Sidewalk Conversations
"Let the one who thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall..." (1 Corinthians 10:12)
Standing strong and remaining true to your calling is no easy task. No one sets out to crash and burn. In fact, it's actually the opposite, most people want to stand strong, remain effective, and be true to their values all the way through to the end. But, it is really hard to do.
In these interviews, Piet Van Waarde (a 40 year veteran of pastoral ministry) has heart-to-heart conversations with ordinary people about what it takes to stay faithful and effective in the things that matter most.
Sidewalk Conversations
From the Barrio to the Whitehouse with Rebecca Contreras
Hey there. Thank you for joining us today for sidewalk conversations. And I have had this day starred on my calendar.<laugh> this, this, I feel so honored to be able to talk to you, Rebecca, thank you for making time. I know this is a crazy busy time for you. So thank you for being here. I am with my guest, Rebecca Contreras, who has like a life story that she has just told in her book loss girl. And we're going to unpack that a little bit today. And, uh, before I get into the questions, I just wanna say this right up front. And I told you this before, you know, we went on the air, but, um, one of the things I so respected about your book is that when you, when you see a person who's accomplished some things, which you have, I mean, you've worked with the governor of Texas. You went through the white house with him, you have your own business now as an entrepreneur. And they tell their story. Usually it's like, man, I made some mistakes when I was a kid<laugh> and you know, but you went raw. I mean, you went all the way there it's indeed. And, um, I loved your candor and I really appreciate it. I think it's gonna be such a helpful book to people. So when it, it came out, right,
Speaker 2:I mean, yeah, it's out. It was released. Um, the pre-release two weeks ago, official release happened this Saturday and it is now on Amazon and Barnes as well as on my website. So we are up, we are up and running.
Speaker 1:Okay.<laugh> good. Well, thank you again for making time for me today. So I, I wanna, um, normally when we do these, uh, I talk a little bit about the story, but your story is so multifaceted. Mm-hmm<affirmative> I want to use the questions mm-hmm<affirmative> as a, as a way to kind of tell part of your story, if you're okay with that. Perfect. Okay. So one of the things that I was curious about is that you have a very like challenging upbringing. I mean, your mom was absent and your dad was not great. And I you're very
Speaker 2:Gracious. Didn't know my dad actually never met my dad.
Speaker 1:Um, and so you were, you know, living with your grandmother and then I, I mean, it's just, and then there's a portion of the book, like halfway through the book, you start talking about making restoration in your own heart, uh, for some of the things that happened to you, which you ended up repeating in some ways in your own life. But I thought that was such a key turning point because when I, when I talk to people who are trying to do something significant, their past sometimes catches up to them and it becomes the impediment for making any, any progress. But you dealt with all those issues. You courageously forgave where forgiveness needed to happen. You confronted some things that needed to be confronted mm-hmm<affirmative>. And I'm curious, where did that courage come from?
Speaker 2:Well, so I was, um, thank you, Pete. First of all, for having me, this is fabulous and I just love telling my story and dissecting it deeper. Um, and I appreciate you reading the book and would love, love your perspective. Um, I think I was telling somebody the other day, I wasn't born courageous and I wasn't born, um, a leader and, and, you know, there's theories out there, you know, born leadership, born courage, you know, innate, is it innate in you? Is it something you learn? And for me it is learned behavior. Um, but all throughout my early childhood teen and even a young adult life I had, there were milestones in my life where I can look at situations where I had to take courage steps when I was sexually abused. Um, it was courageous for me to come forward and talk about that. Yeah. Um, you know, so I, I will tell you when I, when I encountered Jesus and got saved at age 19, uh, and began to, to surround myself with people and mentors and the word and, and just get some counseling, I started to learn that in order for me to go forward, I would have to go backward. Um,
Speaker 1:But that's so uncomfortable. Most people don't wanna do that.
