In today’s episode we talk all about the importance of our individual stories.Our stories and how we view God in the midst of our story is one of the most important things about us. 

In Revelation it says, “They triumphed by the blood of the lamb, and the word of their testimony”

Our story isn’t just a series of events that make up our life, but it’s also our perception and interpretation of those events that shapes us. We talk about sitting with the Lord in the midst of our storylines and how we can begin to heal and change our belief systems and shift our narratives. 

The Lord is so faithful to lead us as we think through and process our stories. He is a good good Father who longs to meet us where ever we are!

References

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In a world that has more than enough information and noise, is it even

possible to truly anchor ourselves and have peace in a scattered world?

Hi, this is Pamela and Mary, and we are a mother-daughter team who spanned

two generations, but share one message.

We will delve into what it looks like to be fully integrated body,

soul, and spirit, and will bring encouragement and hope all along the way.

We get it.

Life is hard and let's be real.

Hard doesn't even begin to describe it on some days, but we want you

to know that you're not alone.

And not only that, we are here to come alongside you and cheer you on as you

walk out your individual storyline.

So join us as we journey together and laugh, cry, and everything in between.

Welcome to the More Than Enough podcast.

Hey guys.

Welcome back to The More Than Enough podcast.

Hey, ma.

Good morning, Mary.

How's it going?

I can't help but just remember, our text last night when we were texting

about wanting to run away to Switzerland

Yes.

Yes.

Elizabeth was in on that.

And you know, I think if we.

Will and the power to do it.

We might have just done that.

Yes.

Yes.

For those who don't know.

Yeah, Elizabeth is my sister.

She's not on the podcast with us, but I'm sure she will jump in at different times.

But yeah, we have a group text and definitely when we are all

losing it, especially Liz and I were just like, okay, who's ready?

We're going to Switzerland.

, my sister actually surprised my mom and I with a trip.

What, how many years ago was that, ma?

4 56.

Yeah.

Yeah.

She like took us out.

Was it Cheesecake Factory, right?

Was just graduating from college, wasn't she?

wasn't she?

Yeah.

she was the one I, I felt so many emotions that day, but she was the one who

needed some, I mean, like, I'm the parent.

I should be giving her this trip to Europe.

But anyway, so go ahead.

She takes us to Cheesecake Factory.

It's in May.

Mother's Day

Day.

was a backdrop.

Mm-hmm.

yes,

had some presence in her hand when she came to us,

when we met at the restaurant.

Yes.

So anyways, yeah, I think, did she give us those special

Yeah.

She, so each thing represented, she was telling us the surprise

and these little increments.

Right.

she's saying, you know, you're the best mother Mary, and you're the best

sister and mom, you're the best mom.

the best mom.

She's just telling us these things and we think it's gonna be a mother's day.

Just few little fun gifts.

And

And then there she, she is something we opened and it just built to

just beautiful, amazing ways

us

telling.

Yeah.

Like this entire scrapbook of like, okay, like this is to document

all of our adventures will have, we're like our adventures to wear.

And she still didn't tell us

yes, that's right.

But yes.

So she still didn't even tell us where we're going, but

we finally figured it out.

And anyways, it was incredible.

We went to Italy in Switzerland and it was, that will definitely

be a story for another day.

Like, holy cow, there was so much there, so many highs,

definitely some lows on that trip.

But all three of us will definitely say, When we were up in the Swiss

Alps in this little Swiss village, it was pretty much like we were all

like, okay, like we've lived our life.

Let's just go and live and die in this Swiss village.

yes.

Circumstances came together that we thought we would, this would

be our last trip in this world.

All that to say that, you know, that just makes me.

Of the magic of that story.

There's so many things in that story.

So when we really tell the full story of that today, we're talking about the

story and wow, it can take us to so many heights and depths right in our lives.

So, and, and a good.

Really kind of keeps us not just interested and compelled

to keep listening, but there are so many things that we can see

in a way we never saw before.

There's a very brief intro.

Mary, let's just let, yeah.

Why don't you just kind of remind us where we were, what, what we're doing today,

Well,

I just jumped in for

need a reminder of that every day.

What am I doing?

What am I doing in life?

Please tell me.

Somebody tell

Why am I doing.

Yes..

So, yes.

Good job so yes, yes.

