Where Do You Find Your Worth? Stacy McDonald 's Story

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Hey friends, welcome to the Heard God Story podcast where you will always hear a good story to equip, inspire, and encourage 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, and I'm delighted that you have joined us.

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Have you heard of the Heard God Story podcast clubs?

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Listen to the same podcast, download a prepared episode question from the herdgodstory.org website, and then discuss over coffee or other refreshments.

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And it's a great way to reach out to friends who don't know Christ yet.

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Include them in the conversation and see what God will do.

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When you do, email us at prayer at somebody cares dot org and let us know so we can be praying for you.

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In this episode, we're going to talk a bit about the power and freedom of transparency.

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Ephesians four verses 21 through 25 in the New Living Translation says, Since you've heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him,

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throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which was corrupted by lust and deception.

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Instead, let the spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes.

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Put on your new nature created to be like God, truly righteous and holy.

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So stop telling lies.

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Let us tell our neighbors the truth, for we are all parts of the same body.

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There's a lot to think about in those verses.

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And as you hear my guest, Stacy McDonald talk about her life, her struggles and her victories.

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Consider how truth and transparency have been key in her faith journey and in her parenting.

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Stacy is an entrepreneur who started a thriving jewelry business as well as a nonprofit.

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When everything shut down during Covid, Stacey was led to start homeschooling her kids.

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As a wife and mother of three young children, she has her hands full, but always has time to look for the blessings of God in her life and share them with her family as well as with others.

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When a tornado ripped through their neighborhood, damaging her home in March of this year, she did not lose faith.

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In fact, her faith has grown. Hang on to your seats because this is a story you've got to hear.

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Welcome, Stacy. Hi, thank you for having me, Jodie.

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Stacy, you grew up in a Christian family. Tell us a little about your growing up years and what role Jesus or faith played in your life.

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Yeah, so my parents were founding members of the church that I grew up at.

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The church that we were a part of is also where I ended up meeting the man that would become my husband, but he was a young boy.

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We were in grade school.

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You've known each other your whole life.

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We've known each other our whole lives.

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Let's see, we started dating when I was in seventh grade and he was in the eighth grade and ended up going to college together, getting married, having kids.

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We celebrate 16 years this summer of married life.

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Being a part of church, not just because there was a boy, was very central to my upbringing.

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My mom was on staff, so we were at church all the time whenever the doors were open.

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Even when they weren't open, we were there doing something.

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I came to know Jesus at a young age and through all the ups and downs, despite all the ups and downs,

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I have really tried to filter things through the lens of faith, through the lens of what does scripture say, what does Jesus say.

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At times, that's been a lot harder than other times to do.

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Things can look good on the outside when that's not always the truth.

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You had some struggles as a teenager and as a young adult.

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Share a little about that because, of course, you knew God.

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What was going on?

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It was, you know, familiarity is interesting because we can mistake it for intimacy, you know, really.

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And so I knew who Christ was. I knew who God was. I knew his saving grace.

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I knew all about his love.

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And it was very easy for me to share that with other people.

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But on the inside, it was very difficult for me to accept that for myself.

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So I struggled a lot as a young teen all the way into my young adulthood with who am I?

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What is my worth? What is my value?

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Am I good enough for the kingdom?

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I know Jesus loves the sinners, but like, does he really love me?

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And so I struggled with a lot of depression, kind of stemming from just a lack of identity, really.

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You know, I was going to say confidence, but that's actually not really even it.

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When we don't know who we are, it is, of course, very hard to be confident, you know?

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And so I struggled with a lot of that depression and anxiety.

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And being a part of such an involved family in our church and this, you know, being a few decades, a couple of decades ago,

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you know, these things were not talked about widely.

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You know, it was quite taboo at that time in the late 90s, early 2000s to be talking about, you know, mental health or depression.

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And it was almost like that you the sense that I got as a teenager was you can't have one with the other.

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You know, if you are a born again Christian, you shouldn't be struggling with identity.

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You can't be struggling with depression.

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When the reality is, I just was missing the fact that I was also a daughter of the king.

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You know, I needed to know that deep down.

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And God really revealed himself to me over the coming years that that is who I am.

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Yeah. But those early years were hard because, you know, even though you tried to share a couple of times some of your struggles, it was not well received.

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No. Yeah.

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And the Barna Research Group just released a study that shows 71 percent of the people in the U.S. have a very positive view of Jesus.

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But only 47 percent have a positive view of local churches.

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And when you went away to college, of course, you still love Jesus.

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But your view of the church wasn't so great because you weren't really able to be or share or have confidence that you could take your problems to them.

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And there would be a loving response. Yeah, absolutely.

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And that might not have been true, but it was certainly your perception. Right. Absolutely.

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The church that I was in, they had they've always been super active in outreach ministry.

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And so I know that the heart there is that the church is for the hurting, the church is for the broken.