Speaker 2:Indeed, indeed. And not only was it uncomfortable, it was painful. It was heart wrenching. Uh, I actually have been through a journey of heart wrenching pain. Yeah. Um, I was telling my husband the other day and one of my best friends when they, when, when one of my best friends read the book, she said, it's so painful just to read it. How did you feel writing it? And I went through even another level of deeper dealing when I roped the book. I bet. Um, I thought I had dealt with certain issues and I just had to put the pin down and just cry and pray through it. And so, but it, for me, it's about dealing and dealing with the root so that the fruit of my work could surface. And I'm a firm believer that without dealing with the root, the fruit will not follow. And I watched my mother die of premature death because she never dealt with her past. Yeah. So the, the, the catalyst for me, first of all, was my daughter. Mm-hmm,<affirmative>, you know, I had a, a little girl that all of a sudden, you know, I was responsible for that. I wasn't caring very well for, you'll read about it in lost book the first year of her life. But when I got saved, she was 13 months old. And I for once had an aha moment of I've got a child I'm responsible for, and I hated the way that I was brought up. And I did not want to repeat the mistakes of my mother's past with her. Yeah. So that courage I had to find it. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, and I think one of the things that I, I find kind of curious and interesting about people who make the journey that you do is that there is those, those clarifying moments where it's almost like you see life from a whole new perspective. Like I was kind of down the track doing what I was doing. And then all of a sudden you have this aha moment, like you said, and you, you realize crap. I gotta get my stuff. Literal
Speaker 2:Crap. Yeah. Literal crap.
Speaker 1:<laugh> well good for you for seeing it and for, for doing it. And I'm, I'm curious, cuz I I'm guessing there may be some people watching who, when they read your story or hear you talk about it, say, oh my goodness, I can relate to that. I just don't know that I can deal with that past. Um, were, were there like some initial steps that you took that were especially helpful that you might encourage others to take?
Speaker 2:Um, I'll tell you I'm remembering back. Um, when my husband and I first got married, um, a couple years after I got saved and he adopted my daughter and we began our journey together, I was 21. Um, we started having severe problems, marital problems. I mean really bad ones, things that destroy marriages. Mm. And they were centered around my emotional dysfunction and my mental illness and my inability to deal with the pain. And we didn't find that out until we started to get counseling. And we both, I remember one and I talk about this in the book. One situation, we were just a couple months married. I literally would sit in a fetal position in the room and rock when he would get angry at me and I would, and he would say, what's wrong with you? So when that started happening month after month, I, he said to me, he said, you're gonna have to deal with this. Yeah. Um, he had to deal with his anger by the way, which exasperated my emotional dysfunction, but we both knew we had to deal with it. And so that was also a catalyst in dealing with it because I knew that if I didn't deal with the deep pain, not only could I not be a healthy mother to my daughter, um, but I could not be a healthy wife. And I wanted that. Pete, I wanted that so badly because my mother wasn't married. My grandmother wasn't married. There was no line of sight for me in a healthy marriage. And I loved my husband very dearly and I knew we had purpose together and I wanted it fixed so that I could be a better wife.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love that. One of the things. And, and if at any point I get a little too personal, you just go like, ah, time out where you not gonna go there. That's okay.<laugh> but you know, given some of the, the excesses that you engaged in during your teenage years, you know, it, would've been really easy to try and numb the pain with things that had kind of quote unquote worked for you in the past. Mm-hmm<affirmative> um, what kept you from going back to that?
