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It really is a privilege to get to do this, and these ladies did such a great job, and so first off, we'll just kind of go ahead and start down here with Ruby, and let's see you introduce yourself, and remember, you're going to tell us who you are, who you're married to, how long you've been at DLC, and what size shoe you wear. Well, good morning. I am Ruby Hudson. I am married to the most wonderful man in the world, James Hudson, and we have seven wonderful children and 16 grandchildren, and we've been coming to DLC since 1986, I believe it is, so a few years, and size nine. I'm Amy White, and I am an amazing, I have an amazing husband, Brandon White, and I have three amazing children, Jaden, Ashlyn, and Zoe. I have six children that are in heaven as angels already. And it is just an honor to this year be able to also be called a mother-in-law to Allie. I'm Amy Schaefer. I'm married to Glenn Schaefer. We have two grown sons. One of them is about to turn 50. We have been in Claremore since December of 1980. We've been married 51 years, and I wear a size five shoe. I'm Laura Duncan. I'm married to Joe Duncan. We'll be celebrating our 49th anniversary this year. And we have three children that are kind of scattered around the world, and six grandchildren. And we've been here for four years. And it just seems like the day you walked in, you'd been here for 20. You guys so just fit right in. It was the coolest thing, and we love it. We're grateful. I love, you know, just a little sidebar here. See, the Jones is sitting there. How God brings people in, and I don't take it for granted. I think it's the coolest thing. That he is the one that builds the body of Christ, and he's the one that builds those around us that we need, and that we get to pour our lives into, and we want what's in you guys as well. But my name is Jean Williams, and I've been a part of DLC since December of 86. My husband and I came here just because we knew the Lord said, go to Claremore and help build the church. And what a privilege. I would sit every Sunday and just say, Jesus, thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Because, well, I have to say, I'm so grateful. I had told Tommy before we ever did it, I said, if anything ever happens to you, I'm just moving to Claremore. So I guess he thought he better come along for the ride. He was always so good that way. But anyway, we were part of the leadership team. Tommy passed away five years ago, but I'm privileged to still be here and privileged to get to do this and be a part of this. And, oh, I have, Tommy and I were married for 46 years, 10 months, and four days, if you want to be exact. And we have two kids. Kelly is 49, and she has four kids. They are 17, 16, and 14 boys. And Hope Anthem Green will be 11 in a couple weeks. So great kids. Kelly's a great mom. Joe is an incredible husband. And I don't want to take up time, but I do want to just this little sidebar. If you don't, like we didn't let Kelly date a lot and all this kind of stuff. And the Lord told Tommy one day when he was praying, he said, because people told her, all you do is work at the church and you go to church. That's all you do. You're never going to find a husband. I told Tommy one day when he was praying down at the church, he said, Kelly's husband's going to come in those back doors right there and see Kelly sitting on the front row with you and say, that's the girl I want. So fast forward a couple years, and this young man comes to ask if he can have Kelly's hand. And he said, I walked in the back of the church. I saw Kelly sitting on the front row with you. And I thought to myself, that's the girl that I want. And literally, I asked him about that. They've been married almost 25 years. And I asked him about that a couple years ago. And he said, I don't remember that. And so I know that I know that it was the Holy Spirit speaking through him, saying the exact things that we needed to hear. So I think that's the coolest thing, how the Lord works that way. But so why are we doing a special thing for Mother's Day? Well, yeah, it's Mother's Day. But it's not just because Hallmark has pretty cards to sell or there's lots of flowers to be bought. But it's because of the importance of motherhood and the importance of women. And, you know, the world has tried to tell us what a woman is and what motherhood is. And they have a counter thought and everything. So that's why we think it's very important to have a panel of godly women and to discuss things because we need to hear the truth. And, you know, everything that they spoke earlier doesn't just apply to motherhood and to women, but it applies. You know, God's truth is truth, whether you're male or female. So everything that you're going to hear today, we're going to be talking about standing and standing on the word. And that applies to every one of us. So it's very important. So don't zone out just thinking, well, this doesn't apply to me. I'm not a mom or doesn't apply to me because I'm a man. It all applies to all of us. It's scriptural and it's spiritual. Titus, you know, Paul told Titus to have the old women teach the young women. And I said this earlier. I don't