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Hey, everybody, this is Heidi St. John. Welcome to the podcast. Today is Monday, March the 9th, this is episode number 895. Today, we’re going to spend some time talking about a culture that is very afraid. I am calling this, who’s afraid of the big bad virus. Stick around, I think you’re going to be encouraged.

All right, so it’s in the news everywhere, right? I live in Washington State, and apparently everyone around me is dropping like flies from the coronavirus, and I’m seeing in the news, we watch it in the headlines.

It seems to be dominating the culture and certainly dominating the news. It’s all over the internet. And so, I thought I would give you guys some encouragement today. I’m going to bring my friend Melissa Crabtree on in just a few minutes. So, we’re going to start talking about some practical things that you can do. But before that, I want to really just remind you of who you are in Christ and what God says is his heart and his plan for you. Psalm 139:13-18 this is what it says, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, I know it full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body, all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”

So, God is telling you through the Psalms. A couple of things that we learned very clearly in this passage. The first thing is that He created you. So, if you’re listening to this right now, you can thank God. God had a plan and a purpose for you. He created you on purpose with a purpose. He is the one who knit you together in your mother’s womb.

God is the author of life. It’s the reason why I so passionately stand for life here at the podcast and my entire life of ministry because God says that we’ve been fearfully and wonderfully made. I sometimes wonder if as Christians, we forget when we’re at like in a state of fear that God said, I had a plan and a purpose for you, and none of you listening to this. You guys are not going to have a day outside of God’s will for your life. I think it frees us up from being afraid, right? 2 Timothy said that God didn’t give us a spirit of fear, but of power and love, and a sound mind.

It’s the apostle Paul talking to Timothy, who I’m sure at this point, because the Bible tells us that he was young because Paul had to say, “Listen dude, don’t let people look down on you because you’re young.” Now, Paul’s coming to him again and saying, “Hey, listen, God didn’t give you a spirit of fear.” So, I’m going to encourage you guys listening to me today to sort of lean in and hear me. The Lord of heaven’s armies is not surprised by what’s happening around you. The coronavirus does not have the Lord up in heaven scratching His head saying, “I did not see that coming. I had no idea.” We have been really trained to be a fearful people, right?

I think so much of what’s happening in the media, it’s all about ratings. So, if they can, “Tune in, one more person died from the coronavirus.” I hear it every single day here in Washington state. You guys remember the SARS epidemic? Do you remember the bird flu, the swine flu? This is not the first pandemic, the first health scare that we have had. I’m going to encourage you back to what God says, all your days were ordained for you before one of them came to be. And so, as Christians, our response … I think it’s interesting too, I’m going to interrupt myself. I think it’s interesting too because we are so afraid of suffering.

We live such comfortable lives. My sister went to Costco, I want to say it was a week ago or maybe two weeks ago, and at the time I was racing through the Nashville airport trying to catch a flight. She texted me and said, “Hey, I was going to pick some stuff up for you so you’d have it when you came home.” She said, “They’re out of toilet paper at Costco. They’re out of water. They’re out of bleach.” And she said, “People are being rude to each other.” I thought, man, we live such comfortable, cushiony lives in Western civilization and we are afraid of suffering on any level. Yet, God’s word promises that we’re going to suffer.

And so, He doesn’t say “panic”. He says, respond in faith and respond in fear. And so men and women, I just want to remind you today that God said He didn’t give you a spirit of fear, but power, and love, and a sound mind. He says, your days have already been ordained for you. And so, if the Lord of heaven’s armies said, “You’re going to die from a virus, you’re going to die from a virus.” We’re all going to die. Life is a terminal. Not mean to bring anybody down, but we’re not getting out of this thing alive unless the Lord comes back, and unless we’re raptured. I’m way down for the rapture. Hey, Lord, I’m ready.

But I want to end with verse 17, so in verse 16 of Psalm 139 we see God say that our days have been ordained for us. They were written in his book before one of them came to be. And then, in verse 17 David goes on to say, “How precious to me are your thoughts oh God, how vast is the sum of them? Were I to count them? They would outnumber the grains of sand. And when I awake, I am still with you.” There’s a Psalm that we taught our children as they were growing up. I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, oh Lord, make me dwell in safety.

