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Hey you guys, this is Heidi St. John. Thanks for tuning in today. Today’s episode number 817 and this is Wednesday, September 11th. This is the day we study MomStrong International. We’re talking about the topic of being an ambassador for Christ in the culture today and also we’re going to take a little bit of time to remember and reflect on 9-11. 

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

This is my favorite day of the week here at the podcast. We talk about the study that’s happening at MomStrong International. If you haven’t joined us over there yet, this is a great time to do it. We’re on week two of our study on what it means to be an ambassador. I love that we’re talking about this because there has never been a more important time for God’s people to be who God says that we are—and that is to be ambassadors. The Bible says that God is literally making His appeal through us when He says: come back to me. So it begs the question— are we being ambassadors for the Lord Jesus? What does it look like to be an ambassador? The Bible teaches us that we have been set apart. 

2 Corinthians 6:14-17 For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” Therefore, “Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. 

Let’s come before the Father in prayer. Lord Jesus, I thank you that you have given us Your Word as a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. I thank you for faithful men and women who teach Your Word and live it. Lord, as we talk a little bit about what it means to be an ambassador, Father that you would give us all the courage to live by our convictions, the courage to be who you say that we are are. Father, I pray that we would be as set apart people. I pray that we’d be set apart in the privacy of our own hearts where no one else is watching. Lord, I pray that you will help me to be the woman that you want me to be. I pray that you’d help us to study Your Word, that we could be workman who do not need to be ashamed, who can rightly handle Your Word and apply it in grace and love. We love you, Father. We invite You into what we’re doing here today. Lord, I would pray especially just a prayer for those who have been deeply affected by 9-11, those who are still mourning the loss of loved ones, that still feel the sense of loss. I pray for our nation. We’re more divided now than we ever were. We need your help. Help us, Lord, to be the people that You want us to be. In Jesus name, amen. 

I’m going to look really quickly to the study at MomStrong International. If you haven’t checked it out yet, this is a great time. The study is about $8 a month. It is beautifully illustrated. You guys are gonna love it. I got a letter from a mother the other day who said that it was her first time seeing the Bible Study. I recently got a letter from a mom named Sylvia— I loved it so much. I know this isn’t Mailbox Monday, but I’m going to read this anyway. She said:  Hi Heidi. I tell everyone about your podcast, but I’m dropping you a quick note today because today is the first day I have opened the Bible study after signing up last month with MomStrong International, and I just want to tell you—wow, it is breathtaking. The graphics and colors are incredible. I can’t get over how beautiful it is. I can hear your sweet voice throughout the study and I’m seriously blown away. I wish I had done this so much sooner. Thank you for your kind heart toward us mamas and pointing us to the Word of God to the truth. We need it so much. Be encouraged today. 

Sylvia, that did encourage me I forwarded that to the writing team. There are a whole bunch of us that are working to get that study out to you guys every month. And my daughter, Savannah, does the Kid Strong. She’s got two little guys of her own and she’s expecting her third grand baby in the spring. Pretty excited about that. My friend Jen does the majority of the writing for the Bible studies for me right now as I’m in the middle of another book project. Sierra is in charge of the graphics. We’ve got a team of editors. Of course, my staff is always helping us go through that. We choose the topics very carefully, pray over them and then ask the Lord to help us as we get them out to you. So I hope you guys are encouraged and are really gonna be active in the Word of God. That’s why we’re doing it because God says that we are who he says we are. 

Today, I want to talk a little bit about hospitality because it doesn’t get talked about very much. An ambassadors who take their job seriously do everything in their power to uplift and support their home nation and their ruler. As believers, we represent the Lord Jesus. Do we represent Him in a way that not only advances His principles and ideals, but represents His tremendous heart? 

2 Corinthians 5:20-21 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” God has extended safety and belonging to us, and He calls us to do the same to others. According to a recent Barna survey, 28 percent of evangelicals believe they are gifted by God to teach, while only 3 percent say they have the gift of hospitality. It would work well for the enemy to trick people into believing that the practice of hospitality requires a large budget, large amounts of time, or a large home.

These are lies. Some of my favorite moments was when Jay and I were very young and he was starting out in the pastorate, we’re of having visitors over from our church for lunch and not having a lot of furniture and a little tiny home and me making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and just sitting on the floor and getting to know people. You don’t have to have a large budget or a large house. That’s really good news! Because even though not many people feel gifted with hospitality, we’re all given the call and opportunity to practice hospitality! Being hospitable is important to God, and He speaks of it in the Word as one clear way we love others.  

But I want to encourage you, don’t mistake a love entertaining for genuine hospitality because they’re not the same thing. I think this kind of trips us up a little bit. My friend Jen Schmidt wrote a book on hospitality. Last year I had her on the show, her book was called: Just Open The Door. If you need ideas for entertaining and having people over, she’s got some wonderful ones. There’s a difference between hospitality and entertaining. Entertaining is delightful, creating just the right menu or having perfect decorations for a special celebration is a great pleasure, but biblical hospitality is a much earthier affair; it’s the day-in day-out warmth of having a heart open to seeing the needs of others and doing what you can to meet them.

Biblical hospitality is also not at the expense of caring for our immediate families. God is not calling us to regularly hang our kids (or our men) out to dry so we can make meals for others who are hurting or host three events per week for different church ministries. Best hospitality practices take into account an overstimulated introverted child or a teen with two tests in school the next day. Your event may still need to happen but create space without emotional guilting for the introvert to grab some alone time. 

