Sunny & 65 with Madi Schultz

Episode 76: Katie Blackburn

• Madi Schultz • Season 2 • Episode 76

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KATIE BLACKBURN. YOU GUYS. This gal is the real deal. What do I mean by the real deal? Well, I walked away from this conversation so refreshed and encouraged. This gal's humility, honesty, joy, warmth...I could feel the fruit of the Spirit through the screen while chatting with her. So I guess what I mean by the real deal is that this gal depends on the LIVING GOD. And it was evident. This was one of my favorite convos to date and I can't wait for you to be spurred on by what God has done and is doing in her life!!! Enjoy!!!


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FROM THE EPISODE:

#SA65Bookclub Book of the Month for September: Secret Place of Thunder: Trading Our Need to Be Noticed for a Hidden Life With Christ by John Starke


@Katiemblackburn

https://katiemblackburn.com/

Katie's Website, Photography, Substack (writing) & Book

Song - Power of Your Love by Darlene Zschech

Being Elisabeth Elliot by Ellen Vaughn


Start with Hello by Shannan Martin

Courageously Soft by Charaia Rush

Matthew 9:19-22 

Song - Good News by Bryan and Katie Torwalt


The Hymns albums by Shane and Shane


Radical with David Platt





OTHER FUN THINGS:

MADISCHULTZ.CO

I'm selling Christian prints!

My Favorite Things

Glory Presets

MUST-READ Books

Use code SUNNY10 for 10% off our favorite Lithos books!

30% Off Lifetime Subsc. to Dwell Bible App

The Daily Grace Co.

Speaker 1:

Hey friends, welcome back to the Sunning 65 podcast. I'm your host, Maddie Schultz, and today I am joined by the absolute gem of a human, katie Blackburn. If you are walking through a hard season, or if you are simply alive and breathing, you need to listen to this gal. Point us to Jesus. It was sweet balm to my soul. Enjoy, katie.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to the podcast Hi Maddie, Thank you for having me on today. This is so fun.

Speaker 1:

So excited to have you here today. So I got connected to Katie through a past guest, Sarah Hauser, and I believe I was already following Katie, I think, on Instagram prior to that and just getting to read your writing and just being super encouraged by your life from afar. But so glad to have you here today, Katie. Can you tell us the quick gist about yourself?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, well, that's so kind. I just adore Sarah. She's a gem. So, yeah, thankful for that connection. But yeah, as you mentioned, my name's Katie Blackburn and I live up in Spokane, washington, which is called like a big little city right on the border of Washington and Idaho, and I've been here since about 2010,. But I'm originally from the Bay Area, california.

Speaker 2:

So I am a Californian at heart and still struggle through the winters. I'll never get quite used to that. I am a single mama to six amazing, resilient, hilarious and very loud kiddos, so it's always a party at our house. And I also teach writing part-time at a small Christian college here in Spokane. And so outside of those two things being a mama and being a teacher my margin time is really devoted to my personal writing and my work with Coffee and Crumbs, where I help co-host the podcast and have been one of the writers on the Coffee and Crumbs team since we started in about 2014. I also dabble in photography, but as much as I love it, I'm not quite confident enough to call myself a photographer. Yet it's, I dabble. I dabble because it's really fun. That's amazing.

Speaker 1:

I have fun. What are you? Are you trying to like create a business out of in photography, or not necessarily just taking photos of your kids and things?

Speaker 2:

I would call it more of a side hustle, okay.

Speaker 1:

Yes, amazing.

Speaker 2:

Not a full business, but I know I find, since I'm just have this like creative brain, it's just a different creative muscle than writing and it's so fun to kind of just. You know, with writing that really requires a lot of deep work and with photography you just sort of follow the light and you get to play and just see what you capture.

Speaker 2:

So I take a lot of pictures of my kids. I do do it for friends and people who just word of mouth, but it's just small potatoes, but it's been a really fun, life-giving hobby for me.

Speaker 1:

the past couple of years. So yeah, that's me. How often do you guys record for the Coffee and Crumbs podcast? We?

Speaker 2:

try to do two to three a month, basically Okay.

Speaker 1:

Cool, okay, wow, that is so many fun things. Such a full plate. That's so exciting. Okay, can you tell us about when you came to know and follow Jesus?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so I was raised in a Christian home, you know, with two incredible parents. So I grew up in the church and I've always felt very comfortable there, like the church always has kind of felt like a second home to me, cool.

Speaker 2:

But I also played very competitive soccer, growing up which meant travel all over the state of California, oftentimes all over the country, almost every weekend. And this was from the time I was in sixth grade, all the way through high school, and so my parents had this very strict rule that if I was going to be on these travel teams, if I was going to try out for them and make them, I still had to find a way to get to church every single weekend. That was just our rule. We went to church every single weekend. So you know, this was all largely before Google, and what that meant was that my I have all these just countless memories of my mom. We'd be in a hotel room in I don't know any city, any state in the country and pulling out that big, massive yellow phone book and going through it and finding a church, sometimes calling the churches to say, do you have a 6 pm Saturday night service or do you have a 7 am Sunday morning service? Just because it was really important to my parents that you have a 6 pm Saturday night service or do you have a 7 am Sunday morning service? Just because it was really important to my parents that we found a way to get to church wherever we were.

Speaker 2:

So all that to say, my upbringing, my kind of formative years, really did involve a lot of different churches and I complained about that a lot when I was growing up. But now, as a mom myself, I really I can see how much that discipline, the prioritizing of worship, really taught me Cool. And then by the time I was 16, 17 and could drive myself to my soccer practices or whatever, my parents were like okay, we're going to go to our church and you do your soccer thing on the weekend, and then you got to take yourself when you get home, and so I would just start going by myself. It was usually this one church not too far from my home and they had a late Saturday night service. And the reason I tell that story is because it was really during that season when I was driving myself to church like 16, 17 years old and I really feel like my faith started to become my own a little bit more.

Speaker 2:

Now I'm going to date myself here a little bit, but if you were a Christian in the 90s you will laugh at this. But I would put worship music in a CD in my car, and it was this one song in particular.

Speaker 2:

It was Power of your Love by Darlene Check and I swear it was that song, just like every child of the 90s knows that you're going to hear it the rest of your day in your head now. But it was that song and I would just I can't really even explain it. I haven't listened to it in years and years, but I have just these visceral memories of the Holy Spirit just really waking me up to his presence and his power and the reality of life in Christ. And I mean I have absolutely no musical ability at all, I don't play an instrument, I have none, nothing but worship. Music still really does that for me, just really awakens in me just this tangible presence of the Holy Spirit.

Speaker 2:

So that was kind of my formative years. And then I was fortunate enough to play soccer on a scholarship at Arizona State and right away when I got to school there I got plugged in with a ministry called the Fellowship of Christian Athletes on campus and that is where I met some of the women who are still my very best friends and one of my mentors. He's been such a dear and important leader in my life. His name is Mike and really, and over those four years, even though I was on this huge secular campus and I was one of the few believers on my team. I had these roots with a local church and with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and my faith just bloomed in college.

