Latest / The Wholehearted Enneagram Podcast / Is Jesus Worth It? A conversation with author Stacey Thacker

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Is Jesus Worth It? A conversation with author Stacey Thacker · The Wholehearted Enneagram Podcast

0:16
SPEAKER_01: Hi friends, welcome back to the Simply Wholehearted Podcast.
0:20
SPEAKER_01: I am excited to be here again today with our wonderful music from Enter the Worship Circle.
0:26
SPEAKER_01: It's track 4, Heavenly Things, written by Carla Adolph and Ben Pasley.
0:32
SPEAKER_01: I've really loved listening to their whole album again and again.
0:36
SPEAKER_01: It's worshipful, it's mindful, and it's really soothing.
0:40
SPEAKER_01: All the lyrics are incredibly intentional and thought-provoking.
0:44
SPEAKER_01: I hope if you haven't already, that you'll be sure and download their new album called Down Here and Up Above.
0:53
SPEAKER_01: Today I'm excited to introduce you to author, speaker, believer, and encourager Stacey Thacker.
1:00
SPEAKER_01: She is the wife of Mike, and they have four lovely girls who she'll share a little bit more about as in our conversation that you'll get to know.
1:12
SPEAKER_01: She is an author of several books, and recently, on September 1st, her newest one came out is Jesus Worth It, igniting your faith when you feel like quitting.
1:23
SPEAKER_01: That just released on September 1st, and you can find that wherever books are sold.
1:28
SPEAKER_01: And another one that I'm really enjoying that I'm about halfway through is called Fresh Out of Amazing: Opening Your Heart to God's Unexpected Invitation.
1:37
SPEAKER_01: I am thrilled to learn more about her writing journey and her story, and she's actually in the middle of writing another book right now that we'll be looking forward to seeing and reading about next year.
1:50
SPEAKER_01: In the meantime, this year, they have faced many storms, not just only the recent hurricane as they live in Orlando, Florida, but in February, her husband had a cardiac arrest event and a health crisis that was truly life-altering and life-changing for everyone.
2:11
SPEAKER_01: That's actually how I got to know Stacy at first and essentially met her through Voxer and social media as a group of friends.
2:20
SPEAKER_01: I just circled her family in prayer.
2:23
SPEAKER_01: It was for a complete stranger, but we felt the urgency and the call to pray and intercede for this family who is facing a real trial and a real storm.
2:34
SPEAKER_01: So her story is one that is hope-filled and will be very encouraging.
2:40
SPEAKER_01: I'm sure that you will enjoy it.
2:42
SPEAKER_01: So, of course, we have another giveaway for this podcast because Stacy is another generous author, and I want you to be sure and listen in the program, and you can find out more.
2:56
SPEAKER_01: You might enter to win a free copy or for one to give away.
3:02
SPEAKER_01: This podcast has been brought to you by The Unseen Journey.
3:06
SPEAKER_01: Unseen Journey is an online community that is gathering together to talk and read through the book Unseen, The Gift of Being Hidden in a World That Loves to Be Noticed, written by Sarah Haggerty.
3:18
SPEAKER_01: The Unseen Journey will be an encouraging place to share meaningful discussion and thoughts as we learn more about becoming a friend of God.
3:26
SPEAKER_01: So whether you have time to cozy up with a warm drink and a favorite blanket while you read through the material and share your thoughts, or if you jump in during your lunch break and answer some of the questions and scriptures that are going to be shared throughout the week.
3:40
SPEAKER_01: Or maybe you just can pop in while the kids are napping.
3:43
SPEAKER_01: We would love you to join us there.
3:45
SPEAKER_01: You can download the free book study that accompanies the book and we'll encourage you along your personal discovery week by week, chapter by chapter.
3:54
SPEAKER_01: We'll hope you join us and we'll see you there.
4:01
SPEAKER_01: Well, I was telling Ashley a little bit about how I first heard about you, and that was through Sarah Hagerty, because um you you kind of like were faced with this life-altering crisis in February, was it?
4:16
SPEAKER_01: Do I have the timeline right?
4:18
SPEAKER_00: Yep, just seven months ago.
4:20
SPEAKER_01: Okay, yeah.
4:20
SPEAKER_01: So we have a Vox prayer group called the Fight Club.
4:23
SPEAKER_01: We meet every couple of weeks, but we mostly, you know, pray for one another, you know, through Voxer, which is great, and I know you love it as much as I do.
4:30
SPEAKER_01: But um, she just said, you know, hey, my an author friend, um, her husband has had like a cardiac arrest um episode, and I'm not sure what the terminology ended up being or what the diagnosis was, but she said he's in a fight for us his life.
4:46
SPEAKER_01: Will you guys please pray for life?
4:48
SPEAKER_01: And that he would um, you know, live through this.
4:51
SPEAKER_01: So, anyway, so that's how I got to know you and start following and praying for you.
4:55
SPEAKER_01: Um, all of us did for sure.
4:57
SPEAKER_01: And so we were rejoicing, we were, we were just feeling the angst with you, seriously carrying you through intercession.
5:03
SPEAKER_01: And I know it's for those who've who have never experienced that before, it sounds kind of strange, but it really does happen through prayer.
5:09
SPEAKER_01: So but I want to hear the story firsthand from you.
5:13
SPEAKER_00: Well, first of all, uh thank you for praying for my family.
5:16
SPEAKER_00: Um, it's it's a very humbling thing to have um had so many people come around us, and most of who I didn't know.
5:24
SPEAKER_00: Um that has been the message.
5:26
SPEAKER_00: One of the really um beautiful and God-directed things is the is the people that he drew in to pray for us and and people like your fight club, that that's what God has called you to.
5:37
SPEAKER_00: And so I that's how I know that that God has has been in this story from the beginning is there was this stirring in God's people to pray for someone they didn't know.
5:47
SPEAKER_00: Um, I think we connect because um we're moms and we're wives and we're we're women of faith.
5:53
SPEAKER_00: And I I think God just very sweetly um, for whatever reason burdened the hearts of people that all over the world that didn't know us.
6:01
SPEAKER_00: And so I I don't think I'll even know till we get to heaven how many people carried us.
6:05
SPEAKER_00: My visual, and then I'll tell you exactly what happened.
6:08
SPEAKER_00: My visual for that prayer, that time through prayer was I think people just drug us into the throne room.
6:13
SPEAKER_00: I think the Lord just he heard the prayers of his people.
6:16
SPEAKER_00: So I I want to just personally say thank you to to you and anyone else who's been on that journey with us.
6:21
SPEAKER_00: We certainly, certainly felt those prayers, and I I know that God used those in a mighty, mighty way.
6:27
SPEAKER_00: And he answered a resounding yes that we believe is um really for his glory.
