Latest / She Speaks Life - Christian Women, Strengthen Your Faith, Bible Study, Grow Spiritually In Christ / Challenges Won't Stop Me With Melony Brown
Transcript
- 0:02Hey there. Welcome back to she speaks life.
- 0:05Hey, if you haven't downloaded, God's ID, my ID yet hop on the
- 0:09link below in the show notes and you'll receive a free download
- 0:15of God's characteristics and how they apply to your life today.
- 0:20It's so encouraging. I know you'll love it.
- 0:23Now today I bring you Melanie Brown, she is the author of
- 0:28challenges won't stop me. An interactive guide to
- 0:32overcoming and thriving Melanie. And I have a conversation about
- 0:37choosing not to have challenges, block, our path and stop us
- 0:41where we're heading, and what we need in our backpack.
- 0:45That's essential to get through the trains of life, in our
- 0:48journey with God. Melanie brings such a unique
- 0:52visual of how to be primed and ready for whatever comes our
- 0:57way. I am so excited for you to hear
- 0:59this conversation. Patient.
- 1:01So let's dive in. Here's my guest Melanie Brown.
- 1:04Hi, Melanie, welcome to she speaks life.
- 1:06I am so excited. You are here with us today.
- 1:10I am so excited to be with you too.
- 1:12I've been looking forward to this.
- 1:14Yeah, I love your story. I got to read your book over the
- 1:19last week, and is just absolutely amazing.
- 1:23And before we dive into that, I always love to kick us off with
- 1:28our conversation. And ask you, do you have a
- 1:32favorite scripture verse? Yes, I do.
- 1:36And it also is my fight verse. And we'll talk about that later,
- 1:40but it is Hebrews 2:13 and it is from the Amplified version.
- 1:46And it says, my trust and assured Reliance and confident,
- 1:50hope shall be fixed in him and the fixed in him.
- 1:56If I can do that part, he shows up In big big ways.
- 2:02Yeah, he sure does. And your story is all about
- 2:07overcoming and thriving. And, you know, you wrote a book,
- 2:13it's called challenges won't stop me and interactive Survival
- 2:17Guide for overcoming and thriving.
- 2:21And so, before we just dive into how awesome this book is, I
- 2:27would love to hear your story of overcoming.
- 2:30Coming, what made you write this book?
- 2:33Well, my story starts well. Before I was born, I have a
- 2:38congenital disease that was formed in my mother's womb.
- 2:43I didn't know that until I was 45 years old, but the first
- 2:47signs of it started. When I was two, I had a stroke
- 2:51that paralyzed my left side. Caused a lot of residual
- 2:57struggles but my parents took me home.
- 3:01After the doctor said, you know, this is very unusual.
- 3:04She's two years old. We usually see patients, who are
- 3:0765 or older. You really don't know what to do
- 3:11with her. Pretty pretty amazed that my 22
- 3:15year old parents did not completely freaked out, but it
- 3:19really brought forth this idea of fighting to overcome.
- 3:25I don't know if they even knew it was inside of them, but they
- 3:28instill it in me. And that's where my Overcomer
- 3:32attitude came from. Even though it was a struggle to
- 3:36learn how to feed myself. Again, learn how to walk again,
- 3:41because it impacted my balance and coordination.
- 3:45They continue to encourage. And believe in me, they would
- 3:50not. Let me use any of the struggles
- 3:55that I had as an excuse. Not to participate.
- 3:58It may have been awkward, it may have been He looking and I have
- 4:01taken me a lot longer, but I was at least expected to try
- 4:06different things, Sports learning how to ride a bike and
- 4:10that mentality that positive attitude.
- 4:13Not letting the circumstances the challenges that I dealt with
- 4:19keep me from enjoying life and participating in life came from
- 4:23my parents. Thankfully, I had that so deeply
- 4:26ingrained in me that when I started having migraines And
- 4:30debilitating migraines in my 20s, that lasted through most of
- 4:34my 30s and I still have some occasionally all neurological
- 4:40again, I would be in the bed for days on end having to go to the
- 4:44emergency room for medicine when nothing else worked.
