Latest / Why I Believe / Amanda Hietter: From Rock Bottom to Redemption
Transcript
- 0:00Hello and welcome back to another episode of Why I Believe.
- 0:03Today I have my good friend with me, Amanda Heater.
- 0:05I just actually happened to have the pleasure of being with her last week in New Orleans at a National Speakers Association conference.
- 0:12So good to see her in person.
- 0:14We got really excited when we were jazzed about talking about this week's episode.
- 0:18So, Amanda, why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about you.
- 0:23Hey everybody, thank you Michelle for having me on your podcast.
- 0:26I'm so excited to be here.
- 0:29My name is Amanda Heater.
- 0:30I am the CEO and founder of an amazing company called Across the Horizon Travel and we specialize in curating luxury travel experiences for people that want to travel.
- 0:43Awesome.
- 0:44And how do you take your travel and relate it to your faith?
- 0:48gosh, that's a great question.
- 0:52So I love working with kingdompreneurs.
- 0:56when I, so to give you a little bit of a inside of what my niche is, because I do have a travel agency, so we do all kinds of travel, but God called me to a specific purpose in my
- 1:05business.
- 1:06And the Lord told me that I am supposed to focus on working with kingdompreneurs and help them grow the kingdom of God.
- 1:13And you're probably saying, well, how do you do that, Amanda?
- 1:16Well,
- 1:17um I handle all the travel logistics for retreat leaders, which is like coaches, speakers, authors, business professionals, leaders in the church that want to put together retreats.
- 1:27And I do all the logistics for them from finding the meeting spaces to getting the room blocks to transfers to flights to everything in between.
- 1:37And then this allows the person that is the retreat leader that God has called to lead in this in this specific event to be able to fully focus
- 1:46on the content that they're bringing to the attendees and obviously focus on getting booties and seats is what I call it.
- 1:52So it allows them to have someone that's really handling all of the chaos in the background to kind of call myself a chaos coordinator because really that's what it is.
- 2:01Logistics is usually chaos.
- 2:03And so when I'm able to provide that service for them, it allows them to really focus on what God is calling them to do.
- 2:09And I truly love.
- 2:12this path that God has me on.
- 2:14is so much fun.
- 2:15I get to work with entrepreneurs and we both get to kind of just mastermind and brainstorm together.
- 2:22I get to help them bring these ideas to life that they've had from God, the visions they've had.
- 2:27And it is such a fun, amazing experience.
- 2:30I love it.
- 2:31That's awesome.
- 2:32I love the booties and seats, right?
- 2:34I mean, we all know what we're talking about here for all those are entrepreneurs, right?
- 2:38ah This hasn't always been your path though, Amanda.
- 2:42No.
- 2:44You had some struggles, some trials, some tribulations.
- 2:49I did, I did.
- 2:50um Okay, so we can go all the way back.
- 2:55Let's just kind of give like a bird's eye view story of my life, if you're okay with that, Michelle.
- 3:02All right, so when I was born, I was born into a family that really loved the Lord.
- 3:07So I grew up in church and that was the daily thing.
- 3:11Every Sunday, twice a day we'd go to church.
- 3:14Wednesday nights was youth group.
- 3:15So I was very heavily involved, sing in the choir.
- 3:19He sang a lot on the praise teams and things like that.
- 3:21So in my teenage years I started falling away from Christ because I got into the wrong crowd.
- 3:27And then at the age of 17 I got pregnant.
- 3:30And that was a big no-no because at that time my dad was actually the worship leader of a church.
- 3:35So he was the leader and here was his daughter just this lost sheep that has fallen so far away from God they got pregnant.
- 3:43And so I had my daughter.
- 3:45The man that I was with at the time was a very toxic person and he did not stay in our lives for very long.
- 3:52So me um having this struggle that I've always had because I was actually sexually abused at a very young age as well, I've always struggled with my identity and who I was.
- 4:02And so I started placing my identity in men.