Speaker 2:Well, so I did actually, um, about six months after I got saved, I did have a, a, a, a, a, um, horrible back, you know, moment where, um, I was living with my mother and she was trying to help me out the addiction and the, and the, and just all the trauma. And, um, I had a slippage moment because I was dealing with, um, you know, my, in my past. And I was dealing with a lot of pain with the friendships that I literally had to sever and walk away from. These are people that I had done life with and granted done the drugs and all the other stuff with, but there were no new friends in my life. There were all church people that I couldn't relate to them. Yeah. And so, um, I had a, a weekend, I would say it was more than a weekend, maybe four or five days of, of really craziness and had a horrible weekend. And I remember my, my, uh, my husband who was, um, the assistant community pastor at the time on the church, I was going to, he was volunteering for, um, a church and he ended up on my doorstep. Um, and I was hungover and just strung out. And he ended up on my doorstep and he said, Hey, we didn't see you at church this weekend. What happened to you? This is David. Now my husband. And he was with another youth leader. And I said, well, why, why do you care? And he said, we care about you. And it was the first time I really saw someone outside of my bad friends care for me. Mm-hmm<affirmative>. And it made me think, well, maybe I should, maybe I should dig deeper. Maybe I should really try. Cuz maybe it's only been a few months and I haven't really tried, but I had to deal with not only the addiction, the physical addiction of withdrawal from a drug addiction that I'd had for many years, but I also had to deal with the past pain and, and losing my, my, my daughter's baby daddy at the time was in prison and got, put, I'll tell a whole story about his nonsense. And you know, I was without that relationship and there were so many, which was a healthy thing. I, at the time, I didn't realize it was a healthy thing, right? When you lose something that you think is good, that's really, really bad. You don't know what you don't want, what don't lose, but all those things I decided to commit to that church and to that me mentorship and to that, that healing process and go all in. And that's when I began to see really accelerated transformation in my life.
Speaker 1:I love that. And, and you know, I think if there's been a common theme in every one of these talks, at some point in the talk, people talk about community, you know, they talk about having, um, a group of people that really cared mm-hmm<affirmative> and said, you know what? It doesn't matter if your life's mess, we love you. We're gonna walk with you in this. And, um, it just, it reminds me of how important people who have others in their life, who like, well, I'm just, I'm gonna let them go and let them do to be able to walk towards them and say, no, come on. Let's, let's do this together. Let's walk in this together because maybe there's a story like yours.
Speaker 2:Well, listen, without the people in my life that believed in me early on and, and came around me, Pete, not only to just say, Hey, you're smart, you have potential. But they said, I believe in you, and I'm gonna roll up my sleeves and get dirty. Like there was one woman in particular about month seven that, um, I was paired with as a mentor. And she had walked the journey. I had walked, had a lot of abuse in her past. And she said, I want you to talk to me about how you feel. Mm-hmm,<affirmative> like, I wanna get in your world and understand why you're angry, or why you're you feel like you have unforgiveness? And we met on a regular basis, um, without the people in my life without community. And, and even throughout my whole journey, the last third, the last 25 years of being part of the shoreline family, I was telling pastor Rob the other day, and pastor Laura, like Shoreline's been life giving to my husband and I in our marriage in so many ways. And so community, when they say it takes a village, it really does take a village to do life. And when we isolate and when we make a decision to say, I'm not gonna deal with this and I'm gonna stay away from people it's just so toxic and so negative. And, and it will keep us bound. Yeah. Um, and, and God wants us free.