6:32
SPEAKER_00: Um so yes, basically what happened is on February 23rd, without any history, without any symptoms or signs, um my husband was in a business meeting and his heart stopped.
6:44
SPEAKER_00: Um it was um it was we found out later what they call a primary cardiac arrest.
6:49
SPEAKER_00: Um there was no blockage, there was no um artery damage per se.
6:54
SPEAKER_00: It was electrical.
6:55
SPEAKER_00: So your heart has a m I think this is right, in my limited medical knowledge, um your heart is electrical and it's muscular.
7:02
SPEAKER_00: And so his electricity just stopped.
7:04
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
7:05
SPEAKER_00: And it's kind of like a perfect storm, like they can't predict it.
7:08
SPEAKER_00: The cardiologist told us, you know, he could have come in and had an echocardiogram every day for hit for you know a month and we never would have seen it coming.
7:14
SPEAKER_00: It's like everything had to line up perfectly.
7:17
SPEAKER_00: So his heart stopped.
7:18
SPEAKER_00: He was um the blessing was that he received CPR immediately.
7:23
SPEAKER_00: Um ENTs got there very quickly.
7:25
SPEAKER_00: They were able to, um, they shocked him three times and um they brought him back.
7:30
SPEAKER_00: Uh I think it was between 15 and 20 minutes.
7:32
SPEAKER_00: He was without a heartbeat, um, you know, that it took that long.
7:36
SPEAKER_00: And so um when I got to him, I was um ironically, I was at church.
7:41
SPEAKER_00: I was in the middle of a a night of worship that our our church was doing for a local pastor's conference.
7:46
SPEAKER_00: Um, our choir had been called in to sing and to lead worship.
7:49
SPEAKER_00: And so um part of the crazy part of our story is that when his heart stopped, I was literally worshiping um in a service and um completely poured out and just um I just remember being in that service, just feeling like I just poured everything out, and then I got that call, you know, that that you need to come to the hospital, that something's happened to your husband.
8:09
SPEAKER_00: And so um really for the first three days we just didn't know.
8:13
SPEAKER_00: Um they they did some things in the ICU that um to hopefully give him the best chance of recovery.
8:18
SPEAKER_00: And on Sunday, that that was a Thursday on Sunday, we got the news that they felt like he was gonna make it, but we just didn't really know on what level.
8:26
SPEAKER_00: Um I think I think the statistics with that are something like 93% of people that experience cardiac arrest outside the hospital don't make it.
8:35
SPEAKER_03: Oh man.
8:36
SPEAKER_00: So the medical community was we didn't have a lot of hope.
8:40
SPEAKER_00: They they did everything they could, but um, we just weren't given a lot of hope in those few day first few days.
8:45
SPEAKER_00: So when when Sarah's calling you and she's saying, hey guys, we need to intercede for this family, um, that's how I know that uh that God was in it, that it wasn't um it wasn't a uh he certainly used the doctors, but it it was it was his decision to to give us that miracle.
9:00
SPEAKER_00: And hopefully we've turned back and pointed to him at every possible instance.
9:04
SPEAKER_00: Um we found out that following Sunday that he was gonna make it, but we didn't know really for um weeks how he was gonna come through it.
9:11
SPEAKER_00: He woke up um the following Thursday.
9:13
SPEAKER_00: So we were in ICU for 12 days.
9:14
SPEAKER_00: Um he was in the hospital for a month, he had intensive rehab, um, he was off work for 12 weeks, he's back at work, he's he's doing great.
9:23
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, it's a long healing process.
9:25
SPEAKER_00: We've learned that you know, this is the this kind of event is one of the hardest things you can come back from.
9:30
SPEAKER_00: So we're still healing.
9:32
SPEAKER_00: Uh we're still un I I I liken it to un unraveling grave clothes, so to speak, as Lazarus, as they did for Lazarus when he came out of the stone, which is layer after layer brings good and hard.
9:42
SPEAKER_00: And um I'm still I'm still processing it.
9:45
SPEAKER_00: I haven't really dove deep, deep into those layers, the emotions that we went through.
9:49
SPEAKER_00: Um I just haven't been able to do that yet.
9:51
SPEAKER_00: But I think I probably will at some point.
9:54
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
9:54
SPEAKER_01: Oh my goodness.
9:55
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that takes a serious amount of recovery, not just physically, but spiritually and emotionally, where you do just kind of have to get into survival mode for a while and get back to fullness of life, but then grapple some of those questions with you know with the Lord and wrestle through that and find him in it.
10:13
SPEAKER_01: But um, man, that's tough stuff.
10:15
SPEAKER_01: Wow, that's amazing.
10:16
SPEAKER_00: For sure.
10:17
SPEAKER_01: Now you guys have been married how long, and you have how many daughters?
10:22
SPEAKER_00: Uh we have been married 23 years, so 23 years um this past year, and and we have four girls, and they are um 17, 14, 11, and 7.
10:32
SPEAKER_01: Oh man, that's great.
10:34
SPEAKER_00: And we're all a couple birthdays this fall, so our our our bookends will be 18 and 8 within the next two weeks.
10:39
SPEAKER_01: So that's so great.
10:41
SPEAKER_01: Now I think I think I read somewhere that you may have sort of started, that's what started your blogging was being a mom of four girls and kind of sharing that adventure and what that looks like.
10:54
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
10:54
SPEAKER_00: Um, I started writing, um, oh golly, I guess it's been, you know, I was pregnant with my fourth daughter, and and life was getting to that point where I was finding ministry outside my home a little challenging.
11:04
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
11:04
SPEAKER_00: Um and just a little bit.
11:07
SPEAKER_00: It's a little bit, it's hard to get out and to meet people.
11:09
SPEAKER_00: And so I'd been through a really busy ministry season um and the Lord started pressing on my heart to write.
11:15
SPEAKER_00: And it was really my husband who kept saying, you need to write a blog.
11:17
SPEAKER_00: This is when blogs really came into play.
11:20
SPEAKER_00: And he says, You should start writing on a blog.
11:22
SPEAKER_00: And so I started writing kind of out of that space of motherhood for sure.
11:26
SPEAKER_00: Um, I I was blessed to start a blog um called Mothers of Daughters.
11:31
SPEAKER_00: Um, and it's it's kind of morphed and done different things.
11:33
SPEAKER_00: And um, so that's probably uh that's I know that's where I met our mutual friend Sarah Haggerty through was through writing in that space.
11:40
SPEAKER_00: Um, but really where I've birthed the passion is really writing through biblical story and and writing about my faith and and about growing in the Lord and um have a passion to connect with them and encourage them in the word of God.
