Ep 3: God is Love with Mollie Leone

Season 2 is off to a fun start!

In this episode, Amy continues conversation with Mollie Leone about God's love and how that impacts daily life.

Ready to learn more and connect your heart to the Father's heart for you?

Click here to explore Awaken Joy Leadership Coaching with Amy Charbonneau

Transcript

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Amy Charbonneau: Welcome back to Department 88. I'm Amy Charbonneau, your host, and I am back with my friend Molly Leone again. So, if you were here in the last episode, you'll know that we kind of talked about transitioning into this, this subject of God is love.

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Amy Charbonneau: But what does that really mean for us and how we understand who we are?

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Mollie Leone: Thank you.

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Amy Charbonneau: how we live and engage in the earth, in relationships, and even what does that mean for the dreams and the passions that are on the inside of us that.

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Mollie Leone: True.

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Amy Charbonneau: Too many people never realize.

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Amy Charbonneau: you know. So we're going to start it up with that, Molly. So I want to ask you, do you remember when you 1st really got it like that? God loved you.

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Mollie Leone: Oh, man!

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Mollie Leone: I don't know, I think I'm still trying to get it, honestly, to be completely honest. But I think, really, maybe…

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Mollie Leone: probably within the last 10 years, I'd have to say, because I grew up, I call it traditional American church, where it's, you know, you need to have Jesus, and you need to be saved so that you don't spend eternity in hell, and, you know, be a good person, and…

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Mollie Leone: Maybe, you know, read your Bible so you don't feel like you're a sinner and.

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Mollie Leone: You know, make good choices. Let's high five and move on. You know, that's that's.

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Amy Charbonneau: Little Christian girl.

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Mollie Leone: Yeah, exactly, and oh my gosh, then, holy cow, level that up once I became a wife and a mom.

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Amy Charbonneau: Good.

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Mollie Leone: Goodness gracious, that backpack was full of so much.

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Mollie Leone: I don't know if that's what you're asking, but…

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Amy Charbonneau: Well, I know I had a similar upbringing, and I'm so grateful for, you know, the little bus that came through our neighborhood to take my brothers and I to this little Baptist church where we first heard the gospel, you know? I'm so glad that they told me I needed to receive Jesus.

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Mollie Leone: Yeah.

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Amy Charbonneau: But it wasn't until in my 20s, after a lot of life had happened. In the last episode, we talked about some of that inherited stuff.

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Amy Charbonneau: couple of the things that I was dealing with in my young adulthood was major fear, you know, and that happened because of a traumatic incident I witnessed at 5. And so, when I talked in the last episode about things just get imprinted as fact.

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Mollie Leone: Mmh.

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Amy Charbonneau: Because we don't know. So I experienced this traumatic thing where I witnessed it, and I couldn't do anything. So, all these lies, like, I'm not able to help anybody.

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Amy Charbonneau: I'm not safe, you know, this other… the other people involved in this aren't safe. A lot of things around safety, fear, feeling helpless, like, hopeless, and the stress of that caused nightmares for years in my childhood.

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Amy Charbonneau: And so I had this constant nightmare that I was in the super dark forest, running, being chased by a pack of wolves.

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Amy Charbonneau: And I still remember these, you know, the pain's gone because of all this inner healing I've done.

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Mollie Leone: Yeah.

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Amy Charbonneau: You know, but it's amazing how we can have these dreams and these things that imprint on us, and it can take a lifetime to even unravel why they're there, you know? Yeah. So, fast forward to my 20s, I had… I was divorced, single mom, working 3 jobs.

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Amy Charbonneau: angry at God, like, super angry at God, and just basically as if I had…

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Amy Charbonneau: you know, flipped him off, and… Yeah. Forget you, forget you, Lord. Because he didn't meet my expectations, like, as if…

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Amy Charbonneau: As if God should just fix it for me, and he should just, you know, keep me from doing dumb things. Or, like, somehow it's all on him. It's all on responsibility.

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Mollie Leone: Yeah.