My friend Jamie Martin was on the show talking about The Introverted Mom and introverted kids. We’re studying this a little bit in digging deeper. Jesus doesn’t just make us subjects of His kingdom like far off peasants, but He adopts us into His family and with family comes responsibility.  We are not just subjects but sons and daughters, and all family members have roles and tasks that signify belonging, and those are ever changing. Asking for wisdom and exercising biblical discernment is not only for doctrine, Moms, it’s for daily realities of loving our families well! 

When you invite a new couple at church to grab coffee with you or meet your family for a bike ride after work one evening, you’re saying you have value to God and therefore you have value to me. When you allow friends over to play, those kids will notice if you know their names and notice a new haircut. Keep your door open through the loud rough-and-tumble golfball-through-the window years.

I’ve had a lot of that happen. We had a guy that lived behind us who kept accidentally shooting his BB gun into my sliding glass door. Yeah. That actually wasn’t that fun. I’m going to try to forget about it. But guess what? We got to know our neighbors. It gave us a chance to talk to them. Last week when my family was doing a bunch of work for the Homeschool Resource Center, trying to get it up and ready for this week, I watched my two grandsons and my two nephews and my eight year old daughter, and they all like—we had a slip and slide going outside, a lot of stuff going on. It was hot. They finally got cold enough playing in the ice cold water that was coming out of my hose, that all these kids wanted to get in the hot tub. I gotta tell you, I didn’t want him in that hot tub. I was like— for the love, they’re gonna take their dirty feet and they’re going to act like dolphins and whales and Belugas in the hot tub. I could just feel this little voice in the back of my head like—nope, it’s not your hot tub, it belongs to Me. Create a memory. So we did. And yes, they did pretend to be Beluga whales. I actually believe that they were navy ships this time. Was it messy? Yes. Was it loud? Yes. Did my hot tub get dirty? Yes. But you know what? Those kids are going to make a memory and I hope they’re gonna know that I loved them in the process. So we need to ask ourselves the question— what makes our home show we love Jesus?

What makes us the fragrance of Christ as Christ’s true ambassadors. It’s genuine, authentic faith, that we live out. That means we’ve got an open home and that’s going to require bracing ourselves sometime. It’s sanctifying. Can we just be honest? Moment of silence, because not all of us really liked to have company all the time. Some of us are just tired. We discovered when we open our home and we begin to just have people into our lives, God uses us, He uses us. Jesus uses open homes, just like He uses open hearts. Jesus-girls who love Him and are willing to be less-than-pinterest-y and just live life with those around her are incredibly important part of being ambassadors of Jesus Christ. 

So I’m going to read Romans 12 to you guys because part of being a dedicated Christian and offering your body as a living sacrifice is showing hospitality of strangers. So we’ve got to figure out what that looks like. So let’s look at a Romans 12: 9-15 —Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.

So we’re getting lots of instructions in this short little passage in Romans. He’s teaching us to do a bunch of things as members of the church, as members of the body of Christ. He’s saying—cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another, honor one another. Don’t be lacking in zeal, keep up your spiritual fervor and serve the Lord. He says, be joyful and hope. Be patient in affliction. Be faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. You notice he never says if your house is clean— share with the Lord’s people who are in need. He never says if your laundry is done, if your counter is not messy, if your living rooms cleaned up, practice hospitality. No, he says— look for a need and then open your door. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn. I love this. In verse 16 he goes on to say, live in harmony with one another.

Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. Romans 12:16

I think sometimes our desire to be seen as very good at entertaining and all that, it really comes from a place of pride and the Apostle Paul is saying, come away from that practice hospitality. It’s so important as people who are a set apart people, we should be known for our love of other people. We want to speak the truth, but we should also be known for our love. The Bible teaches us that we are stewards of the gospel. We have been given an incredible responsibility. Matthew 28:18-20— And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

The Lord saying, we have a responsibility to make disciples, to teach them what we learned. We can’t do that if we’re not getting in people’s lives and loving people the way that God says to love them. This is part of being an ambassador for the Lord Jesus. Open up your home to be hospital. We’re spending the whole month talking about being an ambassador for the Lord Jesus and what that looks like. There’s a ton more information. You’re going to love Kids Strong this month, teaching your kids to go out of their comfort zone too—and they do that by seeing you do that. We’re going to flesh out the practical outworkings of hospitality. What does it look like to have a teen girl from church over to play with your little ones while you fold the laundry? It’s going to give you some downtime, maybe some brain space— but the heavenly investment is that you’re going to get to hear her dreams or her troubles and you’re going to get to speak grace into her life and hopefully you’ll become a safe place for her. There’s a lot of ways that we can practice hospitality and be the set apart people that God wants us to be. We can raise young ambassadors also. So, is what we’re going to study in 1 Peter 4:8-9. 

Before I go today, I just want to encourage those of you who are remembering as I am today. The events that took place on September 11th, 2001. I remember where I was. I was sitting on my bed in our bedroom nursing, our infant son, and I was watching television and I don’t know if I turned away or what happened, but the next time I looked up at the television, I saw a plane flying into one of the World Trade Centers. I’m pretty sure it was the first one.American Airlines flight 11. I thought it was an ad for a movie. I literally thought— Oh wow, this is weird. There must be a new movie coming out. When I realized our nation was under attack, I remember calling my husband at work and just saying— please come home, this is serious, it’s bad. Of course it was bad and we learned as the day unfolded just exactly how bad it would get. 