We've been talking.

Body, soul and spirit and what that looks like to have all of

those three being fully integrated.

That's really what so much of this podcast will even be about.

How, how does that look?

And how does, how does that play out in being integrated?

And we've hinted at this even in past episodes, but basically just saying

how our story and our story past and present and future, our entire storyline

is what makes up who we are, right?

And is truly.

One of the most, if not the most important thing about us, because

it's all we have is our story.

Our story, and everything, everything that, that entails.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yes,

There's so many things about the story, but I, I just wanna throw

out there, jumping right in to the deep end on this idea of the story.

One of the things that came to me is the power, the power of the story.

so you know what I'm gonna do?

This is what I wanna do.

I didn't tell you this Mary, but.

I'm gonna read a story that's like four paragraphs.

It's super short, and I'm gonna give you an example of the power of a story.

Okay?

And by story, I'm gonna, I'm gonna say, okay, A story could be

you know, an Instagram message.

ESOP's, fables, fairy tales.

folk tales, art, dance, music, books.

TikTok, a novel.

photographs that we look at, artwork,

artwork

all these things, you know, many times are telling a story.

So here's a story to give an example of that.

An example,

Okay?

A Cherokee elder is sitting around a bonfire with his grandchild

teaching him the lessons of life.

. He reaches down to lean in to his grandchild and he says There is

a battle going on inside of me.

It is a constant fight and it is between two wolves.

One wolf is filled with anger, an envy, and jealousy, even fear and regret.

Shame, arrogance, inferiority.

and superiority, but the other wolf is filled with humility and gratitude and

an acceptance and patience and peace, and all the good things, joy and love,

and kindness, and truth, and compassion.

He leans in even closer to his grandchild and he whispers to him The

same fight is going on inside of you.

My sweet.

and inside every other person too, the child grows silent, thinking

about the profound nature of this lesson, and then looks up and asks,

so grandfather, which wolf will win?

The old Cherokee Smiles, unknowing look and replies.

The one you feed my.

That's, that's good.

Mic drop.

boom.

Yeah.

Wait, wait, wait, wait.

Did you write

Oh gosh.

No, but I was, I said I read it.

I

No, that's so good.

We're talking about something that took two minutes and.

and

I love to think in this way.

I'm always trying to find a story to make a point because I am a diehard teacher

diehard teacher

and so mostly I wanna make my point, but I find all around me that, so

I know we're talking about our stories.

Of course we hit two big things in that tiny story just now, the

power of story, and we hit the power of a foundation, right?

This, this purse, this grandfather was able to impart to his grandson,

and many others will now tell this story because I just told it.

Because we are learning in this podcast together that what we think

on what we feed ourselves, what we drink, what we submerse ourselves.

is that spiritual part, that's inside of us.

That's warring with each other is really comes down to are we gonna

recognize it and are we gonna be intentional to feed that part?

And Mary and I were absolutely just talking about this and we

didn't even know , we were just talking about this exact same thing.

So anyway, so I wanna start with that to just.

with that.

And I think the more we steward our stories by being proactive

to change maybe parts, because we get invited to make these choices.

God is inviting us.

He's not gonna, you know, bend our arm and play uncle until we scream.

the screen.

He does things lovingly to remind us.

But so, so I guess, the point of this is yeah, just to begin to see.

You know, we're not boasting when I sh when we share our stories, but when

we've actually thought about them and we begin to assimilate because we've thought

about it, what are the glorious parts?

What have I learned even in the pain?

What have I learned?

And when we can find more concise ways to share those with each other, you know,

our story now brings life to other people.

I, well, I love that story and I love the two wolves because it's

basically like two narratives happening in our own head, you know what I mean?

Because I, I don't know, I guess some people would be like, oh, like the, like

the, the good angel and the devil, but it's like, no, it's like, it's, it's

like two ways to look at your life,

And yeah, I think that's so good.

I was, as I was thinking through story and just like how our

narrative is everything, right?

Oh, it's just as important as our story, if not way more important

isn't just our story, but is our interpretation of our story.

it's, like what lens are we looking through, What, which wolf

are we choosing to let dominate the narrative of our storyline?

And I was thinking about how, oh, like how people say, oh,

there's two sides to every story.

And I've always been troubled.

I troubled too strong of a word, but like, what does that mean?