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Amy Charbonneau: Which is, I mean, classic Garden of Eden. The woman you gave made me do it, while the serpent made me do it, you know? Yeah.

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Amy Charbonneau: Classic, divert, don't take responsibility. Yeah. So I was suicidal on the floor of my kitchen, and I just cried out, like, God, if it's true, if it's really true that you're a loving God, you're gonna have to show up right now, you know? And I reached to…

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Amy Charbonneau: grab the things I had planned on ending my life with, and my son, who was a toddler at the time, and slept like the dead. So this is like an act of God that he woke up, you know.

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Mollie Leone: Wow.

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Amy Charbonneau: But he woke up, he came in the kitchen, crawled in my lap, put his arms around my neck, and just said, I love you so much.

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Amy Charbonneau: You know, and I just wept.

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Mollie Leone: On the floor.

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Amy Charbonneau: kitchen, knowing, I knew in that moment that was God saying how much He loved me. I had no idea what that meant.

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Amy Charbonneau: I had no idea what to do with it, what, definitely not what to do next, or how to get rid of all of the bitterness and the hurt and the confusion and anger, you know, because we just.

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Mollie Leone: Words.

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Amy Charbonneau: store this stuff. And I was trying to be a single mom. I didn't want to be on welfare or food stamps. I didn't want those labels around me. So I was working my butt off, never even with my son. My parents were raising him, basically, you know. And so all of that is happening. And in the midst of the darkness, where I'm so overwhelmed.

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Amy Charbonneau: You know, buy the things that

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Amy Charbonneau: Were on my cellular memory, but I believed that I'm not able.

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Amy Charbonneau: to help. I'm not able to live a different life, you know, because.

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Mollie Leone: Is that Wed.

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Amy Charbonneau: what my belief system was telling me. Yeah. And I went to this.

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Amy Charbonneau: Bible study at this church, and the lady was.

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Amy Charbonneau: so loving, you know, she didn't care how angry I was. I mean, I look back now that I've led Bible studies, I'm like, wow, she was like, next level, because she was so patient with me, you know, and.

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Mollie Leone: Yeah.

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Amy Charbonneau: God is so tender. And I couldn't receive it from him, so he started showing me how to receive it through people.

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Mollie Leone: Wow.

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Amy Charbonneau: So this woman was so patient and tender and loving to her.

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Mollie Leone: I mean.

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Amy Charbonneau: She didn't care that I was angry and mad and hurt and confused, that I had questions. She didn't care when I yelled and stormed out of the Bible study group one night.

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Amy Charbonneau: Nope.

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Mollie Leone: Yeah!

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Amy Charbonneau: there, and she would just come out and gently touch my back and just her presence.

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Amy Charbonneau: was love. You know, and looking back at what I know now.

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Amy Charbonneau: I know that that was the love of God.

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Mollie Leone: Yeah, okay.

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Amy Charbonneau: He often shows us his love through people.

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Mollie Leone: Yeah!

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Amy Charbonneau: And so love, like love can be.

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Amy Charbonneau: many, many things. You know, and in the Bible, there's quite a few words for love, but agape is like the big one, you know, that we're all striving for. This unconditional love that's covenantal.

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Mollie Leone: Yeah, sure.

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Amy Charbonneau: This covenant with God and he has through the blood of Jesus, he has decided to covenant agreement himself to us. If we would receive this covenant because of what Jesus has done, he's like, everything I have is yours. I'm for you. I'm never against you.

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Mollie Leone: Mmh.

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Amy Charbonneau: I'm with you till the end of days. I'm for you. You know, I'm here. All the resources of heaven are available to you.

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Mollie Leone: Yeah.

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Mollie Leone: Yeah. Sure.

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Amy Charbonneau: Yeah, we sit back like I have to work my butt off for it.

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Mollie Leone: Okay.

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Amy Charbonneau: What's that about, Molly? It's performance, you know, we get this thing engraved in us that, wow, this big giant love that I can't comprehend, I really don't have words for it, I have no experience for it.

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Mollie Leone: Yeah.

