Motherhood is a Holy Calling, Debbie Stevenson’s Story

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Hey friends, welcome to the Her God Story podcast where you will always hear a good story to build your faith

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and equip you in your walk with the Lord.

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I'm your host Jodie Chiricosta, ministry leader at Somebody Cares America International, author and traveler on this journey of faith.

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Psalm 145, 9 in the Passion Translation reads,

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God, everyone sees your goodness for your tender love is blended into everything you do.

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I'm intimately acquainted with today's guest and I can truly say that God's tender love has been thoroughly woven and blended into her story.

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She's my sister, Debbie Stevenson.

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Debbie worked for several years as a high-end interior designer until she traded that career for another one,

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being a full-time wife and mother to four beautiful, kind and fun children who, well, they're not so young anymore, are they?

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No.

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Through the years, God has worked in unique ways for Debbie.

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He's done some interior design in her and he has moved through her to minister to others.

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Thanks for joining my podcast, Debbie.

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Oh, I am honored to be here, honored to be asked to share some of my story with you.

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Hopefully our listeners can determine who is speaking because our voices typically sound pretty much the same.

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We were blessed to be introduced to Jesus as children.

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When we were very young, our parents didn't have a personal relationship with the Lord, even though we were churchgoers.

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But Debbie, you, in fact, were the first person in our family to put your faith in Christ, if I remember correctly.

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How exactly did that happen?

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I do remember like you that we attended church growing up and I even remember attending Vacation Bible School in the summer, the camps that were offered.

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And I always had a deep reverence for God and I knew that Jesus died on the cross, but I didn't really know what that meant for me personally.

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And then when I was about 10, our family went to a David Wilkerson crusade.

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I don't know if you remember going because you are the younger sister.

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But I did respond to the altar call.

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And though I really didn't understand completely what that meant for me, God was beginning to call me.

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A few months later, some friends of our parents who had had radical encounters with Jesus were sharing with us in our home.

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And I think you probably remember they used to come on Sundays often and bring Krispy Kreme donuts and would tell us about the Lord.

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I finally began to understand what the gospel message meant for me.

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And so one day I just in our family room prayed and asked Jesus to become my Lord and Savior.

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And not long after that, mom and dad did the same thing and our brother Mark did the same thing.

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And eventually I did, who was the youngest. And I thought it was a great idea, too.

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I'm like, why wouldn't you want to get saved? I mean, what's there to lose?

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But as a young believer, both in age and in the faith, what were some of the key things that God used to mature you in Christ?

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Since our whole family came to Christ, and like it was, I think it was a matter of about two months, our faith walk was a family affair.

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I mean, we read the Bible together. I remember worshipping together, just a cappella.

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We would sing songs. We prayed together, attended church.

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One of the highlights of my week was a Tuesday evening gathering that in those days, we called them prayer meetings that we went to for years.

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And the daughter in that home became my best friend. We're still friends to this day, though our lives are in different places.

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We just grew in the Lord together and were nurtured together.

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I remember those prayer meetings and I loved them, too. And I was, you know, a bit younger than you.

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And I mean, I remember praying for people in those meetings and people getting healed in front of our eyes.

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And nobody was excluded because of age or any other reason.

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I mean, it was really a full body. And I mean, there were like sometimes 100 people that would come to that meeting.

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And we really saw God moving. He was alive.

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I remember as a young person, you know, young child, knowing beyond a shadow of a gout that God was alive and he was personal.

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And it was very Holy Spirit directed. I remember sensing the Holy Spirit move.

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And so I really grew in my faith, being able to go to those and just interact even as a young teenager,

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right along with the adults and worshiping God and pursuing God.

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And then I think another impactful thing for us, and you'll remember this, that our parents chose a family covenant verse.

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I mean, today we call it maybe a vision statement. And it was Joshua 24, 15.

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As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. And, you know, mom and dad encouraged us to read the Bible on our own.

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In fact, one Christmas, they bought me a very beautiful leather bound King James Bible for me to read.

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And I remember reading that Bible. And then I would read another version, like I had a living Bible that would explain to me what I had just read in the King James version.

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So even as a teenager, I read God's word and tried to apply it to my life.

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Yeah, it was good to read the King James version back in the day, though, because a lot of the songs we sang were King James version songs.

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Yeah. So I did memorize scripture in song, too.

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Yes. Well, I remember growing up that you had great aspirations to be successful in the business world in some sort.

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So there was never any question about whether you would go to college.

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You were single minded, you know, wanting to be successful.

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You even had the opportunity to get an appointment to the Air Force Academy if you had wanted at the time.

