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Made for More: Saying Yes to God, Letting Go of Fear, and Learning to Abide with Kim Oswalt! · Anchored by the Sword

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  Thank you for joining me on this episode of the Anchor by the
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  Sword podcast. I pray that today's episode will
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  leave you encouraged and also challenged in your faith.
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  And I pray that. You would take.
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  The stories that are talked about here today and share them
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  with other people. Thank you so much for joining me
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  and enjoy today's episode. Hey guys, welcome to this
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  episode, the Anchor by the Store podcast.
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  I am here today with Kim Oswalt and I'm so excited to get to
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  learn more about her, her story, and just all of the things about
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  her. So, Kim, thank you for joining
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  me today. Thanks so much for having me,
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  I'm excited to be here. Absolutely.
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  Thank you for reaching out to me, by the way.
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  Oh yeah. This this is definitely a divine
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  intervention moment, so I love. It absolutely.
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  So can you tell my listeners a little bit about yourself?
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  Yeah, for sure. So my name is Kim.
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  I currently reside in Utah, but didn't start out that way.
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  I was a military brat and we traveled everywhere.
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  And so we moved to Utah when I was 13 years old and in a way
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  have been here ever since. Just a small blip in the season
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  where God took us somewhere else but been back here.
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  Came to faith in Jesus when I was around 16 or 17 years old.
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  And yeah, in Utah I like to hike and run and snuggle puppies and
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  I am currently raising a 16 year old daughter so y'all pray for
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  me. Amends that I have.
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  I have 5 nephews, 4 out of five are in town.
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  They range from 18 to 13, and the one will be 19 by the time
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  this comes out. And the one who's 24 lives in
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  Baltimore. And then my best friend's
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  daughter is 14. So yeah, I see a lot of that.
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  And I'm like, oh, I remember what I was like when I was that
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  age. You're.
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  Not wrong, you're not wrong in that we're we're definitely
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  encounter encountering a lot of teenage me.
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  So it's definitely not my favorite moments and I give
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  props to my parents for sure. Yeah, so let's dive into
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  whatever part of your freedom story you'd like to share.
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  Oh, yeah, yeah. So like I said, we moved to Utah
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  when I was 13 and shortly after coming here was one, we really
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  got rooted in a church. And so we started going when I
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  was about 16 years old. And at the time, the church that
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  we went to was a membership based church and we joined the
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  church together as a family. And as a result, we ended up
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  getting baptized as a family. And I didn't really understand
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  what that meant at the time. And so I would have to say that
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  it took me a few years to really dissect what my faith meant
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  because at that moment, I don't think I fully understood what I
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  was doing, even though I was 16. I should have had a little bit
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  more clarity in that. But spending time with some
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  friends at youth group and just really learning what it looked
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  like to serve the Lord at that church, He really worked in my
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  heart. But I feel like that was just
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  kind of the start of it. And so throughout the last, oh
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  gosh, however many years it's been since then, I can't math
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  right now. God has just been taking me on a
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  journey. He's just been showing me that
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  my walk with him is just so much more than I ever thought it
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  could have been. Yeah.
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  It's just, it's been a really beautiful story.
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  Just seeing his hand all the way through it has just been
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  amazing. So.
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  Yeah, I became a Christian at 16 as well.
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  Oh wow, that's fun. Yeah, it was on my own.
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  My parents weren't going to the church at the time.
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  I grew up Catholic and Lutheran Catholic for a while and then
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  went to Lutheran Church and then I ended up in a non
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  denominational church. So yeah, completely different
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  end of the spectrum. Yeah, it's a bit of a leap there
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  for sure. But it was, it was a good leap.
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  And so you talk about the journey and it's been a journey
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  for me as well. And I can say it's been 30 years
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  almost. In June it'll be 30 years, which
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  is crazy to think about. That's really awesome.
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  I'm like how can I say 30 years about something?
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  Like I feel like I should be 5 then.
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  Well, that's exactly it. I, I look back and I'm just
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  like, time is very relevant. And it's one of those things
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  that to capture it, you look back and you're like, no, that
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  was only 20. No, it wasn't 20 years ago,
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  right? And 20 years ago is not this
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  year, right? Exactly.
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  I know. And I yeah.