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Amy Charbonneau: I must need to really work hard to deserve it.

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Amy Charbonneau: So then I enter in a life of performance and so I'm doing all the right things.

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Mollie Leone: Yes.

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Mollie Leone: Yeah.

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Amy Charbonneau: Three meals a day around the table and, you know, whatever those right things, however they came into my world, I took those and began performing for love as if.

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Amy Charbonneau: done these things now, I actually deserve a measure of love.

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Mollie Leone: Yep.

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Amy Charbonneau: You know, and then read, like, Ephesians 3, I think it's 3, chapter 2 or 3, where it says Paul's praying that they would know the height and depth and width of God's love, you know, and so that was only, like, 10 years ago that I began going, well, what does that mean?

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Mollie Leone: Yeah, yeah.

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Amy Charbonneau: It is the height and depth, if there's no end, depth, width, breath, How do I experience that?

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Amy Charbonneau: Now, that's that invitation of the presence of God that's terrifying.

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Mollie Leone: Yeah, like, if you think there's that verse that says that he has more good thoughts towards you than grains of sand on the seashore, and it's like…

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Mollie Leone: have you ever picked up a handful of sand? Like, it's like, I can't… like, this is not something that I know how to grasp. Like, my mind does not know how to filter this through

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Mollie Leone: You in in one moment, you think more good thoughts about me.

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Mollie Leone: then, I mean, I'm just on one little beach, and one… one… I pick up one handful of sand, and I can't even comprehend that, let alone the whole… the whole shore.

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Amy Charbonneau: It's, it's, wow, it's mind.

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Mollie Leone: It is.

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Amy Charbonneau: And then yet here we are judging ourselves.

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Mollie Leone: Right.

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Amy Charbonneau: You know, and I think of the verse that says, don't call what is good evil.

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Mollie Leone: Mmhm.

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Amy Charbonneau: You know, so when we talk bad about ourself, we're literally saying like this, this.

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Mollie Leone: Perfect.

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Amy Charbonneau: And that God created and called very good. When he created Adam, he said, that's very good. Like, humans are very good.

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Mollie Leone: Yes.

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Amy Charbonneau: Creation and design and he.

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Amy Charbonneau: you know the verses like before he laid the foundation of the earth that he had us in mind.

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Mollie Leone: Right.

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Amy Charbonneau: that he knit us together with intention and purpose in our mother's womb. You know, all these verses, you begin to connect them, and if you really will allow yourself to sit and go, okay, God, what does that mean about me?

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Mollie Leone: Mmhm.

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Amy Charbonneau: I think that's the beginning of our exploration into…

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Amy Charbonneau: The height and depth and width and breadth of his left.

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Mollie Leone: Yeah.

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Mollie Leone: Yeah.

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Amy Charbonneau: Because it's easy to say, and I've used 1 Corinthians 13 many, many times as a meter, like, how am I doing on love? Love is patient, okay? If you replace your name, you know, it means patient.

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Amy Charbonneau: Most of the time, you know.

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Mollie Leone: Thank you.

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Amy Charbonneau: Okay, except with so and so, but most of the time, you know.

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Mollie Leone: Like, we use.

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Amy Charbonneau: It is this barometer of like, you know.

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Mollie Leone: Yeah.

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Amy Charbonneau: right there. And then you get to.

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Mollie Leone: Yeah, to that.

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Amy Charbonneau: Love doesn't keep a record of wrong.

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Amy Charbonneau: And when I, when I hear people talking about, like, why do I need Jesus?

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Amy Charbonneau: I think because it's impossible for us to not keep a record of wrong against ourselves without him.

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Mollie Leone: Yeah.

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Amy Charbonneau: That's the big one because

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Amy Charbonneau: We are so self-critical, you know, and there's so much self-abuse and self-hatred and self-condemnation and guilt and shame, all these things governing our lives. It's impossible to get rid of that without Jesus.

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Mollie Leone: Yeah.

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Amy Charbonneau: He died to restore us back to what Adam and Eve had before the fall.

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Amy Charbonneau: Perfection in right relationship.

