To the Woman Who Feels Invisible, with Christine Hoover

Do you feel invisible in your marriage, overlooked at work, or forgotten within your friend group? If so, don’t miss this episode of Grounded. Guest Colleen Hoover turns to the book of Genesis to show why the story of Hagar is good news for every woman who feels unseen. You’ll be encouraged to live in light of the truth of God’s Word and discover how it can be a source of comfort and strength.

Connect with Christine 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christinehoover98
Twitter: https://twitter.com/christinehoover
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorchristinehoover/
Website: https://www.christinehoover.net/

Connect with Tom

Twitter: @biblememoryman 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/biblememoryman/
Website: www.thebiblememoryman.com

Episode Notes

• The Bible Memory Man website
• You Are Not Forgotten book by Christine Hoover.
• “Equipping Women to Serve” video
• Register for the When You Love a Prodigal online event.
• Give to our fiscal year end need.

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Dannah Gresh: Good chance you've got an ache in your heart. And it's an ache that a hanging flower basket and no Mother's Day brunch can fix, and you don't have to be a mother to feel it. Today we're talking about feeling invisible. I'm Dannah Gresh. Welcome to Grounded.

Portia Collins: I'm Portia Collins with the reminder that we stream live on YouTube and Facebook every Monday at nine o'clock am Eastern Standard Time. Every Wednesday we will drop a Grounded podcast. So, if you miss it Monday mornings, you can always catch it on Wednesdays. I hope our time together today really truly gives you hope and perspective, especially if you're feeling forgotten. 

Dannah: Oh, I hope so too, Portia girl. You know, I wish I could just reach my hands out, cup your face, and say, “Sweet girl, I see you.” But what I can say is that if you are feeling invisible, you're not alone. Here's some interesting data: 79 percent of women feel invisible as mothers. Do you ever feel that? Portia? 

Portia: Yes. 

Dannah: I had three granddaughters this weekend. I felt invisible under the laundry and the dishes for one weekend. I feel 95 percent of people who listen to this feel unappreciated, unacknowledged, or unseen. That's almost 100 percent of the population struggling with this. 

Portia: Yeah. 

Dannah: And then here's one and I'd like to take issue with Erin Davis, but she's not here for me to do it yet. Seventy percent of women feel like they get more and more invisible as they get older. Now, let me explain why I want to take issue with Erin Davis. She's not here to defend herself, but we were speaking publicly together last month, and she actually put me in the old category, Erin Davis, just because I happen to have a birthday that has two fives in the number. 

Portia: I'm sorry.

Dannah: Now, she was gentle enough, Portia. Instead of calling women 55 or older forward to be prayed for, she called women who used neck cream forward. 

Portia: I’m crying. 

Dannah: I still had to go. Okay, but I digress. I'm really guessing that with numbers like what I just read, you’ve probably got a story. You probably have had moments in your life where you've struggled with feeling invisible. I just wonder what is your story? Do you feel invisible in your marriage? Are you sensing that you're being overlooked at work? Maybe you don't feel like you belong in a friend group. Or you're overlooked in ministry. But we're going to dig a little deeper in that today. I'm going to start with this. Do you ever feel like God Himself has forgotten you? Ouch. 

Portia: I know that there are probably a lot of heads nodding yes right now. Well, our guest today, Christine Hoover, is going to take us to the story of Hagar. She's going to help us see what's true when we feel forgotten. And Dannah, I'm glad you're back. You are going to be our Bible teacher for this episode. Can you tell us why should I keep watching if they're tempted to check out? 

Dannah: Don’t check out because I'm going to talk about a very real threat that today's mothers are facing in our culture, and it's one that really does silence them or make them invisible. I've also got a challenge for every mother, even spiritual moms, to rise up against that threat with a God-given assignment. If you've got your Bibles nearby, grab it, and turn to Proverbs 1. You know what, at the risk of being corrected on what I said earlier, we should never forget our co-host, Erin Davis, are you in the house?