Speaker 2:

Like everything I had really heard. My whole life just kind of illuminated in a way that I was like, wow, like none of this, you know, life and everything we live and go through, like none of it makes sense without the gospel. None of it actually makes sense If you take away God, if you take away Jesus, if you take away the narrative of scripture that we are all living in, none of this makes sense. And it was just such a gift that God planted that truth deep in my heart when he did, because life has gotten and probably for all of us we can say, life has gotten more complicated the older we've gotten. So yeah, that's my faith story. Really Wow.

Speaker 1:

Funny. I grew up playing competitive basketball and my parents were the same. We found a church wherever we were, wherever we were traveling, we always went. So I was like, oh my goodness I was just talking to someone about it that basketball was so formative. The Lord used that to form me and my parents. It was still such a priority. It wasn't lost on me that that was important, and we still were out of town and stuff. So even when we go on trips, I'm like where are we going on Sunday? And sometimes it's just in me that that's a thing. And like when you were saying that you experienced so many different churches too, it's sweet to think back to those times because we went to so many different flavors, which was so sweet to get to know. I can remember we were in Florida actually for my brother's basketball tournament one year and we found a church. We go to it and his game wasn't until the afternoon on a Sunday and it was like a three to four-hour service.

Speaker 1:

Oh, bless it and it was just like so it's so sweet to even recall those memories and that, even if our family's somewhere, that that's still important. So it's sweet to see that and hear that and how that's shaped and formed you, and then so sweet to just get reminded how important like, of course, the local churches and then that parachurch ministry that brought you in and those mentors and those friendships, and it's just that's a sweet reminder that how God uses all of it, Like the local church, of course, so important, like so so important, and like FCA being important too in your life.

Speaker 2:

That's totally that's really sweet and encouraging. I love that you had to do the same thing.

Speaker 1:

Did you roll your eyes?

Speaker 2:

at your parents half the time Like, oh yeah, seriously, we have to. Yes. But now it's like it's such a sweet. I'm so glad that that was a discipline that they and. I'm not like pharisaical about getting to church. There are plenty of weeks that we miss it, but. I just, it was such a I think, a witness too to my teammates, like for my family, that that like. Well, this is you know, katie's not at team dinner tonight because her parents made her go to church.

Speaker 1:

You know One hundred percent.

Speaker 2:

I think that's a good thing. It's a good thing, yeah.

Speaker 1:

And I feel like you were reiterating, yeah, that it's not pharisaical, and like you've missed church. And I felt like this freedom that we were walking in, this freedom of like, oh, god's having my daughter play on a competitive sport, but he still is on the throne. So it actually felt like, rather than a legalism, it felt like a freedom of, oh, we won't be in town at our local church, but he's still on the throne. So I feel like that has, without knowing it, even just saying it right now, that's done something really sweet that God's still using that Totally. It's a get to not a have to.

Speaker 1:

Yes, yeah, I love that. Okay, if you're willing, would you tell us about a season of suffering and how you saw the Lord show up in it?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you know, I've spent a good bit of time in counseling in the past couple of years, so I've been kind of able to name like a few distinct seasons in my life that I've kind of I'm putting them in the category of what I call like a season of loss. And the first would be when I had a career ending, knee injury my junior year of college and I had to stop playing soccer, and so you know, like we just talked about, playing soccer was outside of my faith. That was the most formative piece of who I was truly.

Speaker 2:

I was a seven days a week soccer girl, multiple training sessions a day, the kind of girl who never wanted to be outrun or outworked, and I loved every minute of it. Yeah, I'm sure you're nodding. I'm sure you can resonate. There's just some people that nobody has to wire that into them. God already did. No one has to force it. It's just like this.

Speaker 2:

Hard work is so fun for me. I love to practice, I love to do it, and that was me. And you know I was super fortunate that that came with lots of opportunities and lots of accolades and I thought I would play soccer for a long, long time. And then I woke up from. It was my fourth knee surgery. At the time it was supposed to be a pretty minor surgery but when I woke up in the still in the hospital bed, the doctor was standing over me and my mom sitting next to me and she's kind of wiping tears from her eyes. And you know the doctor just says you know, katie, that damage was far more extensive than we realized. Like we there's, we cannot fix the cartilage because the bone underneath it is completely dead.

Speaker 2:

And so at this point we're not looking at you playing soccer again. We're hoping to get you to walk again. And a spoiler alert. It took six more surgeries and a partial knee replacement at age 24, but I walk wonderfully today.

Speaker 1:

Like thank you, jesus.

Speaker 2:

My knee's doing great, but that was really a turning point for me because at that time in my life I wouldn't have called myself anything other than a soccer player and really quickly I had to find out who else I was and that was a huge piece of grief for me to say goodbye to something I loved and had done my whole life. And then the second season of loss is really when my second born son, cannon, my sweet, precious boy Cannon. He was diagnosed with severe autism when he was two years old and I've written a lot about Cannon and our walk on this disability road. But I will tell you absolutely nothing can prepare you for the challenges of being a disability mom. I think back on almost the entirety of like 2016 and 2017, and they are just. Those years are like lost to a blur of assessments and appointments and being told things about your child that are really dark and, you know, kind of despair inducing, like they will likely not do this and you're going to have to do this and they're not even on the developmental chart in this area. Just, I mean, it's a lot, a lot of really tough things to see about your child and, again, a lot like losing soccer. Obviously, this was a lot more life-changing, but I had to learn to live with a new reality and kind of the death of a dream for for my family.

Speaker 2:

And then the third season that I'm I'm still. I mean I I've kind of I've got all three of these because they're just losses that I'm still really working through with the lord, even in retrospect, like what? How are these kind of preparing me for the rest of my life? But the most recent thing that we've walked through was um. Well, in 2021, my husband's battle with addiction came to light and while um, we fought for the next 20 months, which included four months in rehab for him, what I thought was a fight towards restoration. It became clear last fall that this story was not going to end with a redemption that I had hoped and prayed for. And, um, we were divorced last December. So at the time we're recording this, I've been a single mom for just over six months, which is something I never saw for myself or for my kids. Not at all. It was. I mean, divorce was not an option, you know, and here it is a reality. So I mean these months have really they've both ruined and rebuilt me, and I that's.

Speaker 2:

it's incredibly hard to live with both of those realities but you know, I'm, I'm a part of, I think, the fight of faith, is working really hard to trust the sovereignty of God and his plans for this, like rebuilt version of myself, and I know you don't get the rebuilding without the ruining right, like you don't pick something up that's already fine and dandy, like you have to rebuild out of something that's been broken.

Speaker 2:

And nobody wants that part, right, we all want. Just. We like the before and after pictures, but the mess in the middle I'm finding, though, that mess. That's where Jesus. That's that mess, um, that's where Jesus that's where he is, Obviously he's, he's all. He's there the before, he's there the after. But gosh, is he real?

Speaker 2:

in that mess and, um, he's the one that's making something out of these ruins. And so that's what I'm, just I'm, I'm hanging on to that truth, cause I know it's true. I know it's true, even when I don't feel it. I do, I do know it. So we're just, we're in the process of starting over right now, me and my kids.