Speaker 1:And I think the hard part of, of, of like people will hear us and they'll say, yes, I know, I know. I know. But there is that little, um, that season between letting go of the old friends and finding the new friends that feels so risky. Like, how do I know? I know that they're gonna say like, Pete and Rebecca are talking about these people caring, but how do I know they're gonna care for me? And it feels so vulnerable, but if you don't take the step, if you don't take the risk, you're never gonna experience the blessing of it. And right. And that's, I think that's really where the courage comes from is just going in and saying, all right, I'm willing to let that go and go here. It's kind of like the trapeze, you let this one go in order to go to this one. Uh, but that's, what's gonna take
Speaker 2:Well, and I'll, yeah. I have an example of, of a strong and, and, and being a believer and believing in God and having faith and going to church is not enough. Right? My mother was the strongest woman of faith. I talk about it in my book. She knew the Bible. She was a Bible Bible school teacher valedictorian. Um, and she died a premature death because she didn't deal with her past. And she was never plugged into healthy church. She was a lone ranger. I mean, she did her own thing and she was very gifted ground, mind you, but she never had the right people around her to help her deal. And to tell her grace, this is not a healthy trade in your life to the tough love. You know, I have friends in my life even today that will say, um, that what you did was not cool. Like, you need to change that. And I'm, I'm like, I'm offended by that. You know, talk to the great one as pastor Rob says, you're talking to the great one<laugh>, but I love the fact that I have people in my life that will tell me and call me out on my stuff. Yeah. Um, and when you don't have that community and friends that are healthy life, given friends, you won't have that.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's right. Wow. That was awesome. Okay. You don't even have to listen to anything else. If you just get that, you're gonna be great.<laugh> but there's more, um, so I wanna shift gears a little bit. So then after you kind of get your things sorted out there is, are these like divine, unbelievable opportunities that open up to you? People not only help you get out of the bad stuff, begin to open doors to the good stuff. And so you get a chance to meet some people and get mentored in, in, uh, uh, human resources. And then that kind of leads you to Ann Richards and, uh, George Bush and so on. But one of the things that struck me in that story was that you were surrounded, uh, in those environments, by people who had kind of been groomed for those roles. You know, they, they went to all the right colleges, they had the right internships and here walks this woman from the hood<laugh>,<laugh>
Speaker 2:Literally from the hood.
Speaker 1:And you said, uh, and I just kind of was so beautiful the way you were so vulnerable about this. You said, I felt pretty darn intimidated being in this place. And there were, I think, a couple conversations you noted where you had to kind of, you know, get yourself up mm-hmm<affirmative> and say, Hey, no, this is not okay. You know, we can't relate like this mm-hmm<affirmative>. And again, I wanna ask, like, what, what kind of work did you have to do internally, emotionally, um, in your own mind, in terms of your mindset that helped you be that kind of person in that environment?
Speaker 2:Well, you're talking to somebody who started at below ground zero. Okay. So when, when, when I talk about, I started below ground zero, I mean, it I'm a high school dropout. Um, I had never held a job other than a cocktail waitress. Um, I get into this welfare to work program and I do want people to get the book and read it, cuz I'm not doing it any justice in this few minutes we have together. But I, I, I go into this welfare to work program. And my first boss was Anne Richards. She was the state treasurer at the time. And I was working as her receptionist. Um, and I'm around all these people, very powerful people, every person, not only that I've been around my entire career in terms of working for them. But even the people I hire are more educated than I am, are smarter than I am, um, have a lot more experience than I do. And I'm just, I'm just along for the right. I'm just along to say, Hey, now I'm a leader. And I have been the last 20 some years, I get to hire smart people and say, Hey, why don't you go and do that job? And why don't you tell me how you would do it? Yeah. Now granted, I've gained a lot of experience and I've learned my confidence, but I was sharing with my son the other day. He was in, in town from LA over the weekend from my book signing. And I was telling him, um, because he said, mom, where did you come up with all that confidence. Yeah. You and dad are so confident and your upbringing doesn't have like, you should not be confident. Right. And I'm like, it didn't happen overnight. And didn't come through osmosis. I had to build my confidence by watching. I'm a people watcher, Pete. I love to watch people. I love to watch people that are more successful than I am. I love to watch people that have journey to different journey. Yeah. And learn from them. I would mimic, uh, these powerful women, women like Donna Reynolds, my mentor, who was Kay, Billy Hutchison's director of HR and governor Bush's first director of HR before I took over Karen Hughes, who's iconic and the communications director for, uh, governor Bush and then went to the white house to be his communications director. She's, she's an incredible leader. Everybody in America knows Karen Hughes. I would watch them in meetings and literally a fly on the wall, like mimic. And the next meeting I would act like they would act, or I would, but you know,
