Latest / She Speaks Life - Christian Women, Strengthen Your Faith, Bible Study, Grow Spiritually In Christ / Moms Of The Bible And What They Teach Us Today With Rhonda Stoppe

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Moms Of The Bible And What They Teach Us Today With Rhonda Stoppe · She Speaks Life - Christian Women, Strengthen Your Faith, Bible Study, Grow Spiritually In Christ

0:01
Hey, welcome back to She Speaks Live podcast.
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Today's conversation is one that every mom needs to hear.
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As we obviously head closer to Mother's Day, I want to share
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with you this very powerful conversation that I have with
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Rhonda Stopy. She is a best selling author
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with Harvest House Publishers and an internationally respected
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speaker and and the host of the award-winning podcast Old Ladies
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Know Stuff. Rhonda has spent over 40 years
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helping women build lives with no regrets and her voice has
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reached audiences around the world through platforms like
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Focus on the Family, where her interviews have even been
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featured among the best of episodes.
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Now in today's episode, we're diving into powerful, life
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changing lessons from moms in the Bible, the fearless, the
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flawed and the faithful. Because if we're honest,
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sometimes we feel like we have to be perfect, like motherhood
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is a performance. But Rhonda reminds us that it's
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actually a sacred ministry. So we talk about raising
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children with fearless faith in a comparison driven culture,
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letting go of perfection, control and mom guilt.
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Seeing how God uses perfect women to raise world changers
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and how biblical truth meets us right in the middle of modern
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motherhood. Through the stories of the women
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in scripture, their failures, their faith, and their hope.
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You're going to be so encouraged, equipped, and
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reminded that God is not looking for perfect moms.
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He's looking for faithful ones. So whether you're in the thick
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of raising little ones, launching your kids into adult,
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or even pouring into the next generation as a mentor or a
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grandmother, this conversation is going to meet you right where
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you are. And in addition to her newly
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released book and on her website are free video teachings, you
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can view and receive even more wisdom on motherhood.
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I do also love that inside her book, she shares how to have a
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relationship with Jesus. So this book is perfect gift for
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any mom in your life, a sister or a friend that you may want to
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encourage her with on how to have a personal relationship
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with the Lord or even how to grow in ones phase.
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This book serves as a gift to any mom in any stage of life.
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And I know you'll enjoy this conversation as much as I did.
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So let's dive in. Here's my guest, Rhonda Sogi.
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Hi Rhonda, welcome to She speaks Live.
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I'm so glad you're here with us today.
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Welcome. Thanks.
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I'm so excited to be with you. I love this message that we are
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going to be talking about the moms of the Bible and so many of
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us have heard about the women in the Bible and then when this
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came across the moms of the Bible.
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I absolutely love it and you are well seasoned.
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You've been married for 44 years.
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You have four children and 15 grandchildren.
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Absolutely love that and before we dive into what we're going to
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be talking about these imperfect biblical moms that can teach us
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about raising world changers, I always like to kick off our
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conversation with asking the guests what is your favorite
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scripture verse or verse that's just resonating with you and why
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I. Love that you asked if it's
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what's the verse that's resonating with you?
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This one, it is Psalm 90, verse 9, and it's the last phrase in
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that Psalm and it's the King James Version.
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So this is where you'll find this phrase.
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We spend our years as a tale that is told.
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And that immediately brought tears to my eyes.
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I just, I'm going to be 65 years old on May 1st, so it's coming
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soon. And I'm like Medicare, Medicare,
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but you literally when you're this age, you look back on your
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life and you realize that you have written a story that your
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children, your grandchildren are going to want to tell.
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And God writes a story through our lives if we allow him to.
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And so that especially with my new book, Mom's of the Bible,
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life changing lessons from the fearless, flawed and faithful.
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It was their time in history. Their story was written with the
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highs and the lows, and the Bible says that those were
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written for our admonition, for our training, for our learning.
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So that verse has so resonated as this book has been published
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and is just going far and wide. I am so excited about the
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embracing of this book from moms because you're right, we know
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about moms and scripture, but if you like look up the book title
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Moms of the Bible. There's just not a lot that have
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been written on moms of the Bible.