- 4:04And so once that relationship ended, I was searching for someone else to fill in that void and that gap that I was feeling, which obviously the void was God, but I did not.
- 4:14put those two together.
- 4:16So I found another man that would be the father of my daughter.
- 4:19was desperate to have a father figure in her life.
- 4:23my daughter was about a year and a half at that time.
- 4:25And he came in and I thought he was gonna be our savior.
- 4:28And very quickly on, there was a lot of drinking.
- 4:30There was uh just a lot of partying.
- 4:32We would go out every single weekend.
- 4:35And then the drinking would progress into aggression where we'd have arguments after having lots of alcohol.
- 4:41And then that slowly progressed into physical violence.
- 4:45There was many times that the cops were called to our house and Child Protective Services got involved a few different times.
- 4:53Thank the Lord.
- 4:53I did not lose my daughter.
- 4:55But during all of this, after about two years into our relationship, I got pregnant again and I had my son Brayden and I thought, OK, well, this is going to be what's going to kind
- 5:06of change our relationship.
- 5:07Everything's going to shift.
- 5:08Well, that's false.
- 5:10And during this time, my family, my parents, my dad moved over to another country.
- 5:16So I was without any family.
- 5:19had no church community because I wasn't going to church.
- 5:23I didn't have all my friends.
- 5:24I had moved away from them because we had moved further south during this time frame.
- 5:30And so I didn't have anyone to turn to.
- 5:32And so the abuse really started to escalate because I had nowhere else to turn and nothing, didn't know what to do with my life.
- 5:40So when my son was about a year and a half, I decided I needed to escape because I was like, I gotta get away from this.
- 5:46This is so unhealthy.
- 5:48I don't want my son to see this.
- 5:50So I moved to a different state to get away from him.
- 5:54But of course he followed and I let him back into my life because I was still struggling with this identity of not really understanding that God should be first.
- 6:03That's where my identity is in.
- 6:04I always thought I was in a man and I was desperate.
- 6:07again for having a father figure in my kids' lives.
- 6:10So I let him back into my life.
- 6:12There was obviously the cops were called multiple times because we both hadn't changed.
- 6:16We were still drinking.
- 6:17We were still partying.
- 6:17I was in my 20s.
- 6:18I wasn't thinking clearly.
- 6:20And at one point in time, I actually ended up going to jail because of the cops being called to the home.
- 6:26They saw that I was the one at fault because he had a scratch on his neck and he said that I was the one that caused it.
- 6:33So I spent a night in jail.
- 6:35And you would have thought that that would have been the time where I would have said, okay, things have got to change.
- 6:40No, I went right back to that circle.
- 6:43No ma'am, it was not.
- 6:46Yes.
- 6:50girl, I had not hit bottom yet.
- 6:53There's still a long way to go.
- 6:55I think I had bottom many times, but I was just more in this survival mode of like,
- 7:01I just gotta get through this next day.
- 7:02I gotta get through this next day.
- 7:04I was also in college, so I was trying to get my associate's degree during that time, so I thought, okay, once I get that, my life is gonna get better.
- 7:12No.
- 7:13So, this was back in like 2013.
- 7:18I was getting ready to graduate with my associate's degree.
- 7:21My parents actually had moved back into the States, and I've always been someone that loves to be close to family.
- 7:28My family is very, very tight knit.
- 7:30We even have like a group chat where we constantly communicate with each other.
- 7:34We are that close of a family.
- 7:36And so when I found out they were moving and I was living in Illinois at the time and they were moving to Georgia, I was like, all right, one, I'm a beach girl.
- 7:45So I was like, OK, that was like a huge draw.
- 7:47I could be closer to Florida.
- 7:49And two, I had to get out of this extremely abusive situation.
- 7:54It was continuing to escalate to the point where I thought if I anger him enough accidentally,
- 8:00he could kill me or hurt one of my children.
- 8:03And I did not want that to happen.
- 8:05So I decided I was gonna move to Georgia.
