Latest / Witness the Wonder Christian Podcast: Supernatural Christian Testimonies, Miracles, and God Stories / Father Wound Healing: When Both Parents Walk Away — Who Can You Trust? | Sean Teis' Christian Faith Testimony

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Father Wound Healing: When Both Parents Walk Away — Who Can You Trust? | Sean Teis' Christian Faith Testimony · Witness the Wonder Christian Podcast: Supernatural Christian Testimonies, Miracles, and God Stories

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My dad took me and threw me across the room to the cops.
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It messes with your your mind a little bit because it's like,
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well, why would this guy throw me to the cops?
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And then ultimately abandoned us about a month later.
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I had a grandfather that stepped in and so he filled that gap for
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from 10 months old when my dad left and then he died.
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What happens when the people who were supposed to love and care
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for you don't? Sean Tice grew up with that
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reality, and it shaped how he saw himself and even how he saw
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God. If you've ever felt abandoned.
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Or like you weren't enough. This conversation will show you
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how God meets you in those places, and He'll begin to
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change how you even see yourself.
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Here's my conversation with Sean.
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Sean, before the Ministry, before the platforms, you were
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abandoned before your first birthday by your father, Is that
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correct? When you grew up without a
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father, what does that do to your identity?
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I mean, being abandoned it, it definitely messes with you.
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My, the whole story was my dad, I came home when I was about
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nine months old and he, he was an alcoholic.
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So he kicked my mother, my brother and my sister out of our
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house. For some reason, he kept me the
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little nine month old baby and instead of and then so then all
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this stuff happened where my mom went to the neighbor's house and
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they got the cops to show up and, and instead of handing me
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gently over to the cops, my dad took me and threw me across the
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room to the cops. And thankfully that cop would
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catch the cop caught me that that night and I was safe and
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fine. But it messes with your, your
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mind a little bit because it's like, well, why would this guy
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throw me to the cops and then ultimately abandoned us about a
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month later. He got on a bus, went back to
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his hometown of Las Vegas, NV and we were growing up in
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Pennsylvania and never came back.
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And so it does mess with your mind.
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Like why would he, Why would he do all this?
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But I also knew that he had grown up fadless and he didn't
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have a dad growing up. So he he had all these demons
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and things he was working through these struggles that he
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faced. And so knowing that helped it,
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but it still messes with you. It's like, was I not good
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enough? You know what was I not a, why
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wouldn't somebody want to be my my dad, right?
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But thankfully I had mentors and people that put in my life and
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help me through it. When like growing up with any
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schools and then maybe you went to church.
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I don't know if you went to church growing up, but you
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probably noticed at some point your family life, your home life
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was different than other kids. How did that affect you?
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Yeah, we, we, I went to, we actually rode the bus back in
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the day when there are big bus ministries of churches.
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We rode the bus as a family to church.
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And so we're one of the only families of the church that was
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a from a, we call a broken home, a divorce family.
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My mom was one of the only single moms.
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We were on some of the only fatherless kids.
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And so it, it was kind of awkward.
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There was a few other women that were in different situations
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like that, but you knew and like in class, I was blessed to go to
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the Christian School that was with the church we went to.
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But and we knew, like in my class, I think I was the only,
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the only kid that was from a divorced family.
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And so most of the kids were from good homes.
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They had mom and dad And so you, you kind of felt like a little
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awkward. And then I moved in with my
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grandparents. And so I was definitely one of
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the only kids that was being raised by his grandparents too.
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And so it was that was kind of a weird situation And and so you
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but you navigate through it. There was some mean kids in in
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the school that would my grandparents smoked for a while.
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So this mean kids really make fun of you for, you know, do you
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smoke to ask you questions? Not my grandparents do, like,
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you know, stuff like that. But it was one of those things
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where you just learn to deal with it, you know, and just
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overcome it, right? Did you grow up feeling the
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absence of your father or was that something you process
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later? Is it I mean?
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I, I did feel it, I knew the way it went on, but I also, I had a
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grandfather that stepped in and so he filled that gap for from
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10 months old when my dad left until about almost 6th grade.
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And then he died. And so he died of lung cancer,
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like I said about smoking, died of lung cancer.
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And that's when I really felt it.
