73 | Anchored in the Waiting with | Lisa Shaull

What if the detour is the exact road to your destiny? That’s the question we wrestle with as minister and coach Lisa Shaull shares how infertility, fostering, and adopting three special needs children shaped a resilient, surrendered faith—and a calling to help women live anchored in truth. We explore the raw middle of waiting: the grief, the therapy, the church hurt, and the decision to keep showing up with Scripture on your tongue and hope in your hands. Lisa breaks down her anchored abiding and soul recalibration practices, showing how to catch lies, speak truth out loud, and journal until the Holy Spirit’s voice meets you on the page.

You’ll hear how a “temporary” placement became a forever family, how radical obedience works when God’s instructions don’t make sense, and how to build resilience without pretending life isn’t messy. We dig into David’s prayers, Abraham’s long wait, and Paul’s battle plan in Ephesians as a framework for real-world spiritual warfare. If your faith feels tired, Lisa offers simple steps: choose a verse for your season, declare it daily, and embrace small, courageous acts of obedience that move you forward even when clarity lags behind.

For those new to faith or ready to return, Lisa shares the ABCs of salvation and practical starting points in John and Ephesians. For parents, caregivers, and leaders, she casts a vision of legacy—doing your work as unto the Lord, modeling prayer in the “yucky,” and letting children see your faith hold when life shakes. Come for the story of adoption and resilience; stay for the tools that will reset your mind, strengthen your spirit, and reawaken your purpose. If this conversation encouraged you, subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who needs courage for their next yes.

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Transcript

Welcome, Purpose, and Lisa’s Mission

Intro/Outro 0:01

You're listening to the Off Balance Podcast, where faith, family, and business collide, hosted by Brooke Demon, Doctor of Business Administration, Business Coach, and Resilience Expert. Each episode features real-life conversations to help entrepreneurs like you build resilience and lead with confidence.

Brooks 0:32

Welcome back to Off Balance. I'm your host, Dr. Brooks. Many Christian women silently struggle with infertility. They often feel disconnected from God, unsure of how to move forward. This conversation will address how to walk in freedom. Today's guest is Lisa Shaull. She's an ordained minister, a Christian life coach, a mother, and the founder of Lisa Shaw's Transformation Coaching. Lisa is passionate about empowering women to live on purpose. So please help me welcome Lisa Shaull to Off Down. Hi. Hi, Lisa. Thank you so much for joining me today. I am so excited to have you. But before we dive into our conversation, can you let listeners know exactly who you are and what it is that you do? Let's see. That's a big question.

Lisa 1:18

Lisa Shaull, I am an ordained minister for over 28 years. I am a new Christian life coach. I'm an adoptive, I'm a speaker, and I am a brand new author. My book went to publishing yesterday. So yay!

Brooks 1:35

That is so awesome. So you are a Christian life coach. You are also minister. And you say you just wrote a book. Can you tell us about your book?

Lisa 1:45

Yeah, it's called Prayers for the Anxious Heart. 17 Prayers for the Christian Woman. So it is individual, 17 individual prayers. Some of them are about your relationship with God, peace, anxiety, stress. There's a prayer about children in there. Because our responsibility as parents is to pray for our kids. So there's a powerful prayer in there. 17 different prayers, and the number 17 is because that's mine and God's number. That's our number. So that's how I chose 17 prayers. So yeah, it just went to the publisher yesterday. So I'm a little excited today to have that out.

Brooks 2:20

Congratulations. That is so awesome. What is what inspired you to write a book?

Lisa 2:25

This is my story. This is these are the prayers that the prayers, and then I do a reflection after each prayer. So the reflections that you'll read in this book are straight from my journey, what God has taken me through, and raising special needs kids, and being a woman in the ministry, and being an anxious and stress-filled mom at points in my life. So I just was like, I'm gonna take these prayers that I've been praying over the last six to 12 months, and I'm going to put them in a journal for people so that they can read these prayers too. And I also am right now recording them audio too. So that's exciting.

Brooks 3:10

So again, congratulations to you on becoming a published author. You mentioned that you are a mom and you said you have a special needs child. Can you walk us through three special needs children? Three, wow. Can you walk us through what did becoming a mom reveal to you about yourself?