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  And I tell my, I tell the boys all the time, you know, and we
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  were told this when we were younger.
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  Time goes by so fast. And when you're a kid, it
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  doesn't always seem that way. It's like, OK, my birthday's
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  here. When's Christmas?
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  When's my birthday? Like, you just live for sure.
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  When's school over like? You live in the moment of all of
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  those accomplishments essentially.
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  And now we kind of look back in a different kind of retrospect,
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  which is actually been really something that God has been
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  doing probably over the last 10 years and my and my story.
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  So you LED women's ministry at my church for about 10 years.
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  And I started to notice that when we would sit around the
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  circle and my small group for prayer time, that a lot of the
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  struggles that I was that I had come through, God was revealing
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  to me and my friends. And it's just really cool when
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  we start to look back at our story and we look at the ways
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  that he's brought us through something.
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  And then how he lets us use that like, or if we let him use it, I
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  guess is really the, the real aspect of it.
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  Because I feel like we're, we all have some vulnerability and
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  fear and, and being open with others.
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  But it's one of those places where when we give God that part
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  of our story, it's a beautiful thing.
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  But yeah, just just reflecting back on all that he's done, it's
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  just always really cool. Yeah.
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  And you have brought up something about like the last
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  few years when we were talking earlier.
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  So is there a part of the journey over the last few years
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  where he's really revealed a lot of things to you?
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  Oh my goodness, yes. So in in 2023, I started to feel
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  a nudge on my heart to write a book.
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  And I had never written anything before, maybe a poem in high
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  school that I was proud of, but really nothing outside of that.
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  And so I started to look into it a little bit more and I can't
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  remember, I think a friend referred me to a writing coach.
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  And so I met with her just kind of more of a consult, figure out
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  if she was a good fit, all of the things.
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  And she posed a question and it kind of changed the course for
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  the rest of that journey. But she just basically asked me
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  if you could attain this goal. What is the one thing that's
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  standing between you and getting to that, the end of that?
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  And I was quiet for a minute and I reflected and I was like, Oh
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  my goodness, I'm I'm afraid to fail.
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  And when I said it out loud, it was like the Lord lifted it up
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  off of my shoulders. And he reminded me that any step
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  of obedience, when he calls me into it, he's going to be there
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  with me through it. And so it was like the ball
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  started to roll almost instantly.
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  It was I, I had named the fear lifted it off or the Lord lifted
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  it off and I was able to propel forward.
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  So Fast forward a little bit. September that year, I actually
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  found a different writing coach who then helped me get the ball
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  rolling and I was able to release my first book in March
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  of 2024. So that that has been the start
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  of it. But he's just been doing so many
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  things. I feel like every time he gives
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  me a message, he really works in my heart through it.
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  So it's been one of those moments where I haven't always
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  understood it. I've always been afraid of new
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  and different and change. But when when he's in it, it's
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  just a beautiful thing. So I released my first book in
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  March of 24 and then my second book came out and April of 25.
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  So, and then my third came out in December of 25.
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  So it's just, it's been a beautiful, beautiful course of
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  events. But so when I started to write
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  it, my writing coach was like, oh, that sounds like it could be
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  part of a series. And I'm, I don't think that's
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  going to be part of a series. I really don't know what you're
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  talking about. I'm going to write this one
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  book. I'm going to get it off my
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  chest. It's going to be beautiful.
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  It's going to be amazing and it's going to I'm going to press
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  finish and we're going to be done.
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  And she was like, no, that sounds like kind of like made
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  for more, like you are made for more.
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  And so as I got to reflecting on that, that's when all of the
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  messages began to unravel themselves.
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  So the message of my first book is about how God really is
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  always at work in our lives and we sometimes just have to take
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  the time to look around and see it.
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  And then like I said, he has been showing me that through the
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  things that I've gone through, through the things that others
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  have gone through. He's at work in those he's he's
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  at work. He's at work in every step of
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  the journey that leads you to the person that you're going to
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  encounter that is going through something similar.
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  And when you encounter that person and you can use the
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  lessons that the Lord has given you to help them heal, to help
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  them through their hard, hard moments, their challenging
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  seasons. It's just, it's almost like he's
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  reaching down through another person or through you and
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  giving, giving that person a hug.