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I I really knew, wow, I don't have a dad.
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My my grandfather. That was my dad.
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He's he died. But that's when I really started
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in yeah, I mean, I tween awkward time.
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And so I'm I was, I was a mass. I mean, I struggled for for a
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while then. And so only by the grace of God,
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I'm sitting with you now because I, I could have went in a
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completely different direction because of that.
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You know that's the beautiful thing about God, right?
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He shows up and he's there all along, even when he can't see it
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yet, you know, He's always present, just there, loving us
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and ministering to us and filling that place.
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Can I ask you something a little bit more personal?
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Was there ever a lie that you started to believe about
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yourself because your dad wasn't there?
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Yeah, I mean, honestly, I because even with having my
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grandparents in school, I would feel like I wasn't as good as
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the the other kids, you know what I mean?
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Like they're coming from good families there.
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We were low income family and in this Christian School that most
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of the families are coming from, a lot of them had money, you
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know, they had way more resources than we had.
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And so you, you did feel inferior.
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I, I, I dealt with an inferiority complex for a long
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time, feeling like people that had a dad were better than me.
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They, their dads took them hunting.
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Their dads showed them how to work on a car.
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The dads showed them how to fix things, use a hammer, using, you
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know, things like that. I, I didn't have that.
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And so I was a city boy from the city area where I grew up.
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A lot of the kids that I went to school with were country.
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They and they had a country came with a lot of manly things that
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their dads were teaching them. Thankfully I had mentors that
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taught me, but it took me a while to overcome that
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inferiority. Thankfully I, like I said, I had
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mentors that helped with that and that over the years and how
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I hoped was able to overcome that, but it took a long time.
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Yeah. Did it affect though, how you
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saw God too? Like, like because you know God
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is our Father, right? You didn't have an earthly
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father, so how did that not having an earthly father impact
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your view of God as a heavenly Father?
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Well, for me it was I dealt with abandonment.
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A lot of people, they look at God like they look at the
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earthly dad mine. Mine was God was going to
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abandon me. And so I had to, for a long
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time, I, I thought God was going to forsake me, but it says
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clearly in the scripture, I will never leave thee nor forsake
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thee, right? And so he was never going to
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forsake me. But I, I felt like just because
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my, my birthday, I did and my, then my grandfather died, that
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eventually my God, God's, my God's going to go away from me
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too, right? My heavenly Father's going to
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walk away. And it wasn't even something I
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like continually focused on, but I've always felt like I, it was
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a performance thing. I had to make sure that I'm
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perfect or something just so God won't walk away, you know, so
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won't, won't abandoned me, won't, won't separate from me.
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So, you know, it's, it's something that's I think it's a
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lifelong battle, honestly, where you're like, Hey, I don't want
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to, I don't want to, you know, just please God because they'll
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walk away. And so it's something I've had
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to fight for a long time. And I think even in adulthood,
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it's something I have to, to make sure that I, I'm careful
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that I'm looking at God with the right eyes.
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You know, I leave a ministry called God is my Dad and God is
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my dad, but I make sure I have to make sure I look at him in
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the right way. Yes, absolutely.
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Was it difficult then when you like, I assume that your
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relationship with God growing up in a Christian School, in
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church, you had a relationship with God from a young age, I
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would imagine, right? But was there ever a point where
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trusting God became an issue for you?
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Oh, I've had different times over my life where it's like I
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try to do it on my own because I feel like I'm all by myself and
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I'm trying to make sure I'm taking care of things.
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And, and honestly, when I fully rely on God during and I
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overcome that, that's when I have the best times because I'm
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like, yeah, if I'm trying to do it on my own in my own power, it
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ends up being a mess and it ends up being just a horrible
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situation. But when I'm fully finally
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realized, OK, I can't, literally can't do anything.
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And then God's put me through times where He's made me realize
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you can't do this yourself, right?
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And, and I've had to fully rely on him.
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And even in adulthood, He's had me do that as well.
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I wish I would have gotten that lesson so much sooner that when
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we surrender and come to the end of ourselves, that's when he
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shows up and it's like, oh, this is so much easier if I would
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just give up my own will and try stop trying to do it in my own.
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I feel like for me it's like an ongoing.
