God Gently Guides Us, Cindy Caravas’ Story

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Welcome to the Her God Story podcast. Hey friends, on your host, Jodie Chiricosta,

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ministry leader at Somebody Cares America International, author and traveler on this

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journey with Jesus. I am so glad you have tuned in for this episode. I know you're going to be

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encouraged and inspired today in your walk with the Lord. Have you downloaded your free six-week

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devotional on Women of the Bible at hergodstory.org? Make sure to get it. God will use it to minister

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to you in so many ways. We also have a 12-week devotional on Women of the Bible that you can

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purchase for just $12 and all the proceeds will go to our Widow and Orphan Fund, so check them out.

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If this is your first time listening, welcome. I hope you'll enjoy it and check out other inspiring

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episodes. Every one of them has a powerful message of how God is working in lives of people just like

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you. And please tell your friends about her God story so they can be encouraged in their faith.

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Also, as I look back over my life, I clearly see the fingerprints of God leading me, guiding me

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through good times and bad, comforting me, strengthening me. I bet if you look closely,

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you'll see the same thing in your life. King David sure did. In Psalm 124, David recognizes how his

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life could have gone if God was not with him, if God had not helped him. The new international

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version reads, If the Lord had not been on our side, let Israel say, if the Lord had not been on our

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side when people attacked us, they would have swallowed us alive when their anger flared against

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us. The flood would have engulfed us. The torrent would have swept us away. The raging waters would

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have swept over us. Praise be to the Lord who has not let us be torn by their teeth. We have escaped

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like a bird from the fowler snare. The snare has been broken and we have escaped. Our help is in the

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name of the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. I shudder to think what my life would have looked

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like without God. I'm so grateful that he has always been with me. My guest, Cindy Caravas,

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knows that too. She experienced some major loss in her life, but God has seen her through it all.

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In her career, Cindy has served as a social worker, director of a day school, a school counselor,

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and for the past 12 years, appointed special advocate for the Virginia Beach Juvenile domestic

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courts. Married for almost 30 years, Cindy is the mother of three adult children and is involved

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with a variety of prayer outreach and discipleship activities. I've known Cindy for many years and

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am always encouraged by her bright outlook and joyful spirit. It's infectious. As you listen

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to her story, I pray you recognize how God has been with you over your life and that it will

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bring joy to your soul. Welcome, Cindy. Thanks for having me, Jody, and thank you for sharing that

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beautiful passage of scripture. Cindy, if God had not been on your side, you could have been swallowed

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up and swept away by the raging waters of your young life. Share about your early years and how

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you see that God was with you even before you really knew him. Well, he definitely was, Jody.

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I was the youngest of four children. I was living with my family in Connecticut. On a family vacation

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when I was 15 months old, my parents and us were hit head on by a drunk driver. My parents were both

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killed. Miraculously, no one else was severely injured. God was totally with me because I was

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in the front seat in the years before baby carriers or car seats. And I was found outside the car

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and really just had one little scratch on my nose. It was believed that my mother threw me down on

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the floor when she saw the car coming towards us. So he really spared my life for a purpose.

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My parents did not have a will because they were in their early 30s and so the four of us were

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adopted by different relatives but separated geographically and obviously through different

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families. I went to my maternal aunt and my uncle was moved to Florida from Connecticut.

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I didn't see my siblings, my biological siblings again until I was 12 years old, all of us together.

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We did have a couple visits maybe in those years but that was at a family funeral that we were

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together. First of all, I want to honor my adoptive parents. There was never a time in my life that I

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didn't feel that they loved didn't love me. I know they loved me. They did the best that they could

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but they were broken people just like all of us. They were broken and as a result of that brokenness

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there was a lot of domestic upheaval in our home including domestic violence and it was just a

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difficult difficult home life. But you know God was with me and he just gave me many many many.

