About Why Cutting Your Hair Can Be Spiritual with Hannah Croft

A tire shop bench and a few words of Spanish turn into a friendship that feels planned, and from there the conversation goes straight into the kind of faith questions most of us carry quietly: How do you know God is leading you? Why does obedience sometimes land you in a harder place? Hannah Croft, a wife and mom of three (four, two, and one), shares what it looked like to move states, live through home construction chaos, and still believe God is present when life feels unsettled.

We talk about the wilderness pattern we see in Scripture and in real life: God can set you free and still let you feel stretched. That stretch becomes the place where surrender gets practical, not theoretical. We explore sacrifice through the idea of “oblation,” a pouring out of something valuable as an act of trust, and we name the tension Christians face in a culture that celebrates self above refinement. Along the way, we unpack how to pray with honesty, how to ask God to show you His love, and how Scripture can steady anxious thoughts in a single moment.

Hannah also shares her testimony from college athletics: hearing a sermon on idolatry, realizing her identity was wrapped up in her hair, cutting it off as an act of surrender, and later giving her life to Christ at an FCA retreat. The conversation turns toward Christian motherhood too: grieving lost freedom, learning to guard your words, resisting the noise of social media, and finding quiet with God when the “best time” is actually the first ten minutes of nap time.

If you want encouragement on hearing God’s voice, spiritual discipline, surrender, and peace in motherhood, press play. Subscribe, share this with a friend who feels stretched right now, and leave a review with the one line that hit you most.

Transcript

Meeting Hannah And Her Season

SPEAKER_02 0:30

Today I'm joined by Hannah Croft, a wife and a mother of three littles, and a life that is very full. And I'm so happy I met her, and I met her another God meeting because I was sitting outside of a tire shop waiting on my car, and I was practicing my Duolingo Spanish, and she started speaking to me in Spanish. It was so good and asking me about that. And we got to be friends, and so I'm so thankful for her. Um, so Hannah, will you tell us a little bit about yourself?

SPEAKER_01 1:09

We're thankful for you too, Denise. Thank you. Your energy is why I spoke to you. I said, This woman has this energy. I'm Hannah Croft. I live in Wimberley and towards San Marcus. We've been here two years. My husband's from West Virginia, so we started our marriage there and moved here two years ago. And yes, I have three kids, four, two, and one, two boys and a girl. And we are home most of the time. And my oldest does go to part-time preschool. And my parents are in Austin, so we were pretty local and we don't do anything too crazy.

SPEAKER_02 1:44

That's and it it's been kind of a uh you've been redoing your house in this process.

SPEAKER_01 1:52

We bought a house that had no yard, it was completely brush. So that was a lot of work.

SPEAKER_02 1:57

And then you had you were pregnant with your little girl, and then you had your little girl, and the house still was in transition, right? And that was a lot, that was an uneasy season. That was not an easy one. Plus, you were living in a town where you didn't know anybody yet.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

Yes, very isolating, a lot of decisions to make besides the normal house family decisions to make to do construction decisions and having guys show up to your house in a mess and nails everywhere, and two little boys that just want to go watch the scene.

SPEAKER_02 2:26

Yes, and play in the scene. And play in the scene. Pick up every nail, and yeah, I have those.

The Move And The Wilderness Feeling

SPEAKER_01 2:31

They need to be outside, I need to be inside. Yes. So it was not. I wondered, I wondered why God brought us here. I really did it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:40

Well, so tell me how you got here.

SPEAKER_01 2:42

We lived in West Virginia for three years, and I would battle, you know, should we be here or in Texas? I'm from Texas, my husband's from West Virginia, and that battle was distracting me from my life. So I finally prayed, Lord, I don't want to think this way. I don't want to compare. I wasn't unhappy, but I was comparing lifestyles. And he said, I said, Well, we moved to Texas, and he said, Yes. And I said, when? And he said, in three years. But I ignored that because who can really, I mean, that was that's a long time in that stage of your life.

SPEAKER_02 3:15

That's a long time.

