What does it look like to intentionally invest in the next generation—not simply by teaching them skills, but by helping them discover who God created them to be?

Christina Archer has spent more than 20 years coaching and mentoring young women through Northwest Silver Stars, the longest-standing all-star cheer gym in Washington State. But for Christina, coaching has never been just about athletic achievement. It's about shaping character, building confidence, teaching resilience, and helping young women understand their God-given worth.

In this conversation, Christina shares what she's learned from more than two decades of coaching and leading young women. She talks about the responsibility of being a role model, the influence coaches and mentors can have during formative years, and why young women need adults who are willing to see beyond their performance and speak truth into their identity.

Christina and Willow also talk about the unique pressures today's young women face—including social media, comparison, and the constant desire for affirmation—and how mentors can help them develop a stronger sense of who they are. Rather than simply telling young women what to believe, Christina believes in walking alongside them, getting into the mess with them, and modeling what it looks like to live out your faith.

You'll hear about the importance of surrounding the next generation with people who believe in them, challenging them to grow, and giving them opportunities to lead. Christina also shares what she's learned about leadership, boundaries, burnout, marriage, motherhood, and the challenge of pouring into others while continuing to care for yourself.

If you're a parent, coach, mentor, teacher, youth leader, or simply someone who wants to make a difference in the next generation, this conversation will inspire you to consider the influence you have—and the young women God may be asking you to invest in.

Meet Christina Archer

Christina Archer is the founder and owner of Northwest Silver Stars, the longest-standing all-star cheer gym in Washington State. A three-time Coach of the Year and Program of the Year recipient, Christina has dedicated more than two decades to coaching and mentoring young women.

But her influence goes far beyond competitive cheer. Christina sees each girl she coaches through the lens of who God created her to be, seeking to love, coach, challenge, and encourage her accordingly.

Christina and her husband, Derek, have built their life and ministry together while raising three daughters. She is passionate about leadership, discipleship, encouraging women, and helping the next generation recognize their God-given worth.

Key Takeaways

• When you're influencing the next generation: Remember that young people are watching how you live—not just listening to what you teach.
• When a young woman struggles with confidence: Help her see herself through the lens of who God created her to be rather than through performance or other people's opinions.
• When social media shapes how young women see themselves: Create spaces where they can experience genuine affirmation, community, and truth.
• When you're mentoring someone: Don't just tell them what to do. Walk alongside them, listen, challenge them, and model what you're teaching.
• When you're raising or leading future leaders: Give them opportunities to take responsibility, make decisions, learn from failure, and discover their own strengths.

How This Episode Will Encourage You

You don't have to have a formal leadership position to shape the next generation. Your words, your example, your encouragement, and your willingness to show up can have an impact that lasts far beyond the moment.

The question isn't simply, “How can I lead?” It's “Who is God putting in my life that I can help become the person He created them to be?”

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Welcome to the Collide Podcast. We're a growing community of everyday chicks colliding with Jesus in our mess, our pain, our joy, and our stories.

We value showing up as we truly are. So that's what you'll find here.

Walls and masks being torn down so that we can allow Jesus to meet us where we truly are and hear about other women doing the same. We can't wait to collide with you.

This is how I know that God called me to this, because when I look at these girls, I don't see them the way Christina Archer would see them. I truly see in each girl who God has created them to be. And I just coach them accordingly and love them accordingly and teach them accordingly.

And I mean, I mess up all the time, but I just think they're amazing and that God has this great story for them.

Welcome to the Collide Podcast. I'm Willow Weston, the founder and director of Collide, and I'm super excited today to have Christina Archer on the podcast.

Christina is a friend of mine. She is a woman who lives in the same city as I do and I admire her leadership very much.

She's the founder and owner of Northwest Silver Stars, which is a cheer gym, and she will talk more about that, but it's the longest standing all star gym in Washington State. Christina has won coach of the year three times as well as program of the year.

Her gym impacts young women in incredible ways, which we're going to talk about today. She's been happily married to Derek for almost 18 years and they have three amazing daughters and two adorable beagles, which is so cute.

And I am beyond excited to have a conversation with her because she's inspiring and strong and she's wise and she's a leader and she's a woman who has said yes to God's call on her life to change lives. And so we're going to learn from her today. Christina, thank you for hanging out.