Speaker 1:

Katie, I'm so sorry about all that and I'm I'm so grateful for your vulnerability to share about a season that you're still in the thick of, and I know that we won't know till heaven about the amount of people that God is using your life and your faith to impact, including mine. Thank you, maddie. Yeah, just really grateful for your openness and your rawness, and one of the first things you said is, or talking about, these were your three losses and just how. The first soccer loss, and then your son and then your husband. God doing something in each of those to prepare your heart for the next one which sounds hard to say.

Speaker 1:

I'm sure it's hard to hear. How have you seen God, maybe in this most fresh loss and painful loss going back with the other two? What are ways that you saw him show up in those? That then helps you to fight in this one, to cling to him.

Speaker 2:

That's such a good question, Maddie, and it's like I've written this before, so I'm not just coming up with this on the fly here, but I really do believe this. All of your life is preparing you for the rest of your life.

Speaker 2:

All of your life is preparing you for the rest of your life. Yeah, and right now I am in a season where my life takes a lot of grit and a lot of determination and hard work to show up for. But gosh, I think back to that soccer player, katie, who loved to work hard. Wow, I'm like, wow, god.

Speaker 2:

I hate to overdo the sports analogy but, I, still, I feel, like the way that you've always known before time, that you would sanctify me and use my life. You know, jill Briscoe says wherever your feet are, the space between your own two feet, that is your mission field. And. I have always loved that idea and I think when I was younger I idealized that Like oh well, that means obviously like moving to Africa and helping orphans, right yeah, as beautiful and noble and wonderful and vital. I think that work is.

Speaker 2:

I'd love to do it someday honestly, I have gotten, probably by just like God gently putting his hands on my shoulders and saying this is your work and I have been preparing you your entire life to do it. Like God gently putting his hands on my shoulders and saying this is your work and I've been preparing you your entire life to do it. Doesn't mean it isn't super hard and super sad some days. It doesn't mean I don't have days where I'm like really, god, I could use a different path at this point.

Speaker 2:

But when you see, when you decide I'm going to remember what I've already been through, I'm going to draw in the places the Lord has already equipped me, he's already taught me, he's already gifted me with certain personality, dispositions, strengths, whatever it may be Like this is not an accident, and that's a perspective issue. You can choose to look at things like I'm not the right person for this, I'm not the, and all the ways you're not equipped.

Speaker 2:

We can all do that, yeah, or we could start making a list in our head of the ways that I know I can do this and know I can do this because of what God's already brought me through, because and it's so it's such a silly thing, but I really I'm so thankful for all the coaches that made me do one more lap when I didn't want to do one more lap, and all of the all of the times I had those you know, those 10 knee surgeries I mentioned, where it was like nope, you got to relearn to walk one more time.

Speaker 2:

You got to do another three months on crutches. One more time You've got to do this. It's it's just reminded me that, like my mind and my body have been capable, because of Christ in me, to do the hard thing, this is, this is like God has wired me this way. This is the next season of life, isn't different. It takes a little more help because I have six kids. You know I'm going to talk about asking for help later.

Speaker 2:

But yeah, all of our life is preparing us for the rest of our life. God did not leave us on an island to figure things out.

Speaker 1:

So that's super, that's encouraging and just wild to rethink about. If I think about for too long God's sovereignty, providence, everything intertwining, every coach you had, every knee surgery, your precious cannon and even the grit to, I'm sure, go to another therapy session and appointment and then like, and in my own mind, if I think about God's sovereignty and providence, I can't help but just be like, like God, how could I not believe that you are truly in control of even this hard, awful season and trust that you will? You are doing things, you are bringing your name glory and changing me and you will continue to do so. And that kind of leads us into another thing that you're passionate in talking about it. You kind of touched on it, but you're passionate in talking about showing up for your life even when it's hard. So talk to us about that and what that's looked like for you.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, Everything I will say about this is not a platitude. I promise I'm living it with you right now Imperfectly imperfectly, but if Jesus is who he says he is and if the Bible is true, then we have to show up. And John Piper has this amazing quote. It's probably familiar to many of you, but he says occasionally weep deeply over the life you hoped would be. Grieve the losses. Then wash your face, trust God and embrace the life you have.

Speaker 2:

So, good, I love that. And now the way I read this quote when he says occasionally, that means we're allowed to do it more than once, right?

Speaker 1:

Like we don't have to just like get better and never remember the losses again.

Speaker 2:

Like every now and then, we can cry over those losses.

Speaker 2:

At least I hope that's true because even for me I'll be going along just fine, feeling great, and then I'll have a week, like I did even just last week with my son, where autism and everything, just it feels impossible and I'm broken over it again and I am mourning the loss and I lament and I'm even mad that I have to do this alone and I might say a few bad words and think God chose the wrong girl for this, but I never stay there because God does not allow me to stay there. This is not a look how good Katie is. She pulls herself up. This is one. It is Christ saying like you.

Speaker 2:

I will not let you stay there, katie, and so for me that kind of metaphorical showing up, like the washing of the face, is calling a friend who I know is not going to let me stay there.

Speaker 1:

Or.

Speaker 2:

I love to get on the Peloton bike or do a really heavy weightlifting session just to remember that you can do hard, that I can do hard things, Maybe taking my daughter out to buy new nail polish because that she just loves that. It's something fun with her, something fun with her. But whatever it is, whatever that your own version of that washing your face is God in his kindness. He's just never let us stay in self-pity too long, and once we're out of that like then, we can re-embrace the life we do have and I believe that's an act of worship that honors God. I don't it might be the old athlete in me, you know, that was never allowed to make excuses, Um, but I do believe that the, the grit that God is kind of hardwired into me is something that I must steward well out of obedience to him, even in, even in the tough times in my life. And he's so, so kind. That is so, so kind. That is his character so kind God is so, so kind.

Speaker 2:

That is his character. He's so kind and I don't know, even when life is a bit of a dumpster fire, which those are actual words I have used to describe seasons of my life. We'll find the kindness if we're looking for it, but we have to be disciplined about where we look and wherever it takes you to keep your eyes on Jesus and get your heart on the kind of the gratitude side of the pendulum. Again, we have to do it.

Speaker 1:

You listed a few, but are there any other tangible things that you found helpful to be able to do that and show up when it's really hard?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean, I mentioned exercise. I know that's not for everybody. Everyone's in a different state of physical health and ability, and I know that certainly. But you know, these days, just given what I've walked through with my left knee, I can't move my body without gratitude. That's just a natural output of movement for me.

Speaker 2:

Amen, yes, and I've also. You know I'm going to be 40 next year and at this point in my life I know physical health is not a given. So when I move, I pray and I work out angst and I thank Jesus for our body, and that changes my posture toward everything. This is not something everybody gets to do and that's not lost on me.

Speaker 2:

So, something else that has always encouraged me and this might feel I hope it doesn't sound trite because I don't mean it to me but it has always encouraged me to read biographies or autobiographies of some of the saints that have gone before us. Yeah. And not because they were perfect. In fact, I think the very best biographies, autobiographies, whatever you find, they show the humanity of you know, we might call them heroes of the faith. I think they would all hate to be called heroes, to be honest. So true.