SPEAKER_01 3:16

It was a long, but to me, it just felt, oh, I must have made that up in my head because that would be what I kind of wanted, but there's no way that was not in the plans. We were gonna be in West Virginia, that was just where we were gonna be. And so I just put that away and we lived our life. And around three years, my husband said we should move to Texas. And I hadn't been asking, I hadn't been deep in my heart. I had still been praying back and forth, but I was content. And he said that, and I thought, God, what? So it was really crazy timing. So it was because he had a job in Texas? No, we were looking to get more property in West Virginia. We were looking to move in West Virginia, but everywhere we looked just didn't feel right. There was something that wasn't quite right, and we didn't find the right thing, and we kind of wanted a change for family. We wanted more to do with the kids. In West Virginia, it's a lot of remote just land. It's great for homesteading, but there's not a lot of energy and activity. We were in a college town, so there's plenty of energy and activity if you're in your 20s. Yes. But for kids, there wasn't. And when we came down here, of course, Wimberly is family central and we weren't comfortable with Austin, where my family is, and Wimberly, we were just comfortable and we bought. We we just bought a house kind of spontaneously and moved.

SPEAKER_02 4:36

So I love that because three years before he told you so that you could have confidence that now you were walking with God. But still, when you got here, you're like, What?

SPEAKER_01 4:46

It still didn't look like that. It did not look like and I actually thought of the Israelites who wanted nothing more than to get away from Pharaoh and and God parted the seas. Yes. And yet they were cranky and uncomfortable in the wilderness, eating just barely the bread that they needed to survive and get and crying and whining. And I I feel like that's been me. And they even said, and Lord, the Lord told me this would happen. I wish I could go back to Egypt and be a slave. They said that in the Bible. They said I want to go back because I was fed and I knew what my life was gonna look like. Everything was predictable. And I have said that. I've said I just want to go back to where my life was predictable, even if there were some hard things. And um, the Lord's like, I told you you would say this.

SPEAKER_02 5:35

Yes, that you know, he knows us so well, and you know, I just want to repeat, I repeat it a lot, but he speaks to us, he speaks to us. We sometimes say, Oh, that wasn't really God, or but I encourage you to write it down when he does speak to you, and the way you'll know it was him is that it'll happen. Um, I I feel like that's important for us to remember that he wants you to hear his voice. It's not just for me, it's not just for him, it's for you guys. And um, so listen, because he, especially in those seasons where you don't know what's going on. But the Israelite story is so good because you know, when I was 19, uh some women prayed for me because I said, I don't know how you love the Lord your God with all your heart. You know, that's like a big thing. Um, and I don't even know who he is. Like, I I I don't know him. I hadn't been uh raised reading the Bible, so I really didn't. I knew some stories, but I didn't know him personally. If that makes sense. So when I started reading the Bible after I prayed that prayer, all of a sudden it won this boring book. It was like so interesting. And I read about those Israelites, and I said, Oh, they were so horrible to you! How could they be so horrible to you? And then he said, That's us, just like you, Denise. That's us, they are the example and we follow you. Yes, we do what they do, unfortunately. Yeah. Well, so how long do you think we've been married?

SPEAKER_01 7:07

Five years in December.

Sacrifice, Oblation, And Surrender

SPEAKER_02 7:09

Five years and three babies and three homes. I mean, we have really four times. Yes. So we are married 52 years in September. So we're at such well, but we're at such different seasons. Yes. And that for me, those first five years, really the first seven years, were really, really difficult years. And then when I I told you when I got friendly with Kayla, uh, that season I was 10, 10 years married, and that was a difficult season. I remember going through these really where I just struggled and wasn't sure God was really hearing me anymore. Yeah. And really when it wasn't, I wasn't hearing, I wasn't listening to hearing. You know, I was more like, this is like all I need. I need this really. And I look back and I say, I'm glad it was you in control and not me. Because he carried me right through each season, and he didn't let me miss anything. You know, I got to experience all of those seasons fully, and even in the heart things, changed my heart. If we had our way, we wouldn't change. We wouldn't. We wouldn't be changed. You said something about that, that like you were that you were in a season where like you used to be young, and now you're older, and you're not that old, but you're older and you've experienced a lot of things. Um and they're hard. Like we go through new hard things the older we get. Um, and you said something to me about that. We said what?