Thanks for having me.

It's. It's fun to have you. And, and before we even hopped on here, we've, we've been laughing and having a good time.

But I want to start by having you invite all of us into sort of rewinding back to how did you come to start your own gym?

I grew up in North Carolina and I was a cheerleader there. And then through some different circumstances, I ended up teaching cheer camps all over the country and I was in college and my life.

My last cheer camp of the season was in Ferndale, Washington, and I was out here for Four days, and my life was radically changed. I was a very new believer. And for the first time ever, I felt that I heard something from the Lord and that he called me to move here.

And so I went home and I told my mom, I'm moving to Washington. And she laughed at me. And then a few months later, I moved to Washington. So here I am in Washington. I have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing.

And I. You know, I knew that I was supposed to be into ministry because of how radically my life had been changed.

I felt like the miracles that had happened to me happened for a reason.

And so I plugged in at a local church, Christ the King, and I assumed that I was going to be working in college ministry because that's when my life changed. So I figured that's what God was calling me to. And through that, I started talking with different people.

And my cheerleading life just kept coming up. And a few months later, I applied at one of the local high schools to coach, and I ended up coaching at Meridian High School.

Soon after, I was asked to coach at another high school simultaneously, which was unheard of.

So here I am coaching at different high schools, going to different camps, meeting all of these young ladies, sharing about my passion for cheer, talking about my passion for Jesus. And I just thought, you know, what if we put them all together in one place, and I wouldn't have the limits of separation of church and state.

I'd be able to share my life with them, my love for Jesus with them. I could teach them the sport I'm passionate about. And I was dating Derek at the time, and we sat.

He had no idea what an all star cheerleading gym was. Most people in Washington probably don't. And we sat down, we drew it out on a napkin, and we. We started it. And 21 years later, we're still here. So.

Wow. I have so many questions I want to ask you about this. We'll rewind back to.

You know, you said you had this experience where it was almost like the first time ever where you felt like you heard or sensed God telling you to do something. Do you remember what that was like or how that played?

I remember very clearly. I. I was a new Christian. I had grown up knowing about church.

I grew up in the Bible Belt, so obviously a lot of people talked about Jesus and about their faith. And I became a Christian in college.

And that was what I mean by that, is that's the first time I understood that Jesus wanted a personal relationship with me. And I submitted my life to him. So I. I wanted to then follow him.

When I came out here, things were, you know, circumstances just weren't fitting together in North Carolina the way that I thought that they should, or the plans that I have are being changed. I know now that God was changing those plans. But I was out here, like I said, I was out here for four days, and I was teaching a cheer camp.

And the last day of cheer camp, we went to Larrabee park, which is by the water, and we just got a few minutes after camp to go down and just kind of wander. And I went down by the water and, you know, I said, I'm. I'm always by the Atlantic Ocean. I'm going to go touch the Pacific Ocean.

I touched it and I felt like the.

What other people refer to as, like, the feeling of the Holy Spirit and this, like, peace that washed over me that had been talked about around me a lot, being in the Bible Belt, but I never experienced it. And in that moment when I said, I'm going to move here, I felt a physical just, I don't know, exhale, just a peace come over me.

And I was like, I. I'm. This is the Lord. That was confirmation. And I. I packed up and went home for my trip. And I. I told my mom, I said, I'm. I'm doing it.

I think I'm supposed to do this. And everything fell into place. Miraculously, everything fell into place after that. That could take up the whole podcast,.

But, well, you know, so many people are hopping in their car right now, driving to the Pacific Ocean. So you went back home and this was received well. Your parents weren't know, like, they weren't begging you to stay. What was. What was that like?

My mom, she did definitely laugh at me. She did not think this was going to happen, but she knew I'm. I'm the baby of the family. It was my mom, my sister, and I growing up, and I'm.

I'm the most stubborn of all three of us. So she knew that when I put my mind to something, that it was going to happen.

And I think at that point in our relationship, she was choosing to not argue with me or try to influence too much. We were. Our relationship was a little tense in those years, and.

So there were definitely challenges along the way, but God just provided every. Every which way.

