Rebroadcast: Who are these crazy plant ladies?

Allow us to reintroduce ourselves to our new followers! Meet the three lovely ladies who tend to the Armored Garden. 

Transcript

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You're kneeling in the soil of struggle. Marriage, mommyhood, friendships, workplace all tangled up together in your hands. The world whispers you're not enough. Too tired, too broken. But what if your very breath becomes a battle cry? What if the armor of God is a cold steel, but living vines wrapping your heart home in your hardest day? What would it look like if we take the attacks as target practice? With our sword and weapons that have been crafted by our good, good Father God. Welcome to the Armored Garden. I'm Lauren, a deeply in love believer that the Word of God is a love letter all of our hearts need to hear and receive. I'm Madison, a believer that even mustard seed faith can move mountains when we're suited up in Christ. And I'm Tony, a fellow crown daughter of the Most High God that wholeheartedly believes radical transformation is possible only with him. You have found a place where weary women become warriors, where Ephesians 6 meets our everyday, where we dig into God's word, plant truth and chaos, and watch him grow beauty from our battlefields. You have entered into a secret space where we rest our tired bones in the presence of our Holy Father and ask him to sharpen our swords and fill the holes in our armor for struggle and battles ahead. So breathe a deep sister. That ache in your lungs, it's holy ground. Your prayers, even the whispered and unspoken ones, are oxygen to a garden the enemy can't touch. Ready to trade overwhelm for overcoming? Let's armor up. You are now in a place, and we pray that this becomes a place where biblical truth can become your everyday reality, that your soil just grows so fertile, not from anything that you're doing for anyone, but just because you're taking the identity that you have through Christ. And now you're actually gonna do something with that identity. You're gonna live your life in a way that's glorifying to God, and you just fall so deeply in love with Him that you can't even help but to bloom. Amen. So welcome again. We're gonna pray so we can prepare our hearts and our souls for whatever God has in store for us coming. Um, if you want to pray with us, play it along, bow your heads. Lord doesn't care how you come, he just wants you to talk to him. So whatever that looks like for you, whether you're don't close your eyes if you're driving. Yeah, definitely good advice. Anyone want to pray? You want me to pray? Okay. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you so much for the day that you have in front of us, Lord. The night that we may be in, whatever time it is, Lord God, we know if we call upon you, if we seek you, you come. We pray that you would come now in this moment for whomever's listening, watching, and for us in this room, that you would just make your presence known to our hearts and to our souls. Teach us your presence, Lord, so we may recognize it and be responsive to it. We pray, Lord, that you would speak a word to our hearts, that we would receive that word and then go and do what you've asked us to do, whatever that may be. Thank you, Lord, so much for your love and your mercy. We are so appreciative to you for our father, to be our father. May you be with us in this time and with us when we go as well. Amen. Amen. Amen. So I've already said welcome. I'm not gonna say it again. We are gonna do a little bit of an introduction. We thought that would be best to kind of get to know us. Obviously, we know each other, but you don't know us yet. So that's what we're gonna do in this episode. It's more just the introduction of who are these crazy plant ladies? So our podcast is called Armored Garden, and we'll explain that kind of why and where that came from. But you have to kind of know who's leading you along here, too. So this crazy plant lady, my name is Lauren. I am a wife to my high school sweetheart. We've been together since I was 16, which is kind of crazy to think about. We have four boys. It's very dirty and very loud in my house. And I am at a place in my relationship with the Lord that's very different from where I began. So I also just recently left teaching, which has been a huge transition in my life and in our everyday. And it's been um a lot harder, honestly, than I thought it was gonna be. So I'm in a serious transition of life, and this experience that we're doing right now is another transition, but one that I am over the moon excited about. So um, that's me in a little nutshell, very small nutshell. Who are you? I am Tony. I am a mom of three, two in heaven and one here on earth. Um, Blaze Boo Garcia. That's not his real name. His birth name is Blaze Madden, but you know, we call him Blaze Boo. He is Blaze Boo. Um, he is three years old. I am a wife to a husband who I've been with since high school. Um, so we've gotten to do a lot of life together, which is something I will never take for granted. And I am a kindergarten teacher. This is my 11th year of teaching. Um that's crazy. And now apparently I'm on a podcast. So I just kind of feel like I'm hanging out with my friends with a mic in my face. So that's fun. Um, but I love the Lord and um significantly like from even just a year ago to now. And I just think that the Lord has given me so many kingdom-minded friendships. And now that I have that in my life, I want it for everyone. Literally. Um, because it is just so fruitful. Um, and it changes how you walk throughout the day because we're there to lift each other up and to encourage each other. So if you don't have that, you have us now. You can bar us. Um, so yeah, that's me. Yeah. And our other tag team member. Yeah. Last but not least. No, I'm just kidding. Never. Um, no, right beside y'all. I am Madison, and I am also a wife to a very supportive husband. I cannot thank the Lord enough for him. Um we have three beautiful babies. We have Clayton Lucas, Amanda Marie, and