A lot of us have young kids who don’t remember it. We always talk to our children about that time in history and about why our country— the TSA and all those things sort of happened as a result of that. We also pray for those who lost family members and loved ones in the attacks on 9-11. There’s a lot of really great information out there because as I recall, in New York City that particular day, it was a beautiful day. September 11th. Hello, it’s, it’s late summer. They were just going about their business like everybody else. When that coordinated suicide attack against the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington DC happened, everyone onboard those planes and nearly 3000 people on the ground were killed. A fourth plane crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing everyone on board after passengers and crew attempted to wrest control from the hijackers. I think it’s important for us always to pause and to remember the freedom that we have in this country. The importance of protecting our nation. The importance of praying for those people that would intend to do us harm. Sometimes we can get far enough away from it and we think— oh, that will never happen again. The truth is we need to be praying for our nation. So I found a quote and I’m going to end today’s podcast reading it to you. I thought it was a beautiful way just to say we remember we will never forget 

For the husband who told his wife he loved her before his plane went down in a field. For the wife who stopped in the stairs to call her husband to say— I will love you forever. For the mothers and fathers who kissed their kids goodbye that morning, and then died. For the policemen who rushed in with the firemen and others, only to die themselves. Today, tomorrow, and a hundred years from now, we will remember.

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

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This podcast is brought to you by our friends at Evangelical Christian Credit Union.

Hey everybody, this is Heidi St. John. Welcome to the podcast. Today is Wednesday. It is the 28th of August. This is episode number 811 —we’re going to be talking about the fruit of the Spirit that is love. This is week four of the MomStrong International Bible study.

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

So lots going on in my life right now. Thanks to everybody who’s been praying for us. We’re kind of working our way through all the water damage, and the pipes in our house, and everything. We’ve been traveling, had a fantastic turnout in Kansas City last Saturday for Faith that Speaks, for my women’s conference. And speaking of the women’s conference, I will be bringing that conference to Fredericksburg, Virginia. That is just two weeks away. So if anywhere in the Washington DC area, greater Richmond, Virginia, come on out. I come out once a year and we’ve still got room for you and it’s going to be, I promise you,a day this is going to change your life. I will be there on Saturday, September the 14th — it’s just two weeks away. If you want more information about my women’s conference Faith That Speaks, you can find it HeidiStohn.com/events. I’ll link back to that in the show notes today.

But like I’ve been saying you guys, this is my heart. It is my heart to come and just equip you in the Word of God. The theme for Faith That Speaks, and this is the last one for the year, is Miracle Worker: The Life Changing Power of Following Jesus. We’re talking about at Faith That Speaks, is what it looks like to have your faith, not just be something that you carry around like a backpack, but rather that it infuses your entire being and you become a voice for the Lord in the culture. That’s what we’re supposed to be. We’re supposed to be ambassadors for Jesus Christ. Next conference is going to be October 12th in Vancouver, Washington. Early bird tickets are on sale now, but that rate ends on September 2nd. So if you’re in the Pacific Northwest and you want to come to the women’s conference Faith That Speaks in Vancouver, that’s going to be held on October 12th and the early bird rate for that is gonna end here pretty quick.

All right, lots of great things coming up for all of us this year. We’re getting back to homeschooling, right? A moment of silence. I know there’s a bunch of you who have already gone back to homeschooling. We never do it here until after Labor Day, but I know a bunch of you are back and I just want to encourage you— a couple of things right off the bat. A schedule is your friend. The schedule is your friend. Moment of silence for everyone who is not yet penciled out their life. That might be me. I wrote a book about this called The Busy Homeschool Mom’s Guide to Daylight, and if you are trying to figure out how you can fit your size 12 day into a size 10, that’s a great book for you can find an Amazon or in my Store. I’ll link back to in the show notes today, but lots of practical and a lot of great spiritual insight and information for you as you begin to plan your year and ask the Lord to infuse it with His Spirit.

Listen, God has a plan for you. He wants to help you. The Lord wants to be intimately involved in the plans that you make. I think for us as women, and this has certainly been true for me over the years—I like to make my plan and then present it to the Lord. That’s kind of backward. So I’m gonna encourage you to do what God says to do. That’s to lay your plans before Him. So before you write out your schedule, before you do any of that stuff,  come before the Lord and ask Him what He wants you to do. Then when you’re ready for the nitty gritty and you’re ready to flesh it out, check out The Busy Homeschool Mom’s Guide to Daylight. You don’t have to be a homeschool mom to appreciate that book. It’s a whole lot of encouragement for you. Real life examples from moms who have lots of little kids at home, to moms who just have one or two, homeschooling moms, moms that work from home, moms who have lots of little kids and high-schoolers. Anyway, I think you guys will be encouraged—so check it out. I will link back to it in the show notes today. 

