Latest / The Wholehearted Enneagram Podcast / From Blacktop to Dirt Road | A conversation with Lauren Eberspacher

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From Blacktop to Dirt Road | A conversation with Lauren Eberspacher · The Wholehearted Enneagram Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_03: This episode is sponsored by Super Summer Challenge.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_03: Whether you have one hour a week, one day a week, or 12 full weeks with your kids this summer, Super Summer Challenge is here to help you make the most of every minute.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_03: Our book, templates, online workshop, and personalized coaching will help you create more unplugged, purposeful, and intentional moments this summer.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_03: Instead of fighting against boredom, electronics all day long, or the crazy busy swirl of activities, Supersummer Challenge will help your kids learn new skills, build confidence, and strengthen family relationships.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_03: Find more at SupersummerCallenge.com.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_03: Welcome to the Simply Wholehearted Podcast.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_03: I am so excited to introduce you to our friend and guest today, Lauren Ebberspocher.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_03: I met her while she and her husband and her small family lived in the Kansas City area.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_03: Our husbands worked together for a tree company and endured the long hot and cold seasons together.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_03: And we were so grateful to get to know them for a couple years in their early years of marriage and as they were starting to grow and expand their family.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_03: Now Lauren lives out in the middle of nowhere.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_03: So her blog is quite fitting for her life from Blacktop to Dirt Road, where she now lives on a growing family farm and has expanded her family to now three kiddos and her youngest deacon, who's about six months old now.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_03: Anyway, our conversation, I know you'll enjoy it.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_03: I really love the time with her.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_03: It's hard to summarize in words, but I think you will find it inspiring and uplifting.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_03: And a fun little note since our conversation last, Lauren was actually featured on Today's Parents, which is a huge recognition.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_03: Her article called The Body I've Always Wanted, Size Mom, is her authentic and real life uh story about just adjusting to life after baby and how that has affected uh both her self-image, her self-worth, and her marriage.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_03: So be sure and check out that article if you haven't already read it and be encouraged, as well as some of her empowered womanhood project articles.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_03: All of them are encouraging for us as we explore what womanhood looks like in today's culture.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_03: Um, for those of us who are following and hoping to live as Christ does, and as a role as being just a woman in the workplace or as a wife or as a mom at home.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_03: So I hope you enjoyed this conversation with Lauren Eversmacher.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_03: Yay, Ashley is here.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_03: She's joining us.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_03: Well, hi there.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_03: Hello.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_03: Yay! So much better.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so I was just um the kids are actually here today um with me recording, which is not usual because that doesn't usually go very well.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_03: But they're like, well, who who do you have now?
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_03: And I said, Oh, it's it's Laura and Eberspucker, and and they're like, who?
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, oh, remember Ariel Eric and Ariel! I know I was gonna wonder if you remembered.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_02: I love it because they loved that Eric's name was Prince Eric.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_02: It was, yes, hilarious.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_02: I love it.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, they were and they were just like I couldn't believe that they remembered because it has been long enough, but they were imbattually.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_02: I'm impressed that they remembered that.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_03: I know, I know.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_03: And we really now that the house is built and everything, we really need to come visit you.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_02: I know that was you know you do, you do just need to come and visit.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_02: And now that our basement is finally done, we have more room for people to stay.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_02: And so, yeah, so we would love that.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_02: That'd be awesome.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, yay, awesome.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we need to do that.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_03: I think it'd be amazing and just see everything that you guys are doing.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_03: I know, I know Eric has been, I mean, he has been like a champion building up this farm, the farm life, doing the house.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_02: I have no idea how he's done it all and still manage to say, like, stay sane.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_02: Like I just I have no idea how he's done it.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_02: So well, I'm on the home stretch a little bit.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and then Spencer mentioned, I think last summer that he and Eric were because they get together sometimes, like when he comes to town and meet all the guys for a beer or something like that after work.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_03: But they were talking, like Eric wanted ideas about tree planting and injections and different stuff like that.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, um, so for the farm or what?