That really is God’s heart for you. We don’t need to be afraid. Men and women, you are sending a huge message to the culture right now, starting with your children about what you believe to be true. Either you trust the Lord or you don’t trust Him. Either you’re going to live in fear or you’re not going to live in fear. I want to encourage you today out of a place of fear and into a place of faith, and into really trusting that God’s going to take care of you. He’s not surprised by any of these things that are going on.

So, that said, there are things that we can do and so we’re going to talk about them today. There are things that we can do to protect ourselves during the cold and flu season, which is what we’re in. I want to just give you some practical encouragement too, but start really from a position of faith because as men and women who know the Lord Jesus, that’s where we’re supposed to start. So, I hope you guys are encouraged by that. Remember your days had been ordained for you and we want to walk in wisdom.

Speaking of wisdom, I am super stoked today because one of my favorite people on the whole planet, Melissa Crabtree, is coming on the show with me today and we’re going to tackle this issue of everyday immunity. What can we do to keep ourselves healthy as a general rule, whether we are facing a pandemic or whether we’re not. So, we’re going to tackle that today. Hey, Melissa, are you there today?

[Melissa] I am, favorite people on the whole planet. That’s pretty good.

[Heidi] I know. Well, you rank right up there. So, I’m stoked that you’re here and you and I travel. This is my travel season, and so you’re with me a lot. You and I in and out of airports, in and out of, I’m sure what is germ infested hotels, and airports, and airport bathrooms, and so far we’re doing okay, yeah?

[Melissa] We are.

[Heidi] So, we’ve been in Nashville. Oh, my goodness. We’re going to be in Los Angeles pier pretty quick, right? Yeah, we are.

[Melissa] Yes.

[Heidi] Yeah, and so I thought, if anybody could talk about this, it would be you. You really have a passion for wellness. It’s one of the things that you and I love to talk about. So, I thought let’s do that today and talk about any kind of virus. It doesn’t have to be a coronavirus. It can be any virus, because we’re really not out of the flu season. The flu, if we’re going to be honest, nobody’s talking about this because it doesn’t boost ratings, but the flu is killing a whole lot more people than any crazy new virus has killed. The things that we do to protect ourselves from flu translate into all kinds of things, right?

[Melissa] It’s true, and it’s just about keeping us well all the time. We can do what the Lord wants us to do when we’re taking care of ourselves. That just means we can be more effective for Him, which is so much more important than just feeling well for the next couple of hours.

[Heidi] Yeah, that’s right. I came back from Florida in January and I caught a flu on a cruise ship, and I was down, oh my goodness, for two weeks. It takes a lot to get me down and I was like, “Whoa, I’m down,” Wouldn’t you know it? Now, I’m doing okay again. So, I think people, we can relax a little bit. But the first thing, so you made a list, I’m going to go through it with you. The first thing you put on your list was wash your hands. Turns out what your mama said was right.

[Melissa] It’s so true. I read an interesting article that airport hand-washing matters more than any other hand washing. So, actually this last two times we traveled, I’ve washed my hands like crazy. I washed my hands before, but the last few times, I thought, that article was definitely fresh in my mind for sure.

[Heidi] Oh, for sure. Well, it’s really creepy right now going through the airports because there’s so many people in face masks, which I’ve heard if you’re not sick, a face mask isn’t going to help you. It’s not going to help you. The face masks are for the people who are sick, who are trying not to get other people sick.

[Melissa] Right.

[Heidi] But we don’t all need face masks in the airport. It’s kind of terrifying. I’m like, “Hope you’re okay.”

[Melissa] It makes you wonder how far away from that person with a mask we’re supposed to stay.

[Heidi] I know it’s kind of stressful and I know that I saw a study, I don’t know if it was on … I watched a show, it was like maybe 2020 or something like this a couple of years ago on just germs in airports as a general rule. For goodness sake, I was like, “It’s a good thing I’m not a germaphobe or I would never leave my house.”

[Melissa] Right, and we would certainly never use a shopping cart.