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Oh, right. Yeah. Yeah.

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But the decision about what profession to pursue ended up being a pretty big one.

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So share about that. So initially, I thought dental hygiene would be a great career.

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You know, our granddad was a dentist. We had an uncle that was a dentist. Several of our aunts were dental hygienists.

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So I applied to a dental hygiene school. And much to my surprise, I received a letter of acceptance.

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And, you know, this was before email days. This was when you got letters in the mail and hard copies and you responded with an envelope and a stamp.

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Received this acceptance. And I need to send a letter of response back postmarked by a particular day.

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So I began to really pray for God's clarity in the decision and just was in turmoil, full of questions, anxiety, uncertainty.

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And the day came that I needed to mail the letter. I had to be postmarked that day.

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And I was in tears. And so mom offered to drive me to the post office so I could mail this letter.

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I typed up a letter accepting the position and a letter declining the position and one envelope with a stamp.

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And we headed to the post office and got out of the car, went in and stood before the mailbox with the slot to mail the letter.

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And as I was standing there, I in tears, I thought, if I am in this turmoil, it must be that I should decline this offer.

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So I did. I put the letter declining the offer in the envelope, put it in the mail slot and immediately felt not only a sense of relief, but a sense of peace.

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And it was a great lesson for me to learn what God's voice sounded like.

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And, you know, it's a lesson I turned to many times throughout my college years. And ultimately, I ended up with a degree in interior design.

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Yeah, that is such a good lesson to learn. And I talk about it. You know, I've talked about it on my podcast before that God's will brings us peace.

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And when we are in turmoil and strife, we can be pretty certain that that's not God's will because his will comes with peace.

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It does. And sometimes there are challenges and the enemy will throw roadblocks in your way.

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So it doesn't mean that if there's a challenge, it must not be God. But when that inner, you know, deep down inside, when there's turmoil there, it's generally not the Holy Spirit.

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Yeah, it can be totally wrong or could be sometimes just not the right timing.

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Not the right time. Yep.

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But yeah, when we walk in the Lord's will and we're doing it the Lord's way and in God's timing, we have total peace, no matter what's going on around us.

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So after college, you went to a four year and you got your interior design degree.

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So then you started working at a pretty prestigious design firm in Tampa.

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But at that point, the longing to get married started growing in you and there were no prospects in sight.

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I was living in Virginia at the time and I was getting my master's degree, I think, by then.

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And I called you from Virginia and I invited you to go on a mission trip with me and some friends of mine.

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We were going away and I thought, hey, why not? You could you could come. You're you know, you're rich.

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You have a job. So I think you prayed about it and called me back and said, yeah, I'm in.

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Yeah, yeah. So we went and we all worked together in the same place for about a week.

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And then you joined another group that was going a little further inland for about a week.

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And when you came back, you had some very surprising news. Tell us what happened.

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Right before we left to go inland, we met at the organizers offices to discuss the plan and the itinerary for that inland trip.

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And a young man had just arrived from the United States, from Colorado.

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His name was Jeff and he joined our group. And neither of us really particularly noticed each other at the time.

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We were both there to do the Lord's work. But God had an additional plan in mind, apparently.

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So after several days, we both were, you know, sensing an attraction to each other.

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And so when the work was done, we spent time together. We prayed together.

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We talked, just began enjoying each other's company and, you know, talking about was God doing something.

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And at this time, I had a recollection, you know, something mom said, because mom and dad were praying,

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had prayed for many years for godly spouses, for all of their kids.

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And mom had told me it will happen when you least expect. And I had the thought in my mind,

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I don't think it's ever going to happen because I'm never least expecting it.

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When I was on this mission trip, my focus was on, you know, what we were doing there.

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And it wasn't on, you know, meeting someone. But Jeff and I met.

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And so when I joined back up with you, I did have some very unexpected news.

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I had met a man. Well, not only had you met a man, but you for some reason, I wasn't I wasn't where we were staying.

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And you called me and you said, I met him. I said, who did you meet? I met my husband.

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I said, you've only been gone a week. What do you mean you met your husband and you aren't even at home?

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You are far, far away. You told me the story.

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And I was a little suspect to say the least.

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So it was it was really a crazy, crazy meeting.

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I knew that I had a deep sense that God was in it.

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But we still pursued counsel.

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We prayed about it and got to know each other.

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So I mentioned before this is before the days of email and it was before the Internet.

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It was before social media.

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Most people didn't have cell phones and a long distance romance was challenging, to say the least.

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It was. Yeah. How did you pursue that?

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We spent a lot of money on long distance phone calls.