11:52
SPEAKER_00: And so um the Lord started me in a place of really writing about motherhood and through motherhood, but quickly transitioned me into saying, you know, you're not so much an expert in motherhood.
12:04
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you're in the thick of it.
12:06
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you're in the thick of it.
12:07
SPEAKER_00: What you need to do is be writing about and learning um from my word, and so that's really that's where really where I've landed in the past couple years.
12:14
SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
12:15
SPEAKER_01: Well, how are your girls faring through all of this?
12:18
SPEAKER_01: Because I mean, that was an intense storm, not just for you and your husband, but for the girls as well.
12:23
SPEAKER_01: What does that look like to help them navigate some of those emotions and teenage emotions at that?
12:29
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
12:30
SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, we're still working through that.
12:32
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, initially, um, I took the advice of um my pastor had told us that um, you know, in the midst of some of those darkest days, the Lord really provides something called crisis grace.
12:42
SPEAKER_00: And in the middle of that crisis, the grace that we needed to walk through that with our girls was really there.
12:48
SPEAKER_00: Um, I I drew so much strength in the moment from the Lord that I didn't know I ever needed because as their mom and their only parent that could really walk them through this, um, I had to draw on the strength of the Lord.
13:02
SPEAKER_00: It certainly wasn't my strength at all.
13:04
SPEAKER_00: But uh as we've walked through it, excuse me, as we've walked through it, um, it's really just been about having a continual conversation with them.
13:12
SPEAKER_00: And each of them have processed it differently.
13:14
SPEAKER_00: They're all very unique, and because of their age range, um, you know, my older girls knew more really about the particulars than the youngers did.
13:21
SPEAKER_00: Um, they processed it very differently.
13:24
SPEAKER_00: Um it's just trying to be present with them and be available.
13:27
SPEAKER_00: It certainly is um everything you think when you have a house full of girls, there's a lot of emotions and there's a lot of drama.
13:35
SPEAKER_00: Um, and it it it it surfaces and then it goes, you know, I think it lays dormant, but then it surfaces again.
13:41
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, we're still actually very much working through those emotions now, seven months in, and I'm trying to give myself permission to say, you know what, these kind of things you don't get over in a day or a week or a month.
13:51
SPEAKER_00: It they're gonna stir up, especially as we're going, like my oldest is going, um, she's thinking about college and thinking about her future.
13:57
SPEAKER_00: And so anytime we have a big transition, it's very common for those same fears and insecurities to stir up.
14:03
SPEAKER_00: And so we're still very much working through those just bit by bit, slowly.
14:07
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I bet.
14:08
SPEAKER_01: Well, what have they thought about your writing and your journey of all these books?
14:13
SPEAKER_01: Because you homeschool them, but you know, uh just the writing the book study that I did this last spring, I know that took a lot of time and dedication for the whole family to give me the time and space to do it.
14:27
SPEAKER_01: So how do you how do you juggle some of that?
14:28
SPEAKER_01: What do they think of it?
14:29
SPEAKER_01: And I'm sure they cheer you on, but we'd love to know how you do that.
14:34
SPEAKER_00: Well, they certainly do.
14:35
SPEAKER_00: Um, what's nice about homeschooling is uh that I get that a little bit of extra time with them, um, though, you know, our days are are a little every day a little bit different, but for the most part, we'll we'll do our work in the morning and sometimes in the afternoon they'll do their own thing.
14:51
SPEAKER_00: And of course, my older girls really guide and drive their own studies.
14:55
SPEAKER_00: Um so with homeschooling, I find that I I write in really the nooks and crannies of my life.
15:00
SPEAKER_00: Like I used to think with writing that you you know you go off into a cabin in the woods and you know write memoirs, you know, in the woods or on the beach, it'd be my case.
15:11
SPEAKER_01: With the music playing in the background.
15:13
SPEAKER_00: With the music and like, you know, warm blankets or like great visuals.
15:17
SPEAKER_00: But for me, it's really been grabbing a cup of coffee in an hour here and there.
15:21
SPEAKER_00: And um, I just tell my girls, hey mommy's like right now, I'm writing a manuscript.
15:25
SPEAKER_00: Right now, I'm like, you know, I got I got a week to get this in.
15:27
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I'm gonna be in my room.
15:29
SPEAKER_00: And if someone's bleeding or there's some major event, you can interrupt.
15:34
SPEAKER_00: But I try it, it really happens within an hour here and an hour there.
15:38
SPEAKER_00: Um, and uh they've been wonderful.
15:40
SPEAKER_00: They they they're so encouraging.
15:43
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, of course I try to ask them if I'm gonna incorporate them in any part of the story um to get their permission.
15:49
SPEAKER_00: I've learned that the hard way, you gotta ask first.
15:52
SPEAKER_00: Um my my two older girls came to an event with me about a month ago and they got to see me speak and engage with other women.
16:00
SPEAKER_00: And I think it was really for them the first time they kind of saw, oh my goodness, you know what you do.
16:06
SPEAKER_00: And um, it was really neat to see them um excited and um to see uh how God has used our story, and you know, they're certainly part of that.
16:13
SPEAKER_00: So it's it's been great to get to walk that out in front of them and they've been super supportive.
16:18
SPEAKER_00: And I mean, really, um, I'm a writer because you know, I'm their mom first, and so yeah, they uh they've inspired and encouraged me to want to leave a legacy for them that they can actually have in print.
16:30
SPEAKER_00: And you know, maybe some when they're a weary mom or they're fresh out of amazing, they can go, oh, this is what mom was going through.
16:36
SPEAKER_00: They can actually have it on their Kindle or whatever they'll be using in 20 years.
16:39
SPEAKER_01: So I know.
16:41
SPEAKER_01: I'm still trying to instill my kids the love for the paperback and the holding it in your hand and the smell of the pages.
16:47
SPEAKER_01: And the Kindle is helpful, but I really like the old-fashioned thing called the book.
16:53
unknown: Oh yeah.
16:54
unknown: Me too.
16:55
SPEAKER_03: Me too.
16:56
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna definitely list out all the different writings that you have done and books that you've authored, but tell me a little bit.
17:02
SPEAKER_01: Um, I know you started the blog and you know, some some collaboration blogging and that sort of thing, but um but you mentioned one of them, Hope for the Weary Mom, and I have not read that one yet.
17:14
SPEAKER_01: Probably a good idea for me too, and I probably needed it like five years ago, it would have been really great.
17:19
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
17:20
SPEAKER_01: Um, but Fresh Out Amazing, I'm really loving.
17:22
SPEAKER_01: I'm about part way through it.
17:23
SPEAKER_01: So just tell me about, just give us little, you know, tastes of um of some of the books that you've written so far.
17:30
SPEAKER_00: Um, well, it's interesting.