It's so interesting to me because you had this spiritual experience, and it actually resonated with you, not just in your mind and your heart, but you had this kind of almost like physical experience, and. And you went home and you shared this big move, and it was, in a sense, received well.

You were sent off, and even through a snowstorm, you show up in this town, all kind of across the country, and opportunity after opportunity are open for you, and you began to see how God is using you in the cheer world. So you decide you kind of want to merge both worlds, both your gift and passion for cheer with your love for Jesus and young people knowing him.

And so you said that you sat down with Derek and you guys planned out the business on a napkin. Take us back to that moment where you're dreaming something into existence that does not yet exist.

There were a few cheer gyms in North Carolina that existed that I had always looked up to. And he. Again, he had no frame of reference for what a cheer gym was. So I tried to show him pictures online and what it would be.

And we sat down and I talked about. He just asked me questions similar to what you're doing and asked me what I saw in my mind, like what my vision was. And I said, you know, I want.

I want an older team of senior girls, and I wanted to do this all by color.

So they were going to be the white squad, and then I wanted a younger team that the older girls got to help coach, and they were going to be the starlets and all of these different things. And we wrote it all out, and it just took form. It was. It's pretty incredible. And all of those things came to happen.

So, oh, my gosh, I resonate with that so much in the way that God has formed and unfolded the collide story.

But, you know, I talked to so many women who have passion and sense this desire to be purposed and even have some sort of big ideas that reside within their heart. But it's so hard to give yourself permission to have vision for something that does not yet exist.

And I love that you were brave enough and willing enough and that you have a life partner to encourage you to lean into that. I mean, I think about Hebrews and how, you know, the definition of faith is being sure of what you hope for and certain of what you do not see.

And you leaned into something that you currently didn't see. But you believed upon God that it could actually become a reality. What's your advice for other people to have those napkin moments?

Well, I think you definitely touched on a big part of it. Derek is a risk taker and I am not. Although it sounds. My story sounds like I'm a risk taker, I'm really not.

But there were moments that it didn't seem like a risk. It was so clearly what God was doing, which is the most comforting stability that I could ever ask for. And so he. He just, He's a visionary.

Like, he understood and he knew how to ask those questions.

So I think finding somebody that is different than you in order to ask the questions, that would be outside of your box a little bit, if that makes sense. And, and honestly, not being afraid to go outside the box, if it's God's box, I mean, it's.

He.

Growing up the way that I did, I had a very unstable childhood. So obviously stability and comfort are high values of mine. And nothing about start something new screams stability or comfort. So, so true. So.

So knowing that it was God's call, that he was paving the way for this made it a lot easier for me to take those steps of faith. Because to me, they didn't seem like steps of faith, they were just steps forward. Because it, it was God's plan, it was God's journey.

But I do think having the right people around you, and I think also a big, A big part for me at that time in my life was having a firm grasp of who I was in Christ. It helped me to know his voice in my life over my own, if that makes sense. One of my favorite verses is in Peter. First Peter, I think.

Let me find it real quick. First Peter 2, 9. And it says, you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession.

And when those words, when I grasped onto them as a young adult, it changed the voices in my head. So all of the doubts, all of the fears, all of the insecurities kind of washed away at that time.

When I'm taking these huge steps of faith and those words, who he was, who he created me to be, kind of took over.

That's so very cool. I mean, you're talking about surrounding your life with, in a sense, I mean, it sounds like Derek was your cheerleader.

Like, in a great sense, he was a visionary for you and, and standing with you and having faith to believe that God could truly use you to pull this off. But also God had been doing a work in you.

It sounds like where, you know, insecurities and lies and previous beliefs and mindsets weren't going to get in the way of God calling you to, to risk and step out of certainty into this place of trusting he can do something beyond what you can imagine. I love that so much. And I know you have such a passion for cheer, and I'm wondering because there's so many questions I want to ask you.

But when we talk about the work you're doing at your gym with young people, I'm wondering first if you can help people who don't get cheerleading and cheerleading culture, if you can help them understand what happens in the life of a girl on a competitive cheer team, how does that experience shape her?

Well, competitive cheerleading is a lot different than sideline cheerleading, which most people are familiar with, you know, football cheerleaders or basketball cheerleaders. And they are, they're very athletic. Still, sideline cheerleaders are very athletic, but they're a supportive role for competitive cheerleading.

