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From Ruin To Restoration With Dana Grimsley · She Speaks Life - Christian Women, Strengthen Your Faith, Bible Study, Grow Spiritually In Christ

• 0:01
  Hi. Welcome back to she speaks live
• 0:04
  today I have with me, Dana Grimsley, Dana is married to
• 0:09
  retired Yankee pro baseball player, Jason Grimsley and she's
• 0:14
  going to share about walking through a very difficult
• 0:17
  marriage with Jason's infidelity drug and alcohol addiction and
• 0:23
  how she got through by God's grace and the power of prayer
• 0:28
  that then brought them to a place.
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  Face of healing purpose and using their past to help and
• 0:35
  encourage others. Going through similar struggles
• 0:38
  in circumstances. Dana's husband has a book out
• 0:42
  called cross stitched. One man's Journey from ruined to
• 0:46
  Restoration. That is out, now that dives
• 0:49
  deeper into the life of Jason's personal experience of finding
• 0:54
  his identity in Christ and realizing that only God can
• 0:58
  fulfill and satisfy. The empty voids in life.
• 1:03
  I love this conversation with Dana.
• 1:06
  She is such a prayer Warrior, I know you'll enjoy it too.
• 1:11
  Here's my guest. Dana Grimsley.
• 1:13
  Hi Dana. Welcome to, she speaks Life
• 1:16
  podcast. I am so excited.
• 1:18
  You are here to share your story with us.
• 1:21
  Thank you for having me. I'm excited about this.
• 1:25
  Yeah, well I always love to kick us off with asking the guess.
• 1:30
  What is their favorite scripture verse?
• 1:33
  Because I feel like we can really get to know someone
• 1:35
  through their life verse. So do you have one and share
• 1:40
  with us? Why?
• 1:42
  I do. Of course I have several.
• 1:44
  But my favorite right now is a fees and it has been for a long
• 1:48
  time, Ephesians 6:13. Really, it's 10 through 18 is
• 1:53
  the whole like Armor of God, but 13 is just putting on the armor
• 1:58
  of God, so that when evil comes As you can stand.
• 2:02
  And that's really my favorite verse, you know, right now
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  because it is from head to toe of protection.
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  You have the helmet, you know, like for salvation, and then the
• 2:13
  breastplate is good for righteousness and being honest
• 2:17
  and keeping you honest, and it's just basically head to toe.
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  You're just covered in your God's promises and and the
• 2:25
  shield of faith is knowing God's promises to protect you and the
• 2:29
  belt of Truth. Earth is God's word of Truth.
• 2:33
  And then the sword of the spirit is the word of God in his weapon
• 2:38
  and one time that one of my Bible teachers, she had a sword
• 2:44
  with her and she turned it upside down and then it was like
• 2:47
  the cross. So like it gave Temple of both
• 2:50
  like Promises of protection like the sword protects and the cross
• 2:55
  protects. So I thought that was really
• 2:57
  cool when she you know did that and then of course the feet too.
• 3:00
  Pay your way and walk with Jesus.
• 3:03
  So I like that first. Oh yeah, I love that.
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  And I love that illustration. That what the sword?
• 3:11
  I've never heard of before. That is so great.
• 3:13
  I know it's one of those verses that are so powerful and one
• 3:19
  that we need daily every day to put on and it's one of those
• 3:24
  that you kind of forget, right? It's not one that automatically
• 3:29
  comes to you and And it's such a good reminder, that we need to
• 3:33
  put that on daily and fight that spiritual battle, right?
• 3:38
  Everyday. So yeah, not so much Dana okay.
• 3:43
  We'll share it with our friend here.
• 3:45
  A little bit about yourself, well, I was really lucky because
• 3:50
  I was raised in two faiths. I was raised in a Catholic.
• 3:54
  My dad spent family was Catholic, my mom's my mom's side
• 3:58
  of the family was Southern Baptist.