- 4:48The mentality of fighting to overcome and not letting the
- 4:53migraines defeat me or stop me from doing what I was called to
- 4:59do with. That time, which was teaching in
- 5:01the classroom. If you fast forward again, to
- 5:06right before my 40th, birthday, I started having many strokes.
- 5:10Again, you're a logical. On the fourth mini stroke my, my
- 5:15neurologist suggested that I get an angiogram of my brain.
- 5:19And that's when it revealed, why I was having all of these
- 5:22neurological issues and that is due to a rare cerebrovascular
- 5:28disease called Moyamoya. And once I process the news
- 5:33because, you know, I 45 and a lifetime of struggles, finally
- 5:38getting a name to it while it was a scary name and I didn't
- 5:41know anything. Thing about it at least I knew
- 5:44what was causing all of the difficulties that I had faced
- 5:47throughout my life and I ask the question that then led to
- 5:52something that was very scary. I said, What do we do now?
- 5:57What kind of treatment do you use for Moyamoya?
- 6:01How do you help me to stop having these neurological
- 6:05incidences? And my neurosurgeon said well
- 6:10brain surgery and that was a little bit to process, but it
- 6:15was important because it was an Avenue to, at least alleviate
- 6:21the more significant challenges. I still am going to have
- 6:25challenges Because while brain surgery was effective and has
- 6:29been effective. It only slows it it doesn't stop
- 6:33Malia Moya. So I will continue to have
- 6:35struggles, that are neurological but again that that mentality of
- 6:42fighting to overcome is just part of my DNA now, and God has
- 6:47shown up, I can't even begin to tell you how many times and made
- 6:51his presence known and has healed me, not completely of
- 6:55Moyamoya, but of many other things and so I give him all the
- 7:00credits. It's, but that's where my love
- 7:03of overcoming comes from. Is that I know what it takes to
- 7:08fight to overcome. Yeah, it's just a basing on the
- 7:12cover. You've got a girl that looks
- 7:15like she's about to go hiking. And so this whole book just
- 7:20takes you on this outdoor hike journey and you talk about
- 7:25packing the essentials in your backpack which are all these,
- 7:30you know metaphors. What we need to not survive but
- 7:34Thrive as we're overcoming, right?
- 7:38Yeah. Surviving is important.
- 7:41Yeah, but surviving is limited to.
- 7:46Yes, just the challenge. What are you gonna do
- 7:49afterwards? Yeah, I wasn't going to impact
- 7:52your life and definitely it will impact the challenges will
- 7:57impact you in ways that are, I guess - but it, Can also impact
- 8:02you in many, many positive ways. And that's what thrust you into
- 8:05that thriving, but it's a choice.
- 8:08Yeah, for sure your buck, it's interactive.
- 8:12It's engaging. We have areas where we get to
- 8:16write down our thoughts that you provide, you tell us to
- 8:20underline things. It's learning in a way that's
- 8:25better than just reading a book. I mean, you're actually learning
- 8:29through this book. It's interesting.
- 8:31Active. And so I wanted to start us out
- 8:37with its the Rope analogy of mile to inviting God, to be
- 8:43braided and twisted in us to give us strength.
- 8:46And so throughout this hiking Journey, if you will each
- 8:52chapter is called like Mi one my old to but you have like a top
- 8:56it next to it and then you have all these items that are
- 9:00essential so I love to expand more on the rope and then I'm
- 9:04going to take us through some of the highlights of what I love
- 9:09the most, when I read this book. So if you could just explain
- 9:13more about this rope because I'm not doing it justice at all but
- 9:18that's okay. The Rope one is an interesting
- 9:21one because the type the title of that Mile and yes I do miles
- 9:26instead of chapters because you are on a journey and I asked to
- 9:30come alongside you Not as the master Navigator, I point all of
- 9:36that to God, I'm just, I'm journeying with you and I'm
- 9:40pointing out some things that maybe you already know as a
- 9:43Christ follower, but maybe you just need a reminder of about
- 9:48how essential some of these things are and in that chapter
- 9:52or mile of the Rope it is about, is struggle really necessary.