It is fully athletic in the sense that they are their own athlete. They are not supporting a different team. So they are working at the same pace as any other sport would be.

So training their bodies, training their minds, overcoming challenges, defying physics, literally, or working with physics to make it look like we're defying physics and things like that. So athletes, Competitive cheerleaders train 11 or 12 months a year. It's not a short season by any means.

And they're training gymnastics or the tumbling part of gymnastics, stunting jumps, dance formations, coordination, mental prep. They have a two and a half minute routine where it's usually about 47, eight counts in two and a half minutes.

So it's a very fast paced routine and they have to incorporate all of those skills. So it's very athletic, it's very demanding.

It's for the athletes in my gym especially, we have a high standard of athleticism, but we also have a very high standard of character. So these athletes are pushing themselves at school, at home, in the gym. And it's demanding and they all rise to it. It's pretty amazing.

I'm just truly believe that I have the best cheerleaders in the whole country. In our little Bellingham, Washington, the city of subdued excitement, doesn't really scream cheerleading, but I have the best ones.

What are some of your favorite things about doing this work and investing in young people?

My favorite thing, gosh, I love, love working with girls. I love working with teenage girls and younger girls. Because I was one, I am one.

I definitely see a lot of the mental gymnastics not even the physical gymnastics, but the mental gymnastics that young girls go through and how it carries on into their adulthood and how it can affect them if they don't get a handle on it.

So I love watching their growing up process and being able to, like, be a guardrail in there, to just kind of buffer them and help push them back into right thinking about themselves and about others. My. My biggest goal for them, I talk about all the time, is that I want them to live a life worthy of writing a book about. I think that teenagers are.

I think a lot of people sell them short, and mediocrity is a viable option for a lot of teenagers. But in our gym, we.

We demand excellence, we teach excellence, we hold them to a standard of excellence, but we really speak about the greatness God has created them for.

And I truly believe that God did not create us for mediocrity or the status quo, but that wants us to experience his best blessings, his, you know, more than we could ask for or imagine those kinds of blessings, and that is greatness. So we talk a lot with these girls about striving for that greatness and what that greatness could look like. I have a.

This is how I know that God called me to this. Because when I look at these girls, I don't see them the way Christina Archer would see them. I truly see in each girl who God has created them to be.

And I just coach them accordingly and love them accordingly and teach them accordingly. And, I mean, I mess up all the time, but I just think they're amazing and that God has this great story for them.

So that's my favorite things, because when you talk to these kids about that, they rise to it. The light just turns on in their eyes and they see a vision for their life that they might not have seen before.

And very, very rarely does it have anything to do with cheerleading, like their. Their future or their greatness. Cheerleading is just our vehicle that we use.

You know, so many young women could use a voice like yours in their life. I mean, I'm.

I have a teenager, a teenage girl, and I just think about all the teenage girls I know, and I love that you're calling them to greatness and you're reminding them that they're worthy of greatness. What. What do you think the enemies are of young women believing that?

Well, I think social media plays a big part right now in shaping who they think that they see themselves as.

Honestly, even when I was growing up, it wasn't even social media at that time, but I Feel like I was trying to be who others responded to or reacted to. So if I could get a response, a reaction, then that would, that would feed my insecurity. And I feel like that's the same thing today.

It's just with social media maybe it's not, you know, in the same ways that it was when we were growing up, but it's definitely out there. I feel like we want a response. Young ladies desire to have affirmation and love and adoration and effect. We want to affect somebody.

And I think when girls right now, it's so easy to find that with social media. How many likes am I getting? Who, you know, who liked it fast enough or all these different things?

It's, it's so funny, you know, the world of social media. So I think that that's what the enemy can use to distract us from finding that in God. And it wasn't until I was in college that it really made sense.

All of those needs and desires are valid. I want to be validated and affirmed in all of those things and noticed and loved.

Those are godly desires, but they're intended for God to meet those desires and we find it elsewhere.

So yeah, it's interesting because you know, social media, I mean the statistics are crazy on the anxiety and, and worry and suicidal ideations, all of this. I mean the statistics on what it's causing in young women is crazy.

But when you talk about us kind of yearning as young women for a response or a reaction or to be seen as great. The problem with social media is you're never, you're never great enough, you're never worthy enough, right?