The First Foster Call and Placement

Choosing Special Needs Adoption

Lisa 3:29

Oh wow. So I was a kids pastor for a while and wasn't becoming a mom married in the year 2000, and saw lots of moms and dads and families, and just really longed to be a parent and really wanted to be a parent and went off birth control thinking that wouldn't have any problem because my mom's fertile and my husband's mom's mom's fertile, and all but that didn't happen for us at all. And so when we became parents, through do you want to hear that story? It's quite the story. Do you want me to share the story? I was a kids' pastor in San Jose, California, working probably 70, 90 hours a week because that's what you do in San Jose, very busy. And my husband was in full-time school and working, so we didn't really anticipate having kids anytime soon, but we went off birth control and thought, okay, let's just see what God has for us. And nothing was really happening, and that was okay because I was working, he was working, it was all good. But I, as a kids pastor and as a pastor in general, you would receive emails now and then about different things. And so an email came across my desk that said there was a mom who was having kidney surgery and was looking for someplace to put her baby daughter, not indicating that this daughter had a special needs. No indication there in the email whatsoever. So I said, okay, we could do this for a couple of days. It can't be that big of a deal. So I called my husband, hey honey, you want to take on a baby for a few days? And we're just adventurous, that's what we do. So he's sure, let's give it a try. And most people have a lot of time to prepare for kids or even say they want to do that for a while. So the baby came to us, came to me in my car seat, right? Dropped in my office. And I was freaking out and didn't realize she had special needs. So I looked down the car seat and I was like, oh, she's got Down syndrome. Okay, this is awesome. She was so tiny, she was nine months at that time, and she was just anybody you could hold her like this. And she was also sick because her mom was initially neglecting her. And so we had her for what was supposed to be two days, turned out to be for a week because her mom had complications in the hospital. So after that week, we met her mom and realized that she had two brothers as well. So we became close in their family and became godparents to the kids. And so I would see her periodically in the nursery, little Jazzy growing up in the nursery, and then suddenly I didn't see her, which isn't really that uncommon on the church. People come and go. But then I received it was either November or December of that year, and I received a call from Child Protective Services, a social worker, saying that she had Jasmine in emergency respite care, and her mom had requested that myself and my husband take her while she was going through her drug treatment. And we're like, what do you mean, take her? And they're like, that means that she would be placed in your home, you would be the parent to her while. Oh like, what? Huh? Okay, uh, just a minute, we gotta think about this. She's in emergency foster care right now, and so they would like her place with you as soon as possible. We'll we'll give you a couple of days to think about it, and then you can get back to me. And so, again, most people have nine months to prepare for children. We did not. What do you do? You call on God, right? God, what are you doing? What's happening? So, we also called some of our best friends in the church that had special needs kids, and we're like, here's a here's an opportunity we have. What do you think? Unanimously across the board. Take the baby, she'll change your life. Your life will never be the same. It'll be hard, but you'll love it. We were like, okay, we'll go for it. So in the state of California, you can do something that's called non-relative extended family member. You don't have to be a foster parent to have kids place with you. And so that's what we did, but we still had to go through CPR classes and education, a couple of education classes, but it didn't take very long. Meanwhile, we were to visit Jazzy, and we were nervous about because we hadn't seen her in a while. So we were nervous, is she gonna remember us? Oh my goodness, no, this stuff. And we were we arrived at the house, which had these little piggy tails, and she comes running towards us, which was so cute. Like in her little, she was toddling, not walking at that time, but toddling. And she totally remembered my husband, of course, because they are closer to this day, they're closer. So my husband came right up to her, picked her up, and she patted him on the back, and it was so cute. And so then we waited for the paperwork to go through, and then she was placed with us officially on her second birthday, and so that was pretty cool. And then, yeah, our life radically changed because we now we're parents, even though you're not adopted parents at that point, you're still parents because you're taking care of the kid 24-7, and not only a kid, but a special needs kid, one that needs classes, needs physical therapy, needs speech therapy, needs occupational therapy. So, all of those things.

