Ep. 4.24 Grace for the Process with Beth McGrane Tran

On the AU podcast this week, we’re talking about grace for the process, how to get through the big and small changes God is calling to you in your life. We talk with coach Beth McGrane Tran about what that looks like, what she offers to help, and how you can invite grace into your own life.

6:34-7:00 God’s grace in the moment

8:25-9:05 Hold up who you think you are to the truth

14:23-15:54 Take your thoughts captive

For more on Beth McGrane Tran, what she does, and her ebook, check out https://Womencreatedandcalled.com

Find Beth on Instagram and Facebook @WomenCreatedAndCalled

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Want to learn more about why you should be identifying the lies you are believing and building your toolbox to fight them? Take our totally free School of Uprising program in as little as 30 minutes! Sign up here: https://joy.pinksaltriot.com/schoolofuprising

Visit our shop for amazing, intentional reminders of the truths we want to embrace with our lives here: https://pinksaltriot.com

Join us for an amazing, on-demand retreat experience to help you come to trust God from a place of safety! You can sign up right here: https://uprisingacademy.thinkific.com/courses/trust-retreat

You can access all our current Uprising Academy retreats and workshops right here: https://uprisingacademy.thinkific.com/

Get instant access to our library of Christian scripture phone wallpapers: https://joy.pinksaltriot.com/wallpapers

Follow our audio podcast on your favorite platform by clicking here: https://podfollow.com/the-authentic-uprising-show 

