Sacred by Design: Andrea's Journey

Have you ever wondered what it truly means to be sacred by design? In this heartfelt episode, Kyle turns the spotlight on Andrea, who opens up about her personal reflections and journey toward embracing the belief that every individual is sacred and created with intention. Andrea bravely shares her struggles with bulimia and the profound moment of divine peace she experienced in church, showing how these experiences have shaped her understanding and faith.  Tune in for an inspiring dialogue that underscores the sacredness of our personal development and the incredible impact of support and connection.

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Transcript

Discovering Sacred Design Within Yourself

Speaker 1 0:22

So we're starting off this episode of Sacred by Design by acknowledging the fact that I probably will need tissues for this, and Kyle left me one, and we're turning the tables a little bit, yes, a big bit.

Speaker 2 0:34

Yes, the tables are going to be turned today.

Speaker 1 0:37

Today, Kyle is going to ask me questions.

Speaker 2 0:40

That's right. We get to hear from Andrea. You see her, you've heard her, as she has talked with a lot of us on staff, and so now we get to talk to Andrea. And so, andrea, so we've been season two here. We are really digging into sacred body design, and one of the things that we thought was important was that we could share with everyone what each of us thought about, what sacred by design means to us, and so I want to toss that question to you, and so, when you think about sacred by design, tell me what comes up for you. What does that mean for you?

Speaker 1 1:22

Well, immediately I smile. I think it felt like such a dream on my heart to be able to have an opportunity to tell as many women as possible that they are sacred, that they are by design, that that means a lot. Yeah, that holds a lot. Those words were really important to us when we were picking them, and the fact that nobody had ever come up with that title. I was like, yes, God, here you go, Because it's something that in every encounter, I feel like I mean, I'm an encouraging person but I believe it to my core.

Speaker 1 2:05

Yeah, person, but I believe it to my core that the human beings that I encounter are sacred by design, even when they make me mad in traffic, even at the grocery store, wherever it is. It's something that I lacked hearing growing up. And so to own it, to claim it it's something I want to the things that we hear in the dark we're supposed to proclaim from the rooftops. That's something I want to proclaim from the rooftops. Okay.

Speaker 2 2:32

So what was it like for you, then, to be able to really receive that for you? Like, you're clear about being able to see it for others, but what about for you? So, kyle?

Speaker 1 2:45

this is where it's going to get a little dicey, because I think that it's still a process. It's still very much a process. I can tell you, I am sacred by design and I can say that when I'm in the pantry because I was bulimic for 17 years and really questioning that, to be true I can say that when a memory will trigger, or a song will trigger, something from my past, that will really shake the foundation of that. So it is a process, okay, but I'm trying.

Speaker 2 3:21

But I think that's important for people to hear. Yeah, Because it's really easy to toss out the beautiful words and then go okay, I'm going to catch it and I'm going to have it and I'm going to run with it and not understand that sometimes there will be things that come against you that will make you want to not believe that that is true.

Speaker 1 3:43

Oh, because they come. Yes, they come, and you know even the word design. Sometimes I think like I'm a sacred mess and I think I mean I'm not even trying to be like super positive about it, it's a both and yes Is what I think it is where I can get really angry with God about some things that have been messy in my life. Yeah, some things that have been really not okay painful in my life. But still call it sacred, yeah, because he has forever been a part of my life in very poignant ways, in very detailed, undeniable ways that there's no way that I can call it anything but sacred. But it still hurts sometimes.

Speaker 2 4:28

Yes, yeah, yeah. So can you think of? Is there a time where you could feel like you had that first sort of thing where you went no, like okay, no matter what you say, I'm receiving something different. I'm receiving that. I am sacred. Can you think of a moment in time where that kind of shift happened, or can you say what that shift was like for you?

Speaker 1 4:56

Hmm, some people have gut feelings. I have heart thumping, so my heart thumps really strong when it feels very true, okay, and it's not a bad thing, it's a beautiful thing, and I remember, I mean, there's so many.