Erin Davis: I’m here and I just want to say to the world that I also use neck creams, so I am with you in that older woman category. Dannah, as you were talking, I was remembering a story that our shared friend Tippy once told me. She's been a mentor to both of us. She told me that the only time she ever heard her mom yell, and Tippy is one of five girls. One time her mom yelled, “Can somebody just call me Sue?” Because all she heard was, “Mom, Mom, Mommy.” Mommy just wanted to hear her own name. So that invisibility that we can sometimes feel, so neck cream. You haven't heard your own name in a while or whatever puts you on the spectrum of feeling forgotten today, we're here for you. 

Dannah: And we've got good news. You've got news. This guest today is going to be something because he says that what's in the dirt provides a tsunami of evidence that the Bible is true. Tell us about that.

15:18 - Good News (with Tom Meyer)

Erin: I'm pretty excited about it. That's right. I have a good news guest to share with you this morning. Professor Tom Meyer, he has a unique nickname. You might know him as the Bible Memory Man. He has memorized large swaths of the Bible. His passion for the Word is infectious. He does say that artifacts buried from the past ought not to be forgotten. We're talking about being forgotten today. He's going to tell us there are some things we need to not forget, because they validate that the Bible is true. So welcome back to Grounded, Tom. We're thrilled to have you back.

Tom Meyer: Thank you. It's great to be here.

Erin: All right, bridge the gap for me. How do you connect the dots between the importance of Scripture memorization, which I know is a passion of yours, and archaeology, another passion of yours?

Tom: I don't know if they directly connect. But as we hear from Scripture, for example, Moses went up from the plains of Moab to the mountains of Nebo, to the top, that is over against Jericho, and Yahweh showed them all the land of Gilead. Dan Kennedy thought for a second to look at all of those places, and those place names that the author of Scripture expects the original audience to be familiar with. So we live 2000 years later, as you know, from the end of the New Testament, 3400 years after the Exodus, on the other side of the world with a different culture, different mannerisms, different transportation, different dress, thank God. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. 

Some asked like how, how can I trust the Bible? Like how do I really know it's true? How do I know it's been faithfully copied throughout the millennia? How do I know that King David existed? These kinds of questions, which they're good questions? 

Erin: Yeah.

Tom: And you know, I did a bachelor's degree in Bible and theology at Shasta Bible College, where I'm a professor now. I went through the whole gambit of undergrad, but it wasn't until I went to Jerusalem for a thousand days as a student to enter into master's degrees there on Mount Zion that I started to learn about these things that archaeologists in Israel just took as everyone knows. People in America, people in the church didn't know anything about, even with a bachelor's degree. 

I have to tell you people, there is proof. I haven't read here that King David existed outside the pages of the Bible. There's a monument with his name on it from 850 BC. Up until 1994, there wasn't one shred of archaeological evidence that King David ever existed. 

So, the people on National Geographic and stuff, they would say, well, King David never existed because there's no proof of him outside the pages of the Bible. Our invisible God has left us with a visible truth that helps. We don't need archaeology to prove the text is true. But again, I got a look at this one right here. 

This is really cool. King Hezekiah is super famous; we find a seal right here with his name on it. One of over 50 people who archeologists discovered that exact person's name written on an object. So again and again, the stones cry out. We have evidence from the time of Abraham, not of Abraham of himself. Remember, Abraham was a semi-nomadic sheep, goat kind of person who went to “Minnesota” in the summer and “Florida” in the winter, you know. He lived in tents. They're not going to leave any material evidence behind. Like, when you go camping, camping and you blow up, you set up your tent, and you leave no trace. 

Erin: Yeah, yeah.

Tom: So, there's a lot from the time of Abraham. We don't have anything that was written, Abraham was here or something like that. But we have the well from his time, which is interesting. We have city gates from his time that the Bible says that he mentioned that he went into.

Then you go through the period of the Exodus, we have proof of the cities that existed that the Exodus mentioned. We don't have a smoking gun of the 10 plagues, as it were. There isn't any extra biblical Egyptian evidence so we trust that it happened because it says it happened. When you get into the time of Joshua, whether you're a minimalist or maximalist, it doesn't matter. It shows that the walls of Jericho came tumbling down in a particular order. The walls fell, the city was consumed with fire, and then it laid dormant for a long period of time. 