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_03: And he's like, oh no, he like wants to do the side business.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yep, he did, he's got a full business going that he does year-round now.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_02: Oh it's yeah, it's triple E tree care.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_02: And so he goes goes around and he does tree pruning and removals and does all these tree injections, and so he's yeah, he's really busy all the time, but he really enjoys it and yeah, he loves being able to be outside, and so it's kind of cool how God orchestrated him working for Ryan for so many years and then being able to come up here and still be able to use it, and so yeah, so he's he's very busy, but he really enjoys it a lot.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_03: No kidding.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_03: I know when Spencer told me that, I was like, no way, I follow Lauren enough to know that they're crazy busy, and he's adding that too.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_02: I know.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_02: Well, we added one more one more thing into the craziness.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_03: Well, yeah, so that's kind of that's how how you and I met uh was because our husbands worked together here in Kansas City for a tree company, I would say, is like just a tip of the iceberg.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_03: They kind of do all sorts of things.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_03: Um yard related, if you will, but not mowing.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely no mowing.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_03: No mowing.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_02: I did the mowing when we lived in Kansas City area and even do the mowing.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_03: Now I can pay some of my kids to do it.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_03: It's awesome.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_02: That's fantastic.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_02: I cannot wait until my kids get together.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_03: You're almost there.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you're in the pick of it.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_03: Well, um, so that's how we met.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_03: And I just, you know, we had a couple meals together.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_03: And I mean, I maybe I was pregnant the first time we got together, or maybe Miles was really little.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_03: Nope.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_02: Pregnant with Miles the first time I met you.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_03: And I just remember meeting you and thinking to myself, oh, now there is a remarkable woman.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, your husband's really great and everything.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_03: And I know Spencer really enjoys.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_02: But she was my feeling was obviously mutual.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_02: I was so excited just to know that Eric had somebody, you know, a strong, a strong man who loved the Lord working with him, because that's always a hard thing when you, you know, when you're out in the workforce.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_02: But then to know that.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_02: Especially in this industry.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, exactly.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_02: But then to find out that he had a wife who loved the Lord just as much was just a huge yeah, it was just that was a big blessing for us.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_03: I think if we hadn't had kids in the picture, we probably would have pulled an all-nighter talking about a million different things.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_02: So for sure, for sure.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_03: One of the one of the big pieces was um being a pastor's kid and some of that experience.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_03: And I know that is probably a whole nother podcast.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_03: But I kind of like to start there just to share with my friends a little bit about your growing up years and meeting Eric and kind of how you got to where you are now.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, absolutely.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I grew in a Christian home.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_02: Like you said, my dad was a pastor.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_02: He pastored for almost 30 years.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and now he's he's working, um, he's working, uh, doing some charity work right now in the Kansas City area.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_02: But growing up, I was always in church.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I accepted Christ at a really young age.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_02: But my parents took us to everything, like they never got a sitter for church events, but they took us to everything.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_02: And so we were always um just uh in the church, um, listening to my dad practice sermons, listening to um worship practice, things like that.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_02: And so um just Jesus was just a very common thing in our household.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but it really wasn't until high school and into college when um God just really became real for me.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_02: It was about um, it was about being set apart in um just a very um, just a very like hard world, just a lot of harsh realities.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and and that was really when God got a hold of my heart in high school and in college.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_02: And then in college was where I met my husband, Eric.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_02: We went to Heston College, um which is a small two-year college um in Heston, Kansas, right outside of Wichita.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_02: And that's where we met.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um and right away when I met Eric, I I mean, we knew pretty, pretty quickly, I think within about a month, that this was this was the real deal.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_02: But the thing that just was remarkable to me when I met him was just how much he loved the Lord and had um really just had a desire to grow in him and was not afraid to admit that he didn't know everything about where he was in his relationship with God, but knew that God had plans for him.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_02: And so it was really um just fun just to meet somebody.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_02: I had never really met a man like that that really was that passionate about it.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_02: And so um, yeah, so Eric and I met.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but being a pastor's kid definitely um, yeah, like I had said, it just really impacted the way that I saw people.