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As Jeff was praying one time, the Lord gave him a plan to seek godly counsel for what for our relationship.

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And obviously, the first thing we were to do was to travel to Boston, where our parents were living, and just seek their advice.

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And not not, hey, we want to get married, but we think God's doing something.

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We want to pursue this relationship.

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And my mom and dad both agreed that they felt God's peace in it.

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So we ended up making three more trips.

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Jeff came to Florida to visit my spiritual family and talk with them and share with them.

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And I went to Colorado one weekend to visit his spiritual family and just get to meet them.

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And then we made a trip to Idaho to meet his parents and just talk with them.

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So Jeff and I had agreed that if anywhere along the way, anyone in our close sphere of spiritual family said,

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no, we don't think this is God or we think you're moving too fast, any of those cautions that we would heed it.

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And after the four trips were done, we kind of got the green light everywhere.

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We, you know, nobody said anything negative.

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And so we ended up getting engaged.

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Like, we'll see, we met in August and in October, at the end of October, we were engaged.

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So it was way out of my comfort zone.

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Yeah, so you met in August, you got engaged in October and you got married in February,

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which, you know, for planning a wedding is almost unheard of these days.

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But after your whirlwind romance, you left your job, you left your extensive support system in Florida.

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You had been living there for many, many years.

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You had a lot of Christian family there, even though all of your all of the rest of the physical family had moved on to other places by then.

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You had a really good Christian support system there.

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And you left them and moved across country to Colorado, where you had never lived before.

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That was a really big change.

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How did you cope with that?

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And what did God teach you in that season of being a wife?

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And then a few years later, starting motherhood?

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It was crazy and out of my comfort zone.

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But I had learned to recognize God's peace back in that decision making time in college.

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And I had God's peace in my heart.

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I was in love. That changes things.

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And yeah, and though landing that job in interior design was very much a God story and I loved the job that I had,

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I realized that I wanted to be a wife and a mother more than I wanted a career.

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And moving to Colorado meant I needed to lay that part of my career down and move across country.

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And I was really actually greatly encouraged by the story of Rebecca in Genesis chapter 24.

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She was willing to heed God's call, leave her family and move to a distant country to marry Isaac.

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And she trusted God and I felt like I needed to trust God.

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So move to Colorado and the faith community that Jeff was a part of was really welcomed me warmly.

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One friend, in fact, through me a bridal shower and I didn't know her very well.

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She invited people from church who didn't know me.

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And, you know, we're actually friends to this day.

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She's one of my closest friends and she is still a great friend to this day.

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So being a part of a faith community is really important.

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Being a part of a faith community through the long haul, through the ups and downs of life, we need to be with people.

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The Christian life is not a me life. It's a we life.

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Even though we fail in our humanity, we need to give people grace and love and reach out.

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And that's what they did for me and helped me feel really welcome in Colorado.

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Well, I know that the the people that we fellowshiped with way back when we were, you know, first got saved when we were kids.

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Those people are still some of our closest friends, even though we're scattered all over the country now.

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But whenever we get together, it's like we are family.

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They are like extended family to us.

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And that is so important to have that people that you're close to that are encouraging you in your faith all throughout scripture.

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It tells us to spur one another on and loving good deeds and to encourage one another in the faith.

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And if we're not fellowshiping and close with people who are of like mind, we're being encouraged to do things that are worldly instead of things that are godly.

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So that is so important.

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Yes. And, you know, some of those friends that haven't seen in a while, we just pick up where we left off and just continue that friendship.

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So it is so important to invest in the people who are around us.

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Yeah. Well, things went pretty smoothly when you started having children, your first two children.

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But then your third child was born and that didn't go so well.

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Share what happened and how God intervened.

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Yes, it was a very challenging, traumatic experience.

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Cecily was born with a condition called pulmonary hypertension, which is where the exchange between the heart and the lungs to oxygenate the blood didn't work very well.

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And so within the first 12 hours of her birth, the hospital had done all they could do and realized that they need to transfer her to Denver Children's Hospital,

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where there was potentially a lifesaving treatment for her that was noninvasive.

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They wanted to lifelight her down to Children's Hospital, but the winds were too strong that night.

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It was October, very cold, Children's Hospital drove an ambulance up to Fort Collins where we were living to the hospital.

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They have a special incubator began to prepare her to ambulance down to Children's Hospital.

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And every time they put her in the incubator, she crashed and they would have to take her out and settle her, stabilize her.

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And they tried three times and finally they realized they just needed to take her and go.

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So the neonatal specialist came to our room, gave us the news and said they weren't sure she was going to make it down to Denver.