Speaker 1:Most people, I'm sorry to interrupt cuz this is, but most people, when they see that they shrink back, they say to themselves, I can't be that. Look at them, look at their, you know, their pedigree and their confidence and that's not me. And they would shrink back. What was it that caused you
Speaker 2:To go, it's called a fake it till you make it.<laugh> a strategy.<laugh>. And, and uh, and I, and I will tell you, um, in my hunger, Pete, for transformation and my hunger to be the best that I could be once I started getting a taste for success. So bear in mind, it was a 12 year journey in state government where I went from that welfare to work receptionist, to becoming the director of HR for a governor. It was a very accelerated timeframe. I worked really hard for that. Yeah. But I also had in tremendous opportunities where I stepped up to the plate to show myself approved. Mm. And, and to, you know, I always say, God's not gonna drop things just because he loves you. You've gotta work hard for it. Um, but every step of the way that the more confidence I got by, by that, by that entry point, by that promotion, or by that opportunity, I would give more confidence. Then I'd, you know, read books. My husband has been a huge, um, inspiration in my life. He would, I would come home to him when I wasn't confident. He's like, wait a minute. You can do this Uhuh. Yeah, yeah, no, no, get yourself up, like quit crying or quit, you know? And I'm like, okay. And he's very tough in his personality. And a lot of people don't know that about David cuz he doesn't come across like that. But at home he was, and he forced me to come into, um, dealing with getting some confidence and um, and just so great watching people that had confidence and then telling myself verbally talking to myself and saying, I can do all things through Christ with strengthens me. I am the head and not the tale I am above and not beneath. These are scriptures. It's important to know the word of God mm-hmm<affirmative>. But I would also tell myself, you know, you're really smart today. Like you've got this and look myself in the mirror and say, you got this, there's a lot of power to positive affirmation.
Speaker 1:And one of the things I, I I've sensed and, and I'd like you to talk about it a little bit, if you would, um, is that you were very teachable, like when you had mentors in your life, you weren't afraid to ask them questions. You were, it didn't seem like you were afraid to look like, I don't really know what I'm doing, so please help me.<laugh> um, how critical would you say that was in terms of your development, your growth?
Speaker 2:Well, so very critical and super important. Um, it's actually an essential nugget that you have to have and, and if you don't have it, then find a way to get it. Um, the transparency. So, um, if you talk to my team that over the years that has worked for me, they'll say that Rebecca's one of the most transparent people. You'll find the transparency of saying, Hey, you know, I don't really know what I'm doing. When I, when the, when the president asked me to come to Washington and I joined the white house team, I was in over my head and clay Johnson talked about this the other day in our, in our book launch. And I didn't know what I was doing. I had to go to him and say, clay, I'm really in over my head. Like, I don't know what I'm doing. Help me. Mm there's. Something about that humility. And, and so admitting that you don't know anything mm-hmm<affirmative> does not make you weak. No. Right. It doesn't make you less than anybody else. All it says is I need help. And I'm willing to work really hard if you'll help me. And, and then you turn around as a leader and you now do that for people, which is what I do with my people. So, you know, the willingness and the transparency to admit that you don't know everything. It's okay to not know everything.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And I think that's part of Paul's point when he, when he says, when you're weak, then you're strong. Exactly. Is that if you're willing to be vulnerable, you're willing to say, Hey, I don't know everything. I don't know what I'm doing. People don't reject you. They don't go, oh, well, what do we put? Why did we put her there? They're like, okay, well she's at least willing to be honest and willing to be teachable and let's invest.<laugh>
Speaker 2:No, to one point you can't go around admitting all the time. You don't know things. So I had to had the happy balance of fake it till you make it. And, um, I have many stories in the book where I talk about, I stepped in the oval office or I stepped into a situation with a Senator or a leader. And I had to act like I know what I was talking about. Um, and then later go research it or Google it or try to figure it out or ask David, what does this word mean? Yeah. He's he used to read the dictionary when we got married. He loves studying words. And um, so you, the balance of both is super important. Yeah. Yep.