Brooks 8:38

So, when you got the opportunity to foster and then eventually adopt her, what role did the special needs play? Because I can imagine if you're carrying a baby, then you can have testing and then you can have time to process it. But you had to decide not only are we gonna become parents, we're gonna become a parent to a special needs child. So, what was that like for you?

Lisa 9:04

I don't think I don't know how to say this because most people they maybe would freak out if they had a special needs child, but that's who God chose for us. That's the pathway that He put us on. So it was very, I didn't ever feel like I was worthy or like I really knew what I was doing all of the time because special needs kids are a different breed, and she's not my only special needs child, and that wasn't the direction continued to go in that way with that like unbeknownst to us. We tried different things and they weren't working, and we were going to adopt in Haiti and the Lord shut that door and just continued to put us on the foster care adoption journey. Does that answer your question?

Brooks 9:45

Yeah, how did you reconcile your heart? Because I can imagine if you had one mindset of how you was going to become a and that didn't happen the way that you wanted, how did you reconcile that?

Wrestling With Infertility and Surrender

Lisa 9:57

It took a lot screaming, yelling, praying to God, asking questions, reading books, that type of thing, watching other people. It was hard. It was really honestly, it was really hard because especially as the years went on and I still didn't conceive, and I still didn't conceive. So that was that was a challenge, a big challenge, and lots of emotions for me and my husband, challenges in that way. But we begin to not like you have to come to a point in your walk with God and in your relationship with God where you really realize it is not about you, it is not about you and what your plan is and what you think you're gonna do. And it is about the kingdom of God and building the kingdom of God and ministering to the people around you that God puts into your pathway. And so that is, I think you asked how I was changed. God radically adjusted my heart and my husband's heart towards these children that needed this extra care and love that and we knew that we were capable of providing that because I came from a Christian home with wonderful Christian values, wonderful parents. And my husband was radically saved at 35 years old and just turned his life around to the Lord. And we decided when we were married that we were just gonna keep our home positive with lots of love and care because both of us dealt with some dysfunction in our families, and so it was a decision kind of that we both made. It's like this must be the plan that God has for us. So we're going to stop focusing on the other stuff.

Brooks 11:52

That's really good. And so I can imagine that was a mindset change. And so you eventually went on to develop frameworks such as you have the anchored abiding method and the soul recalibration process. Is that what helped you to be able to transition?

Anchored Abiding and Recalibrating the Soul

Lisa 12:08

Yeah, like all of the years of walking with the Lord, all of the years of seeing the miracles of my children come to my life, all of the years of going through foster care and experiencing, even experiencing church hurt and frustration, anxiety, depression, all of that combination and then healing from that and allowing the Lord to heal me in his marvelous way that he does. Yeah, just caused me to realize that we have to walk in in truth. We have to set our minds on things above, not on things that are of the earth. We have to grab those negative thoughts that are lies, throw them down, stomp on them, replace them with the truth of God, and walk in our spiritual authority. And so I just took that time in my journey for that to happen. Like one thing led to another, led to another, because we all know as Christians, our life is not ours, and it's not really for the purpose of us. We are vessels being used by God. And for such a time as this, friends, we are the mouthpiece of God and now more than ever. And so a couple of years ago, when I had finished, we were finished adopting our kids and finished that. See, I was like, Lord, what's next for me? And then the Lord said, It's time to share your story. And I was like, Oh, my story is complicated, very complicated. And the Lord said, But your complicated story is going to help other women be set free. And so I have an incredible passion for women who have dealt with emotional dryness and spiritual blondeness and anxiety and driving down the road thinking, oh, I can just disappear, because that's what I used to do. Just drive down the road and think, oh, I'll just drive off this cliff and nobody will know. Those were thoughts that came into my head until the Lord fixed me. He fixed me. I was humpty dumpty, broken with all of these different pieces. And the Lord put me back together and he said, Now that you're put back together, now you're gonna go and share your story. And so the Lord is opening doors for me right now and lots of different platforms for me to share my story because obviously my story must have power in it that I don't even know exists.

