Dawn Damon: Hey, all you amazing, beautiful, and bravehearted women. So awesome to have you joining me once again!

Today we're going to talk about things that really will resonate with you because my guest is an author, a speaker, a certified professional life coach, Bible teacher. Yeah, she's no joke. She's a ministry leader in her church. She says, “Although I wear many hats, my heart finds fulfillment in a variety of ways,” but specifically she's dedicated to her mission to support women who find themselves stuck. And if that's you, and that's your sister, call somebody right now and say, you got to listen to the bravehearted woman today, because my guest Tracy Glass is with us.

Welcome Tracy!

Tracy Glass: Thank you so much, Dawn. I'm so excited about being on the bravehearted podcast. Yes, your audience.

Dawn Damon: Thank you for joining us. We are brave. We like to do brave things, but mostly, you know, we figure that being a midlife woman takes courage and bravery to show up every day, your best, and say, I'm not going to quit on my dreams. I'm not going to quit on what God's called me to. I'm the leading lady of my show. I have to stay center stage. I'm not going to get off to the side and say, Oh, somebody else's turn. So you are on a dedicated mission to find women who are stuck and help them get motivated. Tell us a little bit about yourself and what's the work that you do. Well, thank you.

Tracy Glass: Oh, wow. A little bit about myself. Where do I even start? Because at times there are many versions of me. Yes. I'll start with the version of who I am right now. Good. Just on a journey as a midlife woman. And that's what I love about your podcast and your book. It speaks to the unique situations that we deal with.

Dawn Damon: Yeah. Listen, I gotta interrupt you. Like, you look amazing. You look beautiful. You just got married. I'm a little bit ahead of you. I'm 62 and I got married 12 years ago, but in the second half of life, we should just talk about what love is like when you get to your sixties. Come on now. 'cause it's a whole thing, but keep going.

Tracy Glass: Hey, and so I say that because I'm really in transition right now, it's a phase of life where I was single after being married for 24 years, I went through a divorce and I was single for about eight years. Now I am remarried and learning some new things about myself and being married in midlife and in my sixties. So I'm in a transition phase. It's going well. So we make one year on the 15th. Um, and we're going away and celebrating that also something about me that I really love. I have a new grandbaby. His name is Quincy. He is the smartest baby in the world.

Dawn Damon: Says every grandma on the planet.

Tracy Glass: My daughter told me the other day that she was taking him to his first dental appointment. He's two, and you know, he rides backward in his car seat, but she was passing my exit. And he calls me Mimi, and he calls my husband Joe. His name is Joe. And he said, Mimi Joe's house. And I thought, how did he know that?

Riding backward in the car seat. That's why I said he's the smartest baby in the world. But yeah, he's the love of my life. I'm a life coach and I love coaching women. I love doing group coaching. I love gathering groups together of women who are resetting in some way, rebuilding their lives, holding hope for them, and holding their hand and giving them a step-by-step process as they move along, whether that be emotionally, spiritually, or relationally, I just get so much joy. I love it. I do that because I feel like that is what God has called me to do in life and I get to do it and I have to do that. Other things about me, what do I do? I write. Yeah, I'm in the process of publishing a third book and that will be coming out this year. It is a book specifically for women who have walked through separation and divorce. It's a 30-day devotional. for those women.

Dawn Damon: Wow. I have to just say that is going to be so powerful. Now you and I share a story because I too went through the divorce and you know, for a Christian woman to go through a divorce, you've kind of feel like you're wearing the big D on your chest and that you're, Yeah, right. Yeah. I guess maybe that's a better place, right? And you just feel like everybody's looking at you, whether that's your perception or whether that's because we know that there's a lot of religiosity that come at you, that a book like that is going to be so powerful. I'm sure coming from your own experience, but don't women come to you that have gone through it now or in it and say, Hey, help me show me the way.

Tracy Glass: I recently started a separation and divorce recovery group for women. And we meet twice a month. Our goal is really to move forward. We're not talking really about our divorce stories or anything, but we're talking about who we are as women, and how God has created us. And even amid the challenges, how he still loves us and wants to help us move forward and what that new plan in life looks like. So it's probably one of my favorite groups right now that I'm leading is the divorce and recovery group.