Speaker 2:

When you read an honest account of somebody's life that faithfully walked with the Lord, not something that cast a golden glow over their life, but something that shows the reality of it. And I mean, like Amy Carmichael, this amazing woman of faith doing kind of God, only type of work in the slums of India, and she spent the last 20 years of her life bedridden in pain. And Elizabeth Elliot, who, if you haven't read the newest Elizabeth Elliot biography, I think it's being Elizabeth Elliot, there's becoming Elizabeth Elliot and then there's being. It's the latest one. It is so good and humbling in a beautiful way, because Christianity does like to kind of highlight the glory stories of some of these.

Speaker 2:

I'm going to use heroes of faith again, even though. I don't know if that's the best word, but some of the people that we admire, we love to put the glory stories at the forefront, and yet every single one of them, their lives, are not one part of it.

Speaker 2:

Was easy, there were moments of glory and answered prayers for sure, but their lives are one of unshakable faith, and that is what is inspiring to me, not the miracles they got to see, but the way that they lived through the times when there wasn't a miracle, when the things didn't happen, when life was brutally hard, when the prayers were not answered for whatever reason. It's just encouraging to know those stories of perseverance and Hudson Taylor, betsy Stockton, I mean there's just so many that you can go through, so, anyways, that's something I love to do. Okay, and this is a silly thing, but you asked for tangible things.

Speaker 2:

I love planning something that I'm excited about, tangible thing. So I love putting planning something that I'm excited about. That is like when life feels really hard, I I make a plan for something that I can look forward to. Um, having something on the calendar, that's just, ah, if I can, I can. That is coming, that is, that's a great, that's a grace to me. I don't know why my my best friend, Ashley Gad, knows this about me and, um, she also knows how much I've wanted to visit Charleston, South Carolina.

Speaker 2:

I've never been it's like a bucket list city for me and I was having a terrible week.

Speaker 2:

Last week and she's because she's a good friend she literally started an Airbnb wishlist for my 40th birthday trip for Charleston, um, and it's just giving me such life, um, so a silly thing. And it doesn't have to be a Charleston. I love that and it's just giving me such life. So a silly thing. And it doesn't have to be a big trip. I rarely get to go on trips, so that's going to be a special one. But when life is feeling really heavy, make a plan for something that you just cannot wait to do.

Speaker 2:

That's just a reminder of those common graces in our life, of friendship, coffee shops, seeing a movie, time alone, taking a walk Like let's. Let's not underestimate the power of like I get to do this in a in a certain amount of time. It's just a little bit of stamina building, I think.

Speaker 1:

So, I love that. That's super encouraging. And, as you're talking about cause, I'm totally that same way. I want, I need something that I'm going to look forward to. And even as you were talking like, it feels like I wonder if we love that because we also like, we're also longing for the eternity that we know is coming. So it's like a super smaller picture, it feels like. But, like you said, I think often, sometimes you can feel like and maybe whether that's a lie, I preached myself or like feel that from other sources of like no, don't plan something that's not going to fix your problem, quote unquote.

Speaker 1:

And you're looking and I no. I think the enemy wants us to like think that God doesn't have enjoyable things here on earth, these common graces that you said to look forward to. And it's so funny how the enemy like probably to this place of legalism. I can remember a season that I was in of like don't, until you're content in Christ alone, like, sit here and don't even do any work for the Lord and the Lord's like Maddie, no, like no one, I've prepared good works for you too. I, this earth is a common grace. There's so many things here and you're never going to be perfectly content in me because you're human and so like. But like the Charleston trip, like, what a common grace, your friend, even knowing that you long for that. What a common grace from the Lord of ultimately us having a heart that, like longs for this better, perfect, true home. And so that just made me think of that.

Speaker 2:

Totally and I love, I love that, Maddie, I love you brought up that distinction because it's right. Our salvation, our contentment. None of that is found in things or trips or anything that we can or breaks or spotting. None of it is found in that myth of self-care at all. But there's such a difference between, like my heart is absolutely confident in the sovereignty of God over my life, even in the hard seasons.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and I am so thankful he peppers those hard seasons with kindness, yeah, with kindness, and with laughter, with moments. I mean, this is not. Don't you often think about the first miracle, like the wine at the wedding and like it's because they, they partied for like seven days, yeah, they celebrated they celebrated something that was good. And Jesus, his miracle, helped enable that to happen.

Speaker 1:

And that's like.

Speaker 2:

I don't want to make too much theologically of that, but just the idea of like life is. It is painful and hard at the sight of heaven and yet we are going to burn ourselves into the ground if we do not see God's offers of grace throughout all. All of that we have to walk through. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

That's so encouraging. Okay, what encouragement do you have for the person today? You just said tangible things, but is there a? What encouragement do you have for the person today? You just said tangible things, but is there a piece of encouragement that you have for the person today whose life looks entirely different than they had anticipated or hoped it would, and they're struggling to show up for it?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah. First of all, I see you. I see you and it's okay to to be sad that life doesn't look the way you want it to. Um, I'm sitting here as a divorced single mom literally the last titles I would have thought I would ever have, you know, and I'm sad about that. Yeah, um, and though I am a glass half full person by nature, I don't want you to hear anything I'm going to say as a dismissal of that pain. There have been more mornings than I can tell you in the past six months alone that I really didn't think I could get out of bed because it meant like doing this all again, you know, surviving all again, um.

Speaker 2:

But I'm going to give you a quote from Alan Noble that I have loved and I think it's a good reminder of why we show up. And he says to choose to go on is to proclaim, with your life and at the risk of tremendous suffering, that it is good Even when it's hard. It is good Even when you don't feel that it is good, even when that goodness is unimaginable. It is good when we act on that goodness. By rising out of bed, we honor God and his creation and we testify to our family, to our neighbors and to our friends of his goodness. And this is an act of worship, Because what did God say when he made us? It's good, it's good. So that's my encouragement Remember whose goodness you testify to when you show up. You're not testifying to the goodness of the pain you're walking through.

Speaker 2:

There's nothing good about getting divorced and being a single mom. There's nothing, I would argue. There's not a lot of good either in a son who really, really struggles to get through each day. There are good moments, for sure, but I'm not testifying to the goodness of the consequences of sin or the goodness of a broken world. What I'm testifying to is God's goodness in the midst of it, and that's a different perspective.

Speaker 1:

That's super encouraging. Thanks for sharing that. You are a mama, like you've mentioned, to six amazing children. Amazing, what are all their ages? Did you always want a lot of children? Please give us all the mama wisdom. Tell us some of the things that got us, taught you throughout your motherhood journey and or is currently teaching you. I'm sure you could record a long, long episode on just that alone, but yeah, yeah, the things I'm learning. Yes.

Speaker 2:

Because it never ends. You know, the longer I'm a mom I do feel like the less I know. But my kids are Harper, 11, cannon is 10, jordy's eight and then Ava's, our five-year-old, our little blessing we adopted from foster care in 2020. Beckett is four and Braylon is three, and so you know, I always thought I wanted three or four kids, which is, you know, by a lot of measures. Somebody considered people consider that a big family. But after we had three, we kind of took a few years to get through Cannon's diagnosis. And then we met a young transient woman here in our town who was pregnant and, just for a lot of reasons, going to need a lot of help and that's a very long story short. We ended up adopting her sweet little blondie girl, ava, and she was placed in our home at four days old. But I didn't know at the time I was already pregnant with our fourth biological baby.