• 4:00
  So I got like, really good education with Kappa.
• 4:04
  I went to Catholic schools and all that, but in the Summers, I
• 4:08
  would go spend a lot of times with my aunts and uncles in
• 4:11
  Mississippi and that's where I was saved and found salvation at
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  10 years old. So I've really been walking the
• 4:18
  Christian. I've been a Christian.
• 4:20
  I've been saved since I was 10. So for a really long time, I go
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  to church. I, you know, I love church and I
• 4:28
  really liked the Catholic faith as far.
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  I was like, just kind of belonging to something, and it
• 4:34
  felt protected and was the repetition of being in the
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  Catholic church was comforting to me.
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  But then, as I got older, I just felt like I was learning more
• 4:50
  from nondenomination, like Faith, but that didn't come
• 4:55
  until later. I got married in 92 to Jason
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  Grimsley. Is a professional, was a
• 5:02
  professional baseball player. He played for 22 years.
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  We have three children their ages right now or Twenty Eight
• 5:10
  twenty six. And twenty two two boys and a
• 5:14
  girl. They all live close to us.
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  We're just right outside of Houston.
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  And my story right now is going on because my husband just
• 5:25
  finished publishing a book about his life and through baseball
• 5:28
  and his struggles with drugs. Eggs and infidelity through his
• 5:34
  baseball career and he did try to commit suicide, and his
• 5:38
  journey through that, our journey through that actually
• 5:41
  because we both lived it. You know, my journey now is just
• 5:46
  to. Hopefully, I can help other
• 5:48
  women are even men, you know, that are in the same position as
• 5:51
  me and to really know the power of prayer because that's really
• 5:56
  my story. And what got me through the
• 5:58
  toughest times of our marriage, Power of prayer and I really
• 6:02
  started to see that power work and my life and work in his life
• 6:06
  as well. And I think that's so well
• 6:09
  needed for us to hear how to be with somebody who is in that
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  abuse, right? That substance abuse and what to
• 6:21
  do and in your circumstance, worked out in the end.
• 6:26
  But I want to, I want to take us through, let's Let's see what
• 6:31
  it's like to live in Dana's shoes when your husband started
• 6:38
  to get involved and substance abuse.
• 6:42
  Like, how did that just was that happening a little bit before
• 6:46
  you got married or in the early years?
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  Just take us through that time line.
• 6:52
  Yeah, so I think it really more started when he started playing
• 6:57
  for the Yankees and keep playing.
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  Yankees in 99 and 2099. I was pregnant with my third
• 7:05
  child rain and he, you know, the notoriety and New York is just
• 7:12
  crazy. I mean, like those guys can do
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  nothing wrong in there, everything is just laid out
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  form, the red carpet everywhere they go in it.
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  I can see how it's kind of hard not to fall into that those
• 7:25
  shoes of going out at night and and then the drugs and the women
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  and I mean If it's in front of you every day, it's hard not to,
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  you know, go down that path. You have to focus on trying not
• 7:38
  to put that in front of you. Sure.
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  It's a whole different lifestyle or is probably, you know, I
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  think we're pretty much started or that's when it started
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  getting really, really bad in 99 and 2000, just drugs and and
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  women. And yeah, it was really, really
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  difficult. It put me through a path that
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  was hard for me because I was home with three kids and yet I
• 8:04
  would be with them during the day and as soon as they would, I
• 8:07
  would put them to bed. I was being like they detective
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  I was up all night, being a detective trying to find exactly
• 8:15
  what he was doing going through phone records only through
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  credit cards. Just catching him in lies after
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  lies after lies and I was just taking a toll on me.
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  It was really really affecting me and who I was I was and then
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  I wasn't being very nice but you know I do like to say that a lot
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  of times my kids are is what got me through it and of course my
• 8:39
  family you know they knew and then they got me through it and
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  some dear friends that you know I was talking to that helped me
• 8:48
  get through it to but if I didn't have my children, I could
• 8:51
  see easily that I would just lay in bed.