- 8:08So after I graduated with my degree, packed up my stuff, escaped away from my abuser and moved in with my parents.
- 8:16Six months into that, I met the next man that came into my life.
- 8:20And I was like, okay, third time is a charm.
- 8:24This guy is so good.
- 8:25He had three kids of his own.
- 8:27He came in and just loved my children so much.
- 8:30My kids loved him.
- 8:32And then six months after I met him, so this was about a year after being in Georgia, I moved in with him.
- 8:39And that's where things started to escalate.
- 8:42There was a lot of cheating on his end that happened where there was infidelity.
- 8:47Now, mind you, we were not married.
- 8:49So I don't really want to call it infidelity because we weren't married.
- 8:51We were doing things incorrectly.
- 8:55And then drugs started coming into the home.
- 8:57It started out with marijuana and then it progressed to cocaine and then for him it progressed all the way to methamphetamine.
- 9:05So he was a regular user of meth.
- 9:07And during this time, I was back in school working to get my bachelor's degree in legal studies because I had thought I was gonna go off to school to be an attorney at some point
- 9:17in my life because I loved that industry at that time.
- 9:22And he was also working as a mechanic and he had his own shop.
- 9:26So we were doing pretty well.
- 9:28But as the kids got older, more expenses come, right?
- 9:32And so we weren't making enough.
- 9:34So he had this thought process of, right, we're going to start selling drugs out of our home.
- 9:38So we started selling marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine, pills, whatever he'd get his hands on.
- 9:44So there was people in and out of our house all the time that were not very good people.
- 9:50And I think back to myself because there was many times where I remember I would have to bag up a bag of cocaine or I would have to weigh all of these things and make the sale
- 9:59myself.
- 10:00My kids would be in the house.
- 10:02I'd be by myself as a woman in the house having these men coming in to buy these drugs from us.
- 10:07And I'm like, I could have been shot.
- 10:09I could have been, you know, just so many things could have happened.
- 10:14I have been raped, I don't know, but God had his hand over me and protected me through all of this.
- 10:21Now moving forward, this was back in 2021.
- 10:25So I met him in 2013.
- 10:27So this was almost, this was like eight years of like this drug addiction and just like this very disgusting life I was living.
- 10:37And COVID hit our home.
- 10:40We were not able to really work during this time.
- 10:42It started with my son, then my daughter got it, then I got it, then my now ex-husband got it.
- 10:48And we, so it was just two months in our home.
- 10:50And so we weren't working and bills were piling up.
- 10:54Also, we were both addicted to drugs.
- 10:56So when you are an addict, the first thing you think about is I gotta have my fix.
- 11:00So that becomes priority.
- 11:02That of course, second priority is making sure there's food in the house and that your power's on, your water's on, rent comes last, right?
- 11:10So we got very far behind in paying our rent.
- 11:13And next thing I know, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, you're being served.
- 11:18Here's an eviction notice.
- 11:22I had no idea what I was going to do.
- 11:24At this point in time in my life, I left this out.
- 11:28My parents had actually migrated back up to the Midwest.
- 11:32They had told me later on during this time that why they left was because I was such an addict, they said they couldn't be around me anymore.
- 11:42It was just too hard for them as parents, which I understand now is, you know, being a parent, I couldn't even imagine.
- 11:49having one of my children be an addict the way I was.
- 11:52So they had moved away.
- 11:53All of my family had moved back up to the Midwest.
- 11:56And so I was down there alone.
- 11:58And so I had two options.
- 12:00And this is where we're getting to the rock bottom part of my life.
- 12:04I could either move in with my husband's mother.
- 12:08She lived in the inner city of Atlanta.
- 12:10She had no central heating or air conditioning and her house was roach infested.
- 12:15That meant my son would be going to an inner city school in Atlanta.
- 12:19not a good place to go.
- 12:21My daughter at this point in time was already off at college so she was doing her own thing.
- 12:25And then my other option was reach out to my parents and say, hey, um can I move in with you?