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My perception being a daughter of someone on staff was that we can't hurt.

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We have to be here for the people who are hurting.

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And so it really turned into just a charade of even leading in my youth group, you know, being in stepping into leadership positions,

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but still secretly really struggling with what is God's purpose for my life?

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You know, how much does he really love me?

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You know, so when I left and went to college, I was like, I really kind of think I'm done with trying to deal with church.

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I'm definitely done with church leadership because I don't ever want to convey something that's not true.

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And so we went through and I say we because my husband and I, we weren't married yet,

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but we were in at the same college together and, you know, in a different town.

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So we're trying to find, you know, like where because we grew up in church, where are we going to go to church?

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You know, all this. And then we got married two years after we did two years of college, got married.

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And then moved away to Chicago.

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And that's, you know, like really where we grew up and we had to learn how do we find a church?

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How do we find church family? And what do we do when we feel like that's really difficult to do?

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Yeah. So you were you were 19 when you actually got married.

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You went through two years of college and then your husband was going to continue college in Chicago.

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So you went with him.

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And after you got married, you're struggling with, you know, kind of who what is your faith really all about?

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Yeah. And children started coming. Yes. Pretty fast. Yes.

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So tell us about those early years of marriage and motherhood and your faith, because it couldn't have been easy.

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As I mentioned, as a teenager, I had really struggled with depression and just like the value and worth of my own life.

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And so when we were it was within our first year of marriage, maybe just after our first anniversary, we found out that I was pregnant.

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And that was this huge moment of, oh, my gosh, this is why God did not let me self-destruct because he wanted to use me to bring forth a new life.

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Like, you know, it was just this huge, mind blowing kind of epiphany.

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And as we walked through that pregnancy, we ended up losing that baby.

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And everything crashed for me again of feeling like one, like my body betrayed me, but to almost like God betrayed me.

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You know, I had finally felt like now it all makes sense, you know, and this is why he brought me through that fire and this is why I've overcome it.

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And then to lose that kiddo was really difficult and had me kind of reevaluating everything again.

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But the good thing about God is when we ask questions, Holy Spirit will ask us questions, too.

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And so I'm like, God, why are you allowing this to happen? And he's asking me, you know, is your worth and value of your life placed in that of a child or is it placed in me?

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And he really challenged me in such a gentle, tender way that only a father can of where are you placing your hope and value?

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Is it in your abilities or your body's abilities or is it in me and trusting that I do have a plan to give you hope in the future and to prosper you?

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Is it that I have called you fearfully and wonderfully made?

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You know, and these were the things that at that time I had to start just hanging on to.

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And scripture tells us to be transformed by the renewing of our mind.

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And so the only way that I felt like I felt super alone in this big city and my husband's working and he's in school and I'm working and struggling through this miscarriage and we have no family around and we didn't really have a church family at that point.

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It felt so alone.

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The only thing I knew to do was to let the word of God soak over me, you know, just like bathe in the head of, OK, God, you are good.

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I do trust you. So I have to start taking what you say about me as what you actually say about me, that that's not just for everyone else.

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Within very shortly after that, it was about three, four months later, we found out that I was pregnant again and we ended up welcoming our first son on Halloween in Chicago.

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He came. He was due in December. He came super early. And so right then again, it was like, OK, God, I have to trust you that you're going to take care of him.

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You know, even if my body seems to have an idea of its own what to do, you know, shortly after that, we moved back to Arkansas just before his second birthday and then had another kiddo and 15 months later had another kiddo.

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Wow. So three, bam, bam, bam.

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Yeah, you were at a crisis point because now you have three children.

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You're back home close to family, but you're overwhelmed and you're exhausted.

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But you did the right thing. You went to God and you asked him for a creative solution that didn't cost you any money because you're you know, your husband is working, but you're one income.

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You're trying to care for three kids. They're expensive.

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And God gave you a really interesting idea that met both your financial needs, but even more so your spiritual needs, which is so like God.

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He just gives us more than we ask for, doesn't he? Yes.

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Explain what he led you to do and how he spoke to you through it.

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That was really it was we I needed a creative outlet. I wanted to be able to contribute some to the pot.

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Somehow, you know, we had chosen and valued me being a stay at home mom. So I was just praying, God, if there's something that I can do, show me how and what it is, what it can be.

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And I had fooled around with jewelry making off and on for a long time, but was really like I can't go buy things to start making jewelry.

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We don't have that sort of flexibility in our income.

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And it was really just a God whispered idea.

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We have here in Arkansas, we have a couple of different mountain ranges, but the Wachita are one of the largest or the largest naturally occurring vein of quartz in the world.

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There are other places you can find quartz, but the Wachita Mountains have the largest amount of them.

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I just felt like God told me to go out to the mines and start digging stones because you use stones in jewelry, right?