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I can't emphasize this enough. Good times they were good parents but it was difficult. As a result

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of a lot of difficult things in both of their lives my mother became an alcoholic. Those were some

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very hard years for her because back then there weren't rehab centers. Alcoholics were usually

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sent to mental health institutions and so for a lot of my formative years my mom was in and out

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of the hospital. She became very resentful of that fact that she was hospitalized many times

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and I think because she realized that she was going to lose her four children if things continued

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she totally stopped drinking and from the time I was seven until I was in college she did not drink

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at all but a lot of damage had been done in their in their marriage and during that time my dad who

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both of them really had been raised going to church but that was not a part of their life when we

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were young kids and I think the Lord just convicted my dad about that and so he ended up putting the

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four kids in the car and taking us to a local Baptist church and dropping us off at the curb.

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It seems so funny to me now but God used that and so we went and we went to Sunday school and we went

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to church the four of us by ourselves and during that time my oldest sister had a Sunday school

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teacher who really led her to the Lord and that changed the spiritual trajectory of our lives

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all of our lives. My dad became convicted that he was just dropping us off and he started going

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to church and so that was just a great start of my spiritual journey. Yeah so that did put those

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seeds in your life that God used to eventually draw you to himself but it wasn't immediate so tell us

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tell us what happened how did you finally put your faith right in Jesus. Even though I did not

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really become understand the gospel fully until I was in college those seeds you're right Jody those

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seeds were there and one of the first seeds I can tell you about is that my sister did a banner

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to hang in our room we shared a room and that banner had a Psalm 9419 in it and in Psalm 9419

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it says the word says this so sweetly in Psalm 9419 it says when anxious thoughts multiply within me

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by consolations delight my soul. Such a beautiful verse. Also that same sister started taking me

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she was in high school she started taking me to another church for Sunday evenings and it was

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we grew up in the Washington DC area and at this church a pastor called Richard Halverson

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he was the chaplain of the US Senate. At the end of every service he would sing a song from Isaiah

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263 and it said thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee and those two

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scriptures were significant to me because when things were really rough at home I would remember

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those obviously I remember I memorized them you know from the time I was a very young child

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and they really were the seeds that kind of started things going for me. Yeah and so your

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sister eventually went off to college and you were a few years behind her how did that play into

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your faith walk? Yeah well she went to a Christian college up north of Boston Gordon College and

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when it came time for me to go to college my parents gave me the option of staying at home

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or going to this nice Christian college 500 miles away they had a lot of rules and even though I was

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not really walking with the Lord then I wanted to get out of dodge. I'm not proud to say it but I

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lied on my application for the Christian college and talked about my personal faith in Jesus. I used

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a lot of the buzzwords that I had heard. Don't a lot of us do that anyway we use the buzzwords

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and anyway the Lord had a plan because I got in that college and it was during my freshman year

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and I was taking some Bible classes and just other classes for my social work degree. God

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just really bowled me over with the fact that the resurrection was real and I had two choices. I could

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just be a bystander or a personal pan pizza person and just pick and choose the spiritual

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things that I wanted to justify my life with or I could put my full faith in Jesus and I'm so happy

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that I did. Yeah so after you committed your life to Christ you know some of us think that life's

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going to be smooth sailing after that right? Yeah well that didn't happen. No no you had some hard

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times that you had to walk through. So explain what happened over those next few years and how

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you knew the Lord's presence was with you. I mean he never abandoned you through all of this

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but even though it was hard so just share about that. While I was in college my parents separated

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and during that time my mom started drinking again and she moved north to the Boston area where I was

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and I graduated from college and stayed in the Boston area and worked as a child of

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you social worker. My other siblings were either out of the state or my youngest brother was still

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in college at the time and so I would often go and check on her because she was not doing well at all

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and things just progressed and got worse and worse and unfortunately they got to the point

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where I knew that she was not going to physically survive so I called her and I told her that

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that very thing that I was afraid that she was going to die if she didn't have more help and that

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I wanted her to go on her own to rehab but if she didn't I would take the steps that were

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necessary in order to get her the help she need and so she agreed and so I finished my work day

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and I was ready to go and help her. She lived about an hour and a half away from me and so I

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called her to tell her I was on my way and a strange man answered the phone and so I asked

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who are you and he said I am a firefighter and I said oh what happened and he said well

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there's been a fire who are you and I explained who I was and so I immediately said okay well

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I'm getting in the car now I'll come and will you still be there and he said ma'am your mother is

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deceased and so at that point I realized that she had completed suicide by setting her home on fire.

