Hello everyone. Welcome to the Honey and Grace podcast. I'm your host, Veronica Waldripp, and I pray that we can taste and see a little bit of God's goodness through today's episode together. Let's do it. Hello everyone. Welcome back to the Honey and Grace podcast. I'm so glad that you are listening today, and I pray that today's episode will bless you and wherever you are in your day. I am so glad to be back on the podcast. I feel like it's been forever since I've been able to chat with you all. I'm just grateful and blessed. Thankful to be back on here today. I feel like I can say something that will encourage someone. But before we get into that, I did want to say a couple things. A couple weeks ago, I was able to have my mom on the podcast, and she came on and talked about something really exciting she has going on. She talked about something really exciting she has going on. She has actually written a simplified Bible study. It's called Rooted in Him, and it is published by Truthbooks Co. This is a 10-lesson Bible study that is super simple, but also very complex and has a lot of deep meaning. She has been a Bible study teacher for a while with church planning. We teach lots of Bible studies, and she basically put together something that is easier for us to use and we just love it. I've been teaching it, it's a really great resource. Not only that, but we've had a lot of people let us know that they ordered it just so they could read it. And then some people that have said they really have started to apply it to their life, even though they're not necessarily teaching it. Maybe you're not a Bible study teacher, maybe you just want a good read, and it is also good for that as well. But if you are someone that likes to teach Bible studies, maybe you work a lot with new converts or just people that you would like to work with and teach the word. This is a very simple but great foundation. It's literally teaching us how to be rooted. It talks about salvation, it talks about discipleship and what to do in those situations, and it also teaches us how to be a disciple by prayer, fasting, Bible reading, and giving, appraising, all these different things are different lessons. And I absolutely love it. I've been using it to teach the young girls at our church, and they really enjoy it, and I do as well. So if you haven't already, if you'd like to check that out, you can follow us at RootedInHim Bible study on Instagram. There we're doing lots of updates, lots of different posts, and just marketing for the book. But you can order one on Amazon. It's called Rooted in Him by Rachel Waldrup, or you could also go to truthbooks.co and order one there. We're super excited to be looking into getting these books. So stay tuned for that. I will put the links in the description. I will put the link to the book in this description. We're so excited about it, and I'm just so proud of my mom for letting Gotti use her in everything that she is doing because she's been such an inspiration to me. Moving on, I would also like to mention again, I've talked about it before on the podcast a few times, but Dear Girls Conference is just around the corner. It will be ending out our summer. I guess if also if you're a young person in school, it's usually like a week before school starts or something like that. It's the last week of July, and I'm super excited for Dear Girls Conference. I know I've talked about it a lot on the podcast, and I have made it very known that I'm a big advocate for Dear Girls Conference. So if you are a lady, it doesn't matter what age you are. I think it's like 10 and up. Definitely get registered for Dear Girls Conference. It's going to be such a great time. I'm so excited. The speakers are incredible. They always do so great, but I know I think they have a couple new speakers this year, and I'm super excited to hear from them. I'm also super excited about the worship leader and just everything that they're going to do. I know that they are doing it from a on a Wednesday through a Friday night this year. It's in Memphis, Tennessee. If you don't know exactly where Christ's life is, that's where it will be held, and it's just going to be such a great time in the Lord. Not only that, but you'll get to meet new people in fellowship. And this year they're doing overflow afterwards after the services. And I just know it's going to be so much fun. I can't wait to take my girls this year. And we believe that God's going to do great things in their lives and seeds will be planted in Jesus' name. So if you haven't already, definitely get registered for Dear Girls Conference. I'm excited that we will have a podcast too that you can come shop honey and grace and all those fun things. I cannot wait for that. But not only that, if you are there, you also will be in Furchery because the honey brew, my coffee trailer will be there set up as well. And so if you'd like to grab me a coffee before church or after, that's going to be so much fun. And I cannot wait. So definitely come see us there if you are here for it. And it feels like that took so long to say all of that. But now that I've got that out of the way, I wanted to say, now that I've got that out of the way, I did want to say something else before I get into today's episode on the topic. But as I have been praying and really seeking the Lord about this whole thing and this decision, I have decided that for the summertime, I'm going to take a little bit of a step step back from the podcast. Not completely, because what I'm going to do in this time is play rerun episodes of different people and different guests that I've had on over the last two years. And this is such a great, great thing to do, in my opinion, because I love listening back to those episodes. Even though it might have been a year ago, it's still there the guests' words and the word that they brought to the podcast is still so