Maisie Jane, five and under. So my life is a little bit of a mess as well. Yeah, very busy. And um, I claim to be a retired teacher now, diving into homeschool, hanging out with my friends, and the Lord has filled my plate with our church that we go to. Not our church. And I am so thankful for that. Um, my walk has been very interesting to say the least. And it has been such an amazing transition throughout the last like six years of my life from where I started with him to today, and kind of like Tony too, like just my last year, my last 10 months, my last 10 months of my last baby's life. Like, it's just been a whirlwind. I'm so excited, so thankful, so grateful. So, yeah. So that's basically who we are. But then you also might be wondering how in the world we got here. Honestly, we wonder this. But I really don't know. No, like I've never heard the story. So, like, they wrote me in last last minute. They were leading a Bible study together, and then they're just like, I guess Madison was truly the originator. Let me sing out. But I've never heard, I really haven't heard the whole story. I don't even know where the name came from. I mean, any of it. Well, I didn't I didn't come up with the name. So we'll let Lauren talk about that in a minute. But the whole idea of a podcast, um, and we're gonna say this quite a bit, how the Lord speaks to us. Like, he literally, and we'll kind of dive into that later, but he spoke to me. He literally said, like, podcast. And this was years ago, like a couple years, not years, like two years ago. Um, I had a girlfriend that her and I would speak every day, and we were talking about the Lord, and um just kind of wanting something to be able to listen to that really helped us in our walk and in our life, and like how to kind of move forward, I guess. Um, but we were in a that season of our life was just not it, and um, she wasn't readily available either. And then I was literally sitting here like praying for true, genuine, kingdom-minded friendships. I invited Tony over to my house for a play date and cried on my living room floor about wanting a true friendship um and how hard it is to be friends with women. And because in the world setting, that looks very different than what this is. Um, and then I was sitting in church and the Lord pointed Lauren out to me and said, you need to go introduce yourself to her. And I wasn't quite sure exactly why. Um, again, he spoke to me through that, and I did. And I left church that Sunday, didn't even get her number, and realized like this was one of the things that as to why we were meant to be friends, and like just always knew that I wanted to hang out with Tony anyway. So Tony's very calming in general, so yeah, yeah. So that's kind of that's kind of my side of it, and then it further moved on. I never said the podcast, by the way, to anybody. Like it was only a girlfriend and I, and we knew we couldn't do it, but I was like, I know this is something that he's calling me to do. I don't even know that I ever mentioned it to Lucas because I knew he would be like, oh, another hat, another thing, but they're like, Whoo, okay. Um, but I knew it wasn't obviously with my husband, I knew it was with women. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think the podcast thing kind of came about. Um, I am and proclaimed to always be an idea generator. I'm not always great at the execution portion of anything, which kind of uh hindered me a lot when I was teaching because I'm like, oh, I come up with something, yeah, yeah. And then I never did anything. Yeah. But for me In your defense, the the wheel never stops moving. Never and the to-do list just grows. Yeah. So I think for me, the podcast thing, this was like a byproduct, byproduct of just something that so naturally happened, really. And it's the friendship that we now have. And there's other people included in it too. We just kind of all kind of like uh acted obediently and we're like, yeah, let's go ahead and do it. But I think for me, the part that I wanted to, I think it's sharing it. That's I think our all of our goal here. We want to share not just our friendship, but how much we love the Lord because we all now are at a very different place than we are. Like you a year ago, even for me, I would say less than that. Like I was preparing to teach this school year, and I'm not this school year, and all of that changed all in the month of June, just a few months ago. I literally felt like I've been on a I've lived an entire lifetime in the past four months. I went to my husband and was like, I think I should homeschool. And he's like, Okay. Um that like came out. I'm like, I know, y'all. I just feel like that's what the Lord's saying. But that meant a lot of things had to change for our lives. A lot of change had to, a lot of things had to change. And um, but because of that push that I felt to do it, I think this was just a natural segue for me because I am just I've we're at the time of filming this, also, we're doing a Bible study together. So we spend a lot, a lot of time together. And I said it in our very first sit-down of our Bible study. I am so addicted to the Lord's presence. I just, when I'm there, and it doesn't matter in what version it comes in. It might be worship that I feel in the strongest. It might be today, honestly, we felt it in our church home, in our home church. Wherever it is that I can get it from, I want it. And I want a lot of it. Um, and I just want everybody and anybody to feel that way. And I'm just, I say addicted because I feel like that's a very powerful word because that's literally how I feel about it. I just, I want to always be there in my closet, at church, in our Bible study, here, wherever it is. When two or more gathered together in his presence, he is there. So I just want that for anybody. So, like Tony was saying, if you need to borrow us to create that for yourself, then please do so. Because you might not have super strongly kingdom-minded people. And um, so the podcast also came about because Madison and I were like planning a