And the only reason the far left would say that it didn't happen when the Bible says it happened is just an argument from absences. But they all agree that it happened in this way. 

Then when you get to the time of the monarchy, like I said, we have King David popping up for the first time. Then we have three gates, the Bible mentions gate Solomon built. You can go to those gates and visit them today. I showed you the seal of Hezekiah, the king. You go down throughout the kings of Judah, we have the one who was smitten with leprosy, we have a stone that has his name on it. They had to remove his bones from Point A to Point B. We have the plaque that says that they do it. So again and again, we have these physical evidences that word is truth. 

But then again, the trump card as it were, is the text itself, with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Like the Dead Sea Scrolls are only 7576 years old. Up until then, just 76 years ago, the oldest Bible, the oldest Hebrew Bible in the entire world was from 950 AD, almost 1000 years after Jesus. That was the oldest Hebrew Bible in the whole world. How do you know it's been faithfully copied? It has because of discoveries like this, like discoveries of the Isaiah scroll.

Erin: A lot of what you point out, as you're saying a relatively recent claim. So, to a point we said, “Oh, we don't have any evidence for this.” But then we are continuing to find more evidence, which is the beauty of archaeology. You call it a tsunami of evidence, which I love that description. It's not a trickle. It's a tsunami. You've given us some examples here today. But do you expect we will just continue to find? I know very little about archaeology, but do you think the tsunami is going to continue to build over time?

Tom: Well, number one is that a lot of stuff has already been discovered. It just hasn't been published yet. And that's the thing. An Indiana Jones kinda guy goes to a site and digs. He has to put pen to pencil and do all the work and let the world know it. 

So, we have a ton of goodies that haven't been even translated yet. Because they were and they didn't have the time to do it. 

So, all these ancient tablets, the current conflict that's going on in Israel today is obviously pumping the brakes, halting the ability to dig and things like that. 

Archeology is the only science that's adding new, shedding new light on the Bible. When we read 1 Kings the widow woman, and as she said, “I have not a cake, but a handful of meal and a little bit in a barrel and a little oil in a cruse.” 

So, like this is from that time. Esther was not a cucumber, and Mordecai was not a tomato. These are real people in real time with real things like that. It's so cool that we have great resources that we can go to see what cups looked like at the Bible time, or what Nazareth looked like. I mean, the list is endless of the helps that we have out there to help us and our kids and our grandkids better understand that word is truth, it really is 100%.

Erin: I don’t have a brain like yours, Tom, and the ability to memorize and retain. You, obviously, can retain a lot of information. But what I love about this approach is you're not being dismissive at all. It's valid to say, “How do we really know this is true? And how do we connect to these ancient cultures? And how are we sure that this is God's inspired Word?”

And you're saying that we don't have to have all the information memorized, but we can say there's a lot of physical, factual evidence that backs up God's Word. I think that's a beautiful approach. Your love for the Word is truly infectious. We've had you talk about Bible memorization, and here you're talking about archaeology. What do you think that passion for God's Word comes from?

Tom: From being in the Word. The more you're in it, the more, at least I am, addicted to it, as it were. I want more and more and more and more. And then the more you study it, the more you realize how it is really the truth. Whether you just point to a page in the Old Testament or point to a page in the New Testament, you're probably going to hit a person's name, or you're probably going to hit a place name or some kind of ancient nation or a custom or a mannerism or something like that to us, 2000 years later, another side of the world how do we know that really happened? 

You know, like, well, it did. And first of all, because it says so. Like we said, that’s sufficient, totally sufficient. But we have all of this tangible, physical material, and some people need that. And in conclusion, look, when the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, I had a friend who was invited to a university and they said, “Whatever you do, even though you're talking about the Dead Sea Scrolls, don't talk about the Bible.” He knew what they meant. So it's like, “Okay, I am gonna do it, but I'm gonna hold my nose.” 