Dawn Damon: That's awesome. So let me ask you a couple of questions because I know that you talk a lot about God's redemptive plan and you love inspiring women, equipping them. How was God's redemptive plan at work for you?

Tell us how you met your husband. Well, tell me about, your belief in God's redemptive plan. Some people think it's just, Hey, whatever, whatever. But you're telling me that God's had a thread all the way through your life, redeeming the hard places. Tell me about that.

Tracy Glass: Wow, that is such a great question because where my mind just went, Dawn is his hand over my life since It's probably five years old., I have stories where I can go back and say, wow, God was covering me there and he was protecting me here. And it's been amazing. I grew up in the church. My grandmother was a powerful woman of God and she made some brave decisions when she was in her fifties. She decided to leave the traditional church that she was brought up in and go to a wild and crazy Pentecostal church. Yeah. And she raised us in that environment, in an environment of believing in Jesus. God's redemptive plan for our life, praying, decreeing, declaring God's blessings on ours, all of our life. And so I grew up with roots of deep faith and belief that with God, all things are possible. You know, in my teenage years, I didn't always, I wasn't saved.

I'll just be honest. Questions things and decisions that I made that I have to really go back and look at. What were you thinking about when you did that one? Or were you thinking? But I would say that God really got a hold of me. When I was about 24 years old. And he really changed me. And I had to make a decision. Okay. Am I going to be all in, or am I just going to play church? Because I was raised in church. I knew how to play church. That's not what I wanted to do. And so at about age 24, I really made a decision that I'm going to be 100 percent sold out. And even when I went through the divorce journey, it was at that phase, Dawn, that I had to ask the Lord, I need to know that you're real circumstances. I know you're real. I know you redeem. I know you can restore and rebuild, but I need to really see that in action in my own life. And God was faithful. He did some amazing things. Time there were just miracles, I believe, as I walked through the process.

Today, 10 years later, I look back and I say, how, you know, I never thought that he could rebuild a broken heart. I never thought that he could take away the pain of rejection, abandonment, betrayal, all the list of things that go on when you walk through a broken relationship. But I'm here to say, yes, he did. And what it required me to do was to, again, be all in. It seems like that's been the pattern of my life. It's like, Hey, Tracy, I want you all in. I want a hundred percent of you. So I really pressed in during that season of challenge during my life. And God met me. He showed up and showed himself real.

Dawn Damon: Yeah, man, God will do that. And, you know, just as you were saying those words, I could feel the pain too, because having gone through it as well, abandonment, betrayal, brokenheartedness, the rejection. You know, sometimes when I talk about divorce, I think about it as being the one left because I felt so abandoned. I was so angry. And, you But I've discovered since then divorce is really painful, even if you're the initiator of it, because no one gets married thinking that's going to end in divorce. No one wants to see the brokenness of a relationship. Do you think if someone even initiated the divorce, there are a lot of women who walk around with guilt? They all hear a podcast like this and they'll say, uh, you were left. And did I do that to my spouse? Can God's redemptive plan be God faithful? Like, even if we feel like we're the ones who made the mess, we did this thing, or maybe you didn't make the mess, but maybe you had just circumstances in a marriage that just were not able to be healed.

Tracy Glass: Right. Absolutely. He doesn't really care. I don't think he cares what happens. I think that he's all about the restoration of the relationship between us and him. That is what he's concerned about. He doesn't care who initiated it. And I think we can all do that. What happened, but we can come to him and be repentant right? And just say, Hey God, I messed it up. I made a mistake. And the Bible says that he's faithful and just to forgive us. And he doesn't want us to carry all of the guilt and shame of our mistakes and that's a trap. That's the trap, right? That tries to keep us bound and thinking, Oh, I should have never done that. Or if I would have done it this way, or maybe I should have made that decision. And we beat ourselves over the head because of mistakes and not just divorce, but it could be anything that we're going through. But Jesus came to set us free. I think that we need to walk in that freedom. We hold ourselves, our heads up, be brave, and know that we don't have to walk in guilt and shame anymore because Jesus came to set us free. That's the hope that we have.