important and it still can be such a blessing. And for anybody that hasn't been listening for that long, maybe this will be God ordained for you to hear a certain episode. And so that's what I'm going to do at least for the next month or so. Um, I just have a lot going on in my life right now, um, with my business. I'm I'm working hard to grow it more, but I also am working on a second trailer right now, which is taking a little bit more of my time and management. Not only that, but there it is also conference season officially. And so between camps, conferences, and camp meetings, I'm just going to be on the road, go, go, go, to different places and and different conferences like that. And I know a lot of other people are too, which makes it difficult to schedule with others. And not only this, I don't want it to seem like I'm making excuses because I have done it, I have done the podcast through the whole summer, the last two years. But I also do feel like I need to take this time in the next month or so to get myself together in my personal life. And I think that the best way I can do that is by just eliminating a couple of things off my plate just for the moment and focusing that time that I have on my relationship with God. And I just want to just take a step because I don't want to put out any content or any podcast episodes that are not at the best of my ability and my fullest strength and my fullest focus. I want to put everything out with great intention and I want it to be the best that I can possibly do. And I don't want to let burnout kind of take that quality and that and that strength away from me. So I would like to take this next month or so and just just really try to get back, just really focus on what's around me right now and the blessings God is trying to work through my life and and taking all the conferences and all the pouring into I can get, and then I can come back even stronger than about a month with some fresh content with some great new guests. And that is my plan. So if you would keep me in your prayers, keep the podcast in your prayers. We still have a lot of fun things coming up, and I even have guests right now that I'm I'm scheduling with coming on in the next little bit. I just wanted to take these next few weeks to kind of refocus and all of that good stuff and just reset. So hopefully that goes over well. But in the meantime, I will be posting rerun episodes. So it's not like you'll have to go without a podcast. Maybe you've already heard it before, or maybe you haven't heard it at all. It can still be a blessing to you in Jesus' name, and I believe that. So, with that being said, I'm going to finally get into what I wanted to talk about today. And I actually talked about this a couple nights ago at my church to the ladies at my church, and it's not something super special, and it's honestly not something super great, but I think that it goes really well with um the season of life that I'm in, and hopefully it will definitely encourage you wherever you are. I will say lately in this season of my life, I have had a lot of learning. This year has been one of the most challenging years that I've had in a minute, spiritually, emotionally, and just mentally. And it feels as though there's just one thing after another. And I just want to be completely vulnerable with everyone listening today because I feel like whenever I am vulnerable and whenever I am just very real, I'm able to connect a lot deeper with people and I'm able to relate to you better. So I just want to start by saying that out. And maybe you have felt that way in some point of your life. Maybe you feel that this year, maybe not. Maybe you felt that last year, maybe you feel that in different places in your life. But sometimes it feels like there's one problem after another and one issue after another. And I'm not gonna lie, I have had moments this year where I have felt tired, and I'm not gonna lie, I have had moments this year where I have felt tired and worn out and just confused at where I am in the season of my life. And I know that God hasn't finished what he started with me this year, but there's one thing that he's been teaching me over the last couple months. The other day I had a friend reach out to me, a close friend of mine, and he kind of was just chatting with me for a second, and I thought that we were just having a silly old goofy conversation, and then out of nowhere, I feel like the real reason why he reached out to me is because the Lord was dealing with him about me in some way, and he definitely gave me what I needed to hear in that moment. It was a day where I was honestly just feeling very defeated, and I just felt like pretty down, to be honest. That was just my day that day. And um, sometimes he told and one thing that I have definitely been searching for because I like to I like to think I'm a pretty positive person. I feel like if you know me in person or even maybe just hearing me on the podcast, I do definitely live by um the glass half full kind of perspective, I think for the most part. I do have my moments, but I definitely am more on the positive side. And this year, with all the different things that I have felt like have gone on in my life, different setbacks, different challenges I've had to deal with. Whenever I go to pray to the Lord about it, I usually don't pray with anger, but I usually pray for clarity. I usually pray, Lord, I'm not necessarily mad at you for letting me feel this, but at the same time, I just want to know why. And so one thing that I feel like a lot of us do is we usually pray for the why. We usually want to know, God, I see that you closed this door, or I see that you don't want me to do this, or you don't want me to walk through this door, this opportunity, or you don't want me to have that job or that relationship. But why though? And we usually, it's like we accept the fact that it's