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Wow and you were the one who had to tell the rest of the family. I was I had to call my dad

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and let him know and call my siblings. I don't really remember talking to my siblings about it

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but I do remember calling my dad and even though my parents had such a rocky marriage

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they loved each other very much and so that was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do

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in my life and at Jodi as a result of that I just shut down. Yeah I did not want to talk about it.

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I remember my dad and my siblings going to the funeral home. I didn't even want to go in the

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funeral home. I just shut down. I took the opportunity to move to the west coast thinking okay I'll get

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a fresh start there and I have to say I knew that God was with me and I'll give you a tangible

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way of how he was just so precious and gentle with me. As soon as I got off the phone with

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the firefighter I was just I remember walking into my living room and I had a record player

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back in the day and I turned on just the album I put on the album that was already there

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and it was a song that was singing straight from scripture about God caring us like Eagle's wings

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and a soaring like Eagle's wings and it just ministered so much to me. It just gave me so

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much peace an unexplicable, unexplicable peace and so you know in hindsight I saw even from that very

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moment where I got that devastating news he was there his presence was there with me. You know you

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mentioned that you sense his presence then and you did at some other hard things because when

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you were in your early 20s you experienced several other significant losses in your life.

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What were they? I did Jody. So I'll start with the loss of my brother. I was number four of four

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children in my biological family. My oldest brother Kenny when my parents were killed my

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siblings were eight, ten, eight, six and I was 15 months old but my brother Kenny I reconnected with

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when I was living in Boston area and the Boston area. He developed AIDS. As timing would permit

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it was a time when I had gotten out of college and I was able to spend a lot of time with him.

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That was really a gift because we didn't get to spend much time together even as biological

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siblings so I was able to just walk through a couple of years of that illness with him.

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He ended up passing away but a cousin of mine my only cousin to my knowledge on that side of

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the family that was a believer witnessed to him and she was able to share with me that

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Kenny had accepted Jesus as his savior before he died. What a comfort that was. What a comfort.

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Another really difficult thing that happened in my 20s is a guy that I had been

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dating for almost five years in and out of during college a little bit after college.

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I was convinced that he was God's man for me and we broke up and it was devastating to me.

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I so overreacted not outwardly but inwardly like I just thought my life is over. It was another

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loss. It was another loss and so I just carried that with me for a long time.

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I ended up moving to this area where we are now and I got in another relationship,

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got engaged very quickly. That engagement was broken off. I was like, okay Lord what in the

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world is happening here? I'm still in my 20s and then maybe about four or five years later

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through a blind date with a friend I was able to have another relationship that was

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very serious as well. What do you think happened Jody?

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I hesitate to say but I'm thinking you broke up. Yes we broke up. That was hard. At that point I

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was 30 years old. That seems to be a, at least for our generations, Cindy. I won't say what

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generation we are but at least for our generation age of 30 was the age where we all kind of felt

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like we should definitely be married by then. Well I think there was a Time Magazine article

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at some point that said you had a better chance of being attacked by a terrorist than you did

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of getting married by 30. I think that's in the movie Sleepless in Seattle. Oh yeah maybe it is.

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You had this one serious loss after another. How were you even functioning? Because I mean I know

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I had a couple of serious relationships break up and they were difficult.

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You know and but nothing like what you had experienced just one after another after another.

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How are you functioning? Well I wasn't functioning very well. I thought I was.

