Latest / Why Not Today? with Leslie Kane / Why Not Today? Season 1 - Episode 21 with Jodie Barrett

Transcript

Why Not Today? Season 1 - Episode 21 with Jodie Barrett · Why Not Today? with Leslie Kane

• 0:00
  Hello, this is Leslie Kane.
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  I'm your host of the Why Not Today podcast.
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  And this is a podcast to celebrate people who have been courageous and said, why not
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  today?
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  I started this podcast in honor of my father, Patrick Kane, who often said, why not today?
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  I am based in rest of Virginia planned community right outside of Washington, DC.
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  And thanks for joining us today.
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  And I'm excited for my guests.
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  And this is actually we're doing a special date.
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  So if you're following us and listening, when we release them, I'm adding releasing this
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  a little earlier than my usually deadline because I want this this is perfectly timed
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  around the holidays in December.
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  And I'm really excited about my guest who is a friend, their family, I've known her
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  for since she was a little girl.
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  And I was talking about like, you never know where you're going to connect with somebody
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  and where you're going to meet somebody and never know where it's going to take it.
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  So our guest today is Jody Barrett.
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  But just talked about where we connected.
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  I actually met her cousin when I was in college.
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  And that was a long time ago, a few years ago, and met Jody when she was a little girl
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  at the house and through really friendships and faith and life, we've become super close.
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  I feel like you're a younger sister to me, Miss Jody.
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  So I'm excited to have Jody Barrett.
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  And she is going to talk today about being courageous, but she's also an author.
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  And we're going to talk about her book, Jingle and Joy, which is intentional to have it.
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  This episode is releasing beginning of December so people are the end of November so people
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  can focus on Jingle and Joy for the holiday.
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  So yay, Jody, I'm super excited to have you as my guest.
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  So why don't you introduce yourself, tell us a little about you and maybe a fun fact
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  you might not know about Jody Barrett.
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  You know, talking about myself is not the easiest thing to do, but I'm Jody Barrett.
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  I have a lot of titles.
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  I am a wife, a mom.
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  And if I was going to give you a fun fact, it would be that I am a Gigi times two.
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  So exciting.
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  Yeah, I have a grandson and now a granddaughter.
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  And so that's a couple of my titles.
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  And I'm also a speaker and a writer.
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  I'm an office manager.
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  I mean, just we could go into titles, but I say if I was going to really tell somebody
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  about myself, I would say I am someone who really loves community and connecting with
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  people.
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  I was thinking about this just a few minutes ago and I thought, you know, I don't know
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  how I would do life alone.
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  And thankfully, I don't have to.
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  I am surrounded by a lot of great folks and my family will tell you that I will make a
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  friend with a stranger in a heartbeat.
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  And I think that's just because of my passion for community.
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  Totally agree.
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  And you definitely do that.
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  So before we start talking about the book and courage, share with us, what does courage
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  mean to you?
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  What does courage mean to me?
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  You know, courage in a nutshell to me is when you are able to move forward in the face of
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  fear.
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  You know, like even when you're afraid, you're still willing to put one foot in front of
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  the other and go in the direction that you're afraid of, whether that's because you know
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  you're supposed to or whether that's because you just really want to.
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  You know, it's just standing there and looking fear in the face and saying, I'm not going
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  to be paralyzed.
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  I'm still going to go forward.
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  Right.
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  And how often do we have to do that in life?
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  And so many people are they let that fear stop them.
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  Yeah.
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  And we always feel better when we do, don't we?
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  You know, I so much in my life, I think I've had to look fear in the face.
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  And I'm very thankful for the times when I've been able to just keep pushing forward.
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  So I would say, yeah.
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  All right, so you are an author, a speaker, you've got a ministry, so many things.
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  Of course, you are a wife and a mom and a great, a GG twice and super cute little baby
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  baby girl that was just born, gosh, a week or two ago.
