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Hey everybody, this is Heidi St. John. Welcome to the Heidi St. John podcast. Today is Wednesday, July 24th. This is MomStrong International Day here at the podcast. This is the day where I go over just a snippet from the Bible study that we’re doing every month. And today we’re going to be talking a little bit about what it means to be meek— and I’m going to tell you right now: it doesn’t mean weakness. 

Stick around. I think you’re going to be encouraged.

All right, so I’m getting excited, you guys. A couple of things. First of all, I’m in the middle of a little bit of a break right now from traveling. Phew! I do not mind telling you I am enjoying being at home. We are looking forward, however, to getting back on the road because we’ll see you guys in August. So coming up real soon! On the 24th of August, we will be in Kansas City for the Heidi St. John Conference. This year, the theme has been— Miracle Worker: The Life Changing Power of Following Jesus. And I’m going to be transitioning it to what I hope to be speaking out for years to come: Faith that Speaks. So we’re going to be talking about what it means to get off the bench and onto the battlefield— that we can actually speak healing, we can actually speak freedom, we can actually speak truth in love because of our knowledge of the Word of God. So that’s what we’re going to be doing for my women’s conference and I hope you guys will come out. We’ve got a lot of really fun things planned for you. The next one after that will take place in Virginia, in Fredericksburg on the 14th of September. So excited about that! And then the 12th and 19th of October I’ll be first in Vancouver, Washington and my neck of the woods and then in Lincoln, Nebraska. So I check it out at HeidiStJohn.com/events. 

Alright, so we are in the last week of our study. There are a few more weeks that fall into the month of July. We do four weeks of study at MomStrong International. And for those of you who are not familiar with how the studies work— every single month we are writing and producing a brand new study for you. There’s a team of people that write these studies. I’m not the only one who does it because I’m obviously doing a lot of other things. And so we’ve got a team of wonderful women who are knowledgeable in the Word of God, and my son in law helps with them. He is a pastor here in Kansas, Washington. And the whole idea behind putting these studies out is to do what we see lacking in the culture as far as biblical education is concerned. And that is to do everything we can to help you become biblically literate. In other words, to know God’s Word. God is not silent on the issues that this generation is facing. And in fact, He addresses so many of the things that we’re struggling with now in His Word. When we get to know His Word, we become strong and able to defend it.

And so that’s really what we want you to be able to do. You can do these studies in groups, you can do them by yourself. You can start a MomStrong International chapter in your church or in your neighborhood. We just really want to encourage you to do that. It’s also a really great way to support the ministry that is the podcast. We have a team of people that bring you the podcast just like a team writes the study. 

A couple of the things I wanted to let you know too as it relates to my speaking season. My speaking season for the homeschool conference has really has come to an end this year. I want to say thanks to everybody that’s come out and say hello to us. We have loved meeting you, and hugging your necks, and sometimes crying with you— and just hearing what God is doing in your life. If you are interested in having me come out and speak for your event, there is a speakers tab to do that. So if you go to HeidiStJohn.com just look at the top for the speakers tab. That is the very best way to find out if I’m available and what it would take to bring me to your area for an event. Also, we are looking for locations for my women’s conference, Faith that Speaks, that is going to be starting up this fall. And we will be bringing that conference hopefully all over the country and you can host it there. It’s very simple to do. We bring a team in and we do most of the work for you. We just need a facility that’s willing to let us come and spend a Friday evening and a Saturday. So we typically start Friday evenings and we’ll maybe start at seven and go from 7:00pm to 9:30pm, and then we’ll start up again at nine and go from typically from 9:00am-3:00pm. So, to reach out to us ycan click the speakers tab and just say that you’re interested in bringing my women’s conference to your area. I’m telling you what— it’s a weekend that will change your life. And so, I plan on seeing what you can do to host my women’s event. We would love to come out and just encourage your women in the Word of God. 

People ask me all the time— can I bring my daughter? And I tell people— if your daughter is 14 years of age or older, she will get a lot out of it. So this is not just for homeschool moms, it’s not just for mothers— it’s for any woman who wants to get to know God’s Word better. 

All right, let’s look at our study this week and MomStrong International. Before we get started, let’s come before the Father in prayer. 

Lord Jesus, I thank you for the opportunity that you give us every single week here at the podcast to speak Your truth in love. Lord, I pray that as we become women who are more equipped to speak of the gospel, and more equipped to share the good news that you have in Jesus, that you would help us to get off the bench and onto the battlefield, off of the sidelines, and onto the front lines—for the sake of the Gospel and to carry Your Name. Lord, I pray that for every man, woman, and child that’s listening to this today, for everyone within the sound of the reach of my voice, Lord, that you would encourage us by the power of Your Spirit to walk in right relationship with You, to be in Your Word, and to encourage those around us to do the same. Lord, as we talk about what it means to be gentle and meek today, Lord, I pray that you’d fill me with Your Spirit. Father, I pray that if there’s anything that comes to my mind that’s not from You, You prevent me from saying it. Lord, we need to hear from Your Word. We need to hear from You. We love you and we invite you into this show and into our lives. In Jesus name, amen. 