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  Be depressed, curl up in a ball, not get up.
• 8:56
  I mean, I can really, really see myself being in that situation.
• 9:00
  Asian and that kind of person. But you know what?
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  I was home alone, I had to get those kids up every day for
• 9:05
  school. I had to take him to school.
• 9:08
  I had to feed them. I had to pick him up from
• 9:10
  school, get them to their practices, feed them dinner,
• 9:13
  lame to bed and after that, I was staying up all night trying
• 9:18
  to figure out what he was doing the whole time, right?
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  But I don't have time. I didn't have time to just lay
• 9:25
  down and be depressed about it. I became a fighter.
• 9:29
  Yeah, it's Almost like you're in survival mode of just I have to
• 9:34
  survive. I got responsibilities.
• 9:36
  You got these little humans. Take care of.
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  And how is your relationship with the Lord at that time?
• 9:44
  I had a I had a very strong relationship with the Lord in
• 9:49
  2015. It got really really bad and I
• 9:54
  mean I I always went to church, Jason didn't always go to church
• 9:58
  as much. I always went to church, always
• 10:01
  wanted the kids to go to church. Jason always prayed with the
• 10:05
  kids when he took them in for bed.
• 10:08
  I mean church was and God was relevant and our lives, not that
• 10:12
  Jason was Is like going down that path, but it was always
• 10:17
  relevant in our lives. And with our kids would be made
• 10:20
  sure that they were raised in a Christian Home and Family to
• 10:25
  Christian schools. So it was there.
• 10:28
  But in 2015, is the movie War Room came out with Priscilla.
• 10:34
  Yeah. Fire.
• 10:36
  Such a gun? Yes.
• 10:38
  And that had a huge impact on that, on me.
• 10:41
  Because in that movie, the main character, Actor, her husband
• 10:45
  was getting ready to step out on her and what she did is she
• 10:49
  created that prayer room or war room and prayed for her husband.
• 10:54
  And then from then on, that's what I started doing.
• 10:57
  I made a prayer room, a war room and it was in my closet, and I
• 11:01
  would just go in my closet and I would pray for him.
• 11:04
  And I learned how to pray for him, and Yeah.
• 11:09
  So that was like in 2015 and I've done that ever since so
• 11:15
  good. I know because prayers never
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  die. You know and it's so important
• 11:21
  to Circle prayers around our spouse around our kids.
• 11:25
  And so you you felt like, would you say you felt closer to God
• 11:32
  more than ever going through what you're going through with
• 11:35
  your husband? Yes, I did.
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  I actually heard God speak to me one day.
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  I so it was in 2000 and I want to see was 2006, Jason retired
• 11:52
  in 2006 and he was going through a lot because of retirement, you
• 11:58
  know, when baseball players are any athlete when that that's
• 12:01
  taken away from you. Like, they kind of don't know
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  what to do, but he was already struggling.
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  But then After that, it was just getting so bad and I asked him
• 12:11
  to leave. And I remember I was coming home
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  when he was at our camp. We had a camp outside of, we
• 12:18
  were living in Kansas at the time and we had to Camp outside
• 12:21
  of Kansas. And so he was there.
• 12:23
  But I did get word that he called one of his friends,
• 12:27
  because he was suicidal, and his friend, brought into a psych
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  ward. And so, I knew he was there, but
• 12:37
  I was coming home. And I was I had a hatchback and
• 12:40
  I was taking groceries out of the car and I heard God say he
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  is your husband. You need to stand by him and so
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  I went to go see him in that psych ward.