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So I wrote a book called Moms Raising Sons to be Men in three
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sections. The first section was called
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Moms of the Bible and what didn't take long for me and my
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publisher at Harvest House Harvest House to realize we need
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a book called Bombs in the Bible.
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Yeah, yeah. I mean, I have not seen one out
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there. I love it.
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And so I look forward to talking about that.
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And you also have a podcast called Old Ladies Know Stuff.
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And I absolutely love that title because it's so true.
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And I know when I was younger, I in Bible studies that sitting at
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the table around a bunch of women and all ages, I really
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gleaned and learned a lot from the ones that were further along
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that were older, that were more. I've walked with the Lord for
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longer and we have this wisdom and like you said, these stories
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that we want to pass down. And I too, as I'm growing and
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I'm, you know, you know, really focusing on those things that I
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would love to share that my, my kids already know, but the
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grandkids, you know, that they should know about their
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grandmother. So let's let's dive in.
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You speak to the woman who is struggling with comparison or
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guilt or that, oh, you know, I messed up and how can I get back
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on track type of mom. And so we're going to be talking
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about how we should be treating motherhood as a sacred ministry.
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And it's not about performance, which I absolutely love that you
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pointed out. So let's talk about the book and
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how the biblical moms in the Bible can break us free from the
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cycle of guilt and failure as a parent.
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And also, is this something that you struggled with and this is
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what kind of drew you to write a book about this specific topic?
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In the forward of the book, I'm going to read this to you.
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I'll be a better mom tomorrow, I whispered to myself before
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drifting off to sleep. But when tomorrow never came,
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mom guilt plagued my anguished soul.
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Being a fun loving, good mom was what I hoped for, but in
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reality, I spent many days in survival mode, snapping at my
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kids when they spilled their milk and worrying over how we
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were going to pay for their extracurricular activities.
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I wasn't always on the struggle bus.
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Mom life has seasons of highs and lows, right?
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Some years I felt like I totally nailed this mom thing.
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Call those the highlight reel of my parenting experience.
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The years I hope my kids will replay as they Remember Me as a
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mom. I knew I wasn't the mom I wanted
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to be. And I was raised.
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My mom was a teenager when she had me.
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You're from California, so you'll get this joke.
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My mom was a 17 year old, lived on the Southern California
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beaches. So she named me Rhonda because
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she loved The Beach Boys. Yeah.
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Anyone youngers like, What's that mean?
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Help me, Rhonda. Look it up.
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It's a song. But my parents were both
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teenagers, and so they did the best that they could.
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My dad came to Christ when I was four years old, and it genuinely
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changed the trajectory of our family.
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It was where there had been strife and there was peace.
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And I celebrate my father. He's still alive.
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He is going to be 85 years old this year and I still celebrate
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the influence that he had in our family.
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But when I knew I wasn't the mom that I wanted to be, I knew I
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needed mentors. Titus, 2, calls the older women
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to teach the younger how to love their husbands, which means how
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to be a friend to your husband and how to love their children.
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My husband's mother came down with Alzheimer's when my second
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child was born, so I didn't even have her as a resource to to
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teach me from what she was a really great lady, but I knew I
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needed help. My husband was in youth
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ministry. So I looked around at the youth
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who liked their parents, the ones who invited their friends
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to come over to their house and hang out.
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Because let me just tell you something, they're going to
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trash your house in Jesus name, but you want them at your house.
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If there's someone else's house, you have no idea what they're
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viewing. You have no idea what they're
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talking about or being influenced by.
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Put away your brick, a brack in your trinkets and make your
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house the house that everyone's kids want to hang out at and
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then be engaged. Don't just go up in your room
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and be on your phone. But I knew I needed to learn
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from these women. So you're right.
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I looked at them and I said, I did.
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I got to know what you know. And instead of them sitting down
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with me and saying we're going to have mentor lessons and
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you're going to sit and I'm going to, they said, come to my
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Bible study. Oh my God, I don't need another
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Bible study. I've gone to Bible schools.
