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Welcome.
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I'm Dr.
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Robin Revis Pike, and this is Reflecting Life, a Christian Woman's Journey of Faith.
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Here, you will learn what it truly means to live from your identity in Christ.
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We'll explore how Christian women just like you navigate the in-between seasons using biblical truths and honest conversations.
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This podcast is your safe space to pause, reflect, and remember who God says you are.
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So come as you are.
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You are loved, chosen, and created by grace.
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And I am so glad you are here.
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So let's start this journey together.
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Welcome! I'm Dr.
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Robin Revis Pike, and I am so grateful you're here with me today.
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This month we've been talking about what it means to be courageously called, to recognize that God has entrusted each of us with a life, a voice, relationships, experiences, and opportunities to be used for his purposes.
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In our last episode, we spent time with Esther and considered how God had positioned her long before she understood why, and I keep thinking about that word, positioned.
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Because when we look back over our own lives, we can often see that God was at work long before we recognize what he was doing.
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So today I want to do something a little different.
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In this season of reflecting life, I plan to invite women to sit with me and share their testimonies, their pilgrimages of faith and the way God has shaped them into the women they're becoming.
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But before I ask other women to sit in that chair, I thought perhaps I should be willing to sit there first.
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So today I want to share some of my story with you.
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Not because my story is extraordinary, but because God has been extraordinarily faithful.
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And perhaps somewhere in my story you'll recognize a little of your own.
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You see, mine is a story about searching.
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It's a story about belonging.
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It's also a story about resistance.
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And if I'm being completely transparent, a little rebellion along the way.
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But most of all, it's a story about a faithful God who was leading me home long before I realized I was lost.
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You see, my story with church began when I was a little girl growing up in Claremont, Florida.
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My family attended First Baptist Church of Claremont.
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I attended Sunday school and church, and on Wednesday nights I attended Girls in Action.
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Our attendance wasn't always consistent.
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Summers were a little more irregular, while holidays and the fall and winter months brought us back into a more regular rhythm.
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But something about church drew me.
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Even as a little girl, I loved being there.
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I couldn't have explained that feeling to you then.
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I didn't have the language for it.
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I just knew there was something there that I wanted.
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Something felt different.
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There was warmth, community, there was a sense of belonging.
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And looking back now, I can see something that little girl couldn't see.
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God was already planting seeds in my heart.
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I didn't understand what it meant to have a relationship with Christ.
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I didn't understand abiding.
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I didn't even fully understand Christian fellowship, but I knew I was drawn to something I experienced there.
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And as I grew older, I began searching for that same feeling and other places.
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I was searching for belonging.
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There is something deeply human in our desire to be known, appreciated, cared for, and loved.
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I wanted those things.
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I wanted to belong, I wanted to be accepted, to feel valued.
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What I didn't understand then was just how much that desire could shape the choices I made.
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I wasn't asking, is this who God created me to be?
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I didn't yet have the spiritual maturity to ask that question.
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Instead, without realizing it, I was asking questions like, will I be accepted here?
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Will this make me feel valued?
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Will I finally feel like I belong?
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And sometimes those questions led me into relationships, friendships, experiences, and adventures that left me feeling even more uncertain about who I was.
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And growing up in small town Claremont, there wasn't exactly an abundance of activities or excitement.
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So my friends and I occasionally decided to create our own.
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Let's just say some of those adventures demonstrated considerably more enthusiasm than wisdom.
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There were poor decisions, there were consequences, there were moments I certainly wouldn't recommend as a model for
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young women today.
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But underneath it all was something I couldn't identify then.
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I was searching.
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I was searching for something or someone to tell me you matter, you are accepted, you belong.
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I wish I could go back and sit beside that younger version of myself for a moment.
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I would tell her you don't have to work so hard to be accepted.
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You don't have to become who other people want you to be in order to belong.
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There is belonging waiting for you that you cannot earn and no person can give you.
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But I didn't know that yet.
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So I kept searching.
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And all the while God was there.
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Thankfully, I eventually matured beyond some of those younger years.
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Well, perhaps it took a little longer than expected.
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Although I certainly wasn't known for making all the best life choices, God continued to be gracious.
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He blessed me with a beautiful marriage and three amazing sons.
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And eventually our journey led us to a decision I did not particularly welcome, a move to Miami.
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Our little family was living in Central Florida.
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We had family nearby, we had friends, we had community.
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We belonged.
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Or at least I thought so.
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So Scott moved south ahead of us while I stayed behind to prepare a home for sale.