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  And so there's been many times where I felt like he has given
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  me a certain individual at just that moment to to to show me I
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  wasn't alone. So that was that was just really
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  one of those things like my life was made for more.
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  And then my second book was the battle for our minds.
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  And it really uncovers a lot of the lives that we've believed
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  over the course of our life, whether that's formed by a
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  parent or a peer or society as a whole.
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  We carry a lot of baggage and a lot of the a lot of it almost
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  keeps us from living in the person that God created us to
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  be. So we we carry the weights and
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  we just almost don't walk in the freedom of who he has called us
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  to be because we're afraid to shed those labels.
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  And then as 20/24 was coming to an end and I was wrapping up the
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  editing of that book, God really placed the word abide on my
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  heart. And for me, I don't usually do a
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  word of the year, but I figured, all right, we're coming up to
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  the end of the year. Maybe this is the word that God
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  is putting on my heart and I'm going to focus on for 2025.
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  And then as I sat quietly and just kind of reflected on it, I
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  felt like God was saying, OK, yeah, we're we're going to spend
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  some more time together in 2025, but I want you to really think
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  about writing a book about this. And so as with any book, you
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  start to do the research and you start to really learn what
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  abiding is. You know, for me in this case,
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  so I started to look in, in scriptures and I looked in the
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  dictionary, figuring out the different renditions of what,
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  what abiding might mean to somebody.
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  And the, the Lord was really just tender to show me what it
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  means. And then in a way kind of that
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  I've not that I've gotten it wrong in the past, but I viewed
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  it through an incorrect lens. And I feel like that's probably
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  a lot of us. We're just walking our faith
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  journey with God and feeling like, not that we're doing it
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  wrong because I don't think there's a right way to do it,
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  but we're just not fully embracing what a walk with the
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  Lord is meant to be. So I feel like many of us are
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  just keeping God at arm's length when he really wants to just
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  draw near to us. So.
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  Yeah, I've been on a book journey myself.
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  It started in 2022, OK. And I, I submitted an idea to a
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  group that I was involved with at the time and they love the
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  idea. They accepted me as a hybrid and
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  then said, OK, now you got to give us 5 grand.
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  And I'm like, oh, OK, that's a problem that.
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  Wasn't my plan. No, no, no, not at all.
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  So 2023 was one of those years and so beginning of 24.
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  Like I've been gathering stuff from people on the podcast about
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  a few different areas and starting in 2024, at the
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  beginning, it kind of like illuminated what areas I was
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  going to be working in and so got really serious about getting
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  everything in from people. And then by October of 24 came
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  out and self-publishing is not for the faint of heart.
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  No, it is not. Yeah, it's such a tough line,
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  but I know anybody who's a self published author or who's
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  thought about it, it's it's great because you get to have
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  the your own power over your own stuff, but it's really hard when
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  it comes to promoting yourself. Oh, 100%.
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  I feel like that's that's probably one of the biggest
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  challenges altogether is because I know that these messages have
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  stirred the hearts of my readers.
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  I know that so many people have been impacted, but I still
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  struggle to get out there and be like, y'all need this.
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  Not that you need my book. You you need a deeper
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  relationship with the Lord. You need to, you know, whatever,
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  whatever book resonates with them at the moment, grab on,
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  like hold tightly because again, what someone's gone through can
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  help you in your struggle and it can help you to see God in a
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  different light. Maybe.
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  Yeah. Exactly.
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  And mine is based off the podcast and the stories of 18
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  people plus four of my own stories.
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  And we talked about mental health, grief and loss, survival
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  and healing. And if you lit up my podcast
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  episodes at the time, if you put lights down, those were the four
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  areas that were coming out. And so it was like, OK, like I
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  didn't realize how much I was going to share my infertility
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  journey or my journey with mental health, both personal and
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  family. And I was like, but I knew the
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  family. One I would have never been able
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  to write if my mom was still alive.
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  And yeah, and, you know, walking through it with my dad and
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  getting his permission and everything, I mean, it was
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  really a good thing. And I talked about him as well.
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  So it was very therapeutic to get it out.
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  And then now I've had people say when's the next one coming out?
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  I don't know. I have no idea.