[Heidi] No. I know really it’s completely true. So, if anything, I’m thinking maybe a good thing that’s coming out of this virus thing, this scare that everybody’s freaking out about, is hopefully we’re washing our hands more often.

[Melissa] Right.

[Heidi] So, the next thing on your list, you said get the sleep that you need. Now, why is that important?

[Melissa] Well, I think lots of times we think we need a good night’s sleep so that we’re not tired tomorrow. But sleep affects everything in our body. It affects our brain, it affects our immune system, it affects our digestion. It’s so critical, and I think in particular in America, we want to run a million miles a minute and get as much stuff done and sleep as little as possible. Then, we think we deserve some badge of honor for that. But it’s really hard on our bodies. When we’re sick in particular, we need more sleep.

But if we can stay above the wellness line, if we can stay rested, then we’re just going to do better all across the board. Then, when we’re going into stuff, when our body is attacked by just all the junk we’re surrounded with, it’s going to be able to handle that better to begin with. Another thing that we can do is we can keep our gut healthy and there’s definitely a lot more about that out on the internet these days. But the more water that you drink, the better your body is going to be altogether. You want to drink half your body weight in water, in ounces of water every day.

Yes, that means you’re going to go to the bathroom a lot, but that’s okay. It’s good for you, and have less sugar, which is like, “Don’t tell me that.” I like sugar. Then, less processed foods, basically less white stuff unless it’s something white that God created for us.

[Heidi] Yeah, and honestly, I did keto last year and for several months, and I got some criticism for it, I felt so good off sugar, and I feel so much better off sugar. Sugar is actually really bad for us and it’s in everything. It’s crazy.

[Melissa] It really is true. Even in chicken, it’s shocking where it’s hiding, and the less of it we can have, the better it’s going to be. Especially when you’re on the road, it’s very hard to control. You and I run into this all the time. You’re limited when you’re in the airport and you’re hungry, and you’re in a conference center and you’re hungry, or a convention center. So, every choice you make that’s a good choice, is better than that one bad choice. Then, when you get in a spot that you can’t control it, you’re at a birthday party or whatever, eat what you need to or whenever you want to.

Every choice that you can make is better than another one. So, the better you can do across the board, the better your body is going to be. It doesn’t necessarily have to be all or nothing because that’s pretty scary, I think. People think, “I can’t go 100% off sugar.” That’s not what we’re saying and I don’t think it’s very reasonable for most people.

[Heidi] No, I think that’s true. Also, I think we get overwhelmed. We think, “Oh, man, they said go off sugar.” So, then you feel overwhelmed by it so you don’t do anything. I think the same thing is true of exercise, right? That’s the next thing on the list.

[Melissa] Yeah.

[Heidi] Just exercise. It doesn’t have to be an hour and a half every day. I have this WORKIT app on my phone and I just do that seven to 10 minutes every day, get your blood flowing. That helps to detox your body. Exercise, get moving. It is really important, and it doesn’t have to be a gym membership that you go five days a week, right?

[Melissa] Yeah, it’s true. We don’t have to think about exercise as, we don’t necessarily have to reach a weight loss goal. We don’t have to think about lifting weights. Any sort of exercise that gets your blood flowing, that’s getting more oxygen to all the cells in your body. Well, oxygenated cells are an environment that is not a happy environment for viruses and bacteria. So, if we have cells that are oxygenated, it’s an unhappy home for the stuff that we don’t want living in our body. So, that’s why exercise is good for you.

Even if, like I said, if you’re not looking for a weight loss goal, a muscle building goal, or something like that, it’s just good for us. We’re supposed to be moving.

[Heidi] Yeah, that’s right. I want to move ahead to some of the natural methods because I know you and I, we’re going to talk about essential oils because you and I have this in common. We love them and have been using them for a very long time. What are some other natural methods that are really effective when we use them consistently? You and I have talked about probiotics, right? That’s one of them.

[Melissa] Yeah, that’s true, and that goes up to the gut health that we were talking about. Young Living has one called Life 9, and when we are getting that sugar that we can’t control or things like that, it just helps balance our gut and that helps all of those things. One thing that is so important with natural stuff is I think lots of times, like we talked about not getting sleep, we want to not sleep and we just want to take natural methods for 10 minutes and wonder why we’re still sick a day later.