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Mollie Leone: Mmhm.

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Amy Charbonneau: Living in abundance. No worries, no stress, you know, not a care in the world.

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Mollie Leone: Yep.

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Amy Charbonneau: In relationship, walking with him in the cool of the day.

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Mollie Leone: to…

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Amy Charbonneau: And I just think, wow, Lord, that's what I've been redeemed to by my acceptance of Jesus. You know, and it's not just about what happens when we die. Like, praise God, I'm not going to spend eternity in torture. Praise the Lord.

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Mollie Leone: Right. Yeah. Yeah.

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Amy Charbonneau: You know, but it's so much more, because it's about how we get to live here and now, and that if it's true that things get imprinted on me that are… and so I live and I do things in life and make decisions without my conscious agreement or awareness.

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Amy Charbonneau: I need help to be free from that, you know, in the primary ways, through what Jesus did to restore, so that now I have authority and dominion over it. You know, so then the invitation is, okay, what does that mean?

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Mollie Leone: Issue.

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Amy Charbonneau: So rather than be like, I'm loud and obnoxious because I'm Italian, or whatever, you know, this is just the way we are. We're sarcastic, it's the way we are. It's fine, it's not hurting anybody. You know, we make all these excuses.

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Mollie Leone: Yeah.

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Amy Charbonneau: The way we live and behave.

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Mollie Leone: Yeah.

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Amy Charbonneau: The offer is returning back to that reality of the Garden of Eden, where there's complete peace.

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Amy Charbonneau: No worry, no stress, no fear.

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Mollie Leone: Yeah.

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Amy Charbonneau: The club.

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Mollie Leone: Mmhm.

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Amy Charbonneau: So when you think about love in your life, Molly, give us an example. How have you experienced

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Amy Charbonneau: Love even in like the so in the last episode the testimony you shared about your heart.

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Mollie Leone: Yeah.

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Amy Charbonneau: How does that help you understand the love of God?

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Mollie Leone: Oh, man.

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Mollie Leone: gosh, I guess I haven't really thought about how that helps… that particular scenario helps me think of that, but I was thinking, as you were talking, I was like.

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Mollie Leone: Trying to think of scenarios.

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Mollie Leone: and there's… I just have so many times that the love of God has…

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Mollie Leone: Been there, and I was like.

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Mollie Leone: Nothing… no, none of them have been…

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Mollie Leone: you know, you read the Bible and, like, oh my goodness.

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Mollie Leone: Who was it? Now I'm totally… was it Abraham with the burning bush?

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Amy Charbonneau: Okay.

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Mollie Leone: Moses, okay. So, I haven't had a burning bush moment. I haven't had a, abraham was Isaac's dad, right? And he took Isaac out to sacrifice him, and then a lamb appears. Like, I haven't had that.

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Mollie Leone: you know, these… I haven't had a situation, like, I think of Noah, who built this ark, and built for… I was looking it up recently, and they say that he probably took him over 70 years to build the ark, and I'm like.

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Mollie Leone: You know that dude got some ridicule, he got made fun of, like, I'm like, that guy had some sort of crazy encounter with God in order to put up with that and to do such a crazy task.

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Mollie Leone: that dude, something happened. Like, I don't know, God walked into his room or something, right? And if you just think about, like, we don't even have the discipline to go to the gym five days a week for more than a month, you know? So for him to do this for 70 years.

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Mollie Leone: I'm saying that because then yet I look back and I'm like.

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Mollie Leone: wow, he showed up big time there, he showed up big time there, he showed up big time there, and I just think of when

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Mollie Leone: so about… it was about 10 years ago when we were living in Seattle, and we've moved out to Seattle from Montana

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Mollie Leone: to take… to do some business. We had, been very successful in network marketing, and we were taking over some business, and we just thought, we'd made it, and here we go, you know, talking about being driven and successful and having… we… we're doing all the right things.

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Mollie Leone: And, so in our minds, that was how we were being, we were going to be successful Christians.

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Mollie Leone: going, to prove the world that you can be a successful Christian, but much striving, let me tell you.