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  So I love seeing her pictures.
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  Not quite.
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  Almost two weeks, but not quite.
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  Not quite.
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  And then sweet little Colton, who I adore, who is two and a half now.
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  That's right.
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  Which is crazy to see that.
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  Two and a half year old fireball.
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  Yes, he is.
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  He is full of energy.
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  So lots of things we can talk about.
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  And it's funny, I remember, like I've known you for a long, long time, and then obviously
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  became closer with you when your grandmother was sick and passed away.
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  But the real, and I, one of those things that I often talk about the time that I feel like,
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  I know, I knew you're going to be my life forever, but that I really felt like I connected
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  with you is we started having this discussion.
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  I remember exactly where I was.
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  And we started talking about faith.
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  And we just connected at a faith level that we never have.
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  And that was just a special moment.
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  And since then, you know, love your faith walk.
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  So why don't you talk about courageous things you've done from starting the ministry to,
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  of course, we want to talk about your book, Jingle and Joy, and how we can have courage
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  during the holidays.
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  So I'm just going to let you share, share your heart.
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  Yeah, you know, it's funny you say share your heart and share your heart about faith, because
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  when I think about one of the things that I've had to have courage to do, it is to share
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  my faith.
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  My faith is in Jesus Christ.
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  And he calls me to go and tell others about him and the love he has for us.
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  It's a joy to share about it.
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  But sometimes I'm afraid to do that.
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  And funny thing is, is that when the my good, good friend and I started a ministry, we decided
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  not just to start a faith based ministry that encouraged women to stay in God's Word every
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  single day and grow in close, close relationship with the Lord, which is, we'll talk about
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  that.
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  I'm sure you know, it can be challenging because of all the distractions that we have in the
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  world.
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  So but we didn't just do a faith based ministry.
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  We did a faith and fitness based ministry.
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  Yeah, so you know, I giggle.
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  I know I flat out laugh because we took two things that are really hard to stick with.
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  And we said, let's encourage women to do them together.
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  And you know what, it must have fit the bill because we had a wonderful time with it.
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  We had so many women that were interested and we met so many amazing people through
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  doing that ministry.
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  We started that over 12 years ago.
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  We no longer long.
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  It was 12 years ago and we no longer the fitness part of it, because what we found was what
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  people's deep down heart need was, was, was the faith part of it.
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  And we were growing tired.
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  And we were like, okay, we're burning the candles at both ends.
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  And this is what they really need.
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  And this is what they really want.
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  And this will really fuel all the other parts of their life.
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  If they can get this, this faith being centered around Jesus, they can get that then all the
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  other things will fall into place.
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  And so, yeah, it took a lot of courage to start that with even with someone I was, I
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  was glad I didn't have to do it.
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  Yeah, and Joe and Donna was the one that came to you with the idea of the ministry.
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  Yes.
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  My good friend Donna at the time we had just met, she had her husband and children had
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  just moved into our area.
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  And her husband was a youth pastor at our church.
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  My daughter was in the youth group.
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  So they were having like a lake outing one day.
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  And my husband and I said, you know, let's walk down to the lake.
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  Let's see how everybody's doing.
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  Let's get to know Donna and Justin because they were new to the area and they were going
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  to be working with our daughter.
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  And Donna looks at me and says, you know, I've been thinking about starting an exercise,
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  a faith based exercise ministry.
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  Would you be interested?
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  And it was just perfect timing.
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  Some people call things coincidence.
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  I like to call things God incidents, which is just a play.
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  Yeah, it's just a play on words.
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  God incidents.
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  You know, I said, Donna, I've been praying about a walking ministry because walking was
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  really, really important to me at the time and still is.
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  But it just it was like, there it is.
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  And long, long story I could go through to tell you all the ups and downs that we had
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  to walk through.
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  But since we're on the topic of courage, let me tell you one of the things that took the
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  most courage.
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  We were looking at a national program that we were going to umbrella under.