Is it a story, just a recollection of facts, this is what happened

and I'm telling you what happened.

But we know that that's not true because for example,, I won't say, but you know

the two different news stations, right?

It's they're literally saying the same story and.

Both, stations might cover it completely differently and you

listen and you're like, what?

Surely that's not the same story,

Mmm.

is.

And yet it's completely different and skewed and almost at the end of it doesn't

even seem to reflect the same story.

And so after kind of thinking on that, I'm like, oh, wow.

Yeah, our story matters, but way more so is that we are accurately

interpreting what our story is and the our story of our events from just today

to throughout our entire lives, that we're looking at it through what the

Lord says is true and not just what we deem as truth in the moment Met.

Well that, that, you know, Is such a, such an added dimension to our

stories of what you're talking about.

I've read all kinds of cool studies about people's memories and then their

recollection of a series of events and if there was trauma involved

and other people were also there.

Many times, I mean, they're so far off of what actually took place in

terms of timelines and so many things.

So, just just to add to what you said is that I think it's really

important that we be aware not to even trust our own memories of things.

Yeah.

I was actually thinking of that quote that I told you the other

day that I heard from somewhere.

I can't remember at this moment, but it was, children

are incredible at observation, but terrible at interpretation.

And I just, I love that, cuz it's like, yeah, children and even

adults, but I think of children, it's like they're taking everything in.

Even from itty bitty, they're taking all in all this information.

They're watching everything you.

But they're not so great at interpreting that information and

like, oh, what does that mean?

Well man, just think about that cuz again, you're right.

Zero to six, everything is being modeled in front of them.

Their ability to retain information is enormous in those early years.

But it is powerful because so many things that they've even picked up and just

normal living is a misunderstanding.

And, and we know that because they don't have a grid for what the nuance

is of what's being said and done, so they're taking everything very literally.

And so in that they can make erroneous decisions even at two and three years old.

So how much.

And how much

When there's things occurring at the same time in our lives when

we're young, that are super complex.

So it's hard to even get a literal understanding of something

that has a lot of complexities.

How about if we add, where we're trying to interpret the faces of people around

us that look stressed or sad or angry?

Then we begin to feel pressure as a small child.

. I want everybody to be happy and we can become overwhelmed and

we can become fearful when we can't make those things happen.

So just extrapolate all that.

And you know, Mary and I talk, you and I talk about this all the time, is it's

a wonder how any of us Survive at all.

We, we talk about that, about driving.

It's a, it's a wonder everybody doesn't kill each other on highways.

How do we make it from point A to B?

Well, that's a good picture of what's going inside of our internal selves.

You know, how do we make it, well, I think it's almost impossible without

God and, you know, looking at these things and naming these things.

I was even as you were telling that story, I was kind of

thought through a story of like, yeah.

Interpretation is everything.

I mean, we all have that all throughout the day, and I think our brain is just

I mean an autopilot as far as like we think that's our thought, but really

it's we're just living out of the narrative that we have of our lives,

so I think about oh, you know, a child.

, when she's little, she hears her mother and father fighting and the father

screams,, some profanity and walks out and slams the door, and the mother runs

out after him, begging him to stay.

And he screams back that he can't, you know, he can't take living here anymore

and he's done right, and the mother walks back inside like super upset.

And the, the child's kind of in the corner kind of watching what's happening and

she's too upset to kind of talk to her.

So she just goes to a room and shuts the door, and the next morning

she basically is just like, your dad's not coming back and doesn't

really ever talk about it again.

Okay.

So the, the, the child watches what happens.

Like the father really did leave.

It wasn't in her head.

She didn't make that up, right?

Like, some things aren't just us.

Like no, that really did happen, right?

There was no like exaggeration there that really did happen.

It was really hurtful.

Right.

But then her interpretation becomes super, super tainted and super skewed.

That could go a million different ways, right?

But let's say she interprets this part of her story is her mother didn't try

hard enough to keep her dad there.

Her mother isn't, A fighter.

Her mother is a quitter, right?

So that's her interpretation.

When she sees that, that's immediately what she sees as the

interpretation of this picture,

her mom could have done something more to make him stay, and so she is now,

this narrative she's taking on is I will do whatever it takes to keep a man.

To, to, to be with me.