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um I because seeing my dad minister to so many people and seeing him um invite people and him and my him and my mom invite people into our home so often, like our door was just like kind of revolving.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it just really gave me this idea for hospitality and empathy for people wherever they're walking at in their relationship with the Lord.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um and really just the fact that everyone is broken.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_02: It doesn't matter how pretty things look on the outside, um, but we're all just broken and we're all in need of a savior.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_02: And so that really, I think, was at the core of you know how how my dad being a pastor and being in ministry for all those years really just shaped my heart and just uh just to have a heart for for people.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_03: So I love it.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_03: So after college, you guys moved to Kansas City first.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_02: Mm-hmm.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yep, yep.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_02: We lived in Kansas City.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um I'm originally from Kansas City, we live in Nebraska now.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but I had my dream job when I was in Kansas City.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um I was an oncology nurse and did um just did some some work with that.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um it was like an outpatient infusion center.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_02: And so we did people's chemo all the time and then did the transition for them.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um, for those of them who uh lost their their battle, we transitioned them into hospice and did a lot of work with hospice and coordinating that care.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_02: And um, that was something for me, another huge pivotal point in my life when God became real, um, because that was my mission field, yeah, was working with these people who, you know, were at their worst in their life.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_02: Um and people when when they're that broken um physically and emotionally are really open to the gospel.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_02: And they're really open to just this, they see their need.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_02: They see their need in a way that they never have before.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_02: And so that was really an awesome opportunity for me just to just to share with people about the Lord and to pray with people and just really um just be vulnerable with people.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so that, and it's something that I've always wanted to do, and I was just so fortunate enough to get in with um some Christian physicians, which was fantastic.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but I think when when I was working there, we were talking starting to talk about having kids.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and we both knew that me being at home was something that we both really felt strongly about.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_02: But when we started to, when we got pregnant, I was adamant that I did not want to quit my job.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_02: I wanted to, I wanted to keep working because I loved it.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but I just really had to pray that God would soften my heart to to being a stay-at-home mom.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_02: And over the course of those nine or ten months that I was pregnant with my oldest, he did.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I I asked God to soften my heart and he totally turned my heart around for staying at home.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but then once I was at home, I suddenly felt this void in my life of okay, what do I do now?
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_02: Because I'm at home with this baby and I'm changing diapers and I'm burping her and I'm doing laundry.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_02: And so, like, okay, God, where are you in that?
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_02: And so over the years, I've just really found that my my mission field changed from my workplace, but it changed to discipling my children and ministering to my children and to my husband.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_02: And that is still my mission field, you know.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I don't have to be out um, you know, out in the world doing it.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_02: It can be within the four walls of my home.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_02: And so God has just really met me um just really intimately, and we've just had some really sweet time together, the Lord and I have, as I've transitioned to that, to that role being home, and I've been home now for almost five years.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_03: So it was it was beautiful to watch because I knew you really loved, and we had a lot of different conversations over that time of you know, because just kind of coming from the same place, really loving um my role in the workplace and you know, just the the position and just the those different things that you know each of us are wired differently and certain things make us come alive or whatever.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_03: But I I know that just that wrest in you and and really I I just appreciated and and that you were willing to lay that side um side down so that you could you know focus on you know starting this family and raising your kids and all that sort of stuff.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_03: But I think probably just as people will see that um that's been able to be your main focus and you've had the privilege of being able to stay at home, but you have used that time really well um just just for other things.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_02: Um just between being available to have people into our home, um to being more actively involved in the community and church, and then in the most recent years, um just starting up starting up my blog.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_02: Um I author a blog called From Black Top to Dirt Road, and um that has just been something that God has used in ways that I could not have imagined.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um it started about three and a half years ago just as a way to document our family time and um milestones for our kids, and it really has just turned into something beautiful where God has allowed me just to share um just what he's doing in my heart and how he is um just using this this season of my life of motherhood and transition and change um and how all of those things that we do can can glorify him if if we allow him to.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_02: And so the blog has really just become a really neat place and just to meet other women who are in the same place as I am and say, hey, this is hard.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, being a wife is hard, being a mom is hard, but we have Christ and we have his truth and we can lean on that.