All right. Couple of things as I am looking at this— I talked to a woman not too long ago at an event that I was speaking at and she was saying how it must just be amazing to be Heidi St. John. She said— you just must have the most amazing walk with the Lord. First of all, I want to clear some misconceptions up. I’m just a person just like the rest of you. I’ve got 6,000 pounds of cold, wrinkled laundry waiting for me on my bed right now. I’ve got dishes that need to be done. I have no idea what I’m going to make for dinner tonight. I’ve got a bunch of kids that need my attention, and a husband that I’m trying to love. And I have learned, and am learning —and this is the passion that brings this to you every week—I struggle every week in my own personal life to make time to be in the Word of God. It is a spiritual discipline. It’s no different than the discipline of watching what I eat, or trying to make time for exercise— which I also am having a really hard time doing, but that’s another podcast. 

I just want to encourage you, I’m not a spiritual superhero. I am a woman who is working every day to walk in right relationship with the Lord. I would really appreciate your prayers for me and for our team here that writes these studies—God has called us to this amazing work. And so I want to encourage you to hopefully… I love what Paul said: Follow me as I follow Christ. Paul realizes that he was a chief among sinners, right? And I realized the same thing about my own life. It is the Holy Spirit that keeps us walking in right relationship with the Lord. It’s not homeschooling. Homeschooling doesn’t do it. It’s not you really putting all of your extra effort into your husband, or making sure that you go to church— those are good things, but your private time with the Lord is the most important thing you’ll do all day. And you can do that with your kids. That’s why we include a component called Kids Strong in the MomStrong International Bible Study.

It’s not just for moms, it’s for any woman. My heart beats for mothers in particular, and women in general. I believe that God wants to do an incredible work in this generation. And when faith finds its feet in our hearts, when we really begin to see who we are in Christ, and we start looking or reading through the book of Ephesians, reading through the book of Galatians, and hearing God’s incredible love for us and the way he sees us— it changes us. It changes us. And this month MomStrong International we’ve been working to see and study the fullness of Biblical womanhood. And so before I go much farther, I’m going to read a little bit out of Proverbs 31 and we’re going to soak in a little bit of beauty and wisdom from King Lemuel.

He’s talking about what it would mean to find a good wife, right? And every single one of us is unique, right? We all have strengths and weaknesses, which we’ll talk about in the passage in just a minute. We want to be wives that model God’s heart. And this isn’t just..I mean, yes, he’s talking about — an excellent wife, who can find her? — but really this is for every woman who wants to follow the Lord. So young person,  teenager who’s listening to this right now— this is how God created you. We are all women created in God’s image and He’s created us to be companions and helpers. And I want you to look around and see who God has placed in your life because He has placed you where you are right now on purpose. And he wants you to fulfill your calling, whether you are currently married or whether you’re not.

I’m going to read for just a minute Proverbs 31, but I want to take you back really quickly to this idea of gentleness because we’ve been talking about biblical womanhood as it relates to the fruit of the Spirit all month here at MomStrong International. And gentleness is one of the ones that has really been a heat into the trash bin of the culture, right? We don’t value gentleness and the culture. We don’t value meekness, and yet this is something that God wants His children to exhibit. We need to be able to exhibit these character qualities. It’s very important. 

Listen, gentleness is not synonymous with weakness or inaction, okay? I’m going to say that again. Gentleness does not mean weakness and it does not mean inaction. And in fact, Peter calls us to have a quiet and gentle Spirit in 1 Peter 3:4, and some of your reading this are going— right? It takes a lot of work to find that gentle spirit. There was a mom that I knew a long time ago and she was always telling me that it was her goal in life to have a gentle spirit. To her, the gentle spirit meant— I don’t a interject my thoughts, I’m just going to mind my own business at home. I’m only gonna be here for my husband and my children. Boy, I just don’t think that was what God meant, right? He said to have a meek and quiet spirit. It’s right there in black and white text. But what have we been learning about Biblical literacy? Every Word in the Bible at God’s decision—it’s there for a reason.

And so if we don’t get it, we need to keep asking for wisdom and keep pressing in. Keep digging, always seek to understand the heart of God. If you read something that you don’t understand in the Bible, go back and read it again and say— Lord, help me understand. The Holy Spirit will help you.  We think of Deborah, the prophetess. She was a judge of Israel for a season, and other strong women in the Bible. And the Bible requires that one of these fruits of the spirit that we see is gentleness. And the fruit of gentleness isn’t born of personality, it’s grown by the Holy Spirit and displayed by Jesus. So how does embracing gentleness breathe life into your home? Before we read Proverbs 31, I want you to think about this. Because when you address something with your kids in an unglued sort of fashion, or you freak out— what’s the response that you get?

