Mama, Don’t Miss the Hallelujah — Finding Hope in Broken Places

Episode 12: Mama, Don’t Miss the Hallelujah — Finding Hope in Broken Places

In this heartfelt episode of Real Moms, Real Faith, host Jenna Marie Masters shares a powerful personal testimony about seeing God's faithfulness in the midst of sorrow, broken dreams, and unexpected paths. Through the story of a nesting bird named Penelope and a deeply painful failed adoption, Jenna encourages moms to shift their perspective and nurture hope—even when life feels like it's falling apart.

This isn’t a parenting how-to—this is a soul-level pep talk for any mom feeling weary, discouraged, or tempted to give up. If you’ve ever struggled to see God’s hand in the mess or questioned His timing in your motherhood journey, this episode will remind you: our God is a God of resurrection, and He’s making all things new.

✨ Topics Covered:

• Trusting God one day at a time
• Finding hope in unlikely places
• When God’s plan doesn’t match our expectations

📣 Be encouraged to stop focusing on the broken boards in your life and start looking for the hallelujah. Don’t miss Jesus because you’re only looking for what you expected.

🔔 Subscribe, share, and leave a review to help other moms find encouragement through Real Moms, Real Faith.

Transcript

Welcome and Introduction

Speaker 1 0:14

I am so glad you're here so you can be encouraged to trust God with all the things one day at a time . Welcome to episode 12 . I missed you all . Last week we were looking at colleges for my oldest son , which is a whole nother podcast . I had so much just feelings . This week I actually bit a hole in my tongue . That's how I'm doing . Hope you're doing good . This episode is called Mama , don't miss the hallelujah . This episode is not so much about parenting or a how to episode . It's really just a personal testimony and an intended pep talk for all of us .

Penelope's Nest in Decaying Patio

Speaker 1 0:49

Today I'm going to tell you about a bird named Penelope . We named her Penelope . It was at our old house and in our backyard we had a rotting patio cover and we were going to tear it down because my kids played soccer in the backyard all the time and when they would kick a ball and it would hit the patio cover no joke it would start to shake back and forth . This thing was just a mess . But the week we were going to tear it down we noticed that a bird had started to make a nest in the corner and she was like the best little mom . She was tirelessly like tending to this little hope underneath her , this hope of life . I adored this bird , but it also was like Penelope . What are you doing ? Don't you see that you've built your home in a termite palace ? Don't you see it's about to fall down ? What are you doing ? How in the world can you expect new life to come from this place ? You've chosen to build your nest Instead of wishing we would tear down this patio cover . My perspective totally shifted because now I wished we could replace it with beautiful wood to support this little bird , mama , I found myself praying that it would stay up . I started rooting for the budding life cupped in splintered hands . I no longer was looking at the defective , but at the life I detected . I would grab my cup of coffee and sit back in the morning and just stare at this little nest .

Speaker 1 2:08

Here's the thing we're so eager to tear down things that aren't perfectly lovely in our life . We don't want to look at the rickety boards and the chipped paint . We don't want to have awkward conversations and squint to see potential . Nurturing hope is intentional work and the world doesn't have patience for this . I don't have patience for this a lot of the

Failed Adoption Story

Speaker 1 2:27

time , and the world is always preaching to us . If your marriage is struggling , tear it down . If your friend betrays you , close that door . If your dream shreds easily , just throw it out . If your ministry doesn't grow , give up . And we need to stop , because this is the world's way . It is not God's way . Perhaps we need to stop Because this is the world's way . It is not God's way . Perhaps we need to stop calling in the demolition crew so quickly . So how do we try to not focus on broken boards , framing our circumstances ? It's all about perspective . It's about choosing to find the nesting egg and the dry bones that God can bring to life . It's about tending to hope among the decay life . It's about tending to hope among the decay Years .

