The absolute necessity that came when I didn't have an earthly dad anymore, and that seems
to be who a lot of people go to for advice and direction, which is natural.
You would obviously go to your dad, your parents, whatever.
And I didn't have that.
So it forced me to go to my heavenly father, who then, of course, picked me up right where
I was and walked this journey with me and taught me everything that I've learned.
Hi guys, and welcome to another episode of Truth Talk.
Today we are wrapping up Season 1, and I could not be more excited to be on this journey
with you guys.
I really, really have learned so much in the last 10 episodes that I didn't really even
know I didn't know.
It's interesting because they say if you want to learn something, you should teach it.
So I was under the impression you had to know about it before you started teaching.
But God has just been so faithful, and He has taught me so much.
And I really, really just hope that something that I might have said over the last several
weeks has resonated with you as well.
One thing that I will share with you is every week I take this podcast very seriously.
And the content that I feel like the Lord lays on my heart is something that I seek
Him over before I ever film.
And sometimes it's really obvious, and sometimes it's not as obvious.
Sometimes I think I'm going to film on this subject and the day before He changes it to
this subject, which is fine, but I really try to be faithful to what I think He is telling
me that He wants me to share.
And the thing that I love about the Lord is that, and I have learned this because of
the absolute necessity that came when I didn't have an earthly dad anymore.
And that seems to be who a lot of people go to for advice and direction, which is natural.
You would obviously go to your dad, your parents, whatever.
And I didn't have that.
So it forced me to go to my heavenly father, who then of course, picked me up right where
I was and walked this journey with me and taught me everything that I've learned.
And that is exactly what this is.
It's a journey.
I really would have preferred an event to have, okay, I'm healed, I can move on with
my life.
All right, let's move on to the next problem.
But as my husband says, this is the gift that keeps on giving.
Childhood sexual abuse is not something you just get over and move on.
It literally infiltrates the way we view things, the way we see things, the way we hear things.
And when you become a parent, it's like that on steroids because now not only are you trying
to protect yourself, but now you've got these little ones that you're trying to protect
that God's put in your care.
And so it is a journey.
And so that is actually an encouraging thing.
It's kind of like forgiveness.
You know, forgiveness is not an event either.
It's something that you have to do repeatedly over and over and over again.
It just doesn't happen overnight.
And so because it is a journey, sometimes our journey is, you know, we have to do stuff
daily to keep moving forward.
Sometimes it's hourly.
I mean, I've had days that I'm just like, you know, by noon, I'm exhausted because so
much has triggered me just in that morning time.
But the point is to keep moving forward.
You know, it's okay to stop and rest.
We've talked about that.
That's not even optional.
According to the Bible, God wants us to rest, but it's a constant moving forward.
Our journey does not stop because we hit a wall or we have another trigger or whatever
it is.
We just know that this is something else the Lord is doing in our lives and trying to teach
us.
And we may pause for a moment, but we just keep moving forward.
So I just want to encourage you in that.
But I also want to acknowledge the fact that our lives, because of the way we think and
the way we view things and the way we see things, and because we're so...
so protective over ourselves and our children,
a lot of what we deal with is very heavy
and it's very tiring.
So my season may be shorter
than some of the other podcasts that you watch.
We are gonna take a break because I know for me,
if I'm not focused on my own health
and what makes me a good mom and a good wife to my husband,
then I'm not gonna be good for anyone else.
And I wanna keep myself healthy.
And after 10 solid weeks of lots and lots of content,
I'm gonna take a little break
and then we will come back refreshed and ready to go.
So I just want to share that with you,
but I also wanna talk to you about the benefits
that come from suffering.
The Bible's very clear on this.
There are benefits.
It's not just like we suffer
and God allows these things to happen in our life
for no reason.
The Bible is very clear.
And what I wanna do is share a few scriptures with you
that talk about what benefits come from suffering.
The first one that most of you have probably heard
is James 1, two through four.
It says, count it all joy, my brothers,
when you meet trials of various kinds,
for you know that the testing of your faith
produces steadfastness.
And let steadfastness have its full effect
that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
Okay, so let's just break that down for a minute.
First of all, this is about steadfastness,
which we just talked about.
That's the just continuing to move forward.
Doesn't mean you don't get knocked down.
It just means you keep going.
And that steadfastness has its full effect.
It makes us perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
That doesn't mean we are perfect.