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Did we want to have her baptized? You know, this is what they felt. What was their recommendation?

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So we had our pastor had already visited us. We prayed over her.

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So we went back to the NICU and prayed over her one more time. And excuse me if I break up, I have a hard time every time I tell this story.

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But Jeff was able to go along in the ambulance and they whisked her away, headed out.

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I went back to my room and sat in a chair and the only thing I could say was, oh, God, nothing else came out.

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And I knew other people were praying. I knew mom and dad were praying.

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They actually stayed up all night interceding for her. And the Lord gave mom a verse.

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It was Psalm 68 20. Our God is a God who saves from the sovereign Lord comes escape from death.

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And they prayed and said, Lord, she is part of our family.

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As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord and we want her as part of our family.

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And God answered that prayer. Jeff, when he said she was really unstable until they got to the interstate and he sensed an angel putting

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a hand on her chest and stabilizing her and she made it down to the hospital.

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The doctor that was the lead researcher for this particular treatment was standing outside of the emergency room door when Jeff arrived with the ambulance,

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when Cecily arrived and they started her on the protocol and she survived.

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I think the Lord the first 36 hours were a little touch and go. And when we asked them, hey, do you know how long we're going to be here?

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They didn't know. But 10 days later, she was released and we brought her home, home to sisters and grandma who had mom had come right away

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to take care of her two older sisters. And we brought her home 10 days later.

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I remember that time. I mean, we were getting updates from mom and you would call mom and dad and tell them what prayer requests were needed.

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And they would quickly distribute the word to family and friends and spiritual family.

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And, you know, there were people playing, praying all over the country for Cecily. And God did an amazing thing.

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I mean, he saved her life. And at the time there were I think you told me there were only two hospitals in all of the whole country that specialized

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in that particular care. And, you know, Denver Children's, yeah, Denver Children's and Boston Children's Hospital.

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And if we had been any farther away from the hospital, she would not have survived. So God was watching over her.

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Yeah. And in the midst of it all, you kind of, you know, sometimes you ask why? I mean, why do we even have to go through this, Lord? Why?

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I'm sure you've had time to ponder that that question now after all these years.

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I mean, what, you know, what has the Lord showed you in in looking back at that?

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Regardless of what happens in life, he knows nothing takes him by surprise.

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And he uses challenges and trials in our life to grow us, to grow our character.

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And there are times in life when all we can do is cling to him and rely on the prayer of others and just keep moving forward one step right after the other.

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You know, God cares deeply about children who, like Cecily, need special help in a time of crisis.

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And over and over again in scripture, he directs us to care for the orphans and widows, which is why somebody cares created the Orphan and Widows Fund.

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You know, as a company of women, we can do so much together to take care of the special needs and to cultivate the special gifts of children who he has put in the care of our ministry partners around the world.

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I invite you to pray about joining our number with a gift at hergodstory.org.

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Click on help now. You know, we even accept cryptocurrency if you're into that.

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So there's a lot of ways that you can help care for orphans and care for widows around the world, just as God directed.

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Debbie, your four children are all adults now, all have a personal relationship with the Lord.

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But that didn't happen by accident.

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And it wasn't a foregone conclusion.

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Just because you're a Christian doesn't mean they will be Christians and really follow the faith.

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So what did you and Jeff do to pass your faith on to them?

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Well, summarizing 20 years of parenting in just a few minutes is impossible.

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But I will just share some three really important things that we did throughout those years of raising our children.

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And, you know, it's not a formula.

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Raising raising humans is not a formula.

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There's no guarantee.

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But there are some really important things we can do as parents to pass along our faith.

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The first is to model an authentic Christian faith daily.

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You know, following Jesus is not a Sunday activity.

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It is 24 7 365.

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It doesn't mean you have to be perfect, but they need to see and actually participate in your pursuit of Jesus.

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And if they don't see you following him wholeheartedly, they won't necessarily follow him wholeheartedly.

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Yeah, I know. That's one of the things that our parents did so well.

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I mean, we watched them walk through some really hard times and cling to Jesus.

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And they shared with us what God was doing and what God was saying to them so that when God answered prayers, we knew it was him.

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It wasn't just some fluke. Yeah, that's something that our parents did so well.

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And you and Jeff did well with your. Yeah, we tried.

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We tried to do the same thing. You know, we went through some things in church, you know,

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and in ministry opportunities that were discouraging, you know, we didn't hide it from them.

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I mean, we didn't air all the trauma that was going on, but we included them in what was going on in our life and our pursuit with the Lord.

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The second thing is pray for your children. Pray with your children. Pray over your children.