think we're allowed to add to scripture. But if I was going to add anything, I just think it's really interesting that he didn't tell the young women to listen to the old women. He doesn't go that far. And, you know, most. Mostly the young women need to be told you need to pay attention. I did anyway. I don't know how y'all are, but I did. But I also want to acknowledge that the word mother, Mother's Day, all those things can be complicated. And for some people, it's not the most joyous day ever. And there's a lot of hurt, whether it's a loss, the loss of your mom or the loss of a child. I mentioned I think I did mention earlier about that, Josh. I don't know. I told you about Kelly. But I didn't say. I mean, Josh, Josh would be 46 years old, which is crazy. How could I don't know how Kelly can be 49 when I'm only 42. But that's, you know, math. Math doesn't work all the time. But in my brain, I'm 42. The rest of me knows I'm 68. But anyway, Josh, we had a son, Josh, and he was killed three weeks before his 12th birthday. But he loved the Lord and was great. And I'm just going to do a little plug for the body of Christ. You know, you just think, how do you live through something like that? And because one minute he was worshiping the Lord that morning, he had gotten new cowboy boots and new Air Jordans for Christmas. And this was on March the 1st. And he came to me that morning and he said, Mom, I don't know what to do. I want to wear my new cowboy boots, but I can dance before the Lord better in my tennis shoes. He wore his tennis shoes that day and was at the back of the auditorium with Luna Coleman. Y'all know Luna. She's part of the praise team. But he danced before the Lord in church that morning. And at three o'clock that afternoon, he made a move. Met Jesus face to face. And but how do you survive that? It's the body of Christ. The body of Christ carried us for, I mean, forever. But that first year, it was so tangible. So this is my plug for whatever you got to do. Find yourself immersed in the body of Christ. Connect with the body of Christ. Find people to connect with. They're going to talk about that as well. But it's just so important, too. It's a lifesaver. But I do want to acknowledge that for some people. There's the loss of your mom, the loss of a child, wanted pregnancies that never happened, miscarriages. There's so many things and lost expectations of what you think relationships are going to be like. And they're just not. But, you know, God's always faithful. If we depend on him, yes, there's hurt. But he is the answer to all of those things. So we just want to acknowledge that this is not always easy for everybody. But we know. And we know that he is the one that heals our hearts. So with that, we're going to go to the first question. And I'm going to start with Miss Laura. Can you share a season in motherhood where the only thing you felt capable of simply doing was just standing? Our theme is stand right now as a church. So how did you just stand? Okay, I have three children. My first children were perfect. And then surprise! I had a third child. And he was a good boy. He was the, well, he was rebellious. Let's just put it that way. He was rebellious. And as he became a teenager and a young adult, it manifested itself quite well. And he didn't want to go to church. He didn't want to talk about the Lord or anything. He went off on his own. And the Lord would wake me up in the middle of the night. The Holy Spirit would say, you need to pray for Ryan. And so many times I didn't know why I was praying for him. I just knew there was an urgency. And a lot of times, have you ever tried to tell God how to answer your prayer? It doesn't work that way. And so one day I was praying and praying for him. And I was reading 1 John 5, 14 and 15, which says, This is the confidence. Confidence, which we have before him, that if we will ask anything according to his will, he hears. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the request which we have asked him for. And I started thinking, have I been praying God's will for my son? I've been telling God how I thought he ought to be changed. I tried to tell him how. God needed to send someone to him or whatever. And I started thinking, okay, I need to lay my will down. And so, Lord, what is your will for my son? And the bottom line was, he needs to know me personally. And so I started praying that, Lord, may he know you personally. I don't know how you're going to do it, but do it. And I started going on, he needs to make right decisions. He needs to hear from God. And so. For two or three years, every time I got that urgency to pray for him, that's when I would pray. About three years later, we got a phone call from him, and he was broken. And he said, Mom and Dad, would you please pray for me? And I'll tell you, I was shocked. I shouldn't have been, but I was shocked. And then about six months later, he called and he said, you know, I was in our church small group. And they were talking about something, and I have a question. And I'm going, you were what? You were in church? And I saw progressively how God was answering that prayer. And he's on a journey. Ryan is on a journey. But I still continue to pray