Right.

And so again, she doesn't even realize every decision that she makes all

throughout her life is from this narrative , of this lens, of her story.

Yes.

It's troubling.

A again, it's, it's troubling.

You know, when you hear it, the more simplistic somebody explains something,

the more troubling it can be, because now the things that we're listening

and hearing, you know, sort of explode in terms of meaning and innuendo.

So I, I love that example.

And, and I'm just gonna dovetail off that, off that example to say that, and

that same, let's say girl can make a decision, you know, that it was, you know,

all the fault of the father and begin

right, right.

into bitterness and even make self sort of inner vows.

You.

You

Men are evil.

I will never trust a man again.

These are obviously very stereotypical kind of examples, but the fact is, is it

can go a million different ways, so, so our lens then, you know what I'm hearing

you say in terms of definition, the lens is kind of, you know, it's like,

like think of it as a pair of glasses.

It's the vehicle that you see.

So that child, and even all of us throughout life, because we're already

having a distorted vision, we're putting on these glasses every day.

Now, the what happens with the lens, that's where we're

making an interpretation.

And the interpretation now becomes our belief system.

So the lens is the vehicle that we see, and then the, the belief system.

Can become like a paradigm.

This is what we have accepted as a truism about life in the world.

So as we're talking about the story today, you know, Mary, I heard you

say two major important things.

One is that the story itself is so valuable and, but also it's

very valuable that we could sit with God or maybe another person

or a group of friends to do this.

where we're gonna reflect on that.

And as I've suggested many times, you know, to do that intentionally we

would even be open to say, God, show me my heart, show me what parts or what,

what agreements I've made with my own inner , intellect to say that this is.

that this is

So that we would, we would begin to explore not only what is true, and

there'll be plenty of things that you can take away that are true and how

they affected you, but sometimes, how everybody, you probably have heard

all you listeners, and we have two, describing inner healing and our

journey in life is like an onion.

And that there's layers and layers and layers until you get to the core.

And that's very true.

So, this isn't, again, it's not a one and done.

Right.

we wanna always be really clear here that this isn't unto some mountain thing where

you're gonna be a monastic kind of person and go to a monastery and sit alone.

None.

None of us have time.

Ain't got no time for that.

Mamas

right,

So we want to always be talking about that.

This is in light of today.

This is in light of that God is near today, and there are the smallest

and most beautiful steps that you can take that will invite him into today

as you're writing your story today.

that's so good because I think a lot of us are like,

oh, we can't change our story.

Like, I mean, some of us have no matter what.

Our story is, we've all experienced trauma, right?

Like we've said so much of the time, perception is reality.

So whatever we perceive to be pain and trauma, our body then

responds to that and says, oh, that was pain and that was trauma.

So we've all experienced it.

Nobody is exempt from pain and trauma in this life, and we've all experienced

it in whatever degrees that is.

When we look back on our storyline, we can't change.

Actual facts that have happened.

But I love that story about the wolf is like, but we can begin

to change the narrative and to begin to see with different eyes.

It doesn't change the facts, but it changes our posture.

It changes.

Oh, right.

Like what does the Lord say about that?

what does Lord say about me?

What was happening in that situation that was painful and that I can grieve it.

What did I take away from that to try to protect myself and what is

the Lord saying is what's true?

So I just think that's,

Yes.

everything.

Yeah.

And, you know I was thinking as you were saying that, that there's so many things

that we have in common in humanity.

One is suffering and trauma and , it's a foregone conclusion.

We'll tell you reasons along the way, why we believe this is true,

that no one is exempt from pain or.

and for most all of us, it becomes what we would call maybe a trauma one incident,

or we could have, you know, trauma threes.

I really don't know what they are in medical terms, but I know

they sort of categorize them physically when someone walks in..

The door of an emergency room.

So, what we're talking about is kind of this idea of triaging.

Let's take a look at our own souls and maybe decisions we've even made about God.

Totally erroneous and don't have anything to do with what he has

proclaimed he has in mind for us and who he is, and even who we are.

So in that vein, I wanna say that I think another thing that we can relate to in the

story is, like this story about the wolves again, is that, we're leading up to,

there's gonna be a climax in that story.

There's a point.