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I mean, we began praying for children when they were in my womb and we still pray for them to this day.

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You know, we prayed with them, you know, teach your children how to pray.

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It's part of family devotions when they go through challenges, teach them to pray for others,

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that prayer is not just for ourselves, but it's for others, too.

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And then pray over them, you know, pray scripture verses over them, bless them.

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Very early in our parenting journey, the Lord spoke to Jeff to pray over our kids every morning.

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And it was so sweet when they were little to see our little, our chicks surrounding dad as he laid his hands on them and prayed for them.

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And even as teenagers, when they were driving before they headed out on their day, if dad hadn't prayed over them,

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I remember them seeking him out to, you know, have dad pray for their day.

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So it was just something that became a natural habit in our family.

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And Jeff and I, you know, they're not here anymore, but Jeff and I pray together every morning now, not only in the evening,

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but also every morning, just committing our day to him.

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Well, and obviously they could feel the prayers if they're seeking him out.

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They knew there's power, there's power in prayer.

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So that empowers them to know when they seek the Lord for others and for themselves and for their day, God's going to hear.

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They could feel the difference.

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I think it gave them a sense of peace and comfort knowing that dad has blessed my day and I know God is with me.

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And then the third thing I would say is have regular family devotions, however that looks, read God's word to them.

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You know, we started reading out of children's Bibles, children's picture Bibles when they were little and continued on.

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You know, there's all kinds of resources out there to help in family devotion processes.

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We, you know, sometimes we varied the time of day.

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Sometimes it worked in the evenings, sometimes it worked in the mornings, depending on their age, different, you know, different styles of family devotion worked well.

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You know, be willing to discuss hard topics with your kids.

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And what does God's word say about this?

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How can we respond to this?

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Yeah, that's so important today because there's so many hard topics out there.

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They're getting messages that are ungodly all the time.

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And if they don't have loving parents guiding them in the way of some of these difficult topics, they're going to believe the world.

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And then don't get discouraged when they seem disinterested.

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They hear and see more than you realize.

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So just keep it up and God will move in their lives.

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I know that when I was young, mom particularly used to read us biographies of Christians in addition to our family devotion time.

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But that really was key to me.

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I learned from stories. I learned from reading.

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That's one of the ways that I really pick things up.

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I love the Old Testament with the stories and how people's lives are, which is why I have this podcast, her God story, you know, learning through other people's stories.

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But I remember very vividly, mom reading books like The Hiding Place, The Story of Cory Tan Boon and how she went through a very unbelievable situation.

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In a Nazi concentration camp during World War Two.

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And God did so much in and through her and used her after that to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ around the world.

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That, you know, those kinds of things were so key in my faith development.

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And they can be in yours as well.

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So one of the hardest things for mothers and fathers to do is to let their children transition into adulthood.

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They no longer need you as much. They don't want your input as much.

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It's really a different relationship.

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Ecclesiastes three tries to prepare us a little bit for those times, you know, telling us times will change.

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There's a time. There's a season for everything under heaven.

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But that doesn't mean it's easy. How did you navigate that?

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One of our most heartfelt prayers was Lord, fill in the gaps where we missed.

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Please fill in the gaps.

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You know, we do our best to prepare children, but at some point they have to, you know, they have to make decisions and step out on their own.

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Although the time of preparation was many years, but we really felt the call of God to be a part of the Christian school community.

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So for our family, we invested K through 12 in Christian school so that our children could be educated from a godly worldview.

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And that was a huge part of their preparation.

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And then, you know, as they handled money, Jeff was very diligent to teach them financial responsibility, you know, beginning with piggy banks when they were little.

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And he, you know, there was a space for tithing, for saving and spending.

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And then as that matured to, you know, approaching college years, he budgeted, helped them develop a budget plan throughout their college years, because that can be a real stumbling block is what do I do with money?

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And we, as they graduated and went on to college, we really strive to keep communication open and a welcome mat out.

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For me, the transition, of course, was was hard because I had been the central figure in the household planning events and, you know, kind of the core of family activity.

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And when I wasn't needed anymore, it really was a challenging, emotionally challenging for me.

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And I had three books that were really helpful and, you know, moving into the empty nest and, you know, doing life with adult children.

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And I think we're going to put them in the notes of the book.

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But just reading, seeking God, reading helpful Christian literature was really helpful for me in in the adjustment in the transition.

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Yeah, we had we had some of that happening at the same time.

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Some of our kids were moving into adulthood.

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And I remember some of our conversations and, you know, the challenge emotionally of kind of your identity.