hole. We're like building Noah's Ark, y'all. We're doing, we're doing all kinds of things. I'm not surprised. This little thing, we're like, oh, let's do this. She's taking over some ministries at church. I'm like, oh, Joe, I think we should do this at home. And oh my gosh, our husbands are probably like, um, y'all cannot hang out anymore. And look at it now, we're like hanging out all the time. But the podcast is simply that. I just wanted to share a good addiction as opposed to a bad version of one. This is a good version of one. Right. And when I called Madison and told her that, I was like, I don't know how you feel about this, but I've always wanted to do a podcast. And she was like, You're shut up. I literally told her I was like, Are you being so for real right now? Like, did someone tell you something? Because the other part of it is like, again, idea generator. I have no idea how to do any of that. And then I'm telling my sister about it. My sister behind the scenes, Lindsay Liu. She's our our producer lady. Yeah. And I'm like, Lindsey, we're gonna do this. And she's like, ooh, okay. Oh my gosh, so I guess we're doing it too. Yeah, yeah. Cause I was like, I know nothing about this, Lauren. Yeah, Lindsay. But I know we need to do it. All these things, and I'm like, what are all those things? Yeah, you can you got this, right? Lindsay. I think you can film and put on YouTube. She's like, no. Yeah. Like, you tell us what we need to do, we'll just sit in front and talk. So Madison and I honestly were kind of like planning on going this as a tandem. And then as soon as we started Bible study, honestly, every time we would do like a little meeting for Bible study to prep or whatever, Madison one day looked at me literally and she was like, Tony. I'm like, I know. And the first time we shared at Seamless, yeah, I felt like I don't want to use the word magic, but it was like such Holy Spirit driven when we all shared. And then when we come to church that next Sunday after Seamless that week, Lucas and Joe both were like, Did y'all plan how what y'all are gonna say? And we're like, No, yeah, we're just that good. Yeah. Well, that's how I live my life. Just kind of wing it a little bit, wing it a prayer. But then literally Luke looked at me and he goes, So did you invite Tony on the podcast? Yeah. And I was like, Well, no, not yet, honey, but I really do feel like that we need to. Amen. And then I was like, Lauren, she goes, Well, Joe's kind of said the same thing to me. And I was like, All right, well, when are we gonna do this? So Tony's favorite thing. He just weaves it all together. Yeah, here we are. Puts it in a bow. Yeah. And we are born. Armored garden is born. Yeah. The name, I don't know. I want to know where that came from. Well, the name, um, um, you can ask my sister. I'm really good at naming things and I don't say kids' names. I mean, I love names, yeah. I'm not gonna hate words. So, like, I was like, I don't know how what we're gonna name this thing. And the Lord's like, I got it with wordsmithing too. Like, I just love words. I remember came came to you with like, I need baby names from you, like the queen of baby names. I need help. I do love, I love a good name. I sit and I think about names. Now I'm much more prayerful about names, which is even more powerful. But I um Joe's favorite verse ever is Ephesians 6. That's like, even before he was super strong in his faith, that was always he's like, I don't really know what to do with this, but I know I need the Ephesians 6 um verses. And it's basically, if you don't have it, go get your Bible out right now and turn to Ephesians 6. We'll go there through. Yeah. So Ephesians 6 is like my husband's favorite, I mean like favorite part of the Bible because it's the reality of the world that we live in is we don't live in a kingdom-minded bubble, unfortunately. We live in the real world and we need to be able to have real tactics to handle the real world. We are in a world that is not, we are of the world, but not, we are in the world, but not of the world. We are made of completely different things once you really understand your identity in Christ. So I don't know why Joe has always like this been his obsession, but when I say it has been for literally 13 years we've been married for 13 years. So for me, I just knew it was so powerful to feel like you can come and not just get fed, because getting fed through the word is very, very important, but actually doing something with it. And Ephesians 6 is that you get fed by what's in it, and then you have something to do. So you've got to go on Ephesians 6. It is literally titled, mine's a little different because my translation's a little, I don't like my translation all the way, but on Ephesians 6 and verse 10, it talks about the whole armor of God. Oh, you read Tony. Start at 13. Okay, start at 13. Yeah, I think so. I'm gonna start at 10. Okay, you go. Okay, finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand the evil day, and having done all to stand firm, stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, having put on the red having and having put on the blessed breastplate of righteousness, and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith, which with you can extinguish the flaming darts of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication. To the end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me that words may be given to me in the opening of my mouth boldly to proclaim. Did you want me to go that far? No. You're fine. You can keep finishing out. I like that one in verse 20, though. Mine says, I am in chains now, still preaching this message as God's ambassador. I just like that God's ambassador because I feel like that's what this is. Like, we're literally not putting ourselves on a pedestal or a high place. We are simply wanting to glorify and honor Him. So for me, Ephesians 6 has always been something that I've heard so much. Even before I was very deep in my thing, I would hear Joe praying it. And I'm just like, okay, I don't even know what that