Latest / The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast / 619 | Rebroadcast - Faith Journey - Kim Miller

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619 | Rebroadcast - Faith Journey - Kim Miller · The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast

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  Hello, friends, and welcome back to the Woman at the Well Ministries podcast.
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  With Kimberly Miller, where we believe that every man, woman,
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  boy, and girl must come to Jesus just like the woman at the well in John chapter 4.
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  Our highest priority is helping you experience the reality of God in your everyday life.
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  Whether you're listening in our app, on your favorite podcast platform,
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  are on our website at watwm.org.
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  We invite you to sit down with us as we open the scriptures to learn more about
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  who God is and to strengthen your daily walk with Jesus Christ.
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  In this episode of the Woman at the Well Ministries podcast,
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  join Kim Miller and Erica Close as we give you an opportunity to know more about
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  us and to learn why we do what we do.
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  Well, thank you for joining us in this podcast of Women at the Well Ministries.
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  My name is Erica Close, and I am here with Kim Miller. Hello.
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  Thank you so much for spending some time with us and walking with us as we walk
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  through our journey of faith with the Lord.
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  So if you listen to podcast 201, we introduced you to why Women at the Well
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  Ministries has the name Women at the Well Ministries.
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  And if you haven't listened to that one, we invite you to go back and take a
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  listen, because it's really important to us that we are called Woman at the Well Ministries.
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  And so we invite you back to that episode. But today, we wanted to take an opportunity
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  to introduce you to us as believers,
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  as people who love Jesus, as people who know that we are called to be His witnesses.
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  You know, Isaiah 43.10 stands out, and it says, Ye are my witnesses,
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  saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen, that ye may know and believe
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  me and understand that I am he.
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  Before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.
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  And I think that verse just speaks to what it means, first of all,
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  to be a witness, but also what the job is of a witness, right?
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  To help others know and believe and understand who God is.
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  So today I'd like to ask Kim if she would share a little bit about her journey
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  as a Christian, her journey as a believer, her journey in faith into becoming
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  the witness that she is for Christ.
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  One of the things that I think is so amazing in this partnership that we have
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  here at Women at the Well Ministries is our two faith journeys are very different.
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  We come from very different places. Our childhoods were different growing up.
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  And our salvation stories are very different.
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  I believe that when Kim tells you hers, hers is going to be very focused on
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  family and learning from her parents.
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  I became a Christian as an adult.
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  So we have very different stories.
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  And I think that there's tremendous value in hearing those two stories.
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  Whether it's about you because you've never come to Jesus as your personal Savior
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  or whether you are a witness for him and you're witnessing to people that are
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  in very different stages of life.
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  So Kim, if you wouldn't care, would you tell us a little bit about what your
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  salvation story looked like, what it meant to you to grow up in your family,
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  and how your family taught you about Jesus.
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  I would love to talk about the blessings that I was given because I learned
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  who God was in a very young age.
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  And I learned that.
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  How to have a personal relationship with him.
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  And that personal relationship was developed and cultivated.
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  And we were completely immersed in Jesus and the Word of God.
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  It wasn't something that we did in my household.
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  It was who we were. And my mom and dad lived it flawlessly in front of us.
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  They were human. They did make mistakes. But as far as living a witness of who
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  Jesus was and understanding that it is a personal moment-by-moment real relationship
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  and that you can crawl up into the arms of Jesus and he will shelter you and
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  he will protect you and he will supply all of your needs.
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  And to understand the concept of be ye holy for I am holy that he tells us in
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  his word, they did it amazingly.
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  My parents loved Jesus so much and lived him so well in front of me that I wanted what they had.
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  I wanted that joy. I wanted that peace. I wanted that comfort.
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  I wanted that lifestyle.
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  And that is what a witness has to do. A witness has to somehow make the people
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  who are looking on believe that what you have is better than what they have,
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  is better than what they're doing, that there is a truth in loving Jesus.
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  There is a truth in understanding that he is a friend that sticks closer than a brother.