Speaker 1 3:08

Later , we had a failed adoption and I found myself really struggling to see the hope . We had been with the birth mama since the very beginning the doctor appointments , the anxiety filled 3am phone calls , the sharp pains and redemptive joys that come with all things that are adoption . And we signed adoption paperwork with a three-day waiting period . We drove the sweet baby boy home in our minivan . My hands were , like I remember , just pressed over my mouth to keep my excitement in , and the next day I found myself balled up in the same minivan , hands pressed over my mouth , trying to hold back my ugly sobs . The social worker was wrestling to unlatch the car seat in order to take back custody Because his birth mama had changed her mind and she chose to give her son to another family out of state . I could not watch , I couldn't help , and my own spirit was just like wrestling to unlatch this baby from my heart . He was screaming , I was shaking , and the social worker was timidly like whispering her apologies to me as she drove away with our maybe baby . I just felt like no words could reach this uncharted space now in my heart . It was a new kind of sorrow for me . I just was deflated . This was our second failed adoption . All I could focus on was this baby onesie that I kept . I had no pudgy legs to fill them anymore and all I could think about was my three other kiddos who had already fallen in love with this little baby boy , my daughter , who cried tears of joy the moment she'd met him . How would I pick them up to school without him in the car ? Now , and when I started to focus on all of those things and not look for hope , a seed of bitterness had taken root in my heart because , in my opinion , there was no hope . Whatever God was doing wasn't working . There was one too many soccer balls hitting up against this decayed frame , and everything was about to come crashing down .

Mary at the Empty Tomb

Speaker 1 4:57

We can't think of a more perfect time , though , to share this story , since we just celebrated Easter , but my heart goes straight to Mary . Mary was a shamed woman , but her heart was seen by Jesus and in him . Most likely , this was the first time she felt cherished . He promised her forgiveness , freedom , love , salvation . Then she witnessed the desire of her heart , mocked , beaten and pinned to a piece of wood . She put her hope in Jesus , and now it hung lifeless for the whole world to see . I can just imagine her kneeling outside the tomb with all of her unmet expectations laying buried and dead , and I wonder if she thought how can he ever make a way ?

Speaker 1 5:36

Now , and we're so much like Mary . I'm so much like Mary when I've watched a desire of my heart be abused and buried . We visit the grave expecting it to stay that way forever . That's how I felt After the second failed adoption . I thought there is no way we will ever adopt . Now we forget God's promise and we expect to encounter a powerless Savior lying in a cave or in a courtroom , hospital wing or a workplace or in our kitchen . It's like we know he's there , but we approach the situation as if hope is dead . We somehow forget we worship a God of resurrection . We forget our God is the one who makes a way through the sea and a path through the mighty waters , a way in would be raised again on the third day .

Speaker 1 6:26

The Bible tells us they believed the scriptures and the word which Jesus had spoken regarding his resurrection , but their actions surely didn't demonstrate this . After his crucifixion , the way that I acted after our last failed adoption I didn't act like I believed that he could resurrect anything either . And we got to go back to Mary , Remember ? She comes to him tomb and she finds it . What Hollow . She pleaded with the angels asking where they'd taken him . It's not that she wanted Jesus to be dead , but it's what she expected . We know this because we're told she came to the tomb with spices to anoint the body of Jesus , because that's what she would do as a proper Jewish burial . But why didn't she expect to see him fulfill his promise to rise on the third day , as he told her that he would . And for me , why had I stopped believing God would allow us to adopt when I'd felt he'd whispered this promise in my heart eight years ago ? Maybe there's something that God has whispered to your heart years ago , a promise , and you have not seen it come . So you totally get how I feel and you totally get how Mary must have felt .

Speaker 1 7:30

But sometimes we're so busy focusing on the hollowness of a situation we miss the hallelujah . Mary missed the resurrected Jesus standing right in front of her because she was laser focused on her unmet expectation . We learn in John 20 , 15 , she mistakes him for the gardener . She turns around and saw Jesus standing there , but she did not realize it was Jesus . The scripture says he asked her woman why are you crying ? Who is it that you are looking for ? Thinking he was the gardener ? She said , sir , if you have carried him away , tell me where you have put him and I will get him .