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  And you are required to videotape yourself while instructing an aerobics class.
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  Oh, wow.
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  Yes.
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  Wow.
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  You didn't go that route.
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  I know.
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  We didn't.
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  However, we did do the video and we did submit it.
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  And it done as has been filmed it for us.
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  And he promises that there's no remaining copies.
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  I don't know if I trust him, but yes, that that took so much courage because I don't
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  know about you, but, you know, sometimes I'm self conscious.
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  And so, you know, and so so I'm self conscious maybe about how I sound on the video or how
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  I looked on the video.
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  And then you throw aerobic steps.
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  Oh, my goodness, that was a moment that took some serious courage.
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  We did.
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  We did send it off.
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  And that's that's not why we changed paths.
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  But that's the thing.
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  When you're walking a journey and you get to what I call a turning point in the road
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  and you have decisions about which way to go, that's when you have to lean into your
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  faith and you step where the Lord directs you, which takes courage to do because often
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  he calls us into an area that's not our comfort zone.
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  And we went out of our comfort zone to do what we did.
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  And if I had Donna here sitting with us, I think she would say the same thing.
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  We do it all again.
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  We would do it all again.
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  Yeah.
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  So I love the ministry and I've participated a couple of your events.
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  This was awesome.
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  And of course, they don't and you guys have done amazing things.
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  But you then went on to write a book called Full and Joy.
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  And this is one of my favorites.
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  And I give it out to tons of people.
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  I just got a new copy the other day.
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  So talk about how the book came about and the courage to write the book and publish
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  the book.
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  And I know that wasn't always a smooth, easy road.
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  You know, crazy, I've always wanted to write a book ever since I was a little girl.
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  The closest that I came to writing before I was out of college and into motherhood was,
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  you know, poetry in school or essays and things of that nature.
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  But I've always been one to write privately and just always wanted to write a book, but
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  didn't know how to go about the process.
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  Well, God called me into the speaking ministry world and quickly I found out that while other
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  people enjoyed what you had to say, they wanted to also read your works.
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  And so I said, you know, it's perfect time for me to pick back up the dream of having
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  a book.
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  And then you have to throw in a lot of years in the mix.
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  Social media has become such a huge thing, right?
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  It's a place where a lot of people are reading words every single day from, you know, just
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  a few words to, you know, entire pages.
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  So I was out on social media because of our ministry sharing what you now see in Jingle
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  and Joy.
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  And the subtitle of Jingle and Joy is praying beneath the tree.
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  And I was sharing about it because I was at home doing it during a time in my life where
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  all of my family, my immediate family was displaced.
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  So my husband was overseas because of military duty.
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  And both of my children had entered those college age years and they had flown the nest
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  at the pretty much almost the same time.
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  So there's this big quiet house and there's just this little Jodi and she's sitting in
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  her house around the holidays alone.
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  And I was meeting with my person, Jesus, because he never leaves us beneath the tree and praying.
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  And others were interested in it.
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  And so I started sharing on social media about it, inviting them to join me.
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  And the book actually comes three years later from what I'm just describing to you.
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  And I didn't want to do it.
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  I wanted to do it, but I didn't want to do it.
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  Have you ever been there?
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  A lot.
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  And so these words from your dad, why not today, I did not know at the time.
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  OK.
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  But if I had have known them, they would have been words I would say because they encourage
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  me now, now that I do know them and in the context of why your dad would use them, I
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  would say why not today.
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  So took that three year experience, put it on paper into a book, was about to get the
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  book to the point that it could be published.
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  And we had a very tragic event happen in our lives.
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  One of well, probably the darkest moment of my life.
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  We lost our son.
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  We lost our Ryan at 22 years of age.
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  And I thought there's there's no way I can let this book go out.
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  And it was scheduled to go out.
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  And I stood in my kitchen.
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  I'll never forget it.
