Goodbye 2025, Hello 2026!

In this episode of the Created To Be Podcast, Bethany takes time to reflect on the journey of the podcast, the stories shared so far, and what’s ahead as we step into 2026. Whether you’re brand new or have been listening all along, this episode serves as a reintroduction to the heart behind the podcast—sharing what God is doing through FCA at Mississippi State and creating meaningful conversation around faith, sports, and life as athletes and coaches.

Bethany highlights key themes from the fall semester, including focus, relationships, learning to win, rivalries, traditions, and navigating major life decisions. She revisits memorable episodes and guests, explains recurring segments like The Stretch, and shares her hope for the podcast to grow into a more community-driven space with more voices and stories.

The episode closes with a reflective encouragement drawn from the story of Joseph (Genesis 50:20) and Romans 8:28—offering perspective on how God can use even confusing or difficult seasons for good. As we look back on 2025 and ahead to 2026, Bethany invites listeners to step forward with renewed purpose, faith, and perspective.

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Transcript

Speaker: 0:00

Welcome to the Created To Be Podcast. I'm flying solo this week, so I apologize that you're not going to get to hear some other voices today. But as we wrapped up 2025 and welcomed in 2026, I just thought I would share a little bit about more about this podcast and also about what we've covered thus far. We're kind of in a break still. Students won't return until next week, but athletes, of course, are here and are getting ready for these spring seasons. And so there's always something to do, people around and working on their craft. And so we're excited, though, to get back in the full swing of FCA in the coming weeks. But before we do that, if you're new to listening or you've been listening for a little bit, I just wanted to kind of re-explain this podcast. Um, it is an awesome opportunity we have to host a podcast to share about what God is doing in FCA at Mississippi to help people stay up to date on that, but then also just produce some conversation around some, you know, topics that we all might hear about, whether it's in the sports world or just among athletes and coaches. And that's been a lot of fun. And also share our stories because sometimes with the limited time that we have, it can be a challenge to, you know, get in front of people and and help them understand who we are and what we bring to the table. And also we're looking forward to, I'm kind of jumping ahead of myself, but looking forward to incorporating more people's stories in this podcast. And so we hope that this becomes more of a communal type experience for those who are invested in FCA, whether you're a donor, whether you're a board member, whether you're on staff, whether you're a coach, you're an athlete, or just a friend of FCA, that you can contribute in some way. Even if you're not on the recording, you just making your comments known to us, helping us out, sharing your own stories or your own thoughts, we would love that. And that's one area of growth for this podcast that I hope people will contribute in the spring. Um, again, we're gonna, you know, uh invite more guests on so you're gonna hear other people's stories. Um, and so that's gonna be a lot of fun, and that's something you can look forward to. I just wanted to point out a few things about the podcast that we've done thus far. We've got a great base of listeners, and so we're excited about that. We've definitely grown in how many people are listening, and some of the things that we love to do is incorporate these ideas that are, you know, circulating in the sports world, and then also not in the sports world, but something we might hear people talking about depending on the time of year. So you might have noticed that we have a section of our podcast called The Stretch, and that is where we do that, where we just take a moment to say, hey, you know what? This is really intriguing. Let's stop, stretch out this topic, and listen talk about it for a little bit. Uh so that's been fun. So the first one we started with on October 28th when we relaunched this podcast was acting and sports. And if you're familiar with this, I mean, it is full swing basketball right now. So that is one sport that we see that a lot in. One that surprises me and always surprises me whenever I see it. But I'm like, oh yeah, this is the sport where they do this a lot is soccer. So, um, but one of the most fun ones, and I don't know, I think we talked about it in that podcast, but you might see it more now because of football. Um, and I know we're wrapping up with football season, but maybe we'll catch some in these last four games. They're probably not gonna be as goofy, um, these guys in these serious games. But throughout the season, you might see an old lineman uh just be real dramatic and like fall to the ground and somebody else come do like CPR on him. Um, and so we talked about how that's kind of fun, you know, like in sports where there can be some like play involved. Um, but then it kind of drives us crazy when, you know, it's it can alter games, but that that's very much part of the sport these days. And Justin mentioned some things about baseball that I had never thought about before. And so maybe I will notice that this spring because of course baseball season is upon us, and Mississippi State we're very excited about that. Um, the past semester we talked about focus with the students and at FCA and at the Huddle. And so that uh led a lot of the conversation we had over the fall um just to kind of give a tease for some podcasts. If you are new to listening or want to go back, um, you know, the first few episodes we talked about focus, but then about relationships and relationship boundaries, um, dating, uh, generational differences, things like that, just that can impact our focus. And so those were really interesting. One of the things that we talked about, this was in November, on November 