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I was pulling myself up by my own bootstraps and pressing you know pressing on the best I could.

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At one point shortly after my brother died and I'd had at least one the first serious break up

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I called in sick from work and a friend called and checked on me and because she knew that there

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had been the break up and obviously she knew about my brother's death she just came she showed up.

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She just pulled up a rocking chair I had in my bedroom pulled it up next to my bed and she just

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was present and it was such a beautiful demonstration of what

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Christ does for us. Sometimes he's not you know there aren't firecrackers going off

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to show his presence but in that very still way you just know he's with you and when you

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don't sense that he's with you we can know just because scripture tells us that he's with us and so

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I just remember telling my friend this is just too much it's too much I can't carry this

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anymore all this trauma all this loss because really with with loss and trauma it's cumulative

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it's not like oh there's one loss okay let's put that in a box and move it away and then there's

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another loss they just build on each other and at that point it had been just too much too much loss

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for me to handle on my own. How did the Lord carry you through that how did you begin processing

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because you had been stuffing all of these losses down yeah I think a big part of it just personally

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is just surrendering surrendering and just saying God I don't know how I got here I don't know what

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in the heck you're doing but I trust you I know I can trust you even when I don't sense your presence

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I know I can trust you and so that was a watershed moment for me and I'll say the other big watershed

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moment for me was it had been at that point 10 years since my mother died and I went to professional

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counseling and that was really significant for me for the sole fact that my therapist told me

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you know Cindy you've been through a lot this is a lot and basically was giving me permission to be

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gentle to myself because of all that yeah and she was validating that it had been a lot that I

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didn't have to be superwoman I didn't have to pull myself up by my bootstraps so that those two things

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together mostly the surrender to the Lord but also just getting some good help really changed my life

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yeah so you have said that the Lord was with you through it all give us a few examples of

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where he was in the midst of the loss yeah well I I can give you several examples Jody

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um the first one that comes to my mind is the fact that it was a miracle that after my mother died

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I did not have one moment where I felt crushing guilt over the fact that I was the one that made

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that phone call to her that prompted her to complete suicide to this day I don't know

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how that happened but I can tell you I have never felt guilty about it part of that I think is because

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you know the Lord wants us to serve each other and it's it's for a lot of reasons but one of

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the biggest reasons is it's helped us when we serve others yeah it does and I I think I knew I had

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honored my mom and I had served her in her illness the best I knew how as a young woman in my early

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20s and and so that was a miracle that's a huge way that God met me in that loss the second was

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just letting me know that Kenny was with him yeah huge yeah I know when we lose someone we love and we

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love and we we don't know if they have received the Lord to receive news like that is such peace

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to our souls such peace you're right the third way Jody would be that God sent friends to me to

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surround me and speak truth into my life and um you know I read this devotional on time that said

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um that a lot of times there's two kinds of people they one type of person walks in a room

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and says see me see me you know look at here I am here I am see me another type of person is the one

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that walks in a room and says I see you there are others focus that's the way Jesus is you know he

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says to our souls I see you I see where you're going through and those physical friends that did

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that that said I see you and serve me it was amazing the last thing I would say is when I just look

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back I realized how gentle the Lord was with me um he you know provided me with that counselor that

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helped me accept that while the losses were hard and tragic um you know I was gonna be okay you

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know it was everything was gonna be all right and I just take that as the gentleness of the word yeah

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well we can wallow in our pain um and we have we have to process pain yeah I mean that's a normal

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way that God designed us to process pain Jesus processed pain he cried he grieved but then he

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moved on in the strength of the Lord exactly and God was gracious to help you do that and by this

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point you know you're 30 years old still single you needed to start getting practical about life

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and future so how did God lead you in that well at the time I was the director of a Christian day

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school and I love that job because I had always been drawn to children and I have some administrative

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gifting and it was a good fit for me but I was thinking at that point that I was going to be on

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my own um here on out and so um I decided to while I was working full time to go back to grad