- 9:58Yeah, it really is and Part of the struggle.
- 10:02If you think about a rope, there are many different ways that you
- 10:06can use a rope but I talked about three of those.
- 10:10And what I think is so important to remember is that you can be
- 10:16dragged by a rope which of course would be presenting a
- 10:19challenge one that you probably wouldn't be agreeable to but
- 10:24nonetheless that you can learn from that a rope can also be
- 10:29used for resistance and opposition.
- 10:31Action, we know all about that. And then the third purpose of a
- 10:36rope is for lifting. And there are countless
- 10:41scriptures in the Bible that talk about God, lifting us out
- 10:45now, does that mean that he's going to yank us out of that
- 10:49abusive marriage? Maybe maybe, but he's going to
- 10:53lift Us in ways where he is lifting our eyes to him and he
- 10:58is pouring into us. So it may not not be a physical
- 11:02lifting out, but it may be lifting us to him so that he can
- 11:07impart, what we need to know in order to fight to overcome that
- 11:11situation. Yeah, that's good.
- 11:14I love all of that that was you know because my testimony isn't
- 11:19necessarily Health but it's Financial loss.
- 11:22And so I was looking back at that struggle at that time and
- 11:27it was definitely this dragging. It's not going to lift us out of
- 11:31Problem but it was definitely him drawing me closer to him and
- 11:36Me growing in my character to the point of praising and
- 11:42worshipping him through the struggle, which we're going to
- 11:46talk about a little bit because you have a chapter on that which
- 11:50is so awesome. And so I wanted to also
- 11:55highlight and talk about the Mi 4 and this one That was so cool.
- 12:03You talked about the different maps and I think everyone can
- 12:08kind of relate or are seeing other people use that type of
- 12:13map for their life and you broke it down into three culture map
- 12:20substance map and a pride map and go ahead and tell us what
- 12:27that chapter was called and break down those.
- 12:31Different maps. And what map ultimately do we
- 12:34need to use? Well, the whole idea of the maps
- 12:38is the fact that we have a map that as Christ followers, we
- 12:45need to be following. And yeah, the world is pulling
- 12:49us towards other types of maps and you talk about the culture
- 12:53and the pride, and the way that we have a map that basically is
- 12:59inviting to Nam are Pain or two to take us away from the
- 13:04struggle. And the title of that chapter is
- 13:08who is guiding your journey. The map that God gives us is his
- 13:12word and we have to choose to use that map.
- 13:17I would never in a million years want to make the reader feel
- 13:22this obligatory. You must go to God's word every
- 13:25single day or else you're not going to be seen in God's eyes
- 13:29as acceptable or Lovable, or any of those things.
- 13:34He's not requiring. This checklist from us at all,
- 13:37and none of the things in my book are about a checklist.
- 13:41I call them essential year because it's intended.
- 13:45As you mentioned, a moment ago about drawing us to him it he's
- 13:51pieces of gear. They strengthen us, they equip
- 13:54us and they Empower us to deal with whatever challenge dares to
- 13:59cross your path. And so the map there's a Nelson
- 14:05DeMille quote in that chapter or in that Mi I keep using chapter
- 14:09and I am kind of fussing at myself because I've corrected so
- 14:14many other people that keep using chapter and here I am
- 14:17because I'm saying, no, they're miles there miles, but in that
- 14:22mile, I talked about his quote is that there are better maps
- 14:28and we have access to the better man.
- 14:31Mmm, it's word guides us and teaches us and helps us navigate
- 14:38those uncertain times. Those difficult situations and
- 14:43the World's Maps and there are far more than those three.