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I thought it was kind of a crazy, silly idea, but I mentioned it to my husband and he was like, let's go.

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And so we took our then four year old. He was our oldest and we strapped our other two kids, one on each of us.

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And we drove out to these mines and we started we didn't know what we were doing. We really honestly didn't even know what we were looking for.

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But what we started to learn turned into a more than five year long process of the fact that these stones naturally occur in the ground, but they are found in this real thick iron heavy clay.

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And so we would pull them out and they would look disgusting and they'd be, you know, some would look like they had the potential to be pretty and some would not.

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But I took them home and I started to just clean them and started to wrap them up, you know, with wire and attach them to earrings, you know, and make jewelry with it.

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And eventually what transpired was this jewelry business that I travel across the country selling at different shows.

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I had boutiques across the country carrying jewelry and it became both a mission field for the Lord in my heart and then for me to turn around for others,

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because what he was teaching me was he was so kind to walk me through this object lesson of what great lengths he went to for me.

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Psalm 40 says it's so perfect. I waited patiently for the Lord and he turned and heard my cry.

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He lifted me up out of the pit out of the miry clay.

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He set my feet on solid ground and many will see and hear and come to trust the Lord.

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And that's quite literally what we were doing.

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We were in pits in the ground, digging stones out of clay, cleaning them and making them something desirable.

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Yet that was exactly what he was doing in my heart.

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He was stripping away my insecurities where I had falsely placed value and worth and showing me that I was worth the dig.

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You know, I was going to these great lengths just to make jewelry.

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What greater lengths did he go to? Well, he went to the cross for me, you know.

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And so as we started, you know, sharing this jewelry with people and selling it and getting to talk to customers,

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you know, your ears may have peaked a bit when I said quartz because it has become very mainstream for, you know,

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people think it has metaphysical properties and that's going to heal you.

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And let me just tell you, if you are a follower of Christ and you think that that is true, I caution you because that is not.

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The Bible tells us to test the spirits and there is nothing living in that stone that he put there at creation.

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And so we got to share that truth with people all over the country because they would come and they'd be like,

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oh, crystals and quartz, they're supposed to heal, right?

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I would say, well, actually, they're just rocks.

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But let me tell you who does heal because he's healed me.

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And I got to share with them the good news of Jesus.

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And of course, the more I did that, the more my faith was strengthened, you know, and that was really it was really amazing.

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It was really amazing.

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So your jewelry was selling in boutiques across the country.

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You shared about how some of those unique opportunities were to share Christ.

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But it also opened up an idea for a nonprofit.

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How did that happen?

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What was this nonprofit about?

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So it was called Out of the Clay.

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And it really was just my heart's desire to walk other people through this tangible object lesson that my Abba father had walked me through.

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So I put together like a study and I got partnered with different women's homes and different organizations.

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And basically, it worked like a big field trip.

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And I would take them out to the mines and they would get to dig themselves.

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They would get to see it firsthand, experience it firsthand, just like how filthy and everything this would these, you know, things were coming from.

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And then they would get to walk through the process of cleaning it themselves.

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And after that, they would get to then turn that those stones that they pulled out of the mire clay into a piece of jewelry that they would get to keep.

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And it was really cool for a lot of these women who were in recovery for all sorts of different things.

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They were in the same position I had been of, OK, you're telling me that God loves me.

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You're telling me I'm valuable, but I'm having a hard time believing it.

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It was incredible to watch them walk through those steps, which, like I said, it just was really like an object lesson.

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Sometimes some of us stubborn ones, it takes a little bit more creativity for it to sink in, you know, and and to see them, the truth sink in for them,

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that we were going to all these great lengths and what greater lengths he went to for us and specifically that, you know, we weren't cutting or shaping these stones.

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We weren't tumbling them. We weren't altering their appearance at all.

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We were taking them out of where they were and cleaning them.

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And that is the simple goodness and truth of the gospel is God takes us straight out of where we are and he cleans us.

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And it's not, hey, we have to get rid of your past.

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Don't tell anyone act as you know, keep up this charade or this facade so that no one knows.

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No, it's in spite of those that his goodness can become our testimony.

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And eventually one of these women's programs that you were partnering with asked you to come on board as their assistant director.

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And it was a women's residential nonprofit, but that required some major changes in your life and what you're doing.

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So how did you and your husband come to a decision? And what what was that decision?

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It was shrouded in prayer, tons of prayer.

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At that time, I was really feeling more of the business stress.

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You know, the business side of it was stressful and there was a lot to manage.

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And I was starting to feel burnt out, you know, as good as God is.

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There was a very human side to all of it that was really, really wearing on me.

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And I had been I had become extremely involved with this particular program.

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So I'd taken on a lot of extra tasks and duties.