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  And he went to rehab after that, and so, yeah, I mean I was my
• 12:57
  faith was good, you know, I did believe in my prayers and when I
• 13:02
  heard God saying that I started seeing Jason and God's eyes not,
• 13:07
  you know, my My eyes. Sure, when you finally take that
• 13:10
  control off of yourself and give it to God, you know, you don't
• 13:13
  know, the plans that God has in the future for, I mean, look
• 13:16
  what he's done with Jason. I mean Jason is reaching so many
• 13:19
  people, I'm so proud of him. We have a wonderful
• 13:22
  relationship. Our kids were able to like, go
• 13:25
  through that and see his change in him and and then we standing
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  by him with the grace of God, you know, just standing by him,
• 13:34
  our kids, even like, went through that and saw that.
• 13:37
  So that Really important. I mean, we don't know what God
• 13:40
  has in the future for our lives or even our my spouse's life.
• 13:45
  You know, if I would have just walked away that day and never
• 13:49
  heard God's voice and never was sensitive enough to hear God's
• 13:52
  voice. I mean, where would we be today?
• 13:55
  And God's truth wouldn't get out.
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  And that's what I'm here for today to get Dodge truth, out
• 14:00
  and Jason's are to get out and help others.
• 14:04
  Yeah, so good to be that voice of God.
• 14:08
  God's restoration, you know, Jesus restores and you know we
• 14:13
  just need to surrender all to him and allow him to do the
• 14:17
  healing and that's so great. I believe through your prayers,
• 14:23
  you were in tuned with the Holy Spirit and directing you and
• 14:29
  telling you stay because the Lord knew the outcome of Jason's
• 14:36
  life. Like he knew that he Is going to
• 14:38
  get the healing and that your marriage was going to be
• 14:42
  restored and because you made that decision to lean in, even
• 14:49
  closer, and by doing that prayer room and circling your marriage
• 14:57
  with prayers, you are able to get that direction that Clarity,
• 15:02
  to, to stay so good. And so you said your kids, Went
• 15:08
  through it, too. Did you try to maybe protect
• 15:11
  them from finding out too much? Did you guard them?
• 15:16
  Because I know that's kind of a natural thing as, as moms.
• 15:20
  Yeah. My children didn't know anything
• 15:23
  that was happening and probably until do like around 2014-15.
• 15:28
  I mean, he went to rehab twice. So, he went to rehab in 2006.
• 15:32
  My kids didn't know any. They just thought he went away
• 15:35
  and he needed healing. And they didn't really know why,
• 15:40
  but he would call them every night and pray over them before
• 15:43
  they went to bed and he was gone for a month, right?
• 15:46
  So that was in 2006 and 2015, they knew that he was having
• 15:53
  struggles and troubles because, you know, I threw him out of the
• 15:56
  house again in 2015. And that's when he tried to take
• 16:02
  his own life, he pulled a trigger and it is I think it's
• 16:08
  that as I, yeah, but the gun didn't go off.
• 16:11
  So, you know, God saved him from that and they were there for
• 16:15
  that. When we went to go, try to find
• 16:16
  him. So at that, at that time, they
• 16:19
  knew they were older. Yeah.
• 16:21
  So this one was in college. One was about to go to college
• 16:26
  or maybe both the boys were in college already.
• 16:29
  And my daughter was in high school.
• 16:31
  So they they knew what was going on then.
• 16:35
  Yeah. But I did, I did protect At them
• 16:37
  before that it just I mean I had to yeah, okay, so he wrote a
• 16:42
  book, just came out cross stitched one man's Journey from
• 16:47
  ruin to Restoration, can you kind of be a voice for him?
• 16:52
  Like why why now write the book and share it?
• 16:57
  And what is he doing? Now, what are you both doing
• 16:59
  now? Well, he wrote the book because
• 17:03
  the story is so powerful. He was inspired by several
• 17:06
  people. Like pounding on him to write it
• 17:09
  maybe in one and some other are friends and he tells great
• 17:13
  stories. There's some great baseball
• 17:15
  stories in it. There's stories about his
• 17:18
  struggles. When he was a young boy, he was
• 17:20
  molested by another boy down the street.