So, he when he presented the case of how the Dead Sea Scrolls really do faithfully transmit the Word of God. And what you have in your hands really is the Scriptures, that really is the Word of God. He got a letter a couple of weeks later from some really smart doctor that was in the audience. He said, “Look, my entire life people have been telling me you need to believe in Jesus.He's gonna save you from hell, you gotta be redeemed by the blood.” He didn't trust the text. That was the problem. And then once he heard the lecture, of how the text is true, it was just hand and glove. It was just a simple accepting Jesus as a Savior. And that's our goal today is to the people listening and watching, to equip you and your kids and your grandkids with truths. 

The invisible God has left us visible proofs as it were, that His Word is truth. If you know someone who's an unbeliever, who is right on the fence kind of thing. Look, the Word is what saves. We know that faith comes by hearing by the Word. This kind of stuff provides us with ammunition, maybe that's not the right word, but ammunition to make our point.

Erin: Yeah, so beautiful. You heard it here Grounded sisters, overwhelmingly, archaeology confirms, doesn't disagree with, but confirms what we celebrate here week after week on Grounded. Keep saying it. The Bible is sufficient, and it's true, and we think that's good news. 

Hey, Tom, you sent me your book Archaeology in the Bible. I was telling you before we went on, I have four sons super excited to dig into them. Where can people learn more about you and your love for memorizing Scripture, archeology, all the things that you're a part of? Where can we send people?

Tom: Just a one stop shop is TheBibleMemoryMan.com It has free videos on archaeology, this book on archaeology, free apps on how to memorize, free videos on how to memorize etc.

Erin: How much of the Bible have you memorized, remind me? 

Tom: Well when King David counted the people he got in big trouble, okay, but I know it's twenty books. 

Erin: Okay.

Tom: It's half from the Old and half from the New.

Erin: Something to aspire to, for me and for everybody. Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge, your wisdom, and your passion with us. You're a great guest. We appreciate it. 

Tom: Thanks. 

Erin: All right, Portia, keep us grounded with God's people. I'm eager to jump from there and to our conversation with Christine Hoover. You take it away.

26:56 - Grounded with God's People (with Christine Hoover)

Portia: Well, I am ready. Christine Hoover is with us today. She is a pastor's wife and she serves as the women's ministry associate at the Austin Stone Community Church in Austin, Texas. A fellow southern girl, she’s here to point us to God's Word, and help us see that we are never forgotten. Welcome to Grounded, Christine.

Christine Hoover: Thanks for having me, Portia. I'm glad to be here.

Portia: So, let's start with the obvious. Have you ever felt forgotten?

Christine: I have felt forgotten in several ways, in my marriage, in ministry. I think if we were honest, I mean, the stats at the beginning, I think everyone at some point has felt forgotten, unseen, disregarded, overlooked. But for me, this book that I've written, you are not forgotte, it stemmed out of the multiyear season of feeling overlooked, disregarded, unseen, and forgotten. 

And so, a lot of my questions that were coming up in that time I was directing toward God. I felt unseen by people, but really, I started to question does God see me? Has he forgotten me? Why do I feel like I'm languishing? Kind of in the desert, in the wilderness? Does He see? Is He going to act on my behalf? 

And so, I started asking those questions of Scripture, and going and finding that there were people in Scripture asking the same questions that I was asking. So thankfully, God showed me some truths about who He is that helped me come out of that season. But yes, to answer your question, I have felt unseen and forgotten. 

Portia: Me too, me too, my friend. You work with a lot of women. What are some of the unhealthy or maybe even unholy ways that we try to get the attention that we crave when we feel overlooked?

Christine: Yeah, that's a great question. As I was going through this processing with Scripture with the Lord, I didn't want to see at first that I was involved in the process of being unseen. I was hiding myself in certain ways. I think the way that we can determine how we are doing that is to think about how we clamor sometimes of: who am I looking to for a sense of being seen, a sense of value, a sense of validation, that, that I am worthy of attention? 