Speaker 2 5:13

Oh, that's good. You have a plethora to choose from. I love it. I love it.

Speaker 1 5:18

So one I mean. This has just been brought up recently because it was a reading at church. Recently I had had a biopsy and was waiting on results and it was a very painful biopsy and I was ticked off because the pain, that I was in the confusion with doctors and I was waiting a long time for these biopsy results. And I was at church and the reading was where Jesus had died and the disciples were all hiding in fear and they said the doors were locked for fear of being killed. And Jesus came and said peace, be with you. And for me, I was like all these walls. I put all these walls up and I knew it. I'd isolated myself from people, I had isolated myself in anger, isolated myself in. Here we go again. That's what my walls were built up by and hearing that it just struck me as but Jesus can get through those walls and just want to offer you peace.

Speaker 1 6:18

But then it gets better because so I'm Catholic and Catholics I mean we're a little, I don't know, it's just a little different. And so the priest had said something like we're going to do something a little different, we're going to do an anointing of the sick, because I feel like somebody here is waiting on biopsy results and needs some peace. And so I literally stood up and I was like that's not even for you, that's not even for you, this is for me. It was so direct and so crazy and that is.

Speaker 2 6:52

Yeah. So that's like understanding, even in your being sacred by design, that Jesus sought you out.

Speaker 1 7:03

And he didn't give me a biopsy result. He didn't clear anything, but he was with me.

Speaker 2 7:08

Yes, and he sought you out because he knew what you needed. Yeah, so how would you then? Yeah, so how would you then? What ways would you encourage someone if they're really battling with being sacred by design, like, and because I think, as women, I feel like there's so much stuff right, whether it's we don't look like this one yeah, we're not as tall, we're not as this. There's always these comparisons that we can do with one another. So how would you just really try to communicate to somebody about their sacred, being sacred by design? I feel like.

Speaker 1 7:51

Jesus. He just does such a beautiful job of making space for women and elevating women. I think of the way that he sat and talked with the Samaritan woman and he knew everything about her, everything about her that society had told her you're done, you are not wanted, you are this Like, you are not wanted, you are this you are. That Society had said so many things about her and he just made space for her, offered her living water, and he chose her to be the first one to go and tell everybody else that he was the Messiah.

Speaker 1 8:29

That says a lot about what he saw in her, what he sees in me, the way he calls us by name, the way he called Mary by name Gosh. I think of Ruth, I think of Hannah, I think of his mother. There's a really special place in God's design, not in God's plan. A plan is something that you can kind of pull together, right right. Design. You really have to mark out, you have to decide, you have to dream, you have to pull these different things together. And I like to tell my kids that when God created them, that he had a little like he for Joseph, for one of my boys, that he took his little bottle of creativity and was like ah, whatever, I'll just give it a little extra dose and was like, ah, whatever, I'll just give a little extra dose.

Speaker 1 9:15

Or for my daughter, who's super artistic, that God was like, oh, I know she's going to love this and just really give her an extra dose of that. It's just, we all have these things and when you shift, even like my voice, instead of being like, yeah, I'm sacred by design, what does it mean? It's an adventure. So I encourage the adventure of like explore, interview yourself, find out what's new and different and unique to you, because we are not the same thank god, praise god we're so different.

Speaker 1 9:47

I just think that's really cool on purpose, yeah we're different on purpose.

Speaker 2 9:51

We weren't meant to be like little clones of everything of each other. So, okay, how? How do you talk to somebody about just getting over the fear of even taking the adventure? Because that's this, you know, because you probably have to do something very different, like I just heard somebody say, in order to go where you've never gone, you have to do something you've never done.

Speaker 1 10:23

Well, maybe laughing like a crazy person to start off the journey would be good. So I have the. There's a verse that really spoke to me when I was in some really heavy times in my life, and it's when Jesus is talking to Peter and he says look out, because Satan has asked to sift you like wheat, but I've prayed for you that your faith will not fail and when you've turned back, go and encourage your brothers and sisters, and I think what gives me encouragement is it is not easy, right, it's not neat and tidy and there's no timeline Exactly All of that sounds really not encouraging, right.