• 17:24
  So that is what carried through. And I didn't even know that
• 17:27
  until probably 2016. He told me and is a so he had
• 17:35
  buried that in his his self for so long and it was just like in
• 17:40
  a box and then it came out and then that is more of an
• 17:46
  understanding of him and what he's gone through and why he
• 17:50
  does the things that he did was probably stoned by nose hurts,
• 17:55
  right? Yeah.
• 17:56
  So that's why he wrote the book because he just, he says it that
• 18:00
  he just would like to say one person.
• 18:02
  If this book helps just one person then it was all worth it.
• 18:06
  And I mean, like, I There's fun like baseball stories in it, so
• 18:10
  it's not just for a baseball player fan, just not fans.
• 18:15
  It's also for God's word, and spiritual life in that way in
• 18:20
  God's grace, learning about God's grace.
• 18:22
  It has excerpts from our children, that day that we did.
• 18:27
  Go look for him and find him when he tried to commit suicide.
• 18:31
  They interviewed, so Jason Clarke, wrote the book with
• 18:34
  Jason and Jason Clarke View the kids.
• 18:38
  So they have little portions in the book and along with his mom
• 18:42
  and myself on that day of what we all went through, do that.
• 18:47
  So, it's a really good book because it, I think it goes to a
• 18:50
  lot of people mental Wellness, Baseball fans, sports fans.
• 18:55
  It covers all of it. So right now, we've been Jason's
• 18:59
  doing a lot of podcasts. He's been on a lot of like new
• 19:03
  show, so we just did Good Morning, America.
• 19:07
  So we've been New York, we were in New York for 18 days.
• 19:10
  So we just got back and he did a couple of things in New York and
• 19:14
  we had a book signing with some friends in New Jersey.
• 19:17
  So that's what we're doing right now with him.
• 19:20
  And right now it's just mostly him.
• 19:22
  But we're yeah. This is my first podcast.
• 19:25
  So hopefully I can do more and then maybe we can do things
• 19:29
  together. Yeah, that's awesome.
• 19:32
  That was our commitment to each other to do this together.
• 19:36
  We don't need to go down a path. Path of, you know, Brokenness
• 19:39
  again, we need to do this together.
• 19:42
  Yes, do it together. I just had Tracy, strawberry,
• 19:48
  you know, Darryl Strawberry. It was a baseball player, so,
• 19:51
  and they go and they Minister together, and it's like, just
• 19:55
  the teamwork that God designed for us as married couples to be
• 20:02
  working as a team. And yes, it's so much better
• 20:05
  that way. I love being together when year
• 20:10
  with the Yankees. Maybe 2,000.
• 20:12
  Yeah, not real sure. But it maybe he came right after
• 20:16
  Jason left. Yeah, yeah.
• 20:19
  And I love hearing stories like that where people look up and
• 20:25
  they idolize and like, oh, the famous, it doesn't mean you've
• 20:30
  got this easy life, you're not immune to what can happen to you
• 20:34
  and every day. Like there's, there's Wounds,
• 20:38
  there's pain, even with the the famous athletes and and I love
• 20:44
  that your husband and others are coming out and speaking and
• 20:50
  being a voice and writing books about the ruin, like, your
• 20:54
  husband stated in his book, The ruin to the restoration because
• 20:58
  we need to hear more of those stories of how God got us
• 21:03
  through the Rock, Bottom to living a life.
• 21:07
  That God wants for us. And so I love hearing these
• 21:13
  stories, these testimonies of how God's faithfulness brought
• 21:18
  you through and it takes us on our part though, to surrender to
• 21:23
  that and to accept that invitation that the Lord wants
• 21:27
  to give us. So do you want to share anything
• 21:30
  more about what you went through anything about book?