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Thing like me too. What are you doing?
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Why are you? But I think.
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As we get older, like I'm now 50 and so I'm like, oh, I'm going
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to stop fighting. God, let go.
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And you know, if it's uncomfortable, you know,
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whatever it is, it's, it's uncomfortable.
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I'm just going to trust he's got a plan.
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I'm going to go for it and it gets more comfortable, right?
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You're right. Even this past year that we, we,
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we got a new house and our three days after we moved in, our
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house flooded and, and it, we've had to go through insurance and
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get everything got fixed. But now we're living in this
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house and I'm like, you know, I've had time for, I'm nervous
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about it because we're for floods again.
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You know, you get this PTSD and I've had to get to the point
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where, I mean, this is recent, this is real recent for us.
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I had to get, I've had to get to the point where I'm like, God,
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this is yours. This is your house, this is your
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stuff. This is I, I don't own this.
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And I had to just fully give it to God.
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And there's been so many situations like that in life
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where it's like, God, this is yours.
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And so and I think he wants us to be at that point where you're
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not, it's not about you controlling the situation, you
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know, and when we see the God allowed to have him for a
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reason, but it's just, I see that.
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I've seen it so many times over the years.
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I love, I love that you you kind of let Lud into a little bit
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because sometimes God takes the most difficult, darkest things
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in our life and he turns it around and the Scripture says
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he'll turn it around for our good, right?
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And he's doing that through your ministry now.
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So, you know, he's taking that childhood that you felt
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abandoned. You felt, you know, good enough.
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Yeah. And he's turning it around.
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And what is he doing today in your life because of that?
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Several things. I mean, I'm in a phase right now
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where I have a 17 year old, a 15 year old and 11 year old.
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And like I said, my dad grew up faudless, I grew up faultless.
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And so I'm trying as a dad, trying to break the cycle of
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that. So that's something I'm really
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been focusing on as being a good dad to my kids.
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And it's not easy when you didn't have a model of a, you
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know, a lot of good. One thing I have found is
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whenever you didn't have a dad growing up, you can learn from
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all the dads out there who you don't want to be and who you do
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want to be. And so I've kind of enjoyed
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that. But that's one of the things is
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focusing on being a good dad. It's our ministry is really
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focusing on creating good content and good resources that
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can help fatherless families. And we're launching single mom
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ministries and trying to do those things and really just
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focusing on trying to to do the ministry that God's called me to
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do and be and be the person God's called me to be as a dad,
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as a husband, as a ministry leader and things like that.
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So for someone that's watching today who maybe they're growing
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up fatherless, what would you want to say to that?
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I would say you can, you can overcome it because
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fatherlessness often looks like a impossible situation.
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And a lot of times fatherless individuals, they, they kind of
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just let life be what it is. And, and if you're listening to
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this, you know what I mean, where you're kind of like, well,
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it is what it is. And so I, whatever I become, I
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become. But you can do great things for
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God and God does care about you and God does love you.
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The world wants you to think that God does not care about
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you. The world wants you to think
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that that you, you can't do anything with your life that you
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should just kind of lay down and let become a statistic.
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But you can overcome the statistics.
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You can overcome whatever it is, the obstacles you're facing, and
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you can do great things and you can break the cycle of
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faudlessness in your family, because often times us faudless.
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We make our kids faudless or us that maybe, maybe you're, you're
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a young lady and you make your kids motherless because of the
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situation you had. I want to encourage you don't
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become a statistic. Make sure that as you go down
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this, this path of, of life, that you don't become a
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statistic through becoming an addict or becoming imprisoned
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and doing things that are going to lead you down that path
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because those things will, will destroy your future, right?
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And, and there's no coping methods such as alcohol and
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drugs and even relationships and whatever it might be that you're
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trying to cope with not having a dad in your life.
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Nothing's going to bring that happiness to your life.
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We've been doing this ministry for over 17, around 17 years.
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And we've seen over the last 17 plus years that that individuals
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that try to find hope through other things besides God, they
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never find that hope. Nothing ever, money, nothing,
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nothing, none of it ever brings happiness except for God.
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And so that's what I want to encourage you with is find a
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relationship with God. Pursue it.