is. Like, do you get that stuff when you get saved? Like, do they hand you a suit of armor or something? And Joe's like, no, you pray this every day, whether you know exactly what it is or not. Every day you do this. So, Joe, one year for Christmas, I got him like a little pocket thing and it's in his thing, and it's the Ephesians 6, and it's a little picture of the armor. And he puts it in his pocket. It says like his coin pocket thing. He just leaves it there. And um, but the other part of it out is the reality also of our lives is we are many other things. We are wives, we are mommies. Not that we need to be soft in nature because we also need, but we we need to be fierce and soft. So we need to be the garden. We need to be a safe place in our home. We need to be a safe place for our husbands, a comfy place for our children. We have to be both of those things. We have to be a warrior that stands in the midst of the garden, bringing calm and peace, much like Tony does to everything. Truly. I always feel like, oh, I'll take a deep breath when I'm around. So that's what the armored garden is. It's coming to a place where you just come to Jesus no matter what it looks like, no matter what you look like, honestly. It could be 3 a.m. baby calls, it could be 1 a.m. like myself when you can't go to sleep. It's that the garden is the place, and the armored is what you're gonna leave here as. And the garden is his presence. That's which to me, I always think about is a soft place. It's such a comforting place. Yeah. Well, I was thinking like in our women's conference meeting, like we were talking about like a literal garden, and she talked about how like you know, weeds show up and you gotta pull them out from the root. Yeah, there's just so much symbolism. But like for a garden, you can't just like sit in it and then things magically appear. Like you gotta put things in the ground, you gotta water it. Like, just like we we can read the word and it it it has an effect in our hearts, but what are we gonna do with that? Like we have a part, and this is it. Literally, Pastor Frank preached on that today. He was like, You're you can't just throw a seed in the ground and then walk away, come back the next day and expect it to have fruit, yeah, or even have bloomed at all, you know. So this garden does take work and it does take time and effort. But if you care for it and you're willing to put that in, like you will see the fruit of that labor. It reminds me in Psalms 23 when it says, You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, because the table, if it's the garden, weeds will pop up, like right. They're enemies, we are in this world, but we're gonna talk more about the garden too, what it looks like for us. Um, come to the next episode. Yeah, I can say that now we have like more than one. Yeah, but because it is a very specific um, I guess the preparation is the word I would use, and not that it's like you have to have all the things in line, but we're gonna talk about our garden. But we really wanted to give whomever's listening and watching a peek into kind. Of really who we are too, because um it's actually one of the greatest educational people I've ever heard. She's like, you don't learn from people you don't really like, so not that we want to be liked, and that's the goal, but we just want you to see our heart for Jesus and how much we love him, and we pray that you felt that because that is the entire goal. We want you to love Jesus with such a ferocity that people do look at you and they're like, What's what's going on over there? Yeah. Like that's the whole goal. That's my goal now in my life, which is so different than when I even started this journey with Jesus. So that's us and who we are. Yeah. So next is gonna be our taste and see moment. Um, I had a friend over the summer, we were kind of talking about testimony, and she called it our testimony is like the moment that you invited the Lord into your heart. But then, like also you might have a taste and see moment where you taste and see that the Lord is good. So um lead us out. I guess I'll start. Yeah, um, okay. Um, I mentioned when I introduced myself that I'm a mom of three, two in heaven and one here on earth. Um, really early in my husband and I's marriage, we miscarried. We went through a five-year journey waiting for our sunblaze. Um, I'm not gonna use the I word because I don't proclaim myself over that over myself now or ever. Um, we were just in an awaiting season, and the Lord knows his timing is more perfect than anything that we could come up with in our own human little tiny minds. Um so last about, well, yeah, like this September, like last September, we found out we were expecting again. Um, well, eight months in, I was eight months pregnant, and my son took his first breaths in heaven, ace Maverick Garcia. So his um umbilical cord was just tied in a knot. Um, and we went to an ultrasound and there was no heartbeat. So that was like a obviously, how is that a taste and see moment? You're probably wondering, like, well, she just like emotionally all over the place. It's good, y'all just went in. Um, but the Lord just kind of met me in a raw, dark spot of where I knew I had to either believe that he is good or that he's not. Like I had to make a decision. I've been living a pretty comfy life. Um, and this was like maybe like the first real thing where I had I actually even asked that question, like, are you good? And I had I had to answer it. Um and I chose yes because um in our Bible study, I said this last time. I should have brought my seamless book because she, Angie White, the author of that Bible study, worded it perfectly. And that's where it hit me. She said, um, I believed that he is good, not because of my circumstances, but because it is the only place I felt safe enough to rest my weary bones. Um, and I just found myself where, like I, not to mention that he showed up. Um, I mean, his present was so thick in that hospital room through the whole process of it. Um, I can not gonna go into all the details. Maybe that'll