- 14:47Yeah. Loneliness is a map because it
- 14:50can draw us into things to numb that loneliness or fill that
- 14:58void and so we have to make decisions whatever those maps
- 15:02are that are guiding us away from God.
- 15:06We need to be choosing the better map, which is God's word,
- 15:10that is the map. That's going to guide us towards
- 15:14him and towards healthy productive thriving living.
- 15:20Yeah, I just love that because I mean you broke it down to a
- 15:25culture map. It's more of like do.
- 15:27What? Feels good.
- 15:29You know you get tangled up. Sin.
- 15:32It causes Financial struggles, and inflicts pain.
- 15:34On others substance map is numbing the pain instead of
- 15:39working through it. It's the harder way, right?
- 15:42Easier just to numb it out with something, whether its food or
- 15:46alcohol or shopping, whatever, but it can lead to addiction,
- 15:52and destroy a relationship lead to job loss, and then you said
- 15:57the prime map and that's covering up or denying that
- 16:00there's a Sin or a struggle. And it pushes people away.
- 16:04That care because the sin is viewed as no big deal destroys
- 16:09relationships, marriages again loss of job or Ministry or
- 16:13reputation. So all of these Maps lead to
- 16:17destruction because you're not, you're using the world's method
- 16:23and all these Maps lead to sin and sin leads to destruction at
- 16:29least two. The Bible says deaf which is you
- 16:33know, destroying things. It's dying things out.
- 16:37And so anyway, I just love that. You just gave this whole
- 16:41analogy. That are our map should be God's
- 16:45word and it is. It's our instructional book and
- 16:48life. I love also the Mi number five
- 16:53and you went into in depth into the purposes of prayer and You
- 17:01called this chapter who do you call when you're struggling?
- 17:05And so can you just expand more on the purposes of prayer?
- 17:09Because, you know, we know prayer is powerful.
- 17:13We know that it is something that we should do, but the way
- 17:19you broke it down, it just made it so clear as to the why behind
- 17:27the what? Well, thank you for your kind
- 17:30words. Yeah.
- 17:32Prayer is represented in the book by the multi-purpose tool.
- 17:38And of course, when I was trying to figure out the connection of
- 17:42visual images that would relate to, each of the pieces of
- 17:45essential gear, I kept thinking about prayer, and what could I
- 17:49even use and then I don't know if I saw a commercial.
- 17:56I think I did see a commercial on TV about a camping trip, or a
- 18:01hiking trip or something like that.
- 18:02And they didn't even mention the multi-purpose tool, but it was
- 18:06on the person and they used it and I'm thinking multi-purpose
- 18:11multi-purpose. That's what prayer is.
- 18:14It's not just one, it doesn't. It's not just, we don't pray for
- 18:18just one purpose. There are so many different.
- 18:22Ways that we pray and what we pray for and what what it does
- 18:27for us and how it brings us to closer to God, I'm just gonna.
- 18:33Yeah, so good. Talk about a few of these and
- 18:37this this list of 7 is just the 7.
- 18:42Biggest 7 that came to my mind. Again multi-purpose means that
- 18:47you could easily add to this list because you Listener could
- 18:53have discovered a different way. That prayer has connected them
- 19:01to God, and that they have learned about God or themselves
- 19:06that a prayer has been answered any of those way.
- 19:09So this is not an exhaustive list but a couple of those is
- 19:13prayer. Connects you with the only one
- 19:15who truly knows you. We can talk to our friends.
- 19:20We can talk to our dog. Trust me, I talk to my dog a lot
- 19:23about things that are concerning me because she's a great
- 19:26listener, but she can't do anything about it.
- 19:29We can talk to our spouses, our children, our parents, any of
- 19:33those people, but we still withhold from them because
- 19:38there's parts of ourselves that we don't necessarily want them
- 19:41to see and so when we connect with God, he's the one that
- 19:46knows us. Us and we can be so authentic
- 19:50with him especially when we're struggling.