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Hello and welcome to today's episode
of the Authentic Uprising podcast.
I'm your host Jill Simons, and I'm so
excited to grow in the radical art
of standing in what God says
about you with you today.
The show is a place where we
pour into the sense of who God is,
who we are, and how we can live
more in the freedom that he
has for us every
single day.
Hello and welcome to the Authentic Uprising
podcast. As always I'm your host,
Jill Simons, and I'm so excited
to be here with you today.
And we're gonna be talking about
really giving ourselves grace
to go through processes
to be in progress.
And that's something that
I am notoriously bad at,
I really dislike the fact
that you don't just get,
like warped from point
a to point b,
So this is a topic that I
love having other people come
in and speak into me on as
well as sharing it with you.
So I'm very excited to
have my guest today.
Her name is Beth McGrane Tran, and
she is a coach and helps walk
with people through different
scenarios in their lives where
they're looking to really approach
their life with a better mindset.
So I'm so excited to have Beth here with
me today. Beth, thanks for joining me.
Thank you, Jill. I am
so excited to be here.
First time I've had a chance
to meet you face to face even
though I've seen you around for so long.
So thank you so much for having me.
My pleasure. Why don't you
share with us about the...
The kind of very specific
situations that you coach in and
how you got started doing that.
It's such a great story.
I really love to coach women. And usually,
they are Catholic working moms.
And I got started in this because
I was seeing in my own life
that I was becoming
disconnected.
I just have these
patterns, you know,
that we all have of procrastination
and perfectionism and all
of these different
things that come up.
But I also saw that in my family, I
was kind of disconnecting from them.
And that was actually the big
driver to drive me into this
world of coaching. I started to
receive coaching and leadership
training and had a taste of
coaching and I just loved it.
And I thought, oh, this is fantastic. I
can help people so much through this.
And it has changed things in my
family because I have learned
now that if I want a more connected
family, that's up to me.
It's up to me to create
those opportunities.
And the whole thing that you
hear a lot in coaching is to be
detached from the results. And
I have discovered that that is
so important when it comes to wanting
to make change in your families.
I have to just keep doing it
out of pure love unattached
from how it's gonna turn out.
And that's what Jesus taught us.
Right? That's unconditional
love. There's no condition on it.
So that's kind of
how I got started.
And I especially love to
work with women who oh,
they line up so much with my
own story who struggle with
procrastination because I think it's
something that a lot of us deal with.
And I've just discovered these
coaching tools that I have been
able to learn can help
so much with that.
And it's so important that we know
that we have the grace available.
So we're gonna be talking about that
today. I think. Yeah. Absolutely.
Because I think that and framing
it with that, you know,
having to do the same things in
your family over and over again
and and being detached from
what physically happens
is where so many people
get derailed. Right?
That's where people fall off the diet.
That's where people fall off
the exercise plan
because you can't
see my muscles after we've been doing
this and, you know, it's just...
It's... We live in such an immediate
gratification the world
and culture and I think that
is so exacerbated obviously by
having all of the information in
the world literally at our fingertips,
all of the time. And, you know, I was
even just thinking the other day about,
like, in the nineteen eighties when you
needed to, like, hire a contractor.
Like, how did you know if
they were good or not?
And I was just like, I I can't
even like.. Word of mouth? Yeah. Exactly.
You just kinda hope you got good friends
with the taste or something because...
You I mean it was like, the yellow
pages was what you had and
that was kind of it. And so this
inundation with everything you could want,
it seems like at your fingertips it
kind of begs the question like,
if you can, should you, you know, if
you can access everything should you?
Because it really lessens our appetite
for these longer processes.
And so whatever that
process is... Some...
That somebody's
going through,
whether you're trying to make
a change in your family or make
a physical change in your body or make
a spiritual change in your life.
There's a usually longer than we
want road from point a to point b.
And so how do you help people
walk through sustaining that
specifically when they're maybe not
seeing the results that they want.
Yeah. Oh, that is so true that
we we want it to be done now.
Right? And and the patience and
the other virtue that we get
to practice along the way
can be really difficult.
But I always try to
remind myself. Okay,
there is something here in
this struggle that is for me.
And so whatever
the struggle is,
I have to know first that God's
grace is in this moment.
God's grace is in the struggle.
I just need to have...
I don't know, like,
like, the glasses on.
You know, the the glasses is
on to be looking through that
lens so that I can find it. I
need to be looking for his God's
grace in all of it. And so that's
a big piece of it is to know
that there's something
here for me.
And so it kind of helped with having
that patience with yourself,
maybe with your loved ones who
you wish that they were further
along on their journey or
whatever they are going through.
So that's a big
piece of it.
And then also, I do a lot of
work with mindset tools.
And so it really comes back to how we
are thinking about the circumstances
that we're in. And I've discovered
or realized really was just there
to be discovered. But If everything
comes back to our thoughts,
then wouldn't it be best to
make sure that we are putting
the best thought in that place and
then getting the best, you know,
That's how we can get
the best results.
So where did the best thoughts come
from? Truth? Who's the truth?
Jesus is the truth. Right? So I
love to help women go back to
What are you thinking about who you
are? What are you currently thinking?
And then let's hold
that up to truth.
Let's look at what are you
currently thinking about God also.
And then what do you... What
does God say about you?
Because that's where
the truth is.
And if we can put
those thoughts in,
then we will come out
with a better result.
Of course, those thoughts
that are full of truth help us
have patience and help us see
the grace along the way. Yeah.
Absolutely. It's funny as you're
talking, I think about, you know,
the kind of stereotypical
like, praying for patience ,
and then you have
opportunities. Oh, yeah.
And you're like why this how this
happens. Like, this is very
frustrating reality.
Thank you, Lord.
I I needed this because I
don't have the patience.
Be careful of what you pray for.
Exactly, exactly because...
And and like you said,
that thought stewardship.
I think is something that is a new
frontier for a lot of people
where there's that idea, you know,
so many of us have lived by default,
especially in our thought
lives for a long time.
And there might have been like
a stewardship of our external actions,
maybe based on, you know, religious
practices or being interested in,
you know, abstaining from sin or or
consciously embracing the good.
But I think that that earlier
stage of the process,
a lot of times doesn't
get steward well.
And so then the output comes from
a place of a lot of striving,
like you're talking
about you know,
trying to just do it out of not
having the internal thought
motivation to kind of
like, support that.
And so you know, this is
something that's very integral to
coaching kind of across the board is how
do we become aware of our thoughts.
So let's maybe start there.
If people are not sure if...
Or or maybe don't even really
have a sense of what is going
on in their own thought life.
I love what you're saying about
how it causes a lot of striving.
And I always think about what Saint Paul
said in Romans seven I believe it is.
Is that, you know, I... Why is it that
I do the things that I don't wanna do.