Brooks 14:31

Yes, your story is definitely one of resilience. And I think sometimes when you are strong and you are just used to overcoming things, I don't think you recognize how really strong you are. So when it comes to resilience, how do you define it and cultivate it in your life?

Defining Resilience in the “Yucky”

Lisa 14:48

Oh wow. You're like the fourth person in the last week that have used that word to describe me. And I don't think I've ever heard it. So I've actually been just asking the Lord, Lord, what does that mean for me? Resilience. Okay. So for me, I would say not giving up. I'm resilient. I don't give up. I press through, I press forward, I don't look back. I I'm just I'm pressing forward and I'm just and I just deal with stuff. Stuff comes and I just deal with it rather than stressing about it or crying about it or getting angry or upset. It's just okay. This is in my life right now. This is the season I'm in. So what do I need to do? What needs to happen here for my mission and my purpose to continue? How do I still glorify God in all of this? Sometimes life is yucky. So how do you still glorify God in your yucky? Because the Lord doesn't promise that we're gonna not have yucky. He says, in this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world. So we are called to be overcomers. So how do you overcome in that yucky? I just use the I just pray a lot to God and I just ask Him to help me. I was praying in the Spirit on the way, picking up. I'd take my daughter to school back and forth. So I'm in the car like two hours a day. So I began to just use those times to just seek God. And yesterday I was just praying and suddenly I'm just praying in the spirit because praying in the spirit is the greatest thing to do. And I come home and I realize God did that for me because I made a phone call and they're like, I don't know why this is happening. I don't know, I wasn't supposed to be answering this call today. I wasn't, and I said, That's because I pray I was asking Jesus on the way home before I called you. That's why it's happening. I just did and I declare it out of my mouth. I'm not afraid to declare that God's working in me and He's working in you and He loves you and He cares for you. And you're always going to find that with me. I'm very authentic. I'm very I wear my heart on my sleeve. If I'm sad, you know it. If I'm mad, if I'm frustrated, you can pretty much see it on my face.

Brooks 16:46

If you have someone that's listening and they're struggling with their faith and they're like, Minister, I hear you, but I am just really struggling with my faith right now because I've been believing in God for something for a long time and I'm not seeing it come to pass. What advice can you give for them?

Lisa 17:03

The best advice I can give is a scripture that says, I'm I will never leave you nor forsake you. I'm here for you and I love you. I always have to the best advice I can ever give to anybody is I just point him back to Jesus. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through him. Jesus is the peace, he's the hope, he's our strength. One of my verses I pray over people, the name of the Lord is like a strong tower. The righteous run to it and are safe. Just scripture. Like I would recommend to that listener open up the Bible and read Psalms. Psalms is from David. David, oh my goodness, David was called a man after God's heart own heart. But guess what? He screwed up. He was one of the most screw uppers out there. I don't know if that's a word, screw upper, but he was one of the ones that screwed up all the time. He made mistakes, he cussed, he was unfaithful to his wife, all of these things. But God said, David is a man of my own heart. Why? Because he prayed, Create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore into me the joy of your salvation and renew a right spirit within me. He knew, as I do, that if I'm dealing with the muck of the yuck, I gotta go to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, and I just cry out to him because he's the answer. He's the answer.

Brooks 18:35

I love the book of Psalms. That is one of my favorite books because that book does resonate with day-to-day life. Like things happen, things will come, but we have to stay anchored in God. And so I really like that book as well. You are a minister, and you have been a minister for many years, but you are one of the most transparent and authentic ministers that I have met. So, what makes you so comfortable to just share that? Yes, I struggle sometimes. Yes, I've overcome some things. What makes you comfortable to share that with people?