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  I mean, I've started to think about it and throw some ideas
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  around and that kind of stuff, but I was like, I don't know, I,
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  I don't have money for. It yet you are not wrong.
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  Yeah. That's one of the biggest
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  challenges and I think that people don't realize it.
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  I think even in the traditional publishing world, there's a big
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  cost that goes with it. But it's one of those things
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  that self-publishing, you're all on your own, right to figure out
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  how to do things or you have to pay people to do things.
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  Especially want to pay for editing.
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  That's one. Yep, really really learned is
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  finding a good editor and letting them.
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  RIP you apart. Put their hands all over it and
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  knowing that they're not going to be tender with your heart.
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  Exactly. And the person who did my
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  editing is a friend of mine, but we and we've been around the
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  launch team circles for years. So I've known her for quite a
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  while and I was like, oh, it's not bad.
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  You know, there might be something here, might be
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  something here. I got it back from her.
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  I'm like. Uh huh.
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  I thought I was a good writer. I know it's incredibly humbling
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  because I think we write the way we speak.
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  Yeah. Don't realize that a lot of the
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  way we speak isn't quite. Yeah.
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  And from. Book worthy.
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  Right. And from our generation, we've
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  got the double. Space, double space 100.
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  Yep, Yep. Well, and for I'm going to say
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  for the love, I didn't even know what an Oxford comma was.
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  Yeah, I could English classes, I had no idea.
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  I'm like, oh, let's figure out what an Oxford comma is.
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  I don't know what that is either.
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  Yeah, no, yeah, it's an interesting world.
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  But that was the biggest thing that my writing coach reiterated
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  to me was more or less, you're going to get it back.
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  There's going to be a ton of red lines.
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  Take what you want and flush out the rest.
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  Right. And I think it in my case, it
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  was so important for me to self publish it at the time because I
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  have 18 other voices and I didn't want all the voices to
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  sound alike. I wanted to keep the.
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  The individual authors. Exactly.
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  Yeah, I wanted to keep their tones.
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  I wanted to. I wasn't so all also concerned
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  about how like if the exact wording was right or if they
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  said a certain word, I'm like, I'm leaving it in there because
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  that sounds like them. Yeah, exactly.
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  Yeah. So it's, it's definitely a
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  journey, but one that I would encourage anybody, if you feel a
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  tug, if you feel that like lean into it and you know, you can
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  start small unless God's telling you to start big.
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  But like you can look for opportunities to write in
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  devotionals, You can look for opportunities to write articles.
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  I mean, there's so many different avenues that you can
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  start to get your practice in and start to get your reps in if
• 19:23
  that opportunity is there for you.
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  Yes, there's, I think there's probably more out there than
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  we're even aware of. Right.
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  I'm learning there's more opportunities and a lot of it's
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  just like getting connected to the right groups on Facebook,
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  getting in touch with the right people to to be able to have
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  those opportunities. So absolutely, yeah, for sure.
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  So what Bible verse or verses have kept you anchored
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  throughout not only your life but also the journey over the
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  last few years of being an author?
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  Well, if you would have asked me a couple years ago, I would have
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  told you Jeremiah 2911 and I would have really focused on God
• 20:06
  having a plan for my life, plan to prosper me, not to harm me
• 20:10
  for the good of me. But now I would say that it's
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  Jeremiah 2913, especially after spending last year really
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  focused on abide and really focused on abiding with God and
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  just. It's just been amazing.
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  I'll, I'll read the verse real quick, but it just says, if you
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  look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.
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  And I think that that's kind of the the part of the Christian
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  life that we forget is that God is always there.
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  Accept him into our lives. He doesn't just become part of
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  our life. He dwells inside of us, dwells
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  inside of us, and a lot of us only turn to Him when things get
• 20:58
  hard or when we are, you know, petitioning on behalf of
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  somebody else. But it's one of those things
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  that God really is with us all the time, and he wants to
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  transform us from the inside out and he wants to make us into a
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  new creation. Absolutely.
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  So did you self publish all three of these?
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  I did. OK, And you and I have something
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  in common. OK.
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  We both have won the Chrysler Book Award.
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  I know I was shocked when I found out about that.
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  So. Yeah, I've got my my third one's
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  under review right now, so. That's awesome.