• 21:35
  Yeah, right now we are. ER, I'm on the board for an
• 21:40
  organization. We're building a home for
• 21:42
  adolescent girls that have been victims of sex trafficking right
• 21:46
  here emerging Grace Ministries. So Jason, and I have been doing
• 21:50
  a lot with that. All the book proceeds are going
• 21:53
  to that organization. So that's kind of what we're
• 21:57
  been busy with lately. We did just buy property in
• 22:01
  Montgomery County for, we didn't personally the organization got
• 22:06
  just that property to build House.
• 22:08
  So, we're excited about that, and start helping these girls
• 22:10
  that have been sex, trafficked, and I did write something a
• 22:17
  couple of days ago. That if I could read it, I don't
• 22:19
  know. I'd love to hear it.
• 22:21
  Yes. Okay, it's about control and
• 22:24
  give finally given up control, given that control up to God.
• 22:28
  I said, when we finally give up control and fight the enemy with
• 22:31
  prayer and the word, the battle is over.
• 22:34
  It doesn't mean that our enemy is gone.
• 22:36
  He is there at X telling me I'm not good enough.
• 22:39
  I'm not pretty enough. I'm not godly enough, gives me
• 22:42
  reminders of past hurts, but now I know God has used my past to
• 22:46
  fight the enemy and give that fight to others.
• 22:49
  The enemy is desperate to bake break the bond of marriage.
• 22:52
  The enemy knows that, if that bond is broken, then everything
• 22:56
  below it. Breaks, God teaches us in
• 22:59
  Ephesians had a fight from head to toe with that armor.
• 23:03
  I had I saw my prayer life, get stronger and stronger, I To see
• 23:07
  things happen around me and saw that it was because of my
• 23:10
  prayers. I could actually see that prayer
• 23:13
  is vital. I pray for Jason to know God and
• 23:16
  to get sober and turn away from that sin.
• 23:19
  That was keeping him in a distance from the very Heart Of
• 23:22
  God. I'm so true.
• 23:25
  So I conclude with that, take away.
• 23:27
  What's something that you can leave The Listener?
• 23:30
  Maybe they are married to someone who's struggling.
• 23:33
  Maybe they're struggling. Maybe they have a friend that's
• 23:35
  struggling. You Had to, you know, encourage
• 23:38
  them with that one thing. What would that be?
• 23:41
  And we'll definitely the power of prayer and don't give up on a
• 23:47
  marriage. I mean, you just don't know what
• 23:49
  can happen in the future, so just fight for your marriage as
• 23:52
  much as you can. Yes, there are times when you
• 23:55
  absolutely have to get out, but God's great plan is so much
• 23:59
  greater than ours. So and just fight for your
• 24:01
  marriage fight for that person that is struggling, know them,
• 24:05
  like God knows them. See.
• 24:07
  And that God comes out season and that I think that we can
• 24:12
  help friends that kind of way. Okay.
• 24:15
  And where can people pick up this book and read it?
• 24:20
  Even payments on. That's only place right now on
• 24:22
  Amazon. There is also audible okay.
• 24:25
  And then if they want to get involved in your organization,
• 24:28
  do you have a website? Yeah, emerging Grace dot-org.
• 24:32
  All right, Dana will. Thank you so much for coming on
• 24:35
  here and Sharing with us. This vulnerable story.
• 24:40
  Thank you for having me. Thank you so much for listening
• 24:44
  today and I trust that God has encouraged you through this
• 24:48
  story. Did you know this podcast is on
• 24:51
  YouTube, hop on there and subscribe and you can see a live
• 24:55
  recording of each episode and for more information on this
• 24:59
  ministry and to access free downloads, please visit my
• 25:03
  website at Jamie Elizabeth.com that's ja, yme Elizabeth.com and
• 25:10
  let's connect Beyond this podcast by Going to my Instagram
• 25:13
  handle, Jamie Elizabeth, she speaks life or Facebook until
• 25:18
  next time my friend. I hope God reveals himself
• 25:21
  through your own life story.