- 19:52Because sometimes it's hard to admit, I feel lonely or I feel
- 19:58afraid or I'm just so angry. You might not want to share that
- 20:04with your spouse and so this is the person that knows you well
- 20:08and knows those things are going on in you.
- 20:11Anyway, prayer invites a two-way connection with God, which is
- 20:16what we talked about earlier. Prayer, strengthens you?
- 20:19I don't know. Jamie, I find that often times
- 20:22when I am finished with a prayer and I closed my prayer.
- 20:27Then I just feel this this Inner Strength that God has infused in
- 20:33me and that gives me courage to keep going.
- 20:38Hmm. Yeah.
- 20:40Prayer guides our path because we can ask for guidance and he
- 20:44provides that fills you with peace.
- 20:47That We know from the Bible says, that kind of peace that
- 20:50passes human understanding. Now, I have experienced that
- 20:55another one would be that, it allows God to impart his wisdom
- 21:00inside and understanding. And then the last one that I put
- 21:04again, not exhaustive list. But the last one that I put is
- 21:07that it gives us an opportunity to express our Thanksgiving to
- 21:11God. Now we can do that.
- 21:13Anytime we can just say it out loud when we're in the car or
- 21:17When you receive something but that's a great time to express
- 21:22our Thanksgiving to God. Yeah.
- 21:25All those are so good and just truth and one thing I discovered
- 21:30and it's not a Prayer by myself but praying with my husband and
- 21:34how when we came together this was something that I was
- 21:40convicted on years ago because we would have these Financial
- 21:46struggles And some hardships but we were praying like on our own
- 21:52and so I remember God just putting it on my heart, get
- 21:57together with your husband and pray, right?
- 22:01And so I went to my husband and I was like you know let's pray
- 22:06together like we're always you know, on our separate quiet
- 22:09times and which which is great to do but when we're talking
- 22:14about something that's going on mutually in our in our Carriage
- 22:18and we need to come to God with this and really pray together.
- 22:22And I'm hearing things that I normally wouldn't be hearing
- 22:26otherwise, because he's talking to the father praying to God and
- 22:34stuff that he wouldn't be coming to me about.
- 22:37But so at the same time, I'm hearing what's really instilled
- 22:41in his heart, what's really going on and vice versa me too.
- 22:45And so that's the beauty of Prayer.
- 22:47Where it's like it turns everything just so transparent,
- 22:51you know? And you're just like, you're
- 22:53like, oh wow, like had no idea. That was something you were
- 22:57battling with or you know struggling with and how great.
- 23:01We just laid it at his feet and said, here it is Lord and so and
- 23:07then after that we just started seeing mountains being moved on
- 23:11our behalf. And so I wanted to continue on
- 23:14to mile number 7 you said who or what is Defied when you see your
- 23:19struggles and I believe you use binoculars for this.
- 23:22Yes. And this I absolutely love
- 23:26because you talk about praising and worshiping God in the
- 23:29struggle. You said nobody has to remind us
- 23:33to praise God. After the struggle and I think
- 23:38that is something we don't do often enough.
- 23:42I know, I went through a dark little season.
- 23:47Couple years ago and the Lord told me to start reading Psalm
- 23:52and David and so I started praising him and worshiping him
- 23:57through the. Where are you?
- 23:59God moment in my life and I could not believe how much it
- 24:05transformed me. I was like, oh no wonder this is
- 24:08in the Bible, this is what we should be doing.
- 24:12So I'd love for you to just share a little bit more on this.
- 24:16I think the Idea of binoculars is perfect for praise and
- 24:21worship because it's fixing our eyes on him.
- 24:25And we, so often myself included, I'm pointing the
- 24:30finger at me as much as I am saying it to anyone else, who is
- 24:34listening that we get, so caught up in fixed on.
- 24:39Literally, our eyes are focused on our struggles.