Speaker 2:

So we kind of got two for one in those seven and a half eight months and we call those two Pebbles and Bam Bam. Everybody thinks they're twins. I love that they are. They're our little Irish twins, you know so sweet and they just don't know life without each other. They are precious. And then my now ex-husband. He had a vasectomy, but exactly one year later it didn't work and so we had our. I know we are that 1% or something.

Speaker 1:

The Lord is like you will have a baby.

Speaker 2:

He's like yep, it's my ways, Katie. And so we had our six little miracle boy, Braylon, and now I drive a 12 passenger van. And sometimes I have to just laugh because it's like how am I driving this van around town?

Speaker 1:

I really don't even know. That's amazing.

Speaker 2:

But honestly, Maddie, the biggest thing I've learned about motherhood is that humility is the only way through. It is the only way through, and that and just put your phone down. Put your phone down. They're watching, so put it down.

Speaker 1:

Wow, both super, super helpful and applicable for every single day, every single day.

Speaker 2:

Myself included.

Speaker 1:

Myself included. Oh my goodness, oh my goodness.

Speaker 1:

Like you said earlier in your. I am six years into my motherhood journey and, like you said earlier, the more that it goes, the more I'm like positive that I don't know anything. I have what my best friend always says she's, she's mid forties and she always says in your twenties since I've known her, we've been best friends for almost like eight or nine years now. In your 20s you think you know everything. In your 30s you start to realize you don't know everything. In your 40s you feel like you know nothing. It's like it does this reverse, this reversal Uh-huh, this reversal Uh-huh.

Speaker 1:

And it feels like every new season of motherhood, like you, I mean. You're like you're just, you're raising these precious sinners, but most, until God willing, he saves them, it's just like, and then they're mirrors of you and you're like, oh my goodness, and it's just the most sanctifying, humbling thing in the world. What, as you've navigated six different children, six different personalities, what do you feel like has been helpful? Yeah, going into different seasons have there been like? Do you feel like it's God's word, of course, helping us always? Is there wise counsel? Is it just every kid so different? You literally need God to give you wisdom every second. Is there helpful tools? Right now we're like we thought we knew how we were going to discipline our kids and all of a sudden in the last few months it's like now we don't know anymore, now we have no idea. Or like I'm like God, help, help, help. I don't. And that's like we're.

Speaker 2:

I only have a kindergartner you know, like it's only forever, totally, totally, I mean. But, maddie, my honestly I, what you said was that, yeah, every child is different and and then they change, and then I mean they grow up and my, my daughter, who's 11 now is awesome and yet, oh man, does she have a strong will, and she always has. She was actually a very challenging toddler and I feel okay saying that on the podcast because I joke with her about it all the time. Like when you were 18 months old, I did not know what to do with you. Like I felt like all my friends had these firstborn girls that were just like so compliant and wonderful and my sweet, precious daughter who, again, I have told her this so.

Speaker 2:

I'm not saying it was like just large and in charge, from the moment she could walk and open her mouth. And that's her, I mean. God, just God knew she was going to have to be a leader. Yeah, and he wired that into her too, he wired that into her too.

Speaker 2:

And so, yeah, I mean it is truly like I ask people I have a couple mentor moms in my life that I'm constantly like tell me how you did this, and I get a lot of advice from them. And then it's a lot of trial and error and, okay, this is. You know what it is. It is asking for forgiveness from God and your children, again and again, and again and again. Yes, that's the best resource we have at our disposal is repentance. Yeah, and I've never been a mom to an 11, almost 12-year-old girl before. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

This is my first time too, harper and then with each of my kids. I've never done this with you and your personality and your dispositions. And then we've got this big thing that just happened to our lives and is emotionally shaking all of us and so well, I've never done this before either, guys. So I reiterate to them all the time I am for you. We are a team.

Speaker 2:

We are a team. It's not me versus you, mom versus child. We are a team, you at mom versus child. We are a team, um, and I want us to navigate our life loving Jesus as much as we possibly can.

Speaker 2:

So what that looks like day to day it does it changes for every and it's everybody has their own brand of heart that they're going through in their life or own challenges that they're that they're dealing with. But I think our kids see the posture of our heart and our desire to want to love them well and discipline them well when necessary. Girl, that's a whole other topic that I'm like. Well, I have no idea.

Speaker 1:

So you just said you were, oh my goodness. I thought I knew. Quote end, quote, right. The second you think you have anything remotely figured out, which, that's just that. Then the Lord's like I'm just going to humble you real quick, then Totally.

Speaker 2:

Because some kids respond to it so differently. I have some kids that, like, when I say this is your discipline, I'm really upset. They take it. And for others, if I get too mad, it wrecks them.

Speaker 1:

Yes. And then you can't even talk to them about it Totally.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, we're just yeah, yeah, and what I'm hearing you say which you started with Humility, humility, humility, which? What a gift to give your kids. By God's grace alone, a house that's fighting for humility and showing them. A mom that's saying, hey, I don't have it figured out and I'm also not expecting perfection out of you, because that's not reality. And by God's grace to see how that's going to continue as we fight for humility in our homes, to form our kids, to stir up repentance and apologies, and just the reality of like. I might be wrong here, for the rest of my life.

Speaker 1:

Like I feel like that's one thing these last couple of years, the thing that God continually is running through my mind. I literally have my notebook open right now and I just wrote it again like a a couple days ago. I just always am randomly writing it and it's just God telling me you could be wrong, like that's always the possibility, like you could be wrong about it. It could be anything, unless it's the gospel of Jesus Christ, his life, death and resurrection.

Speaker 1:

Anything else is on the table for me to be wrong, and so I get to like humbly come, starting with my kids, but all of life I could be wrong here I could be wrong, and that's also like, as God knows. I always joke like it's like the dude knows what he's saying, like it's as if humility frees up, it brings us the deepest freedom because we're like. We're like we could be wrong and I might be, and oh, I was there. And so I'm just so encouraged by that with your kids. And just the encouragement for whoever's listening too, of like listen.

Speaker 1:

We all desperately need God's help day to day. And Katie doesn't have it figured out. I'm sure my mom, who's raising now adults, my mom's still like, how am I loving my adult? Like we'll always just desperately need the Lord for everything and motherhood. So I pray that if you have ever listened to this podcast before, if you follow me or Katie, or that you just know that we could be wrong and anything I say, I'm just like I could be wrong and like we're seeking God's help. So what encouragement do you have for a discouraged, maybe exhausted, mom today?

Speaker 2:

You know once again I see you, because motherhood is not for the faint of heart. It's brutally hard, physically, emotionally, mentally. It's hard work and really I just want you to have a village and I want you to be confident in asking for advice, for help, for a night out, for babysitting, whatever it may be from your village. I think asking for help is probably the only advice I actually feel qualified to give in motherhood and trust me. I take that advice liberally myself. Ask for help.