- 12:34So that's what I did because I was like, that is the better option.
- 12:37We would have a better place to live.
- 12:39And they said, sure, but there's going to be rules.
- 12:42because I'd already lived with them multiple times throughout my life and didn't really follow any rules and just was all over the place doing whatever I wanted to do.
- 12:50they're like, no, this is rules need to be laid down.
- 12:53You got to get your life right.
- 12:56The rules consisted of no staying out past 12 midnight.
- 13:01I couldn't I couldn't spend the night anywhere.
- 13:03I had to get a full time job.
- 13:06I had to go to church every Sunday.
- 13:09no marijuana was allowed.
- 13:10Like there was it was a long list of rules.
- 13:12I had to sign this contract.
- 13:13So I remember packing up all my stuff.
- 13:16I was so angry because at this time I was almost 40 years old and I was like, this is ridiculous.
- 13:22I'm being treated like a 12 year old and I have to follow these rules.
- 13:26But what what other option do I have?
- 13:28So driving up to Missouri from Georgia, I remember just bawling my eyes out.
- 13:34Clenching that steering wheel and just crying out to God why God why and in the background I kept playing this song over and over and over again by casting crowns praise you in this
- 13:47storm and I would just cry out to God like I'm gonna continue to praise you I had fallen so far away from him, but God Comes in and reaches you and will pick you up when you're at
- 13:59that bottom point of your life.
- 14:01I'd hit rock bottom
- 14:03And God was wrapping his arms around me and telling me, even though I didn't want to hear it, I have a plan for you and things are about to change.
- 14:10And that was that moment in my life where I hit that rock bottom and where my life really started to change for the better.
- 14:18Was your son with you at this moment and how old was he when you were driving back to your parents?
- 14:22So he was 13 and he actually kind of bounced around because we had my mom was driving her vehicle, my dad was driving the U-Haul, I was driving my vehicle.
- 14:34So during this time where I was bawling my eyes out, obviously being a mother, we try to be strong.
- 14:39So this was not when he was in the vehicle with me because I did not want him to see me breaking down.
- 14:44But this was later on, like when we were almost to my parents house driving on these country roads and I was just like,
- 14:52I am about to move somewhere I don't want to be.
- 14:55And here I am just in this place where I have literally hit rock bottom.
- 15:00I have to depend on my parents.
- 15:01I had no money in my bank account.
- 15:02I had nothing.
- 15:04So I had to lean on them heavily to take care of me.
- 15:07And I felt like a kid all over again.
- 15:09It was hard.
- 15:11Yeah, did you end up going to rehab or how did you get clean?
- 15:14mean, because that's got to be a tough transition.
- 15:17So I did not go to rehab.
- 15:18I really wish my parents would have given me that option, but that option was not provided to me.
- 15:24And being an addict, you watch shows, you watch movies, you see things on TV and you see people go to rehab.
- 15:30But when you're in that moment, you don't think that you're an addict, right?
- 15:33You're like, I'm not an addict.
- 15:35I'm not addicted.
- 15:37Well, I tell you what, uh what I experienced because I moved right before Thanksgiving.
- 15:46That's a tough time to move because then Thanksgiving came and we're trying to celebrate and I left my husband and I was angry.
- 15:52So I ended up just drinking like ridiculous amounts of alcohol and I was so angry at my family.
- 16:00I remember the food like didn't taste right.
- 16:03I couldn't sleep.
- 16:04I had to take my mom's sleeping pills to sleep because when you're addicted to marijuana, that's what helps you sleep.
- 16:10And when you just cut that off cold turkey, it is so hard.
- 16:14I really didn't eat that much.
- 16:16I was very angry.
- 16:18I had mood swings.
- 16:18I was sweating.
- 16:19I was going through that detoxification of my body.
- 16:24And it was hard.
- 16:26But God got me through it.
- 16:30I love that you are just so much like, I need you.
- 16:34I don't know how it's going to happen, but I need something to move me forward.