Speaker 1 8:08

Jesus said to her Mary All of Jerusalem watched him die and instead of appearing to an entire city at once , he visits a crying woman , Mary . He says and in reading this story I see myself , and maybe you can see yourself A crying woman alone , frightened , confused by hollow circumstances , mourning a failed adoption , mourning a failed marriage , mourning something happening in your child's life . And here comes Jesus and he says Jenna . He says Kelly , Allie , Jennifer , he Don't . You see I'm right here . How long had he been waiting for Mary to notice him , I wonder . And how long does he wait for you and me ? Listen ? This story continues .

Speaker 1 8:58

It says she turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic , Rabboni , which means teacher , and I think she calls him teacher in this moment because truly he is teaching her a most important truth Even when circumstances are saturated in death and despair , our God is way maker . Even if you're trying to knit together a nest in a rotting patio cover , the world is still going to come to you and say what's the point ? Everything's about to come crashing

Finding Hope in Unexpected Places

Speaker 1 9:26

down , what you hoped for is dead . But Jesus whispers back . I am the resurrection and the life . Behold , I'm making all things new . And remember , Mary gets to look at Jesus in his glorified body . That's Philippians 2 , 20 through 21 . And I imagine he took her breath away because this is not what she expected to find right .

Speaker 1 9:46

And on a personal level for me , after that failed adoption , my husband and I had to lay down what we expected our adoption journey was going to look like when God asked us to become foster parents after this . It was the equivalent of Mary mistaking Jesus for the gardener . We initially like , flipped out , like where have you taken our dead dream ? Because it's the last thing that we imagined ourselves saying yes to . In fact , this was the first thing we'd said no to when we entered our adoption journey years ago . The only reason we had our foster certification was because of this pending adoption . We got it just in case something unexpected went down at the hospital and at first I just wanted to remain face down , crying like Mary . I did not want to look up and see something different . But eventually we had to ask ourselves what is standing right in front of us ? Even though it's different , even though it's not what we prayed for , even though it's not what we have been working towards , what if standing right in front of us is God's glorified , holy , resurrected will for our lives ? Even though we felt like we were standing in a pile of rubble , he used that circumstance to plant a seed of hope for the daughter we didn't even know yet .

Speaker 1 10:57

So , like I said again , it's about perspective , isn't it ? I can look at the hollowness of a situation , or I can understand a hallelujah is coming , and which one am I going to look at and see ? Am I going to look at those rickety boards ? Or am I going to look at that little egg that I know is going to hatch with new life , Because God promises me that he is always working ? What he's doing might not make sense . It may not look very fancy , it may not look very beautiful at first .

Speaker 1 11:22

This episode is just like a pep talk . Whatever you're looking at , find the hope , nurture the hope , Nurture the hope . Be like that crazy bird , Penelope , and believe new life is going to come , Because that is our God and that is his way . If you were looking at a circumstance and all you can see is something you want to tear down ,

Closing Thoughts and Encouragement

Speaker 1 11:44

be careful . You don't want to walk away from an empty tomb because it wasn't what you expected , because you don't see hope right away and miss Jesus .

Speaker 1 11:55

Thank you so much for tuning in and thank you for listening to my personal testimony this week . You know I never get sick of telling that story because it's one of the pillars in my faith that I look back on and I can see God's faithfulness and I'm praying you have these stories in your life too , because you can pass them down to your children . Whatever posture you take when you view hope or when you look for hope , that is going to translate down to your parenting and to your children's lives . If you do have time to rate and write a review , it does help other moms find this podcast faster , so I'd be really thankful if you did that . Have a good week . Summer is coming , if I feel it . Don't forget to follow , save and share and subscribe . You're awesome . Give it up for our mommy Love it , Thank you .