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If you're young, understand it. It does take time as you try to,
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to, for most people, it takes time where you try to own God as
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your father and you try to really accept that it's taking
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me. I'm 41 years old.
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It's taking me a long time to get to that point.
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But I honestly, I wake up every day and I, I try to own the fact
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that God is my father and that he loves me and he cares about
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me and he's going to take care of me and he's going to provide
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and, and accepting those blessings, accepting those
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promises from Scripture. And so again, embrace God as
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your dad. And what's that look like?
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Praying to God every day, reading God's word?
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If you're not a Christian, you've ever trusted in Jesus as
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your savior, Trust in Jesus as your savior.
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That's the first step. And then growing in your faith
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through praying, reading God's word, trusting in God and and
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walking with Him. So when did your relationship
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with God just really become personal for you?
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You know what I mean? Because I grew up in church, it
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sounds like you did too. So as I was a preacher's kid for
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a while, you know what I mean? Like my dad was a pastor, so
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like you just go along with the flow, but when did it really
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become real for you? Well, there's been different
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phases. You know, I, I got when I was a
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bus kid, I was four years old. I, I remember praying and
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trusting in Jesus as my savior when I was four years old.
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But honestly, I didn't really have a relationship with God at
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that. I don't really, you know what I
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mean? I don't remember as I remember
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doing that. And then I remember in 7th
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grade, I, I prayed and I made assurance to my salvation
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because I just didn't feel like I really meant it when I was
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four years old that I really wanted to be a follower of
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Jesus. But then when I was 15 years
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old, I felt like God was calling me to be a pastor.
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I went to a youth conference with my church and, and they're
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talking about going into full time ministry.
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I feel like God will lead me into that.
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And so I think around that time, 8th grade and then 15 years old
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is when I really started trying to grow on my face.
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But I was a teenager, I mean, I still struggled with some
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things. And if you're a teenager, I
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understand that you're not going to be perfect.
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And so God's not expecting you to be perfect, but he wants you
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to have a relationship with you. And as you have a relationship
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with God, he's he, you have a desire to do right.
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Yeah, as you, as you walk with God, you'll have a desire to do
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right. And so as I grew closer to God,
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I would have more of a desire to do right things.
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And so honestly, from the teen years and then I went to Bible
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college and that was a struggle in itself.
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But honestly, just, it's been different phases throughout my
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life where I'm like just getting growing closer and closer to
14:51
God. And I feel like just like with I
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said my house flooding, I feel like I just went to another
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phase where I'm fully, fully learning to even more rely on
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him every day. Was there a specific moment in
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your story where you just felt that shift?
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You know, like from feeling abandoned, from feeling maybe
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unloved? I don't know if you felt that
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like feeling lost. What was the shift in your
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story? Because if someone's listening
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and they're feeling all abandoned, they're feeling like
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I don't have anybody, I'm alone. What shifted in your story that
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they maybe can relate? To.
15:27
Well, honestly, when I, when I was like I said, when I was in
15:29
about 7th, 8th grade, I, I made assurance my salvation and then
15:32
I started reading certain trying to read the Bible.
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And I think so when I started really trying to read the Bible
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and I was not great at it in 8th grade, but when I started
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letting the word of God speak to me and that's when I really feel
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like it started becoming true. And you can be in 8th grade and
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do that. You can go on the Bible app and
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and read one verse, the verse of the day on the Bible app.
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And I think that's when I started.
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And again, I was not a perfect teenager.
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I went through faces up and down, backslidden, you know, but
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the times that I was really overcoming my fatherless
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situation was when I was walking with God and when I was reading
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God's word, when I was dabbling in sand, when I was, you know,
16:12
backslidden. Those are the times when
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fatherlessness was really worse in my situation.
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So I would really struggle because I wasn't relying on God
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anymore. I was relying on myself.
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And so really that was the time 8th grade was the starting
16:25
point, I feel like for me. And then it went, you know,
16:27
through ups and downs and but as I would go back to God and I
16:31
would say, OK, I need to walk with God here, that's when I
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would really just overcome my situation.
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And so that's when it started. And then honestly, I think when
16:39
I went to Bible college again, I went to teen years and I had ups
16:42
and downs. I got to Bible college.