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So when they asked me to come on as assistant director, we all prayed about it and ultimately decided that we would close the business

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so that I could move into that role with them, because as much as I enjoy making jewelry,

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my heart is with seeing people's hearts and lives restored and redeemed.

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So that was we decided at the end of 2019, we would close the business.

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And we did. And after the New Year, I went to, you know, OK, here's day my like kind of official day one.

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You know, I'd been helping a lot, but this is really official.

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And three months later, we got hit with the pandemic.

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COVID broke out and everything shut down. And I mean, including the residency program that you were at.

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So how did that impact you?

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I mean, you had shut your business down. You had kind of turned your life up around to do this.

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And now you're left holding the bag, so to speak.

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So how did that affect your family and your faith?

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And I mean, the Lord had told you to do it. So what now?

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So I felt very much like I was back where I was alone in Chicago with a lost child, you know, where God, I thought you told me to do this.

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I don't understand. Why are you wiping my plea clean?

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And it was the residency program shut down completely.

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And I didn't have a business and my kids were home from school because everyone went virtually, you know.

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And I really went through some serious like resentment and bitterness because I enjoyed what I was doing.

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And I was like, God, I was doing it for you. Look at all the stuff that I was doing for the kingdom.

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And as I'm saying all this to him, I'm getting the same question back.

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Where is your worth and where is your value? Where are you?

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What are you placing your hope in? Is it in your ability to do something?

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And it was such a humbling point to get to to realize, oh, yeah, God's big enough that he doesn't his kingdom isn't dependent upon me.

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I want to participate in building his kingdom, but I don't get to say, hey, look at my noble list of things I did for your kingdom.

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Aren't you proud of me?

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No, that's not how the love of Jesus works.

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He loves us because we're his kiddos and I don't have to prove my worth and my worth isn't measured in my accomplishments.

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And the sort of confidence boost it was to be asked to come on as assistant director, you know,

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and then that be like completely gone within a matter of months reminded me again that, oh, that's right.

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My identity is simply that I am a child of the king and that's all I have to be.

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But it was hard. It was super hard. It's still something I'm still, you know, he's still teaching me, still asking me those same questions.

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But God just was reminding me like he was just telling me, just do what's right in front of you.

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And I was like, I have nothing in front of me, Lord. Do what's right in front of you.

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And I'm like, OK, my kids are right in front of me.

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Well, we have kind of always talked about homeschooling and it was never the right time because it was just too much on the plate to do.

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Maybe now we switch and do homeschooling. OK, do what's right in front of you. OK, what else is right in front of me?

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My elderly neighbors next door, other kids on our street who are now home alone because school is not in session and these parents are still having to be working.

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You know, how can we help them? And he just started to shift my eyes to exactly what he was asking me.

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What is right in front of you? And so for I was going to say for the last couple of years, but we're still walking this is what is right in front of you.

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You know, the Bible says that man can make his plans, but it's the Lord that establishes his footsteps.

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So there is wisdom in making plans, but there is foolishness and clinging to those plans as hard and fast.

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This is what's going to happen. We have to be willing to make those plans and then trust that God's going to be the one that establishes those footsteps so that we can do exactly what's in front of us.

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And walking that the past few years hasn't really been free of challenge.

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You know, in every one you've seen the faithfulness of God because you have really committed to walking out his plan.

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Sometimes you don't always understand it, but you're committed to it, which he delights in that.

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So what's been going on and how have you seen God working?

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For starters, homeschooling is also a very humbling experience because all of a sudden you realize you're the one responsible for making sure your kids know everything they need to know.

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And that can be overwhelming, but realizing, OK, God, there's going to be gaps and there I can't do it all.

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I have to lean on you. I have to ask that you fill the gaps.

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I have to ask that your strength is made perfect in my weakness because I am full of weakness.

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And then in this so this past fall started our third year of homeschooling.

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My kids are now seventh grade, fifth grade and third grade.

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And, you know, we were putting one foot in front of the other.

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Things felt like they were going well.

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And January rolled around and my husband was laid off from his job.

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So still single income. And now now there's no income.

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I don't have a business. He doesn't have a job.

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And we were really shocked. It was completely unexpected.

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His company laid off like 20 percent of people and he works in the tech industry.

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So finding another job as so many other tech companies were also doing layoffs.

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You know, there were too many companies not hiring and too many extremely well qualified people needing work.

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So we just had to pray and ask that God would continue to make our footsteps firm

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and that he would give us the grace to do what was right in front of us.

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My husband has so much. He has so much tenacity and perseverance.

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And he worked harder looking for a job than maybe once he has a job,

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from the sheer fact that it was just constant interviews, you know.

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And he did amazing. And I just was like, OK, my kids are in front of me and my husband is in front of me.

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I'm going to pray and support him as much as I can for as long as it takes.

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And I'm going to choose an honor to walk through this together with him.

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And we're going to trust that we will get to the other side of this.