When Faith Feels Far: Back to Scripture

Lisa 19:11

Because I want people to realize that I put my pants on one leg at a time, just like they do. I want people to realize that everybody goes through hard stuff. We all go through hard stuff. But it's important for us to lean on each other and to get the help when we need the help. I had to go to therapy because I had dealt with anxiety and depression in my life. I had so much, I had church hurt, I had grief from losing foster kids. We were going to adopt a child, and then that didn't happen. So I had all of this yuck on me, and I had to go to therapy and deal with it. So when I got healed from all of this stuff, the reason why I'm so transparent and so like the person I am is because I want you to know that it's okay. Life is hard, but it's okay. Like you're gonna get through it, and God will see you through it, and he will take care of you. And so it's that big trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean on your own understanding and all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will make your path straight. Just getting that word into your heart so that when the hard times come, you just you can you just have a scripture, and this is a promise of God. And the Bible says the promises of God are yes and amen. So every promise in the Bible is yours, is mine. So we can look at the Bible and we can see what the promises are and we can declare those out of our mouth and know that they belong to us eventually, maybe not immediately. But let's take a look at Moses. How old was he? And look at Abraham when he became a father. How old? How long did he have to wait? I whined because I had to wait 17 years, 17 years from the promise that God gave me for a son. But look at how long Abraham had to wait, and Sarah had to wait to become a mom. So looking at the heroes of the Bible, oh, that's that's so important for us to look at those men and women of the Bible. How did do you think they had it easy? Look at the disciples, they all gave their life for Jesus, they all were martyred for the kingdom. That's powerful stuff.

Brooks 22:17

Yeah, sometimes we can be self-centered and we can just focus on ourselves a lot. So, as believers of Christ, we shouldn't be self-centered. So, what are some strategies that can help us to focus more on God's will and not our will?

Radical Honesty, Therapy, and Healing

Lisa 22:34

I teach people that I coach with to do a lot of verbal coaching of yourself using the scripture. And so I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. Finding a scripture when you're dealing with something and quoting it out loud so that your ears can hear it. You can have it in your heart, but when your mouth speaks it out loud, then your ears hear it, and then it resonates with what your heart already knows. And then I find journaling is really helpful, which is probably one reason why I wrote the prayer journal, because I found that journaling is really helpful to journal out your feelings. And sometimes journaling even gets deeper because in your in my journaling, sometimes it's not my words anymore. Suddenly, then it becomes the Holy Spirit speaking to me through my pen. And it's incredible. I have journal after journal of the Holy Spirit just speaking to me. So then I learned, okay, I'm having a rough day. I'm gonna go to my prayer area, I'm gonna grab my journal, I'm gonna start writing, but then suddenly the Holy Spirit is gonna start writing for me and then encourage me and help me. My advice, or I don't like to give advice, but my wisdom or whatever is fall into the arms of Jesus, run to Jesus, come back to Jesus. That's what happened to me. Like I was thought I had it all together, I thought everything was going okay, and it wasn't. And what brought me back to Jesus was I surrendered. I got down on I was at a church, a ladies' church service, and I had my hands up, but suddenly I dropped to the floor and I just said, Enough is enough. I'm done. I'm done being this person or doing this thing, and I'm done, and I give it all to you, and I surrender all to you. And I think God sometimes waits for us because it's about time. Now, now I can chisel all the parts off of you that are ugly, and I can fix you in the way that I need to fix you so that you can use your story to help other people. We don't go through things for us, we go through things for the people around us, especially my friends, when we are going through hard things, it's so important. And the Lord reminded me this the other day. He said, Lisa, people are watching you right now. They're watching you, they're watching your reaction to it was regarding the Charlie Kirk. I was crying, and I did a very vulnerable post on Facebook and had several people respond negatively and positively to me. And and I said, Lord, what's going on? And he said, people are going to they're going, they're watching you to see how you're going to respond to the evil in the world. They're watching you to see what you're going to say, what's going to come out of your mouth, because they know that you're a believer and they're going to test your belief in me because they know what they think you're going to say, but that's not what you're going to say. And so for a week he gave me all these like specific things I needed to say and do. And it even blew my mind because I was like, Jesus, are you sure you want me to do that? And so right now the Lord is taking me through, I call it radical obedience, because I haven't been in this, I haven't been taken through radical obedience since. And I have a video on this in my coaching where I talk about my radical obedience. But that was way back in college in 1990 something, 1990 something. But this last month, September, radical obedience. The Lord said, Whatever I tell you to do, I want you to do. Might not make sense, you might not understand what's going on, but I need you to just listen to me. And so we are in a radical obedience time right now, me and Jesus. And it is not easy. I will tell you that right now.