25th, was just how, you know, distracting losing and that losing mindset can be. So we talked about what does it mean to learn to win? Because that's something that kept coming up too in the fall was something that we heard over and over was like um, you know, either commentators would say it or you would just hear it from coaches or players or whatever, like that you have to finish or learn to win and be a winner. And that was a really fun conversation that Justin and I had that I learned a lot through and uh just thinking about that concept. So hopefully that would be one that you could go back and listen to. Uh, we also talked about rivalries, of course. That was around the egg bowl because we had to talk about that. Uh, we introduced a new guest on the podcast and started that just having guests, incorporating guests on the podcast December 9th with Anya Nell, and she is on the track team, and we will have to have her back to hear more of her story because that was one where we talked about like traditions and stuff. So we didn't get to hear a ton about Anya and how she came to know the Lord, get involved with FCA, find Mississippi State, all the things. So um just a little tease there that we might have her back, and she's awesome. So we hope to do that. And then, of course, we got to the holiday season in this past couple episodes. I definitely want to highlight Taylor Pitts, who came on on December 23rd, which was over the break. So people could have accidentally missed that one, but it was a great one, especially if you are navigating through some life decisions. I thought that Taylor's story was really cool about just trusting the Lord and following his plans and knowing that even in the ambiguity and the unknown, that um the Lord is still at work. And she she had some really cool initial, like just her her whole story of how she went from wanting to do something else into athletic training was just very interesting. And she lives she grew up in a very different part of the United States, which also is really interesting. And I would say that's what I hope that you enjoy about this podcast too, is that we really want to bring interesting stories to this podcast, um, whether it be about places, experiences, people that are all included in this big experience of FCA together and that are tied together by this um love for the Lord, first of all, but also Mississippi State FCA and Mississippi State Athletics. It's one big family. And so uh again, we'll do that more. And then the last one, just shout out December 30th podcast, just top 10 list uh why we do that in sports, but also other areas of our life, but most importantly, the memorable moments that we had with FCA in the fall and looking forward to the spring. And so, anyway, obviously this will be super short today and sweet, but I would say one thing in looking back at 2025 that I was thinking about that I just want to share was um if you're familiar with the story of Joseph, him and his family were in the middle of a famine and his brother sold him into slavery. And then he ended up, long story short, he ends up second in command um over the whole country, and he's able to make provision for his family, for a lot of people, but that included his family, as this famine was gonna hit the land. And so it's just like this crazy story of Providence, where you have this guy who has these incredible dreams and incredible pictures of what life is gonna be like for him, and it totally doesn't go that way. And then, but by the end of the story, he's in this position where he can do something about what's going on for all these people, including, like I said, his family. And so I, you know, in thinking about this year, I think that for me, and I'm gonna speak for Justin a little bit, but I ain't can't speak for our other staff. But if I could sum up what 2025 was for us, Genesis 50, 20 says, this is what Joseph said. As for you, what you intended against me for evil, he was speaking to his brothers who sold him into slavery. God intended for good in order to accomplish a day like this, to preserve the lives of many people. And then Romans 8 28 might be familiar to you as well. Um, it states that in all things got all things God works together for the good of those who love him. And the end of that verse says, and are called according to his purpose. And so I just think if I were to put a lens on to look back at 2025, there's a lot of things that we navigated through that were challenging, that were confusing at times, that were disorienting at times. But I can say about 2025 that what was meant maybe for evil or confusion or I don't know, chaos, even, that God intended for good. And I hope that you can look back at 2025 and kind of have some kind of overarching theme or idea or perspective that will help you step into 2026 with purpose and with renewed energy and perspective on what God has for you. So that's my encouragement to you. Thank you so much for listening to the Created to Be podcast. We've got great episodes coming up. So please keep listening. Please comment, please share your stories. Um, we will definitely, if you're in this area, like we can totally um reach out, we'll respond to your comments. And and but we really want to engage the audience. And so we're just asking that that you would do that so that we can make this a more community-driven podcast, interactive podcast. And some people do comment or text us on the side. That's also that works great too. But if you don't know how to comment, you can always send an email to Mississippi State FCA at gmail.com or in the show notes, there is a link that says send us a text, and that will come straight to our podcast platform, and we would love to engage with you that way. Happy 2026. We look forward to what is to come. Thanks for listening to the Created to Be Podcast. To learn more about FCA at Mississippi State, visit www.msufca.org and follow us on Instagram at Hale StateFCA underscore. If you would like to become a financial partner, visit www.fca.org slash donate to sew into the work God is doing through FCA at Mississippi State.