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I have all those scriptures memorized.
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I know all those answers. I just need to know how to be a
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better wife and mom. And they said come to our Bible
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study. So I came to a Precept women's
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Bible study. It's five hours of homework a
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week. I'm like I don't have 5 hours to
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do homework. Oh yeah, I did that one time.
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And I have been. It was a Philippians study and I
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was the only 20 something in the whole room.
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It was all upper middle-aged and older women.
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And at first, I thought, where's all the cool kids?
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But what I found is these women had a story.
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They had lived their life as a tale that was told, and they
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were willing to tell their tale. They were willing.
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As we studied Philippians together, as we studied the book
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of judges together, I was like boring judges.
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Oh, my word. Did that light up scripture for
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me when I studied that with those women.
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And they shared from their highs and from their lows, from their
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successes and from their failures.
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Truly, I can write a letter to my younger self.
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It doesn't know when any good. But if I write it and I hand it
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to the next generation, which is what I do in my books now, it
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has the power to influence someone else's life with my
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mistakes, my successes, my failures.
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And that's what those women did for me as we studied scripture
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together. They wove in the transforming
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word of God with their own stories.
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And it really influenced me and drew me to understand motherhood
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is a ministry that God has called me to.
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Yes, I love that, that similar situation with me, with women
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just sharing what God has done in their life.
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And so that's what really brought me closer to the Lord
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and really just open my eyes to oh, God is in the details of our
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lives. I mean, testimonies are so rich
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and we need to be sharing. And just like you shared, they
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shared stories about motherhood. These women shared stories about
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God's faithfulness. And that's what drew me into
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this intimate relationship with the Lord even more so, but also
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gave me this passion to share people's testimonies, this
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passion on this podcast for people to share, right, what God
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has done in their life. So I love how God uses people to
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come into our lives and really give us these revelations, this
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better understanding, right? I'm.
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Thinking of a story that I want to tell because you guys are in
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Texas so you'll like this story. My son, my oldest son, he did
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not come to our family till he was 15 years old.
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He was we had planted a church in Austin, actually Lakeway.
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And when when Tony graduated from high school, he went to A&M
12:25
University. Now I know you're UTI get all
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that, but he went into the ROTC program because he wanted to be
12:35
a fighter pilot, which he graduated and became a fighter
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pilot. He was only 14 in the nation
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that was chosen that year. So it was pretty amazing
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experience and anyone who's adopted a child knows that when
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they have been treated poorly and loved badly, they either
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believe that and they don't try or they push harder and they're
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an overachiever. And that's what my, that's what
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our boy was anyway when he was in the ROTC program, he was the
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head of his unit. And as they would be running,
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you know, they, if you know anything about ANMROTC, you get
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up in the morning, you do all of your like boot camp stuff before
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you go to school to get your marketing degree, you know, all
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of the business degree, all that.
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So he would get up early, run their stuff and they would have
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full on backpack, they'd have a gun over their head and they are
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running in a unit and they had to get their time, had to be
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good. And there was one woman in the
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unit who would never make it in time.
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And their commander was like your time does not count till
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she crosses over that line. So Tony had to figure out how to
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fix this. So he hung back in the back of
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the line and he would put his hand in the small of her back
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and he said as long as my hand was in the small of her back she
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would run and keep up with the unit.
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As soon as I took my hand away she fell behind.
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And I don't know why I'm so emotional today.
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Yeah. Us as moms, there are some of us
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that are just struggling and we need a stronger, more seasoned
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person to stick their hand in the small of our back and run
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the race that is set before us with our eyes fixed on Jesus,
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the author and finisher of our faith.
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Casting aside those sins that so easily beset us.
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And when they start to falter, we don't leave them behind
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because our time does not count until we all cross the finish
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line. Put my hand in the small of her
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back and run alongside of her, cheering her on and helping her
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when she falters to recover. I love that as a visual of how
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women, not just mothers, but women in general, that's, that's
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how God calls us to run this race.
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Yes, absolutely. That's a beautiful illustration.