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school and I got a degree in counseling that way I could work for public schools and so I got a job

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as an elementary school guidance counselor which I loved um while working um you know the other job

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and then going to grad school and starting a new job um it was just a way that God opened doors for

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me and he led me of course I was praying or what do you want me to do and it's just like doors flung

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open for me it was really amazing and you didn't date for another seven or eight years but then

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things changed this is a great story I love so just tell us the story okay well you're

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right I had a dating drought as they say and um I uh had the the chance to change dentist because

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my dentist had retired and so through um a lot of the single activities in our area I had met a

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lot of different people I knew that one of the guys in the singles groups um that I attended um

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was a dentist and so and I knew him very casually so I went uh and changed dentists and went to him

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and uh actually we don't ever remember meeting so there's that yeah we're just like oh how did you

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met me oh we have no idea but anyway while I was getting my teeth cleaned he asked me if I wanted

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to have dinner and so I did and we had a lovely time and uh about a week later he asked me again

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to go out and my family was visiting and so I had to turn down that uh date and he didn't call me back

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again I'm like okay well that was short lived um but then um a couple years later we went out again

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and um we dated um for six months he was also my same age and he had never been married I had never

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been married and uh he was smitten with me buddy he just he thought I was great well then he became

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unsmitten and you would think I would say oh here we go again yeah but this time it was different Jody

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it was different and so I just I don't know why but I think because God had given me those experiences

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before with those other broken relationships I knew that there was absolutely nothing I could do

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to make something work and more importantly I didn't ever want to have to make something work

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and I I think unfortunately a lot of single women you know kind of try to push the envelope a little

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bit um but I knew that God had prepared me that that was not the way to do so um my dear now husband

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is a very analytical person and um so I just was patient and um I'm not gonna lie and say oh it was

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absolutely fine I had no anxiety whatsoever because I did um God really helped me through that time and

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and we uh ended up you know dating for six months and then we got engaged and I was like on board

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well he started putting on the brakes as soon as we got engaged almost and he was having so much

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I wouldn't say he was having anxiety about it but he just again he's a very analytical person I am

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not I'm a feeler all the way and he is he's not that way we're very very different so he

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because he knows and loves the Lord he reached out for help I know you know and hopefully many

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of your viewers know um pastor Tim Kevlar who was a pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York

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City just a wonderful author speaker um wonderful pastor well my husband called and got an appointment

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with Tim Keller he had to wait a couple months when he got the appointment Tim uh Keller affirmed

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reaffirmed that marriage was a good thing and he encouraged Jerry that for many analytical people

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like himself it was harder to make emotional attachments at we age but that marriage was a

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blessing from God and that from everything Jerry had told him it sounded like it was going to be a

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good thing so my lovely husband said well how bad could it possibly be and so we ended up getting

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married and you know Jody in America most people have like um just fairytale engagements and then

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unfortunately sometimes rocky marriages we had the opposite we had the rocky engagement but we have

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had a really wonderful marriage it hasn't been without ups and downs sure that would not be real

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but while we were on our honeymoon my husband confessed he said I don't know I had any doubts

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at all yeah that's what you want to hear that is what you want to hear yes it's been that way ever

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since almost 30 years later so you know after those three broken engagements and near engagements

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it really must have been a battle I mean you said it was a battle not to keep your walls up

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but how did you stay open to that relationship I mean you said you know there was some anxiety but

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I mean many of us when we've been hurt those when we see hurt coming right we put those walls right

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back up right and how did you prevent yourself from doing that I mean what were some practical

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things that you did well I knew that both of us were praying that was a you know huge thing I knew

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he knew the Lord I knew the Lord could speak to him comfort him and his anxiety just like he'd done

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for me my whole life other thing was that I knew from my previous relationships that even though

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they all looked really good on paper you know we're equally yoked all you know they were kind men

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and my purpose in life was to trust that Jesus knew what was best for me more importantly what