for all my children that God's will be done. And I call that verse my white knuckle verse, that I hold on to it as strong as I can for my children and my grandchildren. I think one of the most difficult times, really the most difficult time in mothering for me was when my children were grown, and they were out on their own. Our oldest son went into the military. And then our youngest son, who's present here in this service, when he was 23, 22, 23, he announced that he wanted to drive out to Los Angeles and make his mark in the world. And he was in the military. And, you know, L.A. was kind of a swamp then and now. And the thought of my son going out there, at the time, the only thing I could think of was that the only thing that could make it worse would be if it was a daughter wanting to go out there. So I really only know about sons rather than daughters. But I think one of the most difficult things or one of the best lessons that has to be learned with grown sons is... is that that's what they are. They're grown. And the fears that you have for them are just as real as when they're little. But it's just when they're small and when they're still at home, you can protect them from so much. And you can influence them. You can control them. Let's face it. You can control them. But when they're grown, the temptation is to try to control. My little comments here and little comments there. And with our oldest son, there was an instance that he was in the military. He was living on his own. He had an $800 phone bill that he told me about. And I immediately said something about, well, you know, son, you don't want to let that go. Or I don't know exactly what I said, but my husband was standing across the room from me. And he started doing this. And when I hung up the phone, he came over to me. And he just took my phone. And he just put my face in his hands. And he said, he is a grown man. And so that, for me, was probably the most challenging time of just learning to stand when they're grown. And you can't be the mama bear as much. But you still have a different form of mothering. The season that was the hardest for me to stand began with six to seven years of pregnancy and infertility struggles. Through those struggles, I started. I started to begin to believe lies from the Lord. And at this time, I didn't know I could have a personal relationship with the Lord. So I didn't have those white-knuckle verses yet. But I do go back now to the verse, Ephesians 4, for he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. He predestined us for adoption. I was already his, even though I wasn't checkboxing anything. Yet, because I didn't know. I hadn't even owned my own Bible yet in this season of struggling through fertility. I then had, I have three beautiful children. But right after the loss of our firstborn daughter, who only lived a few hours, Jaden began down his medical journey. I had no way of knowing how to stand on my own without the foundations and prayers of my ancestors. I had no way of knowing how to stand on my own without the foundations and prayers of my ancestors. And just to see what the Lord has done in his life and how he has spoken over even his sisters and the illnesses that they've gone through. I've just struggled with thinking that there was something I did wrong, that something was wrong with my body and that I wasn't enough. But the Lord's just taking me to those truths of who I am. And he has sustained me through that with my faith. The season for me lasted probably about 35 years. It's like 30 years of homeschooling and five years before that. But what it was for me was when I was probably my oldest child, I was four years old, I got a hold of a little pamphlet. And in it, it talked about how to raise children. And it said in there the word of God, which is, you know, you raise a child, train up a child. And the way you should go. And when he is old, he'll not depart from it. And then also, it said that ugly little thing that most people think of using the rod of correction. And so I thought, okay, this is the way you do it. You don't do it the modern way, the conventional way of putting them in a corner or counting to three or any of those other ways. You use the rod of correction. So that is what I found. And I figured that if I was going to be the faith woman of God, which I was raised in the faith movement back then, then I had to do that. So that was where my real season, if you want to call it a season of struggle, began. I decided I would do that. So Amy, we're going to start with you this time. In the longer, heavy seasons, what lies tend to surface for you as a mother? And how did you learn to recognize them and combat against those with God's truth? And what helped you stand firm in that? Well, as we were raising the boys, somewhere in there, I really learned about the Word of God and how important the Scriptures really are. And in that time, I spent a lot of time in the Word, and I memorized Scriptures. One of them was Psalm 112, verse 2, that says, The children of the righteous will be mighty in the earth. And I would speak that over them. I would pray that over them. But I came across a reading, really, I guess you could say a teaching, on