Dawn Damon: Yeah, because you talk about how life just has these twists and these turns, and you and I've lived enough life to know that there are many, many iterations of us, many reinventions of ourselves where like, even the beginning, you said, Oh gosh, who am I now in this season of my life? And it isn't that the core of us keeps changing. It's just that God brings us through different seasons and different times. And. We find that we have different gifts and different seeds that didn't bloom back there, but they're meant to be blooming right now. So for whoever's listening, God's not done with you, regardless of where you are or what you've been through. How do you teach women to unleash their potential?

Tracy Glass: You get them unstuck. I feel like you just did some of that just now, but that's probably my favorite thing to talk about. Is getting unstuck in life. I think it really starts Dawn recognizing that we are stuck. Yeah. Because I think a lot of times we don't see certain mindsets and behaviors and cycles in our lives as being stuck.

Dawn Damon: Getting unstuck starts with recognizing that you are stuck. That takes some honest reflection and the ability to admit, okay, girl, you're straight up stuck right here. I got stuck in unforgiveness. Keep going. I love what you're saying.

Tracy Glass: One way that we can recognize that we're stuck is that we're not moving forward in life. You know, I was reading this morning in my devotion time, Genesis 1 27, where God was saying that he made man. And he wanted us to have dominion and to be fruitful and multiply. I meditated on that. And I said, you know, this is what God has blessed each of us with. And we can know that we're stuck when we can look at our life and say, you know what? I don't feel blessed. I'm not blessed. I'm not being fruitful. I'm not multiplying. And I'm not taking dominion over my life and my circumstances. So that's a sign right there that digitally be stuck. Another way that we can be stuck. I think as a woman in comparison, I think nice. Our God created uniqueness that what God has for Tracy is different than what he has for Dawn. And oftentimes we compare ourselves with, Oh, look, let's see what Dawn is doing. Let's see what Tracy is doing. We have our phone and we're just flipping through everybody else's highlight reels and we're not getting our own highlight reels. And so we can be stuck that way. So I love talking to women about it. What is unique about you, let's tap into that and discover how God would want you to use your unique giftings and callings for his glory, but also for you to create your best life, because he's given us those gifts for all those reasons to help others to promote kingdom and for us to fulfilled in life.

Dawn Damon: Yeah. So you have a book called Get Up, Girl, Let's Go; Getting Unstuck and Living Free. In fact, that book won you the Golden Scroll Christian Living Book of the Year. Congratulations. Is that what you talk about in Get Up Girl? Let's go.

Tracy Glass: It's about getting unstuck and chapter one talks about how we are stuck. Actually, the assessment in chapter one and it's 21 questions. We'll help you determine where you might be stuck in life. So we kind of start there. And then as we go into chapter two, We go back to childhood. We still looking at it. Were there any events in my childhood? that have me stuck later in life. We start uncovering some things. We don't stay there long, but again, it's all for awareness. It's like, Oh, I didn't know that time that my teacher said this to me. Now that is the reason why I think this of myself, I had one woman who went through my course, my 12-week course. She mentioned a similar story, how she grew up when teachers were allowed to tap you on the hand. There was a situation that would happen at school continually where her teacher was always tapping her on the hand and letting her know. How bad she was, and she recognized, wow, that is a pattern mindset that I have been carrying and that is when it started. And so we go back to think of things like that.

Then in the next chapter, we talk about surrendering it because again, what we just talked about, we don't want to carry that guilt and shame. God hasn't called us to do that. So we talk about how do we begin to surrender these, um, stuck areas to the Lord.

Dawn Damon: So that's a little bit about the book. That's very good.