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I was like, this is real. Now I know God's calling me to
16:45
do something with my life, to be a pastor, you know, 18 years
16:49
old, almost 19, and it's time for me to take this thing
16:52
serious. And I think that's really where
16:53
I just started going, you know, like I got to be serious about
16:56
this. God's called, put a calling on
16:57
my life. I can't joke about this anymore.
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I can't mess around. It's time to take it serious.
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And and you know, obviously there were just, I'm a human.
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There's been times where it's dipped up and down a little bit
17:06
here and there, but that's where it really was sort of taken off.
17:09
And so just when I really was serious, I got to do something
17:11
for God and whatever God's called you to do.
17:13
I mean, you don't have to go into full time ministry, but
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maybe God's called you to be a business person or I don't know
17:18
what it is, but go with God in that situation.
17:21
And when you choose to go with God in it, it changes your whole
17:23
situation. Where was your mom in the whole
17:25
situation when your dad left? Well, my mom, I lived with her
17:29
until I was about 6 years old and then she met another guy and
17:33
moved into another guy's house. And so from second, it was like
17:37
6-7 years old, she went into another guy's house and I moved
17:41
with my grandparents full time. And so I, I would see her, you
17:44
know, but we didn't live together until I was in 9th
17:47
grade. And so it was like 7 years that
17:49
we were separated and then by the time she moved back in, she
17:52
moved back in in 7th, 9th grade and she became like a friend.
17:56
It was, you know, she, we weren't, we didn't really have
17:58
that mom son relationship. It was more of a, a friend
18:01
situation because my grandparents raised me for that
18:04
all those years. So that's where she was at.
18:06
So that added a another layer of abandonment, almost honestly.
18:10
She left you for another a man basically.
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How did that what kind of marks did that leave?
18:16
Because there's, there's being fatherless is one thing, but you
18:20
weren't just fatherless. You were fatherless and
18:22
motherless for a period of time. I mean, you had your
18:24
grandparents, but grandparents aren't the same thing as a
18:26
mother and a father. That's something I honestly
18:29
didn't really unpack until the last few years.
18:32
I was so focused on my dad not being around and there was so
18:35
much trauma there from him being abusive and and throwing me to
18:38
the cops and stuff that I kind of even my my mom moved in with
18:41
that guy. I put a lot of the blame on my
18:44
dad, you know what I mean? And I didn't put it on her.
18:48
But over the past few years, and I'm, and I'm not bitter at her.
18:50
I've unpacked that more where I'm like, oh, she did forsake
18:54
me. She did go choose another guy
18:56
over me. And it's even realized, wow,
18:58
that was a pretty terrible situation and pretty, pretty
19:01
lousy thing to do. And I remember even like
19:04
Christmas like my, my brother and sister would be at that.
19:07
They lived in that other house and they would do Christmas
19:10
without me because her boyfriend or the guy that she lived with
19:12
didn't like me. And, you know, because of the
19:14
little, I was the youngest, I was a little kid, he was, I was
19:16
annoying. It was that stuff.
19:18
And it, it was just kind of weird.
19:20
They would do Christmas together and then I would have to sit and
19:22
on Christmas morning and wait for them to come and just things
19:25
like that. It messes with you as a kid, you
19:28
know. And so thankfully my
19:29
grandparents, they would, I did, I would do stuff with them on
19:31
Christmas morning and things like that.
19:33
Just things like that that really mess with my, my mind, I
19:37
think, but I didn't really think about it, like I said, because
19:39
I, I was more focused on my dad being in the scumbag.
19:42
But my mom and I we've, you know, we still, you know, we
19:45
still talk and things like that. I mean, but it's, it's never
19:48
really been that father son or mother son relationship since
19:51
she moved into that guy's house when I was like 7 years old.
19:55
If someone's listening and they're maybe dealing with that,
19:57
yeah, same thing. Like that's an added layer.
19:59
Oh yeah. What could you say to them?
20:01
The. Bible verse says when my mother
20:03
and father forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.
20:05
I mean, as the, the Lord will be there, he'll be my, he'll fill
20:08
that void. And thing is God will fill that
20:10
void. And I, I know I keep saying
20:12
that, but our ministry is God is it's called God is my dad God,
20:15
God will fill the void of my mom.