- 24:43Yeah. And while we are thinking About
- 24:48God or praying, maybe praising him or thanking him, or
- 24:53worshiping him is so hard. And I think Satan really intends
- 24:58for it to be hard. He doesn't want us.
- 25:01Praising God. When our life is a mess, Satan
- 25:06uses that opportunity to get in there and get our Focus away
- 25:11from God. He wants us to focus on our
- 25:15struggles, but if we And purposely like you did choose to
- 25:21praise during those times. God is going to show up in a
- 25:25big, kind of way, he's going to show up anyway, but he's going
- 25:28to show up bigger because we are focused on him.
- 25:31It shows him that we are trusting him and we have faith
- 25:35in that we are believing that he is going to get us through just
- 25:40like the Waymaker song talks about.
- 25:41We may not see him working but we're going to believe that he
- 25:45is and we're going to thank him. Him in advance, I know you're
- 25:49working. I know that you are working out
- 25:52the situation. Far better than anything I could
- 25:55imagine you're going to put the right people in the right places
- 25:59and if it's a job situation, maybe he opens that door.
- 26:05It's not conditional on our praise and worship whether or
- 26:08not he answers our prayers but oh, can't you imagine his heart?
- 26:13When he knows we are just falling apart.
- 26:17And we are struggling so hard and we choose to look to him.
- 26:24Yeah, I just I can see his face and just how much that means to
- 26:30him. Yeah, because when we're
- 26:32worshiping, we're not worrying. We're all yes.
- 26:36You know, when we're praising him, we're not looking at the
- 26:39problems like you're saying, and I couldn't help but think about
- 26:43okay, Satan was Lucifer. He's a fallen angel and Lucifer
- 26:47Were before he wanted to be like, God was a beautiful like
- 26:52those worship leader, right? Like he was in charge of worship
- 26:57and it just so happens that that is like his number one.
- 27:02Like one of the top attacks is preventing us from worshipping
- 27:06and praising God because he is not there in heaven anymore.
- 27:12You know, he's not an angel anymore, he is Satan and he
- 27:16knows his time. Short.
- 27:18He knows he's already been conquered and you know the
- 27:21victory is is God's and so what can he do?
- 27:26He can try to prevent from us worshiping and praising because
- 27:31we cannot get sidetracked. We cannot be lacking of having
- 27:37faith. When we are praising and
- 27:40worshipping God, it's filling us up.
- 27:43I just love that. That is a weapon that we can
- 27:47use. Is to attack the enemy when he
- 27:50comes out us. So very much so very much so
- 27:54that it's a weapon. And again, it's such a powerful
- 27:58weapon during the challenges because it takes so much more
- 28:03out of us to mentally and physically and emotionally do
- 28:08that praise and worship that it has to just Glorify God, so much
- 28:16to hear us putting that trust in.
- 28:18And as you said not worrying, they got that.
- 28:23We're not giving time and energy to focusing on our struggle.
- 28:29We're focusing on him. Mmm.
- 28:31Yeah, it sends us on the right path for healing.
- 28:35Yes, worshiping and praising. There's no way.
- 28:39We're gonna reach a dead end. We are going to reach.
- 28:43That place of healing and abundance and so definitely an
- 28:48essential tool there. Okay.
- 28:50Mi late. You said how will you remember
- 28:54your journey? Okay.
- 28:55Hi. I love journaling.
- 28:59This is my house. Not everyone journaling.
- 29:04I mean is like so huh. Don't know everything to me.
- 29:08There's just so much to it that just you know, helps me a life.
- 29:12I'm I mean, it's just it's therapeutic and it's the way I
- 29:16talk to God. It's the way I hear, God, I'll
- 29:18write it down. It's the way all, you know,
- 29:22right out of scripture verse and how it applies my life.