You know, it's interesting. I believe this with all my heart as well, that so many of those Issues that we have today. They're rooted in childhood. Of course, we know that we don't always understand that it creates programming the right belief systems, and then we don't live above the assessment that we have of ourselves, we get stuck, and we have to get those ceilings off of our lives. We've got to clip those roots that entangle us on our feet. We have to get those thoughts and beliefs out of our minds through the word of God and awareness, like you were just saying, and surrendering that, letting it go, because oftentimes we make friends with some of our limiting beliefs and some of their thoughts. And we're like, yeah, but who will I be? If I let go of this excuse, then what will I do?

Tracy Glass: You know what I call those thoughts? I call those thoughts, the community in our head, conversations with us, right? Over and over again to remind us how we're missing the mark. So, but you know, one thing that I want to encourage everybody with is one thing that has really helped me get unstuck was getting into the community with women.

I think oftentimes depending upon our past and things, We may have some beliefs about women in a community. We may either love women in gatherings or we're like, no, I don't do women. Right. So true. Right. But I believe that there's so much healing that can come forth when we're together in community. I experienced that in my own healing journey with just friends at church, coming around me, blessing me, reminding me of my purpose, and actually helping me get to my purpose. And so I just want to encourage people. Don't isolate. You know, if you feel like you're stuck, you're going through some major issues, whether that be fear and anxiety, depression, Don't isolate yourself. Come out and share it. You know, tell, begin telling people, Hey, I think I'm feeling this way so that people can love on you.

Dawn Damon: Yes, it's so important. And I know that if you're listening today, you might think, well, it's difficult for me to reach out, but you can text. That's an easy form of a reach-out.

On the other hand, Hey, woman of God, friend, brave heart. If you notice someone's missing, or if you have that inspiration or a whisper or a nudge act on that, because maybe it will just take. An invitation, a text from you, an invite to come and to join something to get somebody out of their place of pain, get them involved because very often when we're hurting. We don't reach out and we know that's the antidote. We know that's the thing that we need to do, but we don't do it. So if both of us, those that are stuck and those that are unstuck, if you'll reach for somebody and help them show the way, like that's what you're doing, you know, in the world today, they call it the Sherpa, you know, the, the person who will lead the way I've been through this terrain. I've walked this walk. I can walk with you. You're a valley walker saying, let me help you get to the other side.

Tracy Glass: That's my new name.

Dawn Damon: You're not a valley girl. You're a valley walker. What would you say in closing? It's been so great. I can't believe we've already been talking for 30 minutes here about it, I know it goes so fast.

So we've talked about a lot of things. We've talked about the pain of divorce or the pain of rejection and hurt and betrayal. Maybe you're not divorced, but maybe there's been infidelity and your broken heart doesn't mean you have to have a divorce, but we've talked about God's redemptive plan. We've talked about getting unstuck, all of that coming together. Last thoughts or comments, just take a moment and share, preach, and do what your grandma did. Take a minute.

That's what I want to do just encourage you to continually be brave. And you know, brave isn't necessarily that I figured it all out. Brave is I'm figuring it out as I go. I'm kicking fear to the curb and I am just holding God's hand as we travel along this journey that I'm on. So I hope all the women were encouraged.

Dawn Damon: Yes. It's so good.

Coach, speaker, entrepreneur, and Valley Walker, my guest today, Tracy Glass. Tracy, you have a course that people can get involved in women can join and a website. How can we reach you? And we'll make sure that we put all of that information

Tracy Glass: in the show notes. Absolutely. And I can send you the link to my course, but the good news and the bad news is the course is filled. But I am taking registration for the next course, which is where we go. In April. So I could definitely send you that link, but you can reach me at tracyhester.com. That is my maiden name. I'm in the process of revising things to my married name, or you can reach me on Facebook @iamtracyglass, and as well on Instagram. So I would love, you know, message me and we'd love to chat.

Dawn Damon: Beautiful. Thank you so much for being here.

Hey, y'all, I also want to invite you to my private Facebook group. If you are interested, it is courage, confidence, and mindset mastery for midlife. We'll have the link in there. It's private. It's elite, but it's for you.

This is Dawn Damon, your brave heart mentor. I'm going to leave you like I always do woman. Is it time for you to find your brave and live your dreams?