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Amy Charbonneau: And so…

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Mollie Leone: So, we go to Seattle, and we were there for… we ended up in Seattle for 5 years, but

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Mollie Leone: while we were there, we ended up, super shortened story, we ended up at the Ethiopian church.

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Mollie Leone: And they spoke Amharic. So we had to have someone translating for us through the whole service. And it is wild and it is nothing like traditional American church. You know, it, first of all, lasts like four hours, one service, you know, it's not like sing three songs, have a 20 minute message, you know, say kumbaya and go on, get some breakfast afterwards.

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Mollie Leone: after church on Sunday.

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Mollie Leone: So… But what happened was I saw this culture.

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Mollie Leone: That had this devotion and this love.

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Mollie Leone: to God, like, in the middle of the sermon, the pastor would say something, the keyboard player would be like, you know, and like, the people would run to the front, and they'd all start cheering, and they'd start dancing, and then…

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Mollie Leone: And the pastor would join in and it was, there was so much joy and they were celebrating.

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Mollie Leone: what they were talking about. And this love, and then we started to see miracles happening, and people being

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Mollie Leone: free, and, like, demons being cast out, and this freedom that people experience, like… I'm like, this is the stuff that the Bible talks about, but I've never seen it before, like…

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Mollie Leone: My white picket fence didn't, this was not there.

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Mollie Leone: But the beauty of what God did is He…

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Mollie Leone: Took me all the way around the world with a culture that was nothing like my culture, so I got to be an out like a bystander on the outside. I got to look in.

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Mollie Leone: and see this devotion and this love and this just beautiful interaction between these people and this God.

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Mollie Leone: And I was like, I want that!

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Amy Charbonneau: Yeah. That's, that's.

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Mollie Leone: that's real, it's alive, and I just… I remember I would call my mom, and I would just be… we'd be on the phone, I'm like, oh my gosh, mom, and then this, and then this, and…

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Mollie Leone: And she would be like, what? Really? And she… we would just… just… we, like…

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Mollie Leone: I don't remember in my life ever feeling quite so alive.

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Mollie Leone: As during that time, even now, like, you know, because I'm… I don't know if I'm used to it or whatever, but… or because I just have it all the time now, but it was an unbelievable time. And then…

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Mollie Leone: Praise the Lord, we ended up finding an English speaking church that loved Jesus as much as the Ethiopians did.

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Mollie Leone: But it took a while, and it just is, like, you know… and over time, we ended up… we don't… we're not a part of that network marketing business anymore, and it's just… it's so funny how…

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Mollie Leone: You know, here we thought we were doing all this stuff to please God. And he's he's like, oh, bless your heart. You know?

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Amy Charbonneau: Excellent.

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Mollie Leone: And now here, what's so interesting is fast forward to in my mid forties, I'm living all of those dreams that we had had. I'm, I've accomplished everything in my life, but I have not worked half as hard for it.

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Amy Charbonneau: Right.

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Mollie Leone: As I did then. Now there's some things that I think I've learned. I've learned how to.

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Mollie Leone: have faith, and I, you know, I use my imagination, and I do all these things that I know build myself, and build what God wants for us, and I co-create a life with Him. But, I didn't have to strive

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Mollie Leone: you know, and so now I just… there's so many times that I just…

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Mollie Leone: I'll stop in my day, and I'm just like, God, thank you. And then, at the same time, my heart breaks, because I just am like.

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Mollie Leone: How do people do this without you?

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Mollie Leone: I can't even get half, you know, it's like halfway through my day.

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Mollie Leone: Without full reliance.

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Mollie Leone: It's like you talk about how do you… if you use what is love as your checklist, you know, and it's like, goodness, patience, kindness, gentleness…

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Mollie Leone: Self-control, anyone? You know? Have you driven on a Phoenix freeway? Like, that'll test your self-control, you know?

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Mollie Leone: But, anyways…

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Amy Charbonneau: Yeah, well, there's a verse in John, first John, four, eight. This is from the amplified, and it says, the one who does not love has not become acquainted with God means.