17:31
SPEAKER_00: Hope for the Weary Mom really um and Fresh Out of Amazing really kind of is a follow-up to Hope for the Weary Mom, sort of.
17:38
SPEAKER_00: So you're you're okay.
17:39
SPEAKER_00: I think you're okay with where you are.
17:41
SPEAKER_00: Um Hope for the Weary Mom, I I co-wrote with my friend Brooke McLaughlin.
17:45
SPEAKER_00: Brooke is a boy mom.
17:46
SPEAKER_00: She works with a ministry called the Mob Society.
17:49
SPEAKER_00: She started Mothers of Boys.
17:50
SPEAKER_00: It's a um an amazing ministry for moms of boys.
17:53
SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm not in the mob society because I have all girls.
17:56
unknown: Right.
17:57
SPEAKER_00: But Brooke and I, we've been friends for years.
18:00
SPEAKER_00: And I wrote a blog post.
18:02
SPEAKER_00: Um, goodness, uh it's it's been it's probably been five or six years ago.
18:07
SPEAKER_00: And the title of the blog post was uh Me, Steve Jobs, and being fresh out of amazing.
18:13
SPEAKER_00: And in that, um, I I talked about when Steve Jobs resigned and how he said that he didn't feel like he was meeting expectations.
18:20
SPEAKER_00: And so he said, if I ever felt that way, I I would resign.
18:23
SPEAKER_00: And so at that time we didn't know that he had cancer, we didn't know that he was dying, and of course he passed away soon after that.
18:28
SPEAKER_00: But that phrase about not meeting expectations really um stuck with me.
18:34
SPEAKER_00: And so I wrote this blog post saying, Hey, I'm I I I'm done.
18:38
SPEAKER_00: Um I I'm I'm done, you know, mothering and life, I'm overwhelmed.
18:41
SPEAKER_00: I quit.
18:42
SPEAKER_00: From that, yeah, I quit.
18:43
SPEAKER_00: Basically, what would happen if mom's quit?
18:46
SPEAKER_00: I resigned, not really, but you know, if we didn't put where would a mom go to resign.
18:50
SPEAKER_00: So um from that, um, Brooke and I started writing back and forth this series called Hope for Moms on Saturdays.
18:57
SPEAKER_00: And that sparked this movement of moms, which be which turned into this book called Hope for the Weary Mom.
19:04
SPEAKER_00: And it's really brook, really Brooke and I story of what do you do when you're in the mess of your life and you you're responsible for people, and to point them to the Lord and how do you find hope in that mess?
19:15
SPEAKER_00: And so it's really the story of two moms who found who found Jesus in the midst of their mess and each other because we really supported each other during that.
19:24
SPEAKER_00: Um follow-up to that book is a devotional that goes with it.
19:27
SPEAKER_00: It's a 40-day devotional called weary mom.
19:30
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that would be awesome.
19:31
SPEAKER_00: That has 40 things every weary mom needs to know about God.
19:35
SPEAKER_00: And so it's really the shift.
19:36
SPEAKER_00: It's like, okay, okay, so hope is really um being honest with where you are and inviting Christ into that mess.
19:42
SPEAKER_00: And then the devotional is really uh an encouragement from God's word and a prayer, you know, kind of a journal, uh, a devotional for moms in that place.
19:51
SPEAKER_00: Um, so those two books came out.
19:52
SPEAKER_00: Then Fresh Out of Amazing, which really was my deeper work, is really I really felt like hope just scratched the surface.
19:59
SPEAKER_00: And Fresh Out of Amazing was really the the the undercurrent of my life is you know, I I feel that feeling that I need to be amazing and and but that's not necessarily what God is asking me.
20:11
SPEAKER_00: He's saying I'm the amazing one, I just want you to be faithful and I just want you to walk with me, and I want you to understand that it doesn't matter if you're overwhelmed and and stressed out because I I'm gonna I'm gonna walk with you.
20:21
SPEAKER_00: You're not alone.
20:23
SPEAKER_00: Um, you can wrestle with me in those hard places, you can you can ask me the tough questions, but at the end of the day, um, you know, fresh out of amazing at the back end of the book takes us through Habakkuk, which is kind of a crazy place.
20:34
SPEAKER_00: It's crazy.
20:35
SPEAKER_00: The Habakkuk, the wrestling prophet who who at the final passages says, you know, it doesn't matter if my circumstances are hard or there's loss or financial, you know, ruin or famine, um, even if I'm gonna rejoice and I'm gonna come to a place of worship and I'm gonna say, you know what, even if um I'm still gonna rejoice because because my God is faithful.
20:56
SPEAKER_00: Um, and so that's really the journey of fresh out of amazing.
20:59
SPEAKER_00: We all get there in different ways, um, whether we're busy or we're um overwhelmed, or even part of my story is going through a a grieving process with losing my dad.
21:09
SPEAKER_00: Um we get there in all sorts of ways.
21:11
SPEAKER_00: And so it's really just uh figuring that out and then how do you walk through that and um Habakkuk as your friend?
21:18
SPEAKER_01: That's so powerful.
21:18
SPEAKER_01: I didn't realize that.
21:20
SPEAKER_01: Um I think so many would find that story encouraging for sure.
21:24
SPEAKER_01: Love it.
21:26
SPEAKER_01: Well, it looks like oh go ahead.
21:29
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I was just gonna say, um, I think Fresh Out of Amazing is probably it's probably my core story.
21:34
SPEAKER_00: So it's a it's a great place to start because it it really probably is the the truest part of my story um to this to this point that I've written.
21:43
SPEAKER_00: Um and certainly uh has has something I hope for every woman who feels like she just wants to quit or feels like she can't make it in some way in some area of her life.
21:54
SPEAKER_00: It's and it's not specifically a mom book, whereas the hope books are really mom books.
21:57
SPEAKER_00: Fresh out of amazing is really for any woman.
21:59
SPEAKER_00: So
22:00
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
22:00
SPEAKER_01: Well I I think that a lot a lot of people could identify with it and find it relatable and also just an you wrote it in a way where I felt like I was sitting, having coffee, getting to know you, and you know, just you wrote it in a way that was really personable and I loved it.
22:15
SPEAKER_01: I've really enjoyed reading it so far.
22:17
SPEAKER_01: So I'm looking forward to finishing it.
22:20
SPEAKER_01: I do have a problem with reading like four or five books at a time.
22:23
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, me too.
22:25
SPEAKER_01: Confession.
22:26
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I have that.
22:27
SPEAKER_00: I have that disease as well.
22:28
SPEAKER_00: I I I read several books at once.
22:30
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, yeah, it's fun.
22:32
SPEAKER_01: It keeps our brains going, right?
22:35
SPEAKER_01: For sure.