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was best for his kingdom you know like what what was the plan you know that he had in mind from

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the foundations of the earth for how he was going to use little me and Jerry as well so

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we just kept communication open we talked about it we saw wise counselor and then we just trusted

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God to work it out or not work it out you know open the door close the door and that is so key

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many of us want to trust God when things are going good but when the road gets a little bumpy we

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want to take that control back thinking that we can steer around the potholes when that's the time

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when we need him the most right I mean we need him the most all the time but trusting him that he

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is a good God you know we know in our heads that he's a good God but when when it gets into our

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spirit that he's a good God and that everything he does is good even if doesn't look good to us that

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changes the way we can move forward in life you know in the Old Testament a lot of the people of

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faith were told by God to build Ebenezer's the stones yeah you know the tower of stones where

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God met them and I would say for me those Ebenezer's were some of the trauma some of the hard things

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those you know those caused God to show up in a big way and so I don't I don't shy away from giving

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my testimony of hard things at all because it's not about those hard things that's not my story my

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story is that God met me there and his presence was with me yeah yeah so life changed dramatically

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after you got married children came pretty soon after that you gave birth to the first two and

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then you had a desire to adopt but you're married to a very analytical man so share how God led you

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how God led you through that journey we were in our 40s when we started our family we got married

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both of us were 39 and so um 10 months later our first born came and um and then 16 months after

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that our second born son came and God had put in my heart almost my entire life a desire to adopt

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obviously I had been adopted and um I just I had always hoped that I would be able to have a lot

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of children and so about three weeks after our second son was born I threw out the idea to my

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analytical husband and his response was just what I thought it was going to be are you crazy

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we're old parents and we have a newborn and a one-year-old and so I I said okay

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but I still had it you know how the scriptures talking about Mary pondered all these things

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in her heart well I was still pondering in my heart but I also knew that there were this

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practical wisdom of what he was saying and so I I just I kept praying about it not constantly but

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often I would say um and so we ended up going out on a date night and out of the blue my husband said

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um I want to talk to you about something um and I'll back up a little bit there we had just bought

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some property to build a house on and um the the property closed and a few months went by and he

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came to me and he said you know um I'm really struggling with building a house here there's

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you know our our current house is fine and for us and um you know just the four of us and um

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so I just want to put a pause button on building a house um my husband has a real heart for the poor

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and he just um couldn't justify you know that expense because of the the conviction that he had

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it was like that's fine um and so um a couple months later is when we had this date night and he said

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you know God has spoken to me and this is not something you hear out of the mouth of analytical

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believers very often but he said I think we're supposed to adopt an international child and so

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um I was of course on board and within 24 hours I had all the paperwork done

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we ended up deciding to adopt from Russia and that was during the time that Yeltsin was still

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in power but shortly afterwards Putin came in power and so it was difficult we had to make two

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10-day trips and the first trip we ended up meeting who was a baby that was to become our daughter and

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it was just amazing just to meet her and we later I'll tell you this amazing part of the story is

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that my husband looked back in his calendar his day timer and we realized that that night that he

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told me that he felt called for us to adopt internationally was the week that our daughter

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was born in Russia so far away so far away so we really um felt just that the Lord was leading us

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to Russia um what happens to children that come out of most third world orphanages is a very bleak

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existence and so we're very grateful to um to have her she was born full term um

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seven seven pounds seven and a half pounds around when we met her when she was 10 months old

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she weighed nine pounds and couldn't hold her head up wow and so we left formula there for her

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but we couldn't get back for three months we didn't honestly we didn't think she was even

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maybe going to survive the winter she was right on the cusp of Siberia and the winners were really

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harsh she had been really ill she was obviously severely malnourished but we went back when she

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was 13 months um and brought her home she was 11 pounds at that time still couldn't hold her head up

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um but we had a year of a lot of intervention with her otm pt in our home multiple times a week

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for that first year in the meantime i had um at home two little boys uh two and three and so uh it