Speaker 1:All right. Let me, let me change gears once again. So one of the things that I I'm curious about is, um, when, when a person achieves at the level that you've achieved, because you don't only have your, uh, role in government, you now are an entrepreneur in a very successful consulting company. And, you know, you can start thinking I'm all that like, look at me, look at how I've, I'm good.<laugh> and in the beginning of our journey, I think the enemy loves to tell us you're nothing. But then when you press past that and then actually become fruitful, he's like turns it around. And he says, oh yeah, you're the rockstar. You're old.<laugh>. So, um, another kind of personal question. How do you keep your own ego in check?
Speaker 2:Well, um, my husband helps me with that a lot.<laugh> I have to tell that funny story. And I tell this in the book, when we, when I first started at the white house, he was working in an agency cuz he served president Bush as well. And we both tagged teamed, but I was at the white house and my title was came with a two star general rank, which meant the honorable. So when I found out I was the honorable, I was like, wow, that's super cool. Uh, but you know, at first I was like, what does it mean? It doesn't really mean anything. Then I found out it's about rank and in DC everything's about positional power. And so anyway, um, I would get in the, he would drop me off at the white house complex and cuz uh, I, I actually, uh, worked in the complex and then he'd go park the car and when I'd get back in the car, um, he sometimes had to say, okay, miss honorable, take your chief hat off. Cuz you're now my husband let's have a conversation. You're not talking at me, you're talking to me. So, um, he, he's been great about, um, just reminding me, you know that yeah, it's all about, you know, what we're put to do on this earth. And he's just got such a humble spirit about him, but also, um, I have had to keep myself on a pretty short leash too Pete, because just as high as I, I, as fast as I rise, I can fall just that fast too. And I, I know that the, but for the grace of God, goi mm-hmm<affirmative>, um, and when you have the background that I have, and you have the lack of credentialing and education, now, granted I've built a great portfolio of experience, but I still lack quite a bit. And, and you always have to remember where you came from. Mm-hmm<affirmative> so my line of sight has been never, ever forget where you came from mm-hmm<affirmative> ever. Yep. And I don't care how successful you are. You always remember where you came from and when you do that, it's difficult to lose sight of that.
Speaker 1:No, that's great. And, and I appreciate the fact that you do that, uh, and it's just, it's made it easy to relate to you.<laugh> I've I've enjoyed this. This has been so good. All right. My last question, and this is really kind of at the heart of why I do this each and every week, um, because my heart has been, um, I've watched people, people, I respect people who I thought had had it all together were, were people that I would picture as the strong they would, you know, they're, they they're, they're good, they got it. And then I've even watched myself make some foolish decisions and I'm been haunted by the passage first Corinthians 10, 12, uh, take heed unless you, when you think you stand, unless you fall, um, that strength is a, uh, fragile thing. So I'm curious if you have some of your own disciplines, certain practices that help maintain and sustain the strength that you've developed.