22:36
SPEAKER_01: Well, I did get your newest book from Sarah, and um I even lent it to Ashley here um earlier this week.
22:45
SPEAKER_01: And so it looks like you're going a different direction for a season.
22:49
SPEAKER_01: So talk about that.
22:50
SPEAKER_01: And it looks like it might be a series.
22:53
SPEAKER_01: Am I gathering that correctly?
22:56
SPEAKER_00: It that's that's the general idea.
22:58
SPEAKER_00: Well, well, the Lord has um has granted two books in the series, so I guess you can call it a series.
23:03
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
23:03
SPEAKER_00: There's at least two.
23:04
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
23:05
SPEAKER_00: There's at least two.
23:07
SPEAKER_00: Um, so what happened when I wrote Fresh Out of Amazing is it it really takes you all through scripture.
23:12
SPEAKER_00: There's tons of Bible stories in Fresh Out of Amazing, and I just fell in love with writing through scripture.
23:17
SPEAKER_00: Like I just found when I was writing, like my my hands just flew through the scripture stories, like just pulling out story and and talking about how it, how, how scripture is relevant to our lives as women today, all after all these years that we can identify with Naomi or Martha or Habakkuk, like we can really connect with their story.
23:37
SPEAKER_00: And so when I got to the end of Fresh Out of Amazing, I I just I just knew that I wanted to sit long and deep in one book of the Bible.
23:45
SPEAKER_00: I just wanted to know consistently from beginning to end.
23:49
SPEAKER_00: And um, the invitation the Lord kept stirring in my heart was Hebrews because um I felt that what a Fresh Out of Amazing girl needs more than anything is mercy.
23:58
SPEAKER_00: And she needs to have a fresh encounter with Jesus.
24:01
SPEAKER_00: And so Hebrews has always been um one of my it's my favorite book of the Bible for sure.
24:07
SPEAKER_00: And I feel like that is um just one long look at who Jesus is.
24:12
SPEAKER_00: Um it's a beautiful, beautiful story.
24:14
SPEAKER_00: There's so much mercy and grace and endurance and encouragement in Hebrews um to not quit running.
24:20
SPEAKER_00: And don't you feel like that's we're just run, run, run, run, run.
24:23
SPEAKER_00: It just was the invitation for sure.
24:27
SPEAKER_00: And so um I decided um with a lot of encouragement from people that know far more than I do about writing and and story um to write through books of the Bible.
24:36
SPEAKER_00: And so I started with Hebrews, and this book is called Is Jesus Worth It?
24:41
SPEAKER_00: And it is basically the first book in what we're calling the girlfriend's guide to the Bible.
24:47
SPEAKER_00: Um that same relational style, hopefully, that you read and watch how amazing will be in the pages of this book.
24:54
SPEAKER_00: Um, it's not a commentary.
24:55
SPEAKER_00: I don't cover everything.
24:57
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I couldn't, there's no way.
24:58
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, but it really just pulling out themes and hopefully um guided conversations that girlfriends could could read the book together and first of all study the book of Hebrews together, yeah, and then have this book kind of spur their conversations.
25:11
SPEAKER_00: So, for instance, like the first chapters on worship and the second chapters on fear, and the third chapters on maturity, and how do we have those conversations at Starbucks with our girlfriend?
25:21
SPEAKER_00: Um, which I hear you do at 5 a.m., which is super impressive, by the way.
25:26
SPEAKER_00: We do, we love it.
25:27
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
25:28
SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness.
25:29
SPEAKER_00: I I thought that was such a great idea.
25:31
SPEAKER_00: Um, but it's it's a way to bring women together around the word and hopefully help them to see that it's super relevant in their lives.
25:39
SPEAKER_00: And really, when we're in a crisis of faith, and I can tell you this was the groundwork God was laying in my life before my husband's cardiac arrest.
25:47
SPEAKER_00: I study Hebrews for the past year.
25:49
SPEAKER_00: I wrote this book last summer.
25:51
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
25:51
SPEAKER_00: So all of that work, the faith and the endurance and the fear, all of that, God had been working in my heart even before my husband's heart stopped.
26:00
SPEAKER_03: Wow.
26:01
SPEAKER_00: So this is the prep work that God did in my heart to keep me running and not quitting.
26:07
SPEAKER_00: And um, anyway, it's it's been a beautiful part of the story to see what he was doing before.
26:11
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I had no clue what was coming, but of course he did.
26:14
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
26:14
SPEAKER_00: Um pretty amazing.
26:17
SPEAKER_01: Incredible timing.
26:17
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I hear a lot of authors just talk about that the Lord does tend to take him through whatever it is that they're preaching or teaching or writing on.
26:25
SPEAKER_01: And it's kind of that bittersweet part of it because you're like, oh Lord, do I really have to?
26:30
SPEAKER_01: Or I don't want to write that anymore.
26:32
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for kidding.
26:33
SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna write about this because I don't have to deal with whatever that is.
26:38
SPEAKER_00: For for sure.
26:39
SPEAKER_00: Um, I think God um I think he's just that tender with us.
26:42
SPEAKER_00: I think he he really wants us to experience him in in the real, in the raw.
26:48
SPEAKER_00: And I think he cares enough about us that he doesn't want to leave us um immature or um uh faithless.
26:55
SPEAKER_00: I think he he so wants our faith to be authentic.
26:59
SPEAKER_00: And um, whether we're writers or whatever it is we do, um, I think um anytime we walk with him in a way that um is is worthy of the manner of our calling, he's gonna test us.
27:11
SPEAKER_00: Um because it's it's it's such, you know, this is it's hard to say, but it's I I realize it's true.
27:17
SPEAKER_00: It's a privilege to have your faith tested because it shows that authenticity to others.
27:23
SPEAKER_00: Um I I don't know that I've done it perfectly, um, but I can tell you that as he's continued to press into my heart, you know, are are you willing to walk with me even when it doesn't make sense?
27:33
SPEAKER_00: Are you willing to say, you know, I can tell you from the very beginning of this most recent trial that I was not enough.
27:39
SPEAKER_00: You know, when you are faced with um life and death situations, I didn't rise up and go, oh, I got this.
27:46
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
27:47
SPEAKER_03: Right.
27:47
SPEAKER_00: It was only by the grace of the Lord.
27:49
SPEAKER_00: And I falling headlong into that pit, he was already there.
27:53
SPEAKER_00: And so um, he was enough from the very beginning.
27:55
SPEAKER_00: And so I I think he's just he's just that he he cares that much about us that he he's willing to test us.
28:01
SPEAKER_00: And then also my greatest hope is that he people see that he gets the glory and he's the reason that we're able to step forward and walk through all this.
28:10
SPEAKER_00: Um but I'm very grateful that we had done we had done some work in Hebrews previous.