- 29:25But I just love to talk and write and do all that and record
- 29:32his faithfulness. Also, like, this is such a great
- 29:35thing because we're forgetful people and we're going to forget
- 29:39what God did for us. I mean, you know we could say
- 29:42oh, I'll never Her forget that that was just so major, but
- 29:45sometimes we do. And so to have it written down
- 29:49is so great and to have your like, how are you feeling in
- 29:54that moment? Like we don't remember the exact
- 29:58details of how we're feeling and so I remember bringing a journal
- 30:03like a travel log and I really wish I continued on with it.
- 30:09I got busy when we two weeks into our travels but But man,
- 30:13when I look back at each day at what God was doing at that time,
- 30:17and this is, when he was moving Us from Southern California to
- 30:20Austin, and it was just so amazing to have all that written
- 30:27down as to how I was feeling and what God was doing and what he
- 30:32said. And to see praise report, I'd
- 30:35love for you to talk more and expand on journaling with us.
- 30:40Well, I too like to journal I often Journal Bible verses or
- 30:46what I'm gaining from that that maybe I haven't seen before, but
- 30:50I also have journals my journey and it's not every single day.
- 30:57It could be gratitude, it could be, here's what led up to my
- 31:03brain surgery. That was definitely something
- 31:06that I recorded God, showed up in about five specific ways,
- 31:13Where it was clear. He was saying, I've got this.
- 31:18It just was that clear? And I made sure that I Journal
- 31:23that because I didn't want to forget that, and when people
- 31:27would ask me, how are you feeling about your upcoming
- 31:30surgery? And I would, this is why, I
- 31:32would say God's got this. He's told me.
- 31:35And I believe him and he has, I have not had any major
- 31:40complications in almost, Seven years since my surgery and it
- 31:46could have gotten a lot worse. I know of other Moyamoya people
- 31:52who have Moyamoya and they have struggled greatly even after
- 31:56their surgeries. So it is very important for us
- 32:01to do the travel log because it helps us to pay better attention
- 32:05about the details of things going on.
- 32:07No, you don't need to know precisely what time you ate
- 32:10dinner on June 13th. I'm not talking.
- 32:12About that kind of detail, right?
- 32:14Yeah talking about paying attention to the ways that God
- 32:18is working. There was a just as an example
- 32:22and I need to journal about this.
- 32:24There was a gentleman that was following me.
- 32:27I was going to tutoring about two weeks ago and he was just
- 32:31behind me and I don't normally notice these kinds of things but
- 32:34his vehicle was one of the new Broncos and it was this very
- 32:39interesting blue color and it just kind of caught my eye in
- 32:41the rearview mirror. Our and I noticed that he was
- 32:44continuing to go in the same direction.
- 32:46I was, well, just before I was to turn off to where I was
- 32:52meeting a student. His car, I saw on the roof, my
- 32:56rearview mirror that his car veered off and line drive
- 33:02straight into a tree. Oh, wow.
- 33:04And All I could think was God. He could have line drive
- 33:10straight into me and you protected me and there were so
- 33:16many emotions that I had about God's protection and even if I
- 33:22had been in an accident because that man hit me from behind I
- 33:26believe God would have protected me in other ways.
- 33:31I still probably would have had injuries but that's that's a way
- 33:35for us to pay better attention. And it can happen when we're in
- 33:37the car. It can happen when we're at a
- 33:39friend's house. Any kind of way, God is working
- 33:43all the time. Some other things that are
- 33:47great, we get in cycles of talking negatively.
- 33:52When we're going through struggles, we're just
- 33:53frustrated. I'm hurting.
- 33:55My heart hurts. Nobody is calling to check on
- 33:58me. All of these things while it's
- 34:01understandable, and I'm not saying we can't have those
- 34:04frustrations or be angry. But if we Journal them, then it
- 34:10gets it out of our head and it gets it on the paper and then we
- 34:13just give it to God. And say I can't I can't do
- 34:18anything about these things I need for you to take them off of
- 34:22off of my shoulders and help fix the situation in a way that
- 34:28brings glory to you and that in that situation.