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_02: And when we and the more that we lean into him in these hard seasons, especially with raising babies and um, you know, just busy seasons with our husbands working, um, it can just really be um just an awesome reflection of God and and who he is and his faithfulness, just how he meets us in those moments.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_03: So absolutely there it's being a a mom, it is so full of joy, and there's so many just blessings along with it.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_03: And it's a privilege and it's an honor and all that sort of stuff, but it is a whole nother dimension of self-sacrifice and and you know, and it depends on, you know, maybe you're blessed with really easy kids, and so for you there's just not that element, but for you know, for some, there's some of us have more challenging children.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, and I've heard about that.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_03: And so there's a little bit more sacrifice uh in play for sure.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_03: So um, and I wanna I wanna get back to the blog, but part of that, part of the even the title is kind of because after you had um your oldest, I don't know, maybe six months, and this was kind of the plan all along because Eric was working here um and you were doing your job.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_03: There's kind of like some savings involved and everything, but the plan was to go back to the family farm and kind of take over his piece of it, uh, if you will.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_03: So kind of talk about you know that transition for you and man, it's been a while now.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_02: So yes, yeah.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_02: We have been here in Nebraska um for three years.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_02: My husband and I are on a grain farm, and so we do we do corn and soybeans.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so we have um two really busy seasons, obviously planting and harvesting.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_02: We're in the middle of planting right now.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but uh yeah, the transition from going from the city um from the blacktop to the farm, to the dirt road, hence where the name comes from.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um that was just another thing, kind of like when I was praying through, you know, getting ready to become a stay-at-home mom.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_02: I had to pray about making this move to leave my family, to leave everything that I've ever known and everything that I've ever loved, um, and come to this place where I really didn't know anyone.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_02: And my lifestyle was about to change drastically.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_02: And it was really um, it was really not just a way of learning how to submit to what God's will was for our family, but really a whole new, a whole new level of submitting to my husband and trusting him to um trusting him to lead our family and lead us in the way that that he felt like God was calling him.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so yeah, it just it would there was a lot of late night prayer and a lot of crying on my end.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_02: Sure, not on my husband, but a lot of you know, a lot of tears, a lot of um, you know, sad tears, but then a lot of joyful tears.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_02: Because once we did get here, I remember just laying in bed the first night that we were here, and I just I just thought, oh, okay, okay, there's this peace, God.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I just kept asking asking for peace in the middle of that transitional time.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_02: And um, you know, he was really faithful to provide that for for me.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_02: And um, and so yeah, so that transition has been, it's just always evolving.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_02: Um, when we moved here, Eric and my father-in-law built our house too with their own two hands.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_03: Um they built our house.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_02: And so the first year that we moved here was a really lonely one for me.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um, between planting and harvest, and then every waking hour that Eric had, he was over here working on the house.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_02: And so um, it was really a time that I had to choose my relationship with God in loneliness, I guess, for in a new way.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I've experienced loneliness in my life, but this first year that we moved here was really hard.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_02: And so in that loneliness, um, God really, God really just stepped in and filled just this void that I guess I didn't really know was there until that new level of loneliness came.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_02: And so um, yeah, that made that first, those first few months especially was really hard because I was newly pregnant at the time.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_02: And anybody who knows me knows that I I throw up for about four or five months straight.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_02: Terrible.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_02: And so, yeah, so between being sick and and being in an emplace, um, you know, my reliance on the Lord was just taken to a whole new level.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but yeah, so we love the farm.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_02: We love, we love our farm life.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_02: I I love that my girls can run outside in their underwear and their bare feet and not have care in the world.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_02: And um and I love that we can see the stars at night and hear the crickets chirping.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_02: And it's just, it's really just a beautiful, a beautiful place.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_02: And I love being able to wake up and look out my window every morning and just see what God has made, you know, and and just see his creation and his beauty and in the sun rises.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_02: And so yeah, so we really, we really are so just grateful for for our life that we have here.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_03: So I love it.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_03: Well, you have, I mean, three years has been full because you've birthed a couple more things besides your precious block.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_03: Like, I I really love going to it because there's just something refreshing about it.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_03: Like you've just done a quality job, and I wish I could say I have one like that, but I go to yours and it's just like, oh, like I wanna and and part of it is just knowing you and your beauty shines through it for sure.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but you've been you have had your third, a little boy, and how how yeah, how old is he now?