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I mean, your identity is changing and you don't necessarily want it to change.

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You kind of like the identity you have had for that many years.

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And your identity is changing. And, you know, I mean, I don't know that it it becomes clear right away.

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No, it's a journey. It's a process.

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And, you know, we were excited and we welcomed when each child graduated from high school and moved on to college.

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In fact, when our son, who was our youngest, graduated from college, we took the kids on a trip to Hawaii.

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We had never been on an exotic trip with them.

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And we took them to Hawaii just to celebrate this new season of life.

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When I came home, I began to process those emotions of, OK, Lord, this season of life is over.

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What do you have for me now?

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What are the gifts that you want to use in my life?

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And I realized I had a fear.

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I had always wanted to be a mom and mother, like we talked about, and a wife and had had that experience and loved it.

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And the question arose in my heart, is the best part of my life over?

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And that was really scary.

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And as I laid that before the Lord, he did work in my heart to clean out an idol, to, you know,

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I had to release some expectations of what life was going to look like.

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And, you know, as he did that, he brought other opportunities.

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So wait a minute, you said he cleaned out an idol.

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Explain what that is. I mean, yeah, actually, motherhood was an idol to me.

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I enjoyed being in charge of, you know, what happened in our family.

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And, you know, when they're little, you tell them what to do.

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And as they grow up, you kind of have to let go of the reins.

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And which was a challenge because I liked being in charge.

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Motherhood had a more prominent seat at the table of my heart than it should have.

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And I had to let that control the desire to control.

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I had to let that go.

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Yeah, it's hard to do that.

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I've struggled with that a little bit myself, because, of course, with all of our years of experience,

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we certainly know better. Right.

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And they do what they should be doing. Right.

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At least we think we do. But we forget that God knows best of all.

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He does. And he loves them more than we do.

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Watching them make mistakes is difficult when you know if they would just listen to you.

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They wouldn't have those trouble.

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And the other challenge that we realized is sometimes when your children go through hard times,

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you go through some of that with them.

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And sometimes we don't want that challenge.

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We don't want that discomfort because sometimes we've already been through that.

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But if we love them, we will allow God to work in their lives and be there to support them with whatever they need.

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Yeah, of course, I was being facetious when I said if they'd only ask us, I mean, really,

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it's God who wants to become that primary source of help and wisdom in their life.

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Not that they never turn to us for comfort and counsel again, but he wants to be primary in their lives.

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But that is a difficult thing, you know, to to let go, to let go of that.

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Yes. Yeah.

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When like God be at work.

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But once God, once you did that, you know, once you really kind of released that,

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God moved you into a new season in life and he had been opening, he's been opening new doors of opportunity for you.

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Where are you finding fulfillment in this season? And how did that happen?

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I mean, how did God give you that new revelation?

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Yeah, well, when after Michael graduated from high school, we kind of went before the Lord and said, Lord,

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this is a new season, a season of transition for us.

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Where do you want us? What do you want us to do?

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And God moves us actually to a different church.

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It's not that we didn't value where we were or appreciate it, but we just felt God's call to a different church.

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And they have an apprenticeship discipleship program with a vision to develop kingdom leaders.

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And so Jeff was invited to be a part of this apprenticeship program.

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He asked if I wanted to do it. And I thought, you know, hey, let's let's say yes to God.

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So we did this two year program.

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It was open to all ages, but a majority of the people that participate are twenty somethings.

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When we were towards the end of that, we were actually invited to be a part of the leadership team.

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So now we are a part of the leadership team.

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And it is so rewarding to be investing in the lives of people who are committed to seeking the Lord passionately.

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But you told me recently that the Lord really had a word for you about all of this when you were in a when you were in a meeting.

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Yes, actually, it was a Zoom meeting because it was happening during covid.

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Our pastor was speaking on vision and culture and calling of God in your life.

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And all of the people had asked all the questions and there was a couple of minutes left.

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And I thought, well, if everybody's asked their questions, I'll ask a question.

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So I posed the question, how does the call of God change in your life as you change seasons, as you transition seasons of life?

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Thinking of me, you know, we were transitioning from active parenting to the next season, empty nest season.

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And he started to say something and then he paused and he said, Debbie, your call of a mother hasn't changed, but who you're going to mother has.

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And it was one of those times when it kind of takes your breath away.

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And there were several people that were a part of that Zoom call that responded and said, Debbie, we really think that's a word from God from you for you.

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And it really was because I was wondering, I've just been a mother for all these years.

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What what value do I have? What did what did I learn all those years?

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And it was just God really letting me know that was that there is beauty in being a mother that I didn't have to change myself or remake myself.