28:15
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
28:16
SPEAKER_01: With some of the stuff that you've written, have you found that you've been teaching it ahead of time in some capacity that has sparked, or or did you just kind of write a little bit about the subject and then you know, something else bubbled up um in a greater measure, you know, on that topic or the subject or the scripture?
28:34
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, definitely it's it's both ways.
28:37
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes um, as as the Lord is working in my heart, though, and I'll share like a bit of something, um, there'll be a spark.
28:44
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then it's just about following that spark where so let's use the the story of hope for the weary mom.
28:50
SPEAKER_00: You know, definitely I was in the pit of weariness and laundry and little children and no sleep.
28:56
SPEAKER_00: And um, he had been working that in my heart.
28:58
SPEAKER_00: And so when I finally kind of pulled back that veil and said, Hey, I'm struggling, and other moms went, Oh, me too, you know, um, then I was like, Oh, wait, I'm not the only one struggling.
29:09
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord was like, Well, yeah, it's more than just you.
29:12
SPEAKER_00: Um, and so that that would have been a seed he'd already planted in my heart.
29:16
SPEAKER_00: But then um I was able to see that what he was teaching me was something that other women needed as well.
29:22
SPEAKER_00: So partly true.
29:24
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then sometimes um I think sometimes the Lord just opens my eyes to things that um possibly women might be struggling with, or you know, um, I'm currently working on um the second book in the series on Ephesians and getting to write through things about where our true worth, like where our worth comes from as daughters of the king, and and and what does it mean to belong?
29:43
SPEAKER_00: Like I see those themes in women and in in the church, in and outside the church of women say, you know, what what am I truly worth?
29:51
SPEAKER_00: Or or or even that what does it mean that that we're grace made?
29:55
SPEAKER_00: Like what does that mean and what freedom does that bring in our lives as daughters of Christ?
30:00
SPEAKER_00: And so I hear those conversations.
30:02
SPEAKER_00: Um so I guess the the answer is yes and both.
30:06
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
30:07
SPEAKER_00: Um sometimes it's an interior work, but sometimes it's just the Lord going, okay, here's something I want you to pay attention to.
30:12
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
30:13
SPEAKER_00: Hopefully I do.
30:14
SPEAKER_01: That's so great.
30:15
SPEAKER_01: Do you have a good writing community where you're at?
30:18
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you know, just some of that that can be a lonely venture, but some of us are blessed with being surrounded by those who are also in the same, you know, ministry field.
30:29
SPEAKER_00: Well, I will tell you, um, living in Central Florida, we we live in a pretty um transitional place.
30:34
SPEAKER_00: Like a lot of people come and go from where we are.
30:37
SPEAKER_00: So interesting.
30:38
SPEAKER_00: Um I have a I have a little bit of that um here.
30:41
SPEAKER_00: Um, but because technology is so amazing, um I'm able to connect with um a lot of friends that are writers.
30:48
SPEAKER_00: I've got um a mastermind group that I keep up with, and I've got several other friends that write.
30:52
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you mentioned our our favorite app boxer, which means I can I can message one of my writer friends and say, hey, you know, um I I need help with this, or I can send things to people.
31:02
SPEAKER_00: So I have that connection.
31:04
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I love nothing more than sitting down with a fellow writer and over coffee face to face and talking about uh you know the writing process and how to get through a chapter and that sort of thing.
31:14
SPEAKER_00: But um uh but technology certainly makes it possible to connect with anybody anywhere.
31:19
SPEAKER_01: So that's awesome.
31:21
SPEAKER_01: Well now that you're diving into the second one on Ephesians, which I love that that book, I can't wait to read that.
31:27
SPEAKER_01: Um how like just with your kind of husband's recovery time and you know, daughters looking into new seasons, um, how how has that been going for you to kind of juggle all of this?
31:41
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's it's been a challenge, I'll I'll admit fully.
31:45
SPEAKER_00: Um I I tend to write um large things in the summer.
31:48
SPEAKER_00: So um because we're homeschool, when I when when summer comes, you know, my teacher hat goes off and I have all this mental space, right?
31:55
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, whoo, I can think real long thoughts.
31:58
SPEAKER_00: So um I had already signed this contract for this um second book um that's due next week, actually.
32:05
SPEAKER_01: Oh wow.
32:06
SPEAKER_01: Oh, thank you for squeezing us in.
32:09
SPEAKER_01: That is so great of you.
32:11
SPEAKER_01: You're great.
32:12
SPEAKER_00: Oh, you're great.
32:13
SPEAKER_00: Um, so I write mostly in the summer, like big stuff.
32:16
SPEAKER_00: Like my books have all been written pretty much in the summer.
32:18
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
32:18
SPEAKER_00: Um, so that's kind of how I've done it.
32:22
SPEAKER_00: But but this one has been a challenge.
32:24
SPEAKER_00: Um, not just with uh just having the ability to write real words, you know, to tap into those thoughts and feelings, but also to um to figure out what part of our current story fits in this book.
32:36
SPEAKER_00: Like I don't, you know, some of it will fit, but it's not a book about the journey that we've had.
32:41
SPEAKER_00: It it'll come in and out, but it's not about that.
32:44
SPEAKER_00: So it's really letting letting scripture speak first and then seeing what I can bring in real life experiences or things that I see and that sort of thing in real life and other people.
32:54
SPEAKER_00: Um but what I've noticed with this book, and this is what I've I've done by faith, is I think the Lord just really wanted me to meet him here.
33:01
SPEAKER_00: I think he had a healing work for me in Ephesians, and I think it's just been part of what he what he's done to pull me into his word.
33:08
SPEAKER_00: Um in an unexpected place.
33:11
SPEAKER_00: Again, you would think maybe Psalms or Philippians or I don't know, somewhere else that felt more um heart-changing, but to just really look at who we are in Christ.
33:20
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's nothing more beautiful than to understand and grab onto our position in Christ.
33:26
SPEAKER_00: And I think that that's largely what Ephesians is about is who we are in Him.
33:30
SPEAKER_00: You know, having answered that question, who is Jesus?
33:32
SPEAKER_00: Now we're going, okay, who am I in Christ?
33:34
SPEAKER_00: And what does that mean as I walk that out in real everyday life?
33:38
SPEAKER_00: So it's certainly been a gift to be there, but it it's it's not without its challenges to do it, you know, you know, coming through the season that we've come through.
33:46
SPEAKER_00: But God is we're getting there.
33:47
SPEAKER_00: We're getting there.
33:48
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's so good.
33:49
SPEAKER_01: And like you, you know, said earlier, you guys are still, I mean, it takes a long recovery time uh uh in all, you know, physical, emotional, spiritual.