We are on week four of the study at MomStrong International. We’ve been studying all summer the fruit of the Spirit and we’re going to wrap it up appropriately with the fruit of the Spirit that is love.  Next Monday, so the first Monday of every month, we start a brand new study. I want to just encourage you, this is a great time to jump into this study at MomStrong International. We’re going to be talking about what it means to be an ambassador for Jesus— and that’s what we’re supposed to be. The Bible doesn’t give any caveats. God doesn’t give any caveats to our ambassadorship. He doesn’t say— be my ambassador, unless those guys are poking fun at you, then don’t do it. He doesn’t say— be an ambassador for me if you’re feeling up to it. No, your life is speaking for the Lord. One of the main ways that we speak for Him is through the love that we show to other people. 

Here at MomStrong International we have spent the last three months pressing deeply into the fruit of the Spirit of God. This singular fruit (love) is like the fleshy pulp of a Rainier cherry or a perfectly ripe peach— or if you’re like me, it’s an avocado. Oh what it would be like if our lives would look more like Jesus.

What would happen if God’s people, who are called by His name, would be the image bearers in every way that God has created us to be…that we would show forth the fruit of the Spirit, which is evidence really, that the Lord is at work in us. As people who love the Lord, and as those of us who greatly desire to love our biological and our spiritual families well—we’ve learned that only by the spirit flourishing in us are we able to have wisdom at all. This is only by God’s working in us, only by his spirit alive in us, can we be who God wants us to be, can speak true kindness, can we be His salt and His light to a world that desperately needs it. We’re going to look at this a little bit because the world has really misunderstood love and we talk about it in shades of gray— and there are no shades of gray around love. 

Love is a powerful thing. We can bring our strongest emotions and we can lay them at God’s feet and let Him examine us. Then we step back after He does that and hopefully we’re rejuvenated to a place where we can offer grace to other people because we realize it’s been given to us. In place of ungodly anger, God wants to give us His peace. As these building blocks in our lives are being addressed, biblical integrity comes into view. This is the plumb line that directs us. We are reminded in the Word that it’s not okay to take any sort of sin lightly. Even when we let the small things slip—it erodes at the foundation. Pretty soon we become comfortable with deceit. Pretty soon we become comfortable with the world’s definition of what love is, and the world’s definition of kindness, and the world’s definition of goodness. We don’t want that. 

Paul was very clear when he tells the body of Christ in Galatia that they need to be seeing growth from the Holy Spirit who is at work, transforming them. Often we think that these people groups, and churches in biblical times were free of the family drama and the parenting crises and the arguments that we experience. But the truth is— they were just like you and me. They are people regardless of where they lived. Paul summarized his message to the believing gentiles by saying this. Listen to what he said.  Christ set you free for the sake of freedom, to love your neighbor as yourself, not to be saved and yet imprisoned by things God is not requiring. You started well but got distracted. Also, by the way, if you wound each other with your words and actions, watch out, you may be the one consumed. You’ve got freedom in Christ, but until eternity your flesh will battle against the Spirit of God. Let Him reign in you and experience the fullness of His joy. (Galatians 5:1,7,14-15,17)

At this point, Paul sounds like every other mother reading the study— and we’ve had it with the behaviors running a muck in our houses. Paul’s frustrated. He’s going— listen, you’ve been set free, you’ve got freedom in Christ, but you’re always going to be battling with your flesh. Because guess what? We live here, we’re walking on planet earth. As we dig into this topic of love and what it looks like, and what does it mean to love the culture — we keep in front of us what the love that God requires of us and asks for us looks different than the world defines it.

Agapē love, which we’ve talked about before—that’s the love that we have for one another. That’s different than the love that you see in a marriage relationship. Agapē love is unconditional…. well, I should back up. We see agapē love in our marriages, hopefully— because without it that eros love ain’t gonna last that long. When we think about agapē love, we think of it as unconditional. It’s a sacrificial love. It’s a willing choice that we make to love that person in front of us or love that child that’s driving us crazy or love our spouse to the middle of a disagreement. It’s a love that decides to be for the benefit of the one who receives the love rather than the lover is receiving pleasure. 

God is not only agapē love, God also shows it and He commands it of believers. Whatever He commands, He also enables. I’m going to say that again. You should write that down. Whatever He commands, He also enables. Our flesh is strong, but the fact that God loves us so powerfully gives us the strength to put down our prideful flesh and instead put His love on. Love for God drives us to fight for kindness, goodness, and all aspects of the Holy Spirit’s fruit. It motivates us to weed out sin and address it, and choose a life of integrity. Love for God spills over into home and work, and is what pushes us to embrace the Spirit’s work in our lives. What a privilege to be loved by a holy, intimate God. 

Warren Wiersbe noted “It is possible for the old nature to counterfeit some of the fruit of the Spirit, but the flesh can never produce the fruit of the Spirit. One difference is this: when the Spirit produces fruit, God gets the glory and the Christian is not conscious of his spirituality; but when the flesh is at work, the person is inwardly proud of himself and is pleased when others compliment him. The work of the Spirit is to make us more like Christ for His glory, not for the praise of men.” 

This is a really important aspect to why we love people. We love them and why are we obedient? Why do we bring our spirit and our flesh captive to do the will of God? It’s because of a love for God that motivates us. We want to be motivated by that love. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 says: Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

This is the Holy Spirit at work in us. Galatians 5:22-23 says the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. We learned in Romans 5:3-6 the apostle Paul says: And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.