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I just needed to step in with courage to the way he had made me.

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I didn't need to remake myself, but step in with courage to how he made me and just begin to love people like a mother loves her children, just love the people around.

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One of your other gifts is hospitality.

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And over the years, you have been very hospitable, opened your home to members of the church and to charitable activities and all sorts of things.

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And really, you know, as a as a mom, you do that all the time with your family practicing hospitality.

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But God really was even blossoming that aspect of the gift he's given you to use it in a greater way.

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Even now, we do host a lot of gatherings for our church house during covid.

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We our church was actually not meeting as a large group for a year because we rent a an auditorium on a college campus.

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So it was unavailable to us for about a year.

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So we opened our home. We were among of many homes that had church gatherings.

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So provided an opportunity for small groups to gather together.

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We've had young people living with us for a short time, you know, kind of coming and going.

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And then, of course, we encouraged all of our kids when they were in school that they could live at home, just part of our way to support them.

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So they didn't incur as much debt going to college.

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Yeah. So, you know, scripture talks about being hospitable and we're charged to be hospitable.

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But a lot of people don't know how to do it anymore or they don't have the space really to do it.

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I mean, you know, not every person in every season can do that.

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But that is a gift that God has definitely put in you that you've used very well.

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What are one or two key truths or verses that have comforted and guided you in your walk with the Lord all of these years?

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Two words come to mind, and it's words that I both love and I hate because they're challenging and they're kind of very closely related.

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One is wait and the other is persevere.

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In the Psalms, we're told many times to wait on the Lord.

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You know, we live in a world of instant gratification.

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You know, I can take a food product that's rock hard out of the freezer, put it in the microwave and in a matter of a minute or two, eat it.

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And, you know, we can order something online and get it the next day or the day after.

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So waiting is not a cultural value today.

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But God wants us to wait on him, to wait and trust, to wait for his answer, to wait because he has a plan.

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He sees what the future holds, and sometimes we don't always see that.

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So along with waiting is perseverance.

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James in chapter one tells us that perseverance is a character quality that God develops in us through trial.

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And he does it so, it says in James, so that we can be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

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So sometimes we just need to stick with it, stick with the Lord and not move on to something that looks quicker, looks brighter, looks more like it has the answer.

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Because really, there is no other answer in this world for anything except Jesus.

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That is so true.

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There's a response of Peter in the book of John, John chapter six, that I love.

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Jesus had been ministering in an area and a lot of people were beginning to leave.

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And so Jesus looked at his disciples and said, you don't want to leave me too, do you?

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And Peter responded, Lord, to whom shall we go?

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You have the words of eternal life.

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And it's really true.

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There is nowhere else to turn but Jesus.

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Yeah, he is the way, the truth and the life.

435
00:41:56,800 --> 00:41:59,120
Yeah, so many people try different things.

436
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I mean, you know, I got saved when I was six.

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But when I was caught when I was in college, I, you know, I wanted to try some of the things of the world to bring me happiness.

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Of course, it didn't at all.

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And I quickly realized that and repented before God.

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But, you know, I think many people in life, not everyone, but many people in life think at different times that there's something better than God.

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Surely he's missed something.

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But like you said, the only way to feel complete is to persevere in our faith with God, persevere with our in our relationship with him.

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And it's not a distant relationship.

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When we wait on the Lord, it's not because he's high and lofty and distant from us and he's far and taking a long time to get to us.

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But it's because he wants to develop an intimate relationship with us.

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And any intimate relationship takes time to develop.

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As we close, I love to ask my guests if there's a woman in the Bible whose story has inspired or encouraged or taught you something.

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I know you mentioned Rebecca earlier.

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Is there anyone else who's really spoken to you and how?

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Actually, the story of Deborah in the Book of Judges has always intrigued me, partly because we share the same name.

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It's spelled differently, but there's a Deborah in the Bible.

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So caught my attention.

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And partly because she played a significant role in an era and a culture that was male dominated.

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So in Judges Chapter four, it tells the story.

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She was a prophetess.

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She had a prominent spiritual role and obviously had an intimate level of intimacy with the Lord to be able to hear what he was speaking and then speak it boldly to the people around.

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And then she was a judge.

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It said that people came to her to have disputes settled.

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And so she was a woman that had wisdom, insight, common sense.

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And then the children of Israel were being oppressed by the Canaanites around them.

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And God gave her a battle plan.

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And she called a military commander and was willing to go with the army while she wasn't part of the battle.

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But she went along as an encourager, a spiritual advisor, and Israel defeated their enemies.

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And that's the story in Judges Chapter four.