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And as embarrassing as it may sound, I made a little agreement with God, or at least I thought I did.
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I agreed to move if our home sold, because deep down I didn't really think it would sell.
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And then I thought I won't have to move if our home doesn't sell.
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Scott would return and all would be well in my little world.
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It was around 1995, and it wasn't an ideal time to put a home on the market, so I felt rather confident that moving to Miami wasn't a part of our future.
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I thought I was safe.
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And then our home sold within two weeks.
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Apparently God had not agreed to the loophole I had created.
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Looking back, I can smile about it now, but I can also see a pattern in my life.
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God would lead, I would resist.
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God would open a door, I would stand in the doorway wondering whether I really wanted to walk through it.
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I longed to belong, yet sometimes I resisted the very path God was using to lead me toward deeper belonging in him.
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Perhaps you understand that.
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Sometimes we pray, Lord guide me, just preferably somewhere familiar.
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Use me, Lord, just please don't make me uncomfortable.
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Your will be done, although I do have a few suggestions, and yet God is patient.
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He was certainly patient with me, patient with me through my rebellious teenage years, as I sought to find acceptance and belonging and everything but him.
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So our move to South Florida was amazingly smooth.
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And then God placed two people in our path, George and Margie.
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They were the broker realtors who had the listing on the home we purchased, and they were also members of Miami Shores Baptist Church.
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You may remember me mentioning this in an earlier episode.
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George was a deacon.
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Margie was the church organist.
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We were new to the area, and they did something incredibly simple.
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They invited us to church.
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That's it.
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There was no complicated strategy, no grand gesture, just a simple invitation.
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And that invitation changed the trajectory of our family.
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We began attending Miami Shores Baptist Church, and over time it became our family.
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Our family served in different roles.
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Scott eventually became a deacon.
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I taught the pre-K IV class and then I served as the financial assistant among the other volunteer roles we had.
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But something much more significant was happening because I had been in church before.
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I knew what it meant to attend church.
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I knew what it meant to participate, to volunteer.
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But gradually I began to understand that Jesus wasn't inviting me simply to attend church and volunteer.
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He was inviting me into a relationship with him.
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And it was there that I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.
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Scott and our Boris also came to know Christ.
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The very thing I had spent so many years searching for, the belonging, the acceptance, the love, the sense that there had to be something more, I was finally beginning to understand it wasn't a feeling, it wasn't a place, it was another person's approval.
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It was Jesus.
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Jesus was what my heart had
been searching for, and perhaps even more beautiful was realizing that while I had been searching for him, he had never stopped pursuing me.
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When I look back over my pilgrimage now, I certainly don't see a perfectly straight road.
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I see detours, resistance, roundabouts, immaturity, pride, poor choices.
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I see a young girl who didn't know what she didn't know, who never finished college.
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I see a young mother and wife who never quite felt like enough, and a woman searching for somewhere to belong.
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But now I see something else.
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I see the faithfulness of God.
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He was there with the little girl who loved being in church, even though she couldn't explain why.
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He was there during the years when I searched for belonging in places that could never truly satisfy me.
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He was there in my marriage and family.
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He was there in the move to Miami that I resisted.
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He was there in George and Margie's simple invitation.
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And he was there when I finally understood that what I had been searching for wasn't a feeling, it was a relationship with Jesus Christ.
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And Psalm 139 has become a beautiful picture of this for me.
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You have searched me, Lord, and you know me.
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You know when I sit and when I rise, you perceive my thoughts from afar, you discern my going in and my lying down.
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You are familiar with all my ways.
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Those words mean something different to me now, because before I knew how to name what I was searching for, God knew me.
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Before I understood him, he knew me.
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Before I understood who I was, he knew me.
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You see, coming to Christ wasn't the end of my pilgrimage, it was just the beginning.
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Over time God began teaching me the difference between simply attending church and abiding in Christ.
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Jesus says in John 15 4, Abide in me and I in you.
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Remain, dwell, make our home in Him.
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I had spent years trying to find somewhere to belong, and now I was beginning to understand that my deepest belonging was already settled.
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I belong to Christ.
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I don't have to perform to belong, I don't have to build an identity around other people's approval, and I sure don't have to become the woman the world tells me I should be.
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Because when I know whose I am, I can allow him to continue forming me into the woman he created me to be.
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And yes, I am still becoming, I am still learning, I am still being formed, but now I know where I belong.
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And this is why women matter so much to me and my calling.
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Because when I look back on my story, I can see another thread much more clearly now.
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For many years, as you may know, I worked in private school admissions, and I was blessed with a long and meaningful career helping families navigate the process of finding the right school for their children.
