into a calm state so I could digest food properly.
He said my body was in fight-or-flight mode. So that’s why I cut back on the podcast, social media, and growing Anchored Decisions.
I still had my design business, Legacy Loft. I took on one website client I knew I could finish in two weeks. But otherwise, I started asking: “God, what are you trying to teach me through all this?”
The Message: Rest, Pruning, and Pursuit
Our church sermon series has been about rest. About the vine and how God prunes branches that aren’t fruitful so that they can produce fruit later. I realized I need to be in a season of rest and refreshment if I want to bear fruit again. This is not my fruit-bearing season.
My friends noticed I was stressed. They know I love volunteering, helping with meal trains, watching friends’ kids, volunteering at school and church. I love to serve—it fills a part of me. But this season isn’t for that. It’s a season to focus on health and family.
God had given me the word pursue as my word for the year.
I originally thought it was going to be something like “blossom” or “cultivate,” continuing the theme from past years like rooted and nurture. But in my prayer journal, God made it clear: pursue.
I didn’t know what it meant. Maybe pursue God? Maybe pursue new opportunities? I pursued my life coaching certification (yes, I’m now certified!), and I loved it.
But I hadn’t looked up what the Bible says about pursue.
What Are You Pursuing?
This week, I asked God if I was supposed to be pursuing anything else. He’s shown me lessons in rest and cutting back. What now?
I was looking at a site called Scripture Type. They sell Bible verses styled with beautiful typography (which I love as a designer). I wanted something to hang up in our newly renovated space. That’s when I saw 1 Timothy 6:11:
"Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness."
Wow. That verse struck me. So I decided to dig deeper during my Bible study today.
1 Timothy 6 and the Love of Money
The context of 1 Timothy 6 is Paul warning Timothy—and the church—about false teachers and the love of money. Some people were pursuing godliness for the sake of material gain.
Verse 6 says:
"Godliness with contentment is great gain."
And in verse 11:
"But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness."
Then in verse 17:
"Command those who are rich not to be arrogant or put their hope in wealth… but to put their hope in God…"
It's not that money is bad—it's that trusting in money is bad. We’re supposed to flee from that mindset and instead pursue righteousness and godliness.
Other “Pursue” Verses
I noticed a pattern: almost every verse about pursuing something godly starts with something we’re supposed to flee from.
1 Timothy 6:11 — Flee the love of money; pursue righteousness.
Psalm 34:14 — "Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it."
2 Timothy 2:22 — "Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace."
Pursuing is active. One translation said, “Work toward maintaining it.” It takes action. Intention. Obedience.
The Connection to Health
While flipping through my Bible’s index, the word “health” caught my eye. I looked up Proverbs 3 and was reminded of these verses:
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding…"
"Fear the Lord and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones."
It all ties together.
I wasn’t trusting God. I was trying to control everything through my business, my schedule, my striving. And I got sick. My stress took a toll. But God used that to discipline me—because He loves me.
A Final Word
So I don’t know exactly what my business or this podcast will look like moving forward. I may take a break. I have a few guest episodes recorded that I still want to share. But please stick with me. Give me grace.
This summer, I want to focus on my kids, my health, and finishing the renovation.
Your Challenge
Here’s your challenge for today:
Get out a journal. Ask God:
What do I need to flee from?
What do you want me to pursue?
Are my actions leading toward righteousness or self?
All of today’s verses and the Scripture Type link will be in the show notes at:
📍 anchoreddecisions.com/36
Let’s Pray
Father God, we thank you that you are a God who loves us enough to discipline us. We pray for open hearts to your direction—what we need to flee from, and what we need to pursue.
Guide us in your ways. Help us fix our eyes on righteousness, gentleness, faith, and all that is godly. Soften our hearts and lead us down your path. We thank you for your blessings.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Outro: Friends, thank you for tuning in. I know there have been gaps in the podcast, so I appreciate you being here.
If this episode made an impact on you, would you send me a message? Let me know if the podcast has helped you. Should I keep going? Would you follow me in a different format if things shift?
You can message me on Facebook or Instagram @AnchoredDecisions or email me at hello@anchoreddecisions.com.
Have a blessed day—and thanks again for listening.
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