But natural methods are really, they’re the most effective when combined with these other things we talked about, and then when used very consistently and often, because it’s different than a pharmaceutical that is designed to stay in your body for 12 hours or 24 hours. We talked about that half-life, but when we eat broccoli, you have to eat it more than once every six weeks to get the vitamins from it. So, it’s the same sort of thing. Hey, broccoli, I could handle broccoli.

Brussels sprout, we’ll talk about that later. So, we have to remember that often and consistently, and that’s what helps to be good for you.

[Heidi] Yeah. Something that we love in our family is elderberry syrup, and I see that that’s on your list. I’ll link back to a really great recipe. I have a really great, actually a keto, like a sugar-free recipe for elderberry syrup. It’s not hard to make. It is very expensive to buy at the store. It’s one thing I did notice, but I read a study years ago that said that elderberry syrup when used at the very first sign of a symptom or like we’re in flu season right now, I will say, “Oh, my goodness before you get a symptom work on taking elderberry.”

I read a study, several of them, who’ve said it’s actually more effective than Tamiflu.

[Melissa] Yeah. One thing, too, like you just said, it’s better to use all these things beforehand. If you do happen to get sick, because we’re still surrounded by stuff. So, none of these things are an absolute guarantee. But the more you’re prepared with it, the better your body’s going to handle stuff and handle it. God created our bodies to heal themselves, and the better we can set our body up to do that, the better we’re going to be. There’s also a lot of recipes out there for a thieves infused elderberry syrup.

[Heidi] Yes.

[Melissa] So, that’s going to give you the extra, the oil boosting properties with that elderberry syrup, and it’s a whole lot cheaper. There’s a recipe for the instant pot and we can actually, I’ll find one of those recipes and share it in the show notes.

[Heidi] Yeah, we’ll link back to it.

[Melissa] Yeah.

[Heidi] Yeah, that’s great. And the instant pot is your friend. Oh my goodness.

[Melissa] I know, I love mine.

[Heidi] Yeah. So great. So great. Why is vitamin D3 on your list?

[Melissa] So, that one is one. There are some other research studies. I’ll try and find one of the research articles to link to also that I have heard before that when you are starting to get sick, or you have a cold or something already, taking up to 90,000 IU of vitamin D, now 400 IU, if I remember it correctly, is the recommended daily allowance, taking up to 90,000 when you’re fighting something, isn’t that crazy? It can be more effective than a whole bunch. Of course, when it’s a virus, there is no pharmaceutical that’s going to be … Well, not none. There are some antivirals, but not for some of the stuff we’re talking about right now.

So, vitamin D, it makes a huge difference and a whole lot of people in the world these days are deficient in vitamin D because we cannot get enough of it from our diet, and our body does not..

[Heidi] Manufacture it.

[Melissa] A lot of people these days have a hard time transferring it from the sun exposure into it, into the correct vitamin that we can absorb. So, that’s why a lot of people need to be taking it. Just go Google the symptoms of vitamin D deficiency. Chances are good..

[Heidi] Well, and it’s real.

[Melissa] Yeah. Yeah, it’s a legit thing.

[Heidi] Yeah, it really is. I can’t remember how many years ago it was. I was really struggling. I already have some issues that caused me joint pain, and I was having a really, really hard time. I went in just to see my regular physician and she said, “I wonder if you’re deficient on vitamin D.” And I had almost zero in my body and they put me on a massive, like a megadose of vitamin D, which I did for I think four weeks in a row. But within 48 hours I was feeling just a massive difference. I just felt better. So, it really is, it’s a really big deal.

[Melissa] It does. I was deficient also last year, interestingly enough, I lived in Texas and so I had plenty of opportunity to get outside and love to sit outside, but it’s not always enough. So, having that extra help made a big difference. I didn’t really want to wake up in the morning and it wasn’t like a depression thing.

[Heidi] So tired.

[Melissa] I wanted to go back to sleep all the time, and I was deficient, and so I take 50 to 70,000 IU per week. So, I take about 10,000 per day at my doctor’s recommendation.