Like you can have, you can post something and have a great day where you get 264 likes in the first 15 minutes. But then what happens the next day when you post and only 23 people see your post?

I mean that's kind of like this up and down thing where it's the live of social media where you're just never great enough. And I love that you're a voice in these kids lives where you're reminding them God has greatness for you, God loves you, God made you.

God's God gives you the opportunity to live a great story and, and you're, you're this inspiring voice in young people's lives. And I guess I'm kind of wondering where did that come from?

I mean, I know you're going to say God but, but I mean did God place someone in your life when you were young to be that same kind of Voice.

What a great question. Well, I think I lacked that voice in my life growing up and I yearned for it. I wanted leadership.

I wanted something to make sense and for someone to speak into my life that way and to maybe keep me from my journey through my sinful life and all my baggage. So I think at first it was a. I wanted to save others from the hardships that I had or that I had gone through.

But then, yes, I've had some amazing people along the way. Steve Mason, Dave Browning, Grant Fishbook. All my pastors at CTK were amazing, amazing voices in my life of just truth.

I've had different people that made significant impact, but they may not know that because it was a passing impact for them, but it was a life changing impact for me. I. I'm a truth person. I resonate with truth.

So somewhere in my 19, 20, 21 year old, 22 year old person, God just surrounded me with truth tellers that my soul just thrived on it. And I just, since then I've sought it out. Like I look for places that I can learn from that or people that can speak that to me.

Yeah, that's what I was going to ask you because you're such a chee cheerleader for other people and constantly encouraging other people. And I, I really wondered, like, where do you go for encouragement into your leading in your life?

And it sounds like you go to all of these spiritual leaders that God has placed in your life. Are there other places that you go?

That's a tough question because I'm kind of in that struggle right now where I'm really looking for the right places to go. Like I said, the city of subdued excitement. Cheerleading is not really. There's not a team of us really doing it.

I have an amazing staff, but at the end of the day, it's still my responsibility to carry it by myself. And Derek is amazing. He's such a great cheerleader. And there's nobody on this planet that believes in me more.

Maybe my mom, but still, it feels pretty dry out here as far as someone who can resonate with what I'm doing and why I'm doing it. So it can get pretty challenging and pretty lonely to feel like you're swimming upstream constantly by yourself. But I'm, you know, I'm trying.

I've been looking at Collide stuff over the last few years. I've really loved and been encouraged by your guys's ministry. I. I've been doing some zoom Bible studies with cheer coaches from around the country.

That's probably been the highlight of COVID for us is that a few of us around the country have gotten to be able to come together and do some Bible studies together. But yeah, we're still working on where I find my, my encouragement when, when things dry up a little bit.

Well, I, I totally resonate with that. Christina, I'm right there with you.

I think part of the loneliness that maybe someone like you or I feel sometimes is when you're a woman in leadership, it's a lonely world.

You know, I'll find myself in these conversations with like male pastors who, they're all getting together and talking about the woes of being male pastors. And then they're looking at me going, don't, don't you have a place where, where you can share the challenges of leadership? And, and it is hard.

It can be, it can feel like a barren land sometimes. So we, we need to. All us women leaders, we need to unite and, and talk about the challenges.

And I wanted to ask you because, probably because, because I am a founder and director of an organization, but you know, there's a lot of women listening who are leaders and who own businesses and who, you know, do have high responsibilities. And, and I'm wanting to ask you what are the challenges that you found that come along with being a boss lady?

I think probably my biggest challenge is balancing the needs of others with the needs of myself and my family. This is my 21st season with silver Stars. So during that time, I have a 16 year old, I have a 27 year old, I have a 13 year old, I have a husband.

And I have to correct. I think I said 18 years in my bio, but it's 19 years. So just.

Oh yeah, you gotta, you gotta count every single one of those things.

So it's been, it's been a real challenge. I mean, my, my children's whole life has been me in this gym and Derek in the church. So I think just balancing the needs.

There is always another task or always another crisis. And I never want to say no to something I know that I can help with or to one of my cheerleaders in crisis. I mean, who wants to say no, right?

So really trying to find that balance of not ending up giving so much of yourself that your, your family is suffering or your own personal, physical or mental health is suffering. I have, I do not have not found that balance very well yet. So we're still working on that.