SPEAKER_01 8:54

It has to get harder or your faith won't grow. That's it. Yeah, that's your you won't know more of God unless He forces you to know more of Him, which takes you to another cliff that you have to jump off of, and it's always surrender, obedience, or you know, giving up something. It really is. Um, I listened to an Elizabeth Elliott podcast yesterday about oblation, a word we don't use, and it's a pouring out. Yeah, a pouring out of something valuable. Um, and the Bible, it was usually just fresh water. So you'd be in the desert, and as a sacrifice, it would just pour out fresh water. Um, to show, you know, I have faith that God's gonna provide. He is bigger and better than just this fresh water that I need to drink. And there's a lot of people today that don't want to talk about sacrifice. Sacrifice. And if you're gonna follow the Lord, you're gonna sacrifice yourself, what you want, what you think you want. That's it, what you think you want, because not that God doesn't give you coal, God gives you the cool. He will provide everything you need. But he has you have to show him that you are all in, that I will give you, Lord, I will give you everything.

SPEAKER_02 10:05

And I think that you know, you go through those seasons where you're like, wait, I wasn't thinking about that, giving you that. That I was I was just taking that for granted. And and you you have to make the choice again. You know, he's so kind, he he he gives us freedom to choose. But we choose over and over. We we choose this is the next thing that I'll lay down for you. I mean, he may give it right back to you, yes, but he also may remove it because it's not something that's gonna long term be good for you, yes, you know, or for the future purpose that he's called you to for a short time that you're gonna be.

SPEAKER_01 10:44

I actually think this is where a lot of um Christians get stuck because uh so many of so many of Americans are Christians, but people say this few are really, you know, fully getting to experience God's love. And I think where a lot of people get stuck is they are unwilling, they don't realize God is that intimate, yeah, that he cares about them that much, that they he actually wants to string through their heart and get rid of things that they don't need, clean them up, it's gonna hurt and it's gonna be so much better. And the world's finding that. The world's saying, you be you, you know, yes, you're perfect how you are, and you're given all these, you know, all these things basically contradicting the words.

SPEAKER_02 11:29

It sounds good, but ultimately trusting in the Lord, you you're gonna become somebody that's peaceful, yes, somebody that's joy-filled, even in these really hard seasons that you will walk through. He said, Um, you will have trouble in the world. You will have trouble. I've overcome. But take hard because I've overcome the world, but you will have trouble because we are not in, we're not with him yet. Again, I really think we were there in the beginning. He called us by name and then he met us together. So, guess what, y'all? That is our home. That is our home. We are here for his purpose, and when we get that, it it like changes a lot in our lives and it makes us willing to pay attention and lay things down. He doesn't want it to be hard. I feel like he's so patient with us.

SPEAKER_01 12:24

Yes, and very unique. I I truly believe he speaks to each person. He knows how your brain works, he knows how you're wired, and he will speak to you the way you need to be, spoken to to lead you so gently. Yeah. And I've prayed this prayer too. There's a verse talking about I don't want to be the mule that has to be bridled and struggling with the Lord trying to point me. I mean, I want to be the horse or the mule that willingly goes where his knees just gently take me, and that just requires a continual communion with him and just Lord, what do you want? giving things up. And it's hard, he'll always ask more from you than you want, but you have to trust him because that's how you get the really good journey.

SPEAKER_02 13:06

So loving the Lord your God with all your heart first. If you love the Lord your God first over every other beautiful thing that he's provided, because every good thing comes from him. If you can, if you have that love, if you're willing to let that love pour into you first, then all the other things are much easier to lay down as he talks to you. But until you do, you might be doing this. Well, take it away from me if I need it, God, because you think it's you think it's better than him.

SPEAKER_01 13:41

You think it's better than him, and it and it isn't. God, and and you, I think another thing people forget, or maybe we don't talk about is you can be so creative with your prayers. You can pray things like, Lord, show me your love, or Lord, show me how I can be beautiful without X, Y, and Z. If you know those are things that need to lead your life. Lord, I wanna, I want to experience your your overpowering love. I want to experience you. I mean, you can pray anything, and God will do it.

Idols, Identity, And Cutting Hair

SPEAKER_02 14:10

He does it. And, you know, I I believe that too, that there's anything because he knows our heart's desires more than we know them. And and he actually changes our hearts so that our heart's desires align with him. Yes. And he gives us the desires of our heart because he put those desires in us. And it's very powerful what he can do in our lives. Um but we can ask him anything, anything at all. I believe that um the more you know the word, uh it just comes out of your mouth and you ask for the things he's already promised, he's already said. Don't worry about that because I'm gonna give it to you. Don't worry about this because I'm gonna give it to you. Um, so uh you were talking about earlier um with me before this started, about like how you came to know the Lord, and you really knew the Lord when you were young, you trusted him, you didn't really know him well, but you trusted him. He was there, I thought he was there, I did too. Yes, but then in my high school years, junior high and high school years, I was so obsessed with fitting in and not um not being left out. I don't know what you were like in those ages, but you said something about that time.