not of God, but we still want clarity on as to why, and we want to understand what what God's purpose and intention was behind shutting this door when that's not actually what God is intending for us to have sometimes. Sometimes God isn't tending sometimes God isn't intending for us to have clarity or complete understanding about some situations. As flesh, we typically want the answers to everything. We want to know the why, how, when, and where. We want to know why we just want to have answers to everything that we go through, and we just want to understand it. I wanted to read in Matthew, I wanted to read in Matthew chapter 14 the story of when Jesus walks on water, and so does Peter. So verse 25 says, Now in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went to them walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a ghost, and they cried out for fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, Be of good cheer, it is I, do not be afraid. And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water. So he said, Come. And when Peter had come down of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid, and beginning to sink, he cried out, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught him and said to him, O you of little faith, why do you doubt? And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. I wanted to read the scripture because it it kind of started to all click for me one night when I was on the way to church, and I started to think about why Peter asked God before he stepped out of the boat when the disciples saw Jesus walking towards them on water. Peter immediately let his flesh speak out and he said, Okay, Lord, hey, if it's you, if it's really you, tell me to come out there. It's like he immediately, he immediately wanted to question God. He wanted to understand what was happening in this moment. And so Jesus didn't give him much. He just said, Come, come, Peter, if you want to know if it's me. All he said was one word. He just said, Come. And Peter steps out of the boat and starts walking on water because his eyes are on Jesus. But as soon as Peter took his attention off of Jesus, he began to sink and cry out for God. Just as Peter told God, if it's you, Lord, then tell me to come. He was immediately searching for answers. God told him, Step out, have faith. And as soon as Peter took his eyes off of him, he sank. Jesus didn't take that moment to explain to Peter how and why he should step out. He simply said, come. And sometimes that's all the answer that Jesus gives us. Sometimes we question it. We want to know the why and how. This doesn't make sense, God. This doesn't make sense, God. I don't get it. I thought that this would work out great. I had it all planned out in my mind. I had it all figured out, and you just wanted and you're just gonna strip it away from me. I don't understand. But who are we to need to know his plans as if he doesn't already have it all figured out for us? Sometimes we pray for direction. And this is something that my friend told me that definitely clocked me. It says, sometimes we pray for direction, but really we're just wanting the details. And I thought to myself, how many times have I said, Lord, tell me where you want me to go? Show me what you want me to do. Tell me what to do in this situation. I need your help. I need direction. But really, I was just wanting to pry and know what was gonna happen and why it was gonna happen. I already had my decision figured out. I already had my decision planned out in my mind what I wanted to do. I just wanted God to align the details in my favor. We don't always need details, we just need to submit to what God has already asked of us and he will align everything else. We get worried and continually pray for clarity and answers when really we just need to trust him. We just need to lean on him. When we don't trust, we worry, we panic. As soon as Peter took his eyes off Jesus, he began to sink. And what did he do? He started to cry out to God as soon as he took his eyes off of him. And Jesus immediately saved him. When we take matters into our own hands, we stress, we feel anxious because we're not placing it into his hands fully. When we take our eyes off of his ways and his plans, we sink, we suffer, we feel worry, stress, anxiety, and fear. And in the back of our minds, we subconsciously know that this can't be God's will because I'm feeling so anxious about it. There's no way it's God's will. Because God, when God's plans are perfect and pure, he is not the author of confusion, but he gives peace that surpasses all understanding. We can't understand it. It's just peaceful. Sometimes we hold on to things so tightly that we don't even allow God a grip into saving us from those feelings, from those feelings of worry and stress and anxiety. We would rather hold on to something so tightly that's not God's will and feel all the lies from the enemy, all the insecurities, all the fears, all the stress, all the anxiety, we'd rather feel that than just let go of it and let God take care of the rest. The Lord has recently convicted me about some things that I've been holding on to. He gently has brought to my attention that maybe I'm holding on to things that he just doesn't have in store for me. And so what am I gonna do? If it's just simply not God's will for me to do something or have something or or be something that I want to be, what am I gonna do? Stop serving him. I'm still gonna live for him faithfully because above all else, I still want to serve the Lord. All the days of my life, he's still great, he's still mighty, he's still created me and given me this life. So how can I embrace the blessings that he will one day pour out if I continue to hold on to things that won't allow me to grow? We have to allow God to give and to take away. It's not always in our plans. And sometimes it's honestly just not God's timing. It doesn't, we don't really understand everything and and we might not ever understand what God is doing. And maybe, you know, you've been praying and wanting something and you haven't seen it. Maybe it's just not God's timing right now. We can't question him so much and doubt him just because we don't see what we want to see. I think the last time I did an episode on here by myself, I mentioned the scripture, Proverbs 3 and 5 through 6. That's my scriptures for this year. And it says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding in all your ways, acknowledge him, and he shall direct your past. And it's like, I thought I had already learned so much through that scripture, but I think every like month, God is teaching me something new because this story is literally aligning with exactly what those words say. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. A lot of the reason why we're worrying about some things is because we're not trusting him with everything that we have. Lean not on your own understanding. We can't understand God's ways. So stop trying to understand what he's doing. Stop asking him for confirmation. Stop asking him for clarity if you're not getting answers. That means he just simply is not wanting to answer right now. Because we serve a God of exceeding and abundantly above all we could ask or think. So we can't understand his ways completely. And we also know that he's a God that answers. So if he wanted to answer you right now, he would have already done it. In all your ways, acknowledge him. Acknowledge him every single day in the good and the bad, and he shall direct your past. You won't always have to ask for direction because he will already direct you exactly where you need to be if we trust in him and lean on him and have faith in every season of this life. So if I can encourage you with anything today, it would be to keep your trust and your faith in him. Maybe there's some things in your life that you know you need to start letting go of or you need to start praying about a little bit more to get that out of your heart or to get that out of your mind. I encourage you to start. I encourage you to allow God to take those things, those desires from you. If it's not of him, if it's not his will, he will do so and he will bless you with more than you could ever imagine. But how can we receive those blessings if we don't allow ourselves to move on from what he's already tried to take away from us? Sometimes I think of like it being funny because we we ask God for things and we ask him, like, Lord, help me with this, Lord, heal me from this, Lord uh show me where to go, Lord, deliver me, Lord, all these different things. And sometimes he's already trying and he's been trying to do it, but we just don't allow him to take things from us. We don't allow him to change our plans and we don't allow him to have full control in our lives. And we can only see God's perfect will if we allow him full control because we are not perfect and our ways are not perfect, but his are. And so when we trust in him, we're allowing God to take control of our life and do whatever he wants, and it can only turn out beautiful. Is it always going to be cupcakes and rainbows? No. Is it always going to be beautiful? No. But in the end, whenever he is finished with different works that he's doing in your life, they will show fruit and they will bear fruit and they will be blessed. And we'll look back and remember and see all that we've been through and all that God's brought us through, and we will see the fruit from it, and everything will start to make sense. Even if we don't really get it still, even if we don't have the details, it will all make sense that God was working and he never stopped working. That is pretty much all that I have for today. I pray that this will encourage and bless someone wherever you are. I'm sorry to be so real and I'm sorry to be so vulnerable, but I believe that God has been trying to make me more vulnerable, to be honest, to use me in a different way. And I'm just allowing him to do whatever he wants with me this year. So thank you so much for listening. And I cannot wait to come back on and talk with you guys soon. I'm not exactly sure when it'll be, but I will be in prayer and I will be posting these rerun episodes. I hope that you guys will be praying with me as well. Praying for this podcast, praying for Dear Girls Conference, which is around the corner. We will be praying and fasting for that as well. And we're so, so excited for what God's gonna do in lots of ladies' lives that weekend. So definitely get there if you possibly can. Go grab a rooted in him Bible study. Maybe you want to make this a summer of doing new things. Maybe you want to teach your first Bible study. This is a great Bible study to teach if you're teaching for the first time. It's so simple, it's so easy. There's reflection questions at the end that you can really connect with your student on. And that's what I love to do is connect with my students whenever I'm teaching. So it's just a great resource. So go grab you one on Amazon or Truthbooks Co. Make sure to follow the Instagram at Rooted in Him Bible Study. If you don't follow us on Instagram at Honey and Grace, definitely do that as well because I'll be posting updates on everything there. And I'm just super excited for this summer and the revival that God's gonna pour out. I pray that you're seeing revival in your families and your churches and your friends. I know that my church is in summer revival, and we're so, so excited. God has been already doing great things in the last couple Sundays, and I know that's just gonna get even better. So I hope everything's going well with you, and I'm praying for you, and I just pray that we can chat again very, very soon. So thank you so much for listening, and I pray that you have a blessed rest of your day in Jesus' name.