- 16:37And I think it's so important that when you finally surrender that you fully surrender because I think I do a daily surrender devotional that I do.
- 16:47And one of the things that they talk about is that it's like, we reach out to God for help, but we try to tell him how to help us.
- 16:56right.
- 16:57So they equate it to like going to the doctor because you're sick and then telling the doctor how to cure you.
- 17:02Right?
- 17:02Like you went to the doctor because that's what their strength is.
- 17:06Right?
- 17:06They've studied this.
- 17:07They know how to do it.
- 17:09But yet with God, we go, Hey God, I need help with X, Y, Z.
- 17:13Thanks.
- 17:13Instead of like, you know, God, where, where am I supposed to be?
- 17:18What is your will?
- 17:18How do I move forward in this?
- 17:20And now that we're in the Lenten season, a prayer that keeps coming up is
- 17:25Empty me, fill me, and use me.
- 17:27Mmm, that's good.
- 17:30Yeah, and I just, I love it.
- 17:31Empty me, fill me, and use me.
- 17:34Because he did have something better planned for you.
- 17:37You just had to be open to see it.
- 17:41So when did you finally make that decision?
- 17:44Because you grew up a Christian, then when you came back to the house, you had to go to church.
- 17:50When did you finally make that decision for yourself?
- 17:54So I don't actually have a pinpointed time of when that rededication of my life to God actually happened because it was a very slow process.
- 18:05I was obviously just very upset and very resistant to all of these rules.
- 18:11My parents went to a church that, don't take this wrong for anybody that's listening to this podcast, but it was full of people that were, I would say 20, 30 years senior to my
- 18:23age.
- 18:24Most of the people were older.
- 18:26There was a few people around my age, but I was literally the only single person in the church.
- 18:31I think there was one other person that was single besides me.
- 18:33It was a very small church, so was very resistant.
- 18:36So at first, I just, remember sitting in Sunday school class, and for any of you that are like seeing this live, I'll kind of try to like explain it to you, but I had my arms
- 18:47crossed, a scowl on my face, and I was like slumping in my seat, just.
- 18:51Frustrated as could be like I don't want to be in the Sunday school class Why am I here in church people would try to talk to me and I would just write I don't talk to you and It
- 19:01was just a very slow Slow progression of me coming back to the Lord.
- 19:07My mom gave me a devotional I can't even remember I think it was John it was the study of John which everybody loves the Gospels They're great to dive into and so I started really
- 19:18diving into the Bible.
- 19:19I made it a point to pray
- 19:21On my way to work every day I had a long commute and I was like instead of just like driving in silence why not like cry out to God and ask for his help?
- 19:31And it really put me in a different state and slowly yet surely I started seeing the little tiny miracles happen in my life where my son came to Christ.
- 19:42He accepted the Lord into his life and was baptized while I was living with my parents.
- 19:47Then I started to be able to travel more with my kids.
- 19:49I took my kids on a trip to Mexico.
- 19:51was their first real international trip that we took.
- 19:55And it was so much fun being together as a family.
- 19:58My business grew and all of these things, these little miracles really just started to open my eyes to the fact that God truly loved me.
- 20:06I was like that lost sheep in the parable of Luke 15 where the shepherd had a hundred sheep.
- 20:13He would take them out into the fields and bring them back and he would count them.
- 20:17And when he counted one night and saw that he only had 99, he left those 99 to go retrieve that one lost sheep.
- 20:23And that one lost sheep was me.
- 20:25And God kept coming back to me over and over again when I would start to drift away, oh, you need to come back.
- 20:31And now I can say that I have such a close relationship with him that any time any miracle happens or just any connection that God provides in my life, I know it's him and I give
- 20:44him all of the glory.
- 20:45It's not me.
- 20:46It's not me being able to share this story.
- 20:49This story was, you know, obviously I made the wrong decisions to have this story to be able to share, but now God is using me for the good of his glory.
- 20:59Yeah, absolutely.
- 21:00And I think, you know, some people might feel like they're not worthy, right?