Speaker 1:

Ask for help. I love that. Why is it so hard for us to ask for help? Sometimes specifically I don't know if you find this asking for help tangibly, which probably every personality so differently, tangibly? I am too good. We joke that one of my gifts of the spirit is asking for help like I'm like listen, your girl needs help. Who can, who can help me. But like for the, for the like, I need the Lord to humble me to ask. I probably have, like my like one, two specific people that like I will ask listen, I need your help, tell me what to do. And I want God to humble me so that I could even ask the side-by-side moms hey, what are you doing here? I think I lack that humility to ask the side-by-side, same season moms which God has possibly brought them helpful things, 100% it has.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, 100%. Shannon Martin has a great book. It's called Start With Hello and that's different. It's on hospitality, so different than we're talking about here. But one of the things she says is like one of the greatest relationship builders is asking for something and she encourages us to like if you want to get to know your neighbors, shoot, ask them if they have an egg when you're out of eggs. Like, don't be afraid to ask, because 95% of the time people are thrilled to be able to help.

Speaker 2:

Cool, thrilled, to be able to offer a word of encouragement, thrilled. And then you're actually building relationships with the people that you're asking that from too. So it's just, it's something that's like we need to normalize, asking for help?

Speaker 1:

Yes, 100%. This last year long story short I was really I was struggling with my sweet little six-year-old boy and just navigating some different things and totally the Lord humbling me in a few different scenarios. So, purposefully, on purpose, like he's, like, I'm just going to shatter this plate of your motherhood pride. And it was such a sweet piece of me and one of my absolute best friends who have boys the exact same age.

Speaker 1:

The tactic of the enemy to even like want me to not share how like I'm really struggling with my son, like this month or whatever's going on. Once I shared this story with her I was like, can you be praying for me? This is what's going on. I've just been like struggling and like the sweetness, like you said, the connection, and even though she's like one of my best friends, how often I don't come to her with like I'm really struggling with my son that's the same age, probably out of pride of like, well, no, we're doing good over here. No, oh, my gosh. And the sweetness when God's like no, if you just like the invitation of then her sharing, like a similar thing, and us being like oh, oh my gosh, like lord we need your help and you get it.

Speaker 1:

And we get each other and the enemy's so silly to make me think like it's easy for me to tell my mid-40s best friend that her kids are heading. She's like, oh, friend, I've been there too and I, but it was so much harder, the side-by-side friend to like share, admit, gosh, I got angry here and I like had to apologize multiple times to my son and like this happened and I was embarrassed and that's my pride, that's also my pride. And as they get to, then our friendship go to a deeper level, like you said, because it's like, oh my gosh, why are we trying to act like we have anything figured? Out ever.

Speaker 1:

Totally. Why are we? Why are we? Why are we? Okay, lord, help. He's like. I'm always trying to help and you guys are slow learners, but, thank you, you're gracious with us, god. Okay, what encouragement do you have for the single mom listening today?

Speaker 2:

Oof. Yeah, just one day at a time, friends. Just one day at a time. I'm sure all of us who find ourselves as single mamas today did not see this coming, and yet here we are.

Speaker 2:

But I try really hard not to borrow worry from tomorrow, because that will paralyze me. Things like, how will I afford this and that and how will I manage this and that? There's just one of me and all those things will come, and grace will be there when we get there too. So just not borrowing worry from tomorrow one day at a time. That's super encouraging.

Speaker 1:

So you are an amazing writer and podcast host. How do you navigate then work in motherhood? Any tangible tips, rhythms that have been helpful? Like you said, your world got flipped upside down two, six months ago. I'm longing to glean from your wisdom, too, on this. What does it look like to navigate working?

Speaker 3:

in. Is this another one where you're like yeah, we're not?

Speaker 2:

When I tell you you're going to be like, yeah, that's not that why I'm not nothing to glean here. I would like to thank Bluey for her amazing help babysitting.

Speaker 1:

Praise God, common graces, and really that's only a half joke.

Speaker 2:

No, totally. You know, for years I got up around 5 am to work until 7 because my kids were reliably sleeping in. But now. I have kids that are older, and my daughter shouldn't even want to go to bed until 9.30 or 10 o'clock. And my son with autism, can be a bit of a wild sleeper at times. So actually rarely maybe once a week am I getting up at 5 am to work. Right now it's just not conducive to my life.

Speaker 2:

I cannot go to bed at 11 and get up at 5. If you have, if you can, that is awesome. It does not work with my body because then by 2 pm I'm like out of steam and hopefully in another season that will work again. I do like morning.

Speaker 2:

I do like mornings, it's just not. I can't sustain it right now. So I have to find margins and I have to get babysitters. So once again, ask, ask for help. I shamelessly ask, for I mean, it's so funny, I'll like so. So my, my good friend, I like heard through the grapevine that her daughter was home from college and I texted her. I'm like can. I have Peyton's number. I know she's home for a few months. Can I like? Can I?

Speaker 2:

talk to her and you know, so I'm, I'm like an investigator for how do I? Find the babysitters teenagers from church or um, and I'm lucky, my I do have my own parents that are willing to help. I know not everybody has that access. You know, um, my dad is still working, so it's when but when he they, when they can, they will help.

Speaker 2:

But, um, yeah, befriend the teenagers at church, y'all. That's my, that's what I want to say. Or or the, the, the kiddos that are homeschooled and want to help, because often I do my work, I just have even a homeschool teenager come over and hang out with the kids while I'm sitting upstairs in my bed working.

Speaker 2:

So it's not a perfect, always quiet setup all the time. But I've just learned to be super efficient with the time that I can find and I wasn't always that disciplined with that time. But if I'm 15 minutes early for youth group pickup I write in the lobby of the church for 15 minutes. If I have 10 minutes while the kids are watching a show like I'm not kidding, we watch a lot of Bluey Then I'm trying to get some time in.

Speaker 2:

I used to have to have really extended periods of time to work, but I have just had to force myself to learn how to work with what I call like the miracle of minutes. That's eluded me my whole life, where I was like, well, if I don't have three hours, I guess I can't write. Well, if that's what it comes to, then I just won't write in the season. Occasionally I will get a longer stretch of time, like on a weekend.

Speaker 2:

I'll get a longer stretch, but find the margin minutes and do not bring your phone with you when you have 15 minutes to work don't bring your phone. I will tell you. Ask me how I know You'll lose your 15 minutes real quick. Just don't bring your phone.

Speaker 1:

No, that's all super helpful and I feel like I've even do encourage moms that maybe quote unquote aren't like working like a podcast or you're writing or you teach a class. But I even have talked to moms lately like I get a sitter pretty much once a week for a pretty extended period of the day. So, like today, I have a sitter from 8.30 when I have to take my son to school, to 2, I'll go home right after this. And I even have talked to moms where I'm like, hey, if you are able and they'll be like even just drowning in motherhood and I just encourage them it's okay, if you get a sitter for however long, if you're able to do that, to go and sit and do quote, end, quote nothing To go and read, to go and get your name, like whatever it is.