be for another day. But um he just showed up immediately, not just in me, but in my friends and my family and people I didn't even speak to. I just felt like the Lord kept saying, like, oh, thank goodness this, or not the Lord, like people kept saying, like, thank goodness it was you and Chris, because like if anyone, if this would have happened to anyone else, it was like, no, like it has nothing to do with me and Chris of what happened, like this has nothing to do with us, but like the Lord meets you where you are so broken. Like we don't have to get anything put together for him to just answer, and like ask the prayer, Lord, meet me where you are, because that's what he did. He met us where we where we were. Um, I went on maternity leave because I had a C-section. So I was home with my husband um for seven, six, seven weeks. And I just, and I mentioned like significantly different than I was a year ago because I mean, I was, I've been coming to church my whole life. I was involved in church. I did, um, I wouldn't have seen myself as lacking much, but I wasn't seeking the Lord every single day. I was, and I was expecting a new baby. So I was planning. I was planning for, you know, baby stuff, baby show. I was looking forward to this next season of my life. And now that I look back, I didn't really involve him much in that. I mean, he was like came along with me. Like he was coming around with me. Jesus, come with me, but I wasn't following him. You know, um, that Stephanie Gretzinger podcast got me like when she's like the little pocket Jesus is like there's so, you know, but like, come on, Jesus, come along with me. That's what I was doing. Not like Lord, where are we going? You tell me where to go. And well, now I ain't got nowhere to go because I just, I mean, my son's in daycare. We just buried our other son and think the Lord, he's with you, his body. We just, you know, but like that's the raw rawness of where I was. So, like, I ain't got nowhere to go. So, like, I just sat on my couch every day and I just started reading and reading. And I started in Job because I was like, well, I can relate with this guy a little bit. Here we go. And just hearing Job um beg the Lord, like, Lord, why'd you even put me on this earth? I wish he would have taken me straight from my mother's womb, straight up to you. And that just hit me because it's like my baby gets to leave the perfect life because he did. I created life. And I I like that life was created, and he had a secret place with the Lord in my womb because the Lord was with him in there. And then he got to go straight with you. But he has taught not just me, but so many people, so much through that little life that he lived. Um, and my relationship because I was seeking ace made me seek the presence of the Lord daily, minutely, second by the second. Um, because it was the only place I felt radiating peace. Um, I've told people like I felt like I could look in the mirror and just see him shining off of me. Like I just didn't even feel like my heart and my soul were so separated because my heart is still broke, but my soul is so at rest. Um, it doesn't match with the how the world tells us to grieve. Um so I've just kind of I was listening to a message by Louis Giglio, which is um based off Psalms 23, and he read it out of Habakkuk. So I've just kind of like adopted that as part of, I mean, I related with it as part of my story. So in Habakkuk 3, 1, it says, even though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail, and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls. So even though all of these bad things are happening, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will take God, take joy in the God of my salvation. Um, as a teacher, this is like a cause and effect moment. So, like the world gives us circumstances, but what are the effects of those circumstances gonna be? And in my Bible, I wrote, My faith is bigger than just a faith to just wilt under pressure. So, what are we proclaiming if the second that hard moment hard things come, we just wilt like a dead flower in the garden or like a weed. Um, I've been like standing on this my whole, I've been proclaiming this my whole life, and now I gotta stand on it. I gotta stand firm on it. And so, my even though, I wrote my even though in my I will, even though I gave birth to my 32-week six-pound eight-ounce baby boy who took his first breath in heaven, I will rejoice in the Lord. I will take joy in the God of my salvation. Amen. So that is my take on the story. Yeah, yeah. Madison won't you go with yours? Well, um, she had a time to pick which one. Yeah. I um at the beginning of this year, well, I gave birth to my daughter in uh December of last year, and probably my honestly my biggest ANC moment would be when my husband looked at me in the car. We're driving with our kids, and he looked at me and said, I don't have any joy in my life, like true joy in my life. Like I love my wife, I love my kids, but I don't just have that like joy. And I feel like, of course, then I'm like self-reflecting, and I'm like, Well, do I have joy in my life? Like, um because my husband and I I I do say this, and I thank the Lord for this that we are very equally yoked. If he feels something, I feel it. If I feel something, he feels it. And that was a hard statement for me to swallow in that moment. Like, we have two beautiful children, a third one on the way, and how are you gonna tell me there's no joy? Like, what? And I sat there as we drove, and I was like, wow, you're right. I don't have joy in my life either. Just that unexplainable, like tangible joy. I don't have that either. Um throughout my pregnancies, I've kind of had things that have held me up from really enjoying them. And um, I'll I'm sure talk about that later as well. But so that that last pregnant or the my past pregnancy or this last pregnancy, I made sure that I wanted to just fully envelop in it. I wanted to enjoy it. I wanted to be like those moms that are like, I love being pregnant, like this is my jam. Um, because I never really