Speaker 2:Well, so I was telling someone the other day, I, I am more busy than I'd ever been. And I, I didn't think that when you work for president Bush in the white house with a 14 hour day, how can you get more busy than that? I am so busy right now with the growth of the business. We have about a hundred person practice in the DC area and just the book launch and being mom and wife and all the other stuff. Um, my disciplines and I I'm, I'm not as disciplined as I'd like to be every day. I strive to be more disciplined, but I have to have my prayer time in the morning, my time of meditation. Um, I'll give you an example this morning. I literally got on a call at seven 30 with clients and it was nonstop till 10 30. I didn't have time to have my quiet time. So as soon as I had a 30 minute break, um, I dropped my zoom and went into the kitchen and just walked around the kitchen with worship and just thanked the Lord for the day and prayed for strength and courage. And I had 20 minutes. And so, um, you know, I just, I have to constantly remember that if I'm gonna have supernatural capacity, it's gonna require a supernatural attempt to get it from somewhere. Yeah. Because I am only human and I work out five days a week and that helps I take great vitamins. I eat organic, but I'm still only human and limited. And in order for me to have capacity, I call it high capacity, the high capacity woman, God, God infused high capacity. I've got to connect to the vine. Yeah. Um, that, uh, reading of my word, uh, I'm a big worshiper. Uh, we have, we're a worship family and just worship really clears my mind. And frankly, um, clear in my mind, Dr. Leaf is a big, um, I I'm a fan of hers and she's her, her strategies yeah. Is clear in your mind for that, that seven minutes a day. And that does a lot to, to get you in the right mindset. And so there are practical tools that we can implement and take every day. Um, do we get it right every day? No. Are there days that I, that I wanna just sleep in and not get up? Yes. But I force myself to keep disciplined around those practical things that I know are gonna make me stronger.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And, and I think one of the things I'm curious if you, if you've had this experience, you know, one of the things that happens uh I've, I'll just make it personal. I've seen this in me that when you've been around the faith for a while, I have to do a little battle in my own mind that yes. I still need the basics just because I'm a pastor, just because I've been a Christian for 45 years, mm-hmm,<affirmative> just because I've read the Bible a time or two does not mean that I can kind of move away from that and, and not need it anymore because I it's. So, um, what you said earlier about, you know, I want whatever comes from me to have a supernatural touch. Well, you cannot give what you do not have mm-hmm<affirmative> so it has to come from the overflow and if you're wanting it to come from the overflow, then you have to continue to invest in your own soul.
Speaker 2:Right. I mean, I I'll tell you, I, I have a distinct difference. I can see the difference in my day if I don't dedicate that time. Even if it's only 10 minutes, 20 minutes, um, all hell hits the fan. Um, and we can call, use another word for that.<laugh>
Speaker 1:That I,
Speaker 2:These days find, you know, I tend to use often cuz of my world craziness, but um, I'll save the Facebook live, you know, leave it clean, but you know, we have to have that. And for me it's about the basics. Um, I have lived my life, my entire life, just doing the basics. I'm a rule follower. Um, I don't let the rules tether me to a point where it inhibits my performance, but I love to follow the basics. And it works, pastor Pete, it works. Yeah, totally. When you take the implementation steps and you, you, you spend time with God, you spend time in the world, you spend time in worship, you spend time with your husband or your, or your spouse or your, whoever it is that encourages you on a daily basis. You spend time with your coach, you exercise those things, all work to help you fuel your spirit, your body, your mind, every part of who you
Speaker 1:Are. Yeah. Oh, that's so good. Well, this has been a delight. Thank you so much again for making time. This has been great.
Speaker 2:Well, this is thank you for having me and um, thank you to the audience for listening.
Speaker 1:And<laugh> now sometimes, um, folks will have questions in the feed after the broadcast. So if, and I know if you don't have time, don't worry, but if you can cycle back, no,
Speaker 2:I would love, I would love to. Yeah. If, if you wanna post questions in the feed, I will, um, go back and track it and make sure and answer your questions. I'm a big Facebook live. Those that know me. I'm Molly, love Facebook live.<laugh> um, I love, I love the ability, what amazing technology for, to be able to connect with an audience through that medium. So I'm happy to
Speaker 1:All right. I, I, we haven't done this yet, but I'd like to pray for you. Thank you. Before
Speaker 2:We leave. Yes, please
Speaker 1:Do so heavenly father, I thank you for my dear sister and I thank you for the platform that you've given her. I thank you for the ways in which you've shaped her life. I pray that you would use her in great ways, uh, in her business, but also in her faith as a person who encourages and supports and strengthens other others, bless her marriage, bless everything that her hand touches. And I ask this in the powerful name of Jesus who makes it possible. Amen. Amen. Thank you. All right. Thank you. And thank you for joining us.