Strategies: Scripture, Journaling, Authority

Brooks 26:18

So I am so glad that you surrendered and that you have a ministry, that you are using your story to help others. So, what do you hope sharing your story will help people accomplish today?

Lisa 26:32

I hope that they I'm gonna cry. I hope that they realize that God is for them, not against them, that God loves them, even though they might not feel it or experience it, because it's not a feeling or an experience. It's God. He is love, his he encapsulate. It's all about love. And I hope that my story inspires listeners to get out their Bible and to dive into it and discover the truth of who Jesus is, because my friends, without Jesus, we're lost. We're lost. We live in a lost and dying world, but we have hope, and that hope is Jesus. We have the knowledge of knowing that this is not our destination. This is not my final destination. I'm a visitor, I'm an alien on this world right now. I'm an alien. I do not belong here. But also, my friends, we are on assignment. I'm on assignment, and I know for such a time as this, my friends, I know that God has called me to be a mouthpiece. That is why I am on a lot of podcasts this month. Several of them people have invited me because they I have a message to share right now that Jesus has given to me. And you probably do too. So be the mouthpiece for Jesus, because that's our job as followers, is to be his mouthpiece, to declare his truth. Because he says, Who can I send? And so you have to say, Here I am, Lord, send me, here I am. And then be ready because radical obedience is a tough one.

Brooks 28:14

So your husband and you guys work with children in children's ministry, and that is such a big assignment. What legacy do you hope to leave with the children that you have impacted?

Radical Obedience in Real Life

Lisa 28:31

We hope to leave a legacy to let them know that God needs to be their foundation in their life, and that when God is their foundation, the world around them can fall because they my kids have seen the world around my husband and I fall, but my kids have also seen us rally together to pray to ask the Lord to provide, to ask the Lord to forgive us, to ask the Lord. So we try to we want to leave a legacy of truth, we want to leave a legacy of kindness for our kids. We're trying to teach them to be kind. And all the kids, like I've ministered for years with kids, and I always just want one the legacy I want to leave is that the Bible it'll either keep you from sin or you're in trouble if you have sin and you don't go to the Bible. So yeah, it's it's powerful. It's powerful the legacy that we need to leave as Christians to children, to those that are lost. We live in a lost and dying world, and this world needs Jesus so badly. And if I could shout it to the rooftops to all these women that need, I just wish that they would contact me so that I could help them because I can help them. I have the tools, I have the ability, I have the passion, the vision. So yeah, I just reach out to me because I would love to help you with your walk with Jesus.

Brooks 30:01

And I will have Lisa's information in the show description so that if anyone is listening and you want to reach out to her, you would definitely be able to do that. Just listening to you, Lisa. You are such a woman full of wisdom, and you are definitely full of the Holy Spirit because I can sense God's presence here and you are so authentic. I just love your heart. And so thank you so much for joining. So, do you have any events or anything that's coming up with your coaching or with your ministry?

Lisa 30:35

Uh no, just the best way to reach me is just through Facebook. Actually, I'm on Facebook. So just to DM me, that's the best way. I get notifications all day long and talk to people. That's the best way to find me. It's just Lisa K shall on Facebook and just DM me. And then I'm building, I have my program, and then I do have a YouTube channel with some. I have a teaching. If you enjoyed listening to me teach, I have a five-day declaration of spiritual authority, very powerful. And then a three-day reset to overflow talking about resetting our whole brain and living in overflow in our lives. And then 10 10 things I wish I knew about anxiety. And so there's 10 videos there about anxiety on my YouTube. And that's just Lisa Transformation Coaching YouTube. That's my YouTube channel. So you should be able to find me. And then Instagram is just Lisa Shawl Coaching. So just look up my name. Make sure you put two L's, S-H-A-U-L-L, two L's. And you should be able to find me. I've been on Facebook for years, so I'm pretty easy to find. But yeah, I love, love. I serve on the prayer team at church. I'm a deacon at church. I love and I'm the connect team leader at church. So I love to just connect with people, be with people, love on people, and draw them closer to Jesus. It's my passion. It's what I live for.