[Heidi] Yeah, which is what I did.

[Melissa] It makes a really big difference when you take it consistently.

[Heidi] Yep, you’re right. Let’s talk about essential oils for a few minutes. You and I have talked about this a whole bunch at the podcast over the years. I love essential oils. My whole family uses them. I know that yours does as well. And I thought we’d go over some of the Young Living favorites because those are the oils that we use.

[Melissa] Yeah.

[Heidi] We’ll start with the granddaddy, I think, of them all, which is thieves. What is the deal with thieves oil and why should people be checking it out?

[Melissa] Thieves oil is really good just to help your body during this season. You want to use it consistently, use it on the bottom of your feet, morning and night. When you and I are traveling, thieves or ImmuPower is another favorite. Use it on your spine, on the bottom of your feet. Use it on your kids, morning and night, on the bottom of their feet or on their spines. You want to make sure you dilute it when you’re using it, especially with kids. But I would dilute thieves with adults also. Especially if you’re not used to oils.

[Heidi] When we say dilute it, we mean put some more oil with it, like olive oil, or coconut oil. Any kind of a carrier oil.

[Melissa] Right. Yeah, something like that just to help dilute it. Yeah, you’re right. That’s a good point.

[Heidi] Then, the other one is ImmuPower. It’s so funny because when we traveled together, everybody knows where Heidi and Melissa are staying in a hotel because all you got to do is walk by the door and it’s like thieves, ImmuPower, peppermint, a bomb went off in the hallway. But I love that one. That one has been, I put it on the back of my neck, up on my spine. It’s amazing the boosting power for your immune system in these oils.

[Melissa] It is. Those oils, the oil blends, the spice oils, there’s a reason that all of our ancestors used spices. It’s why they started cooking with them and the spice oils, they’re very good for us. There are a lot of specifics. You can research some of those things, because we have to be careful in a lot of the things that we’re saying specifically. But the ImmuPower is full of the spice oils, which is why it smells like Italian seasoning

[Heidi] Like oregano.

[Melissa] Right?

[Heidi] You just smell like oregano.

[Melissa] Right, but it really is. They’re good for our bodies and it helps inhibit that environment that all of these germs like to live in, and we don’t want to create a happy home for those germs. The other one is peppermint oil. We think that peppermint, you like to take a deep breath, or it smells good, or it cools you off, or something like that. But peppermint oil, there’s some research done. Actually, I printed this article for some people when I gave them peppermint last year, that when you exercise, you can use the peppermint vitality oil in your water.

They did some tests and the oxygenation in the cells increased with just one drop of peppermint oil in their water bottles when they were exercising.

[Heidi] No kidding.

[Melissa] So, back to having oxygenated cells, that’s an unhappy environment for these germs to live in our body. So, just drinking peppermint oil is good for you in one of those ways.

[Heidi] That’s amazing, and we’ve noticed a huge, it’s a huge help before you get sick. Really, it will help you to get better when you are sick, but we’re always telling people, “Listen, take care of your body and get it ready to come in contact with a virus.”

[Melissa] That is the bottom line.

[Heidi] Yeah, don’t wait and just live in this sort of reactive mode, reactive mode all the time. We’ve got about, Melissa, about two minutes left. You and I have been talking about this. Obviously, Young Living has a ton of stuff. We’ve been taking ImmuPro, which is a supplement that has melatonin in it. Why is that important?

[Melissa] Well, just because, we already talked about, when we’re not sleeping well and so it can help you go to sleep more quickly. Instead of spending that last hour with your wheels spinning all day long about what you didn’t finish or what didn’t go well that day. It helps you go to sleep and stay asleep. Then, it has some extra oils in there that can help with that immune support. One of the other things, we want to get these things in our bodies ahead of time, which is all of the time right now. We’re surrounded by stuff.

But one of the other things is that when we don’t have these things at our house, when we need them, we know exactly what we’re going to do. We’re going to either one stay sick and not have anything to help with it, or we’re going to run to the doctor and then be frustrated that we didn’t have what we wanted or what we needed to help our bodies work to fight this stuff naturally. So, that’s one of the best things to do and that I’m always telling, especially young moms with little people, is have what you need before you get sick or before your kids get sick. Be using it before you get sick, and at the very least, have it in your house so you have it when you’re ready.