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Mollie Leone: or…

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Amy Charbonneau: does not and never did know Him, for God is love. He's the originator of love, and it's an enduring attribute of His nature.

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Mollie Leone: Yeah.

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Amy Charbonneau: The mirror translation that says not to love is not to know God. There is nothing in love that distracts from who God is. Love is who God is. They are inseparable.

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Mollie Leone: Only.

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Amy Charbonneau: And then like in verse 18 of the same chapter, there's no fear in love. And I think sometimes people think the opposite of love is hate, but I think the opposite.

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Mollie Leone: Compet.

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Amy Charbonneau: love is really fear, because if there's perfect love, fear can exist. That means that it's repelled, you know. So to be in this kind of love.

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Amy Charbonneau: No wonder the enemy tries to make us afraid of God. Oh, you know, and then start accusing us, you're not good enough for that kind of love. You know, He's a big, loving, perfect God, and then look what you did just the other day, or you yelled at your kids, and you…

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Amy Charbonneau: You cheated on your spouse or you whatever, you know, whatever the thing is, you know, you're not worthy.

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Amy Charbonneau: Of the love of God. So no wonder the enemy torments us with those thoughts, you know, that become this belief that I'm not lovable, I'm not worthy, I'm not safe in his presence because I am a.

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Mollie Leone: Yeah.

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Amy Charbonneau: person.

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Amy Charbonneau: You know, when the reality is.

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Amy Charbonneau: to get into the height and depth and width and breadth of God's love, which has nothing to do with

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Amy Charbonneau: how we behave or act.

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Mollie Leone: Oh!

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Amy Charbonneau: Anything only has to do with the fact that he created us in his love for us. And he said, wow, they're amazing. You know, he created Molly. Molly is amazing. I can't wait for her life to happen. Amy's amazing. I can't wait for her life to happen.

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Mollie Leone: Right.

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Amy Charbonneau: And when we get to have that encounter with the love of God and the presence of God, where we can receive it for ourself.

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Mollie Leone: Yah.

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Amy Charbonneau: Then it makes sense why Jesus said there's two commandments.

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Amy Charbonneau: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.

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Mollie Leone: Yeah, okay.

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Amy Charbonneau: And then love your neighbor as yourself.

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Amy Charbonneau: You know, and so we have to love ourself before we can even love anyone else. But we can't love anyone else or ourself if we don't first know how to have a love relationship with God.

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Mollie Leone: In June.

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Amy Charbonneau: Yes, a be.

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Mollie Leone: Yeah.

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Amy Charbonneau: who accept that he loves me unconditionally, but also the invitation is I get to love him unconditionally. So then we

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Amy Charbonneau: before about our imagination. In our mind, we can close our eyes, and I like to imagine myself with him, and I'm usually walking on a beach, because it's my happy place.

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Mollie Leone: Wild.

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Amy Charbonneau: A big grassy meadow, and there's like butterflies and hummingbirds and flowers and all these things that to me are peaceful, and the wind is blowing.

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Mollie Leone: Yeah. You know.

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Amy Charbonneau: We're sitting on a big swing under a big oak tree or something like that. And I picture myself in those places with him, and I look at him and, you know, I just lean into him because I feel myself fused to his love, you know?

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Mollie Leone: Oh.

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Amy Charbonneau: Or I look at his face and I kiss his cheeks or I kiss his forehead because that's what he does to me.

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Amy Charbonneau: To engage with the love of God is to really humble ourselves.

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Mollie Leone: Yeah, yeah, it's interesting. Oh, go ahead. So, well, what's interesting is, as you were talking, I was just writing this down, is it's so interesting because I feel like the world teaches us, love yourself. You have to love yourself, right? But it's a very selfish love.