It means that because we allow the Lord
to meet us where we are and pick us back up
and keep walking with him through this journey,
then there is nothing else that we need.
We are lacking in nothing.
And I love that because there's very little
that we have in common with the Lord.
But one of the things is no one suffered
as much as he did, no one.
When Jesus came to the earth,
he suffered more than any of us ever can or ever will.
Suffering is just a small way of having a little bit
of understanding in what Jesus experienced on the cross.
Nothing compared, I've never been on a cross,
let me tell you, but he understands our suffering,
which is another thing that draws me to him
because he isn't just this God way out there
that doesn't get that I'm sad or I'm feeling rejected
or I'm feeling abandoned.
Because he went through all of that,
all of that when he was on the earth.
Another verse is 2 Corinthians 1, verses three and four.
It says,
blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the father of mercies and God of all comfort,
who comforts us in our affliction
so that we may be able to comfort those
who are in any affliction with the comfort
with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
In a nutshell, what that means is,
is that when we suffer,
God comforts us through the Holy Spirit
and that comfort, now we have received comfort
and now we can give that comfort out
because you can't give something out
that you've not received, right?
So like if I have no money, I can't give you $5
because I have no money.
But if I go and I receive $5,
I can give you $5.
So this is talking about how it's through our suffering
and our comfort we receive through the Holy Spirit,
which then allows us to turn around and comfort our friend
or our brother or our sister in Christ
or whoever it is that God sends along your pathway.
So that is very encouraging to know
that your suffering is not in vain.
There is a reason.
And I know in my own personal experience,
I used to have the thought,
what possibly can come out of this
that could be classified as good in any way?
Like I kept it to myself
because I didn't want anybody to know
because I didn't think anything good ever, ever
could come from it.
But I took one little step of faith
in sharing my story with someone
and just one-on-one with someone
and it completely broke her out of her own prison
that she had the same story that I did.
Well, that all of a sudden made me feel so much better
that I had experienced what I had
so that then
I could relate to her and she could relate to me and I could help her because I
was so much further along on my journey than she was and she did not know what
to do. So that was very,
very exciting for me to know that that my suffering did have a
purpose and something good did come out of that.
The last verse I want to share with you is first Peter one seven.
It says so that the tested genuineness of your
faith, more precious than gold that perishes,
though it is tested by fire may be found to result in
praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
So I love that word fire because that is sometimes
how I think it feels like it is so
difficult. The things that we are experiencing,
thinking, you know,
looking back on whatever it is that is triggering us is so
painful. I mean, it's like being in the fire.
It is that much pain.
And I love that word fire because there are times that you
literally feel like you are in the fire, but you know,
gold is purified in fire.
So if we did not go through certain things,
then we are not going to end up in the place that God wants
us to be as he wants us to be.
There are certain things that have to experience that heat in
order to come out on the other side,
the way that it's supposed to be.
And then it says may be found to result in
praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Everything that,
that we do is for God's glory.
And so if there is something in me that God can
use for his glory, then I don't care what it is.
I want him to use that because that was the sole purpose for me
being created was to bring glory to my father in heaven.
And so if this is what it takes for me on this side of
heaven, then I am really,
really happy to experience whatever it is that he
thinks that I need to experience to bring him glory.
That is not something that I would wish on somebody.
It's not something that, you know,
I long for as far as going through that pain.
But if it is for the purpose of bringing God glory,
then it makes all of it worth it. Every bit of it worth it. Because again,
there's not much that I can give back to the Lord.
There is very little at all that I can offer to him.
And if this is something that I can offer, then I am happy to do that.
Another thing I want to talk to you guys about, because there's so much,
there's so much right now in America that in maybe in the whole world,
I don't know. I don't look at world news. I look at what's going on here.
And I know there is so much fear of man going on
today because there are people being canceled and people being
targeted and people, you know, just all kinds of stuff going on.
So people are being silenced for lots of different reasons.
And it makes me very sad because I want to give you guys
this example that I saw several years ago.
And it was so freeing for me.
I don't know if anyone knows who Louis Giglio is, several you might,
but you've probably all heard of the Hubble telescope, which is, you know,
this telescope that they launched many, many years ago.
And it just keeps going farther and farther and farther in the space.
And then it turns around and takes a picture of the earth every so often.
And then it sends it back to NASA and they, you know, here's the earth.
And that's how they can see how much is out there,
you know, because without somebody going out there,
there's really no other way to find that out.