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  There is a reality in having a personal relationship, and that when we turn
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  our lives over to him, we are not sacrificing anything amazing,
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  but we are gaining beyond what our eyes and our mind can comprehend.
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  And that's what my parents did for me. And I was saved when I was very young.
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  I was saved when I was five.
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  And I knew that I knew that if I died, I was going to go to hell and that there
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  was a hell to shun and a heaven to gain.
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  And I knew that because Jesus was lived in front of me.
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  We prayed together as a family.
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  We had Bible study as a family. My parents truly.
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  Developed an amazing Bible memory system for me and allowed me to memorize.
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  My whole family was always in the Word of God, and we had a big family.
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  I had five brothers and sisters, and so sometimes when you were just waiting
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  around to go to the bathroom or in the kitchen or something because there was
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  somebody else doing what you needed to do or wanted to do,
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  there were always bible verses on like index
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  cards or sheets of paper or something all over the
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  house so that while you were just waiting you were
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  looking at the word of god and then in the mornings before
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  i went to school there was bible study nothing great and big just something
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  that tell me what jesus was doing for me and who he was so that i'd be filled
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  to the very top so that all that would happened to me all day long at school
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  couldn't bring me home empty because they had filled me with Jesus.
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  And that was their purpose in life, was to live out the principles and the love
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  and the relationship they had with Jesus so that those that were coming behind
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  them would find them faithful and would want what they had.
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  And so my relationship with Jesus began very early, and I was saved at home.
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  We were in church a lot. My dad was a choir director. My mother was an amazing prayer warrior.
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  And Bible study was a way of life. And they did what I call Bible speak.
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  They could have sentences that were half word of God and half their words,
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  but they just spoke that way naturally.
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  And so when you were in the presence of my mom or dad.
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  Somehow the focus of all conversations was going to be Jesus,
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  and you would understand who he was and amazingly feel his love for you.
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  And so my friends would come, my brothers and sisters' friends would come.
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  Our place was the place where people hung out because the love of Jesus was
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  given freely and frequently.
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  If you had—I'm going to pause in the story here—but if you had Like one piece
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  of advice that you could give to,
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  say, a young parent that is now realizing they're in that position of sharing
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  Jesus with their family, what would you tell them?
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  Oh, I don't know that I could give you one answer, but I can give you kind of
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  a trifold answer. I'll take it.
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  First of all, I would tell you to live Jesus in front of them.
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  Live it. Speak it.
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  Embrace it. Secondly, I would tell you to, above all else, pray with them out loud.
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  Let that child hear you petition the Lord for your needs and for their needs.
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  Let them see your faith and your trust on full display.
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  Because when they get in trouble, that's what they're going to remember.
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  Remember, oh, this is what mommy does. This is what daddy does. This is what I got to do.
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  And then the last thing that I would say in my trifold example is if you really
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  want your child to fall in love with Jesus, make sure Jesus is everywhere in your house.
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  Speak his word. Put his word on paper.
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  Talk about him at dinner. Talk about him when you ask him things in the morning.
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  And then the bonus cherry on top is study with a kid every morning because the
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  devil's going to hit them as soon as they wake up.
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  Make sure they're full enough with the armor of God.
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  They are protected enough and that their mind has stayed on him enough for the
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  peace of God to walk them through the day.
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  I love that. So you said that the first part of your trifold was that you wanted
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  them that parents need to live it in front of their children what does that mean.
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  Don't tell your kids to go to church if you're not going to church.
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  Don't tell your kids to read the Bible if you're not reading it.
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  In fact, you can do a whole lot less telling if you do a whole lot more showing.
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  So let your kids find you sitting at the table with your Bible open and a notebook
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  wide open and taking notes.
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  Let your children hear you when you are talking to them and you just sprinkle
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  in a little bit of a verse.
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  Maybe they won't know the verse, and maybe in the first five years of their
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  life, they'll not even know you're speaking a verse.
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  But when they're 18 and they hear you say, you know, love people with all your
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  heart, your soul, and your mind, they'll understand that this is the first commandment.