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  Right in the same place that my son had last asked me this question, he said, Mom, how's
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  your book coming?
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  And inside my spirit, in the core of my being, I knew that I was supposed to push forward,
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  that in the face of fear, when it didn't feel right because of what was going on in our
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  lives, the book was supposed to to go forth that year.
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  That was in October of the year that the book came out and the book came out early November.
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  And it was not just when Ryan passed away, it was the end of October.
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  Right.
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  It wasn't like the beginning.
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  So you did it, flipped it pretty fast.
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  All the work had been done.
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  Right.
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  And have you ever had a crazy year?
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  All right.
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  That was the craziest year of my life.
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  I am known for saying that on this side of heaven, joy and pain collide.
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  They hit head on sometime.
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  And in August of that year, our daughter got married.
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  It was the most beautiful occasion.
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  It was everything that I think she wanted and everything we wanted as a family to be
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  able to be there in love and support her.
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  And just a great celebration.
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  And then just a few months later, we're walking through the darkest time of our life all together,
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  though.
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  That community, that community of family and friends.
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  And we were walking through the darkest time of our life.
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  And yeah, God said, Jodi, the book is supposed to still happen.
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  And it did.
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  I can't explain it except, again, to say that when you are at a crossroad and you're faced
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  with different directions, it's important to lean in to your faith and move forward
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  in courage in the directions that God asks you to go.
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  And I knew that was the direction I was supposed to go with Jingle and Joy.
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  And you want to hear a crazy, you've got your copy, right?
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  I do.
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  OK, so the books arrive on the doorstep.
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  I don't know exactly when.
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  If I were to go back to my journals, I could tell you.
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  But as I tell my grandmother sometimes, the day of the week doesn't matter, right?
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  It doesn't change the story.
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  So I get the books in a box on my doorstep, and I go and I open them up and I put them
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  out because I had some girlfriends coming over to have dinner that night.
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  We were going to fill the table with just friendship and fellowship and prayer.
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  And I opened one of the books.
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  Now remember the season I'm walking through.
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  And it fell open to day eight.
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  And so Jingle and Joy has 25 days of praying for other people.
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  And each day is designated a certain group of people.
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  And day eight says pray for those who are grieving.
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  And here I was, Mom, you know, in deep grief because we had lost our Ryan.
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  And my girlfriend that helped get this to publication, she picked out parts of my writing
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  to kind of blow up and highlight.
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  And it says the blown up part says, Lord, help us reach out so no one walks alone through
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  grief.
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  And that was part of the prayer I wrote.
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  Well, can I tell you about the army of people that surrounded me and my family?
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  Yes, because they loved us.
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  But people that didn't even know us because they came to know us through the books surrounded
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  us.
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  I didn't have to walk through grief alone.
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  And that's just how it works.
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  He's just incredible.
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  And you know, I don't know if it had been the same if I hadn't have stepped out in faith
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  and finished the book.
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  You may never have.
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  And you know, a couple of things you said was in the beginning, you said the interesting
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  fact about Jodi or to know about Jodi is you love community and connecting with others.
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  And that was so evident with the book.
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  So when you decide to go forward with it, it was your girlfriend, people in ministry
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  and people that surrounded you that encourage you to go forward.
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  And if you hadn't done those things and stepped out in faith for your ministry, for the fitness
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  ministry, you never would have met those people.
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  And if you hadn't spoke, you know, been a speaker, that wouldn't happen.
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  So how many things had to happen?
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  And then the fact that they encourage you to get the book out.
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  And you didn't change anything from the book except for the beginning, right?
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  Just the dedication, just the dedication.
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  So everything else is done, which just is so in line with everything else.
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  And then, yeah, just watching so many people in your community and how many people you've
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  connected with from, you know, when Ryan passed away to his funeral to still with the golf
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  tournament that you do in honor of Ryan every year.
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  Such an amazing community of people that support you and you're not alone.