SPEAKER_01 15:28

Yes, I think in in high school I was I was pretty happy and content and I had a good time. I was at in dire need. But when I when I got to college, I don't remember really. I I I think I just felt maybe it was fitting in. It was that I was new, so that no one knows who you are yet. And I wanted to be known by maybe some reputation that I was, you know, I'm a good girl, but I I would go out, I wouldn't say party, but I think main mainly it was just that I was in this athlete world. So I played volleyball in college, and it's a smaller community. You've got the football players, basketball players, volleyball players, and I was the only freshman coming in on the volleyball team. And the Lord wanted me to wanted to, thank goodness, just take me out of a lot of drama that was gonna happen those four years. And he snagged me out of that my freshman year. He showed me um what I was idolizing. And there was a sermon. I went home after my freshman first semester. I had been in college since June because we go early. So I had been not home from June until December as a freshman. Um, again, for only freshman-level level team, gone through just trying to fit in, make it work. And I'm home and we go, I went to church and I heard a sermon at Alston Ridge by Pastor Brad um about idolatry and that we all idolize something. And I thought, I don't idolize anything. And his examples in the sermon were money, kids, you know, sex, power, things that people idolize. And I thought, I don't have an issue with any of these things. But he had said, everybody idolizes something. And I just caught myself, and it was the Holy Spirit saying, you are not excused from everybody. You are part of everybody. You are not special, you are not perfect. I think in high school I kind of just assumed I was perfect or been told that. And I wasn't. And I asked the Lord in that moment, oh no, if I'm idolizing something, Lord, show me right now. And this is gonna sound silly, but he said your hair. And what my hair represented was my identity, was this long blonde-haired, you know, athlete getting attention, wanting attention, whether from boys or anyone. And in that very same moment that he showed me that my hair was my idol, I knew I had to cut it off. And there's a verse about, you know, if your eye sends Yao Jiu, if you're and I wasn't thinking about that verse, but it was just immediate that Lord, I cannot live with something that's between me and you because I just know it won't be good. And I I remember talking to my mom, I said, Mom, I'm gonna cut my hair off. And she said, you know, you wait a couple weeks, and that kind of made me mad. Like, what? She said, wait a couple weeks and make sure. And I did. I went back to college, and I promise you, I was sitting on my hair, I was lifting weights, it was getting caught. Like it was like it was in my mind. So he was confirming it. It was the funniest way is I had I was laughing.

SPEAKER_02 18:25

What your mom said way too, because if it's from the Lord, he's going to confirm.

SPEAKER_01 18:30

Yeah, and you do want to, you do want to test the Lord on his voice and make sure you're you know it. But I mean, I would dive roll and practice and it would get caught. I was like, dude, this hair has to go. And so when I got it cut, um, she was nervous. I said, do it. And I was just, it was like the happiest moment. I had it off of me. I had this cute pixie cut. And soon after that, I gave my life to the Lord. It was that month in college.

SPEAKER_02 18:52

I was like, I love the story about the retreats, and you need to tell that one.