It’s a powerful reminder that our love for others should never be motivated by anything else but our love for God. Our love for God should be the motivation. That’s why we speak on behalf of the unborn. That’s why we tell the truth about sexual sin in the culture. That’s why we speak the truth, even if our voice shakes. It’s because of our love for God. Our love for God should train our hearts to love other people. Sometimes that love of other people means we’re going to step out in front of something that could possibly turn out not so good for us. I had a wonderful conversation with several women out Abundant Life in Lee’s Summit when we were there last week for the conference. So many of the questions that I get when I’m signing books or sitting at the table or trying to get a bite of the sandwich at the lunch table, so many of the questions that I get now are coming from moms who are afraid to be loving— because love does not sacrifice truth. Now that doesn’t mean that you’re a jerk about it, but it means that if you can tell that your palms are sweating and your heart’s racing and you know that God’s asking you to speak the truth and to be an ambassador for Him— it might cost you something.

I talked to moms who are afraid of what it’s going to look like to raise their children in a culture that doesn’t understand agapē love, that doesn’t understand God’s approach to this fruit of the Spirit that He calls love. Love tells the truth. Love is patient. Love is willing to walk through deep water with somebody else. This is the same thing that’s true of our children. You can’t force your kids to love God. So how do we train them to love Him and embrace God’s approach? This agapē love. How do we train children to approach life the way God tells them to while we were praying for them to come to know Him? 

So the first thing that you do is: model, model, model, model, model it. You can’t give your kids what you don’t have. Be the parents who love Jesus and embrace Him. Don’t be the worn down mom and dad who makes the kids dread adulthood. Show them the beauty of the Gospel and how loved they are. How many things that they can see around them that carry the fingerprints of God. Join Him where He’s working in your family, and you will begin to see fruit in the lives of your kids as you teach biblical principles as best practices—you don’t need to be all churchy—as the Lord gives you opportunity, speak TRUTH to them. Model what it looks like, pray with your kids, pray with them. 

So how can you model trust and loving God in prayer? You pray openly, you pray with age appropriate information. Philippians 4:6-7 pray openly about everything. Psalm 34:17-19 model trust in agony. Even when you’re suffering—we want to trust the Lord. In 1 Timothy 1:5 it says, but the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. So trust the Lord. Three things that make up our motive for everything that we do in parenting is to give them instruction of love from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. So the goal is always to teach them to love like Jesus does. 

You guys, I’m telling you what, if we can’t do it—they’re going to have a real hard time because the culture wars against the things of the Lord, it really does. If we want our children to walk in right relationship with the Lord, it starts with you. It starts with me. It’s integrity in every situation. It’s situational integrity, and part of that is love. It’s that integrity of Spirit that shows us how to live in right relationship with the Lord. How do we model love when we don’t feel like we’re being loved in return? Ever had a three year old screaming at you? I have. How do we model it? We asked the Lord to help us do it. So far at MomStrong International this summer we have learned about every fruit of the Spirit, every single one of them. You can go back before this study is not available anymore, if you join me at MomStrong International, you can download this study on love. I’m going to start putting screenshots of the study so that you guys can see what it looks like because those of you who haven’t joined us at yet, I’m telling you what—these women are growing and you can download the study and do it with your kids. You can do it as a family. I’m telling you the Word of God will change your life. So I want to just encourage you, join me and become a member.

It is just about $8 a month and it goes a whole long way to supporting this ministry and it helps me continue to keep the writing team writing for you. They’re the ones who helped me get this study out to you every month. If you haven’t checked out Kids Strong, our daughter Savannah writes Kids Strong and that really is aimed at moms who have young children to help you teach your children what you are learning. Because we can’t pass on what we don’t possess. So once we started to learn it, we want to learn how to pass it on. So I’m going to encourage you, if you haven’t done it already, this is a great time. September is a fantastic time to jump into the Word of God. Get up in the morning. You guys, set your alarms, get up before your kids if you can. Open up the Word of God, download this study, fill in the blanks. Get used to inking up your Bible and I promise you—being in the Word of God will change your life. The Holy Spirit does the work. It’s God that changes us and He does it through prayer and through the study of His Word. Try it and see if God won’t change your life in that way also. 

Before I go today, I want to let you guys know about some things that are really cool that are happening from our sponsor. I did a really cool podcast recently about sheltering children. A lot of you guys heard it. I heard some great feedback from you. One thing that we don’t want to keep from our children is the power of handling money responsibly. Our podcast sponsor today is Evangelical Christian Credit Union and they have the tools that parents can use to teach financial responsibility to children of any age. So spending accounts, savings accounts, no monthly or overdraft fees. I could go on and on. We’ve got to teach our children to be accountable for their finances and ECCU can help you do just that. You can learn more at eccu.com/heidi. Listen, don’t shield your children from responsibility. They’ll thank you later. 

I want to thank you guys also for listening to the podcast today. It really encourages us. if you’ve got a question that you’d like addressed at Mailbox Monday, shoot us an email podcast@thebusymom.com. Any correspondence that you want to send to us, including financial support for this ministry can be sent to me. 

Have a great day and I’ll see you back here on Friday for part two of my interview with the amazing Andrew Pudewa. 