20:16
I don't want to say God is my mom, but God will fill the void
20:19
of me not having a mom because he cares about me so much that
20:21
God wants to fill every void in your life.
20:23
And so no matter whether your your mom or dad or both have
20:26
walked away or your or maybe you had a mentor like my you had my
20:30
grandfather was in my life that's passed away and and
20:32
you're like, man, there's nobody around anymore.
20:35
God is there? He's an he's an ever present
20:38
help in our troubles with the Bible tells us he wants to have
20:42
a relationship with you. He wants to talk to you
20:45
everyday, but you got to let him, you got to read his Bible.
20:48
You have to spend time with him. And for me, I talked to God all
20:52
day long. You know, it's, it's something
20:54
where I'm just like, OK, God, what do you think about this?
20:56
And I know that might sound weird to talk to God like that,
20:57
but that's what I do. And it, it honestly works.
21:00
God loves us so much that he wants a relationship, he wants
21:03
an active relationship with us. And so when you start walking
21:07
like that, it is an amazing thing.
21:08
And God, I had a, the president of my college, I went to Trinity
21:12
Baptist College in Jacksonville, FL and the president of our
21:14
college, he said, said, I think God shows a little more favor to
21:18
the fadless or to those that are, I think to lacking a
21:21
parent. And I really believe that.
21:23
And, and that's not to, to, to brag or something like that, but
21:27
he, I think God really does because he, he loves them.
21:30
The Bible says pure religion and undefiled before God and the
21:32
Father's this to visit the fathers and widows and their
21:34
affliction. The Bible says it's a pure
21:36
religious practice for individuals to go and visit the
21:39
fathers. God truly cares about the
21:41
fathers. He wants them reached.
21:43
He wants them helped and so God, who cares about you?
21:46
You just have to accept that care.
21:47
So it really plays with a individual's identity when
21:51
you're like, I mean, you had, like I said, we just had this
21:54
multiple layer just be added here with your mom being absent
21:57
as well as your dad. How did that play into your
22:00
identity in Christ, maybe just as a as a man as a young boy?
22:05
And how did you overcome that to really find out who you were in
22:09
Christ? I mean, I had I had mentors.
22:14
I think God used people to pour into my life.
22:19
I had a grandparents that came to stepped in.
22:22
Then I had a youth pastor and his wife that became a mentor
22:25
for about a year, year and a half when he first came to our
22:27
church and they would let us come to the house and spend time
22:30
with them. And so they were they were
22:31
great. Then I had different people in
22:32
our church that would take me. One guy threw me hunting.
22:36
Another couple, I could go to their house.
22:39
But then when I was 15 years old, I had this couple that I
22:41
started working for. It was a job and I would just
22:45
work at their house and cut grass or whatever.
22:49
And I quickly became like a son to them without any blood
22:51
relation or marriage relation. But for for me, God used those
22:54
type of mentors. And so that guy named Jim, Jim
22:57
and Deb, I mean, Jim became my my mentor for from when I was 15
23:02
years old up until last this past year when he passed away.
23:05
And so 25 years that he was my dad in my life again, no blood
23:09
relation, no marriage relation. There was still and there was
23:12
always this, still this in the back of my head.
23:14
I knew he wasn't my real dad. And there's always this
23:17
abandonment things. And but I encourage you find a
23:20
mentor, find somebody that you can.
23:22
And, and for me, God brought them into my life.
23:24
So maybe just pray about if you can't find somebody, pray that
23:26
God will lead you to people that can pour into your life again.
23:29
I still struggle. And I mean, these people want my
23:31
blood. They weren't except for my
23:32
grandparents. These people want my blood.
23:34
They weren't wasn't my real dad, wasn't my real mom, because that
23:38
was like a second mom to me, but God used them to influence my
23:41
life and then he also through a relationship with him at.
23:44
Some point you like you, you no longer identified as father.
23:47
Because of those mentors, right, and because of learning about
23:51
God is my father. I mean, that was those are,
23:53
those are the things that's awesome.
23:54
Yeah, that's awesome. I, I mean, that is so important.
23:58
Community, yes, community is vital.
24:02
Like even if we don't have the community we should have in our
24:04
homes, in our, in our parents, we, we have people.