Speaker 1 11:09

Come on, I need a timeline I know Jesus, sir, and it's going to look like this and it's going to feel like this. No, it's so different. That's why it's not prescriptive, it's just, it's an adventure.

Speaker 1 11:20

So I feel like when Jesus is saying that I used to think of you, know, like a sifter, and then you're sifting through things, trying to get rid of stones or whatever it is that you're trying to get rid of, to have left what matters, and Jesus is fully aware that Satan is going to sift us, but I feel like it's his hands that are holding, his hands that are doing the sifting, and he's holding what he wants, what he wants to encourage you with, what he wants you to grow, what he sees that you don't even know exists inside you, and he holds it and he's praying for you and he knows he's so confident in you. He says when you have turned back, go and strengthen your brothers and sisters. It's his hands that are the colander, his hands that are. Maybe life is shifting, but he's the one holding. His precious hands have been through too much, too much to let me slip through to let you slip through.

Speaker 1 12:13

Yeah, to let you slip through, yeah.

Speaker 2 12:16

Yeah. So for those of you who might feel like, man, I don't know if I can take the adventure, maybe they don't even feel like an adventurous person, because adventure sometimes means something. For some people it means like, oh, I've got to jump off the cliff in order to have adventure. Right, what if folks could really think about the adventure as like you've got this wonderful friend that you get to hang out and do some stuff with. Yeah, and Jesus is that friend. Yeah, yes, how about that. How about that?

Speaker 1 12:54

Yeah, and maybe you're not jumping off a cliff, that's right. Maybe you're journaling, right. Maybe you are going for a hike and you do get sweaty. I mean, I say watercoloring all the time because I cannot tell you the way that God has shown up in color, in vivid color. It makes me teary, as a coach and as an Andrea, to witness women coming in for coaching and shrouded, you know, layers of dark, shame, pain. I'm not worthy, I can't believe this Right. But then God lifting just ever so gently.

Speaker 1 13:32

And all of a sudden, there's pink, there's yellow, there's purple, there's green, and in abundance. Yes, so tailored to each one of them.

Embracing Personal Growth and Journey

Speaker 2 13:43

It's so good. It's so good, it's so good. Yeah, yes, to know that and to recognize and I hope people recognize that that's coming directly from Jesus as a coach. Jesus chose to use you in that moment, to work through you, to get to them, and I hope people who are having good experiences with therapists or coaches or whatever context or you have people that are encouraging you and walking with you that Jesus has chosen them to get to you. Yes, and that's part of the design.

Speaker 1 14:23

Yes, Right that you're not alone. You're not alone Ever. What did you just say earlier when we were talking about the? It's not, it might be personal.

Speaker 2 14:32

Oh yeah. So yeah, character development is personal, but not private. So yeah, character development is personal, but not private.

Speaker 1 14:40

Yeah, I mean so many times in my own life to have somebody be like wait, wait, wait, wait. Let's just sit there for a second because that's amazing. I don't want to miss it. Yeah, I don't want you to miss it. Yeah, don't miss it. You are sacred by design. I don't want you to miss it Absolutely.

Speaker 2 14:56

Absolutely so. Do you have any final words of encouragement that you would like to impart?

Speaker 1 15:06

It's that both, and it's not easy, it's not tidy, it's quite painful. I know for my own counselor God bless her Because I think I showed up for the first several sessions with my arms crossed like I mean I'll pay you but there's nothing to do here, because I didn't think to consider. But when you even let the slightest bit, the tiniest crack of light in, he just shows up.

Speaker 2 15:38

I'm so confident of that. Yeah, that's so good. That's so good. Well, andrea, thank you for being on the other side and not being the one asking the questions and allowing those who are listening to get to hear more from you and your heart. And when we pepper you with questions, right, yes, in your heart. And when we pepper you with questions, right, yes.

Speaker 1 16:04

So we are so grateful to have you as our host and for you to have allowed us to turn the tables on you this go around. You did a great job, kyle. All right, thank you.