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I love that you had said in your book, you made this powerful
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statement that your success as a mother does not depend upon what
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your son or daughter chooses to do with his life.
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And I know this is, I love that you wrote about this because
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it's counterculture, not only with the world system, you know,
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but I think we can get caught up in our Christian bubble or cycle
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or, you know, among our Christian friends, the body of
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Christ, and we can start to, I don't know, get on this, My son
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or daughter does this, you know, and that's, you know, when you
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when you talk about your kids, you instantly start to share
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their achievements. You know, it's just natural to
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do. And I know it can get confusing
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because we say like our kids are our greatest ministry.
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So how can you expand on this where we're not putting the
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successes of our kids, you know, we're not depending on that to
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determine how great of a mom we were or are or presently and and
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who you pointed out the mom in the Bible to best illustrate
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this as well. OK, two of them come to mind.
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I'm trying to decide which one I want to talk about.
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Let's talk about Jochebed. Jochebed is Moses's mother, and
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people will say right now, there's never been a more
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difficult time in history to raise children than right now.
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And I think Jochebed would beg to differ.
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They were ripping babies off of their mother's breasts and
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throwing them in the Nile River. She hid Moses for three months
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till she could hide him no more. And then God puts an idea in her
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heart. She takes a basket.
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She paints it with pitch. Miriam, the oldest daughter, is
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watching. I imagine asking every question.
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I have a first born daughter. They ask lots of questions.
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They have lots of ideas of how you should do things.
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I imagine Miriam's like, mom, what are you doing?
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What are you doing? Yeah, Yeah.
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And then Miriam follows her mother down to the Nile and
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imagine Jock Abed holding 3 month old baby.
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I have 15 grandchildren. I cannot imagine taking a three
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month old grandchild and my child and putting them in that
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basket. I imagine she kissed his head
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one more time. I imagine she smelled his smell
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one more time. And then she put him in the
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basket and she put the lid on it.
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And I can only imagine, Miriam, like, mom, there's crocodiles in
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the water. There's snakes.
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What are you doing? What are you doing right?
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Maybe she didn't say it out loud, but you know, that's what
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everyone would be thinking. And then Miriam watched her mom
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let go of the basket and let her son float away into the hands of
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Yahweh. And Jochebed went home.
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What did she go home and do I imagine she went home and
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prayed. There's a scripture in the Bible
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where God says, I looked for a man who was standing in the gap
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and I found no one. I I that is Our Calling is to
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intercede for our children when they are not in our control.
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There's a section in the book called Control Freaks Raise
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Freaks. We try to control them and
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control their their successes. She let go of the basket and of
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course, if you know that story, Miriam follows and sees the
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basket, ends up with Pharaoh's daughter and Miriam runs home
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and says, mom, you get to nurse the baby and she gets to come
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back and she has like 4 short years that she probably gets to
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nurse that child. I'd be like nursing him till
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he's 7. It's like, how long can I nurse
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you before I have to give you back?
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Then she had to hand him over to a woman who worships cats, among
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other false gods. I went on a field trip with some
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of my grandkids recently. A lot of them are homeschooled
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and I went on a field trip with them.
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And if you live in California, there's just the schools are
18:09
awful. And so there's a lot of, I speak
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a lot of homeschool conferences. I homeschooled a couple of my
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kids, but this Egyptian museum that we went to and one was in
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the religious artifacts. And as I was standing with my
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grandkids and I was looking at these huge cats that they were
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covered in gold. And I was explaining to my
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children and my grandchildren, this is who Jochabed handed her
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son over to, a woman who worshipped this, not the God of
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Israel. This Jochabed's success as a
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mother came in letting go of control and letting God send her
18:44
son where he would have him go. God knows the plans he had for
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our sons, for our children, for our daughters to prosper them,
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not to harm them, to give them a hope in the future.
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And sometimes all we can do. Some of you have children you
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have to let go on visitation to a dad who's not a godly
19:00
influence, or a stepmother who's not wonderful.
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Some of you don't have custody of a particular child.