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And when we do and when we get that gift of hindsight, we're going to be like, wow, God, thank you for that layoff.

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That turned out to be the best thing we could have imagined, you know.

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Sounds like kind of a crazy thought, but we had to cling to a father that's good.

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So then your husband is interviewing. He's like, you know, one of the final ones that's going to be considered for this job.

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And and all of a sudden, tornado warnings go off. Tell us about that day.

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So at this point, he had been interviewing for three months.

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He, I think in total, ended up interviewing at about 170 different companies.

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I mean, just like an obscene number.

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And a lot of times for his particular work, they do a series of interviews, just so many interviews for one particular position.

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And he had made it through various to various stages through all these different companies.

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And this was one of several that he had made it to the final interview.

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Up until this point, past the final interview, it was a we're sorry we decided to go with another candidate.

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But this one, we were just like, oh, God, let this please be the job.

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And he had his final interview with the vice president on a day that they had been predicting storm, very bad storms.

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And growing up in Arkansas, we are not not used to tornado sirens going off in the spring.

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You know, we're very used to that.

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But the weather was getting bad.

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And I suggest I was like, you might want to tell this guy when you hop on the zoom call with him that, you know, there's bad weather in the area.

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Just on the outside chance, the sirens go off.

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You might have to hop off the call and reschedule.

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Well, rescheduling was like the last thing we wanted to do because we just wanted this interview to happen and hoped that a job offer would follow.

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And he got about 10 minutes into the interview and the sirens started going off.

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And so he got off the interview and he came downstairs to my kiddos and I.

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And we all got our shoes on like we do when the sirens go off, because if anything happens, you need to be able to walk out of where you're hiding.

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And we hid in our laundry closet like we do every time, you know, we're just kind of sitting there waiting every the kids have their stuffed animals.

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You know, we've got pillows down there.

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We're watching the weather, local weather on my phone.

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All of a sudden, we started to realize, holy cow, this thing's about to actually hit us.

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We are in direct line of this.

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And it did. It was super scary.

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We started to, you know, know that this is my my oldest had just been asking me what sound does a tornado make?

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And we talked about how, you know, people always say it sounds like freight train.

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And we kind of mimicked it. It's not the tukituka necessarily, but the whoo, you know, like the horn almost of a freight train.

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And after literally within probably 30 seconds of me making that sound, we started hearing that sound and the pressure started to change in our house.

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So our ears clogged up and the windows started breaking.

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And my husband just like stretched out his arms and laid over us all.

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And the tornado completely devastated our neighborhood.

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It devastated a long range of our city.

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It was on the ground for 34 minutes and traveled 34 miles.

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Yeah, I drove through that area and was just astonished when I the day I met you.

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I just couldn't believe the street after street after street after street where homes were destroyed.

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Yeah. So we were in shock, you know, completely overwhelmed with terror.

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Also, my husband and my oldest very quickly hopped up and ran outside to begin helping and checking on neighbors and checking on people.

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And I was I stayed in the laundry room with my two youngest.

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Just we were so shook for me growing up in Arkansas, living through tornadoes quite literally been my worst fear.

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I would like to say that I held it together. I didn't hold it together, but Jesus did.

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He held it together for us. And he my son, my oldest actually recorded the whole thing on his phone.

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And I've not listened to it or watched it. I can't. But something that everyone has remarked or mentioned.

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And one thing I do remember is I was just saying Jesus's name over and over again.

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Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. And I can only say that it's Jesus who pulled us through that.

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You know, we have the story in the New Testament of him being in the boat with his disciples when the storm came and Jesus was sleeping.

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And they're like, probably much like I was. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. You know, wake up. This is scary.

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And of course, Jesus silenced that storm and he stilled the winds and the water.

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But I can say with complete and utter certainty that he was with us in our laundry room in that through that storm.

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Yeah. And, you know, I mean, raising children is challenging at any time, but all that's happened over the past few years has made it even more difficult.

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And what you and and Jonathan, your husband, went through with your family would be terrifying.

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It was terrifying. So what had you done to comfort your children and help them through the process?

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I mean, you're dealing with the process yourself, but how have you helped them go through that process in light of your faith and their faith in Christ?

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We have just chosen to be extremely honest and transparent with our kids.

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They knew that dad had lost his job. They obviously when you live through something like a tornado, there's no sheltering their eyes from the devastation.

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There is a lot of fear and a lot of anxiety that follows with that.

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And I guess my biggest thing, our biggest thing was really we're not going to we're not going to ever make them feel like or ourselves feel like we have to put on a facade again or act out this charade that everything's,

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you know, rainbows and sunshine when it's not, because we know that God's with us, even when it's not rainbows and sunshine.

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And it's easy to not talk about the hard things.

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It's easy to shelf that and maybe try and deal with it later or think you'll deal with it later.

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But it takes a lot of trust to open up about the hard things.