There's something that we can feel is coming in that tiny little folk

tale, , of this grandfather and his son, and we're waiting for it, right?

many, many of us in any different type of parts of our lives have had

a moment when I guess we all sort of refer to it as this aha moment.

Like you didn't even see that.

You didn't even notice it.

You didn't even consider that in the philosophy of your head or your.

heart

then in a moment it's like as if you were blind and now you see

this thing that you didn't see before.

It can be about yourself, about someone else, about God.

about your narrative and even just a story, a book that you're

reading and something comes out that you didn't expect.

Where we have these moments because we're so curious and we're delving

the way God has created us is to delve and see these things.

So I, I wanna just support the idea for all of you and for ourselves

is that, we can have paradigm.

we can change.

I'm gonna give a couple quick examples of that.

When I was like 16 ish I read a book called Johnny j o n I.

and she's a gal who was, you know, she was probably 5, 6, 7 years older than me when

she's writing the story in her twenties.

But when you're, when you're 17, you really look up to

people in their twenties.

You think they have all the wisdom in the world and they're the coolest.

So I read this book and it was about a young girl who had dove and

she broke her neck and she became a quadriplegic from the neck down.

And many of you have heard of her, but she had a huge impact in my.

in my

It just,, it added a storyline that I had no language for.

I had no grid for, no one had ever talked to me about suffering and where

God is in the midst of suffering.

I had already suffered quite a bit.

So the fact that there was no nothing, no, no one to add to that

storyline or the lack of the storyline.

Reading her story was like a mile marker.

It cemented something.

Now we can see the positive and the dangerous part of that,

particularly today, right?

Where we can just jump into a stream that is so dangerous.

This is where we're talking about feeding your souls like

the wolves, feeding the part of.

That is hungry for what is beautiful and lovely and good, and I think

God put that in me because I was desperate for him at a young age.

But it definitely.

branded me with something I would not only need desperately, but I

was called to share with others.

Another one is called Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

And I read it in my early twenties, you know, maybe 5, 6, 7 years from that.

And there, there were seven different principles and

one of those principles that really sticks out to.

Was to begin with the end in mind.

That so played a part of changing the value of living out, of being an eternal.

an

Then living like everyone else around me.

Okay, so we're talking about two books, and that had all kinds of influence on me.

That was just by reading two things that were full of wisdom

and beauty and wonderful things.

That's just tiny, tiny drops in the bucket.

But just so that you can be encourag.

That God really, and I'm not saying he uses evil for good,

but he can turn evil into good.

And by his prerogative.

We're not to choose evil saying we hope that good will come.

But overall, just that there are multitudes of way that your narrative

and your lens can change by things all around you so you don't have to.

Like there's some complex system that you have to go through or, or some

great learning you have to achieve, or your circumstances must change because

this would be impossible for you.

It is for all of us to enter in to having our hearts and our minds transformed

and into God's hearts and minds, and it's available to every one of us.

I started to preach there.

I'll pull back.

No, I totally concur.

Yeah, I mean, That totally brings us into when we, when we share our

stories like what you were saying, somebody was sharing their story and.

We can so glean and benefit when we hear other people's stories,

but also how important it is that we are feeding on and gleaning and looking at

stories that are gonna be life giving and inspiring and encouraging because

stories are so powerful in every form.

Right.

I like how you mentioned art, music, dance obviously just

someone telling their story a book,

so it is so power.

We need to be careful to protect our hearts and our minds against just

continual bombardment of stories that would just feed into, maybe a, like a more

skewed, darker narrative in our thoughts.

wow.

Yeah.

That's a heavy and a weighty thing when, , we all consider what we're

digesting, even just by that small child.

It's just passing by our attention that it's just being modeled all around

us in words and in all kinds of ways.

So, yeah, , that's, that's for sure.

Unto the story.

I guess again, the idea is, okay, it's, we're we're saying it has

value, so what, what is the value?

We're, we're definitely naming some of those things, and I would say that

particularly being invited in now to not just know your story and, and be

healed from parts of your story that you've wanted to block out or just

don't feel like you have any capacity.

Maybe some of you.

Don't, you know that there's such gaps and you know that you have memory and

you can't, again, I just, I wanna say at this point that this isn't about

so much doing it in such a linear way, and you have to know every part of the

story that it becomes this big project.

This is more something that God is inviting us into to invite him into.