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Trusting God with the years you do have with them, the time you
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have with them. Four years, I guarantee you.
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Jochebed prayed over that boy, taught him about Yahweh, sang
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songs about Yahweh, that those formative first four or five
19:22
years of their life are so vital.
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And so, yeah, we don't have control over what they've
19:27
become, but we have control over how we take this ministry,
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intercede for them, guide their hearts, teach them all that we
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know. And that means we have to know
19:36
God's Word. So we're teaching them about who
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God really is, not who we perceive him to be, right?
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Yes, yes, Amen. I mean, I know for me to even be
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the mom that God created me to be, I had to 1st go to his word
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every single day, you know, and just have his word dwell in you
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and abide in him. And that's the, the anchor,
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right? That's our, that's our lifeline.
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And, and I think as you know, there's so many stages in
20:05
parenting and, and once they get over 18 and they leave the house
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and you're not seeing them every day.
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I mean, then there's another. You know, of that challenge of
20:16
really placing the child in God's hands and just going, OK,
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Lord, I don't know what they're doing day in and day out, but I
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trust you. You know, I train them.
20:26
I set the foundation. And, you know, our parenting
20:30
never stops. It just starts to look
20:33
different. But we're always guiding and
20:35
we're always giving wisdom and godly advice and biblical
20:41
principles constantly to remind them.
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I think that's key of just really surrendering daily and,
20:50
and just knowing God's got a plan for them.
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And we know his plan is good because he's a good God.
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And so just trusting in God's character.
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And like you said, that's key to be able to know what the Word
21:05
says so we can know God's character.
21:07
I have a book out called Real Life Romance and I never know
21:09
how to market this book. It's like a it's like chicken
21:12
soup. Love stories is what it is and
21:15
the last four chapters of the book are my kids love stories.
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And I got to tell you, you know, when you raise your kids, you
21:22
know you want to. My husband would always say, do
21:23
they love Jesus more than they love you?
21:25
Because if they love God with all their hearts, full mind and
21:27
strength, and that's love will spill over onto how they love
21:29
you. But my kids on the way to
21:31
college, the only one who married her high school
21:33
sweetheart was our youngest baby girl, Kayla Ray.
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And she married Estevan and we watched them and we actually
21:39
forced Kayla to go away to college for a year.
21:41
She went to the Masters University.
21:42
We're like, go away for a year. If you guys still want to get
21:44
married, we will give you our blessing.
21:45
But you guys, you got to seek the Lord in this.
21:48
And they did. And they've been married for, Oh
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my word, almost 20 years. They have five children.
21:52
They're just precious. But the others I did not know
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the person they fell in love with until they brought them
21:59
home. That's that's trust in the Lord,
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right. And that is praying for the Lord
22:05
to send them to someone that they can not just be happy with
22:09
that they can surf Christ with that they can minister alongside
22:12
of and raise children with and as each of them brought their
22:14
kids home. A funny story.
22:15
My my oldest daughter went to the Masters University and so
22:18
did her husband and he ended up going to seminary and he's a
22:21
pastor. But when they first came home,
22:23
we live on a ranch. I was telling you that, and I
22:25
was, for some reason, it was Easter, which I just told you.
22:28
We finished Easter. We had hundreds of people that
22:30
come to our house on Easter for a big Easter egg hunt.
22:32
We call it resurrection egg hunt.
22:34
And Meredith and Jake pull up and it's night time and we live
22:37
in the middle of nowhere, USA, and I am sitting on bar stools
22:40
painting my kitchen cabinets. For some reason, it seemed the
22:42
right thing to do before the party was to paint my white
22:45
cabinets black. So.
22:47
Oh, wow. I know my husband said that,
22:49
too. Wow.
22:50
This is a bold choice. Yeah.
22:52
Polar opposite, OK. So.
22:55
I'm easing into it, yeah, so. I'm painting these cabinets and
23:00
Meredith pulls up and it's dark out, but the light in my kitchen
23:03
with big, big huge window in the kitchen.
23:04
They can see me when I put my arms in the air and I open my
23:07
mouth like I'm like, ah, you're here.
