Episode 17: "Perseverance Met with Persistence": Special Guest Angie Garibotte

On this episode we get to hear a transformational story of how Angie came to grow in a relationship with Jesus Christ and how He has CHANGED her life!! Tune in to be inspired by her transparency, wisdom, love and light! 

#PowerOfGod'sGrace

#GrowingAsWereGoing

#NewLife

#GodIsGood

#ChangeChaser 

Faith in Action // Change in Motion

Transcript

0:19

Well, hey, hey, hey. What's up? Change chasers. This is Mandy and I'm so excited to be back with another episode. Thanks for tuning in today, y'all. You are in for a really awesome, super mega blessed treat. You're going to get to hear from a new friend of mine. Her name is Angie and y'all, she's going to be bringing her story today. She is a woman of the word, not of the world, and she has a story of perseverance that has been met with. Persistence though. And so I'm gonna kind of turn it over and let, my sweet friend Angie be able to just share her testimony, her story, where she's been, but y'all, where she is now with all things because of God and so in his glory. And so we will get to hear from her and then I'll jump back in after we have our C3 time, our change chasers challenge and we will close this thing out. But, so for now. Angie, would you be willing to just go ahead and share whatever is on your heart to share today, please. Hey y'all. My name again is Angie, and I am a follower of Jesus and I love Jesus more than anything. Um, he saved my life. I am a recovering addict. And with that being said, I'm gonna share a little bit about my story. You know, growing up, kind of came from a generational curse of addiction and growing up I never heard that word. I didn't understand it, but as an adult, I went through some things and I didn't know how to handle it and I didn't have God. So, I went through a really bad divorce and very hurtful, very painful, rejection, and I didn't know how to handle it. And instead of, trying to work through it. I chose to drown it out with, medicating myself with things that were harmful, which led into, choices and a life, a criminal life. But God, he knows what we need when we need it. So with all the destruction I was doing, I didn't care about anybody. I didn't care about myself. He picked me up and he put me in federal prison. And with that being said, he stripped me of everything and everyone, and he had my full attention. I remember, going to prison and meeting a lady there, and there was just something about her that I really, really, really was drawn to. Now, uh, I realize it was the light, but she just carried herself different. I remember clinging to her and I was still in this mess, you know, cursing and not making good decisions. But, uh, she told me, she said, I will tell you this. I promise you if you read your Bible every day and if you pray every day, that your life will change. If I remember taking her at that word and at that moment I decided I was gonna try something, I wanted to see if this would really work.'cause I was desperate for change. I marinated myself in the Bible. Every moment I had, I spent with God and reading the word, and I remember thinking, who am I even talking to? Like, I don't understand and crying out in my room, in my cell saying, I don't know who you are, but I'm here and I'm willing. And, um, you know, that, that. That promise came, um, slowly. I got to realize who God was and how much he loved me. So with that being said, my life did change. I grew in the Lord. The time that I spent incarcerated was a time for me to be in time out for the world and to grow and learn about his love and his forgiveness. And he opened doors for me to be able to share this with other people. I became, involved in Celebrate Recovery while I was incarcerated and I got to watch other women experience the same thing. So Celebrate Recovery, it teaches you that, everybody struggles with hurts, habits, and hangups. I. I think it's for everyone. Not just someone coming or recovering from an addiction, but anyone in life has had a hurt habit or hangup. But I just chose to be available and to do everything that was offered to me while incarcerated, to be a better person. And, um, upon release, I came out and. I could have, done things differently, but I chose to hold myself accountable. And with that being said, I went into the New Beginnings house, which is a house that is ran by the East Brainer Church of Christ. And I did, 15 month program there where I, studied the word. I was held accountable and I grew more in the Lord. And these ladies just loved on me. And they supported me along with a church family. And when I graduated from this program, I then became the live-in resident at the house, and I was able to kind of give back what was given to me by loving on other women who were coming out bad situations, who sometimes just, had never been loved before, never had anybody stand up for'em or support them. So I did that for two years. I had a five year probation sentence, and I was off in less than a year. By the grace of God, God is good. He put everybody in my path that I needed during this time, I was blessed with a wonderful job that gave me a career and, Even regardless of my past, they gave me an opportunity and I've done very well. But this lady, I wanna go back to her'cause I wanna talk about how I changed and how I got to where I'm at. And if you ask me