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And it's been one of those things that we've taught the kids like we're not opening up about the hard things because we're glorifying the hard things at all.

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We want to glorify the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords who sees us through every bit of it.

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And when we cry, it's OK because Jesus wept. And when we ask God, could this not be any different?

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That's OK, because Jesus asked, can this cup pass from me?

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But Jesus submitted to the will of the Father and trusted Abba Father.

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And so that's what our pattern is to do that, too.

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We had, of course, been in the laundry room praying before the tornado hit.

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Don't let this storm hit. Keep it up in the sky.

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And my middle kiddo, one of his questions early on, he was very upset.

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Just like, why did God not answer that prayer when there are homes in our neighborhood that didn't get touched?

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There are homes on our street that didn't really get touched.

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And so he was like, why didn't God answer our prayer? Why did he not touch their homes?

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But why did the tornado not touch their homes, but it touched our home?

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And this was just a Holy Spirit answer. And I was teaching him as much as Holy Spirit was teaching me.

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But just that we've gotten to experience a different flavor of his favor, that it is not that God favored some and didn't favor others.

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We don't have to know or understand why things happen the way they do.

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We're just asked to abide in him. And when we abide in him, we get to see him reveal different aspects of his character.

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So some people maybe needed to see God as protector revealed to them and their house.

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Who knows why their house didn't get hit?

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Maybe others needed to see God as Jehovah Jireh, our provider, and see him like we have experienced him meet our need, our every need, our moment by moment need.

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Questions arise and I'm like, I don't know. And then that need is met in that moment.

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And that's sweet. Those are things that we don't get necessarily the opportunity to see those sides of our Heavenly Father until we're put in positions where we're having to fully and completely and utterly rely on him.

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We have prayed with them. You know, we are in the Word very, very regularly. It is our manna.

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And helping them understand they can take the big, heavy, hard questions to God because he's big enough for them.

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And he's also so good that he will walk us through those questions and really us praying that the Lord would protect our kids from our own mistakes.

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You know, I mean, all the way back to the struggles I had as a teenager and feeling like I couldn't be totally transparent or vulnerable.

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And when I tried to be vulnerable, it was really like, what do you want me to do about that?

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You know, those were difficult things to hear and definitely kind of reinforce this idea that we need to as Christians look like we have it all together.

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And I realized that's not how we want to teach our kids.

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That Jesus is here for the broken, whether you're a Christian or not. And Christians are broken too.

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And people let people down. And so even just praying that God will protect our kids from our own mistakes, Jonathan and I as parents, that we're going to make as we try and do our best, but we will inevitably make mistakes also.

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You mentioned to me that you've seen God's goodness throughout these trials.

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I mean, you just said, you know, a need would come up and almost immediately it was met. Share some of those things.

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What were some of the ways that God just you know, he's been with you through this fire like the fourth man in the fire, right?

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Today actually is seven weeks from the afternoon that the storm hit and I could sit here and give you seven weeks worth of examples of how God has met us moment by moment.

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It's hard to even pick my favorites because it's all just been so him.

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I'll start with we had just we've talked off and on a lot of different times over the past couple of years about potentially moving, putting our house up for sale.

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And we had decided that we would do that.

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We had a trip booked to Disney World that we booked last year for the middle of April.

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And we thought, you know what, let's just declutter our house and freshen it up and we'll list it for sale when we go out of town for this trip.

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And then the tornado hit and what happened was the week before we had decided we had this decision.

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I don't know. For some reason, we both just feel like God's telling us to go ahead and pack and just get things packed up and we'll list the house for when we leave.

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And our decluttering turned into full out packing and all we had left in our home were our clothes and our furniture and some things on our bookshelves.

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And like kitchen necessities.

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Everything else was boxed and put into garages and into our garage.

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And even though all of that is just stuff and stuff can be replaced, all of our stuff was totally fine through the tornado.

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Not only did we not lose any of those things, but we also didn't have to worry about going through and clearing out what we could salvage.

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Because it was all already saved for us in boxes in the garage.

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God totally had us packing because there was going to be a tornado.

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You know, we thought we were going to list our house, but he had us packing for other reasons.

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We have a motor home. Our motor home was sitting in our driveway and it's like a 24 foot motor home.

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Every bit of our property was damaged except for our motor home.

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Both cars were totaled. Our houses damaged so much.

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With a lot of it being exterior damage.

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Our neighbors Cate Corner from us had a travel trailer in their driveway that ended up in our front yard and parts of it inside our living room.

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But our motor home was completely undamaged.

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And I went into it that afternoon, like after the storm had passed, to check on the inside and things that were on the counters had been on the counters were still on the counters.

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It was as if the tornado had not even shook the motor home despite everything being destroyed around it.

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And it was remarkable. We were like, oh my gosh, it's like, you can just picture God sending his angels just to like put a blanket over our motor home and protect it.