23:09
Well, we have Peacocks and Peacocks scream.
23:12
And as they pulled up at the same time, I put my hands in the
23:14
air and made a a pretending to scream sound.
23:17
The Peacocks were screaming. Oh, that's funny.
23:21
Is that your mom? No, but we did not know Jake and
23:28
and so when we met him, we trusted that Meredith had been
23:31
raised to to look for a spouse that would love God more than he
23:35
loved her. That you can't control and then
23:38
you have to let go. And as a mom of adult children
23:42
with sons and daughters in law, you do not want to compete with
23:47
your child's affections. You hand them over to that
23:50
spouse and you sometimes you keep your mouth shut and you
23:53
pray. And I oftentimes overstep with
23:57
my health. They always say, mom's being
23:58
helpful. And I tell them please if I'm
24:00
being too help. That's a kind word.
24:02
It is helpful, yeah. Oh, I love that.
24:07
Well, my two, my oldest one met his spouse in college, so and
24:13
early on the college year, I think it was the second, and
24:15
then my daughter married her high school sweetheart.
24:19
So we got to know them pretty well before, you know, the
24:25
engagement. But you know, it's so important,
24:28
I tell all those young Mamas to start praying over your child's
24:32
spouse. Start now, you know, even when
24:35
you got a child in the belly, start praying because there's so
24:38
much power and prayer and you know, prayers don't die.
24:42
And we God, you know, carries those and, and you know, we
24:47
could trust in his faithfulness that as we were praying and and
24:52
it's never too late to keep praying about that and to know
24:55
that, you know, God's going to bring them the right spouse.
24:59
And I love that that wisdom that you shared for them to love the
25:06
Lord with all their heart more than they do you.
25:09
Because everything else we know seek him and everything else
25:13
will be added right. So everything else will be
25:16
falling into place as long as we seek him first in our life.
25:20
So. Let me just touch on purity.
25:22
Yeah, one of the moms, the Bible we talk about is Mary.
25:25
And honestly, the the story about Mary, I, you know, I
25:27
thought it was going to be about pure this that it ended up being
25:30
about rejection. Like this girl, like literally
25:33
had to tell her love of her life.
25:36
Guess what? I'm pregnant.
25:37
And how she ran to an older mentor to her cousin Elizabeth,
25:41
because the Angel Gabriel had said, by the way, your cousin is
25:44
also miraculously conceived in her old age.
25:47
Go. That's where she decided to go.
25:50
So I love her story because it's about that.
25:52
But I also talked in that chapter about purity and you
25:55
know, a lot of times he was a youth pastor in, in when we
25:58
lived on Lake Travis, we had two hundred teenagers in our house
26:01
every Wednesday night. I mean, God just blew up our
26:03
church with kids that were coming to Jesus.
26:07
And we would talk about purity. And it wasn't the don't do it,
26:10
just don't do it talk, which I had growing up, right?
26:13
I went to Christian schools or like, just don't cross the line.
26:15
So it's like, all right, how far can I go without crossing the
26:18
line? It's like, guess what?
26:19
It's all, all made for the marriage bed.
26:22
And so I talk about we have to teach our kids like all of that
26:27
is foreplay. And so when you what you're
26:29
doing in the back seat of the car and you're thinking you're
26:31
not going to cross over the line, your body is thinking,
26:34
here we go. This is where we're headed.
26:36
And once you know, I can't tell you how many teenagers I've sat
26:39
across from, I never meant to go all the way, but they played
26:43
with fire and eventually they crossed over that line.
26:46
And unfortunately, most of the time it's when they're the most
26:48
fertile. And so often they get pregnant
26:51
and there's that whole discussion to talk to our kids
26:54
about. But the reality of it is this,
26:56
if they're having sex with someone they're dating, they're
26:59
not walking in the Spirit. If you're a high school single
27:03
adult, young adult, single mom listening right now, if you are
27:07
sleeping with someone that you're not married to, you have
27:10
quenched the Spirit. You may be a born again believer
27:12
and the Spirit may not leave you, but you have quenched the
27:15
Spirit. What does that mean?