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_03: Deacon is three months old now.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_03: I can't believe he's just precious.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_02: Isn't it so fun to have a boy?
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, it is.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_02: It's a whole new ball game, and it's weird, he looks like a boy.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I I you know, my girls look like girls, but Deacon looked like, and that was not something I was prepared for.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but he really looked like a little boy, so it's fun.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_03: It is so fun.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_03: We were, you know, we were so sure Miles was gonna be a girl.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_03: And then he was a boy, and he has he has totally like proven all the all the boy theories, and he is so all boy and all that sort of stuff.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_03: But it kind of got it was kind of weird at first because it was like, well, you look kind of like your sisters, but but you're such a boy.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_03: It's so fun.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_03: I love it.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_03: It it's great, it's such a precious thing.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_03: But then also the Empowered Women Project.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I really want you to share about some of that.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, well, we're in the middle of a series right now called the Empowered Womanhood Projects and Project, and it's the strength of Christ in every mother and wife.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_02: And um back the last few months, there has just been, I've just really been wrestling really hard with a lot of things that are going on um in our country.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: Just with um girl power and you know, girl boss and mom boss and all of these things, and none of them are a reflection of the strength of Christ.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_02: They're they're all about who we are as as women, just as individuals, as people.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_02: And um, it was when there was um a few months ago back that that March for Women in Washington DC, and there was just there was nothing that proclaimed truth in in that walk at all, in in what they were saying.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_02: And um, and I just remember sitting in my bed just in tears because I was so broken for these women who were walking around um and and not and and just lost.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, they they didn't have the the spirit of God living in them.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I can't say that for all of them that were there, but it from from what I could tell, they just were lost.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_02: And so um I started brainstorming um and doing the creative process for for the Empowered Womanhood Project.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_02: And I wanted I wanted us as women, because I think that we're at such a vital point in our country right now, where we can turn to the world or we can turn back to God's word and who he calls us and how we can be become empowered through him.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_02: And so we're going through a whole bunch of different things right now.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_02: We actually just got done um with a video segment on the empowerment of Christ through our bodies um and how God looks at us.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and that was a hard one for me to do, being a postpartum, three months postpartum mom with insecurities.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but everything that we're going through in this series all relates back to what does the Bible say?
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_02: Not what does this celebrity say, what does, you know, your girlfriend down the street say, um, or even the Christian author says, you know.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_02: Even what the Christian author says, exactly.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_02: Going back to what does scripture tell us?