experienced that before. And uh so when he said that to me, I swear it was like you could drop a pin in that car, but then the next second you heard the Lord say, Watch this. Like, watch this. And we just came to a place. Um, I had my daughter literally like two weeks later, I think it was. And we came to a place where we were sitting in the hospital room, and we had already been talking about um, my husband was battling uncontrolled diabetes and all these things. And so we talked about like honestly flipping our lifestyle on a head, like changing our food, our diet, all the things. And he looked at me after I had her, and all I wanted was just like every Chick-fil-A nugget and French fry, a milkshake, the biggest juicy chip. Chick-fil-A sauce. Literally, Chick-fil-A sauce. Like, I wanted the whole buffet, okay, in front of me. I just gave birth. This was my first meal. Jesus. And he's like, So, honey, I think we should change our diet. And I was like, Wrong time. I just pushed out you can give me grilled nuggets, but I'm at least getting that milkshake. But anyways, so when we did that, we um came to a place of ultimately surrender, surrendering. And um, a heavy thing was like gluttony for him, and mine was just pride and thinking I could do it on my own. Um, thinking I had life figured out, you know, superwoman. Um, so the last 10 months of my life, I've prayed that surrender prayer at the beginning of the year, that stripping prayer, and he has he has stripped my plate and then put it back tenfold. Like with his things, with his his things. And I literally just looked at him in the car again and I was like, honey, I feel like the the possibilities are endless now. Like, I I don't think like there's anything that I could say I want to do and that it ain't gonna happen at this point. Whereas before, kind of like you were saying, like you wouldn't follow through with something, I did that too. Like, I'd be like, Oh, I want to do this, but like I just couldn't even wrap my head around on like following through with it. But you're a line now, yeah. And now that I'm a line, and he said the same thing. He's like, Yeah, I mean, think about what the Lord can accomplish. And I was like, Yeah, I know like can you believe like hello? We have a podcast. Like, here we are, here's my taste and see helmet legit, like just these things that I thought were so far off. Um, and we even talked about like just how seeing other people gain that joy, seeing other people like get this, like these days is like yeah, because we're like we want everyone to experience this, but it's like how do you how do you like and it's not us, it's not us doing it, right? Like it is not us, it is him, but we want everyone to experience it. So we're like we could literally shout it from the rooftops, but now we're in this place, like, no, okay, we have to sit back. Um, which is we're trying to tear off the roof of everyone's building. Exactly. It's a good reference. Like let's rebuild your building, actually. Um, which leads me to Matthew 5, 13 through 16. And I'm gonna read this first before I go any further, but it says, believers are salt and light. So you are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but upon a lampstand, and it gives light to all those who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your father in heaven. That verse hit or verses hit me like a ton of bricks. First off, I was like, Saul, I can relate to that. Like, we're talking about our food, like he's related so many verses back to our food, and we're like, all right, Lord, we got it. He's just making sure it's there. Um, we'll forever remember it. But that was just so powerful to me because I was a believer for so long, or for a while now, and it was like, what am I doing with that? Like, I'm only looking at for how I can benefit from this. Whereas, no, it it hit me like a ton of bricks because it's it's your you're the soul. You have to go sprinkle this out for others to gain this. Like, that's how you how you do this. That's how you see other people, that's how you glorify your father in heaven by letting people see the light that you're shining because he's coming through you. Not because of anything that I'm doing or Luke's doing or any of us are doing, but allowing his presence to be shown through you like a light on a lampstand. So otherwise literally has nothing to do with us. Yeah, nothing, nothing. And then at the same point, like with Ephesians 6 putting on that armor, like we are to use salt because that's how you keep back decay. That's how we keep back the enemy and his attacks. Like when some people don't even realize like that they need help keeping the enemy off of them because they might not know, or they're kind of walking in that lukewarm, you know, stagnant water right now. Like, you can go throw salt on that and shine your light, and the enemy has to flee. Like, that's what we're called to do. And I feel like when I read that, I was just like, okay, Lord, like I'm so sorry. I've been sitting here like worried about me, whereas really I need to, I need to be worrying about everyone else around me. And in that moment, like once I started changing that mindset and doing those things, like now we get to see those people understand what is different and what they're, you know, what it is that we have. Like now they're getting it, like, because we get to see that harvest come to come to fruit. So I love that. I hope that makes sense. Well, it's funny you talk about lukewarm because that's kind of like I'd say my taste and see. Most recently, I a lot like Tony, I didn't, I'm not gonna say I grew up in church. That's a little bit of a strange. I did go to youth group, so I did check that off the list, but I visited church, is how usually how I like to phrase it. So I knew all the keywords, I knew all the things you're kind of supposed to know. I didn't know what to do with them. That for me was the biggest change in my life was knowing what to do with the knowledge that you have that you get from knowing this book, knowing him and being in his