So he was showing me a video of the Hubble telescope
and he was probably in on a stage with, I don't know,
like a hundred foot screen. It was ginormous.
And when he very first showed this video, the earth was, you know,
really big right in the center of the state of the screen.
And there was a little arrow that says, you live here, you know,
I'm pointing to America. And so then he said, okay.
And then the Hubble kept going and kept going and then turn around, you know,
and then the earth got smaller and it was like, okay,
you live here and you could still see it. And after a while,
the earth was so little.
It was like a dot on the screen like a teeny teeny tiny dot and he still has a little arrow
You live here and I was thinking it was still going
Okay
This telescope is still going but it was like the last one you could see this teeny tiny little dot and I'm thinking myself
I'm looking at this dot
and I'm like I
Live there. Okay, so that is the earth and
I'm somewhere on the earth and I am just a blip on
This little blip on the screen
I'm like nothing
Literally nothing and God just so clearly said to me, honey
Why then do you give a blip about what any of the other blips on that earth?
Think about you
look what I've created and I say you're precious and I say you're valuable and
I say you're worthy not because of anything I've done but because of how God sees me through his son
Jesus and that
Was life-changing for me because so many people who have been rejected and abandoned and broken
Through the events of childhood sexual abuse, especially when it's a family member or somebody they love and trust
We are so fearful of other people and we are so fearful of what they're gonna think about us because the thought of
Being abandoned and rejected
Again is so painful that we cannot wrap our brain around it. But when we realize
They're just a blip on the blip
That is called the earth in comparison to what the Creator
spoke
Into existence and that same Creator that spoke into existence
the little blip we live on
thinks that you are awesome and
he is
Desperate to have a relationship with you so much so that he sent his son Jesus his only
begotten Son to die for you and I
Cannot think of one person
That I would give my son to die for and I love pretty hard
But I could never give my son to die for anyone. So I just have a hard time
fathoming
that kind of love
but I know that it's real because I have him in my life and I've seen what he's done and
Another illustration I want to tell you about real quick and then we're gonna wrap it up
Francis Chan is one of my favorite speakers and he
He's so so much fun to watch and he's just really
animated and funny
But he had this
long
Rope, I mean it was so long as this big, you know auditorium and it was so long
it like went out the door of the of the church and um
And the rope was white
But the little part on the end of the rope was red and it was just you know
Like spray-painted right here and then he was showing the rope and it went way way way out
I mean you can even see the end of it and he said
There are so many people on this planet that are striving so hard for this little red part
this is a
representation of our
70 to 80 to you know
Some people are lucky a hundred years on the earth and all this white part
represents our eternity and
Man, that visual has so stuck with me and we'll put links to both of these in the show notes
If you haven't seen it, you really really should they're just they're just such good visuals for you to remember
When the devil's kicking you and you're already down, you know, because you can remember
What is important? What's important is not what man says what's important is what God says about you?
And what's also not important is what's happening on this earth. I mean, yes, we have to be here, but our
Destination is
Eternity and you have one of two choices
you can you your destiny can be in heaven in God's presence forever or
You can not be in heaven and be separated from him for the rest of eternity and that's called hell
And that is not a place where I think anybody if they were being honest would want to go
So I want to encourage you today like I do every time
If you do not have a relationship with the Lord
please either reach out to us through our email or find a believer because they will be
be willing to talk to you about it.
Some people are just afraid to bring it up.
They don't wanna be rejected.
They don't wanna be made fun of or whatever,
but I promise you any believer who knows the Lord
will want to and be thankful that you ask
and will share Jesus Christ with you.
And one last thing I wanna say that the Lord gave me
just today, just right before we started filming
was there are two ways to live your life.
You can live your life in worry and wonder
and constantly be in that mode of worrying and wondering
what are you gonna do?
Or you can wait on the Lord and watch for his hand.
So you can worry and wonder or watch him wait.
I choose to watch him wait.
Not that we don't ever get concerned about things
or have emergencies in our life,
but how do you handle that?
How do you just marinate on it and worry
and worry yourself sick and wondering
what are we gonna do, what are we gonna do?
And turn it over to the Lord and wait for his hand
and watch what he does in amazement.
I am so excited about what he has done this season
and I'm so excited to see what he has planned for us
for next season.
So until then, thank you guys so much for tuning in
and we look forward to seeing you
on the next episode of Truth Talk.