[Heidi] If you’re diffusing these oils, what are some of the best ones to diffuse?

[Melissa] Purification oil is one that can actually help purify the air. Thieves and ImmuPower are great because it’s still getting in everybody’s bloodstream as you’re breathing it in. Peppermint, of course, we already talked about that. Those are all, thieves and peppermint, are our starter kit oils, Citrus Fresh is a great one. Raven is a great one to diffuse also. That’s great for everybody just to enjoy breathing all of that in all the time. The nicest thing when you’re diffusing is everybody has to breathe the air in the living room.

So, even if you have some people who might not want the oils on their body, they do still have to breathe the air, and mama can be in charge of that

[Heidi] And like a bonus, you guys can diffuse ImmuPower and your kids will come home and they’ll think that you got a pizza in the oven. So, it’s great. It’s a whole circular thing that it works out. So, for those of you who’ve been listening to this and you’ve already got essential oils, you’re already into it, I hope this has been helpful. We’re just trying to give you some of the ones like this is the season, use this one, this one and this one. If people are not using essential oils and they want to join our little oily family with Young Living, what’s the best way for them to do that, Melissa, to get a starter kit?

[Melissa] So, we love to bring in new friends and walk with you and help you figure out what to do with all of this stuff that we have several exclusive Facebook groups that we want to pull you into our fold. If you go to thebusymom.com/oils, so thebusymom.com/oils, there are directions there to get your starter kit, and we’ll write all these directions on there. You want to say yes for essential rewards. That’s the monthly order program that you can stop anytime you want to, but it’s the smartest way to start because you get some free bonuses at the very beginning.

[Melissa] Actually, when you join us in March, Young Living is actually giving away a free bonus lavender oil and a bonus bottle of Valor oil, which those are a couple of favorites of Young Living. So, do this in March. If you have any questions, you can also email me at melissa@heidistjohn.com and I can help walk you through that process. Because sometimes it’s a little bit confusing. Then, probably the most important part is, if you go to the site and you get in there, make sure our names are on there so that it definitely is showing that you’re joining our oily family.

If not, send us an email so we make sure you get us in our group, because we don’t want people out there as orphans. We want you to join us so we can help you.

[Heidi] Yeah, that’s right. Especially right now because it’s kind of busy and we’ve been answering lots of questions about essential oils right now, and it’s really a lot of fun over at the Facebook group because they’re asking everything from, what do I do about this wart? I got a runny nose, what can I diffuse for a cold and flu season, all those kinds of things. So, the conversation over there is always hopping. And really you guys, I want to end with what we started with. Your lives belong to the Lord and He says that your days have already been ordained for you. So, what we’re trying to do is teach you not to walk in fear but still be wise.

The Bible says, walk with the wise and become wise. So, that’s a large part of what we’re doing when we talk about health and wellness here at the podcast and everyday immunity. So, Melissa, you know I love you girl. Thanks for coming on and helping us talk through some of this stuff.

[Melissa] Sure. I love it. Thanks for having me.

[Heidi] Yeah, you’re welcome. For more information, you can find everything we’ve talked about at the show notes today, including the scriptures that I referenced, and that is at heidistjohn.com/podcast. If you want more information about the essential oils that we’ve been talking about today, you can go to thebusymom.com/oils and read about it there. I appreciate you guys listening. Don’t forget to join me at MomStrong International. We’re at the beginning of a brand new study on the Book of Luke, and I know you guys are going to love it.

You can also sign up for our free scripture writing challenge there and we would love to have you join us. This week, Melissa and I will be with the rest of our team at Thousand Oaks, California at Godspeak Calvary Chapel for my women’s conference faith that speaks. You guys are going to love it. I promise you it’s a weekend that will change your life. For more information about that event, go to heidistjohn.com/events. Have a great day, everybody, and I’ll see you back here on Wednesday. 

 

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Heidi St. John
c/o Firmly Planted Family
11100 NE 34th Cir, Vancouver, WA 98682

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