Speaker 1:

Like you don't have to feel guilty about that Cause, even on the in the seasons where I didn't maybe have like a ton of podcast content to edit or things to do, and I still got it Like I still and by God's grace, was able to find sitters and stuff, but even if it was an hour, two hours, to be able to do that and not feel guilty about it and get to recharge with the Lord and just like in quiet, I got to come back even like a recharged mom too, like I found that that was just so healthy for me. And so I think, even if you're a mom listening to this, like you don't have to have like these things that you're doing over here too. If you need like a moment, we need like that's okay, you can get a sitter and go and sit at a coffee shop for three hours. You still love your kids Like you're still like.

Speaker 2:

For sure, and I want to encourage moms who are in the season of like, well, I can't. I just can't afford a babysitter. I have absolutely been in the place in that season and even now it's not like like I can't afford full-time daycare at all. It's a little bit here and there, but I've been in the place where it's like no, there's not $40 extra.

Speaker 2:

You guys, I want to tell you about the miracle of the child swap. Find a mom and say if I watch your child, like maybe on a Friday, can I take your kids for two or three hours and then next month you take mine for two or three hours, you guys.

Speaker 2:

I did that so much with my friends. I love that when I was in that young mother, especially when I had three under three at home, and just exactly what Maddie is saying. I just like even if you can bring them to a friend's house and go back to your own house for in your own house for three hours.

Speaker 2:

Sometimes that's like just as such good for your heart. So just find, get creative, but don't. Motherhood needs some respite. Every now and then you need a little bit of TLC, otherwise it's like your your burnout is going to come out sideways and you don't want that.

Speaker 1:

You don't want that, so it's not. It's not. It's not a bad thing to say.

Speaker 2:

I'd like to swap kids for just a couple hours.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's so helpful. Okay, what is a lie that you believe that God has had to, or maybe still is uprooting in your heart, and what gospel truth has he been reminding you to squash that lie?

Speaker 2:

Okay, I love this question and I'm reading this book right now.

Speaker 2:

It's called Courageously Soft by Shariah Rush and honestly it's fantastic and it's been like a mirror to me in the best, like a sharp mirror in the best way possible, because what it's shown me at least you know, one of the things it showed me is that I have, really I have a tendency to let the hardships of life she calls them scars start to put a pretty rough, protective exterior on my heart. And I wouldn't have said this before and I don't honestly think people who know me would say that about me. And I think that's because, to be honest, I've been a Christian my whole life. I speak Christian fluently at this point.

Speaker 2:

And I know all the right things to say to appear okay.

Speaker 2:

And I know all the right things to say to appear okay, but the introspection that this book has forced out of me has really shown me some buried places of just rock-hard cynicism in my heart. And so the lies that I've been believing were that God's there but he's distant, or he's there but he won't intervene. There but he's distant, or he's there but he won't intervene, or he's there but he's got like bigger fish to fry than the struggles in my life, you know, like war and human trafficking and mass violence and famine. Those are bigger fish to fry. So he's there, I don't doubt that he's there, but he's not a God of details and those things that start to shape the posture of my heart and kind of force me into this gun-shy position when it comes to worship and prayer, like I'm almost afraid to do it because I've had some hard things happen. I've had some prayers go unanswered.

Speaker 2:

So I'm just going to clam up. But the thing is that's impossible for God Like those things cannot be true of Him. That's not His character. And I think of Jesus in the garden, you know, the night before he was to be crucified, and, my gosh, did he have every reason in the world to clam up?

Speaker 2:

and harden his heart out of fear that God, the father, would not come through, and I mean even in his deity. He had the humanity to admit he was scared and to show his anxiety, but his heart stayed soft. It was like a tenderness in his faith that pushed him through to the point when, even when the soldiers came to arrest him and Peter grabs the sword to fight, like is ready to take him on, it was a soft heart from Jesus that said, like a soft and surrendered heart that said Peter put the sword down, this is in God's hands and he walks into that suffering. And that is something that I have to continually let God dig out of me is the scared cynicism that can develop. I think it's natural for all of us to develop. I know I've had a lot of quotes in this talking to you today, but I just I love quotes. Me too, I love them.

Speaker 2:

There's one more from okay good from Sherea that I want to share here. And she says the miracle of the soft heart authenticates the message of the gospel. Wow, I love that so much. I have a tendency to miss that in the hard seasons. You know, I love that so much. I have a tendency to miss that in the hard seasons to be protectively skeptical and cynical. And again, I'm not doubting his existence. But I'm completely missing out on his fellowship when I start to clam up like that.

Speaker 1:

That's so, so wildly encouraging and helpful. What's that book called again?

Speaker 2:

It is called Courageously Soft by.

Speaker 1:

Sherea.

Speaker 2:

Rush Okay.

Speaker 1:

That sounds amazing.

Speaker 2:

It's excellent.

Speaker 1:

And I totally relate. It feels like I'm always fighting cynicism and staying soft, and so I'm excited to read that book and, yeah, super encouraged by that quote too. Okay, what is the best or one of the best pieces of advice you've ever received?

Speaker 2:

I think it has to be from my mentor in college, Mike, and he would tell all of us this as we graduated. You know, keep your eyes on Jesus, Katie. That's it. Just keep your eyes on Jesus.

Speaker 1:

It reminds me earlier in the podcast, when you were talking about fighting. I might butcher exactly what you said, but looking, if you look for his kindness, you will find it, and you have to fight to like keep your eyes there. I can't, but you essentially alluded too to keeping your eyes on him earlier, and I was encouraged by that. What would you tell 18-year-old Katie?

Speaker 2:

There's a lot I could tell that girl, but I will go with this. Hard is not the same thing as bad, and you learn a lot more in the hard.

Speaker 1:

What is a piece of scripture the Lord is currently using to encourage, exhort or convict you with lately?

Speaker 2:

It's not really one specific piece of scripture right now, but I'll tell you, at my church there the pastors are preaching through 1 Samuel and the last couple of sermons have just been so, so good and so convicting. You know from, uh, talking about Hannah's prayer, and one of the things that you know stood out to me when the pastor said, like self-sufficient people stop praying, but desperate people pray and we want to be desperate people who pray and um, yeah, I don't know, but it's just phenomenal Bible teachers and really making the book of 1 Samuel come to life right now. So that's kind of where that's where I've been camping yeah, what is your church called?

Speaker 1:

So I can maybe link some of those.

Speaker 2:

Sure, yeah, it's Grace. Christian Fellowship.

Speaker 1:

Okay, okay.

Speaker 2:

I will be sure to link those yeah amazing.

Speaker 1:

Okay someone is out there listening to this and maybe, god willing, for the first time thinking I want to respond to the gospel, I want to know and follow Jesus. What is a tangible next step for them? What advice do you have for them?

Speaker 2:

That's really amazing to think about, and what I would tell them first is you need a local church family and you need a church leader, whether it's a pastor, a deacon or a ministry leader, somebody who knows you. Please do not stay anonymous in your church, friend. And I would say that to anybody.

Speaker 2:

Don't stay anonymous in your church. You have to be known One, because at some point in our life we're going to need our church family to come gather, rally around us life is hard yeah but two. We are just as human. We are too prone to sin and we are too easily swayed by the world to grow if we're in isolation. So get into a local church and, even if it's super vulnerable, like to go to that event or to try out that community group, or to volunteer for something you know, so that you're known.