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  Now, and, you know, talking about things that we do now to make sure that others aren't
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  alone, not just in grief, but in all kinds of situations in their lives from this.
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  Remember where I told you I was?
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  I was in my home beneath a tree, you know, without my core, without my people.
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  You know, my core family.
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  But I reached out on social media to others and saw how much they needed it.
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  So now it's not just on social media.
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  It's not just in a book.
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  December 5th of this year, and we've done this now for four years, there'll be a community
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  tree to right outside in a field that's not far from our house where we will invite anyone
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  from the community who wants to come and pray together for community people in community,
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  people to be in community, people that are in our community, people that the Lord's Word
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  tells us to first of all, pray for all people.
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  And that's what the book is about.
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  And that's what we do.
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  We do it in our homes, but we also do it in our community because all people doesn't leave
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  anybody out.
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  Right.
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  And I love, I love the tree and the community and I'm excited that I will be there and I
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  think every year I'll be there for that.
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  But want to go back a little bit to the book because you and I can talk forever and ever
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  and ever and I don't want to make this all day.
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  But so being intentional and courageous and I talked about the other day on my podcast
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  as we kicked off right after Thanksgiving, we kicked off and talked about being intentional
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  in December.
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  And one of the things I talked about was, you know, appreciating the time and being
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  present with who you're with and present with the time.
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  And one thing we've talked, I've talked to a lot of people about, I mentioned this the
• 22:17
  other day is that enjoy that time with family and friends because you never know when that
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  dynamic might change.
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  And like in your case, first your husband was overseas, deployed and your kids were
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  off doing other things and then your total life completely changed with Ryan passing
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  away.
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  But also families like my family now is spread out.
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  And you know, the last time we were all together in a group, who would have ever thought that
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  that would be the last, not maybe the last time that everybody because people are growing
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  up, those things change.
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  But you know, the premise of jingle and joy is you want to focus on the joy and not the
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  jingle.
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  And that's what I talked about the other day, just being intentional in December.
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  And so let's talk a little bit about courage it takes to pray to spend that quiet time.
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  I know we talked about a little bit beforehand.
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  So how would you share that it takes courage to grow your faith and take time for faith
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  and God and prayer?
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  I'm going to go to that word that you've said a couple of times intentional.
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  I have a good friend, Stephanie, that really helped me hone in on what it meant to be intentional
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  when it comes to spending time with with God, which is is where we want to focus in jingle
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  and joy.
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  And it's a great place for us to focus every day of every year.
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  To be intentional means to on purpose position ourselves where we can be not only in the
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  presence of someone, but also to be attentively listening to that someone and then being willing
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  to open ourselves up to that someone.
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  So that was a lot.
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  But right.
• 24:12
  What does that look like in my life might be the best way to illustrate it.
• 24:18
  So I am intentional every morning to get up and I do fix a cup of coffee and then I settle
• 24:25
  right back down into a specific place.
• 24:29
  It changes from time to time because I'm not I'm not easily.
• 24:34
  Well, I just I just like change.
• 24:38
  And so I move around, but what's intentional is that I don't start anything else until
• 24:43
  I sit in a place and just listen for God.
• 24:47
  And the way I listen for him is I open my Bible and I read his word and then I just
• 24:52
  let him speak to my spirit.
• 24:55
  And then I am intentional to share what's on my heart with him.
• 25:00
  So it's like that two way communication.
• 25:02
  I'm listening and I'm talking and I'm a talker.
• 25:04
  So that part comes easy.
• 25:06
  The listening I have to be more intentional about.
• 25:09
  Yeah.
• 25:10
  So that that's how intentional time for me with God starts every day.
• 25:14
  But then the way it continues throughout the day is that I just remember he's always with
• 25:20
  me.
• 25:21
  And so if you ever had those times where you're thinking, I just need somebody to talk to
• 25:26
  and maybe you pick up the phone or maybe you text someone or something like that.