27:16
You don't have God's discernment to choose a spouse that is the
27:20
one God would have for you. Your best bet is your best bet.
27:24
And and you're just going on your emotions and our emotions
27:27
lie to us. So you know when you have that
27:29
talk with your children about purity.
27:31
It's not just purity for purity's sake.
27:33
It's saying you want to be a vessel of honor for the Master
27:37
and you want to be led by the Spirit.
27:39
You want to know what college he wants you to go through.
27:41
You want to know, go to you want to know what spouse you want to
27:44
know the friends he wants you to choose if you're in any sin but
27:48
in the habitual sin of you know, sons looking at pornography or
27:52
having sex outside of marriage. You are quenching the Spirit and
27:55
you are not being spirit LED in your life.
27:57
And the Bible says that you may be sowing the wind, but you will
28:00
reap the world wind. I think of Rebecca, she favored
28:05
Jacob. God told her he was going to be
28:06
the older, that the younger would serve him.
28:08
But then she went about manipulating circumstances,
28:11
deceiving her husband to get for Jacob what God had promised.
28:16
That's a regretful decision. My, I'm the no regrets woman.
28:19
My website isnoregretswoman.com because I help you break free
28:21
from regrets that hold you back. And sometimes we've made those
28:24
regretful decisions. Interestingly, her son Jacob has
28:29
to flee for his life because Esau is ready to kill him after
28:32
he deceived their father. Years later, Jacob, who's
28:35
renamed Israel by God, repeats the exact thing when he favors
28:40
Joseph. He literally repeats his mom's
28:43
behavior and favors Joseph. And that costs Joseph, who is
28:48
sold into slavery by his brothers who hated him because
28:50
of his father's favoritism. There are so many things that
28:54
you may not have thought were harming your parenting, but you
28:57
may have an aha moment right here, right now.
28:59
And when you do, that's God speak into your heart.
29:02
And it's never too late for God to take you and to do a work in
29:06
you as He reveals to you truth. So our job is to say, Lord, I
29:10
see, I see my sin in this area. I see where I haven't trusted
29:14
you in this area. I see where I have been a
29:16
manipulative mother. I see where I've been a fearful,
29:19
anxious mother. Lord, I want to serve you in a
29:23
way that is courageous and joyful.
29:26
Nehemiah, 810 says The joy of the Lord is your strength.
29:29
Sometimes seasons of motherhood are just so hard and it's not
29:32
joyful. But Nehemiah said the secret to
29:34
success is to be joyful. Think of Rahab, the very first
29:37
story in the book. She was a harlot.
29:40
God continued to call her Rahab the Harlot even when she was
29:44
celebrated as a woman of faith in Hebrews 11.
29:46
That wasn't her last name. That was her profession before
29:49
she believed in Yahweh. The spies came to her house.
29:53
She was like all ready to believe They she said, We've
29:56
heard about your God. We've heard about all those
29:58
things that happened in Israel. That was 40 years ago.
30:03
God when he did those works said this is so that the world may
30:06
know there's a God in Israel. I am an evangelist at heart and
30:10
that to me is the most important thing that we have to do is let
30:14
our kids see us understanding our own story of redemption and
30:18
being willing to share it with that woman at the well that you
30:20
think isn't interested with that harlot that is making good money
30:23
doing her thing. But she was like I already heard
30:26
about your God. She was ready and that to me, if
30:30
we could live with that zeal to share, always ready to give an
30:33
answer for the hope that lies within us, we won't have.
30:37
And if we want to raise a generation of world changers,
30:39
that's how we begin as they see us desperate to share our faith
30:43
with others. Knowing without Christ, I would
30:46
have been that woman at the well.
30:47
I would in that Rahab the harlot.
30:49
It's because of Christ in me the hope of glory, and I'm going to
30:51
hold out that hope to the next generation.
30:53
I love it. OK, as we conclude, I always ask
30:58
the guest a take away, something that the listener here can
31:01
ponder on or take action in. What is that bit of
31:05
encouragement that you can impart to us?