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Mollie Leone: And so it's, well, I deserve this. Well, it's almost like making ourselves gods, actually, is really kind of what it is. But it's all about,

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Mollie Leone: oh, what is that? Treat yourself, right? That… that saying. And it's… what's so interesting is, as you were talking, I was like, oh my gosh, had this kind of aha that the beautiful thing is, yes, we do need to love ourselves, but

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Mollie Leone: because we love God, that keeps us out of that selfish, because you can't worship and love and bring your adoration to God

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Mollie Leone: And… and be selfish.

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Amy Charbonneau: Right.

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Mollie Leone: And so, as you… it's… it's this cyclical thing that I get to… my heart gets healed, and I get to love myself and take care of myself, and…

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Mollie Leone: cherish myself and deserve his love. Yeah. But then it doesn't root in a selfish or prideful way because it then goes back to him.

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Mollie Leone: And it's almost, you know, taking a physical form where you like bow. I bow myself, not prideful. I'm not prideful. I'm not boastful. I bow before God, knowing that it all comes from him. I'm just was like seeing this cyclical thing of how the beautiful.

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Mollie Leone: the world says love yourself, but it's so selfish. And yet, when you're in relationship with God, it's so… it's such a beautiful…

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Mollie Leone: Unselfish.

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Amy Charbonneau: Yes.

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Mollie Leone: way of love.

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Amy Charbonneau: Absolutely, and it heals being able to.

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Amy Charbonneau: Choose to grasp that God's love for us is an eternal thing we're not ever going to grasp the fullness of here. Yeah. You know, that's a that's a first is like disclaimer.

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Mollie Leone: You know, we're all…

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Amy Charbonneau: We're all trying to describe what love is.

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Mollie Leone: Yeah.

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Amy Charbonneau: The reality is this eternal God who is love, it's his very nature. There are hidden things, there's mysteries to it intentionally. One, because it's the glory of God to conceal a matter and the glory of kings to search it out, the Bible says. Yeah.

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Amy Charbonneau: He wants us to seek these matters and mysteries.

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Amy Charbonneau: and 2.

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Amy Charbonneau: this is what I think is special about the body of Christ. So, like, the way Molly

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Amy Charbonneau: models God, you know, is a very teeny tiny glimpse of God. You know, the way I model God is a teeny tiny glimpse. So in the body, if we were all really loving each other, you know, with this.

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Mollie Leone: Wow.

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Amy Charbonneau: Wow, like who God is in you is so powerful and so vital to the world understanding even a glimpse of God's love. We would so support each other. Well then together we would build out a better reflection of his love.

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Mollie Leone: Yeah.

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Amy Charbonneau: reminded, years ago, I was at a women's retreat in Washington, this little lake, beautiful, quiet, serene, you know, the water one morning is just like glass.

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Mollie Leone: Yeah.

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Amy Charbonneau: Just those, there's no wind and I'm sitting down, you know, by the water with my Bible just.

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Amy Charbonneau: praying, and I'm just taking it in. I'm like, Lord, you know, like, creation is my… I hear Him so well when I'm out in nature, you know, because it's quiet, I'm disconnected from everything.

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Mollie Leone: Yeah.

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Amy Charbonneau: I'm sitting there. I'm like, Wow, God! And I just got this idea of like, how many water molecules does it take?

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Amy Charbonneau: To make the surface of this lake.

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Amy Charbonneau: in their connection give this reflection of the sky, you know, like I just started thinking about all these things. I'm like how many water molecules are under the top layer supporting it.

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Mollie Leone: Yeah.

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Amy Charbonneau: It's only the top layer reflecting the beauty. The rest of it, some of it's down in the mud, some of it's…

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Mollie Leone: Yeah!

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Amy Charbonneau: whatever, and then storms come, and that all gets turned around, and I'm like, we need to support each other, and sometimes we're the ones down stuck in the mud at the bottom of the lake, and somebody else is on the top reflecting Jesus, but it's all connected and all so important.

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Amy Charbonneau: You know, and we have to choose to say.

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Amy Charbonneau: Well…

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Amy Charbonneau: My life might look like a hot mess right now, but Molly's doesn't. Well, praise God, Molly's reflecting the love of Jesus, and I'll support her for that, and I'm going to be with her, and I'm going to do my part. And one of these days, I'm going to reflect the love of God, you know, someone's going to support me in that, you know, and how we get to work together.