• 25:31
  But for me, it's just I just go straight to him and share with him.
• 25:37
  And I still may pick up the phone because I love my girlfriends and my people, but just
• 25:42
  intentional to keep doing that every single day.
• 25:46
  The second thing that you talked about is courage in this intentional relationship.
• 25:56
  I think I'd have to rewind so far because now it's like so but I know there's been times
• 26:02
  when I've needed that courage to be transparent with God.
• 26:08
  But what I've learned is I've grown in my relationship with him is that there's nothing
• 26:12
  too big for him and there's nothing that's going to catch him off guard.
• 26:17
  There's nothing that's going to make him stop loving me.
• 26:20
  And so I don't feel like I have to have as much courage as I used to because I'm just
• 26:27
  so comfortable with him.
• 26:28
  Does that make sense?
• 26:30
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 26:31
  And I think the more time you spend with something or someone or doing something, you know, like
• 26:37
  we talked about, you got to step out fear and do it.
• 26:41
  And maybe the first time you communicated and prayed and the more you do it, the more
• 26:46
  comfortable you get.
• 26:47
  And it doesn't take as much courage.
• 26:50
  And I think that's with anything the more you do it.
• 26:52
  Right.
• 26:53
  It is once we do it once and then twice.
• 26:57
  And you know, the whole faith walk is courage and taking time.
• 27:00
  I know you said you do an intentional in the morning and I do the same thing.
• 27:04
  But there's some mornings that, you know, I want to I'm a worker, I'm an achiever, I
• 27:09
  want to get going.
• 27:10
  And that's like, I want to keep going.
• 27:12
  I got too many things to do.
• 27:13
  But I know if I take the time, then my day is going to be so much better and aligned better
• 27:18
  when I take the time.
• 27:20
  But sometimes it takes courage to say, all right, and say, why not today and just do
• 27:24
  it.
• 27:26
  You know, it it I I have those days, too.
• 27:31
  And here's the way I look at it.
• 27:33
  Remember, our first ministry started with a fitness entity part of it.
• 27:37
  So I'm very conscientious of what it means to do things daily, because, you know, we
• 27:41
  talk about good nutrition daily, you know, good fitness daily, that kind of thing.
• 27:46
  So what I usually tell people is, you know, you'll say you have a couple of those days
• 27:50
  where you miss your time, things get in the way, your mind gets busy or what have you.
• 27:57
  You don't have to go, well, forget it.
• 27:59
  No, you just the next day, it's clean slate and you know, and you start again.
• 28:06
  You know, God's so gracious that he's just like, I'm so glad you're back.
• 28:12
  You know, I said, right.
• 28:14
  It's just like a friend, you know, they're not going to say, you know, I talk a lot about
• 28:20
  regret.
• 28:21
  And this book I read about regret, they talked about, you know, that person, you haven't
• 28:25
  talked to him forever and ever.
• 28:26
  And you feel like, oh, I don't want to call him.
• 28:28
  I feel bad because I haven't talked to him.
• 28:30
  But if things are reversed, and they called you and you had you hadn't talked to him,
• 28:35
  you'd be so happy.
• 28:36
  You wouldn't be like, why didn't they call me in so many times, you'd be excited to hear
• 28:41
  from them.
• 28:42
  And you'd be like, I'm going to be with God and spending time.
• 28:44
  Pick up where you left off.
• 28:46
  Exactly.
• 28:47
  Can I take you back because you talked about friends.
• 28:50
  So that's a good segue into you mentioned another word.
• 28:54
  So that was presence, being, you know, present with the people that you're with.
• 29:02
  And so in Jingle and Joy, I actually talk about that in a devotion that's entitled Exchange
• 29:10
  Presents, like the things we put in bags and boxes for presents being, you know, with people.
• 29:18
  And you know, that is one of the greatest gifts we can give one another is actually
• 29:24
  being present when we're with others.