SPEAKER_01 18:56

So we had this FCA retreat, which is for athletes and Fellowship of Christian athletes. Fellowship of Christian athletes. And I'm not a big camp person. I don't want to go sleep in a bunk and rah-rah with all these people. And my roommate was similar. We thought we'll we'll go out, do our normal thing, we'll dress and do our homework and we'll go dance. And I got home and she was throwing her stuff in a suitcase, and I said, Patricia, what are you doing? And she said, I'm going on the retreat. And you shouldn't want to miss out. All these athletes are going. And so I thought, oh, if you if you go, I have to go. So I threw my stuff and we got on the bus. You have eight minutes to get to the bus. We were gonna miss the bus. And we were in this boy's truck, don't even remember his name, dropped us off, got on the bus, and all of our fees to go on this retreat had been paid for by a donor because AM is really, I mean, it's a very Christian environment, and so they're really pushing FCA, and it's good. Um, and I gave my life to Christ that weekend, and my one of my teammates, Alicia Cosmo, she was really my first and our director of operations. So the Lord had me at AM on this volleyball team for this purpose because she and my director of ops for the volleyball team are why I'm a Christian. And at that camp, I gave my life to Christ. I heard a message that resounded with me. And in the moment that I knew I was a sinner, the same moment that I realized I, based on very specific instances I remembered of me sinning, me hating or me whatever, I'm going to hell. And that feeling was just like this I deserve hell. And that's a necessary point we all have to get to. But in the very same moment, there was not a not a instant, not a minute had passed, not a second had passed that Jesus didn't enter the picture and and took it from me, and it was gone. And that feeling was just like just this euphoria of like, I'm, I don't have to go. I'm I'm free. And not only am I free, I'm I'm part of the family.

SPEAKER_02 20:51

I'm chosen so much.

SPEAKER_01 20:54

The joy of that moment was like lasted at least. I mean, it's lasted until now, but it really was like a whole six months of just like I woke up every morning just like euphoric. Like, how could you not be when the Lord has saved you from that? Yes, and therefore loves you so much that he's obviously gonna do other things for you.

SPEAKER_02 21:13

Yes, and he has, and he has now. You've walked through a few years.

SPEAKER_01 21:17

So with my short hair. Yeah. Now I'm a Christian, I'm pumped. There were some other amazing things that God did right around that same area that just showed me his direct, personal like desire to tell you things, to connect with you, to give you what you need, what you truly need. I remember one morning um I woke up from a night out. I had gone dancing. I was just, you know, going out, dancing, or dancing at the clubs or whatever, what did whatever you call them. And um, the next morning I woke up and I was just so sad because some some guy didn't see me the way I I was, I knew I was. I was a good a really good person, and he just didn't recognize that and didn't want to have anything to do with me. And so I woke up the next morning, I was so hurt, and I heard a voice say, read your Bible. And this is a little earlier in the semester, the second semester, and I thought, I don't have a Bible. I I don't think who's who's saying that? And I remembered through some things and I had one. And I didn't think I'd even move to college in my dorm with one, but there was one. And I and and the voice said, No, go down to that picnic table right behind Northgate, which is where you go out and dance. I lived at the tradition, which is you know, 20 yards off of the club. So they put the new athletes right. There, yeah, and so everything swelled like puke and trash because it's Sunday morning after the nine, and I go out to this picnic table and I open the Bible, and I just didn't know what to really read. I didn't know what just opened it, and it was Philippians 9. Don't worry about anything and be patient and give everything to the Lord. Yes, so they opened that, and I had been really, really worried about you know various things. Anyway, my whole my thoughts just completely cleared. It was just complete peace in that moment, just from reading that verse. And he knew what I needed to hear and the magic of that moment. The magic of that moment and the personal nature of the Lord stepping down from heaven and into our into our world and doing physical things in our lives.

Motherhood, Speech, And Staying Peaceful

SPEAKER_02 23:19

Yeah, changing things, yeah, just like that. So I just feel like in my heart, there's somebody out there right now that's that hungers for that touch for really knowing God's reality in their lives. And I just want you to know that we're lifting you up right now, wherever you are. Um, we know that God doesn't respect one person over another, he loves you, daughter, as much as he loves us, and he loves us a bunch. I'm just gonna tell you that. And so reach out right now, reach out and ask for that touch from him, and he will faithfully answer you. You will not be disappointed. He loves you and he will not hurt you, he is for you, he is not against you. And I just want you to hear that this morning. So I want to talk about this season. This season of wife, first of all, daughter. You're the daughter of a king of kings and lord of lords. You are the wife of a good man that God has put as the priest and king over your household, and you have three little children. Four, two, and one. Oh my gosh. Amazing, and so that's a good all that good stuff, and yet this can be a really hard season. It's stretching, yeah. And so let's just talk a little bit about why it feels like stretching because we know you have faith. You're walking with the words.