And I always identified so
much with Saint Paul when he was
saying that because that is what I
saw happening in my own life,
and it's so frustrating. You see
yourself spinning And as much as I try,
it never seems to be enough.
And maybe I might try something
new when maybe I'll stick with it for
a week and then I I don't keep going.
And so I I've gotten to
the point where I'm like, okay,
that's great if I identify
with Saint Paul.
But there must be something
to do about it. Right?
And that's why I'm so excited
to find the work in coaching
that we really can do something about
it if we go back to our thoughts.
Because we can't change the doing until
we change the thoughts behind it.
Yeah. Absolutely. Well, and it's funny
because you mentioned Saint Paul,
and that's actually so Roman seven
he has, you know, that I...
He does what he
doesn't wanna do.
And then he gives us the answer
in Romans twelve when he says,
you know, we are transformed
essentially by the renewing of our
mind including this. And it's
funny because I think that that's
something that gets read, like, a lot of
the Bible gets read where you're like,
okay. Yes. And
that's... And...
But very little actual
connection with, like, okay.
What would that actually look like
if you did what he was saying?
Exactly. Happened. Right. Right.
Exactly. Yeah. And that's that's...
This is what it looks like is to
take those thoughts captive.
Yep. Oh, I think you were just
asking about how do we do that?
Yes. Yes. So really, as you as you begin
to kind of expose people to this work,
especially new
clients that have...
Maybe never gone through
anything like coaching before,
what is kind of the beginning
stages of building that awareness
of what is even going on in
your thought life? Yeah.
I think first, it starts with
helping them realize that it is
the thoughts behind the actions
that are driving their result.
You know, it's the thoughts
are driving the actions.
And then to give them hope
because most of us don't realize
that you actually can
choose your thoughts.
And not only, can you choose them?
Now I have heard... I'm sorry.
I'm I have to digress
here for a quick second.
When I very, very first
heard of coaching,
I heard people speaking against
it because of the idea that
you can choose your thoughts.
And their premise was,
You can't choose your thoughts.
They just come in all the time.
You have all of these
thoughts all the...
You know, all day long, and you
certainly don't choose many of them.
That's true. The our brain offers
us thoughts all day long.
But the key is which ones am
I going to actually capture,
which ones am I
going to focus on.
And if there's one that
is causing you know,
keep coming up and is causing me to act
in a way that I don't want to act,
then let's take that captive and
examine it and hold it up to truth.
And so that is that's one way to
talk about how mindset coaching
can help And yes, it goes back to
helping people see that it's possible.
And giving them
hope. Yeah. Yeah.
You don't like these actions that
you're seeing in your life.
Well, it's possible to get to... I talk
a lot about getting to the root of it.
What is at the root
of that action.
Let's uproot it if we don't
want it anymore because you can
choose something
different. Yeah.
Our free will is an amazing gift
that God has given us. Yes.
Absolutely. I love
that. Like, when...
We actually have a charm coming out
this spring that is one that I wear...
Almost all the time now. And it... On
the front, it says protect your hope.
And on the back it says, it can't
be taken only given away and,
like, how we really... That is something
that, like, is ours to claim,
you know, from the... Palace to
the concentration camp, you know,
this is something that is available
for us if we avail ourselves of it,
and that is so much of what we
see in the grace that God has
for the process of
things where when...
And you said much earlier
about, you know,
kind of of identifying the fact
just that there is something
that is for my
good in this,
even when we have maybe a long unawareness
of what that is. We had a very...
I have a special needs child and we
had an entire year just catastrophe,
educational experience. And
during it, I was like, okay.
There's something good for all of us
in this. Nobody knows what it is.
It's like we have
absolutely no idea.
And still, I don't I don't know
if I could point to, like, oh,
specific fruit.
Here's what it was.
But that hope that there is
something in that and that that
is in some way formative
whether I realize it or not,
is part of what allows us to
desire to grow in virtue,
I think, and desire to
cooperate with grace.
And I love that, you know,
through God's grace,
he gives us these virtues
of faith, hope, and love.
And I was just this
is so timely.
I was just talking to my fourth
grade religious ed class last Sunday.
Said, okay. Here's
a little quiz for you.
Faith, hope, and love,
these three virtues.
Two of them will not be present
in heaven. Which two are they?
And these... They got it. They figured
it out. I was so proud of them.
So If you've never heard that before,
you know, the Corinthians verse,
hope... Excuse me. Love is
eternal. Only love remains.
Because when you're in heaven, you're already
there, you don't need hope anymore.
And you don't need faith anymore
because faith is believing
in what you have not seen, and you're
already there seeing the beatific vision,
and so you don't
need faith anymore.
But what a gift God has given
us to give us the grace to have
these virtues for the journey
because like you're saying,
that is something that cannot be taken
away from us. It can only be given away.
That's a great way to way to put
it. I love that. Yeah. Yeah.
Because that free will gets
underestimated so often,
especially how we are in these cycles.
Like you're talking about, where it's
like, like, I even want to do this?
And I am not doing it. Like,
why is this the case. And so it
can feel like we don't really have,
like, the full powers of our free will.
Yeah. And that's really interesting
when you talk about not
having the full power because
that's one thing about grace is
that we actually need to be predisposed,
be prepared to receive it.
But how do we do that? Because
there are things in our life
that can make it difficult for
us to receive that grace.
And it's not something that God
has done. He is freely giving it.
Right? But it's what we do. Our
own sin makes so that we are
not prepared to
receive that grace.
And so if we want to have
that grace available to us
in every moment of every
day, it is available.
But in order to be
able to receive it
and be prepared, we need to be
aware of our own sin and to be
reconciled to God so that we're
open to receiving that grace. Yeah.
Absolutely. So if you had to give
people, like a parting shot,
like, this is something to focus
on as they maybe are walking
through a challenging process or
undertaking going through a new process,
What would you give them as kind of
an admonishment to focus on?
Go back to your identity,
who you really are.
Who God is and how are
you trusting him?
And even especially
in the the moment,
of every day because that grace is
available to you in every moment.
And you just gotta have that lens
on to look for it. Absolutely.
Absolutely. Well, thank you so much,
Beth for being with us today.
If people want to connect with you
online, we're gonna put some links.
In our show notes and in
the notes on Youtube.
But why don't you share with
us what you have available,
especially about people
dealing with fear. Yes.
I have an ebook that I created
a little while ago that is a guide
to over coming fear. And it kind of
takes you through step by step.
And I think it might be really
helpful because fear is one of
those things that hold us back
from doing god's will. Big time.
And like I said, I coach people
in procrastination and
fear is a huge thing that is at
the root of procrastination very often.
So I hope that that's
helpful for your listeners.
And yes, we'll make sure and have
the link in the show notes.
And you can also find
me on Instagram.
And Facebook at women created and
called. Fantastic. Well, thank you.
Here with us this week and thank
you, Beth. Thank you, Jill.
Thank you so much for joining
me on today's episode of the
Authentic Uprising podcast. It
is always a joy to be with you.
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