We see this all over our culture. I mean, you look around on the news, and you see that there is clamoring to be seen for maybe a certain issue that people think is important. We do the same as Christians, sometimes clamoring for others to affirm, for example, our gifts, that we're waiting for somebody to give us permission to do what God has called us to do. For me, it was I'm going to hide myself a little bit, my real self, but I'm going to perform. I'm going to do well externally so that people will pat me on the back. It really became an idol for me of performance, but I was looking for that sense of validation from people rather than knowing God sees me and I'm doing what I do for him. That's where I'm gonna have a sense of peace, rather than a sense of I have to clamor for what I would want and what I desire.

Portia: You sound like me. Everything you said are things that I could very well say myself. I love where we're headed here. Okay, here on Grounded, we are Bible girls. We love God's Word. And so, I want you to take us to the story of Hagar. Who is she? And what can she specifically teach us the next time we feel overlooked?

Christine: Well, that's where the Lord took me when I started realizing I was in a pit. That is what it felt like. The Lord spoke to me, “I see.” I knew immediately that He was taking me to Hagar. So, I went and opened my Bible to Genesis 16, looking at her story, and how did God meet her? Where she said, “God, I name you the God who sees.” She had an experience with Him. 

And what I found was interesting about Hagar is that she was an Egyptian slave. She was a part of Abraham's household. Sarah, when Hagar became pregnant, she sent Hagar away. So, it was a whole mess. Everybody was involved in the mess. 

Hagar goes out and she says, “I'm leaving.” She's going home. So, she's in the desert. She sits down, and she's in a hopeless place. Knowing that she's not going to make it, her unborn child is not going to make it unless somebody intervenes. She sits down, and that's when God meets her. 

I love that God says to her, “Hagar, where have you come from? And where are you going?” That question is the question that the Lord asked me through Hagar: where have you come from? So, name the unseen that you feel? What is the pain that you feel? But also, where are you going? Are you going to walk down a path of bitterness, hopelessness, despair?” 

God says to her, “I want you to go back. I want you to go back to your life and live your life.” And the reason why He says that is not an excuse to go back to an abusive situation. He's saying, “Go back under my protection, under my blessing. This covenant that I've made with Abraham, and this child that he will have through Sarah. 

And so, I think that for me, Hagar story is that we're going back, we're doing hard things, to come out of that idolatry of clamoring and to truly walk and be seen. What Hagar takes us back to is really Abraham's son with Sarah, Isaac, and fruit through Isaac's line comes Jesus. So really, He's bringing us back to Jesus to show us that through Christ, God sees us, He's acted for us. He acts for us in specific ways when He sees us in our wilderness.

Portia: Absolutely. So, let's dig in a little bit more here. How can we find comfort and strength in knowing that God sees us? 

Christine: That’s a great question. I think that when we are sure that God sees everything we do in His name, including the things that we're doing in our heart, to forgive, maybe, to obey when it's hard, to reject bitterness, when we know that there is a peace and a security that that we can live in, that can come from no other person seeing us. 

And so, I've talked in the book about how there are different categories, events, scenes, that we may experience, like: disregard or being misunderstood or a lack of appreciation and several more. But I think that when we know that God sees us, He meets us. In each of those categories we’re not disregarded. We've been regarded, we were regarded at the cross, and through the resurrection. I’ve thought so much in my Christian life, about what God had done for me in the past through the cross and resurrection. 

But to think about and to meditate on Jesus, that He sees and is praying for me, interceding for me, the Holy Spirit's interceding for me. So to know, that is such security it gives for me. It's changed me in the sense, it's given me courage. It's given me courage to live the life God has asked me to live faithfully, to use the gifts that He's given me faithfully for Him and not waiting, not doing that to be seen, not for visibility’s sake, but to do it for the Lord. 

I think about Matthew 6 and how Jesus says, “Don't do these things so that people will see you, do these things for me privately, and I will reward you.” (paraphrased) And so, it makes me smile to think about it, just the joy of having a relationship with God, where we know He sees us and values us. And what we do for Him is for Him and for His eyes alone. All of that need for approval or validation or permission just kind of slides right off when we know those things.