Speaker 2:

It's just I, really just I want you so badly to just experience the gift of being known in your church. And then the other thing is just ask God to help you fall in love with the Bible. I love God's word, but I won't be somebody that ever just, oh, just open your Bible and read it and pretends that that's like the end.

Speaker 2:

The Bible is beautiful, but I've been reading it my whole life and I'm still like huh Sometimes you know this is a tricky thing to understand and I need more context, I need more teaching, I need more wisdom, I need more love in general for it, and I once heard Beth Moore say that she often thinks people think God just gave her some natural inclination towards scripture that he didn't give the rest of us, and she was basically like that is not true.

Speaker 2:

I have been praying, and I still pray, every day of my life that God would give me a love for his scripture, an affection for his scripture, and that's a prayer he is happy to answer and I've always loved that, because I think we often think about how we think of our favorite Bible teachers as having something we don't, and I mean certainly they may have the gift of teaching, the gift of communication, a calling or an anointing on their lives and not all of us have, certainly, but they don't have access to the scriptures that we don't, and that's a gift. So get into the Bible, ask God to help you love it and just find out how limitless he is, because no matter how much of him we experience, we'll never dry that well out.

Speaker 1:

Amen, amen, amen. Okay, to wrap up our time together, we have some rapid fire questions Keyword, rapid keyword Are you ready? I'm ready, okay, most impactful verse on your life all time.

Speaker 2:

Matthew 9, 23. It says take heart, daughter. Your faith has healed you. I love that Favorite book all time has healed you, I love that Favorite book all time. That's impossible.

Speaker 1:

A top 10, a top which one comes to mind right now. Or three To Kill a Mockingbird. To Kill a Mockingbird Amazing.

Speaker 2:

Favorite song right now, maddie, depends on my mood. If I'm on the Peloton, I want Eminem, and if I'm in the car, I want something like Good News by. Brian and Katie Torwalt, which is just, that's an anthem for me, I know. I'm a study in contradictions, but yeah, I love.

Speaker 1:

It Okay, favorite song all time, is there one?

Speaker 2:

Should I say Power of your Love? By Darlene. Check, you know, back to my 16 year old. You have to, you have to check, you know, back to my 16-year-old self you have to, you have to. That's probably not it, but since I can't narrow it down, the Hymns Albums by Shane and Shane yes, those are on repeat for weeks at a time around here. Yes, Favorite food Warm. Sourdough bread with butter. Do you make sourdough bread oh?

Speaker 1:

girl, I do.

Speaker 2:

Okay, Amazing Favorite Bible teacher to listen to. This is a tie between Timothy Keller and Jackie Hill Perry. Yes, Favorite podcast? That's also impossible. Give us a couple that you like Too many. My friend McLean Bible Church in Virginia, where David Platt is the teacher, and she is always telling us listen to this and I, I love, I love listening to those podcasts right now, david Platt's amazing so.

Speaker 1:

Something not many people know about you.

Speaker 2:

I only drink decaf coffee and I think people assume when you have a lot of kids, you live on caffeine and I just I can't do it. I only drink decaf.

Speaker 1:

Nope, that's amazing. You live on the spirit, that's amazing. I wish I could say that, maddie, I live on something, but yes, okay, what are you loving right now? Really anything?

Speaker 2:

Okay. So I found this recipe for you're going to laugh black bean brownies and I'm obsessed Like I make them, like three times a week. I basically consider it a calling in my life, maddie, to find as many acceptable ways as possible to eat chocolate every day and share that with people. Amazing Praise God. Here's the thing my kids love these brownies. They have no clue. They're made with beans.

Speaker 1:

Okay, can you email it to me? Well, I'll get the link to that so that we can get her to-.

Speaker 2:

We will share that link. You guys need some black bean brownies in your life. Yes, that is absolutely amazing.

Speaker 1:

Okay, how can our friends listening today be praying for you? Thanks?

Speaker 2:

for asking that. You know, just for stamina, just stamina to keep going, keep showing up.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, if you're listening, would you take a moment to pause and pray for Katie? We would so appreciate it. Where can our listeners find you, if you want to be found?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's nice. I'm on Instagram at katiemblackburn and then I also write on Substack, which is kind of my preferred place on the internet, and my little corner over there is called.

Speaker 1:

Let Me Tell you I will link all of those things. Her writing is just so impactful and wonderful. God's gifted her in such huge ways. Katie, thank you, thank you. Thank you for sharing sacred parts of your life with us today and just sharing how God's showing up in them. When I say that it's been an honor to get to have this conversation with you today, I mean it deeply, and even getting to write out these questions, which some of them are like repeat questions that I always ask. But even as when I was writing this and I was like it just felt this tenderness I don't that's the best way I can describe it Like it was just like this tenderness and this I found myself getting emotional even writing them, thinking about your story and you sharing all that God's doing before I even got to talk to you. So just so grateful. Yeah, thanks for being here.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, and thank you for the work you do. People don't always know there's a lot that goes into you hosting and producing and putting this podcast out, and so much of that is unseen. But I know you believe in it because you believe this is the work God's put in front of you and the way you can encourage and use your gifts, and so thank you for showing up to what God's put in front of you. Maddie, you're doing a great job. Thanks, katie.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, okay. So you know, when you meet someone for the first time or in our case, virtually me and Katie's case and you're just refreshed because they're even better than you thought they were. They just love Jesus and they ooze Jesus and humility. And that's just how I felt having Katie on the podcast. I just felt so loved by her, I felt so cared for by her, even in our conversation. Just the way that she communicated and talked and the way that she spoke to me before and after Jesus just oozed out of her. So that's just so encouraging to me as I then get to hear her story and listen to the way she's following Jesus. And I simply got a chat with her for one hour, for one total hour, and felt the love of Christ through her. So, again, just blown away, such a gem of a human. I could have chatted with her forever. I just felt like I left that conversation with so many precious nuggets and encouragements from her and truly have been so spurred on by her life from afar, just reading her writing and watching her be honest and share with us what God's doing, but in such an honest, raw and beautiful way, and so I'm praying that you were as encouraged from this conversation today, as I was. You got to go follow Katie and follow her. The things that she writes. She is just an amazing writer and storyteller and her love for Jesus and her trust in Jesus is just so stinking evident. And I only got to chat with her for an hour.

Speaker 1:

So, friends, if this episode was encouraging to you at all, would you be willing to share it with your friends and family? Shoot them a text that truly helps the podcast to go forth? Um, cause. I believe that what we're talking about in here the gospel God transforming lives. I believe that he is using this um to change and shape and form people. I believe this gospel message with all that I am, with my whole being. So, if this episode was encouraging to you, would you share it with your friends and family? Would you consider sharing it to your social media spaces on your stories? I would so appreciate that. I would also appreciate if you left a review wherever you listen to your podcast episodes, whether that's a rating review or a written review. I would so appreciate it. Friends, as always, I would love to hear from you. You can reach me at maddie at sunnyand65.com. That's M-A-D-I at sunnyand65.com. You can also stay connected by subscribing to my newsletter. There is a link in the show notes Friends, go, be bold and love big, and we will see you next time.