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  They will also get, if you start saying things to them like,
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  I understand that you don't want to do this and that that person is mean to
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  you and that person isn't treating you right.
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  But you need to pray for them because the Bible says to pray for those that despitefully use you.
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  I mean, begin to incorporate it in your conversations naturally.
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  And maybe at first you have to practice it.
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  Having lived in it my whole life, it just comes out.
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  But maybe getting saved later in life is something you have to do.
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  But pour him in so you can pour him out.
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  I think that that pouring him in so you can pour him out is huge,
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  both for ourselves and for those in our care.
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  Those that are in our care. I knew that my mom and dad loved me.
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  But I knew that they loved Jesus even more. And I knew when they were correcting
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  me or molding me, they were doing it for their love of Jesus and their love
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  for me to know him as he is.
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  You talked about all of the Bible work that your parents did with you and that
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  you were saved very young at five.
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  How did the Bible work change or develop as you got older, like through high
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  school and going into college?
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  Again my parents were amazing and i want to
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  say thank you jesus for who you gave me i'm
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  not sure how that i was
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  so blessed to be their child but they had their own system where they they literally
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  would assign you things to read and each child had different stuff because it
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  would be what they were facing and in the beginning they would read it with
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  me some of my most precious memories of my oldest sister, Melinda,
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  is she would read to me the story of David and Goliath, and the poor thing read
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  it to me every night because she would try to read me something else,
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  and I would say, no, no, I want to know that story.
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  I mean, I can almost quote just from hearing her that story.
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  She would read it over and over and over and over again, and she never grew tired of that.
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  And when I was sick as an adult one time, and she was coming to visit me,
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  she opened her Bible and read to me the story of David and Goliath.
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  So as I got older, younger they read to me.
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  Younger they would help me memorize, my mom and dad and my brothers and sisters.
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  As I got older, we had Bible study in our home, and we had family prayer every
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  night. and my parents would give you a night that you were going to lead.
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  And so, you know, I would start out and they would fill in whatever needed.
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  But as I got older, that wasn't how it was.
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  And we had a system where you, you know, you read the verse or the passage and
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  then you determine what it was saying.
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  And then you put it in your own words so that you could understand what it really meant.
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  And then we would apply it to our lives. And then we'd make a plan for how we
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  were going to apply it to our lives.
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  And as I got older, each of those steps become more independently mine.
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  But they were done, and they were written, and they weren't checked for right or wrong.
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  They were checked for completeness and understanding.
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  And I could determine what I thought it meant. And as long as it wasn't off
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  the wall, there wasn't anything said about that. They would just add the rest of what it meant.
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  And as I got older, what happened was there was a lot less interjection and
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  a whole lot more hallelujah, praise the Lord, she gets it.
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  I like that. But they didn't water it down at five.
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  I just had more helpers. I think that right there is a really important key,
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  that they didn't water it down. They never watered it down.
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  They never thought it was more than you could understand in first grade.
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  I mean, we use King James Version Bible. We still use King James Version Bible.
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  And people would say, well, I can't understand that. And the Bible says if we
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  pray, the Lord will give us an
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  understanding. And you can choose to use whatever version that you want.
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  But I bring that up because at 6, 7, and 8, I was still using that version because
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  they weren't going to water it down.
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  They just spent enormous amounts of time with me in the Word.
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  And if you're a parent and you're not spending time with your child in the Word,
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  oh my goodness, what you're missing.
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  My mother and dad are both gone now, but I've heard them say it many times.
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  Their most precious moments with their children were around the throne of God.
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  So you mentioned, you know, that we all know, we all grow up, right?
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  And as you moved into adulthood with this foundation of study and prayer and learning,
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  how did your own personal study and prayer change or develop?
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  Or did it as you got into adulthood and your relationship with the Lord was a little more,
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  one-on-one less checked
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  that's what i'm a good point my relationship
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  with jesus from five to now i'm 58 has always been one-on-one it's always been
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  personal and my walk with jesus was different than my brothers and sisters and
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  my mom and dad and they were very careful to explain that but from five to 25 when I lost my dad.