Portia: I love it. So, you're a pastor's wife. Talk to the woman who particularly feels unseen in ministry. I know that as a woman in ministry, I think there is a misconception that we don't struggle with this because we are primarily seen that we don't struggle with this. And so, yeah, talk to the woman in ministry. Perhaps she feels like her efforts go unnoticed and that maybe she's not really making much of a difference. What hope and perspective can you offer her?

Christine: I will give her my favorite verse, which is Hebrews 6:10. And it says this, “For God is not unjust, He will not forget your work and the love you demonstrated for His name, by serving the saints and by continuing to serve them.” I go to that verse a lot to remember God. It is because He just sees everything that we do, and that others do sometimes to wound us or to wound others. 

But what we do to serve His saints in His name, He remembers. He sees and remembers and rewards. As I said earlier, Matthew 6, so I go to that a lot. People may not see, but it kind of doesn't matter. I mean, it matters to me that God sees and will reward and not that I get a sense of appreciation for that now that has come over many years of wrestling with my selfishness, my, “I want the glory.” I think when we want the glory, we want the appreciation. But if we seek God's glory, we can live in the truth that He sees and He rewards.

Portia: Amen, Christine. You're my new favorite friend. Thank you. 

Christine: Thank you, Portia, thank you so much. 

Portia: I know that you've encouraged me, and I know that you've encouraged our Grounded sisters to rest in the fact that we serve a God who sees, El Roi.

So, I love that you have a new book, You Are Not Forgotten. We're going to drop a link to that in the chat and in the show notes. And again, thank you so much for being with us, my friend.

Christine: Thanks so much for having me.

Portia: All right. Dannah. You know, she just opened us up, and she seems to be pretty fired up. So, share something for mom's from God's Word today. So let's hear, Dannah banana, I want to hear it. 

39:30 - Grounded in God's Word (with Dannah)

Dannah: I can't even believe you called me that way to hear what I'm going to say. Yes, I do want to make everyone aware of a threat that really will make you invisible. If you're a mom . . . I spent the weekend listening to podcasts where parents told the stories of being silenced, get this, when it comes to raising their children. I heard chilling stories of the loss of parental rights right here in our own country. I believe what we're witnessing in our culture is the rise of an ideology, a mindset that actually believes teachers and other agents of the state can make better decisions for your child than you can. 

Now, it didn't used to be that way. In 1979, the Supreme Court published this, let me read it. “The notion that governmental power should supersede parental authority in all cases, because some parents abuse and neglect children, is repugnant to American tradition.” 

Well, it seems many in power no longer find that idea repugnant. But I believe that God does. In Deuteronomy 6, for example, authority to raise children and form their values was assigned to none other than mom and dad were told to do it while they sit, while they walk, while they stand, when they lie down. Teachers can't do that. They're not with them 24/7. 

Now, I don't want to get political here, we don't get political on Grounded. But when there is a threat to what God's Word commands, we like to let you know. Now, that's the end of my rant. But let's get into God's Word because I saw something recently that I thought the entire body of Christ needs to be doing. It's something very positive that every single one of us can do, whether you are a mother or not. 

Now, I have to start by saying this when I was a teen, my mom and I had the same conversation over and over. It ended with the same sentence again and again. My mom is famous for it; she's known for it. It usually happened after I asked to see a movie, listened to a certain song, or asked to go to an upcoming party. 

I would say, “Mom, can I go to . . .? Or can I listen to . . .? 

My mom would say, “Why do you want to do that?” She was great at answering my questions with one of her own. Now, this usually resulted in a way too long discussion of the pros and cons of everything I wanted to do. She really wanted me to think through critically every decision that I made. She made me feel like I was actually a part of it. 

That's funny. I mean, every single time she wanted me to think through those decisions, eventually I always seemed to make the mistake of saying something like, “But everyone else is fill-in-the-blank.” 

And that's when she said it. The statement she's famous for, “I'm not not raising one of the bunch. I'm raising a Top Banana.” Cue: teenage Dannah eye roll. 