• 29:28
  And it's such a challenge.
• 29:29
  Not on the little things that ring.
• 29:32
  Right.
• 29:33
  I was at a family gathering not too long ago, and one of the family members saw me with
• 29:40
  my phone in my hand and he said, put that thing away.
• 29:44
  And you know, he meant it very kind because he wanted me to be present with the people
• 29:49
  that we were with.
• 29:50
  And so did I.
• 29:52
  I was using my phone in that moment to take some photos so that I could remember some
• 29:56
  things from that day.
• 29:58
  But so many times it distracts me.
• 30:00
  So I'm not even going to pretend that.
• 30:04
  My biggest distraction in the morning and starting my day in the right place is, oh,
• 30:08
  let me look at my phone real quick.
• 30:10
  Well, that takes you down a whole different rabbit trail.
• 30:13
  So yeah, so we can go on and on and on.
• 30:16
  But I do want to kind of end this sooner than later.
• 30:20
  Just I mean, we talked about lots of subjects.
• 30:22
  So in the I always share ask people like, what encouragement would you give somebody
• 30:28
  to be creative?
• 30:31
  OK, so did something recently that I've never done before.
• 30:39
  I spoke at a high school graduation service.
• 30:43
  Wow.
• 30:44
  Yeah.
• 30:45
  Here I have this, you know, graduating class and.
• 30:51
  I'm going to use them as an example, and it may not surprise you what I say because I've
• 30:55
  already mentioned these words before, but if I'm going to encourage you to be courageous,
• 31:01
  I'm going to tell you that when you're looking at a turning point in your life, when you're
• 31:07
  faced with multiple directions to go and you need to lean in to the Lord and ask him for
• 31:17
  direction and you need to be willing when he shows you which way to go to step forward
• 31:24
  and even when it looks uncertain or unknown, knowing that he will be with you.
• 31:30
  In the faith world, we might would call this courageous faith.
• 31:34
  If you don't know the Lord like I do, this this might seem odd.
• 31:41
  But I encourage you to know the Lord and to follow him where he leads you, which means
• 31:50
  just look in fear in the face sometime and saying God is with me.
• 31:53
  I'm going to go that direction.
• 31:54
  You know, I always tell people, listen to the first voice, which is usually the right
• 31:58
  one.
• 31:59
  And then we try to talk ourselves out of that voice.
• 32:02
  And yeah, and put our own thoughts and restrictions on it.
• 32:09
  So I'm excited for other people to read this book.
• 32:12
  So Jingle and Joy, Praying Beneath the Tree, where can they get it and how can they get
• 32:17
  it and what can they do with it?
• 32:19
  OK.
• 32:20
  The biggest and best way to get it because you're not necessarily going to be local to
• 32:26
  my area is Amazon.
• 32:27
  So just go straight to Amazon and you can get a copy there.
• 32:35
  And if you go to our website, FaithfullyFollowingMinistries.org, there's a page there for the book that has
• 32:45
  a lot of free resources that go along with the book.
• 32:50
  And it's also where you can always find anything that we're sharing.
• 32:53
  We like to call them our favorites and our freebies.
• 32:56
  There's a couple out right now for Christmas.
• 32:59
  You can click on that page as well to connect with me.
• 33:03
  Did you ask me that, Leslie?
• 33:04
  Did you ask?
• 33:05
  No, but they can.
• 33:06
  I mean, I was going to ask you that.
• 33:08
  And I'm going to share in the show notes and on social media how to connect with you also.
• 33:12
  But what's the best way to connect with you, Jodi?
• 33:14
  OK.
• 33:15
  So the best way to connect with me is on Facebook or Instagram.
• 33:20
  So on Facebook, it's FaithfullyFollowing, and on Instagram, it's FaithfulToFollow, and
• 33:26
  the two is a number.
• 33:27
  So it's FaithfulNumberToFollow.
