The Jeanne Oliver Podcast Episode Thirty Seven | Beholding and Becoming with Ruth Chou Simons

In this episode I am talking with best selling author, speaker and artist Ruth Chou Simons. We talk about motherhood, second chances on old dreams, pursuing gifts with intention and all of the things we need to say no to so we can say yes with our whole hearts! If you have ever thought that the season that you are currently walking through feels so far from your purpose…THIS episode will give you life today!

Podcast 037 | Beholding and Becoming with Ruth Chou Simons

1:49    “When I was a child, I was a perfectionist. I would say now I am a recovering perfectionist. I think I was such a perfectionist that I never thought I could be an artist.”

2:06     “I enjoyed being creative, but that creativity was always bumping against a feeling of ‘I’m never good enough to do what I want to do.’”

4:12     “At one stage in our marriage, I had to say I am not even mentally able to wrap my mind around how to use my giftings in a way that both satisfies my desires and helps me belong in the world.”

5:38     “There are seasons when you certainly wonder, ‘Was I created just to lose myself, to be completely confused about who I am?” Ultimately, finding myself was not to have a dream discovered, it was actually to learn how to be content in that very season of life.”

10:18   “When you are captivated by the beauty of God’s creation, it puts you in this place of humility that causes you to realize that everything that comes out of your mouth and out of your hands, any gifting that turns into something beautiful that somebody else can experience, that really is just out of an overflow of what you are receiving day by day.”

14:10   “My number one way to rest on a daily basis is I turn my phone off, I turn off my computer, I go downstairs and workout, and talk to my boys at the end of the day. But my favorite, favorite way to rest is on the weekends when we get out of cell service.”

17:33  “I wish that I could say it was graceful, it’s not been that graceful…”

18:47   “Motherhood in so many ways is that continued journey, over and over again, of saying ‘this child isn’t actually mine, I just get to steward the days that I have with him.’”

22:25   “On an artistic level, I hope that those who see my art will always say ‘Wow, she was always trying to reflect what God has made beautiful already.”

23:16  “I love the meandering between beautiful words and beautiful visuals. I love the idea that it doesn’t really matter if the medium is in clothing or food or music or words you read or the colors on a page, God is always speaking to us through beauty.”