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_02: Um, who are we rooted in, and and what is truth.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_02: And so um, I my my goal and my my heart, my my deepest intention for this is just to draw women back to scripture and becoming empowered through that.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_02: Because the more we look to the world, the more we're gonna crumble.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_02: And the more we look to things that aren't of the Lord, um, the the more empty we're gonna feel and the weaker we're gonna feel.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so that is that is what we're doing right now in the Empowered Womanhood Project.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_02: And it has just been so fun um just to really dialogue with some of these women who are following along, um, and even pray with some of these women who are coming forward.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_02: Um, yeah, it's just been it's just been really neat.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_02: And it and it's been cool too because so many of these women who I've talked to are at all different, all different ranges in their walk with the Lord.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_02: Some of them are still trying to figure out if having a relationship with God is what they want to do.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_02: And some of them are are women who have been believers for 30, 40 years.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_02: And so it's been really neat to talk with with all of them and just realize that no matter where we're at, the same God lives inside of each of us.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it's not a stronger God in in any one, you know, two different people.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um it's the same, the same Holy Spirit that lives inside of each of us, and he equips us the same based off of you know what scripture says.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_02: And so, yeah, so it's just been a really neat series to go through so far.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_02: And so I'm excited to finish it up here in the next few weeks.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_03: So I love it.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_03: I love it.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_03: So, and I know you're doing a little bit of speaking, but you're limited uh with a little, you know, three-month-old and two other girls and daddy running a farm and a side business.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but what's kind of your desire?
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, you just you live intentionally and um I mean even just your authenticity through the hard stuff.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_03: I remember a specific it was probably a Facebook post after your second was born, and just kind of that the body image stuff, which you kind of touched on a little bit.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_03: Um you you were just brutally honest and you kind of gave a disclaimer.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_03: If you know, like if you're squeamish or if you're a guy, don't continue reading.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_03: But um that's just how you live.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_03: But kind of what's some of your desire moving forward and what you see the Lord having you do with your blog and with this idea, this concept of the empowered woman.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_03: Women have power.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_02: Well, my my desire obviously is just to always draw, always draw women in to seek what God, what God has for them, first and foremost.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, it's really easy this day and age to get up, especially caught up, especially like with social media.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, social media just can make you feel so insecure and so um I even say worthless sometimes when you look at all of these perfect pictures and perfect stories.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but one of the things that I I really want to draw women in on the most and and talk the most about is um is pursuing God's perfection or pursuing God's purification over the world's perfection.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um and so that is that is really something that I want to continue on with going forward.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_02: I am a self-proclaimed recovering perfectionist.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I struggle with wanting to look good from the outside.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I struggle with wanting to look like I've got it all together and that I'm a good person.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_02: And really, there is not one ounce of anything that is good in me.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_02: The only thing that is good in me is is the Lord.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_02: And so um going forward, I I really want that authenticity to and vulnerability to still be there in the blog.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um and and just to really, to really show women that no matter what it is that you're going through, no matter what it is that you're struggling with, Christ can be found in it.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I think the post that you were talking about um before, um, when I was a little brutally honest on some things, was was the insecurity of sex after having a baby.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_02: And how through just a really hard season that my husband and I wrestled with and struggled with in that, that God my husband brought God into the equation, basically, oh over our sex life postpartum, and how that revolutionized things for us and how it deepened our relationship.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_02: But if God wasn't involved in it, um, you know, we there there wouldn't have been that sweetness and that intimacy, not just between me and my husband, but for both of our relationships with the Lord individually.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_02: And so um, I would I would really love to just continue on with some of those deep things that that people maybe don't see God in every day.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um but he is, he is in everything, he's in the way that we keep our homes, um, he is in the way that we dress our bodies and look at our bodies, he's in the way um, you know, he's in the way that we breathe.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_02: You know, we can honor God by not having a big deep breath sigh and grumbling and complaining.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_02: I mean I mean, really though, I mean, we can honor God by the way we breathe.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_02: And that, and that is really ultimately what I want to see happen with with this vlog is just to keep it central um just on bringing bringing Jesus into the everyday moments of of being a wife and and being a mom.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um and ultimately I would love to have more opportunities um for for just some different speaking engagements.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um right now, podcasts are great because I can do it from my home.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_02: And I can have my big stretchy pants on and nobody can speak it.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_01: That's all right.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_02: That's all right.