He's saying invite.

I come in the door and knock, I wanna just have a meal with you.

Let's have lunch together at a table and eat, you know, serve me

some coffee and let's just chat.

And so I want you to begin to consider that God, at the end of

the day, he's this good father who just longs to give you what he.

what he has,

Because isn't that what we long to give our children?

I want them to know how much I'm for them.

I want them to know how much I love them, but I, I don't want them to just be

entitled and bratty and unkind and steal things and we can name a million things

our kids have done or thought or felt we, that, that breaks our heart, right?

Because we know that there'll be no life for them in those things.

We know that they won't come to the fullness.

Of what God destined them for, which is to be like him, and that there's

only real joy found in giving our lives away instead of hoarding everything

for ourselves, which is what we see in children all day long, don't we?

And we get frustrated.

But I would say just imagine how much greater God is in the center

of your story, in the center of his desire, that your whole life

would become a living testimony to.

, that verse we quoted from revelation that basically we, everything we have is

what we're taking with us is the blood of the lamb and our own testimony

and how we've been impacted by his story, how our story has been impacted.

And so God's goal is that in this whole process, which again, when we

are talking about our story, we're also mostly talking about this is our life.

This is our.

Our life story, we're living it.

We will continue to love it.

And that's, that's will be what defines us in part by who we were

and, and what happened to us and, and what we learned along this way.

But all of it is unto this thing of being changed, being transformed., so we believe

that this is a very big part of you being changed so that you can be whole.

So that peace and.

can become a part of who you are and you can impact others around

you with how you're being changed.

Yes.

That's good.

So as we, as we begin to kind of wrap up, what, what do you feel

like are some, some takeaways?

Our listeners as far as, okay, what parts of my story, have, I seen, I've seen the

events happening, but my interpretation is not aligned with truth and it's a.

Affected large portions of my life in my decisions.

So what would you say?

Just some, some takeaways of how can we begin to do that?

Today we've talked about we can shift our thinking, we can turn away we can

change our past, but we can begin to change our narrative and that will

completely shift our decisions and begin.

And letting that wolf win, the, the one that's filled with kindness

and humility and self-control.

So yeah.

What would you say is some just takeaways of, of things we can

do today as we walk that out?

Yeah, we can just start with that same story, the wolves.

You know, the idea is that we're all feeding on something.

We're all feeding on something.

I think the trick today is to be intentional about what we're feeding on.

How when, when you have that awareness about, man, I've been eating too many

Big Macs, let's say, that would've been me in my twenties and thirties.

yeah, , yeah.

It's not good.

But baby steps are, are they accumulate?

And that's the whole idea in the gospel of God that there's this cumulative effect.

So I would.

Take a, take an inventory, you know, what am I feeding on?

Take an inventory.

That's something I tell people.

Start with yourself, not anybody else, not your husband

and, not your children.

But just start with yourself because the truth is, it's the

only one that you have power over.

So that's a, that's good news.

That's a wonderful, wonderful understanding is that you have complete

invitation to basically be transformed.

So I would.

Start with yourself by maybe taking an inventory.

What are the parts that are so anxious, so fearful, so angry?

Why am I being triggered in all these areas?

and I would say, then the next part is, what am I giving myself

to every day, day in and day out?

Take an inventory.

This has to be intentional.

It doesn't come through you meditating and ohming.

I, I don't own.

, but I'm just just to clarify, but yeah.

But, so I think the intentionality, right?

And and I think,, so yes, to start with you and to basically

being intentional and it with you.

So there's an intentionality and it's about you, and it's about then

looking that what am I feeding on?

And then saying, God, I no wonder I, I smell, I haven't

had a shower in seven days.

So, , the idea is we can begin to take stock of, of that.

And so I, I mean, I continue to say these first steps, but, and if you do begin to

write your story down again, I say bullet.

just the bullet points.

And if you see big gaps, God, what?

Help me.

Remember, ask him, invite him and invite him and invite him and invite

him in to your time of reflection.

He can do what nobody else can do.

And then fourthly, I'm always saying, there's, there's a

million people around you.

Somebody's ahead of.

Yeah.

is ahead of you.

Take notice.

Watch them.

Why do they always seem this way?

If you don't know them, you know you can invite them for coffee, but be proactive.