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And in Judges Chapter five, it is a whole chapter of a psalm of praise to the Lord for the victory that he gave.

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And in that psalm, it called Deborah a mother in Israel.

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And that is just a statement of honor, I feel.

468
00:44:44,040 --> 00:44:49,920
She had a significant influence and impact on Israel at the time.

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And I take great inspiration that motherhood is an immensely valuable calling.

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And our influence is, yes, for our children, but it also goes beyond our children.

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We should seek and search out how we can minister and invest in everyone that we meet in our life.

472
00:45:15,040 --> 00:45:20,960
Well, it's really interesting that you mentioned that she was called a mother in Israel.

473
00:45:20,960 --> 00:45:26,200
Yes. And you don't normally think of a mother leading troops into battle.

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But really, that's what mothers do in prayer for their kids.

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All of the other things, I mean, it could be a study in motherhood.

476
00:45:33,760 --> 00:45:36,480
You know, what does Deborah do? She's a prophetess.

477
00:45:36,480 --> 00:45:39,080
She she discerns. People come to her for counsel.

478
00:45:39,080 --> 00:45:42,400
I mean, that's what motherhood really is about.

479
00:45:42,400 --> 00:45:49,400
In Ephesians, it talks about that our war is not in flesh and blood, but it's against principalities and powers.

480
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And so we can go at war for our families, for our children, for for those around us.

481
00:45:55,520 --> 00:46:05,800
Solomon, the wise king of Israel, wrote in Ecclesiastes three, verse 11, that God has made everything beautiful in its own time.

482
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He has planted eternity in the human heart.

483
00:46:08,680 --> 00:46:14,040
But even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God's word from beginning to end.

484
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No one can see everything that God's doing in our lives.

485
00:46:17,400 --> 00:46:24,000
But one of my favorite verses, something that God spoke to me earlier this year now is Psalm 119, verse 68.

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It says God is good and does only good.

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If we can grasp that in the midst of all that's going on, it can change our whole perspective.

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Debbie, God has proven in your life that trust in God, that he is going to he is going to be faithful.

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Yes. Even when you don't understand what's going on, he is faithful, he's good.

490
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And he turns it all out beautiful when you totally rely on him.

491
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You've seen it. And dear friends, dear listeners, God will do the same for you.

492
00:46:58,880 --> 00:47:06,920
If you will wait on the Lord and persevere in your faith, God will make all things beautiful in his time.

493
00:47:06,920 --> 00:47:11,040
Well, Debbie, would you take a moment and pray for everyone who listens to this podcast?

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I'd be honored. Dear Lord, we come before you.

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We thank you, Lord. I thank you for this opportunity to share parts of my story and how you met me.

496
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Every step of the way. And Lord, I lift up all of those listening.

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Lord, you see their lives. In fact, your word tells us that in the womb, you see us and you know us and you have all of our days ordained for us.

498
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And Lord, I ask that you would reveal yourself to each one who's listening, that they would have a heart to pursue you and seek you and find out, Lord,

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what is your plan for me that they would wait on you and persevere with you, even if things don't look the way they expect it to look?

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Because, Lord, you have a plan for each life to flourish and thrive.

501
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And so, Lord, I pray that you would speak to each one who has listened today. May something that was said today really provide hope in their lives.

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We thank you, Lord, for this time together in Jesus' name. Amen.

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Well, thank you for tuning in. Check out our show notes at hergodstory.org to find out the scriptures we mentioned and other helpful information like the books Debbie mentioned.

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Don't forget to sign up for periodic emails and watch out for our free download of a devotional book.

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We'd love to pray with you on our 24-7 prayer line. You can call or even text anytime at 855-459-CARE, 855-459-CARE, or email us at prayer at somebody cares dot org.

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If you've enjoyed this podcast, please rate and review it on Apple podcasts or whatever streaming service you use.

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00:49:04,440 --> 00:49:09,360
We'd love for you to share this story with friends who might enjoy it, too.

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00:49:09,360 --> 00:49:14,680
And be sure to like or follow the podcast so you don't miss an exciting episode.

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If you're looking for another great podcast, check out A Word in Season with Doug Stringer and Friends, where I guest host occasionally.

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00:49:21,000 --> 00:49:23,920
That's also sponsored by Somebody Cares America.

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And now, dear friends, I leave you with a blessing from Psalm 115-14.

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May the Lord cause you to flourish, both you and your children.

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And that could be physical children or spiritual children.

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God bless you.

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Her God Story is a ministry of Somebody Cares America and international.

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To find out more about or support the ministry, go to somebodycares.org.