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_02: But um, but eventually I would love to do a little a little bit more um yeah, a little bit more speaking.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like God is just calling to me, calling me to that just um a little bit more than he has in the past.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um but I do I love meeting women, like I love sitting down over a cup of coffee with women.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_02: And so I would I would also love to see um some local discipleship training coming from the blog eventually.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_02: That would be.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um and eventually, and eventually taking that outside of the community that I'm in um and and pushing that forward so that women all over the place, um all over the country can be equipped on what does discipleship look like and what does vulnerability look like and how does Jesus meet us in those relationships.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_02: And so I would really love to see um see the blog take more of that direction on growth and discipleship in that way.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_03: So I love it.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_03: I could talk about discipleship all day long, uh, for sure.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_03: It's been a huge because it's just been missing in my life, and um, and it's a huge passion.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_03: And I know that maybe I'm more wired and bent that way to love um to sit across the table from someone and hear and pray into their life and pray um just you know, pray for direction and and also you know, to watch their journey and see them go after the things of God.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_03: It's it's so reworn.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_03: I love it, but um uh yeah, so I'm excited because I think we'll have to talk about that for sure when you you start formulating some of those things.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_03: I would love to get that because it does.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_03: Everyone needs everyone needs to be discipling, everyone needs discipleship, and it's a shame.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_03: And I know our culture doesn't allow for it, especially the time um factor is that people never feel like they have enough time.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_03: And so, but I would just love to change that trend and and be an example, um, but also like really encourage you know, figure out how that can well um be, you know, that message can be conveyed and done in our lives and then share it with others.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and you know, often people think think that, um, especially women in our insecurities, sometimes I think think that well, I I can't be a disciple, right?
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I can't, I can't lead another woman, I can't encourage another woman.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_02: But scripture tells us that we are to go out and make disciples of all nations.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_02: We are all called, if we have got the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, we are called to go out and make disciples and to be in relationship with people.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_02: And so that's the cool thing about discipleship is that everyone who claims Christ is their own can and and is called to be a disciple.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_02: And so that, yeah, like what you said.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's just the times don't allow for it anymore.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_02: And people think, oh, well, I don't have the time for it.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know enough about the Bible, I can't quote scripture.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_02: You don't have to do that.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_02: You just have to have a heart that's willing to be open, yeah.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and and just and be willing to make that time and willing to make that effort.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, I love what you said about that.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and even just listen, honestly, people are just they're just asking to be heard and to be seen.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_03: And if we if we if we can choose a few people to do with that, we can change the world for sure.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, totally.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: And you're not responsible for what you don't know, you're responsible for what you know.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so everyone, everybody's just maybe a little further along than someone else, and so it doesn't matter, you know.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's just be willing to share what you do have.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's awesome.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, give it away.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_03: Well, before we let you go, I did just like if there any last thought, you know, for the mama out there, for the young woman who's maybe even pregnant with their first and facing a possible career change, or um maybe um, you know, a young couple who are facing big decisions for, you know, moving out of state, or you know, just all those those different people who might be listening.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_03: Just a thought that you'd like to leave with them as they they're just looking to make some decisions in their life and and looking to make them intentionally.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, wherever you're at, um, whoever's listening, I, you know, I don't know what your current situation is, you know, it could be any of the things that Amy just mentioned, but um the way that you pray um is going to is going to drastically um change the way that you live your life.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I know for me back last year, um, I had, like I said, I was I was sick with my third baby.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_02: I was throwing up all the time, and I was in this time of um just almost constant prayer to God, just to get through every minute and every hour while I was taking care of my two kids.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and and during that time, because I was constantly in prayer, my relationship with the Lord was just so um, I could just really feel the Spirit's promptings a lot more um than than you know before I was constantly needing him and and praying for him like I should have been.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_02: And um there was something that I had been agonizing over for years, something that I desperately wanted God to fix, and I desperately wanted God to redeem and to fix for me, and um just to just to give me wisdom and an answer of how to how to fix a certain situation.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_02: And it was on the closet floor in my daughter's room while I was trying to put her clothes away in between heaves to in into the bathroom.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_02: And in that moment, in that moment, because I was so in tune with God, because because I had been praying so um just so honestly and so constantly, I I didn't hear God's voice, but I felt the spirit saying, Oh, Aaron, are you if I don't fix this for you, if I don't give you the wisdom, if I don't make things happen the way that you want them to happen, am I still gonna love you?