Now, my dad added his affirmation to this ridiculous thing by choosing a nickname for me to drive the truth home. Dannah banana. And my Portia girl calls me that too. Here's the thing. Hearing that message over and over again was the best advice I ever heard in my life. Because you know what the advice was, my mom was advising me to live a set apart life, to be different, to be holy. And today, I'm really glad for that. It made me fearless—not in a rebellious loud kind of way. But I'd like to think it's shown up in an unassuming, quiet kind of courageous way. 

I'm not raising one of the bunch. I'm raising a Top Banana. Best advice ever got from my mom. And the advice was this: you don't have to follow the crowd. 

I'm wondering what's the best advice you ever got from your mom? This week, I want every single one of you to shout that advice from the mountaintops in honor of Mother's Day. I want you to declare “my mom had good advice, and this is what it is.” And do you know why I want you to do that? Because I think the Bible tells us to today, I want to read from Proverbs 1; you can grab your Bibles or your phones if you'd like to look at Scripture there. 

You could read the whole passage, but I'm just gonna read verses 8 and 9 to you. It says here, “Listen my son your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching, for they are a graceful garland for your head, and a pendant for your neck.” 

Now, one version says where your mother's teaching is like flowers in your hair. Now, what does that mean? That means that we display the advice of our mother, we display the teaching of our mother, we tell people about it in a way that they see how beautiful it has shown up in our lives. And that's the work we have to do as daughters, right? 

But as moms, this verse is for us too, because it's a reminder of our work. Teach them, teach them, teach them. That's our job, no one else's, especially when it comes to moral truth, biblical truth. Teach them what truth, moral values, godly living, the math and English. That's our job. If someone who's teaching your kid math and English is trying to butt in on your job, and they're telling them the antithesis of truth, we have to take that seriously. 

But I want to ask you this, “Are you concerned about how parents are being silenced in posts on public forum forums, especially when it comes to the areas of moral truth?” Well, I remind you, it is God who has assigned the task of moral development to parents, in case you have forgotten. Teach them. And then what would happen if this week, we took time, not to say negative things about our government and our school systems, but to just remind the whole world that moms are pretty smart. I want to wear my mom's advice like flowers in my hair. 

Tell your mom this week what the best advice she's ever given you was, and tell somebody else too. Now that's a pretty counter-cultural message, I know. But here at Revive Our Hearts, we seek to, as Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth has been known to say, swim like salmon upstream. We don't go along with empty-headed, mindless crowd. 

Listen to this. This is Erin Davis with a counter-cultural invitation.

Erin: Messages about what women deserve are everywhere, and we're often quick to agree. I deserve a nap. I deserve a break. I deserve this new outfit. I deserve a day to do whatever I want, whenever I want to. But what would happen if a whole generation of women went from saying I deserve to we serve. At Revive Our Hearts we're on a mission to equip women to serve others as they embrace freedom, fullness and fruitfulness in Christ. 

46:18 - Video: Equipping Women to Serve

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: It's a privilege to serve when you esteem someone as better than yourself. And so that's why in Romans 12, Paul says, “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.” Service flows out of a heart of love and humility honoring others above ourselves. And when you have a servant's heart toward others, it means that you will always be looking around to see what their needs are.

Erin: Join Revive Our Hearts to help distribute teaching like this, and to put others before yourself. We will be so grateful for your support this May as we close out one ministry year, and aim to begin another year in a position of financial strength to continue funding and expanding our outreaches here and around the globe. We're asking the Lord to provide $838,000 by May 31 to help us finish our fiscal year strong—from the United States to Brazil, to South Africa, Germany, Ukraine, Vietnam, the Middle East and beyond. You can join us in serving one another like Jesus did. Let's do this together.

48:14 - Resources & Closing Goodbyes

Portia: Let's do this. Erin Davis. Let's do this. You know what I'm hearing here is a silent recurring theme you want to be seeing: serve. Just serve, not for what you can get for the privilege of what you can do. For the mama, for the ministry leader, for everybody, just serve. Don't focus on what you think you deserve. Just serve and God will comfort your heart, and you will have an inner peace of knowing that I am seeing. 