33:59
SPEAKER_01: And it's it's great that you can already see the hand of God working and how it connects to scripture.
34:05
SPEAKER_01: Um, but I also I appreciate how you are going about it where you're not looking to see um how scripture can relate to the circumstance, but going to the scripture first to say, hear what it says about the circumstances and who Jesus is in the circumstances, which is really good.
34:24
SPEAKER_01: I I've heard a couple of really great um Bible teachers say that they they used to do it incorrectly and they learned and they've come a long way.
34:32
SPEAKER_01: And so, and that's what's made them really great Bible teachers, is that they're you know not making it fit to how to back what up they want up what they want to say.
34:42
SPEAKER_01: They want it to, you know, share what it has to say.
34:47
SPEAKER_00: That's with writing through an entire book, um, that's been my that's been one of my challenges.
34:51
SPEAKER_00: I think when we write topically, and I don't I don't think there's anything with writing top anything wrong with writing topically, I've certainly done that, but to go from a book and just go straight to march straight through it.
35:02
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's there's that fear of what if I get what if I get to chapter two and I don't know what to write?
35:07
SPEAKER_00: And just waiting on the Lord, you know, waiting on him to say, you know, Lord, what is it you want to say here and what do you want your daughters to know um in a way that I can re I can relate it that is within my writing capabilities and my experience.
35:21
SPEAKER_00: Like what sounds authentic, but I want your word to speak first.
35:24
SPEAKER_00: That has been the my face-down prayer is Lord, I don't want to say anything that you don't want me to say.
35:30
SPEAKER_00: I want your word to direct my words, and so that's been a faith journey for sure.
35:35
SPEAKER_00: Um, and some days I sit down, I go, okay, what are we doing?
35:39
SPEAKER_00: You know, because I don't know.
35:41
SPEAKER_00: Um, and he's he's been very sweet, and um, I'm very grateful for the for this part of the journey um and what he's done, at least been riding through me.
35:49
SPEAKER_00: Um I I I find myself as surprised as anyone.
35:52
SPEAKER_01: So that's so great.
35:54
SPEAKER_01: That's so awesome.
35:55
SPEAKER_01: Well, I think you carry your just that calling and this season really, really well.
36:00
SPEAKER_01: And it's it's beautiful to see um just your I just following from social media aspect of just your vulnerability and your honesty and your process through that.
36:11
SPEAKER_01: And I can see your heart really shines through and wanting to um glorify the Lord in all of it, which um which is really really great.
36:20
SPEAKER_01: So thank you for doing that.
36:21
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
36:22
SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you.
36:23
SPEAKER_00: I I'm glad that you see that.
36:25
SPEAKER_00: That that blesses me.
36:26
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for saying that.
36:27
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
36:28
SPEAKER_01: And um hopefully um you'll be able to finish your book without any more storms in Florida.
36:36
SPEAKER_01: There was a serious amount of like rain and everything.
36:39
SPEAKER_01: Did you guys just hide and you know stay home and ride it out?
36:43
SPEAKER_00: Or well, you know, we we really, as my husband said, we really won the hurricane.
36:49
SPEAKER_00: Our neighborhood won because we our our damage here was minimal.
36:53
SPEAKER_00: Okay, our friends, I mean Orlando is a big city.
36:56
SPEAKER_00: Our friends on the west side and some other places where um it the storm really uh the eye of the storm went through more, the eye wall in particular.
37:04
SPEAKER_00: Um, and anyone who has large trees, um, we are in a newer sub-development, our trees aren't as big.
37:10
SPEAKER_00: And so um trees in in and this is just a little tip in in Florida don't have a huge root system, and so the bigger they are, the harder they fall, right?
37:18
SPEAKER_00: And so um any any older neighborhoods or neighborhoods where they had large trees, uh, they were hit hard.
37:25
SPEAKER_00: But we have a s with small trees, and so and our electric is um underground, our powers underground, and so we we did well.
37:32
SPEAKER_00: Um the hardest part is it just it takes so much of your energy, the prepping and the the waiting, and then you you can't leave your house for days.
37:41
SPEAKER_00: And this storm was so Irma, God love her, was so big.
37:45
SPEAKER_00: It was so big, and it was such a long event, it was exhausting, like the waiting and the waiting, and then the you know, then you don't know it's gonna happen, and then you and then you kind of crawl out, and then everything.
37:57
SPEAKER_00: I I feel like our our town just looked a little bit battered and like it's just taken a while to kind of I mean, like even just a couple weeks ago, people still were without power.
38:05
SPEAKER_00: So we're grateful.
38:07
SPEAKER_00: We're grateful to be on this side.
38:09
SPEAKER_00: Um it's been a uh crazy, it's just taken a lot of emotional and mental energy from all of us.
38:15
SPEAKER_00: We're just kind of like trying to get back on track and you know, it just takes so much out of you.
38:19
SPEAKER_00: But hopefully we're on the other side and it'll be a quieter season for the rest of the rest of the season.
38:25
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, just a few more weeks left of hurricane season, I think.
38:28
SPEAKER_01: So hopefully this is it.
38:31
SPEAKER_01: Definitely made its mark this year.
38:33
SPEAKER_00: And it it's an amazing, you know, it's an amazing thing to ride out of storm like that.
38:38
SPEAKER_00: It it it just it's amazing.
38:40
SPEAKER_00: It's it's all I know to say the sound and the power and the, you know, but there's such a beautiful picture of God protecting you, and our little family was here, and you know, um, we were very grateful to be um to be so so well taken care of.
38:54
SPEAKER_00: And so um, you know, it we're but we're glad it's over.
38:57
SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah.
38:58
SPEAKER_01: I can only imagine I mean I've been in some uh we just had family who was telling us how strong the wind was and all of that.
39:04
SPEAKER_01: And I I mean we've been in some strong wind because of the Midwest, but I can't even imagine what that would be like.
39:12
SPEAKER_01: And I get kind of freaked out, kind of anxious, you know, sitting through those storms.
39:16
SPEAKER_01: So I can't even imagine.
39:17
SPEAKER_01: It would be hard to feel like hunkered down and yeah, I don't know.
39:21
SPEAKER_01: Just puts a different perspective on it, and you know, all the all the ways the Lord uses storm in the word of God and teaching us different things.
39:29
SPEAKER_00: It's like, oh yeah, yeah, that's one of my favorite, my one of my favorite writers is Amy Carmichael, and and she has a poem where she talks about um about being in the storm and she says, hold us in quiet through the age long minute while um thou art sleeping and the wind is shrill.
39:45
SPEAKER_00: Um, and that that phrase, hold us through the age long minute.
39:48
SPEAKER_00: I think any any storm that you've been through, whether it's literal or spiritual or you know, it's that idea of God holding you through that age long minute when you don't know how long it's gonna last.