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Mollie Leone: Yep.

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Amy Charbonneau: I think of the body, I think of the vastness of God. There's just teensy glimpses in each person on the planet at any given time.

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Amy Charbonneau: And if we would only choose to say, show me who you are and me.

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Amy Charbonneau: And how that's designed to connect.

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Mollie Leone: connect with.

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Amy Charbonneau: So and so and so and so and so and so, these people.

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Mollie Leone: Yeah.

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Amy Charbonneau: Together, we're a better reflection of Jesus so that someone else knows, wow, God is good and he loves.

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Mollie Leone: No.

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Mollie Leone: Yeah, okay.

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Amy Charbonneau: The interconnected love of God.

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Amy Charbonneau: It requires so much humility and so much attention to sometimes I'm not a good reflection and there's a reason, you know?

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Mollie Leone: Glue.

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Amy Charbonneau: That's an opportunity and an invitation to say, there's some stuff I need to work on. And yeah, you know, you mentioned the freeway. It might have been in the last episode or the freeways in Phoenix. Maybe it was this one.

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Mollie Leone: Yes.

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Amy Charbonneau: One of the things I do, I used to have road rage. And of course, if you're a parent, then you have little children who start to mimic you when you're on the road.

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Mollie Leone: Yeah.

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Amy Charbonneau: I'm, you know, being like, you stupid idiot, or whatever, and then my toddler's in the back, you stupid idiot. I'm like, oh, no, you know.

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Mollie Leone: Yeah, nothing like our kids to, like, be sandpaper, right?

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Amy Charbonneau: Oh, totally. You know, so I was invited to change how I drive, you know.

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Mollie Leone: Yeah, no.

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Amy Charbonneau: Which was a progression going from, you stupid idiot, to, you know, and in my head, saying these things, to which my toddler started growling, too. So, you know, I'm like, okay, how can I make this work in her favor, too?

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Amy Charbonneau: So I'm like, welcome to the blessing lane, you know, and I.

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Mollie Leone: I would just start.

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Amy Charbonneau: Either prophesying over them or blessing them, you know, and it was fun. It was a fun game because at first I'm like, I bless them with a revelation of Jesus or something, you know, this.

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Mollie Leone: Yeah.

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Amy Charbonneau: Out of irritation. And that became this fun game, you know, basically.

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Mollie Leone: Sle.

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Amy Charbonneau: the Holy Spirit, and I'd be like, start praying for somebody. Well

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Amy Charbonneau: one time I started prophesying things as if the person was elderly, and I couldn't tell, you know, in the.

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Mollie Leone: Yeah.

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Amy Charbonneau: Even if it was a male or female, you know, but I start… the things coming out of my mouth, I'm like, oh, that's interesting. And we both happened to get off on the same exit, so I pulled up next to, and

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Amy Charbonneau: gosh, it was an old man, and I was like, wow, okay, Lord, I recognize even driving on crazy freeways is an opportunity to partner with you to bring the kingdom of heaven into someone's life, whether they know it or not.

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Mollie Leone: Yep.

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Amy Charbonneau: That's love. It's secret. It's like we get to speak life into people's lives.

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Mollie Leone: Yeah. What?

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Amy Charbonneau: Even if they're… they never know that you did that, that some stranger came to them behind them on the freeway. That's love.

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Mollie Leone: Yep.

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Mollie Leone: Yeah, totally.

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Mollie Leone: That is… yes, it's amazing.

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Amy Charbonneau: Okay, well, I think that will wrap this one up for today, so thank you for listening, and if this has, tugged on your heart a little bit, we feel free to click on the link in the description box below and check out my website and how I offer coaching and inner healing services.

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Amy Charbonneau: And follow the podcast because we have lots of good conversations in the past and coming your way. So we bless you. May you encounter the love of God in a fresh way, that causes you to go deeper into that love.

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Mollie Leone: Be there.

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Amy Charbonneau: In Jesus name. Amen.