Brooks 31:53

Yeah, you definitely have the personality. Your personality is contagious. And so all of those positions that you named in your ministry, you are definitely more than qualified to be there. Because sometimes people place themselves in areas and it's like, you don't have the personality. As we wrap up, what's one message or a piece of advice that you want to leave with our listeners who may be struggling with their faith on their walk with Christ? What advice would you leave to them?

Hope, Calling, and Being a Mouthpiece

Lisa 32:24

Let's see. That's a great question. The Bible says, in our heart, the man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps. That's what comes to me right now from the Holy Spirit because that is probably my life. I thought I was going one direction. I thought, since my husband is one of 10 children, that we were going to be able to conceive multiple children and have this great big giant house and all of these things. And so my husband and I had in our hearts planned our course of what we thought we were going to do. But that scripture on the latter part says the Lord determines your steps. And then again, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lena on your own understanding. Continue to just look to him. Look to him, the author and then the perfecter of your faith. And you can't go wrong. You can't go wrong when you are tuning into Jesus and surrendering to him. So that's going to be my advice for the rest of my life. Just tune to Jesus. Learn to love him deeper. He desires to have a personal, intimate relationship with you.

Brooks 33:40

That's really good. And Proverbs 16, 9 is one of my favorite verses. I love that verse. That verse keeps me grounded and just reminds me to just pursue the things of God and everything else will come if it's in his will. So we have some listeners, they're listening and they like, I don't know what surrender looks like. I've heard of this God, I've heard of Jesus, but I don't know what to do. So what would be their first step to have that relationship with Christ?

Lisa 34:07

Wow, that's the ABCs of salvation that I've been teaching for years. And I will, yeah, since I was 10 years old. You have to admit that you are a sinner, that you have to admit that you're a sinner, that you that your sin has separated you from God. And then you believe that Jesus died on the cross and rose again for you, and that he wants to have a relationship with you. And then I taught C twice, two two C's I taught. Confess. The Bible says, confess your sins, and he's faithful and just to forgive you of your sins and purify you from all unrighteousness. But I taught kiddos to choose. We're gonna choose Jesus, we're gonna choose him, and then you just say, Jesus, I admit that I'm a sinner. I believe that you died on the cross for my sins. I confess that I've done bad things, wrong things, whatever word you want to say, and I choose to follow you for the rest of my life. And then I always also taught the kids that Jesus loves us more than we'll ever love him. So I would always say to them, so I would always end that prayer, the salvation prayer with Jesus, help me to learn how to love you for the rest of my life in the way that you love me. So yeah.

Legacy for Children and Community

Brooks 35:25

Thank you so much. So if you are listening, that is a call to salvation. So if you don't know Jesus and if you want Jesus to be in your heart, to be your Lord, your savior, it's just that simple. This is not a work-based faith. This is just believing in your heart, confessing with your mouth that Jesus is the Son of God and that he died and rose for you and you will be saved. Just that simple. And so thank you so much for walking us through that because I think sometimes people are just unsure of how they can become one with Christ.

Lisa 36:00

Get your Bible, read the book of John, and then if you're dealing with warfare in your life, like you feel like demons are attacking you left and right, read the book of Ephesians. So John and Ephesians, that's in the New Testament. There's an Old Testament and New Testament of the Bible. New Testament in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the fourth book is John, but the Ephesians is towards towards towards the back of the New Testament. But Ephesians will teach you about your salvation in Christ, and it's going to teach you how to bust the devil in your life because he comes to steal, kill, and destroy you. And so you've got to get that word inside from Ephesians, and it will teach you how to do it to put on the armor of God.

Brooks 36:39

Yes, y'all heard, Minister Lisa. So you have to study, you have to make sure that you read the Bible and that you build your relationship and that you walk out your salvation. And you walk that out by learning who Christ is. And John is definitely a book to go to. I love the book of John. Love, love the book of John. And so again, Lisa, thank you so much. You have shared so much wisdom, and your personality is just everything. Everything. So I am so glad that on your press tour, as you are rolling out your press tour through the month of October, that you bless off balance. And I know that my listeners are going to just be touched by you because I don't know if you know it, but you are resilient, you are tenacious. Like everything that the word of God tells us that we should be, if we are filled with the Holy Spirit, you are courageous. Like your story is beautiful. You were able to just, okay, God, I know this is how I want to have my babies, but I am going to just take this, and I'm going to be the best mom that I can. And the fact that you have babies that are disabled, and you did not say no. This is not what I signed up for. Beautiful.