anything, I'm gonna tell you the word of God has been my backbone, my everything. I literally. Make sure every single day that I take time out and I intentionally spend time with God and I ask him to lead me and guide me and help me make wise decisions and to give me discernment. This world is crazy and it's so chaotic and it's so destructive. And you have to have that, you have to have that time and that aloneness and that intimate relationship with God and just talk to him. Also, learned through the things that I, I did in prison to, to set goals, I love to set goals. I love to hit'em and I love to set another one, you know, and a lot of times these goals come through the word of God for me, reading something that maybe I'm lacking in and I need to work on. And, you know, we're not, none of us are perfect. We're all a mess. So there's always room for growth and there's always room for leveling up. So I truly believe in setting goals, hitting them, and setting more goals. Um, 53 years old, debt-free, got a great job. I got so much support and friends. I remember praying while I was incarcerated for God to bring good, godly people into my life. And let me tell you guys. He does things that will just blow your hair back. I've got so many circle of friends. Mandy is a new friend. She's gonna be a great friend. I can already tell we got a lot of the same personality. Um, but with that said, you know, I have everything that I need and more. And the things that I don't have in life, I'm grateful for because I know God loves me. He cares about me, and he knows exactly what I need. Not what I want, but what I need. And, his corrections, during them sometimes I get very upset, but after it's over with and I see the other side and I see what he had for me, it's always better than I always thought I wanted. So, guys, I just kind of wanna leave this all with you guys. I wanna leave you with something to think about, if I could tell you anything that you need to do in life. I'm definitely gonna say, I'm gonna dare each and every one of you. Just like the lady told me. Read your Bible every single day. Pray to God intentionally. Spend time with God and get to know him and understand what he wants for your life. And, set goals, make changes. You know, always try to be evolving. Educate yourself, learn about things. Learn about other people. Spend time with people listening to them. You can learn something from everybody. God brings people into our life for a purpose, and when they're there, you need to pay attention because there's maybe something you're gonna gain from them if you really pay attention. And you ask God to show you. But that's just a little snippet of my story. There's a lot more, more than we could do on this podcast, but, I hope that gives everyone hope and, uh, lets them know, with God, you can do anything. Thanks for letting me share. Amen. Amen. Amen. All right. Anybody else? Tap in your steering wheel now with a little tap, tap, tap. Let's go. I'm so grateful for Angie and her willingness to be vulnerable to pop on here and bless all of us to know y'all that I. We get to be inspired'cause she's done the hard work, right? She's done all of the things to be able to allow us to see God's glory in her story. And so if you're listening and you needed a reminder of, whatever your circumstances, whatever you've been through, whatever habit or hangup or what was the other? H hurt, there we go. Habit hang up or hurt y'all.'cause the world comes to steal, kill and destroy as scripture. Reminds us and help us to know, and we know the enemy is a punk, so we wanna send him right back onto hell where he belongs. And today I'm excited because we got to hear a story of an overcomer. And so I wanna encourage you of knowing that as we have embraced with one of our mantras here as a change chaser, is that we get to be growing as we're going, but only y'all through Christ. Can we truly have the strength to be able to not be defined? By our circumstances, and so here, Angie's story reminds me of that scripture verse from Revelations chapter 12, verse 11 that says that we are overcome by the blood of the lamb, by the power of the word. Of our testimony. So Angie, we thank you for sharing your testimony with us today. And like she said, she just shared some snippets y'all, but she is a wise, wise woman that I think you'll be so blessed. If you wanna go give her a follow. She is on TikTok, she does all kinds of fun, cool little things on there too. And then she is on Instagram and she's also on Facebook. And so you can find how to spell her last name, N the. Title section, but Angie Gar. And so with perseverance, y'all has the perseverance in her story. I believe that she has persisted with such grace and with such dignity, and I am grateful to say that y'all, she's doing the thing, right? Doing all the things. She practiced what she speaks. And so if you need some encouragement today, we wanna leave you with that as our C3 time as she shared her challenge to you guys is that you will read your Bible every day. Pray every day. And then sweet friend, guy or girl Set some goals, let God be who is being the captain of your ship so to speak, and driving you so that you can be all that he is so sweetly called and created you to be. And so I'm gonna go ahead and wrap this up. Until next time, let's keep chasing change and living with purpose. Goodbye sweet friends.