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  Yeah, I've got my. I've got the certificate up here
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  on the wall and. I love that.
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  Is it was such a crazy thing that and then there's another
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  devotional that I got and I was like, this is really crazy.
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  Like I didn't when you go to write, you don't.
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  Some people think like that because that they've been like
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  best selling authors for a long time or they have huge platforms
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  and you know, writing all that kind of stuff, but you just
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  never know what God is going to do with your obedience.
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  A. 100%, that's exactly. I think that's exactly it.
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  Like, I don't think a lot of the things we look at and we think
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  of them as big steps of obedience or some things we look
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  at and they're just so big that we don't follow through with
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  them. But it's, it's so necessary to
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  take that next step. Whatever it is he's placing on
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  your heart, just follow him in it.
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  I think back to when I first started leading women's
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  ministry, and prior to that, all I had done was LED a small group
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  and been around this group of women and just kind of poured
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  into them, done Bible study with them.
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  But then the opportunity came for me to step up into
• 22:44
  leadership and I was like, I do not want to do this.
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  This is scary. I yeah, no, not for me.
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  Lord, thanks anyway. He really pressed hard and was
• 22:54
  like, I need you to do this. And it's just been, it was
• 22:58
  amazing. It was amazing the the
• 23:01
  relationships they got to cultivate, the people that I got
• 23:04
  to pour into. I know that my faith grew out of
• 23:08
  that one step of obedience. And I do believe that I am here
• 23:12
  today because I took that step of obedience 10 years ago.
• 23:15
  I think if I would have held back then, I probably would
• 23:19
  still be stuck in the same place.
• 23:22
  So yeah. Yeah.
• 23:25
  Just follow him when he calls. Exactly.
• 23:28
  Exactly. So your first book was called
• 23:30
  The Abundant Life. Yes.
• 23:32
  And then The Battle for Our Minds, which talked about and
• 23:35
  now the last one is Abiding with God and that came out in
• 23:37
  December. So you talked about how you saw
• 23:40
  the word abide and really leaned into that.
• 23:43
  So what? What is the kind of the overview
• 23:46
  of your book? The overview of my book, I would
• 23:50
  have to say is I feel like as Christians, we have our moment
• 23:56
  of salvation and we find Jesus and yeah, we're saved and we're,
• 24:02
  we're going to be with him forever in eternity.
• 24:04
  And we go to church on Sundays and maybe Bible study throughout
• 24:07
  the week, but we don't ever really give much concern to the
• 24:12
  rest of our time. And then we we get caught up in
• 24:17
  the hustle and bustle of life. Busyness takes over, we don't
• 24:22
  realize how big of a control freak we are, hands raised up
• 24:25
  right here. And then we don't realize how
• 24:29
  certain things that we hold on to kind of hold us back from a
• 24:34
  deeper relationship with the Lord.
• 24:36
  And so for me, it was just going through again, identifying what
• 24:40
  abiding really meant. When we accept Jesus, the Holy
• 24:44
  Spirit dwells inside of us. So we have full access to the
• 24:48
  presence of God any moment of the day.
• 24:51
  We don't have to wait for anybody to petition on our
• 24:54
  behalf. We can call down on his presence
• 24:57
  and he's with us. So that that to me was powerful.
• 25:01
  But it was just like breaking down all of the reasons that I
• 25:05
  think that we hold ourselves at arm's length away from God, like
• 25:09
  what is what is prohibiting us from having a deeper
• 25:12
  relationship with him? We become most like the people
• 25:17
  that we spend the most time around.
• 25:19
  What if we became more like Jesus?
• 25:21
  What if through our time with Him, we started to have the
• 25:26
  fruits of the Spirit? What if we started to look
• 25:28
  different to the world around us?
• 25:30
  And what if that change LED somebody else to the Lord?
• 25:34
  And so for me, that was really where he started to work that
• 25:39
  out in me. And so I just just came and went
• 25:43
  with that and let him lead. And it's it's been a beautiful
• 25:47
  journey. I love my father-in-law dearly.
• 25:49
  He is one of my highest critics. And he said that this was the
• 25:54
  best one so far. And so I was like score because
• 25:58
  realistically, I just want to glorify him.