So May isn't just for Mother's Day. By the way, love Dannah’s teaching—perfect, perfect timing. It's not just for Mother's Day or graduation. Here at Revive Our Hearts, May marks the end of another fiscal year for us. Okay, important milestone. 

Erin: Yep, we know that you live in a world of I deserve because we live in a world of I deserve. We are bombarded with that message just like you are. That's part of why we're here every week, to offer an alternate message. And so, we want to celebrate that the Bible offers a totally radically different call, and that's to move away from I deserve thinking and to look for ways to intentionally serve others in the name of Jesus. 

Portia: Yes, yes. And so, if this ministry of Grounded has served you, we ask you to join us in serving women around the world by giving to our fiscal year-end need.

Erin: Yep, we're asking the Lord to provide, and He is our provider. We say often He's our number one donor. We're asking Him to provide $838,000 in the month of May. That feels like a big number, and it is. But it's certainly God-sized. And the reason that we're asking for the that amount of money is so that outreaches like Grounded can keep going. We want to keep reaching women around the world. 

Portia: Yes, absolutely. So, we're going to drop a link where you can give. When you do, we will send you a copy of this is one of my favorite resources Living Out the One Anothers of Scripture. It's a 30-day devotional that will help you focus on serving others. And if you've already given or if you're a Revived Partner, on behalf of the entire Grounded team and the Revive Our Hearts family, we just want to say thank you for your generosity. It truly helps us to continue to give out hope and perspective, week after week. So, thank you.

Erin: Thank you. I mean, in the spirit of this episode: we see you, we know that we couldn't be here doing what we do without you. And so, a big kiss of gratitude from the Grounded team for you. Good episode.

Dannah: Good episode. Hey, listen, I gotta say, I want to specifically say that I see a specific group of people. we got a comment from Tori. As she's been watching today, she says, “Good morning, ladies, Invisible is a great word. I am a single woman with no children or spouse and still am seeking meaning and direction in my life without those titles that I thought would guide me. I just feel the depth of that hurt and that pain.”

And I want to say this: it's a real pain, and it's okay to feel it. And it's okay to keep your heart open if the Lord would bring a husband and children into your life one day, that's okay. I think that message isn't spoken enough. But also right now, your marital status is not your meaning, God is. It’s not your marital status that defines you. So live and breathe and act out of that. He is your partner for life. Let Him produce spiritual children in your life, and you will find the meaning that you're looking for. And maybe, just maybe, the Lord will bring you someone else to share your life with, and you can rejoice in that too. But your sister, I'm pulling for you today.

Erin: I don’t want to be dismissive of Tory. I'm so grateful she shared that. But isn't it interesting that sometimes it is the role that's missing, that makes us feel invisible. “I'm not a wife.” I think I know a lot of married women that would say I feel totally invisible in my marriage, or because of my marriage. Or I'm sure there's women that would say because I'm not a mom this time of year, I feel like I'm invisible. And yet there's a lot of women that say because I'm a mom, I feel invisible. What we keep coming back to is, Jesus sees you and your identity is fully found in Him. 

Dannah: He is the God who sees, El Roi. As you experience Him, everything else will fall into place. And Erin, I gotta say, I think this is a great transition to what we're going to talk about next week. Because so many times the way that we talk about singleness in the church, it creates a lot of pain. 

Erin: It absolutely does. And that is where we're going next week. We're going to dedicate an entire episode to church, what the conversation happening around us requires us to talk about church hurt, because we know there's a lot of it, and it's real, and church hurt is real. But so is healing. That's the side of the conversation that I'm not hearing and we need to hear. 

So, Megan will be our guest next week. She's a pastor's daughter and a pastor's wife. So you know the girl has some experiential church hurt. And she's gonna help us do what we do here on Grounded. She's gonna help us think biblically about church. I'm eager for that conversation. 

Dannah: Yeah, you don't want to miss it. Let's wake up with hope together next week on Grounded.

Erin: Grounded is a listener-supported production of Revive Our Hearts, calling women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ. 

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