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was crazy they turned three and four shortly before she got home actually but it was wild yeah

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i imagine some of those years were a blur if you look back yes so now your kids are all adults

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and you survive the crazy years when we're in the middle of them we wonder if we're gonna survive but

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you did and we don't have time to go back through all the things that god did during those years

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but summarize a few of the lessons that you've learned in raising your children uh the lord

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showed me and continues to show me that having adult children is the best lesson on earth to teach

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us that we really never had control to begin with and all the women with adultery said amen yes we um

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we also hopefully know that god knows our children better than we do and he loves them more than we

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do his plan might not be um the plan we have for them and they're gonna struggle sometimes but his

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plan is good and so we pray for them um daily you know we just walk through life with them

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the the best that we can i would say for me one of the biggest things is prayer i pray um every

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monday morning with other moms of adult children and we pray for those kids and i love that because

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it forces you into a pattern of prayer and um i also would highly recommend um some books that

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have helped me through parenting um a local art uh author jody burnt um she's internationally known

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with her books she started out with praying the scriptures for your children if uh any of you

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the listeners have adult children i highly encourage you to get her book um praying the

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scriptures for your adult children um there's just some great resources out there but prayer

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i do also want to add one thing jody is that you know more is caught than taught sometimes

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with our kids and one precious conversation i had with our daughter who the our child who is adopted

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which by the way sometimes i forget which one is adopted which ones aren't but anyway she said to

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me when she was a little girl she said mom don't you feel sorry for people who aren't adopted

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and i said uh well where you going with this girl she gets well um they really don't know what it's

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like to be adopted and become a child of god people who aren't adopted don't understand that and this

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is from the mouth of babes i mean she was young and so i just know that you know the things that we

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we teach our children about the lord um they're in there yeah i love the scripture in proverbs

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this is train up a child in the way you should go and when he's old he won't depart from it and i

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i'm uh thankful that it says when he's old he won't depart from me he doesn't say in the meantime

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there won't be some right rocky roads right but we can trust god with all of it we can that's it's

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an act of trust yeah and that act of trust includes some of the disciplines of our faith of prayer and

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just um seeking god on behalf of our children whether they're doing great or whether they're in

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the depths um it doesn't matter it's that same rhythm of life so you and i were both in our late

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30s when we got married um i know that the lord has put a soft spot in your heart for single women

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tell us about that and in other ways the lord's using you now that you're an empty nester you

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know you and i put both have been poster child for single women who want to get married yes

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because and i don't know if you remember this book but way back in the 80s there's a book called i

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gave god time oh yeah and it was do you remember that and it was i can't remember the author but

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i don't agree theologically with the the title of it because he doesn't need us to give him anything

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but um i re uh paraphrase that book into i gave god a hard time yeah so i but i do know i mean it's

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hard being single it is difficult being single whether you're male or female when your heart's

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desire is to have a life partner yeah and um and if your life's desire is to be a parent um

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it's very hard but so because of that um i do have a huge heart for single women and um so currently

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i'm mentoring four single women in their 30s um who all want to be married and the important part

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about that is it's not that it's like a pity party for single women we talk a little bit about

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singleness but only how it interacts with our faith journey because the focus needs to be on our

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growing our faith i mean and growing our knowledge and understanding of the lord and and so that's

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that's kind of what we um we focus on also um just love to volunteer i volunteer every week at a

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local elementary school um still love that age group um i love doing things for with our church

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some outreach stuff and i mentioned moms and prayers a wonderful international organization

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there's chapters almost anywhere uh in the nation if you want to get together with some other moms

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to pray and um and then also i'm involved with bible study fellowship bsf which i think has been the

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biggest instrumental tool for me over the past 10 years of just really coming to love god's word

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it's easy to talk about our things of faith but unless we really are intentional about knowing

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god's word and learning more about him it's his it's his love letter to us it is and that's how