• 26:02
  So glorify the Lord. Amen.
• 26:05
  Amen. So where can people find you and
• 26:09
  where can they get your books? OK, well I am over on the
• 26:13
  Instagram and Facebook. Instagram is Kim Oswalt, under
• 26:19
  score author. Facebook is Kim Oswalt, hyphen
• 26:24
  author. And then you can find me on my
• 26:27
  website at kimoswalt.com. My books are available on
• 26:30
  Amazon. And yeah, you can find my author
• 26:34
  page over there. Just look, look for me, Kim
• 26:36
  Oswalt on Amazon and then it'll take you to a link for each of
• 26:39
  my books. Awesome.
• 26:41
  I have loved getting a chance to talk with you.
• 26:43
  It's so great getting to talk to other self published authors and
• 26:47
  other people who are in the thick of it with me.
• 26:49
  And so you know, you're not alone sitting in your office or
• 26:53
  your kitchen table, dining table, wherever you're doing
• 26:56
  your writing at, on your floor, wherever you're doing that and
• 27:00
  you feel like you're all by yourself.
• 27:01
  It's great to know that you're not alone as well.
• 27:04
  Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Mine was usually on my couch
• 27:07
  with my puppy snuggled against my legs.
• 27:09
  Yeah, yeah, I had to. I had to come up here.
• 27:13
  I had to schedule time after my husband went to bed.
• 27:16
  Oh yeah, for sure. Because I'm a night owl.
• 27:18
  So, so hard. Yeah, I'm a night owl.
• 27:20
  So I tend to function better at night.
• 27:22
  And so that's when I would write.
• 27:24
  I would write for a few hours so many nights a week and because
• 27:30
  if I did too much, then I would stress myself out and if I did
• 27:34
  too little, I felt like I was doing nothing.
• 27:36
  So when I was working with somebody in the beginning,
• 27:39
  that's what they told me. They're like, figure out the
• 27:40
  best rhythm for you and then. Stick to it.
• 27:43
  Absolutely. Yeah.
• 27:45
  Because if you fail to plan, you plan to fail, right?
• 27:48
  So you have to really look at what works best for you and just
• 27:53
  sit down and do it. So I love that.
• 27:55
  Yeah, and some people can spend all day writing.
• 27:57
  I'm just not one of them. No, no, I am.
• 28:00
  I'm definitely a jot it down and then pull it all together kind
• 28:03
  of person. So.
• 28:04
  Yeah, I kind of live by my planner.
• 28:06
  Yes, for sure. For sure.
• 28:11
  Keeps us organized, it does. Absolutely.
• 28:15
  So what is one last piece of advice that you would have for
• 28:17
  somebody who's listening today? Let's see, I would just say to
• 28:24
  spend time in prayer with God, ask him what he wants you to let
• 28:30
  go of and follow him in it. And then let him start to change
• 28:36
  you from the inside out and see what he will do with the new
• 28:42
  created version of you, with the version of you that's deep
• 28:45
  inside that he knows about that he wants to bring to the
• 28:48
  surface. So.
• 28:52
  Amen. Amen.
• 28:53
  Awesome, Kim, it was so great to meet you and.
• 28:57
  You too. I can't wait to keep up with you
• 28:59
  and everything on opposite sides of the country.
• 29:02
  Yeah, for sure. That's that's the wonderful part
• 29:06
  of technology is to be able to stay in touch.
• 29:09
  Yeah, Kim, thank you again for coming on.
• 29:13
  Good luck and you guys could give Kim a follow.
• 29:16
  Go hang out with her on her website and all of the things
• 29:20
  and get yourself a copy of her books.
• 29:22
  So have a great day and I'll talk to you guys next episode.
• 29:25
  Thanks. Thanks everyone.
• 29:28
  Thank you so much for joining me for this episode, the Anchor by
• 29:31
  the Sore podcast. I pray that the story that you
• 29:33
  heard today will encourage your faith, challenge your faith, and
• 29:37
  also help you as you walk in your daily life.
• 29:41
  If this episode has done that, please feel free to leave a five
• 29:44
  star rating and review wherever you listen to this podcast so
• 29:48
  that others can find it and grow as well.
• 29:51
  Have a blessed week and I'll talk to you next episode.