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And isn't it interesting that so much of my career centered around one word?
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Acceptance.
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In admissions, acceptance was something families hoped for, worked toward, and waited to receive.
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There was an application, a process, and a decision, and ultimately someone decided whether to accept the applicant.
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Looking back, I can see how God used those years as a training ground for the work he would later call me to do.
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Because today, as a biblical mentor and spiritual formation coach, I still find myself talking with women about acceptance, but from an entirely different perspective.
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I had the privilege of reminding Christian women that the acceptance they are searching for is not something they have to earn.
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In Christ, they are already accepted, already chosen, already loved, already his.
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There is no application to complete, no list of accomplishments that will make us more worthy, no striving that will make God love us more.
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Our identity begins with belonging to Him.
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And perhaps this calling is especially meaningful to me because I remember what it felt like to be the younger woman, quietly asking, Who am I?
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Where do I belong?
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Am I enough?
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What does God want from me?
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Can He really use my story?
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When I look back on those years, I realized just how much I would have benefited from having a spiritually mature woman by my side, not someone who had all the answers or who would tell me exactly how to live my life, but a woman who would gently and faithfully point me towards Christ.
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Someone who could remind me where true belonging is found.
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Perhaps that's one reason mentoring women matters so deeply to me today, because the Christian life was never intended to be lived in isolation.
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We need one another.
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We need women who have walked a little farther down the
road.
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We need women walking beside us, and eventually we need to turn around and extend a hand to the woman coming behind us.
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That is part of the beauty of Christian community and part of the beautiful responsibility we have as women of faith.
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We receive, we grow, and then by God's grace we help another woman grow too.
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So I ask you, what has God been weaving through your story?
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As we come to a close today, I want to leave you with three questions to reflect upon.
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First, where can you now see God at work in a season when you couldn't see him then?
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Look back.
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Where did he show up?
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Where was he quietly leading, protecting, redirecting, planting seeds or placing people in your path?
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Second, where have you been searching for belonging and something God never intended to carry that weight?
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Another person, achievement, approval, possessions, even ministry?
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And lastly, what has God entrusted to you through your story that might now become a gift to another woman?
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Because our stories are not simply about us.
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Even the difficult chapters, the wandering, the mistakes, even the seasons we wish we could rewrite, in God's hands, those places can become places of ministry.
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Sometimes kingdom influence looks remarkably ordinary.
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Sometimes it looks like two people inviting a new family to church.
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Sometimes it looks like an older woman coming alongside a younger woman.
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Sometimes it looks like simply showing up.
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George and Margie probably couldn't have known where their invitation would lead.
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But God did.
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And decades later, here I am sitting behind this microphone telling you about Jesus because two faithful people made room for our family.
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So never underestimate what God can do through simple obedience.
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And if something in my story resonated with you today, perhaps you're searching, discerning, or simply wondering what God is doing in this season, I want to encourage you to spend some quiet time with Him this week.
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Look back over your pilgrimage, notice the people, the moves, the unexpected changes, the disappointments, the closed doors, the invitations, even the moments of resistance.
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You may be surprised by what you begin to see.
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And if you're longing for a woman to walk alongside you as you discern what God is doing in this season, that is part of the sacred work I do through Christian coaching and mentoring.
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You can find more information in my show notes, but I want you to know whether we ever sit across from one another or not.
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My prayer is that you will make space to hear from God, because He is still forming you.
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Your pilgrimage isn't finished, neither is mine.
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We are still becoming.
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Will you pray with me?
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Father, thank you for your faithfulness.
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Thank you for knowing us even before we knew how to search for you.
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Thank you for pursuing us when we wonder, patiently leading us when we resist, and reminding us that our deepest belonging is found in you.
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Help us look back over our stories with eyes of gratitude, not because every chapter was easy or every decision was right, but because you were faithful through it all.
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Give us courage to recognize what you have entrusted to us.
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Show us the women you are calling us to encourage, mentor, serve, and walk beside.
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And when we are tempted to believe that our story is too ordinary, too messy, or too insignificant to matter, remind us that you are the one who redeems our stories and gives them purpose.
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Help us to abide in you.
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Help us to remember whose we are, and continue forming us into the women you created us to be.
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May our lives reflect you well.
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In Jesus' name we pray.
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Amen.
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Thank you for allowing me to share a little of my pilgrimage with you today.
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Perhaps this week you'll share a little of yours with someone else.
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And until next time, continue making space for God.
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Continue becoming the woman He created you to be.
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And keep on shining.