- 21:03I mean, I think I struggled with that too.
- 21:04You're not worthy to be called by God, right?
- 21:09To be called by Jesus.
- 21:10But I think your story just goes to show like, we're all sinners and we're all forgiven.
- 21:18We just have to ask for that relationship.
- 21:20We have to be willing to lay it all out there.
- 21:21And so like, please help me.
- 21:24I'm lost.
- 21:26Right?
- 21:26And I think when we do that, we can develop that relationship, but we have to ask for it.
- 21:31He's always there.
- 21:32We just have to be, and then when we ask, we have to be ready.
- 21:37Open arms, open mind, open heart.
- 21:39Mm-hmm a hundred percent.
- 21:41I love that you're saying that we always have to be ready and someone said to me one time and it's I love just like picturing this in my mind that Anytime that we ask for something
- 21:52like for instance, we're asking for our business to grow.
- 21:55I'm a business owner You know, that's one thing I pray for every day.
- 21:59We can't just sit back and go.
- 22:00Okay, Help me grow my business.
- 22:02I'm gonna stay here.
- 22:03Wait.
- 22:04No doesn't work like that.
- 22:05We have to work in partnership with God
- 22:09And we also have to be willing to step out in faith.
- 22:12And I always picture this in my mind when I'm stepping out in faith.
- 22:15That God has put a door in front of me, there's a doorknob there, and the amazingness is behind it.
- 22:21But I have to turn that doorknob, push that door open, and step through that door.
- 22:27That is my responsibility.
- 22:29I can't just say, okay, God, just bring the people to me to sit here in my office all day and hope that someone's gonna walk through my office door and...
- 22:35Be like, all right, here's the blessings you've been praying for.
- 22:38It doesn't work like that.
- 22:39I have to do my part.
- 22:40I mean, it could work like that, but we still have to do our part.
- 22:46right, exactly, exactly.
- 22:48But I think he puts people in our path for a reason.
- 22:55Right?
- 22:57So we make those choices.
- 22:58We pray about those choices.
- 22:59Do we go to this thing?
- 23:00Do we do this?
- 23:02Where do I need help?
- 23:04What am I not seeing?
- 23:06Right?
- 23:06And I think when we...
- 23:08The key is not only being ready, but then listening.
- 23:10Yeah.
- 23:14We are, and you know I say this so many times, we are so busy at being busy that we don't have time for ourselves to let ourselves think and to hear.
- 23:28When do you stop and take that time to actually, because you can ask, and you can pray, and you can do all the things, but if he starts talking and you're not listening, you're
- 23:35going to miss it.
- 23:39You're gonna miss it.
- 23:40I love that.
- 23:41And here's what I tip that give to any of you that maybe you're trying to hear what God is trying to tell you.
- 23:49For me, the times that God talks to me is when I slow down.
- 23:53And when I slow down is when I'm laying down in bed and I'm laying there getting ready to fall asleep, right?
- 23:58That's for most of us.
- 24:00And I notice a lot of thoughts start going through my brain before I fall asleep.
- 24:05So I have learned and a lot of my great ideas or just thoughts or things that God is calling me to do, they come to my mind during that time.
- 24:14So I've kept a notebook down on the floor of my bed where I can just flip on the light, pick that up off the floor and I write the notes of what God is telling me.
- 24:22And it's so cool because one of the ideas that came to my head now is fully in fruition, actually a few of them too that I can think of right now is a retreat that God has called
- 24:32me to do.
- 24:33He had called me many years ago, but now it's actually fully coming into fruition.
- 24:36And so I answered that call and doing the things and, you know, doing the work to create this experience.
- 24:44And then another one is this Bible study group that started this past week that's for entrepreneurs.
- 24:50And we are talking about we're going through the Book of Acts and we're just discussing each chapter, reading through one chapter a week.
- 24:57And it has been such a blessing.
- 24:59And if I would not have had my notebook sitting there next to me.
- 25:02A lot of people think, I'm gonna remember that in the morning.