the five women that are in the genealogy of Christ. And I was amazed by what I learned. The first one was a woman that passed herself off as a prostitute. The second one was a prostitute. And then you had Bathsheba in there. Finally, by the time you came to Mary, Mary was a pure young woman. But... But, you know, she would have had to overcome a lot of whispers and gossip, you know, being pregnant with the Lord, you know, as a young girl. And I somehow just, it just was a fixation for me that I thought if those women, I mean, let's face it, if those women were in the genealogy of Christ, and if they were chosen, well, then I've been chosen to be the mother of these children. And so whenever I would feel, and it was a lot of times. I felt like I really did feel inadequate. I felt like I don't have a clue about what I'm doing. And, you know, you read books, and then you get a certain outcome in mind that you think is going to happen, and then it doesn't exactly happen according to the book. And you get discouraged by that. But I would think about those women, and I just would think about the fact, bless God, if the Lord chose those women, well, then I know there's something in me that he's chosen me to be the mother. Right? Right. Matthew and Daniel. And that's what I stood on. The lie that I struggle with the most, I still have to take a hold of it every day, is that I'm not enough, or that I am failing in some way as a wife, as a mother. But I can only combat those lies with the truth, and the only truth we have is the word of the Lord. We have many other tools in our belt. The 101 and 201 have strengthened me so much in knowing who I am and whose I am. Which, both of those are so biblically solid, but the word of the Lord, knowing who I am, and the accountability of women around me, getting godly women that, because I will fall, and I do fall, but having women around me that can build me up and encourage me through the word of the Lord when I'm not seeing it myself, deceit is sneaky. And I have to reevaluate myself. My will, that it aligns with the Lord. And that's not something that just happens one time. It's something that I have to do every single day. The lie continued, you know, from losing children, that my body wasn't enough, that I wasn't the daughter that was to fulfill God's plan. All of those lies were very easily combated with the word of the Lord. During that season, that was 30 years plus, that big lie that I had. And I had to deal with over and over and over again, was just the fact that, you know, the kids are going to turn against you when they get older. They're not going to serve the Lord because you've been too hard on them. You know, you've heard stories of how children got beat and da, da, da, da. And even the thing of the government's going to find out about it. All these lies that the enemy would come up with. And I knew what the word of God said. And I also knew. The word said that if you'll be willing and obedient, you'll eat the good of the land. I didn't just want them to be obedient, but I wanted them to have willing hearts to obey. So during that process of time, I just kept suppressing that lie and standing on the word that says, if I'll train up my child in the way he should go, he will not depart from it. Now, I'm not positive this is true. So don't hold me to it. I didn't say this in the first service. But I understand when they get old, it's something like 16 years of age in the Jewish culture, that they will not depart. So with that understanding, I knew that I didn't have to let them go out into sin. This is just the way I saw it in my heart. They did not have to go out into sin, but they would not depart from it. So that is what I insisted on. When I say insisted on, I'm talking about before the Lord. I trusted. That he would keep his word. Because in that little booklet that I read, it talked about how important it was to not only do your part, but that God would do his part. And I can truthfully say that it's exactly what happened. But it's not that there wasn't a struggle that entire time because I was concerned back in my head, will they turn out okay? But I'm just so thankful. I now see that it was him that did his part more than me. I mean, he is everything. When my youngest was a little boy, excuse me, the older two children received Christ at an early age. And I remember the night that Andy received Christ and I was walking down the hallway and I heard in my mind, well, two out of three is not bad. And I stood there and I thought, wait a minute, I've got three children that have been called by God. It had been planned before time. I'm going to stand on God's word that the youngest is not a throwaway child, that he belongs to the Lord. And I had to trust me. I had to stand on that many, many times. But that was one of the lies that the enemy kept bringing back. And praise God, there's progress going on. And the other thing is I have a lot of cringe moments. I don't know if anybody else does that. But when I think back to some of the things I've said or the mistakes I've made and it's like, oh, Lord, why? Why did I do that? But you know what? God redeems those. When we make mistakes, he overrides them. He forgives us