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

Support this ministry by donating through E-giving. You can also send donations to: 1100 NE34th Cir, Vancouver, WA 98682

Submit your questions to MailBox Monday: podcast@thebusymom.com

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TRANSCRIPTION:

Hey friends, this is Heidi St. John. Welcome to the show. I’m so glad you guys have joined me today. It’s Wednesday, August 21st this is episode number 808. It’s week three of the MomStrong International Bible study. Today we’re going to focus on the character trait of gentleness— which is a fruit of the Spirit. 

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

Thanks for listening today everybody. This is a busy, busy week for me. As I said to you guys on Monday, a lot’s going on. My house is getting repiped today. Moment of silence—that’s gonna take a week. I’m going out of town tomorrow heading to Kansas City so I can get ready to minister to the women there. We have been planning this for over a year and we are going to be doing some wonderful, wonderful things in Kansas City. I’m so excited about what God is doing. I am thrilled to be a part of the ministry of Abundant Life Church, which has been under the leadership of Pastor Phil Hopper, who has become a friend of mine. 

Wow, you guys. God’s doing amazing things in Lee’s Summit, Missouri. So come out and say hello, bring your friends, bring your grandma, bring your mom, bring your daughter. We’re going to have a great time. My family’s coming out and we make sort of a family worship team all together. So my son Spencer is on drums, my son in law Ryan is going to be playing electric guitar and trading off acoustic with my husband, Sierra and Savannah both sing and play instruments. I think you guys are going to be really encouraged. So come on out. I will see you guys this Saturday and we still have room for tickets at the door. If you go to HeidiStJohn.com/events, you can still order your lunch ahead of time. So anyway, we’re super excited about that. I’ll see you there this weekend. And then shortly after that on the 29th, I will be at Valley Baptist church in Bakersfield. Really excited about that.

We have so many really wonderful things going on and we’re just thrilled that you guys are coming along with us for the ride. For those of you who live in the Portland, Vancouver area, classes are going to start at the Firmly Planted Homeschool Resource Center. Tons of amazing stuff going on there. You can check that out https://www.fphrc.org/. Next month in September, I’m going to be doing my Faith That Speaks conference is going to be in Virginia and then after that I will be coming and bringing my conference right here to my neck of the woods on October 11th and 12th in Vancouver at Firmly Planted and you guys coming out for that, there’s still an early bird rate window open for that right now, so check it out.

All right, I want to dig right into the Bible study for today. I’m real excited. For those of you who have been studying with us at MomStrong International , you know we started this with the hope that you would want to dig into God’s Word. One of the things that has been on my heart lately is just our need to be in the Word, but also how women’s Bible Study groups have really become known for gossip and reading books that really aren’t bringing us to Scripture. I want to bring you to Scripture. 

So this month we’re talking about the fruit of the Spirit. We’ve actually been doing that all summer. If you’re not part of the ministry at MomStrong international, I want to just encourage you to do that. You can also pick up my book Becoming MomStrong. There’s a whole series of books now out around that and I’m working on a new one MomStrong 365, which by the grace of God will be out sometime next year. So pray for me. I’m in the middle of writing that right now. 

As we look at our passage this month, and as we sort of bring it to an end, we’re going to end up for the next two weeks, we’re going to be studying about goodness. We’ve talked about integrity and kindness. And this week we’re talking about goodness and we’re gonna be talking about faithfulness. And then for the month of September we’re going to move into a new study called Ambassador. And there’s never been a better time for you and me to be an Ambassador of the Lord Jesus. So check it out at MomStrong International .com. You can download the free Scripture Writing Challenge, and for about $8 and some change every month you can join us for the Bible study. I promise you will not be sorry that you did. It’s also a really great way for you to support the ministry. 

2 Thessalonians 1:11-12 says To this end also we pray for you always, that our God will count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith with power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I think this is so beautiful how he says to fulfill every desire for goodness. And as we talk a little bit about goodness, because it’s really been maligned in the culture, you know—don’t be a goody two shoes. Don’t tell me what to do. As we talk a little about goodness, we’re going to be really seeking the Lord and the Holy Spirit to help us become men and women who are known for our goodness, which comes from the Lord. It’s a fruit of the Spirit. Ephesians 2:10 says For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. If you’ve ever felt hesitant about doing something and voiced your doubts to mischievous companions, this response is probably what I just said a few minutes ago— Don’t be a goodie two shoes. No one cares. What’s your problem? It’s fascinating that our flesh rises up so much against the pursuit of righteousness. Why, when righteousness brings with it the fullest benefits of becoming more like Jesus, do we fight it in order to choose something lesser? It’s a good question. Instant gratification and immediate pleasure are wells that promise satisfaction but deliver gritty sand to our thirsty souls, and this is the trap of the enemy. We fall into it all the time.

Instant gratification. It’s why people can sell books like your best life now and have a new kid by Friday because we don’t want to do the work to get there. We want that instant gratification. That’s what our flesh wants, and righteousness that’s fleshed out in our lives instead brings rich satisfaction and deep contentment. That’s the contentment that is with us, even when we’re struggling in other areas of our lives. The Holy Spirit working goodness in us, producing goodness through us…it’s hard to believe He would be so gracious to do such things. But for His glory, He does. Remember we’ve been saying this at the podcast all the time— that the Lord of Heaven’s armies, the God of the universe, the One who created and loves you, is resolutely committed to His own glory. For His glory, He does work in us and through us.  Before the dawn of time He preordained good works for us to walk in—the choice is ours whether we engage in those opportunities or we let them pass us by. 