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_02: I said, Oh, of course, God, yes, you're still gonna love me.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, if I don't fix this, if I don't redeem this, if I don't make this work, am I still gonna be good?
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, Yes, God, of course you're still gonna be good, even if you don't fix this.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_02: And and then I I very clearly in my mind, I I heard just the spirit just tell me, and he just said, Um, if I don't fix this, am I still going to be enough?
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um and in that moment, I just had to, I just had to, I was already falling, I was already on my knees.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_02: But I just remember slumping down and just thinking, Yes, God, yes, of course you're still gonna be enough.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_02: And in that moment, I realized that I had been praying wrong.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_02: I had been praying, asking for my will to be done in the situation and not God's.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_02: And so I I started praying, okay, God, here is this, here is this problem, here's this season of my life, and I'm giving it to you, and I'm not expecting to get it back fixed the way that I want it to be.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_02: I'm ex I'm giving it to you to you, and I'm expecting your will to be done and not mine.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_02: And so um that has revolutionized my life the last year was giving things over, whatever it was, whether it be um, you know, a move or a new baby or a relationship issue, um, just giving it over to God and expecting his will to be done and not mine.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so if you are finding yourself in one of those seasons, I would just um really encourage you just to pray, pray with open hands and not clenched fists, and just to and just to really give things over to the Lord and ask very specifically for his will to be done and not your own.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_02: And and you have to get to that point on your own.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_02: It took me a few years to really get to that point after praying for the same thing over and over again and God not giving me the answer that that I wanted.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, um, but because of that, because of my heart being softened to his will during those prayers, um, I have seen tremendous fruit and tremendous growth because because um of the meekness, I guess, in in the way that that I was praying for things and just having to really humble myself and say, okay, God, it really isn't about me, but it's about you and it's about your will.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_02: And um, and so I would just encourage you to to pray, pray with open hands and not clenched fists for his will to be done.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_03: So oh, Lauren, it's beautiful.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you so much.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_03: I know you've ministered to so many people and you've blessed us.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_03: I definitely look forward to listening to this conversation over again, and I look forward to getting to talk to you down the road about more of these awesome things.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_02: Well, it was a joy to be with you guys today.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much for having me.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for being here.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, appreciate it so much.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_03: Thanks for sharing.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_03: All right, bye-bye.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_03: Bye-bye.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_03: Well, friends, I hope you enjoyed that conversation as much as I did.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_03: I sure left feeling encouraged and um blessed by my time and conversation with Lauren.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_03: So be sure and follow her on all her social handles.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_03: We'll have all the details in the notes of where to find her on Instagram, Facebook, and her blog as well that you can link to directly.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_03: I know you'll be encouraged to read her heartfelt words and writing and just the cute little snapshots that she uh gives us about life out on the farm.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_03: Now, also be sure to subscribe to the Simply Wholehearted podcast.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_03: You'll get all the new episodes immediately as soon as we upload them to be encouraged on your drive home or while you're cooking dinner.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_03: Also be sure to share with your friends.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_03: We would love to continue to share these conversations and encourage more people, and also leave a review when you're done so that way people looking through, trying to figure out what new podcasts to subscribe to, they will be excited about subscribing to the Simply Wholehearted podcast.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_03: If you enjoyed this conversation, be sure to check out episode eight with Sarah Hagerty, Why We Adore.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_03: And also episode number six with She the Pause when we're talking about shame.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_03: Until next time, I hope you find more opportunities to live more unplugged, purposeful, and intentional.