• 33:30
  And those are the places I'm most active and love to connect with people, love to have
• 33:36
  conversation there, but also on our website or our blog, FaithfullyFollowingMinistries.org.
• 33:44
  And we will link all this, too.
• 33:46
  So one question I forgot is actually, too, a comment I'm going to make and a question
• 33:51
  I need to connect with is my dad, is one thing that you got me starting doing years ago,
• 33:57
  you had it with your ministry.
• 33:59
  You had a challenge.
• 34:00
  It was January to every day share a verse of scripture.
• 34:06
  And you called it verse by verse.
• 34:08
  And I did it for a week and then did it for two weeks.
• 34:11
  And I've done it so many years.
• 34:14
  And I know we've talked about this before.
• 34:15
  So every morning when I have my quiet time, whatever I'm reading, whatever scripture,
• 34:21
  I always look it up.
• 34:23
  I Google it.
• 34:24
  And I'm a visual person.
• 34:26
  So whatever graphic speaks to my heart, I share that on Instagram and Facebook.
• 34:30
  And I know a lot of people listening may have followed it, may have seen it.
• 34:33
  But I have had several people, including at that time, my friend's 16-year-old son said
• 34:38
  every morning he woke up to see what I posted.
• 34:41
  And just recently have said that, that's how they start their day.
• 34:45
  So I'll never stop doing that.
• 34:47
  So thank you for encouraged me.
• 34:48
  So you're the one that started it.
• 34:50
  But back to my dad, I always say, how do you connect with my dad?
• 34:55
  And the things you said, well, first of all, the first one, community and connection, that
• 34:59
  was all Patrick Kane was about.
• 35:01
  And so much with that.
• 35:03
  And then your heart for your faith, my dad definitely had a strong faith.
• 35:10
  And as he had had strokes and things happen, he's like, God's not done with me.
• 35:14
  I'm on this side of the grass for a reason.
• 35:16
  I got grandchildren to teach and things.
• 35:18
  But the other thing is I just have such fond memories of him and your grandmother connecting
• 35:25
  and just laughing and having, picking fun on each other.
• 35:30
  And just even after my dad had a stroke, I remember being at the beach.
• 35:34
  Granny came and hung out with us.
• 35:35
  And just to watch them banter back and forth just gave me such joy.
• 35:40
  So I feel like, obviously, we go way back.
• 35:43
  But that connection to my dad was definitely, there's lots of things.
• 35:48
  So thank you, Jody.
• 35:51
  And thank you for sharing.
• 35:52
  And I hope people listening get the book.
• 35:54
  And even if you don't get it beginning of December and you start any time, you can do
• 35:57
  jingle and joy any time of the year and pray over and over.
• 36:01
  And I love giving this as a gift to people.
• 36:04
  A lot of people I know have this.
• 36:05
  And if you don't have one and you want me to send you one, I'm happy to.
• 36:09
  And I think they're like $10 or less on Amazon.
• 36:13
  So it's a great gift to give to a friend.
• 36:14
  And I know it's helped lots of my friends go through some hard times in life over the
• 36:18
  holidays.
• 36:19
  And holidays aren't always easy for people.
• 36:22
  That's right.
• 36:23
  Leslie, thank you for having me.
• 36:25
  It's been a blast.
• 36:26
  No, you are welcome.
• 36:27
  And we're sure we'll have you back again.
• 36:29
  So thanks again, everybody, for listening.
• 36:31
  Thanks, Jody.
• 36:32
  Of course, you can find us on iTunes, Spotify, Likus, Share Us.
• 36:39
  And be intentional in December.
• 36:41
  And remember what I shared the other day, like be intentional, enjoy the holiday season.
• 36:45
  So enjoy your holiday.
• 36:47
  Merry Christmas.
• 36:48
  I'm sure there'll be another episode before Christmas.
• 36:50
  But thanks again, Jody.
• 36:52
  And remember, say why not today?