This is why I’m always telling you guys— get off the bench. God didn’t put you here for nothing. He wants you to do something, for you are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God’s already prepared for you beforehand. That’s why I love having people on the show like Stephanie Carlson, and Dr. Duke Pesta, and my friend Bill Jack—because these guys have gotten off the bench and they’ve said: Lord, use me. It doesn’t mean that life is always going to be easy. No, it means that God has something for you to do and He’s going to help you to do it even when life is difficult, even when you’re struggling. 

Think about this for a minute: What good works could be so important that God actually prepared them beforehand? Choices and actions that will glorify Him and bless those around us—is really the answer, right? And so I want you to think about this with me for just a minute there. Once a little girl was in a home where the inhabitants were in the midst of great turmoil; a time of betrayal, anger, and grief. She was unaware of the situation, but remarked as she went outside that it was a dark place. The world, without the goodness of Jesus, is a dark place. God preordained good works in order for the world to see His glory and find eternal truth, and He loves us so much that He allows us to have a role in His glorious creation! Every single one of us has a deep desire for our kids to grow up and be good people. The apostle Paul said, “I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth” (3 John 1:4). Neither we nor our children can walk in truth without being taught and trained in it.

This is why MomStrong International is so important. This is why focusing on training our children in righteousness is a big deal. We’ve got to train our children up in the truth, to bring them up in it and train them in it. We can’t pass on what we don’t possess. Think about this for just a little bit….if nothing in the world is truly capable of being good due to sin tainting it all, then the only goodness that  can exist is that which is born of God. The Gospels record Jesus teaching, “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God,’ they are corrupt, and have committed abominable injustice; there is no one who does good” (Mark 10:18; Psalm 53:1).

How can we walk in good works preordained by God for us? Well, here’s how you do it: By embracing salvation and inviting the Holy Spirit to bring His FULL STRENGTH to growing His fruit in our lives! 

We talked on Monday a little bit about what happened with Josh Harrison, whether or not we could lose our salvation—can a believer lose his belief? It goes back to inviting the Holy Spirit to come into our lives and to walk in His strength, to walk in His power, not in our own. This has to do with the outworking of our faith. That has to do with whether or not we can be good at, has to do with whether or not we can be kind like we talked about last week. And as we pull it all together, we come back to the topic of integrity and integrity is heavily impacted by goodness.

We see this all throughout. Don’t believe me? Go to Washington DC. Don’t believe me? Look and see what’s happening on the news right now. My goodness. People committing suicide in prisons when they’re supposed to be people who are supposed to be watching them. There’s some crazy stuff going on in the world right now that involves integrity. When we are not people of integrity, we are also not going to be people who have any good in us and when we invite the Holy Spirit to produce His goodness in us, it’s going to require that we remove ugliness to make room for it. It’s going to require that we practice self control by choosing selfless responses to those around us.  It will require practicing self-control by choosing selfless responses to those around us. It requires getting our heads up out of the weeds of parenting to see wildflowers along the road—and stop to pick them. Pursuing goodness involves joy and some dreaming; remembering sweetness and innocence and bringing those things to the table of our parenting and marriages so we can all be blessed and changed. 

As you guys download this study this month, I hope that you’re blessed and encouraged because we don’t often talk about goodness in the culture. I’m going to spend a little bit of time for the next few minutes in 1 Samuel because parenting with goodness in mind requires that we lean into the Lord. So how do we train goodness in our precious children? Well, here’s how we do it, mom, grandma, dad —listened to this: model it, model it, model it. We can’t pass on what we don’t possess. The pursuit of righteousness, holiness, and goodness is a privilege and opportunity. When we moan about it in front of our kids, they will happily jump on the bandwagon. Shoring this up in their younger years will brace them for the onslaught of self-centeredness that the world tempts them with as they grow older. 

It’s important that you train your children in righteousness and that you model the fruit of the Spirit for them. Talk about the fruit of the Spirit with your kids. Jay and I wrote a Family Bible Study called Firmly Planted. If you guys are looking for something to do with your older children at well with younger ones too —I wanted to just encourage you, check it out. The reason we did that several years ago is because we’ve noticed that parents are no longer in the Word at their kids. We take them to church, we drop them off at their Sunday school group, and we go to our church and then we meet up for lunch and we go home. We go on our separate ways and we have forgotten what it means to walk along the road with our kids when we stand up and when we sit down— to talk about the things that the lord and to model it for our kids. So let’s look for just a minute at 1 Samuel 12.Samuel has important things to declare to the Israelites. I’m going to read this for you and I want you to check it out. 

1 Samuel 12:3 Here I stand. Testify against me in the presence of the Lord and his anointed. Whose ox have I taken? Whose donkey have I taken? Whom have I cheated? Whom have I oppressed? From whose hand have I accepted a bribe to make me shut my eyes? If I have done any of these things, I will make it right.”

1 Samuel  12:14-15 If you fear the Lord and serve and obey him and do not rebel against his commands, and if both you and the king who reigns over you follow the Lord your God—good! But if you do not obey the Lord, and if you rebel against his commands, his hand will be against you, as it was against your ancestors. 

1 Samuel 12:24-25 But be sure to fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart; consider what great things he has done for you. Yet if you persist in doing evil, both you and your king will perish.”