- 25:05No, you probably won't.
- 25:07So you need to write it down so that you can open that back up and be like, yeah, that's amazing.
- 25:11All right, let me add that to my list, to-do list, and let's make this happen.
- 25:14Let's move the steps forward and make sure that we're following what God is calling us to do.
- 25:22Yeah, absolutely.
- 25:23I love that.
- 25:24Yeah, I don't have a notebook by my bed, but I have my phone and I have the notes app and I actually just looked at it the other day.
- 25:31But when I got the call to do this podcast was 415 a.m.
- 25:34on Christmas morning, 2025.
- 25:37And I wrote all the notes down.
- 25:39I woke up from a dead sleep and I wrote all my notes on my phone because I'm like, A, it's 415 in the morning.
- 25:46B, I'm like,
- 25:47Is this a dream?
- 25:48And it wasn't really a dream because I went back and there's the notes right there, playing his day, telling me exactly what to do and how to do it.
- 25:54uh
- 25:56amazing.
- 25:59Yes, 100%.
- 26:01Alright Amanda, I started asking people this question, I didn't get all of my guests but I'm trying to remember to do everybody so what is your favorite Bible verse?
- 26:08Ooh, yes, and actually I have it pulled up on my phone right now.
- 26:12So my favorite Bible verse, and I actually referenced it earlier today, is Romans 8.28.
- 26:18So I'm gonna read that from the NIV version.
- 26:22And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him who have been called according to his purpose.
- 26:30So I remember asking God for so many, many, many years of my life, why did this happen to me?
- 26:36Why did this happen to me?
- 26:37All this abuse, addiction, divorce, teen pregnancy, et cetera, et cetera.
- 26:42And God told me through that Bible verse, the first time I actually really read that verse, and God spoke to me and said, this is why.
- 26:50Now you have a story to share with others, to inspire others, to give hope to others that maybe are in that deep dark valley that I have, the many dark valleys I was in.
- 27:00And now I can share that and I can also help women find their identity in Christ.
- 27:05I can also guide women to be able to write their story and create it as to be their testimony, to share what God has done in their life.
- 27:12And then the good news that Jesus died on the cross and rose again for our sins.
- 27:17And as long as we believe that we can be in heaven with him for eternity.
- 27:21And that just really just hit me hard.
- 27:24I was like, that is my verse.
- 27:25That is my verse.
- 27:26And I love it because God speaks to us in so many ways.
- 27:30It's a living, living book.
- 27:32And it is it's amazing how different verses can hit you at different times.
- 27:36But that's my verse at this moment in my life.
- 27:39Yeah, I love that.
- 27:40That's so good.
- 27:41Yeah, definitely fitting, right?
- 27:46And I think there's so many people who feel like they're not worthier.
- 27:49Why me?
- 27:50Or why is this happening in our world, even like today as we look at what's going on in the world?
- 27:54The answer is why, and we don't know why, right?
- 27:57But it's not for us to know, it's for us to trust and for us to love and for us to continue to be faithful.
- 28:03And the plan will eventually show itself.
- 28:07but there is strength that comes out of the struggles, right?
- 28:13100%.
- 28:14Well, I mean, it has been so nice talking to you today.
- 28:16I'm sure at some point we're have to do part two.
- 28:18There was so much there.
- 28:19We didn't have time to unpack it all, but I really wanna thank you for just laying it all out there for everybody.
- 28:23mean, there's stuff today that I learned about you that I didn't know about you and I've known you for a few years now.
- 28:28And so really being vulnerable and just sharing your story and...
- 28:35knowing that somebody's going to probably judge you and that's okay because at the end of the day their judgment doesn't matter, right?
- 28:43So thank you so much Amanda for being here.
- 28:47I truly appreciate it.
- 28:48you so much for having me.
- 28:50I'm so grateful that you have me on your show.
- 28:52I really appreciate it.
- 28:55Alright man, have a great day.
- 28:56Thank you, you too.