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  It was extraordinarily checked. There was accountability.
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  There was conversation. But I fell in love with Jesus immediately.
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  At a very early age. And I wanted to know more and more about him.
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  And to be honest with you, as a selfish reason, I wanted to be the friend of Jesus.
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  And I wanted to hear him say, well done, my friend.
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  And I didn't understand at a young age what it meant to be a friend or what
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  it meant to be a friend of Jesus and what it would cost me or what it would call for me to do.
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  But Abraham was called the friend of God, and my whole life,
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  that has been a driving force in me.
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  I want to be. He's done so much for me. He's given me so much.
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  He has directed me, and He's been personal, and He's a friend that I can have
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  at all times, and He never leaves me, and He never forsakes me,
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  and He's constantly giving me amazing advice and counsel,
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  and He is leading me in places that my mind can't even imagine,
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  and he's done so much. I just want to be his friend.
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  And so I studied feverishly for that, with no thought of ever being used.
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  But the scripture says, to whom much is given, of much is required.
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  And one day, he called it and said, I need you to teach for me.
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  I need you to have this ministry. I need you to be a one-on-one discipler.
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  I need you to give people a picture and a clear view into your life so that
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  they can see what it means to walk hand in hand with me.
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  And I get the song that says, he walks with me and he talks with me and he calls me his own.
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  But it requires time in the garden, reading and studying, and a life that is just devoted.
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  To being used of him. I'm really not that much.
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  The skills and the talents are not extraordinary,
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  but the walk with Jesus and the relationship I have because of who he is and
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  the teaching I've had and falling in love at such an early age,
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  it is extraordinary, and I will guard it with my life.
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  So I have one more question, if I can.
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  You mentioned less checked, but when you mentioned that, I think you spoke to
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  the power of accountability.
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  And how has accountability changed as an adult, as an adult in Christ?
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  I will tell you, I am a firm believer that every strong Christian needs accountability buddies.
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  And that's the people who are my closest friends who keep me accountable to the scriptures.
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  And they watch my actions and my decisions and where I go and where I don't go.
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  And they check it against what the Word of God says, and they call me on it.
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  And you can't have a lot of those because there's not that many people going
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  to be that invested in you.
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  And one of my biggest fears when my parents both passed away was who will I
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  have praying for me daily?
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  And who will I have who is so interested in my relationship with Jesus that
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  they will pray for it, they will watch it, and they will pour into it.
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  But God always gives you what you need and he never takes away what he doesn't
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  provide and I have that I have that strong accountability in you and I have
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  a handful of friends in my circle that I know are watching that and for that
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  I want to publicly say thank you Jesus,
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  that I know that my work and my study is less checked but my life is as checked as it's ever been.
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  Well, I really hope that you, our listeners, have enjoyed hearing Kim's story.
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  And I think that you can't help but be encouraged to go deeper,
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  right? To go deeper with Jesus.
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  You can't outgive him. So every moment I've ever spent, he has certainly multiplied much more.
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  And I think that all of us that just heard that understand where we get our
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  tagline that's at the end of every single one of our podcasts,
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  because this is a lesson that I believe that you learned at a very young age, and you've lived it out.
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  Let's remember that you are loved. Jesus loves you.
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  Amen. To God be the glory for the great things He has done.
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  Thank you for joining us for today's podcast. You can find quotes and scripture
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  references from this episode in the show notes.
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  We pray today's message has been a blessing.
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  If it has, please consider leaving a rating or review on your podcast platform.
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  Your feedback helps others discover the truth of God's Word.
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  You can connect with Woman at the Well Ministries through our app at watwm.org
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  and on Facebook and Instagram.
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  While you're there, learn more about Bible Bits. Kim's daily devotional delivered
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  Monday through Friday by text message and the Bible bit podcast.
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  Thank you for your prayers and support.
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  Remember, Jesus loves you. You.