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And as a result of that, we were able to still go on our trip to Disney World, which was such a gift.

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Because we were here for those few days following the storm to get the insurance things and to get the ball rolling on like all the things that follow a natural disaster.

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And then we got to check out and we got to take our totally fine motor home to Disney World and have fun and try and escape the craziness that life had become.

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And that was prepaid too.

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Yes, it was already. Yes, it was all already taken care of.

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Days before we left, my husband got a job offer from the vice president of the company that he had been talking to when the tornado ended up hitting.

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So praise God for that.

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We had we didn't know where our next meal was going to come from.

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You know, we didn't have electricity. We didn't have gas.

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We didn't. You know, we had like we had nothing. We had no water.

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You know, things were stark there for a while, just shortly after.

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And people we knew well, people we didn't know at all, people we kind of knew were showing up day of, you know, the hour of dinner with dinner.

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And we didn't know, you know, or we weren't expecting it.

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There at one point I was walking around the house and I don't know if you're anything like me, but sometimes when I'm like super stressed and overwhelmed and exhausted, I just want a really good chocolate chip cookie.

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And I had said out loud, do we have any chocolate cookies here?

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Of course we did it. And not five minutes later, a friend showed up with dinner.

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And the last thing she pulled out of her car was a bakery box of chocolate chip cookies.

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And it was like, thank you, Jesus. Like, he knows our every need, but he also knows our desires, you know.

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The day that I met you, Jodi, it was after our Disney trip. We had come back and we were kind of getting back into really dealing with the shock almost all over again of what our home looked like and what our neighborhood looked like.

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And we, though there was a lot of damage done to our roof, it was still on top of our house.

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And so we had come back expecting, you know, we're going to try and stay here.

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We have just toughed it out and stayed here in the house.

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But one of the things that got ruined was our couch. And we had a big sectional that was like the main part, that was our main piece of furniture.

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And it had had from all the windows breaking just so much glass. We'd cleaned it so many times. Water, mud, you know, I mean just all of it.

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But it was still in the house. And that morning we woke up and we were like trying to figure out what the to-do list is now that we're back home.

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And I was like, we've got to figure out a way to deal, have a place to sit in our living room.

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Maybe we should get just like a bunch of thick blankets or something and cover the couch.

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And it was kind of like, ugh, do we want to spend money on something that once we're done, you know, once insurance is able to get us a new couch that we'll just throw away.

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And so just, ugh. Within a couple hours, three women showed up at our house, you being one of them, and started asking, what are the needs?

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We know we're a couple weeks out now from the storm. What are the needs?

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And I was like, I don't think I even answered your question yet. One of the girls said, like, for instance, you guys need blankets?

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We just had somebody donate a bunch of thick, heavy blankets. And I was like, that is exactly what we need. Yes. Thank you.

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And y'all turned around and went and got those blankets and brought them back to us.

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And we got to cover our couch and sit on our couch. And it was so such a probably a small thing, but it was actually really huge for our family to get to sit down in our living room.

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I could snuggle my kids, you know, all because of these blankets that were on our couch.

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And those are just like a few of the many, many, many things that God has so clearly and evidently shown us himself and his goodness and his care and his attention to detail.

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Like only an Abba father could, you know. I mean, those had to be faith building for you and for your kids because you know, you haven't hidden your struggles from the kids.

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I mean, they've been in the middle of them too. They're struggling as well. But you've underlined each one with your confidence that God is faithful and he's going to see you through.

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And he has. He has. So you can share how God has answered all of those needs and met those needs.

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What do you want our listeners to take away from your experiences that will help them in their own journey of faith?

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God's not the one you want to give up on. He doesn't give up on you. Don't give up on him.

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I am a big advocate for transparency. You know, be honest with people about what you're struggling with.

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I think that the enemy, he thrives in secrecy, you know, and we keep things secret and to ourselves and hidden. He can have a heyday in our thoughts, in our life, whatever it is, whether it's just a struggle with, I don't want to say just a struggle,

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but whether it's a struggle with value or worth or if it's a struggle with addiction or whatever it is, when you start to open up and talk to people about that and talk to trusted people, you know, show up at church, find who you can trust at church.

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Talk to your spouse. Talk with God, you know. I would have like out loud prayer times with God just so that it wasn't hidden in the confines of my own mind and heart for the enemy to just twist and distort.

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We have really encouraged our kids to be bold in sharing these stories of God's goodness, you know. We've all gotten in the habit. It's been so sweet to hear them at the same time also when things happen.

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It's just, oh, thank you, Lord. And to hear them say that, it's just he is so ever present and not just in our time of need. He is with us through it all.

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So I would just encourage your listeners that whatever the storm is that they feel like they're in the midst of, don't forget that Jesus is in your boat.

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And I had struggled with like, okay, God, but were you asleep? You know, what does that look like? But the reality is he is king over it all.