presence. I didn't know what to do with any of it. So when I grew up in church, I knew to do all the things. We did communion, we did, I knew what that was. I knew, you know, our father who went in heaven, how be the main. I knew the whole thing, knew it, memorized it. I just didn't know that it actually honestly meant anything and then what you're supposed to do with it. So one of my biggest tastes and sees recently, um, my husband also grew up in church, knowing church, going to church. His family's very strong believers. Um, but he also experienced the regular life too, going to college, doing all the things. And we've been together since I was 16 and he was 18. So we've done adult life together. Every major milestone of life of adult life, we've been along with each other. We did break up a couple of times, but we came back together. And I knew like week two we were gonna get married. He just didn't know. But um, because he had a little bit of that knowledge and I had a little bit of that knowledge when we came together to be married. It was one of those things that um I call him Uncle Frank because he actually is my husband's uncle. He's also the pastor of our church, but he made us take a very long, hard look at who we were, not who we were as people, who we were in Christ and what that meant for our marriage, what that meant for our future, for our children, for the rest of your life. And um, I don't think we were really ready for that. But most recently, the moment that taste and see for me, I was still teaching, and I don't even think I've told y'all this before, but it was um, I want to say it was right before testing, because you know, testing life, you're everything goes out the window during testing. So it was either late April, early May. And I called Joe like I did almost every day during lunch, and it's early, it's like 11 o'clock. But I call him and I don't know, it's just a random thing. He's like, I gotta tell you something. And I was like, Okay. So I hope something's good. Like, what you got? And he said, I just I had um the Lord revealed something to me, and I just wanted to make sure you knew that I understand. And I was like, Okay. I wouldn't say that Joe and I were on different paths, I would say that I was, I at the time was maybe a little bit further down the road. Um, and I think it was just because I was further down the road um running after Jesus. So he finally he said to me, I just I figured something out that I'm no longer your first love. And I was like, I had to take a breath because I thought about it really intensely because I had listened to Philip Anthony Mitchell and I listened to him on the regular, but I don't listen to him for the for the man, I listen to what the Holy Spirit that comes out of him. And he just talked about how the flesh you almost hate the flesh because it holds you back from loving the Lord even more intensely. And when I heard that, I was like, that is me right now. Not that I want to leave my husband or my children. I love my life here on earth, but I just want to be with him. I want to be in his presence and my whole job be to worship him. I just, that's all I want. And when Joe told me that on the on the phone, too, I'm like, dang, babe, we're not even like in person. That was really deep to say on the phone. Now I gotta teach in 15 minutes. So what am I gonna do with that? I gotta teach basic mathematics when I get back. And um, he said, I just wanted you to know though that I'm okay with that. And I was like, well, first that you tell me that that he sees that in me, because then I was like, oh, because that is how I feel. But sometimes you know, you think something and you're like, I hope everybody else sees that too, just because I want them to see Jesus, not me. But he was like, But I'm okay with that. And that was like okay, because if Joe Thompson don't know much in this life, he knows that Lauren loves him. I mean, I'm like, I have loved that man and intensely loved that man my whole life practically. And for him to be say that and understand it and then receive it and then tell me that showed also how far I had come and just how deep in love I was with Jesus. I was like, and it's okay. My husband is aligned with that, he's okay with that. And not that I ever thought Joe would like be upset about it, but he did have to like re-prioritize how we do things and how we think about things. And um, so I think my current obsession kind of is, and I'm gonna not cry, I'm not gonna cry, I'm not gonna be first one. One of y'all can cry first. I'm not crying first. I just think about what this world actually is, and that's on my mind all the time because I think so much of what you're trying to do on earth is survive, and then you want to thrive, but you want to thrive here. And this isn't the place to thrive. We're gonna thrive in heaven where our actual purpose is fulfilled. Like that's where it's gonna be. You can do well here, you can have accomplishments here, and you can love the Lord here. All of that can be true at the same time. But I just think about what awaits, and that is what I'm just like all. Obsessed with, but in that you also have to choose how you're living here. Right. And that's what changed for me. I finally decided I will no longer be lukewarm. I will no longer, and lukewarm actually, that phrase isn't like it means something. So in Revelations 3, in um I'm gonna start at verse 15. This is the message to the church at Laodicea. They wrote, I know all the things you do that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other. But since you are lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. That right there, I just think about the day that we get to meet our Lord and Savior. And I never want those words to be uttered to me. And the idea that I would choose first that I would even choose to be cold to him makes me sad to think about that he literally wouldn't know me or know me know him. But then the idea that, because this is how we live most of our lives, and I think most Christians can probably agree to this or