and he can use those mistakes for his glory. So I'm holding on to that. I just for me personally, when I'm very. Very simple minded. So when I feel like the enemy's bringing accusation against me or things against me or there's thoughts. And sometimes I don't know if you're this way, but sometimes I'll realize these things have been swirling around in my head for a long time. And then I'm like, oh, wait, wait, wait. That's got to stop. And the word says to bring captive every thought. And so it's up to me to bring that thought captive when I know that it's opposed to the word of God and what he says about me. And I just I just sometimes just have to say and I share this with others. If if there are thoughts coming against you and you are hearing accusation or whatever from the enemy and you know that it's not right, flip it. Just take that thought and flip it. If this is what the enemy is saying about me or these are the this is the accusation I'm feeling or the yuck that I'm feeling, I just need to flip it because I know the opposite is the truth. What the word says about me, what the Lord says about me is the opposite of that. But sometimes it's tricky because, you know, most lies do have a little element of truth in it. But take every thought. If you're feeling yucky about a thought, take it to the. Word, see what the word says about it and and let that be your guide, because sometimes we just believe things we just think what must be true. It's I can't get rid of this thought. It must be true. And that's not the truth. So so how have you learned the difference between striving in your own strength and relying on God's grace to keep you standing? And how has the Lord reshaped your understanding of strength through your motherhood journey? So, Amy, why? We'll start with you on that one. Well, I have another. Scripture that I really leaned on because I would look at others and I would feel very inadequate as a mother. I was, you know, I just was convinced that someone else, whoever that might be, was the greater mother and just knew all the answers and could do it all well and all that kind of thing. But there's a scripture in Psalm 16, verse five, and it's become my life scripture. And it says the Lord, excuse me, the Lord. Is my portion. Surely the boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. And I began to realize that there were times, you know, that I was really envious of others, maybe in their mothering ability or whatever it might be. You know, there are just some women. They exude motherhood, you know, and and I found myself being envious. And so I would just meditate and think about the fact that in parenting. In loving my children, in correcting them, in walking with them through challenging situations, the Lord is my portion. The Lord is my portion. And so that probably carried me as much as anything during, you know, just the stuff that happens with your kids. You know, you don't realize. I think sometimes when we look at our children and we at least there were times I realized that in bringing my children up. A lot of times I won't say a lot of times, but there were times that I found myself thinking, well, somebody else's child doesn't act like this or somebody else's child doesn't do this or, you know, or whatever it it would be. But again, I would just come right back to the fact is that these are the children the Lord has given me and he is my portion and he will do in me what needs to be done in order to do in them what needs to be done. During motherhood. I've leaned on. My own strength, many, many times it was exhausting. Draining. I had no peace, true unsettledness, severe anxiety. I loved having control, but releasing that changed everything. Most some of you that know me. Well, I even think last night someone said you've let go of a lot of things and you seem more peaceful and it has been the loss of control. I completely. Rely on God's grace now. It's not something that I it happens overnight. You have to take it to the Lord constantly. I have to ask him to take control. Show me where I am trying to control this situation, but God knows what he's doing and I trust in that I need the women around me, the people around me to point out the areas where I am still controlling too much where I emphasize. Amy. Me instead of the Lord. I might be hurting, but I have peace. I might be tired physically, but I am spiritually at rest because my daddy does love me and he knows me and he knows what's best for me. So I always go to my verse, which is Proverbs three, four to trust in the Lord with all my heart and not lean on my understanding and all of my ways submit to him and he will lead me on. I make my path straight. Because I've way too often thought that my understanding was better. I think in the beginning, probably, you know, when you start out, you think, you know, you know how it's all going to work out and everything's going to be just like one, two, three. And then at some point you begin to realize the desire that I even had originally to want my children to serve the Lord as they grew up and later in life. That desire was put in. My heart by him. So that was his desire. He gave me the ability. He gave me the strength, the want to the