SPEAKER_01 24:55

I think no matter what you go through, God will make sure you feel stretched or you're not gonna grow. There's gonna be seasons that are easier and really just fun and a blessing. Um, and you have to see the blessing even when things aren't stretching. Um, I think I've just learned a lot about my speech. I know we didn't talk about this before, but I we I've learned a lot about my speech being important, and I am 5% towards where I want to be with that. Me too. But when you go into motherhood, a lot of media, it's so unfortunate that we have social media, honestly, motherhood, because it's such a you're in your home and it is a quiet and peaceful, hopefully, inside of you um task because you're not in public anymore. You're not going to a job, you're at home with these babies, and you really, really need peace. And social media is not peaceful. And a lot of things that you hear about motherhood are jokes, or you know, these kids, or the way even calling them kids, I've learned kids are goats. Yeah, these are children.

SPEAKER_02 25:57

So they're they're they're sheep, nothing.

SPEAKER_01 26:02

So even just calling them children, we have to bring an awakening towards the the spiritual grandeur of raising a family that we speak and raising a family. You have we have to, even if it is hard, the way you speak of it has to be a blessing because it is a blessing to have kids and to have the proper perspective. We can talk about the hard part all day long, but in the end, hanging on to the fact that you brought a spirit from heaven into the world through your body.

SPEAKER_02 26:36

You were you were the mechanism that God used. Yeah, it was amazing.

SPEAKER_01 26:40

Incredible. I mean, you can't, we should not get far from that. We should never leave that behind, especially now because we have all kinds of new ways of making babies these days, and we really need to stay focused on the fact that women are given a beautiful task and them and the men a beautiful task, and it has to be hard or it wouldn't be worth it.

SPEAKER_02 27:00

Yeah. So and just watching our speech requires us to lean in all the time to our father's arms because we cannot do it.

SPEAKER_01 27:12

You have to choose how you're gonna do it. Yeah, are you gonna do it with God?

SPEAKER_02 27:15

So day to day, though, minute to minute, have you struggled with that lately?

SPEAKER_01 27:21

The first three years of motherhood were really hard for me. The first year was the hardest. The first three months I had my my son, I always wanted to be a mom. My whole life, I didn't want to be anything else. My mom was a stay-at-home mom, so I was gonna be a stay-at-home mom. I regretted it for after I had my first baby because I lost all of my freedom, my independence. I had a white Camaro, I lived at Houston for six years. I mean, I continue having fun. Go wherever I wanted. I mean, I lost everything. I was in a new state. I had a great marriage, great husband, thank goodness, beautiful state, but I lost my my freedom and I really struggled with just the um like the inconvenience of having a baby. Like you can't just go. You can't just, even though you're so glad you have this beautiful baby, of course. And so it took me, I really think, like three years to say, I feel like a mother now. I've I've quieted, I've accepted, I've surrendered. And um, now I'm past that three years. So I'm able to actually consciously, I'm not in the anger and bitterness anymore. I'm in the consciously like, how do I, how do I perfect this? How do I, what am I doing? What is the Lord saying here? How do I not get angry in these moments? How do I keep my peace? How do I use my words properly?

SPEAKER_02 28:36

We were so much further along than that was as a young mom. I was like, it took me so long to get into that. That's awesome. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 28:49

Just being more aware and careful of that.

SPEAKER_02 28:51

You know, I think if you are in a place like uh I was in uh instead of Hannah, you have so much hope listening to her to just seek the Lord and find him. When you seek it with all your heart, he's gonna be there. He's gonna be there, and he's gonna teach you these things that Hannah is sharing with us today that just be peaceful. I remember when I had my fourth uh child, how I loved breastfeeding her because there was such a gap between her and her brother. It had been a long time, and I kind of knew that this is probably the last baby I'm gonna have. And I was so not wanting to give that time, and I really did settle myself and I was so peaceful when I was nursing and um just relished that time so much. With the other three, it was just like this hurried, like, okay, I have to get I wasn't peaceful, but that was the thing I missed the most about having that little biggest on purpose the dependence on me.

Quiet, Distraction, And First Fruits

SPEAKER_01 30:03

He made it that way on purpose. You know, you're forced into this very physical clothes, they are eyes to your. It's just like he did it on purpose.

SPEAKER_02 30:11

Yeah, really, every season, hard or easy, every season is such a gift that he's given us. So um we're at at the end of this podcast, but I I feel sure that we're gonna speak again as these seasons in our life continue. Uh, but today, do you have any like words of advice for some other women out there and whatever stains you choose to give advice? I would say to get quiet, find a way.