followers of Jesus, is that you live with one foot in the world and one foot in the kingdom, and you hope that you just switch over quickly enough that when the time matters that you can put both feet into the kingdom. Right. And just that idea that I would disappoint him in such a way that I didn't live life here so on fire. Because I think that's so interesting how he says, be one or the other. Right. I'm not gonna be upset if you're the other. If you want to be cold and live in the world, do that. But just know there will come a time where you're gonna come to me. And knowing that you're cold, also knowing that you're gonna be separated from him. Like you have to know that if you decide not to do anything to follow him, to love him, to adore him, that will that comes at a cost. Right. And you have to be prepared to take that cost on. But the idea of disappointing him because I tried to do both, I don't know, it just wrecks me thinking about that because all I want to do when I get there is just praise him and thank him. And um I just think about that even for my children, and for that this, I all I want my children to know is this right here that this is what I love, this is what I adore, this is my purpose, this is their purpose, this is my purpose. And so for Joe to tell me that that day, I was just like, okay, Lord, like I'm on the right track. I'm going the direction. Well, if you notice at like the end of every like when he gets done, like to the different churches in Revelation, it says at the end of everyone, he who has an ear, let him hear. Everyone. You heard. Yeah. You did. Yeah. Yeah. So good. And your tastes and seeds might be similar to ours. I think one of the most amazing things about our Lord and Savior is that he wants to know you the way that you need to know him. That's gonna look different for there. Are there six people in this room with us right now? Y'all can't see the other three, but there are six people, and we all have experienced the Lord differently, see the Lord differently, ask for things from the Lord differently. The relationship that you have with him is extremely personal and private, if I'm honest. It doesn't have to include other people. We are including you because we know that's what we're being called to do and asked to do, but because we just want people to experience him. That's all we want. That's the whole point of this is come to a place where you feel like you're dragged down from the world. Get strong in your belief in him, get strong in your ability to know him, to learn him, and then go back out. That's what we are. We are simply a borrowed kingdom friendship that you can then take in the world and use. Because we're also going to say, and I say this, my papa used to tell me all the time, you listen to the preacher and then you go read your own. I'm like, okay, papa, I didn't know what that meant at the time. I'm like, whatever, papa. Because I always thought, you know, the preacher says the preacher, that's it. But that's what my papa was saying back then. This is your connection to him. This is your communication with him, this being your Bible. So if you don't have one, go get one. And then every week come hang out with us. Yeah. Sounds good. So as we wrap up our time for our very first episode, I'm so excited. It's technically not episode zero. We did a little trial run. We had a negative zero episode. We'll release that. You may not want to listen to us talk for two hours. That's just kind of what we decided. We were so amped the first time we sat together. We recorded for so long. And our Lindsay's like, we cannot. That is so long. But it got our little jitters out, and now we're officially ready to take this thing and we're going. So as we wrap up our times, we would love for you to comment where you are, who you are listening, say any of those things. If you need a prayer request, we're gonna put um, I'm gonna ask Lindsay. I'm this is on the fly. So Lindsay's gonna pop up our little email down here at the bottom. I don't even know where I'm pointing. Here, here, here, where you see where you see the scriptures. Wherever you see the emails floating, yeah, go there. Please send us prayer requests. We want to be able to not just do this like we're somewhere and we can't be, I don't want to say helpful, but we want to literally bring you into this fold. You are gonna be part of Armored Garden, a constant listener, and we want to pray for you, pray for your family, pray for your whatever it is you need. We're gonna anytime you need a prayer, please send it. So as we wrap up, we're gonna pray and then y'all be ready for the next episode, whenever that is. I don't even know. Yeah. I'll pray. Okay, Lord, we just come to you um grateful, God, that you first of all, that you see us, that you love us, that you think of us on an individual basis, Lord, that you make this earth rotate on its axis day in and day out. Yet you see the details of your creation on this planet, God, and that you you are come, you're chasing after us. And you just want us to, us who have ears, let them hear, God. That we just pray that everyone who is um under the sound of my voice right now, that that they hear God, whether it be for the first time, whether it be for a new time, or whether it be um that they are intentionally seeking their your presence every single day, God. And this just rejuvenate them, rejuvenated them and encouraged them to keep going, God, that we are um leading no one, Lord. We're just your first followers, God, and that we can all follow right alongside each other, Lord, so that whenever we do leave this place and we do get to um walk into eternity with you, Lord, um, that we we just get to worship and praise you every day. We're so just um excited for this journey that you've called us on, God, and that you just stay first, um, that we put you first before this podcast, before anything else we have going on in our lives, Lord, that we can't do any of it if we're not seeking you in your presence. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Bye, guys.