That’s hardcore. This is what he’s declaring to the Israelites. Why is he saying that he has earned the right to speak in their lives? He is saying that his conscience is at rest. When we have the legacy of a clear conscience, we have the wisdom of years to speak into our children’s lives. That’s really what he was doing, right? He was saying: here I stand, testify against me in the presence of the Lord whose ox have I taken, whose donkey have I taken, who have I cheated, who have I oppressed? If you are walking, parents, in right relationship with the Lord— then when it’s time to speak truth to the lives of your children and your conscience is at rest. Your kids will not be able to find fault in your testimony to them. Not that you’re without sin, but that we are constantly trying to be men and women of integrity.

I had the privilege not too long ago to speak before a political organization and my talk was on integrity. I was saying— listen, if you can’t be the men and women that you declare to be when you’re up here on the platform, get out of politics because we don’t need men and women who don’t have integrity in politics. That’s what I’m always telling Christians. Walk with the Lord and then run for office. Get on your school boards. Be men and women of integrity. Demonstrate the fruit of the Spirit. This is so important because when we do this, God can use our lives. The legacy that God wants to give us is built one decision at a time. When you read Samuels message to the Israelites and how he’s able to give his message, it was because of the testimony of his life. How would he be a good role model if he didn’t have a life of integrity to back it up? How are we going to be good parents to our kids? We need to live a life that’s worthy of the Gospel. What a goal to be able to say as Samuel did: who have I defrauded, who have I oppressed? No one. 

Now, if you’d like a role model of dishonesty and God’s handling of that, read Acts 5. I’ll just let you do that on your own. Acts 5:1-10. So if you’re ready for plenty of questions, and then you want to dig into it more, study it with your kids. The goal here is not to instill fear,  but reverential fear and respect of how important truth is. You guys, it’s never been more important than it is right now. Our kids need to see us living lives of integrity. The Bible says that God blesses it. Over the last two weeks, we have looked into the integrity of God and we know that God is unchanging and that reality is a shore and study anchor, the Bible says, for our souls. But not only does God speak His truth to our hearts, He informs our lives as well. God’s always consistent. There is never any hypocrisy or fickleness in Him. God’s not going to change. His character isn’t going to change based on what a group of people does or who He’s with or the situation that He’s in. We are called as God’s people to reflect this consistency of character and integrity. 

The first definition of integrity is a soundness of and adherence to moral principle and character; uprightness; honesty. The second is a state of being whole. This is when we say integrity—when we talk about integrity, we talk about the whole person. A person of integrity is not going to be one way at the office and another way in front of his wife. He’s going to be who he says he is no matter what situation he is in, and this is a life that God blesses.

 Our integrity is the evidence that we know God and that His Spirit is working inside of us. When we come to Christ He begins to give us new desires and affections. We want to be integral because we want to reflect who God is to the culture around us. Scripture often uses the analogy of a fruit tree to talk about Christian character. The fruit doesn’t give the tree life, the root system does that. But the fruit is evidence that the tree has life. Healthy roots ensure healthy fruit. In the same way, our obedience is driven by grace—we long to please God because He’s already pleased with us in Christ.  We begin to live lives of integrity. 

We’re going to study this a whole lot more at MomStrong International. We’re going to be in the book of James in the book of First John, we’re gonna study in Ephesians and 2 Corinthians. I’m going to encourage you to open up your bibles and to be the men and women that God has called you to be through this study of His Word. These are amazing times. These are absolutely amazing times to be a Christian, to be the men and women that God has created us to be. I hope that you’re encouraged as God is speaking to you through this study of His Word. That’s what God wants to do. 

I want to end today doing something that I haven’t done for a while. There was a question that I got recently from a mom who said that she is curious if I ever talked to my kids about Ecclesiastical things. In other words about the second coming of the Lord, about the rapture. I have a saying in our home called rapture ready. In fact, I was telling my husband, I want to make tee shirts that say: live like you’re leaving. In fact, I think I might do that. So those might show up at the next Faith That Speaks Conference. 

I love this idea of living like we’re leaving. That’s part of the reason why we study God’s Word. Matthew 24:44 says So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him. My grandmother was a Bible teacher. She loved the Word of God. And as I’ve been writing the new book that I’m working on, this has been coming to my mind quite a bit. She lived like she was leaving. She lived like the Lord is coming back. That was evidenced in the fruit of the Spirit in her life and in the goodness of her life. God wants that to be evidenced in our lives as well. 

I hope you guys enjoyed this study this week at MomStrong International. This is a great time to become a leader. Did you know that you guys are gonna become a leader and you can start a chapter of MomStrong International in your home or in your city or in your church? We would love to see you do that. What would happen, men and women, if we began to study to show ourselves approved workman who do not need to be ashamed, but who rightly divide the Word of truth? I think we can find out as we study God’s Word and apply it to our everyday lives. Thanks for listening to the podcast today. I really appreciate it. Please be sure to leave reviews for the podcast over at iTunes. Tell your friends about it. We’re so excited to see you this weekend in Kansas City. I love you guys. Stay faithful and I’ll see you back here with Priscilla Shire on Friday.

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

Support this ministry by donating through E-giving. You can also send donations to: 1100 NE34th Cir, Vancouver, WA 98682