31:08
Let me read this to you. It's a final exhortation from
31:10
this book. From the beginning, God
31:12
established mothers as the first teachers of biblical truth to
31:15
their children. Moms are the makers of future
31:18
generations of godly men and women.
31:21
This is your time in history. God is calling you to set aside
31:24
whatever distracts you from this biblical ministry of motherhood.
31:29
And here's what I want you to do.
31:31
Link arms with other like minded women who will run this race
31:36
alongside of you, cheering you on in your successes and picking
31:41
you up when you falter. Make friends with women who are
31:45
desperate for Jesus and commit yourself to not gossip, to not
31:49
live in that pettiness, to realize this is a ministry to
31:53
which God has called you, and to run this race with your eyes
31:56
fixed on Jesus. And then find older godly women
31:59
to put their hand in the small of your back.
32:02
I have a podcast called Old Ladies Know Stuff.
32:05
Old ladies do know stuff. Find at least one that will pour
32:09
into your life. My older godly mentor is 85
32:11
years old this year and I called her recently because her
32:14
daughter passed away from cancer.
32:15
And I said, GAIL, how are you doing?
32:19
And she shared her stuff with me.
32:21
And then she said, how are you doing?
32:23
And she asked about my kids and my grandkids.
32:25
And we spent the next hour talking about my life.
32:27
And I'm like, GAIL, I called to encourage you.
32:30
And she said, Rhonda, it so encourages me to encourage you.
32:35
There's older women out there. They want to be needed and they
32:38
have so much wisdom to share. So find your mentor, be a mentor
32:43
and let's all run this race together.
32:45
And when we falter, let's put our hand in the small of
32:47
someone's back and help them run their.
32:49
I love that Rhonda, we all get blessed.
32:51
Thank you. And where can people buy your
32:54
book and your website and any goodies that you're offering?
32:58
Is it out now or is it pre sale? Yes, the book came out March
33:02
10th. So excited about the buzz around
33:04
this book. It is just so exciting and I've
33:07
got a ton of interviews that are all going to hit the airwaves
33:09
come Mom's Day. So it's will be like all the
33:12
things. So it's also in an audio book.
33:15
I got to read the audio book. I went to Southern California in
33:17
a studio for three days and had to read Hear My Voice for three
33:21
days special. So I know my moms my my audience
33:25
is the 30 something soccer mom who doesn't have time to read a
33:28
book. So put me in your ears while
33:29
you're carpooling. I'm there for you.
33:31
It also just came out in Spanish, so that's awesome.
33:35
You go to my website, noregretswoman.com.
33:38
You can go to rondastoppie.com too, but people don't know how
33:41
to spell it. But no regrets, woman, I own
33:43
that trademark. Old ladies, no stuff, I own that
33:45
trademark. Either of those will get you to
33:47
my website. You can click on all of my
33:49
books. They're available wherever you
33:51
buy your books. And if you go to
33:53
noregretswoman.com, it will give you a pop up that you can sign
33:57
up for my newsletter. I promise I only send it once a
34:00
month and tell you when the next podcast is out, but it will give
34:03
you a free chapter to the first chapter of Moms of the Bible.
34:07
Life changing lessons from the fearless, flawed and faithful.
34:10
And it's Rahab's story and the woman at the Well story.
34:13
And it's an awesome, awesome story.
34:15
Thank you, Rhonda so much for coming on here and sharing this.
34:18
Incredible. Book my pleasure was delightful.
34:21
Thank you so much. Thank you so much for listening
34:25
today, and I trust that God has encouraged you through this
34:28
story. Did you know this podcast is on
34:31
YouTube? Hop on there and subscribe and
34:34
you can see a live recording of each episode.
34:38
And For more information on this ministry and to access free
34:41
downloads, please visit my website at jamieelizabeth.com.
34:46
That's JAYME elizabeth.com. And let's connect beyond this
34:51
podcast by going to my Instagram handle, Jamie Elizabeth.
34:55
She speaks life or Facebook. Until next time, my friend, I
34:59
hope God reveals himself through your own life story.