- 34:32I learned something. So it's not that we can't have
- 34:35those frustrations but Their negative energy and they're
- 34:39they're not good in our minds and so to get them out and
- 34:43record them. And then, guess what?
- 34:45We can go back later and we can say how God answered that prayer
- 34:50after we gave all of that to him.
- 34:52And that's a great way to see his work in our lives.
- 34:58One of the things that I've also done is to record when friends
- 35:04or family have Said, words of encouragement or they've prayed.
- 35:11I have a friend that I call her my praying.
- 35:15Mama Jama friend, she can throw on some prayers and they are
- 35:19just right at the heart of God. And I will come home and record
- 35:23phrases that she used. That just really impacted me
- 35:27because they encouraged me. Yeah, right?
- 35:30Yeah. And another way, I mean, you'd
- 35:33forget I mean, you, you do have that, maybe that Laughs, like,
- 35:37there was a profound moment there.
- 35:39There was impact there but word-for-word what she said
- 35:43you'd forget. So I love it.
- 35:46And one thing I mentioned about how awesome your book was that
- 35:50it has these testimonies intertwined in each chapter.
- 35:54And I love hearing obviously testimonies and how individuals
- 36:01overcome and so that was another amazing. - in this book that I
- 36:08really appreciated. Well let me just tell you one
- 36:10thing about the stories that you're mentioning.
- 36:13Yeah, I've interviewed over 135 women who have faced challenges
- 36:19and have fought to overcome. And of course, I couldn't share
- 36:22all of them and in my book, but the ones that are shared are
- 36:26intended to go along with each of the pieces of essential gear.
- 36:30So that you can see how that person that woman lived out that
- 36:36gear. Her life, how it became an
- 36:37important part of her journey and so I'm glad to see that that
- 36:42that was something that connected with you.
- 36:44But as far as a takeaway if you're curious about how you
- 36:49face challenges that I have a quick 20 question quiz on my
- 36:55website and you can go to it by going to Journey on quiz.com and
- 37:01what you will find out after you have taken the quiz is What kind
- 37:07of Journey on personality? You have basically what kind of
- 37:11personality are you exhibiting? As you are facing that challenge
- 37:17and I don't want to give away any of the personalities because
- 37:21I don't want any of the listeners to try and figure out
- 37:24which one they are. I want them to answer the
- 37:26questions honestly but it is very revealing and those who
- 37:31have taken it have said, wow. Yeah.
- 37:34I think I do I exhibit that personality when I'm facing
- 37:40challenges and with any personality, there's always ways
- 37:44their strengths and weaknesses and I think it helps us know
- 37:50going into a challenge where we need to improve our weaknesses
- 37:56and to rely on our strengths. If you are interested in
- 38:00checking that out, you can head over to Melanie brown.com.
- 38:05I'm going to spell my name. For your listeners because just
- 38:08like your name is a little unusually spelled so is mine.
- 38:11So it's in el0. NY browna05 calm.
- 38:18Thank you. Melanie for coming on here and I
- 38:21highly recommend everyone, get grabbing your buck.
- 38:24I'd enjoyed it Jamie so great to meet you.
- 38:27Thank you so much for listening today and I trust that God has
- 38:31encouraged you through this story.
- 38:33Did you know this podcast is on YouTube, hop on there and
- 38:37subscribe and you can see a live recording of each episode and
- 38:42for more information on this ministry and to access free
- 38:46downloads, please visit my website at Jamie Elizabeth.com
- 38:50that's ja, yme Elizabeth.com and let's connect Beyond this
- 38:56podcast by To my Instagram handle.
- 38:58Jamie Elizabeth she speaks life or Facebook until next time my
- 39:03friend. I hope God reveals himself
- 39:05through your own life story. To my Instagram handle.
- 38:58Jamie Elizabeth she speaks life or Facebook until next time my
- 39:03friend. I hope God reveals himself
- 39:05through your own life story.