How to Connect with Lisa and Resources

Lisa 37:56

Sometimes I say that. You know what I always say? I don't get paid enough for this job. I think I scream every day. And I think I scream, I did not sign up for this, Laura. I say that. I do. I scream it at nighttime, especially when I'm tripping over things or something's happening. I will say, I do not get paid enough for this job, and I did not sign up for this job. And let me be transparent again. When life gets really hard and I cry and I do the boo-hoo boat, my friends have to remind me, Lisa, you were chosen by God to be their mom. And I'll say, but I'm not strong enough. I know I'm the wrong person. And they'll say, No, you are the one that God chose. And so be reminding ourselves of that, those of us that have foster kids, adoptive kids, like God chose us to do that. Those that have natural born kids, that's a children are a blessing, the Bible says no matter what. But those of us that have been gifted or assigned to these children, that's what it is. Like I I whine a lot because it's hard being, oh my gosh, being a special needs mom. Oh my, there's yeah, there should be, we should all have a padded cell, I think, therapy for all of us. Because there are some days that you just go, I can't do this. Like, I'm done. And I have mommy meltdowns a lot. I lock myself in my office and I have mommy meltdowns because of I can't do this. I'm not, no, this is not me. And then thankfully, you gotta have those best friends that will text you and say, Hey, yep, God called you to do that.

Brooks 39:33

You have the capacity, you have the capacity. Hey, I don't know what I don't know what God is doing because you are my third guest in three days that have fostered and adopted, and you are two of three that have special needs. Another guest, she adopted three children, and two of the three have special needs. And I said, God, what are you doing? Because it's like you want people to know you can help. Like, he wants his children to go out and get these children because I'm like, Wow, you are the third guest.

Lisa 40:16

These kids they need to be rescued because they have been tossed one way or another, either at birth or at five or ten or eighteen or whatever, and they have been tossed, they have been told they're no good, they've been told they're ugly, they've been told they're they need to be quiet, they need to shut up, they've been cussed at, they've been punched, all of these things. And yes, remember the Bible says that God has a heart for the widows and for those that are orphans. These babies oftentimes are orphans because they don't have a mom or a dad ready to care for them. Yeah, your life is on assignment, friends. We're on assignment. Whatever our assignment is, we have to live it out. And it might not be your assignment, it might not be to be a mom and to be an adoptive mom and a foster mom. Maybe your assignment is to be a principal. We'll be the best darn principal you can be. Or maybe your assignment is to be a doctor. Great. Being a doctor is a fantastic job. Go ahead and do that and do it well. Do it as unto the Lord, because everything we do, if we do it unto the Lord, he's pleased. And in our, again, radical obedience, in our obedience, God is pleased, and then he will bless us according to him, according whatever that looks like, it's gonna happen for us.

ABCs of Salvation and First Steps

Brooks 41:29

So you heard it from her mouth to your ears. So if you are listening and you are not walking in your assignment, or if you have been procrastinating or stalling, waiting for things to be perfect, waiting for the perfect timing. All Holy Spirit wants you to do is step and God will do the rest. So allow God to use you in a mighty way. So if again, I am going to have Minister Lisa's information in the show notes. If you want to reach out to her, please do. I will make sure that I have her Facebook and her YouTube as well as her website so that you guys can book her for some coaching sessions. Because look what she gave us here in this short period of time. So I can only imagine what working with her for an extended period of time with a coaching session can do to your mindset and your spiritual growth. So again, Lisa, thank you so much for joining me. It has been a pleasure.

Lisa 42:21

Thank you.

Intro/Outro 42:26

Thanks for listening. Please rate this episode and share it with your family and friends. To learn more about your host or to book a coaching session, visit www.brookdemming.com. Until next time, ride.