We've definitely come to a couple seasons of burnout and trying to figure out the Right. The right formula to make sure that we can balance our family and the gym. Knowing.

And you know, we always get that extra whatever we need from God because we do know that as a family, that this, this gym is. Is his and it's his calling on my life. So that does help. But at the same time, that's.

That's probably been our greatest challenge, is knowing when to. When to have boundaries. And we talk about boundaries. We're very, We.

We can think about really good boundaries, but it's implementing those boundaries, I think.

Absolutely. But it's also, you know, you were talking about coming up with a good formula. And I don't know about you, but as a working mom, I often.

And find that as soon as you think you came up with a good formula, something shifts, right.

Like you have someone who leaves your staff or you have a kid who's sick, or you have this or that, you know, a family member who is ill, whatever it is, and then you're like, that formula no longer works. So I think it's a constant balancing act. Right. Like it's hard to find.

I. I wanted to ask you because I think this is a conversation that I don't hear a lot of people talking about and love to hear. As a woman who owns a business and as a mom of three and a wife who's been married for 19 years. And you're trying to find that balance.

How though do you think your daughters, because you have three daughters, how have they been shaped by watching you in action, watching you say yes to God's call, watching you make sacrifices, watching you write vision on a napkin and see that vision come true, watching you pour in and change lives. How do you think they're different? Because you're doing all of that.

You're making my heart smile a little bit. I have three very different daughters and I can see the influence that what my calling has been has had on their life.

Courtney, my, our oldest, our 27 year old, she. She came to us through the gym. We adopted her when she was 12 and she was one of our cheerleaders. And her, her family had.

Is going through some hard times and fell away for a while and we got to take her. And so that's picture of how our calling has shaped her life.

But even beyond that, even beyond the like, you know, salvation moment of that, but beyond that, to see the strong woman she has become, the leader she has become, especially from this young girl who was so scared to tell us what kind of jelly she wanted to this amazing leader at uw, who's leading her own departments and teaching classes and. And is just incredible. She's so amazing and strong and purposed and she's very organized, which just makes my mom heart very happy. She's wonderful.

So there's the Courtney part of it. Chloe is my little mini me. She's 16 and there's so much of me I see in her, but just her. I feel like she doesn't have any.

Any limits to how much she's willing to give to take care of something or to get a job done. And I feel like that's something that she's seen Derek and I do over the years in ministry.

You know, we will give up our margin or our Saturday afternoon to go help somebody or we will do all the planning that it takes in order for an event or something to be done. Well, we have high standards and that's so much.

I see that she's now a coach in my gym and I see her writing out her practice plans and doing the extra little things to make her students feel cared for and seen and thought of. So that's pretty incredible to see that, you know, just to see it so clearly. Like, she has watched us do this and now she's doing it.

And our youngest, Devin, is. This was probably my. She's so much like Derek, just visionary. She wants to do everything. She will take risks. She can man. The world is her oyster.

She just wants to do it all. And I want to say it was a few months ago, she has this idea. She wants to do build tiny homes.

She wants to start a ministry to build tiny homes for homeless people. So she's talking to Derek and I about it and she says, hang on.

And she runs and grabs a napkin and a pen and brings it over to the table so she can write it out on her napkin. And it was this moment. Derek and I just look, because they obviously know our story, our silver star story on the napkin.

And to see her want to have her own napkin story, her own storybook life, it was. It was a really beautiful moment.

So I love listening to you talk about this. As a mom who, you know, sometimes I just never feel like I'm winning in either world, right.

Like, I have one foot in my ministry work world and one foot in my own world. And. And it's a lot, right? Like, for sure, it's a lot to ever feel like I'm doing a great job in either place.

And, you know, I have other women and young women who are trying to make the decision on if they should stay home or they should work. And obviously I don't believe there's one answer fits all.

And all of us really need to seek the Lord for what he would have for our own individual lives. And. But for me, as someone who's actually done both, I was a stay at home mom for eight years and now I'm a working mom.