Yeah, a defensive posture. You get excuses, you get shut down. And if we let that become a habit, we’re going to start frustrating our kids and our husbands and our friends. And we build walls between us. But if we approach the situation calmly, right? Preferably before 9:00pm— then we’ve left ourselves a greater chance of assessing the situation as God would have us assess it and of accessing the hearts of the people that we’re trying to reach, because we’re not sinning all over them along the way. And I think sometimes, and certainly with a personality like mine, I can tell you this is something that I struggle with on a regular basis— so meekness is the word that we see tied to gentleness in the Scriptures, and it is also commonly misunderstood. So even as you read it, meekness is going to bring to mind pictures of that tiny mouse, remember in the cartoons that was shivering in the corner. And in the ‘90s, and still today, it was big for women in assertiveness classes to decide that in order not to be a doormat and stand up for yourself— you gotta be true to yourself and not be gentle and not be meek —except that’s not the Lord, that’s not as hard. 

Jesus called us to be true to Him, to love our enemies. And this includes being gentle and meek. So what does that look like? Meekness isn’t weakness. Meekness is restrained strength. You should write that down. In fact, I’m gonna give you a minute. Go get yourself a pencil. Meekness is restrained strength. It’s a quiet strength. In the Bible, it’s used interchangeably in several verses with gentleness. Check this out. Psalm 18:35 — You have also given me the shield of Your salvation, and Your right hand upholds me; And Your gentleness makes me great. His gentleness makes us great. Wow! Psalm 45:4 — And in Your majesty ride on victoriously, for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness; let Your right hand teach You awesome things.

How can meekness, truth, and righteousness all be lauded in Psalm 45:4 if one of them isn’t admirable? Look at the difference between weakness and meekness really quickly. A weak person will give a soft answer out of fear, intimidation, and shyness, and even cowardice. His soft answer is due to personal weakness and sometimes spinelessness. That’s not meekness. The opposite of that is meek. A meek person is going to give a soft answer out of strength because we possess the boldness and strength to retort sharply, but because of a strength of character, we choose not to. So we choose to answer softly.

And that softness is strength under control. That is a beautiful characteristic in godly women. Larry Pierce, who was the creator of the Online Bible, said this:“Meekness toward God is that disposition of spirit in which we accept His dealings with us as good and therefore without disputing or resisting. In the OT, the meek are those wholly relying on God rather than their own strength to defend against injustice…Gentleness or meekness is the opposite to self-assertiveness and self-interest. It stems from trust in God’s goodness and control over the situation. The gentle person is not occupied with self at all. This is a work of the Holy Spirit, not of the human will”

That is beautiful. And so that’s what we really want to be—aiming toward teaching our children that this meekness in the culture is very important and is not a weakness. It is restraint strength. Let’s look at Proverbs 31 really quickly as we come to the end of today’s study. And again, if you guys want more information on this, we’ve done a fantastic study for you. It’s about 65 pages long. These are not small studies. They’re beautifully illustrated. Lots of spaces for you to fill things out. These are studies that you can download and then study together. So if there’s a group of you that join MomStrong International, get together and talk about what God is doing in your life— that’s really the goal. All right, let’s look at Proverbs 31:10-29:

An excellent wife, who can find? For her worth is far above jewels. The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. She does him good and not evil all the days of her life. She looks for wool and flax and works with her hands in delight. She is like merchant ships; she brings her food from afar. She rises also while it is still night and gives food to her household and portions to her maidens. She considers a field and buys it; from her earnings she plants a vineyard. She girds herself with strength and makes her arms strong. She senses that her gain is good; her lamp does not go out at night. She stretches out her hands to the distaff, and her hands grasp the spindle. She extends her hand to the poor, and she stretches out her hands to the needy. She is not afraid of the snow for her household, for all her household are clothed with scarlet. She makes coverings for herself; her clothing is fine linen and purple. Her husband is known in the gates, when he sits among the elders of the land. She makes linen garments and sells them, and supplies belts to the tradesmen. Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she smiles at the future. She opens her mouth in wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. She looks well to the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and bless her; her husband also, and he praises her, saying: “Many daughters have done nobly, but you excel them all.

This is God’s heart. This is God’s heart for us, that we will be clothed with strength and dignity, that we would open our mouths and wisdom would come out. I love that he talks about kindness being something that she’s known for. We struggle with kindness in the culture right now. The culture does not approve of kindness. The culture wants strength. The culture wants us to get out there. But you know what? That strength is found, that quiet strength is revealed— in the character quality that is meekness. So I want to encourage you to embrace that today. This is something you should be talking about with your kids at the dinner table. 

And women, for those of you who are listening to this today and you’re privileged to be raising children in the culture right now— praise the Lord. Praise the Lord for the opportunity that He has given us to encourage and be examples to the generation that’s coming up because they need mentors. We’re struggling with identity right now and God says— find your identity in Me. Let’s see what God will do. 

I appreciate you guys listening.

As always, if you get a chance to please leave reviews for this podcast over at iTunes, it encourages us. Share it with your friends. If you want to reach out to me, you can reach me podcast@thebusymom.com. If you’ve got questions that you would like to have me address at Mailbox Monday, that is the place to send them. Please put Mailbox Monday in the subject line and please, please keep your questions short and sweet and to the point. We love you guys so much. We thank you for listening and our prayers are with you as you join us in getting off the bench and onto the battlefield. 

Have a great Wednesday everybody, and I’ll see you back here on Friday. 

Write to Heidi:
Heidi St. John
c/o Firmly Planted Family
11100 NE 34th Cir, Vancouver, WA 98682

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