SPEAKER_01 30:42

I had a hard time when I have my social media accounts open, I don't connect as well with the Lord because I think it's filling his place, it's filling this feedback. And you really, if you can find, if you need to turn all of that off for a week or months to really find a group with him, you it's worth it. And it's a distraction. And and the word distraction is diss away, and then traction. So you're not gaining traction. Oh, I love that. If you have traction about that with the Lord, you can't have any distractions. And so anytime that you can get in your closet and read, even if it's hard at first to have that mental space, you there's a book called The Celebration of Discipline, and you need quiet, you need silence, and you need to feel your soul. God speaks in your soul. And if you're not, if your ears are listening to things like hear your TV's on, your phone's open, you're not gonna hear. That's that's so good. And he will give you the time and he won't meet you there.

SPEAKER_02 31:43

You know, sometimes when I'm being quiet with the Lord, I never stop. You know, that's just my and does go with you all day. But um when I stop and spend time with the Lord, sometimes I fall asleep. And I used to think, well, that's ridiculous, but now I'm so thankful for it because it's a real rest, even if it's like 40 minutes. You know, it's like such rest that he's given me when I stop and be with him. Um, and I'll start my morning, you know, just good morning. That's the first thing I think now when I wake up in the morning. Yes, hey, that's a good place to be. Hey, I'm before I even open my eyes. You're there. I'm so happy you're still there. Yes, that's the goal of Paul. Uh that's what we want. It's just that that he walks, you know, when Paul, when I used to read that, Paul said uh pray unceasingly. I'd be like, Well, I don't, especially when I was like in motherhood, I was like, I don't even know how to do that. That's crazy. And I would really, I really did think Paul was crazy for a long time.

SPEAKER_01 32:44

Your spirit, your spirit activates on another, but as you're doing everything in your day, yes, you can easily be in communion with him.

SPEAKER_02 32:51

And now it takes practice, but you always well, and it's not just practice, it's a side conversation that's all the time. Choosing to set aside like the first thing in the morning is when you're visiting with your first words out of your mouth, and then it's just like it continues the whole day.

SPEAKER_01 33:07

So, with moms, one thing I will say is that you give your first fruits to the Lord, and a lot of pastors now say, Oh, first thing in the morning, well, as a moron, that's not me. Yeah, that's fine. But the first, the best part of my day is the first 10 minutes of nap time. As soon as they go down for a nap, that is my there's been lots of seasons where I never had that. Yes, the naps didn't line up. I already always had a kid awake. Yeah, but now that I do have kids sleeping at the same time, I do get an hour or two most of the time. And that first bit of that, it belongs to him. And that's at you know, 1 p.m. So don't let anyone tell you how this is supposed to look. Yes. But it was your personal gift to him and then him giving it back to you.

SPEAKER_02 33:50

I love that. And I love the first fruits because when we give, you know, the pouring out of the water, we're gonna come all the way to uh the pouring out of the water in the desert is so significant because it's saying, I wouldn't have water if it weren't for you.

SPEAKER_01 34:05

Yeah, it's an oblation, it is a sacrifice.

SPEAKER_02 34:07

Like, here is my first fruits of this water. If I'm gonna have any more, it's gonna be you. I don't even if I don't need water, and time-wise, as a mom, I don't have any time.

SPEAKER_01 34:18

Yeah, but if I give you my time, you will multiply my time.

Prayer And Final Blessing

SPEAKER_02 34:22

Any time, like two minutes. But I find myself having conversations with him all day long. And I love that. So wherever I am, it's just so easy now to just be in that condition that he's walking with me, and I can hear his voice, and uh he's reminding me of things to pray for, others to pray for. Let's pray. Um, Father God, thank you for the time that you've given Hannah and I to just have his conversation and for all those that are listening to this conversation, all those young daughters and old daughters, older daughters, uh, that you want to bless with joy and peace that they can't even imagine. Father, I just pray that these words will meet them right where they are, that they will not bring condemnation, because that would not be from you, but they will just be rejoicing in the truth that you love them so much. I ask especially for those that um hungered for you today, um, as they heard this uh conversation. And I ask you to send laborers to harvest their lives, to meet them right where they are, to love them, show them your love in so many ways, and remind them daily that every good thing they already have in their lives has come from you. And I just pray all of that into sustained.