whatever it would take to stay steady. So after it's all said and done as sovereign God, it's history. Amy, I love the way you shared that in the scriptures that you share. It is him. It is he that work is in both to will and to do of his good pleasure. I grew up in a pastor. His family and it was all about good works. It was what you could do for the Lord and work, work, work, work, work. And I can really relate to Martha in the Bible. I am a Martha. The Lord's working on me on that because I like to be in control. And so God has been working on me on surrender and just how to surrender my cares over to him. And to not worry about the little details, but incidentally, Jesus loved Martha. If you, you know, everyone brags on Mary, but it says in the scripture, Jesus loved Martha. So if you're a Martha, Jesus loves you, but he wants, he wants us to rely on him and not on our works and it's not our works that save us. It's trusting in him. I think he wants Martha's to learn how to live in rest, you know, even though you're doing tasks, but you still live in rest. Yep. So what encouragement would you give to the woman who feels like standing is all she has left to offer? And Ruby, we'll start with you and just come back this way. Okay. As I reflect back on it, I think I realized more and more that the way I did survive through that, I know it sounds like a, almost like a trial, but it wasn't, it was a joy. Really. It was, but just realizing that without him, you can't do it. And so it became a practice of mine, even before children to get up one hour early before anyone else gets up and have an hour, what I call an hour of power with him to get into his presence, to get his direction, just get my act together before they began to get their acts on. I mean, that's the truth. Timely. You can't do it with them. That's what I would encourage you to do. The encouragement I would give you is to stop believing the lie of independency and comparison. God never intended us to do this alone. So often the world tries to tear us apart and bring us away from the body. The Lord has given us the body to encourage one another, to help strengthen one another. I remember going to the Lord one day. Okay. Just asking him to be very blatant with his answers. I needed a billboard answer. I needed it to be staring me in the face. My answers for prayer. And he said, it was in the three women you walked past today. I am living in the body of Christ and you don't acknowledge them. Stop robbing each other of the keys that you have for one another. We are the body and we need one another. Also, my idea of standing. The body of Christ always was on my knees and through prayer and fasting. So don't do it alone and count all of it joy. My brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, that's James one, two, all the trials that we go through should be counted as joy. It's repeated many times in the Bible and Philippians and Romans, um, in many different areas. Well, I tried getting up an hour early. Before my children got up and I went to sleep in the middle of prayer. So I can't claim that that is any way that I would have been standing during that time. I saved my prayer for all the other times and the other situations that needed prayer. And I shared in the first service, um, our son, Daniel was here. This is our, this is my baby son, which I'm sure he loves to be introduced that way, but he went through a period in the eighth grade where I think, I think, were you suspended twice? Three times. Okay. Three times. I had forgotten what all that was about. Uh, I remembered that he wore black nail polish one day to school to torment or Mrs. Henry, who was the principal. So I don't know if I think that was one of them, but the other one was fighting and it was really a legitimate cause. If I remember. But, but I was so frustrated when he, when I got a call that I was to go pick my son up that he, here he is, he's been suspended again that I sinned with my mouth and I stomped my foot and I said, Daniel, now I understand this is so terrible. Daniel. Now I understand why parents send their kids to military school and it wounded him at the time. I would not have done that. I mean, I would not have done that. I mean, the only way Daniel was going to go to military school would be if his mama went with him. So believe me, that would never have been anything that was in my agenda. But as far as standing again, it just comes back to the word of God and knowing this, that when I would compare myself to others, I always came up very, very short. And again, going back to that portion of the scripture that says the boundary lines for me. Whatever God has for me have fallen in pleasant places. Whatever God has for me, that's a pleasant place. Those lines, it may not be the same as yours or somebody else's, but they're pleasant for me. And that meant mothering. And so that's what I stood on. Something very, very traumatic and devastating happened to one of our children. And when I found out about it, uh, our pastor's wife. And the elder's wife found out too. And they came like a magnet and stuck to me. And they ministered to me for hours and hours and prayed over me. And I don't know that I would have survived