24:08
God has put people out there that will fill that void.
24:11
And I love that he did that for you.
24:13
That's that's one. Of the things that's real quick.
24:14
I with our we have God is my dad app that we have.
24:18
We we do mentoring videos and stuff like that.
24:20
And I want you to encourage you to check that out.
24:22
But find if you're a teenager, find a youth group, find a
24:25
church that you can get involved in.
24:26
If you're a single mom, listen to this We start single mom
24:29
ministries or we have curriculum and stuff.
24:31
Find a single mom industry that you can plug into or start one
24:33
and where you can have community yourself.
24:35
I mean that those are important things like you said, being
24:38
plugged in, right? Having.
24:39
To a local support structure. I mean that's it's vital, it's
24:42
life saving, especially if you have brokenness in there.
24:45
You know, what I love about your story is that God doesn't waste
24:51
anything in our life is that you've turned it around and now
24:55
you're using it to help other people.
24:57
So I love that. But.
24:58
If you could sit across. From that younger version of
25:01
yourself, my audience tends to be 18 to 35, and so a lot of
25:07
them are going to be listening to your story and a lot of them
25:12
are relating. What would you say to someone
25:14
that's sitting to? Your younger version of
25:16
yourself. Soon as you ask, soon as you
25:18
sent the question I thought God will take care of because I've
25:23
spent so many, because I was trying to figure out, you know,
25:29
like like my dad, laughs grandfather, the House of 12.
25:33
So I was. Going to ask you.
25:37
I was in the house 12 years old with my gram and my mom didn't
25:40
live there. And so I've always had this
25:42
like, how are we going to figure this out?
25:44
I mean, like even the 41 years old, it's still blessed with the
25:46
fact. But looking back, if I talked to
25:48
my young self, I said, God's not take care, don't sit around and
25:51
worry. All it's going to do is mess
25:53
with your health mentally and virtually, physically.
25:55
And so don't worry. The Bible tells us to not worry
25:59
about anything. And I believe that God has that
26:01
environment because God knows He created us.
26:05
He knows. It will affect our health.
26:06
It will affect us mentally, emotional, spirit and
26:09
physically. And so that's what I would say.
26:11
And when we don't worry, we're not sitting around worrying.
26:13
We can focus on blessings from God.
26:16
We can focus on what God's doing.
26:17
We can do more forget. And so I think that's what
26:20
we're. Well, thank you so much.
26:22
For sharing your story, someone wants to connect with your
26:24
middle St. How can they do that?
26:26
Thanks for having me, Sir Sean Tice Sean team of the IAS on
26:30
social media, on the Facebook, Instagram.
26:33
Now we also have God is my dad that is my dad's on TikTok.
26:36
It's your Facebook, Instagram. There's obviously search for God
26:39
is my dad. Follow us.
26:40
We'd love to connect to see him. There's all kinds of video
26:42
content and then also we have an app to search on the Apple.
26:44
I'm giving a Play Store for God is my dad.
26:46
We connect with us. There's some free devotionals
26:48
out there whilst on the Bible. We'll have your version.
26:50
I think with Stan, turns out to me most in this conversation is
26:54
that what you walk through doesn't have to define who you
26:57
become. And even in places where
27:00
something or someone was missing, God has a way of
27:03
stepping into those places and meeting you right where you are.
27:08
And this is what I love most about him.
27:10
When we allow God to, He will take the very things that we
27:14
walk through and He uses them to help someone else.
27:18
If you want to learn more about Shawn's ministry, God is My Dad,
27:22
You can go visit his website, godismydad.com.
27:25
And if this conversation encouraged you, would you
27:28
consider following us and leaving a review?
27:30
It really does help these stories reach more people.
27:33
And remember. God is always at work in your
27:36
story. I want to take a moment to thank
27:39
one of our season 2 partners. Today's episode partner is the
27:43
Birch Gold Group. Many people are asking how to
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protect what they've worked so hard to build, especially in
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seasons of economic uncertainty. Birch Gold helps individuals
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diversify their savings with physical gold and silver.
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If you'd like to learn more or get their free information kit,
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you'll find the link at christinasmithofficial.com.
28:03
That's Christina smithofficial.com.
28:06
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