It's really cool to hear you talk about almost like these full circle moments you're experiencing where all the sacrifice and all the nights you were at the gym when you weren't at home and the times you probably, I mean, I, I don't want to put words in your mouth, but for myself, like I struggle with mom guilt when I am away and all the times that you've struggled with the balancing act or you have felt lonely as a leader, I. This call has really required a lot from you.

But I think we really need to give credit to the fact that you're modeling a yes to God's call on your life. And there is something so powerful about our daughter seeing us say yes to God's call on our own unique life.

And I love that you're kind of encapsulating that your, your daughters are going to be able to say yes to their unique calling on their life because they've seen you be brave and willing to do the same.

And I feel like we should talk more about that as moms, so that we're not kind of wallowing and swimming in like mom guilt for the, the yes we're saying, while also juggling wanting to invest and minister at home too. Do you know what I mean?

Yeah, I think, I think when my daughters say yes because I'm, I'm confident they will as well. I think they're going to be better prepared having watched Derek and I say yes, because Derek and I are very transparent.

I don't think we know how to hide our hardships and our feelings from our families. So they've seen the toll it has taken. They've seen the blessings, they've seen the victories, they've seen the failures.

They know how we feel about not being able to just be a spectator and supporter in their own lives. They know how we feel when we are burnt out or when we're hurt by somebody in ministry. They've seen it. And not in an unhealthy way.

I mean, we process it and close the loops with them. But I do feel like I want them to say yes, but I also want them to have the tools in order to say yes.

To be able to stand up against the hardships that come and have that fortitude so that they're not crumbled by the hard times that come from. From a life of ministry.

Absolutely. You know, I think if.

If you were to rewind back to that moment where you and Derek wrote out this vision for Northwest Silver Stars and it hadn't yet come to pass, it was just an idea, you know, you could have easily walked away from that moment and, you know, kept that napkin on your desk for a month or something and then ended up putting it in the garbage and, and got busy with life or doubted that it was possible, or looked at the long list of all the resources you'd need to pull it off.

Or you could have second guessed everything about you that makes you feel unworthy of pulling it out, and you could have done all of those things, but you didn't. And I guess what I want to ask you is, is when you think about the women listening today, who.

They're there, they have, they have a sense, they have a passion, they. They feel like there's more for them, but they're afraid to. To start dreaming for their life. What's your advice for them?

Some of the best advice I ever got was when the task seems so big, break it down into steps that you can take at least one step.

And there have been times where, whether it was this gym or usually the gym, something where it just feels so enormous that there's not a chance I can pull it off, or it's just going to take everything I have and I'm not going to have anything left, or I'm just really scared to do it it and to fail, I just take a step.

I also, like we talked about earlier, I have really worked hard to find the right people to surround myself with, not people who are like me, but honestly, most of them are the opposite of me. They have different gifting, different wiring, different perspectives, different histories, and together we form one really good Christina.

All of the things that they bring to me helps me be my best self. And I. I have wise counsel.

I look to, you know, my three best friends and my husband and I, I take all of the different perspectives and I seek wisdom. And so I think that, you know, if. If you have a dream or you have a vision, you know, putting it off doesn't change. Doesn't change the yearning.

It might just delay it. But I think, I think if you have a vision, go to your people.

Find the people that are the right people to help empower you and I think that that's so. Obviously, it's God, but God puts those people in our life. I feel like empowerment is such a strong word, and it means to give power. So if you're.

If you're wanting to do something that feels out of your ability, then you need power. So you have to find the right people to. To empower you in the right ways. And. And that's where, like I said, I am not a risk taker.

There is just nothing. If you could see my Excel spreadsheets and my calendars and all of the plans that I make. There's nothing about me that takes risks. I just.

But I do follow the vision that God gives me, and I seek the right people to help empower that.

I love that advice. And you've said yes to this call, and it's required sacrifice. And you've experienced hard days. When you think about women listening, who.

They've been leaning into that vision, they've been leaning into that dream. They're.

They're in the hustle, they're doing the work, but they're finding themselves having one of those days, one of those weeks or months or seasons where they're thinking about giving up. What do you want to say to them?

That's been my journey for the last few years. Like how this is hard. I'm exhausted. I think one of the biggest things is knowing how you feel back up and make time for that. It has been.

I was really bummed. I was probably at the end of my rope, and we were so excited.