Building a few relationships, just a few to begin to be somebody

that you trust to process with.

Are they farther ahead in the.

In the narrow path, are there things they've learned that

I could learn from them?

Or is there someone also in that group that's learning like me?

So all of this is just about being intentional.

It's not hard, it's simple, and it just takes your decision to say,

yes, God, I, I'm gonna accept your invitation into this sacred space of

becoming like you and being changed.

I.

It's not complex, it's just a matter of intentionality.

yes,

Mary

That's, that's all I got.

Oh, no, that's so good.

I think we did this a couple weeks ago, but yes..

can we do maybe just a prayer over over our listeners?

I know that when we, we've been talking about our foundations and what that

looks like in body, soul, and spirit, and just really asking the Lord to enter in.

But this week we're talking specifically about our stories.

And so I think of course, that's going to trigger some people

because our stories are painful.

And like we said, there's no way to get around the pain.

And like we've talked about in previous episodes, you cannot bypass.

The pain, you have to acknowledge it and look at it to be able to not

sit in it, but to move forward into

Go through.

Yes.

Right, right.

So so yeah, I, I know that is gonna be, you know, painful for some of us,

even just looking at it with the Lord.

So, yeah.

Just, just a prayer as we,, maybe a few of us Yeah.

Take some steps to look at that, this.

I think

I prayed last time.

So why don't you pray this time?

I can say a quick prayer and then you can finish us with her prayer.

Oh, Jesus.

Yes.

Holy Spirit.

We just, we need you so much, Lord, and we do just invite you in to every,

every aspect of our lives, Jesus and every part of our storyline, Lord, we.

Admit, Lord, that there are places in our lives Jesus, where we've maybe

interpreted it wrong and it's affected our choices, and it's affected the way that

we view people and relationships, Lord.

And we say that you are the only one that can come to those places

and give us different glasses to.

See it differently, Jesus.

Not that we would see the events as different, but we would see what's

true, that you were faithful there, Lord God, that you are always been

faithful and you've always been, and you always will be Jesus.

So I ask Holy Spirit, that you would come and speak truth.

To our hearts, Jesus and you.

You are not a God that wants to just put heavy things on us, Lord, that you would

just illuminate even just one portion of our story that you wanna highlight.

Maybe not all of it.

We maybe cannot handle all of that, but maybe just one.

One moment of one day of our story, Jesus, that you wanna highlight.

God, we just asked Holy Spirit, that you would begin to do

that in our hearts, Jesus.

And that we would've a heart to receive God and to humble ourselves

to go low and say, Lord, show me.

Show me where I'm off God, and fill me with what's true.

Yes, Lord.

And I, I just so agree, and God was just touched by your spirit to just

also agree with Mary and Lord, that you would definitely take away the lies

of the enemy and narratives that would cause people to feel that are listening,

such an overwhelm feeling in going back and looking, God, would you just.

Remind them even now, before they go into these places.

God, that one moment is something that, Lord, you may highlight for days

or a year, Lord, that this is not a rush and that you are not requiring

of them to look at everything at once.

God, we would be crushed and you know that, and you're merciful

and all of this is on to life.

God, this is your motive.

Is love and a pure heart and that we would be changed by sitting with you.

So, Lord, I just pray for these women who choose to sit with you, God, that

you would give them courage just in the first smallest baby step, and God that you

would bring comfort and peace and hope.

Yes.

we just, we just pray, Lord, for there to be the,

ability, God, the capacity, God, to even be willing to

say, God, I'm going to do this.

I'm going to take this first step next month, next week, this Saturday morning.

But God, they'll begin by just agreeing with your Holy Spirit in them that

there is something that they need to go back and invite you into.

So, Lord, we just pray God, that you would bring your, and your peace and

your grace to everyone who's listening today, God, we pray a blessing over

them and their hunger for you that you would increase their hunger.

And Lord, we pray protection over their children and their

husbands and their families.

God, we just pray, Lord, that you would just come into all of the

spaces of our lives and we bless you, Jesus, because you are worthy of it.

Thank you, Lord, that you hear us and you see us together.

Even all of us on this day, God, you see us and know us,

and we just say thank you Jesus.

Thank you for your nearness.

We love you God.

Amen.

Thank you so much again for tuning in to the More Than Enough podcast.

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