had it not been for them. And I just want to encourage you. The body of Christ is amazing. And you, we can't live a fully Christian life by ourselves. We need the body of Christ. So if you're going through anything, find somebody who is strong in the Lord, who will come alongside you and help you because it is vital. It's pretty much it. I was going to say, I know I messed this up the first time too, but I don't want you to overthink that. Simplify it. I over thought, who am I going to be the person that comes alongside me? Who am I going to be vulnerable to? I focused way too many years. Um, like I said, I just gave my self to the Lord when Zoe was born. So 14 years ago. So I'm newer in this walk, but I over thought that for so long, but it can be very many different people. It can be, um, different people in different seasons. I just put way too much pressure on one person and too much pressure on myself to find the right person. Um. Um, us and ourselves are going to hurt one another, but if we love the Christ in each of us and love, um, and work from that place, not necessarily work, but you know, if we come from that place of knowing your heart and that, um, you are the Lord's just don't overthink who is in your life as that. That's so good. I just think, you know, my, my thing is again, the body of Christ and we all have our place and we all have our part and things that Laura can do. I mean, she's a Martha. I think, can't we just play and have fun? We can accomplish just as much if we're playing into it. And that's all what I always say about women's things. If we can play to get, that's why we do crazy things. We can, if we can play together, we can pray together. And I think it's so fascinating. And any of our women's things, we are just acting like idiots. And then the next minute, you know, we'll say, you know, it's just time to pray or something. Somebody will say something and you can stop on a dime and the presence of the Lord is so there to, to pray together. And so. So I think doing life together makes you able to, to do those things together. And I, I just, I value every personality. I value every part of the body of Christ and you know, in Corinthians, when it talks about all the different parts of the literal body and you just, you, we, you, if you lose, you lose your thumb, you realize how important that thumb is and we value each other and we love each other and we need each other. And I, I love what you said about don't overcomplicate it. I mean, you can, you know, you do have to know that you can trust people, but just love the Christ in others and depend on the Christ in others. And again, don't compare. I think talking about doc, not comparing if we were all the same, it would just be awful. So don't compare yourself with others. I think, you know, we glean from others and we can learn from others and I can admire things in you, but that doesn't mean I have to do that or be that my expression is going to be different. But we're all trying to express. Okay. All the different parts of who Jesus is in each of us and just to form the full body of Christ and his full expression. It takes all of us to fully express the body of Christ and who he is for all of us. And so I just appreciate you ladies so much. And I, my, I do want to pray, but I just, my prayer is that every one of you will leave here with something and know that you've been in the presence of the Lord and you felt his presence. And most of all, you know, how very much he cares about you and he cares about your circumstance and the things that are weighing on you. And you know, he also loves the things that are exciting and fun for you too. He loves that part too. We talk a lot about the burdens that we carry and how Jesus helped us that, but I think he also loves when we're having fun. So Jean, could I add to that real quick? Something that's just on my heart is that for those of you that are here, if you are walking through a fertility. Yeah. Pregnancy crisis, and you're trying to have children, or if you've never been able to have children, you are a spiritual mom and the Lord wants you to give and cultivate that because there's someone who needs you and, and you may not have ever thought of yourself as that, but you are truly to be a spiritual mom. And so the Lord's got some, he has children for you. And I can tell you as one that mentioned earlier. Um. I grew up in a very dysfunctional home. My mom really was not blessed with the ability to mother. And so the Lord gave me many mothers as an adult to make up the difference for that. And much of that I have to say was my own fault too. It was, I would have been a difficult child to mother. So, um, but I just wanted to encourage you that I also know that some of you are here that you may not have the best relationship. Yeah. With your mom on mother's day. And that's okay. Well, father, we are very grateful to have been here and to have been able to hear this, the truth and the wisdom out of these ladies. I thank you, Lord, for your presence. I pray that every heart that's here would be touched and blessed. And most of all, they would know your heart towards them. And we just give you praise, Lord. And we bless your name. Amen. Amen.