We had planned a sabbatical for the first time in 20 years, and my family and I were gonna just get out for a little while and go take a sabbatical. I was gonna go be by the ocean, which is where I hear from Jesus, obviously, you know, the Pacific Ocean, and.

And just do all the things that fill my soul back up that I know. Fill my soul up, up. But I don't have time for on the daily. And.

And then Covid happened and my sabbatical got canceled and work quadrupled in new and weird ways. So I've been wrestling with this, with God, you know, like, this. This is hard. And.

And I was really looking forward to that time to just hear from you and serve you and put all of the distractions away so that I could come back stronger.

And, you know, I've been letting him know that this Covid timing has been really inconvenient for me, and he could have planned a better year for it, but, you know, he's he's got his own plans. So I think, I mean, I'm still, I'm still struggling to find the right answer to that question.

But my goal, my best guess at that question is when things are hard, know how you fill up, up and seek those things. I know that I fill up when I am in grand, majestic nature like the ocean or mountaintops, except I don't like to be cold, so probably more the ocean.

So finding things where I sense him or finding things that fill me up.

Going to a conference that has nothing to do with my industry, you know, women's conferences, and then going to conferences that do have to do with my industry, things that are going to fill me up and reinspire me. Me. And then again, having a great partner and having great partners around you, they.

I have, I have the, the Aaron and her, like, they, they hold me up for sure.

Christina, I imagine, you know, you're 21 years into doing this work of being a coach to cheerleaders, and so you must be the ultimate cheerleader yourself, the ultimate inspire motivator.

And, and I don't know what your strategy is in how you, your girls, when they're tired, when they, you know, are exhausted, they've put in the work, they're not getting a routine or had a tough time in a competition, but I, I bet you have, you know, things that you pull out of your back pocket to inspire them in those moments. I wonder if you can share how God has been, in a sense, a cheerleader for you and how.

How he inspires you and motivates you when you've had days like that.

So at Silver Stars, one of the unique things that we do is we have a character trait for each month, and we talk about how to implement that at school, at home, and in the gym. So whether it is grit or integrity or we have manners month, whatever it is, and we give these team talks every week. And it has been.

Been so incredible to be able to research those and try to put a new spin on it. Like you said, it's been 21 years, and some of these athletes have been with me a decade, so they've, They've heard my talks a time or two.

So, you know, every year, the last probably six years, I've been trying to find a fresh spin on things, and it has been so incredible.

Probably my, the way that God has motivated me and reinspired me is when I hear my athletes giving their spin on my team talks, either to a teammate or even to me.

I had an athlete message me the other day with basically this vision of fortitude and patience and we can do this and all of these things because she could see that I was struggling with being stressed out. And I had an athlete speaking to me about things that I had shared with her from the Lord. And I was, I was just blown away.

I mean, there's nothing like hearing God's voice come to you from someone younger than you that is a child. And you can tell that they understood what they were saying. You know, they weren't just regurgitating it.

So for me, in those hard times, I can, when God speaks to me through, usually, I mean, I will, I'll be having a tough day and some alumni will text me a random message or things like that. Those are the ways that I feel like God has, you know, I'm his special possession. I'm. I'm his right. And he knows exactly what's going to speak to me.

I'm a words of affirmation person. So when he sees that his daughter, his special possession, is having a tough day, he cheers me up by sending me words from somebody else.

His words, but definitely words through somebody else. So.

Well, Christina, I want to thank you for hopping on today and encouraging us and being a voice to remind us not to give up and to continue to say yes to God's call in our life to have those brave napkin moments where we believe upon God for something we cannot see. And I just, I just want to thank you for what you're doing in the world, in our community and in young girls lives and in their families and lives.

And I am excited to see how God continues to unfold your story in this world. And I'm grateful for the encouragement that your story has in all of our stories. So thank you for hanging out with us today.

And I'm sure there's going to be people who want to know how they can connect with you and your gym. How, how can they find you, Christina?

Well, they could put, probably find us on our [email protected] but mostly probably all over social media. So Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, all of those NW Silver Stars is, is where we're at.

Awesome. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Willow, for having me.

Yeah. And for those of you listening, I hope you have a great week. I hope you keep colliding and trusting that God has greatness for you.

Don't let anything get in the way of believing that. We'll catch you next week.

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