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we live out our faith by getting into his word and knowing what our faith is about so send you've

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lived a very full life what message or truth would you like to our listeners to take away from your

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story well you know jody one of the saddest things to me is that so many young believers punt their

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faith when they think god has dealt them a bad hand and the truth i want your listeners to hear

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is that through the holy spirit god is with you multiple times in his word he says i will never

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leave you i will never forsake you his presence is everything it's everything and we we often don't

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have him as a guest at our table in our mind but he's there but just acknowledging his presence

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and um i would say always remember that even if your life isn't shaping into what you think

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you want or deserve we still we serve a good god and he is our reward he's our reward not

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not all the checklists that we might have a what our life should be like he's our reward

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um i know that god doesn't waste anything he desires to help us he desires to bless us and so

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um just surrendering to him submitting to him um and i i do want to circle back to the song that you

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read in the beginning yeah uh just that song 124 i just encourage your listeners to to meditate on

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this song but in verse seven it says we have escaped like a bird from the fowler snare the

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snare has been broken and we have escaped and and i would say just based on that verse even though

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the lord has blessed me in so many amazing ways um he's blessed me in my life so many tangible ways

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that i i only had the iceberg today but my real story is that i have escaped eternal separation

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from him because of jesus his life death and resurrection as we close cindy um i ask all my

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guess would you share about a woman of the bible whose story has inspired encouraged or taught you

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something the old testament which is the first part of the bible if you go into the eighth book

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it's a little four chapter book called ruth and uh it's hard to separate ruth who is a widow

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who was a widow and she was um not well thought of because she was a moabite um woman and but she

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had a mother-in-law Naomi and it's hard to separate the two of them because their story is so intertwined

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but Naomi was just a beautiful witness to who the god of israel was and their relationships at the

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core of just such a beautiful example that in times of crisis or despair god's willing to use

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anyone who's open to be used and in in ruth's case uh she became the great grandmother of king

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david who is the line to our beautiful savior jesus and so i think you know her her life didn't

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look like it was gonna amount to much and there was a lot of hardship but god just wove it into

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something so beautiful for his purposes yeah he really did yeah well in matthew 28 20 when jesus

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was about to leave his disciples and return to heaven he promised them surely i am with you always

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to the very end of the age in her most difficult seasons god was with Cindy comforting her

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providing what she needed in her joyful seasons too god gave her strength the godly partner

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children and so much more god has been with her through it all and god is with you too dear listener

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never doubt that romans 8 verses 38 and 39 the writers tell us for i am convinced that neither

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life nor death nor angels nor demons neither the present nor the future nor any powers neither height

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nor death nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of god that

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is in christ jesus our lord nothing can separate us from him god loves you and wants to bless you

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so like Cindy did surrender everything to him and watch what he will do

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Cindy would you take a moment and pray for our listeners absolutely lord we praise you and

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thank you for who you are you are an amazing creator redeemer and friend we thank you for

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your son jesus and for his life death and resurrection we thank you jesus that for those

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of us who have accepted and trusted you for our lives you willingly have freed us from the snare

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and the grip of the enemy lord i pray for any listener who has not yet seen the beauty of

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your redeeming love that they would come into a personal relationship with you draw them to

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yourself lord father i also pray for any listener who's been traumatized by the events of this broken

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world guide them lord give them complete healing in ways that only you can provide

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guide them with a faith that you are always always with them in your son's precious and holy name

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jesus we pray amen amen thank you for tuning in check out our show notes at her god story

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dot org for scriptures and links to other information we talked about and remember to

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get your free six week devotional on women of the bible there we'd also love to pray with you

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on our 24 7 prayer and text line so give us a call or text anytime at 855459 care or you can email us

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at prayer at somebody cares dot org and now dear friends i leave you with a blessing adapted from

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first chronicles 2211 may the lord be with you and may you have success her god story is a ministry

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of somebody cares america and international to find out more about or support the ministry go to

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somebodycares dot org