39:59
SPEAKER_00: With a hurricane, because um the wind is constant, it's a sustained wind, it just keeps and then there's gusts, like but that visual of God holding us through the age long minute, I think um I just think that's beautiful.
40:12
SPEAKER_00: I would just say that poem over and over and over in my head.
40:15
SPEAKER_00: Um there's such a beautiful thing of what he does just in every area of our lives, especially this year.
40:19
SPEAKER_00: We've seen that for sure.
40:20
SPEAKER_01: Oh wow, that's awesome.
40:21
SPEAKER_01: Well, Stacy, thank you for doing this conversation with us.
40:25
SPEAKER_01: And I really I'm I just know that um so many are gonna be blessed to get to have been met you essentially and now find your books and um just follow you.
40:36
SPEAKER_01: So we're um I think you're mostly Stacy Thacker everywhere.
40:41
SPEAKER_01: Um remind me of that on Instagram, Facebook, yes.
40:46
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Instagram is at Stacey Thacker, um, and that's S-T-A-C-E-Y-T-H-A-C-K-E-R.
40:53
SPEAKER_00: Um, and also Twitter.
40:54
SPEAKER_00: I still love a good Twitter conversation.
40:56
SPEAKER_00: Um then um Facebook it's official Stacey Thacker because Stacey Thacker was taken.
41:02
SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay, there we go.
41:04
SPEAKER_00: So official.
41:05
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then um everything at Stacy Thacker.com.
41:08
SPEAKER_00: So you can find my books, my social media, blogging when it happens these days.
41:13
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
41:13
SPEAKER_00: Which is fewer.
41:14
SPEAKER_00: It's less than it used to be because of writing other places, but I still love blogging.
41:18
SPEAKER_00: It's still really uh a great place to work out words.
41:21
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, and I do love your blog.
41:22
SPEAKER_01: I really enjoyed um all those different, yeah, just all the different aspects there.
41:26
SPEAKER_01: It's beautiful and it's it really reflects you well in your personality.
41:30
SPEAKER_01: So I love it.
41:31
SPEAKER_01: I hope everyone goes and checks it out for sure.
41:33
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, lots of lots of good books to check out, and you know, you can add to your pile quite a bit with all the different options.
41:40
SPEAKER_00: So thank you.
41:42
SPEAKER_00: Thank you very much.
41:43
SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you, Stacey.
41:44
SPEAKER_01: We look forward to um looking for your next book, and in the meantime, um this um your newest one is Jesus um is Jesus worth it.
41:55
SPEAKER_01: And um that is available everywhere where books are sold.
41:59
SPEAKER_01: And um that one's a great one to do um if you have a small group that's starting or your book club is looking for a book to start, or just maybe sitting with a couple girlfriends over coffee to just read through where it's a real intentional reading through the book of the Bible with some story mixed into it, which I think is a really great approach for sure.
42:18
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
42:19
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
42:19
SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you, Amy and Ashley, for letting me hang out with you today.
42:22
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
42:23
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Stacey.
42:24
SPEAKER_01: We sure appreciate you.
42:31
SPEAKER_01: Wow, wasn't that amazing?
42:34
SPEAKER_01: The just testimony, their current testimony of their life is really incredible and it fills me with just hope and wonder of how God works in us and through us.
42:44
SPEAKER_01: And I know that I definitely see how they are giving God all the glory for their journey so far.
42:52
SPEAKER_01: Um I hope that you are going to for sure check out all of her books on her website, stacybacker.com.
43:00
SPEAKER_01: I will put all the ways to connect with her on social media in the show notes.
43:04
SPEAKER_01: And um, she also I wanted to make sure that you knew we didn't talk about it in the program, but she on her website has five prayers when you are fresh out of amazing.
43:15
SPEAKER_01: I really appreciated that free printable and that encouragement and just gives you a little glimpse too of what her book, Fresh Out of Amazing, um, what it is about, and how you might enjoy uh reading that when you have the time.
43:29
SPEAKER_01: So when you have a minute, be sure again and enter to win one of the free copies that Stacey is giving us.
43:37
SPEAKER_01: There's just an easy link that you click on in the show notes, or you can find out more at simplycoolhearted.com.
43:45
SPEAKER_01: Another episode of the Simply Whole Hearted podcast that you might enjoy is episode 19, Front Yard People.
43:52
SPEAKER_01: This is our conversation with author Kristen Schell, who came out with the book Turquoise Table this year.
43:58
SPEAKER_01: I think you'll really enjoy her warm personality and her story of intentional living about gathering small but loving big right in her own front yard.
44:07
SPEAKER_01: So if you haven't heard that conversation, be sure and find that it's episode 19.
44:13
SPEAKER_01: And we're so glad you joined us if this is the first time that you're listening to the Simply Wholehearted podcast.
44:19
SPEAKER_01: We hope that you'll subscribe and you will find a new episode every week.
44:24
SPEAKER_01: Listen to, and in the meantime, you can check up on some and catch up on some of the old episodes that have come out so far.
44:33
SPEAKER_01: Now, Ashley and I have talked about wanting to share some of the books that we are reading or pertain to the season we're in or the conversations that we're having.
44:43
SPEAKER_01: This one really has nothing to do with anything except for I'm really liking the anneagram.
44:49
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you've heard about it yet, but it's another personality tool that I have found to be really insightful because instead of focusing on my actions, it focuses on my motivations and why it is I do what I do.
45:04
SPEAKER_01: Which that self-evaluation is really good, I think, for all of us.
45:08
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, the Anneal Gram has been around for a long time, but there's recently been kind of a research of information and books about it.
45:17
SPEAKER_01: One of the books that I read this year was called The Road Back to You, and it's written by Ian Morgan Conn.
45:24
SPEAKER_01: You'll have to be sure and check that out on Amazon when you get some time to read that.
45:30
SPEAKER_01: And if you want to, there is a great social media person and website to follow, and it's called Your Aneagram Coach.
45:40
SPEAKER_01: And you can find that on Instagram, and then the website is youreneagramcoach.com.
45:46
SPEAKER_01: They do uh Enneagram coaching and they actually even do training to be an Enneagram coach, which sounds kind of fun.
45:54
SPEAKER_01: So maybe somehow in my free spare time I'll have to do that too, um, just because I think it would be really fun to do.
46:02
SPEAKER_01: Now we've covered lots of information, and I'm so glad you're here again today.
46:08
SPEAKER_01: So be sure and check out about the giveaway, the websites, the recommendations, and the podcasts, all in our show notes, or find out more on simply wholehearted.com.
46:18
SPEAKER_01: So until next time, I hope you find more ways to live simply wholehearted, unplugged, purposeful, and intentional.