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And so, he's worth taking your troubles to. I've told my kids, you know, counselors are great. Therapy is good. We're in our own share of it with just dealing with the trauma of the storm, you know.

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Panic attacks happen when the clouds get dark, you know, and it's been really rough. But Jesus, one of his names is wonderful counselor. And so we don't have to think that we don't have a counselor except for that allotted time.

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He's always available to us. He doesn't ever double book us. He is always available for us to talk to. And really also understanding that scripture outlines how God has appointed different people for different times and for different things.

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We don't have to, it's easy in our humanity to look at what someone else is going through and wish we had that instead of what we had. But I would challenge everyone to instead be like, God, what do you want to teach me through this?

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How do you want to show me more of you? How can you be glorified through my situation? Because he has you in it for a reason. Even if it's awful, there is hope. Because that is who he is. He is hope.

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Well, Stacy, as we close, would you share about a woman in the Bible who's inspired or encouraged or taught you something?

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One of the women I reference often is Esther. It's kind of like the coffee cup verse, you know, like for such a time as this. But what I love is that Mordecai challenged her, hey, you can step up and stand in for the Jews, but if you don't, God will send someone else.

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And she chose to participate in what God was doing. And I want to participate in what God is doing. The women that are included in Jesus' genealogy at the beginning of Matthew, you know, you have Tamar, you have Rahab, you have Bathsheba.

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No, I'm sorry, not Bathsheba. She's not in Jesus' genealogy. But you, where is she? Let's see. Tamar, Rahab, Bathsheba. Yes, I'm missing another one because there's five. Mary, his mom, Ruth. Yes, that's who it is.

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So we have Tamar, we have Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba. Okay, these are women who struggled. They struggled. They went through struggles. They were not even a part of the chosen country, you know. They were not Israelites.

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And he extended his hand to them. He was ever present for them. His grace grafted them in like he has with me, like he has with us. And those women's stories, some are very sordid, you know. But that was, it's not been glossed over like that that should not be talked about.

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But didn't disqualify them from God using them. God knows where we've been. He knows what we've been through. He loves us. It doesn't disqualify us. It is in spite of those things. And out of that comes these beautiful testimonies, not for our sake to say, oh, I have a beautiful testimony, but to give him, it's us pouring out that perfume on his feet.

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It's us anointing him and breaking that alabaster jar and saying, Jesus, you know, add an eye. I can't do this without you. I love you and I adore you. And out of an overflow of all that you've done for me, I am going to share that with whoever will listen.

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Well, at the beginning of our conversation, I read Ephesians 4, 21 through 25, where we're told to put away our sinful nature, have our mind renewed by the Holy Spirit, and live transparently and truthfully in front of others.

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I mean, as a teen, Stacy experienced the pain of trying to portray perfection when things were not. She learned from that and the freedom of transparency with God and with others allows her so many opportunities to heal and to grow and to help others.

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And when we know Jesus, who is the truth, we're set free to live truth in front of others.

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And that is the truth of God's goodness and love and faithfulness. You know, if you want to know Jesus right now, call our prayer line at 855-459-CARE so one of our prayer volunteers can introduce you to him.

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You can also call or text that line with other prayer requests. But Stacy, would you take a moment right now and pray for our listeners?

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Heavenly Father, we just love you. We thank you for who you are. We thank you that you're a good daddy. God, I thank you that just like how my husband reached his arms out and laid on top of us, his family, your son, you sent him to reach out his arms and cover us with the forgiveness of our sins.

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God, we thank you so much for that gift. Father, I ask that you would forgive us for thinking that we can't bring it all to you. Forgive us for thinking we have to make it better ourselves before we can come to you.

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Thank you for meeting us in those miry pits. Thank you for meeting us in the storms. Thank you for meeting us in the struggles, whether it's unemployment, depression, addiction, loss of a child. God, all these storms, you have never left my side.

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And I thank you that it's not unique to me, but God, it is true for all of your sons and daughters. So Father, I pray for those right now who are struggling to know that nearness of you, Lord, that they would first choose to become a daughter of the King.

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Lord, that they would put their hope and faith and trust in you. And God, I pray for my sisters in Christ, God, that no matter what it is they're going through, that they would know the nearness of you, Lord, that they would trust that you are good, even if things look bad.

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Lord, that they would hold on to you as their tower and their refuge. God, I thank you for how you covered us under the shadow of your wing. And I pray that even as things begin to look better, both in my life and the lives of the people who are listening, God, that we would not be quick to leave the shelter of the shadow of your wing.

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Lord, I love you. I thank you. We praise your holy name in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.

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And now, dear friends, I bless you from Psalm 40 verses 4, 5, and 8.

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Her God Story is a ministry of Somebody Cares America and international. To find out more about or support the ministry, go to SomebodyCares.org.